Have you read Mark Twain's essay on the German Language? "The Awful German Language". It's actually very witty and funny, talking about how much he hates that nouns have genders and that verbs are at the end. I think deep down he really loves the language, but this video reminds me of his vitriol! WHY SO COMPLEX!?
It still bends my mind, trying to form correct sentence structure. I know I shouldn't try and translate directly from one language to the other.. but I just can't see it otherwise!
Hello,I'm Japanese and studying german at university. German is really difficult for me..... So your channel is really good and very convenient for me. Thank you so much uploading this. I'll use this program and want to be speak German fluently:)
Oh God, i found your channel by accident, i've learned German for 2 months and i found it is complicated. But It's good to have someone cute with sweet voice teach us!!! Thank you
I've been taking German on Duolingo for awhile now and this is the part that always got me stuck. This is the best explanation I've ever seen for this subject. Danke!
As a spanish speaker we usually do some of this sentence structures. I do not find It that Hard. Except for the verbs in the end in some occasions. Danke!
I asked this German guy at work who has emphasized that German is hard to learn. Well, after viewing your video I came to the realization that, its true! My head was spinning after trying to understand all of the conjugations..."wweeeeeeee"....lol. It's very fun and enjoyable to watch and learn from you, even though I have a long way to go. Danke!
"that keeps things interesting, or cruel, depending on which side of the spectrum you're on" *Damn. I love learning German, and I love it's amazing (-ly structured) grammar. But, strike me dead, it's confusing*
Thank you so so very much for taking time to do this. .. have family in Germany that I want to visit and talk to.. your videos are wunderbar!!!! Danke schön!
You seem to have implied that German can move around its words more than English, and you are completely and absolutely 100% correct in all ways and denotations and are the best ([cough]Shakespeare) at explaining this is in full ([cough] objectal positioning) detail, thoueth must know. but seriously, you've done far more to help people on this channel than I could ever do, or that any other program for any language besides the Unua Libro has done. For this, commendest I you for your supreme skills in teaching German. There has never been a better source for German grammar than this channel. Bravo!
Haha, well, