6 mistakes YOU should avoid when speaking German! 🇩🇪

6 mistakes YOU should avoid when speaking German! 🇩🇪 | Feli from Germany

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Күн бұрын

Reason for blurs/muted audio: This channel was renamed in Oct 2021. All references to the old name have been removed.
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German is a tough language to learn - we all know that. Grammar and vocab are things that you'll just have to learn and practice unfortunately, but by avoiding certain mistakes and working on those specific things, you might be able to improve pronunciation and confidence with the language by a lot! That's why I put together a list of 6 mistakes that you should avoid/6 tips as to how to improve that specific issue. I hope it's helpful for you and if you have more tips, please share them in the comments below! :)
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0:00 Intro
0:55 Lingoda
3:02 ie vs. ei
5:22 CH-sound
7:29 Don’t overpronounce R
8:13 More pronunciation
10:21 Capitalization
11:46 Use the present tense
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ABOUT ME: Hallo, Servus, and welcome to my channel! My name is Felicia (Feli), I'm 26, and I'm a German living in the USA! I was born and raised in Munich, Germany but have been living in Cincinnati, Ohio off and on since 2016. I first came here for an exchange semester during my undergrad at LMU Munich, then I returned for an internship, and then I got my master's degree in Cincinnati. I was lucky enough to win the Green Card lottery and have been a permanent resident since 2019! In my videos, I talk about cultural differences between America and Germany, things I like and dislike about living here, and other experiences that I have made during my time in the States. Let me know what YOU would like to hear about in the comments below. DANKE :)
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Пікірлер: 2 728

Feli from Germany 2 жыл бұрын

Which of these tips did you find most helpful? :) And what are YOUR TIPS when it comes to learning German or which MISTAKES should people try to avoid? Let me and everyone else know in the comments below! EDIT: Yes, "ick" or "icke" is also part of the Berlin accent/dialect but that's the only place where people say that and in my opinion, it doesn't really work if you only use that one word of the dialect.

Nyarlathotep 2 жыл бұрын

Possessed by Beavis and Butthead: huh huh huh she said "dip THONG" Huh Huh Huh HUH. As opposed to Huhuhu. :) Oh, thanks for avenging Rammstein. Ich liebe dich!! xD

WetworkX Domain 2 жыл бұрын

Guten tag

Gary Tompkins 2 жыл бұрын

Did I notice 2 arms and 0 casts?

Key West Chris Rehm 2 жыл бұрын

Today's video was fun! I might suggest you do a comparison of German dialects, at one point? They say that in some areas the people from one town can't understand neighboring towns because of differences in dialect. It also gives an opportunity to explain how hoch Deutsch is the national dialect and how it became into being. Comparing cities that are far apart, such as Munich and Berlin's can be fun. Doing the dialect comparison for "I'm going home" is perfect! Berlin is "Ich gehe nach Hause" where in Munich(Bayrisch) it's " Ie goha Hom" Thanks!

Eldorado Gallon 2 жыл бұрын

Wasser ist Spitze

SabsiMidori 2 жыл бұрын

I'm German. I'm watching an English video how to speak German correctly. Something is wrong with me 😂

Abelina Salvatore 2 жыл бұрын

Same here, ich finde es interessant wie Amerikaner Deutsche wahrnehmen und sie gibt gute Einblicke wie sie es erlebt 😄

Karasunostherapist 2 жыл бұрын

Same ich auch😂

Kati J 2 жыл бұрын

Same, but it is so interesting

Stupid Ravenclaw 2 жыл бұрын

Ist so, ich dachte es mir vorhin auch 😂

Fabian Blobel 2 жыл бұрын

Exakt das gleiche bei mir 😅

Andy Lucy 2 жыл бұрын

Ei vs ie is important. In my beginning German course at university, the professor was teaching the use of the word "gern." And we had to form a sentence using it and write it on the board. At the time, I was on the university rifle team, so, I wanted to say that I like to shoot. However, in my haste, I misread the dictionary, and I wrote, "Ich scheiße gern." The professor looked at me and started laughing. He said, "I think you meant "schieße." What you said was that you like to shit." Lesson learned.

Fabian Huber 2 жыл бұрын

lol

Xander Bartels 2 жыл бұрын

The same applies for words (ie and ei) in Dutch. (German and Dutch) are closely related

Tamás Károlyi 2 жыл бұрын

When you grow older you begin to appreciate a good shit too... :D

n8pu 2 жыл бұрын

@Tamás Károlyi Very true, I'm at that 'older' age so yes. 🤣💩

Cory Finn 2 жыл бұрын

😱😱😱

Hugh Mungus 2 жыл бұрын

The "ei" / "ie" confusion was illustrated in a very amusing way in a documentary I saw some years ago. Some German veterans were interviewed about how they came to surrender to the Allies and one of them recounted an anecdote. His unit had been surrounded by American soldiers who had all been taught the phrase "Hande hoch oder ich schiessen!" ("Hands up or I'll shoot!). One of the Americans shouted this phrase at the German unit but inverted the "ie" in "schiessen" and actually said "Hande hoch oder ich scheissen!" ("Hands up or I'll shit!"). The Germans found this so amusing that they burst into laughter and one soldier who spoke some English shouted back "Anything but that! We surrender!".

John Rogan 2 жыл бұрын

Schiessen nein scheissen!

C.g. 2 жыл бұрын

Its "Hände hoch oder ich schieße"

C.g. 2 жыл бұрын

@Navy_flyer Nah, thats totaly fine. They just wrote "schiessen" wich is grammatically not correct.

Rodwyn Rhind 2 жыл бұрын

That story is hilarious 🤣

colin Paterson 2 жыл бұрын

Oddly enough I heard a British soldier challenge us on a relief patrol during a duty at a "sensitive" ammunition site making the same mistake, it's because they hear scheisser more than schiesser.

Conner 2 жыл бұрын

I always think of "Bier" and "Wein" to make sure I pronounce "ie" and "ei" correctly since these words are so similar to the English equivalent.

Piepsi Panic Жыл бұрын

That's a brilliant mnemonic! :D (

水珍 Жыл бұрын

It's funny to me that when I started learning the language, those are 2 of the first words I learned😂

Skyhawk _452 Жыл бұрын

@水珍 Makes sense to me!

Patrick Tinkl Жыл бұрын

That's actually quite good! Coming from the other (German native speaker), i often despair of people mixing up, or rather mispronouncing, beer and bear. Which is a mystery to me, because both sound pretty much exactly the same in both languages - Bier/beer and Bär/bear...couldn't actually bei much easier 🤦

Ella Tan Жыл бұрын

Duolingo?

Mat S 2 жыл бұрын

EVERY TIME I mention to an American I’m German, they start to yell the 3 German words they know at me aggressively... I usually reply with my best cowboy impression...

Shazzam Potzman 2 жыл бұрын

You mean they yell "volkswagen", "nazi" and "scheisskopf" at you? 😀

alanna 2 жыл бұрын

HAHAHA THE COWBOY 😂😂

FreezyAbitKT7A 2 жыл бұрын

I sent my kids to German class with a sentence. First day, teacher asks, does anyone know any German? My 15 year old holds up his hand and replies, Meine Bleistift ist gross und Gelb. I can't believe they let me chaperone on the trip from Berlin to Lucerne,

Jan Hoelterling 2 жыл бұрын

I teach every American I meet the three most important German words: Ein Bier bitte!

B Branett 2 жыл бұрын

@FreezyAbitKT7A Now that's a great first impression to make for your son. How did he do in class?

Mark Strouthes 2 жыл бұрын

My German professor got a huge laugh out of one of us students reading a passage about an amusement park and telling about scheissbuden. Between his laughs he managed to spit out, "yes, a shitting gallery..." (Schiessbuden would be shooting galleries.)

Mister Topaz 2 жыл бұрын

Hahahaha

JerbilKonai 2 жыл бұрын

The best is Schiss is also a word for shit (so Scheissbuden = Schissbuden but not Schießbuden, where the difference between Schiss and Schieß is how shrt or looooong they are pronounced and potentially if you pronounce the i(e)-sound low in the mouth or in the upper part) It's also used for "Hast du Schiss?" which roughly translates to "Are you shitting yourself (out of fear)?" Or "Chicken?" (literal translation is "Do you have shit?")

Crusader1815 5 күн бұрын

Another embarrassing mistake is to pronounce the musical piece by Mozart as "A little naked music." ("Eine kleine Nacktmusik" instead of "Eine kleine Nachtmusik")

Maike Hudson 2 жыл бұрын

Most important: when speaking German, don't try to sound like Nazis in the movies. Talk like a normal human being.

Bee Dou 2 жыл бұрын

😂😂😂

John Rogan 2 жыл бұрын

Nein...find a soap box in Berlin und rant und bark like Joseph Goebbels' reincarnation!

clray123 2 жыл бұрын

Hauke Holst Kinda like Trump in private interviews speaks completely different from his public speeches.

Andy Reznick 2 жыл бұрын

Unless Nazi-in-a-movie is what you're going for. But no, don't, really don't.

Joe Ferreti 2 жыл бұрын

Most of those movies are made in Hollywood without a clue of how German really sounds.

Jabba 2 жыл бұрын

My tip for all foreign language speakers (almost) all over the world: Speak and make your own mistakes. Your hosts will be pleased that you try and will be glad to help you (and to correct you if neccesary)

sthondat17 2 жыл бұрын

This is very true! The only thing I would add is that it is helpful to set your mind in advance so that you're not embarrassed by anything you say incorrectly or have to hand-wave about. If it's obvious you are honestly trying, people will treat you nicely and try to help you.

Chris K 2 жыл бұрын

I don’t think that is true with learning French as native speakers are not just tickled that you are just trying to speak their language. Stereotypically they seem more annoyed that you are mangling it

Jabba 2 жыл бұрын

@Chris K That's why I wrote "(almost) all over the world" but even that's getting better

B E 2 жыл бұрын

@Chris K I've always heard the opposite - that French people really appreciate it when you at least try to speak some French. I haven't tried it myself, but it is what I have heard.

FreezyAbitKT7A 2 жыл бұрын

One of my German language professors told a story that he had a Russian professor that didn't bother with noun genders. He just gave every noun the adjective suffix -"chen" meaning small eg. das Brotchen... little bread... roll/bun

Brian Harrell 2 жыл бұрын

In my German class, someone once asked why the grammar were so tricky. He responded that the German language was invented during a long winter.

Sam Scoppettone 25 күн бұрын

I really enjoyed my one semester of college German and only wish I had been able to start at a younger age. I discovered that I have a greater percentage of German ancestry than any other and these videos make me want to learn more about that heritage. Thanks, Feli! Would love to see you do some videos on the history of German Americans.

Shizuka Akatatsu 2 жыл бұрын

Another issue that an english teacher pointed out to me: u vs ü. A lot of English speakers ignore those two dots above the ü and pronounce it like the u. They just didn't learn the words schwul and schwül. At that point it would be better to know the different pronunciation of u and ü.

John Appleseed 2 жыл бұрын

THIS. i just cant comprehend how english people are like "yeah so there are these dots... nah, nvm, theyre probably just decoration and dont mean anything"💁

Liz 2 жыл бұрын

@John Appleseed you made my day

Selena Järv 2 жыл бұрын

Me an Estonian : ä ü ö õ

Uncreative Username Жыл бұрын

You don’t want to mix up sultry and gay

Jon Brahms 2 жыл бұрын

Lesson starts at 2:51. I've studied German on and off for a long time and was never familiar with point 3 and never formally introduced to point 6. Very helpful indeed.

Little Giant Robo 2 жыл бұрын

Learn. Every. Noun. with the. Article. From the beginning. It will save you A LOT of problems later.

Sofi Andi 2 жыл бұрын

Too late....😭

Peter S 2 жыл бұрын

Disagree. Don't let details keep you from progressing. In almost all situations, people will understand even if you mix up the articles.

Richard Collins 2 жыл бұрын

I agree. I found this easiest by learning a noun in the context of different sentences which put them into the different cases so you get used to hearing the noun spoken in different parts of the sentence (e.g. das Haus: ich sehe ein blaues Haus, er ist in meinem Haus, sie ist gluecklich wegen ihres Hauses). If I then forget the gender I just think of a sentence with that noun in and it typically lets me know the gender.

Magnolia Knoppers 2 жыл бұрын

Or just doing it the turkish style and say "de" instead of der,die,das. Just de Baum, de Mädchen,... Not very elegant and everyone will know you are foreigner, but you will be understood.

colin Paterson 2 жыл бұрын

I think German pronunciation is easier for the Scottish than the English because the Scottish accent is already half way there.

th. kempe 2 жыл бұрын

The Scottish also shouldn't have any problem with the German "ch".

Cedric Powers 2 жыл бұрын

I'm from North East England and many non English folks think I'm either German or Danish. Had some Germans I met on holiday randomly switch to German at one point due to my accent haha

colin Paterson 2 жыл бұрын

@Cedric Powers Geordie?

colin Paterson 2 жыл бұрын

@th. kempe Och aye.

Cedric Powers 2 жыл бұрын

@colin Paterson Indeed. The way we say words such as opal isn't like any other English dialect as far as I'm aware. That 'o' noise is what causes the confusion.

Yoeun Pen 2 жыл бұрын

Pronouncing pure vowels is probably the biggest tip for improving your accent. It’ll help you out in so many other languages besides just German.

Walter Weiss 10 күн бұрын

nevertheless the vowels are not spoken everywhere the same like in German, even Germans are not aware of this fact

Paul Wetor 2 жыл бұрын

Very informative, especially the part about present tense. It's a valuable reminder that learning a language is not just substituting one word for another. I was once asked a question in a local grocery store and I thought he was speaking German. Turns out he was speaking English, but with the German sentence structure.

AZ Outdoors 2 жыл бұрын

I spent a little time in Hohenfels, Bavaria for some combat training in the U.S. Army, but I never learned the German language however. Thanks for all of the tips because I imagine that many of us Americans who have learned some German may have butchered the language with our mispronunciation of many words. Happy Thanksgiving! Much love from the wild west.

Harrison Ehresmann 4 ай бұрын

I started learning German w/ duolingo about a year ago, and in one of the sections where users can leave comments someone said it helps to think of the "ch" sound as mimicking the hissing sound a cat would make. That helped me a lot to get close to its correct pronunciation.

Nick Miller 2 жыл бұрын

A couple tips that I give my students: 1. Even though it is hard, do not skip learning noun genders. At some point everything else is going to focus on that. You have to know genders once you start applying cases, and then you have to know genders really well once you learn adjective endings. 2. In the same spirit as my first tip, learn the endings that are commonly one gender or another. For example, -er is commonly masculine, -e is commonly feminine (I tell my kids, "if it ends with -e, its probably 'die'"), -ung is always feminine, -heit/-keit are always feminine, -chen is always neuter. There are others, but these are common ones that you encounter early. 3. There are no helping verbs in the present tense. Even though we say "I am playing" in English, you just say "ich spiele" in German (not "ich bin spiele" or something). 4. Word order is important. In a statement, you have subject+verb (du singst=you are singing), but questions are verb+subject (singst du?= Are you singing?) Also, if you have two verbs in one clause, the second one is at the end, not right after the first one (ich MUSS nach Hause GEHEN= I MUST GO home) 5. Be able to understand how nouns function in a sentence. For example, you have to know how a subject, direct object, and indirect object differ (ich gebe dem Kind einen Hund "I give the kid a dog" is very different from "ich gebe dem Hund ein Kind" "i give the dog the child"--notice the endings on the words "the" and "a")

David Wise 2 жыл бұрын

Yes, word order is important in German, but far more important in English since German still uses case while English doesn't so the meanings given by case are expressed through word order instead (actually, English still uses case, but it just doesn't show, which is why we now have monstrosities such as "between you and I"). So while you can mix word order up a bit in German (eg, "Der Hund beißt den Mann." and "Den Mann beißt der Hund."), the slightest change of word order in English can completely change the meaning (eg "The dog bites the man." vs. "The man bites the dog."). I have also studied other languages which are more heavily inflected than German (ie, languages that have retained case endings; eg, Latin, Greek, Russian) in which you could conceivably mix up almost all the noun phrases (retaining the associations of adjectives and the genitive, of course) and still come up with the same meaning.

stricknitt 01 2 жыл бұрын

The translation for "I am playing" is a bit more complex. Yes, I don't need to translate the progressive form into German, but you can do that without an problem. To "ich spiele" you could ad "gerade" oder "im Moment" to make it more obvious. But you could translate it into the progressive form "ich bin (gerade) am Spielen" .

Ian Jehle 2 жыл бұрын

The find the article-adjective declinations almost impossible and the also where to place adverbs and prepositions in the sentence when you use perfect tense or helper verbs. It’s a lot to remember when you’re trying to speak in real time at a normal pace.

Ian Jehle 2 жыл бұрын

@David Wise but in English you can place a preposition practically anywhere in the sentence and it’s understood. In fact, the placement is largely based on emphasis or poetic effect rather than grammar. Even adverbs can generally go anywhere close to the verbs.

Rumblefin 2 жыл бұрын

regarding your second point I urge you to not do that anymore. You only gonna confuse your students. There are NO rules for noun genders! -er is NOT commonly masculine (die Butter, die Mutter, das Futter, etc.) One has to simply learn the gender together with the new word, so don't remember door=Tür but door= die Tür Have a look at this link www.passion4teq.com/articles/der-die-das-genus-regeln/ So many rules, so many exceptions. Forget about the rules and learn the words you need. I am teaching German to refugees and migrants for over a decade now and in my experience that's the only thing that reliably works.

Theopuscula 2 жыл бұрын

Cool video. As some have noted, the umlauts are tricky for many non-native speakers and might merit their own video. Also something I would suggest for a future video: how things are actually pronounced by Germans (and other German speakers), as opposed to how it is often taught. I have seen these kinds of videos while learning French, and they definitely help, because one of the things that makes learning a language so difficult is that when you first really have to communicate with native speakers, things are not only faster but also different. E.g. how "haben" isn't usually pronounced the way it is taught but like "habn" or even "ham". Generally, the "-en" ending is so common, yet never really pronounced as such, except when strongly enunciated.

Doman 2 жыл бұрын

I've been living in Germany for 7 years and you just helped me shock my German friends with my "ich" pronunciation :D thank you

maik baumann 7 ай бұрын

dont get too good thou, i love for example love the accent 😉

CrankCase08 6 ай бұрын

@maik baumann 'though'

maik baumann 6 ай бұрын

@CrankCase08 good job! thank you for correcting me, english isnt native language. but thx good people like you are always happy to help. translate "klugscheißer" for me 😉

SUPATWIN1 2 жыл бұрын

The present tense and the capitalization of nouns are a very helpful tip. Especially the difference between ei/ie. Thank you for your help

MHG 1023 2 жыл бұрын

Hi Feli. German here ... Since I am a German native speaker I appreciate it having someone taking the effort to educate native English speakers on those basic German language rules that will make learning German and getting around/along in Germany sooo much easier. Big thumbs up. This video adresses the most basic difficulties native English speakers experience with our language. In my experience these are really the main difficulties I have recognized when speaking to native English speakers, too - although there seem to be a few differences between Americans and the British . Spot on. Mach weiter so.

CurtisCT 2 жыл бұрын

Joke of the day: So a few years ago I was teaching German to a group of immigrants here in Austria. One member of the course was a very nice middle-aged lady from the Philippines, who was having a particularly difficult time with German pronunciation. This was of course due to the fact that many of the German diphthongs simply do not exist in her native language. One morning I started the class with a lively verbal exercise - each person was to describe to the class their activities from the day before in German. So one by one, each person got up and recounted the previous day's activities in German. So far, so good. Then it was the Philippine lady's time to speak. She stood up, and in her best German, started to recount how some guy introduced himself to her in the supermarket and the conversation they had, only that he kept on talking and talking and talking, while she just wanted to leave. She said: "und er spritzt und spritzt und spritzt und wollte nicht aufhören zu spritzen". My eyes popped open wide!!! I said to her, "you mean 'er SPRICHT'!". "JA", she said, "er SPRITZT und SPRITZT und wollte nicht aufhören zu SPRITZEN!" I fell over on the floor, doubled over in spasms! I laughed so hard, I thought I would suffocate! I tried correcting her pronunciation, but each time I said "SPRICHT", she would close her eyes, concentrate really hard, and the word "SPRITZT" came flying out her mouth. The poor lady had no idea why this was so funny, and I didn't have the heart to explain it to her. She was so modest and was such a nice decent lady, I didn't want to give her a heart attack. But she continued, completely unaware of the difference between the two words, "ich habe ihn mehrmals gebeten, hör bitte auf zu spritzen, aber er spritzt, und spritzt und spritzt die ganze Zeit!!" My eyes were red and I got weak from laughing so hard. Even to this day, whenever I think of that poor lady, I can't help but bursting out laughing. Native German speakers will understand why...

Karin Birkenbihl 2 жыл бұрын

Indeed... 😂

Blackfish Жыл бұрын

💦💦💦 Lolz

xAngelReix Жыл бұрын

Und, was habt ihr heute schönes im Kindergarten gemacht? - Wir haben gevögelt! Mein "Joke of the day" 😉

Steve Thornton 9 ай бұрын

I will need to translate this now as I am curious LOL. It's means sprayed or splashed. So he sprayed and sprayed and sprayed?

CurtisCT 9 ай бұрын

@Steve Thornton LOL! Not exactly, "spritzen" has another vulgar meaning in colloquial speech. 😉

Dru Solis 2 жыл бұрын

My high school German teacher told us "when i and e go walking, the second one does the talking" - never forgot that how to pronounce "ie" and "ei" after that.

msJill 2 жыл бұрын

My 3rd grade teacher told us "when two vowels go walking, the first one does the talking" as an English rule.

Karl-Konrad Klotzkopf 2 жыл бұрын

91msJill So, if two vowels go on a walk and the first one is English and the second one is German, they’re both talking all the time. Vice versa, they are quiet all the way. ^^

LTH5015 2 жыл бұрын

I was going to comment the same thing. "When i and e go walking, the second one does the talking" was taught to me in German class in central Pennsylvania, in ~1999

pinky69207 2 жыл бұрын

I just added the “ie ei” tip (above) and then I saw you had already written the same tip!

DonPedro 2 жыл бұрын

@Dru - Fantastic principle, nice that you shared that.

kevin connell 2 жыл бұрын

"When I and E go walking, the second does the talking". That's the way I was taught a long time ago.

BlackAdder665 2 жыл бұрын

Ha, good one!

histrion2 2 жыл бұрын

Exactly the opposite of what English-speaking kids are taught. One of my son's old LeapFrog DVDs has a whole "first one does the talking" song.

Dwight Neisler 2 жыл бұрын

My last name is of German origin with ei in it. No one pronounces it right.

Dirty Squirrell 2 жыл бұрын

Homeschooled my youngest and he learned (with exceptions, of course), when two vowels go awalking, the first one does the talking. Can still see the printed sheet of two vowels holding hands! 😛

Fenrirs Ghost Жыл бұрын

@Dwight Neisler All germans (like me) would do it right by default. There is nothing wrong with your second name at all, you´re just living at the wrong place 😂 But pronounce your first name correct as a german is ....... well ........ forget it. 😂😂

Tracy Hurd Жыл бұрын

I took classes in high school and community college to learn to speak German. Thank you for a refresher course. You brought back nice memories.😊

Creek Indian #AlitaArmy Ай бұрын

Thank you Felicia for this video. I think my friends in Berching would have understood me better if I practiced this before my trip. They might not have played so many language jokes on me.😃

Robert Scranton 2 жыл бұрын

Four years of learning the German language in high school, 50 years ago, are all gone. It's refreshing to hear you pronounce the language. I just love the sound of the spoken German word. Thank you.

Scott Irwin 2 жыл бұрын

Another killer video! Your teaching style is succinct and informative. Great association tips for correctly pronouncing some letters or combos of same as well. Thanks for posting these videos! 🤟

flytyme 2 жыл бұрын

You should do a video about compliments and insults. I am sure that there are things that non-Germans unknowingly do or say while in Germany that are insulting or insensitive.

hauke powers 2 жыл бұрын

I can see the need for compliments but NOT insults...shame shame !! hahahahaha BUT, I have used minor insults in German on coworkers who pushed my buttons once too many tines !!They had no idea what I was calling them..shame one me !!! hahahaha !!!!

John Napper 2 жыл бұрын

On my first Army assignment to Germany, I had to live on the German economy; because no government housing was available. The German couple next door sort of took us under their wing. They spoke no English; but I had taken two years of German in college; so we could haltingly make ourselves understood. They invited the wife and I to dinner one night at their house. I decided to get the neighbor's wife some flowers as a token of appreciation. I had been warned that it was against custom to give an even number of flowers; so I bought 13 red roses for her. When she and her husband came to the door, he started laughing. Turns out that you only give red roses to your sweetheart in Germany....good thing Heinz had a sense of humor.

FreezyAbitKT7A 2 жыл бұрын

dont speak English with a German accent and expect to be understood or appreciated. Dont call the Euro "funny money". Unless by a miracle the American FiFA team is doing really well and you are at the game... never shout ...USA USA USA ....especially in Dresden

Miklos Ernoehazy 2 жыл бұрын

@FreezyAbitKT7A ... never, ever, EVER in Dresden... ...(the bombing raids that happened in WWII are still quite a sore point)...

FreezyAbitKT7A 2 жыл бұрын

@Miklos Ernoehazy I am very aware. I have visited Dresden and have seen the scars and charring on buildings that remain today. Yes, we bombed churches too. I wouldn't be born for 20 years but I am still deeply sorry.

Sparks127 2 жыл бұрын

My German teacher at school was actually called Frau Schuhle . Learned so much in those three years without realising. Few years later, living and working in Germany I raised many a glass in her honour.

Troy S. 2 жыл бұрын

I have always struggle with tenses in the German language. I really liked and understood your explanation of tenses. Thanks!

Kasia Kuboth 2 жыл бұрын

Hi Feli, I love your personality :) You inspired me to renew my german skills. I almost forgot everything I ever learned those 14 years ago!

Edward Ott 2 жыл бұрын

Awesome mini-lesson, Felicia. :) Being part-German myself, I found this quite helpful and learned quite a bit (never knew about the noun thing until your video, too!). Thank you and Happy Thanksgiving to you and your family. :)

throne3d 2 жыл бұрын

I found it interesting to hear that "ich" sounds more natural with a "sh" sound than a "ck" sound! I learnt German at school and was taught the same sound as in "human", but it's really great to know what backups are available when you're learning a language. Something similar, but for English, is when people learning the language pronounce "think" or "the" with an S or Z (or even T in some cases, which only really works if you have the Irish accent to go with it) - I actually find that F and V are way closer. I think this is because, in England at least, kids will often pronounce "three" as "free" (and same for other words with either of the THs). While it'll sound a bit strange to go "I fink so" rather than "I think so", or "vuh dog" instead of "the dog", it sounds a lot closer than "I sink so" (or "ze dog" / "zuh dog") to me.

Tiffani Milburn 2 жыл бұрын

Thanks for the tips. I’ve been learning German and I want to do as much as I can the right way. I’ve really been struggling with the word ich in German. The way you described it, comparing it to trying to get something out of your throat actually makes sense. Danke

Thomas Tschetchkovic 2 жыл бұрын

You have to be careful, because that's the wrong ch sound. The throat one is in words like Bauch, auch, Kuchen,... But the ch sound of ich is the same sound as the beginning of huge, human,... It's a sound made by making the h sound and bringing your tongue to forward and upward, so that the air flows through a narrow channel at the roof of your mouth

Brian Underhill 2 жыл бұрын

Thank you! I found your tense tip very helpful. I'm about 2 years into my German learning journey, and literally translating English tenses in my mind still trips me up sometimes when I'm making German sentences in my head. I also found the fact about the US Constitution and Declaration of Independence having upper case nouns super interesting. I never knew that, and I'm American! Great Video. Happy Thanksgiving!

West Kraemer 2 жыл бұрын

I taught English in Austria for a year after college in 2008/9. I love the German language and have a lot experience with native German speakers. Your pronunciation of English is perfect. You sound like a native English speaker. Well done! :-) Also, thank you for all of these tips! They make so much sense and make speaking German so much easier! :-)

Anthony Fuqua 2 жыл бұрын

Congratulations on 200,000 subscribers. You deserve it. Wishing you continued success. Yours, Tony. 1/2 French, 1/4 German, 1/4 Scottish.

George Luft 2 жыл бұрын

Thanks, Feli. Fun videos. I studied German in school 40 years ago and this brings it all back.

Brian Hiles 2 жыл бұрын

This was really interesting, Feli. I was previously aware of what was called _conversational tense,_ but I apparently "made it out" in my mind to be more complicated than it actually is. When I was in high-school, I was just as frustrated by still needing to perfect some nuances of the complex tenses in English, as I was learning rudimentary German grammar there. What you said about the present tense would have been _very_ helpful if Frau Jaeger had only mentioned this just once.... I know that teaching complex German ("with many, many rules") is not what you are trying to do here, but I would sure like to see listed the _differences_ between the cases and tenses that English and German have, inasmuch as the cultural experience also is the _process_ of language acquisition. What is your experience of having learned English? Anything you just didn't "get"? _E.g.,_ does German have _perfect progressive_ tenses? Is there a tense in one language that has _no_ corresponding form in the other language? How many? Oddly, just today I found my "inherited" 70-year-old flashcards of German verbs and tenses, and coincidentally, I had noted then that I have never seen such a list or chart. I hope it doesn't surprise you that language textbooks are generally useless in this respect: The _names_ of tenses may be the same, but the two may not exactly correspond, and to explain the subtleties is not appropriate without frustrating the already struggling student even more. A somewhat well-known assertion in America is that _Eskimos have 30 words for snow._ (That is, versus "only" three or four in English). Language in itself _creates_ the ability to perceive. Look in Wikipedia for what it says about the _Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis._ (Also: I knew a scholar who learned _Koine_ (biblical) Greek to do his own translation of the New Testament. He had to be informed that a draft was remiss for his mistranslation of a special Greek tense that is completely alien to English. He said it took him a _year_ of thought and inquiry before one day he instantaneously just "got it"). I don't mean a technical overview, just "fun facts" and "magic numbers". Is this feasible? This is something only a native speaker who _also_ speaks better English than most -English- Americans can do -- that is, _you,_ but only if you can restrain yourself from using the word _pretty_ as a quantifying modifier.... Sorry for the length of this comment.

Michael Dickens 2 жыл бұрын

FINALLY, someone explained the ie and ei pronounciation! You are making want to learn German. Thanks for all the great videos.

The Queen of it all 2 жыл бұрын

The problem of German is not pronunciation but to understand everything of the sentence, it's order is quite different from English and the Gender of the word

The Queen of it all 2 жыл бұрын

Gender of the word is FUNDAMENTAL to do a proper declination and really important while using prepositions. Some are in dativ and others in akkusative

The Queen of it all 2 жыл бұрын

Sometimes they even rematk the difference between something which is in motion (akkusative) and something that is static (dativ). But if you master the Cases, it shouldn't be a big deal the rest

The Queen of it all 2 жыл бұрын

Personally, I have troubles with trennbare verben, since they can be split into the verb and the particle, they are similar to phrasal verbs but the particle goes to the end of the sentence. This particles actually have some meaning but depends on the verb. In non trennbare verbs, there's a preffix which is not splitted from the verb but adds some meaning which I don't understand either

The Queen of it all 2 жыл бұрын

But it's really a language which is worthy to be learnt. It's challenging at first but it doesn't sound as **making a bunch of weird sounds** it's different and they usually go to the really smallest detail. So I encourage you to take German classes if you are really interested. It really changed my mind

Mikey Flewitt 2 жыл бұрын

The worst thing for me as an English person learning German (In Germany) is about how I learnt English. So when you learn the german grammar rules, you also have to learn the English equivalent rule as you may use it but were not taught the technical rules in school. Being able to use present tense for basically everything in German makes it a lot easier. Honestly, the best way I learn is just to listen to other germans, then make mistakes but get corrected.

Matthew Weber 2 жыл бұрын

I too was taught by Germans; LISTENS TO GERMANS!

Reinhard 10 ай бұрын

Even if you learned the rules, you would need to remember them. I (German) learnt all that, even in English and French. But in your own language you don't need it after school, because you mostly speak a way that feels OK like you hear it everywhere - it's just engraved in your mind - hopefully the correct way ! With some usage that also happens in English for me. But when some foreigner is learning German and asks me somehting about grammar rules, I nearly can't help him. I know what is correct, but i don't know the rule.

Walter Weiss 10 күн бұрын

funny enough I learnt both languages in my childhood, so I know them better than my mother tongue ;)

Gary XHLC 2 жыл бұрын

Not a problem for me :) Arriving in Germany in late 1991 while I was in the US Army, I went through the "Just Enough German" classes, which helps non-speakers (like me) to at least read menus and road signs. The instructor complimented me, "Your accent is very good, where are you from?" Milwaukee, WI. Surrounded by it, even if I never really learned it. _"Deutscher als Milwaukee ist nirgendwo in Amerika"_ -- Frankfurter Allgemeine, 2008

WobblePizza 2 жыл бұрын

This is great Felicia. I am currently learning German and found the pronunciation tips very useful. Particularly the ich vs humid tip. I bet you could make traction with a video set about learning German.

Simon Templar 2 жыл бұрын

You just taught me more useful information than 2 years of college German. Thank you so much! I always remembered the two vowel thing as "when 2 vowels go walking, the second one does the talking." Thanks again! Cheers.

Ralf Bodemann 2 жыл бұрын

One of the many things that are hard to catch when learning German is what article is related to which noun. Although there are some rules that might help you in some specific areas, in general it is recommended to learn the article in conjunction with the noun (DER Löffel/ DIE Gabel/ DAS Messer instead of just Löffel/Gabel/Messer). This doesn't actually overcome the problem in general, but it might help prevent mistakes.

James Zeschke 2 жыл бұрын

I enjoy these videos,I’m a German living in Australia(was 6 years old and in first class in Stelligen,Hamburg). Now being in Australia for50+years and don’t speak much German, but my mum speaks to us in German and we answer in English(sounds real weird to friends here), but it’s great to rediscover my native language and customs (I thought that German habits had changed since I lived there,but you say all the things that my parents pretty much say), love how clear and well you speak-typical German trait lol

C Peterseb 6 ай бұрын

I have always loved German as a language. Very subtle differences in inflection with words have very different meanings Kirsche (cherry) and Kerche (Beautiful) Kind of like Pin and Pen in English. (I know I probably butchered the spelling of beautiful) Its been so long since I have been in a German class. My son has my German English dictionary. :) I remember having some great joy back in high school when running into a German exchange student. Wo wohnst du in Deutschland? and Ist Amerika interessant oder langweilig? The young lady was so nice and spoke to me for a few minutes. Another one that I got in trouble with once in (zurück and Zucker) Was ist deine lieblingsplatte, i was asked and I replied Meine lieblingsplatte ist AC DC Zucker und Schwarz (caused some confusion) I meant to say zurück. Lean as much as you can and have frequent conversations its the best way to learn and get ahead in the language. Wonderful Video.

Yasmin Mohsen 2 жыл бұрын

I am from Egypt and we learn German in school , most of the tips you said were told to us in early classes but i didn't know that this small things would do difference, Thank you for this video and hope you do more of it ❤❤

J Bach 2 жыл бұрын

Great video. A lot of good tips in there. I appreciate the grammatical tip the most. I know I frequently make things more complicated for myself when this little pointer can simplify things a lot. Thank you!

Ya Fud 2 жыл бұрын

In Scotland the "ch" sound is used for words like Loch and its pronounced the same as german

Uncreative Username Жыл бұрын

Does loch by any chance mean hole in Scottish?

Fenrirs Ghost Жыл бұрын

@Uncreative Username The German Loch means hole, but the scottish Lóch means lake (German: See). Please note ó instead of simple o. That makes the difference. Greats from Germany.

Uncreative Username Жыл бұрын

@Fenrirs Ghost o then the Lochness monster makes more sense

Uncreative Username Жыл бұрын

@Fenrirs Ghost there was no ó used in the comment though that’s why it looked wrong ig

Uncreative Username Жыл бұрын

@Fenrirs Ghost What does greats mean?

Jean-Luc 2 жыл бұрын

I'm a native French speaker, and when I went abroad, my tendency to revert to the "-sch" sound instead of the soft "-ch" sound made ALL the Germans I spoke to assume I was a native French speaker. I was also kind of pleasantly surprised about how positively the accent French speakers of German had amongst Germans, because I have to say, the accent German speakers of French have is so damned beautiful. It's this kind of mutual give-and-take I love. As always, love the vids, Feli. You're a treasure.

MarisMemories 2 жыл бұрын

Well you probably also have the "French melody" (that's what I call it anyways). French has far more intonation than German and Germans will noticed that rather than the "-sch" sound.

Holger P. 2 жыл бұрын

Actually, I know some Americans using this I-sch technique, and they are easy to be considered french.

th. kempe 2 жыл бұрын

At least the German "R" shouldn't be that difficult for you.

Markus Buchenau 2 жыл бұрын

@Spam Me That's absolutely correct. French women speaking German .... uncomparable. :)

FreezyAbitKT7A 2 жыл бұрын

Yes America found Claudine Longet's accent cute.

Lyle Francis Delp 2 жыл бұрын

Thank you for the tips. All learned many years ago in my junior high German class under the tutelage of Herr Wayne Sedai. I’m not fluent in German, having not used it much through the years, but I do know most of the pronunciation rules. As a classical trained musician, it has come in quite handy in my career.

Evelyn Proulx 10 ай бұрын

I found this so interesting... you see, I'm a choral singer and in my choir we sing a lot of Mozart, Bach, Brahms... and since I'm from Québec, Canada, as a French Canadian, some of the sound you described is familiar to me, others are not... but I'm always looking forward to pronounce the songs written by those composers in the most honest way!

Simon 2 жыл бұрын

I also speak french and I find some pronunciations for letters are the same. I’m from Canada and for example the letter “i” alone is pronounced the same. And the “rrr” sound is there too. I find it very interesting :) Also we say Rammstein the right way I didn’t know 👍🏻 Edit: oh and the verbs! French people already find english verb tenses easy because for us it’s much too complicated!

ausgepicht 2 жыл бұрын

Living in Germany allowed me to have a better grasp on these "foreign" sounds and I had no problems for the most part. Early on I figured the -ch sound when I was talking about colors with an American friend and noticed the word "hue" and how the "h" is pronounced. That was helpful. Because I live in Massachusetts and we have a sort of (in)famous accent, the sound that gave me the most difficulty was the "r." Here we simply don't pronounce the "r" at the end of a word or we turn it into an "h" sound and it's so subconscious that it took me a while to catch it and then much longer to start practicing it. That lead to some funny and not so funny misunderstandings with Germans. Funniest being telling the server at a Turkish restaurant "Mit Sharf, bitte." (With "hots" or "make it spicy") having him chuckle but not say anything until about my third visit. He then explained that my accent made it so he was hearing "Mit Schaf, bitte." Haha! Lesson learned.

Bill Carter 2 жыл бұрын

Very good video. I attended intensive language school for six months in Regensburg back in the late ninties. One thing my friend, Matthias, helped me with was where to speak German in my mouth. English is spoken at the front of the mouth, but German is mostly spoken at the back of the mouth and in the throat. I am often mistaken for a native German because of this one thing (until I run out of vocabulary, of course). Whenever I hear a native English speaker speaking German, almost invariably they pronounce everything at the front of the mouth, which immediately gives them away as non-native German speaker even if their syntax and vocabularly are excellent.

Jeff Hands 2 жыл бұрын

Great video! It took me a couple of months to learn to pronounce „möchte“ because it has the German „ch“ but also the Umlaut on the o, which doesn‘t exist at all in English. I do have a couple of tips to help with the pronounciation. The „ie“ diphthong does indeed exist in English, because English is so full of exceptions, that you have to learn. Words like “brief” and “piece” are pronounced like the diphthong in German. The „ch“ sound can be learned by English speakers by imitating the sound a cat makes when angry or threatened, the so called “spitting sound” or “ccchhh”. It helps if you make your hand simulate the extended claws at the same time! The last tip I have is that the German „z“ does also exist in English, and most Americans use it (or eat it) every day: PIZZA! The “z” or better said, the “zz” is indeed a “ts” sound, as in “Pete - sa”. That’s in contrast to a normal English “zz” like in the word “Lizzy” as in “Tin Lizzy” (nickname for a Ford Model T). During my first trip Germany I visited a brewery in Amberg called “Schiesselbier”. You can imagine how I pronounced it!

LythaWausW 2 жыл бұрын

That's great about the pizza, I never noticed. And the dipthongs, after learning German it helped me with my English spelling ei/ie. The fact that "weird" does it wrong is just selbstverstaendlich: )

darkknight8139 2 жыл бұрын

I am Dutch and I could even learn a lot from this video :) I was not aware at all about the difficulties of ie and ei, maybe because we have them in Dutch as well. Pronouncing ch and r in German is hard for Dutch people as well... In my Dutch accent, the r isn't rolled or gargled at all, so my r is very non-German... And, I will try to not pronounce the r at the end of words, I honestly never learned that when I was at school.

Karl Scheel 2 жыл бұрын

My advice to native English speakers (such as myself) learning German, is to be prepared to make *many* mistakes, because German grammar is *much* more complicated than English grammar. German is indeed a language that requires *a lot* of patience to master. But don't give up just because you find yourself making a lot of mistakes; instead accept them as an inevitability, and an opportunity to solve the complicated puzzle, that is the German language. Although Google Translate is a very valuable tool for those of us who don't have native German speakers around us to correct our mistakes, one *must* be careful when using it. Do not be afraid to study the language from books as well, including dictionaries and grammar reference books. When using GT, *always* compare its output to the content of these books, because GT isn't always correct (although it's getting better all the time).

Aaron Gormley Жыл бұрын

My Grandparents spoke, but got mad when I spoke "high German" to them after I started learning in school. Kind of killed my whole motivation. Your videos have made me want to go back again and really do well with the language.

Kcunak 2 жыл бұрын

When I learned German my teacher taught us this aid for the pronunciation of "ie" and "ei". So, a memory aid for a native English speaker would be: When two vowels go walking, the SECOND one does the talking. IE =English "E" and EI=English "I".

Evil Eyelash Жыл бұрын

I have lived here for years and I still struggle with "CH", so I choose "SH" since I live in Berlin and "Ick" is Berliner - I'd rather speak correctly first before adapting to regional quirks. I love how she explains things in these videos!

Jason Pendergraft 2 жыл бұрын

That intro was pure troll comedy at its best! It was nice to see the more “natural” Feli that comes through on Understanding Train Station versus the “professional” Feli. This video was a nice mix. Very enjoyable video. Look forward to the next one. Happy Thanksgiving to you and yours!😁

Arline Abdalian 2 жыл бұрын

I am a native-born New Yorker and studied German for three years in high school here in Queens, NYC. Our teacher was also American-born and had learned his German from his Bavarian family. He taught us to pronounce the ch sound like the ch in the Scottish word loch. This was not hard for me, because I grew up listening to my immigrant parents speak Armenian, Russian and Farsi/Persian, in which this sound was an alphabet letter, no less, in each language. However, when I met German natives overseas, they were constantly correcting me to pronounce ich as ish. They would sneer at my pronunciation, telling me I sounded like a Bavarian. So thanks, Felicia, for this wonderful video. I don't feel so bad anymore.

Carl and Jenn Silva 2 жыл бұрын

I took German in high school and did very well, though that was almost 30 years ago. I actually have kept up with it mostly and always did well with speaking but the one that always got me was Capitalization. I understand it fine but whenever I write I unconsciously always do it like in English.

D. M. Gipson 2 жыл бұрын

I'm just starting to learn German and this helped me better understand some of the things I've learned so far. Particularly the capital nouns so, danke! Ich lerne jeden Tag ein bisschen mehr.

Feli from Germany 2 жыл бұрын

Awesome, keep at it!

Starchild _tale 2 жыл бұрын

Hi . I just wanted to thank you . I'm taking German courses and I'm planning on migrating to Germany . Your channel is really helping me . 🇩🇪❤

magicmaxx 2 жыл бұрын

Your english is so perfect its hard to believe you aren't american

Petrus I. 2 жыл бұрын

I can hear a slight German accent, but ONLY because I am German AND because I know that she is German.

ToutCQJM 2 жыл бұрын

It’s a super super slight accent but she sounds lovely.

John Appleseed 2 жыл бұрын

@Petrus I. same

burrito 2 жыл бұрын

She does pronounce the words good. However, there is a slight accent. The s are a bit sharp. I must admit, I live a long time in America and still have a strong accent. Well, many times people think I am from Austria or England.

Clara W 2 жыл бұрын

@Petrus I. same

LeQurage 2 жыл бұрын

Finde es als Deutscher immer wieder lustig durch die Kommentare zu scrollen haha l’y mach weiter so ❤️🙏🏻

freagle123 2 жыл бұрын

Ich glaube die meisten ihrer Zuschauer sind deutsch...😂

Jamaal Truth 29 күн бұрын

Two things: 1). ei vs. ie. In the U.S. many people pronounce their surname "Stein" the German way, yet many with the same surname pronounce it as if it were spelled "Stien" - I've always wondered how that came about. 2). the "ch" sound. When I learned German I learned to pronounce it the way you've indicated is the proper way. Yet I've occasionally heard native German speakers pronounce it as if it were spelled "sch." Example: Marlene Dietrich, when she sings "Wenn die Soldaten durch die Stadt marschieren" she pronounces "durch" as if were spelled "dursch." Go figure. Great video, by the way.

Arthur Spooner 2 ай бұрын

Ja, das ist eben alles nicht ganz einfach 😀... Die gute Nachricht ist das es auch für uns Deutsche eine große Herausforderung ist ein gutes Englisch zu lernen 👍

Billsview Channel Жыл бұрын

I am new to your Channel. I live in Deutschland for two-and-a-half years while in the army. And my ethnicity is half German as well . I need to tell you this though... I had tears in my eyes from laughing so hard from your introduction on this video. Thank you for the entertainment!

pinky69207 2 жыл бұрын

Regarding "ie and ei" this is what I was taught: "In German, when two vowels go walking, the second one does the talking."

Almedina Salkanovic 2 жыл бұрын

How though? In the ie example the first vowel is pronounced. And the ei, gives a new sound. It's neither e nor i, it's "ay".

Lisa Heller 2 жыл бұрын

@Almedina Salkanovic actually it's true if you consider the english pronounciation of the last vowel :)

Treinbouwer 2 жыл бұрын

When you use the normal German pronunciation rules, in most cases you lengthen the first vowel. You don't do that with diphthong. (It's about the same as in Dutch, so it's quite easy to me.)

Treinbouwer 2 жыл бұрын

Ei and ie are diphthongs btw

pinky69207 2 жыл бұрын

Harold Potsdamer Exactly.

Harald Werner 2 жыл бұрын

There’s a mnemonic device that helps teach English language learners which vowel to pronounce in a diphthong. “If two vowels go a walking the first vowel does the talking and the second does the walking.” In teaching German you just flip the order and have the second vowel do the talking and the first do the walking .

Tony 2 жыл бұрын

Hi Felicia great video was very interesting and helpful for us, and I learned a lot about your language Continue with this! 👏 👏 👏 🙏

Uncreative Username Жыл бұрын

You said hi Felicia and all I could think of was bye Felicia

Saskue78 2 жыл бұрын

You make it sound so easy. I do not have the skills to learn it but wish I could. Awesome video.😀

Jeff Bishop 5 ай бұрын

The first one, IE vs. EI, caused my first gaffe living in Germany. I had just gotten there in August 1987 for my year abroad, and a string of freeway road rage shootings in Los Angeles had made world news. Some Germans asked me about those incidents, and I mentioned there had been many incidents but only a few injuries and maybe one fatality. They asked why so few and I tried to explain why it's hard enough to hit a moving target when you are still, but almost impossible when both you and the target are moving, in different directions or speeds, etc. All that motion makes it very hard "jemanden zu erschießen," or so I *meant* to say. Ended up inventing a new word "erscheißen" on the fly instead. I guess it's even harder to shit someone to death?

Deven Science Жыл бұрын

I've been working on German for several years, and assumed I wouldn't learn anything new here, but that last tip was a very good one that I'd never heard before. Thank you.

Lea X 2 жыл бұрын

My ex-roomate used to teach phonetics and I learned a lot from her. The problem is, many people (also teachers) focus too much on the written language when learning/teaching a language and not on how a sound is actually produced. For example, the letter "ü" doesn't exist in most languages. So foreign learners will mostly see an "U" with two dots on it and they spell it as an "U" and then try to alter that pronunciation. Which is wrong, because phonetically the "ü" is closer to the german "I" than the "U". So to produce it, spell the german "I" and while doing so, pull your lips forward. And there you have it! The same goes for "ö", which is closer to the german "e" than to the "o". And to get an "ä", you need to say "e" and then open your mouth.

Ulrich Hatto von Hatzfeld 2 жыл бұрын

I think you explained very well the «ch» sound. The first version (in words like „ich“ or „Dächer“) can also be explained in this way: Pronounce an English «y» as in «you», and then repeat it, while keeping tongue and lips in the same position, as an unvoiced sound, i.e. without usage of your vocal cords.

Mike to Major Tom 2 жыл бұрын

I think my biggest fear of traveling abroad is insulting another culture by mispronouncing words in their language lol 🙊🤦‍♂️

Christine H 2 жыл бұрын

Most people certainly will appreciate your attempt and they will not feel insulted at all if you do not pronounce correctly. On contrary they will be delighted just for the effort you put into speaking their language.

Tom Kronberger 2 жыл бұрын

@Saint Honey when I read this a typical german word comes to my mind. Jein It means ja und nein(yes and no) used if you only partially agree. Like in any other country there are a lot of people thinking gramar is the only important thing in the world. But you're actually right.I'm born in Ireland and living in Austria for a "few" years (since the 1970 ies godamn I'm old ). Manchen ist es egal.Aber wieder andere fragen auch nach vielen Jahren "freundlich".Aber geboren sind sie nicht hier oder?( Even living so many years in Austria still some people ask "politely" :you ain't native, are you?) But the (great)majority don't care about it at all

Inge von Schneider 2 жыл бұрын

You will offend noone with it. Just trying is considered as very polite.

TheJohnnycab5 2 жыл бұрын

@Tom Kronberger I'm a North German living in Austria (since 2008). Once I went into a tobacco shop. The only words I said were: "Marlboro Gold, bitte." The answer was: "Was gibt's Neues in Deutschland?" (What's the news in Germany?) 🤣🤣🤣 So, don't get down on yourself.

Suellen W 2 жыл бұрын

@Tom Kronberger If I encounter an accent that's different from what I'm used to hearing, I often ask "Where did you grow up?"

DonPedro 2 жыл бұрын

I totally agree with tenses. When I started to learn German I was already taught English and I thought that there would come next 16 tenses or more to learn, but nothing like that happened. In fact Present Tense and Past Perfect are quite enough for me unless I don't wanna say sth in so called "Indirekte Rede" ;)

SpielSatzFail 2 жыл бұрын

That's correct! We never use more than the two tenses you mentioned :-)

Marc Leonbacher Күн бұрын

@SpielSatzFail You should never say never.

Andre Woodson 2 жыл бұрын

Thanks for these vlogs, Felicia. I was a US soldier, stationed in what was then West-Germany from Feb 87 - Oct. 91. When I arrived, my unit had enrolled me in a program called Kindergarten. It was a two week program where we were taught the language, customs, the do's and don'ts. At the end of the class, we were taken to downtown Nuremberg where we toured the city and had lunch, where we were required to order in German. When we were done, we were left to find our way back to the Kaserne. My unit was based in Monteith Barracks, which is in Fürth, which is not too far from Nuremberg.

Richard Bale 3 ай бұрын

Andre Woodson I was in Ansbach at the same time.

Nate B. Жыл бұрын

Love your videos! Thank you so much for posting real world scenarios! Also, our American friend in Boston totally have that "not over pronouncing the R" part down lol! They might "pahk the cah in tha yahd and go down to the bah to get a beeah" haha!!! 😂

Tilo Körner 2 жыл бұрын

The digraph “ie” is not a diphtong. It makes the sound of a simple vowel: [iː]. A diphtong is the gradient from one vowel to another. Technically, no letter combination can be a diphtong, because letters are letters and not sounds. If the technical term “digraph” confuses you, just say “letter combination”. The digraph “ei” on the other hand represents a diphtong: [aɪ̯]. The final consonant in “ach” also exists in some English names. Take Loch Ness in Scotland. [lɔx] / [ax] I like the approach to choose an alternative mistake that keeps the words most intelligible. At least that’s better that ignoring the mistake or keep struggling with it for a long time.

Hugh Nelson 2 жыл бұрын

Outstanding video, Feli. I like learning German from you.

Wally Kramer 2 жыл бұрын

I have looked at a moderate amount of German text, but I had not not noticed that the seemingly randomly capitalized words are all nouns! That is _so_ helpful! Thanks!

darkknight8139 2 жыл бұрын

That is something you learn either by being German, or by following German classes. Otherwise, I can really imagine that it looks very random.

Michael Malone 2 жыл бұрын

My favourite tips when speaking German are to do with gendered nouns and we English native-speakers needing to learn them instead of just knowing: 1) Don't learn that a noun is masculine / feminine / neuter - learn it as der / die / das so it comes more naturally when speaking. 2) Words ending in -e, -eit, -ung are _almost_ always feminine, so you just have to learn the exceptions (like das Ende) 3) Nouns borrowed from other languages are usually 'das' - das Hotel, das Handy, etc. 4) The genders aren't split evenly, so if you have to guess, guess masculine, because you'll be right more often than not (unless the word fits one of the previously mentioned patterns!)

Georg Anatoly 2 жыл бұрын

I actually started learning german a few days ago because I started watching Dark on netflix in german audio with german closed captions, amazing tv show, up through the first half of episode 8 season 2 I would argue is the best show I've ever seen, after that is okay as well but I felt like the story kind of went a little too 'out there' for my tastes -- going to continue learning german and watch biohackers in german audio and german closed captions if available next

Glen Shook 2 жыл бұрын

I took German all four years of high school. My teacher was from Nuremburg, but had been living in the US for 30 years by the time I had her. A year and a half after graduation, I'm in the Air Force, and stationed there in Rheinland-Pflaz. It came in very handy of course. For the first five years, I really struggled with their regional dialect. Having to ask them to slow it down, or dumb it down was pretty common. My last three years was closer to Bitburg, and the dialect was easier to understand. I joined my local village Karate Club, and I was the only American in it. My friend told me once, "Your pronunciation is pretty good. I can tell that you've worked on it. However, you talk like a tourist. Let's work on making you sound more like us so you blend in better." For example, when saying "ich weiss nicht" they had me say it more like "weiss ich nit." I haven't used it much in the last 26 years, but if I were dropped off there by myself, I confident that I could speak enough to survive.

Kyle McClellan 2 жыл бұрын

Thanks for the clarification! When I was learning German my teacher said that ich, "ick", and "ish" were all technically correct, just depending on where you are in Germany

Gwahlur 2 жыл бұрын

Interesting video! I took German in school and at university (in Finland) and remember that when I started to hang around with actual native speakers, my CH-sounds gradually shifted more towards SCH and my end-of-word R's became a lot more like EA's. So, for example, something like "Ich wollte aber mehr wissen" would become something like "Isch wollte aaba mea wissen". Maybe my German is influenced more by the Sourthern dialects then? :)

C G 2 жыл бұрын

"Isch" as a substite for "ch" is not southern at all (but in the southwest "isch" may frequently substitute "st"). In fact the "ch" sound will be proununced even harder the more you get to the South(west). And to add to the confusion even more, "ch" may also be pronounced "k" depending on it's position (i.e. when it's placed at the beginning of a word and/or when preceding certain letters). ;) I'd guess the "isch for ch" phenomenon is more of a Rheinland thing and also of the center (i.e. Kurpfalz and Hesse).. And then again there is "ich"(!) instead of "ig" in many northern regions. *lol* The "ea" thing on the other hand is rather hard to to track down to a certain region as it's present in quite a bunch of dialects all over the country, but to varying degrees.

Brigitte ITG 2 жыл бұрын

We invented the “Dir/Dich game” - really difficult for a lot of English speakers to know when to use which one. PS Great intro! “Schnell - schnell” could be added 😝

Matthew Weber 2 жыл бұрын

Dich (you), Dir (to/about) you.

honky tonk 2 жыл бұрын

Even many native speakers don't know the difference.

Felix Klüsener 2 жыл бұрын

@German Girl in America Eine Idee für eine mögliche Fortsetzung dieser Serie: Die Aussprache von "st" und "sp" in der deutschen Sprache. Jeweils am Anfang einer Silbe, an Silbentrennungen und innerhalb von Silben gibt es deutliche Unterschiede. Bsp: Straße, Austreten, Kiste Zudem kann auch auf regionale Unterschiede eingegangen werden. Im Raum Hamburg wird das st im ersten und dritten Beispiel identisch gesprochen.

Grim Reaper 2 жыл бұрын

i lived in berlin for 5yrs 1980 to 1985 its so wonderful to here you speak and how informitive your videos are thank you for doing them

Joseph Connole 2 жыл бұрын

When I was in high school my teacher taught us that the pronunciation of "ich" changes depending on where in Germany you are. Southern Germans, namely Bavarians like yourself, use the softer "ich" while Prussians use a harsher "ick" sound. I've never met a Berliner, most of all my German acquaintances, teachers, and friends have been from Bavaria with one hold out who is from Hamburg.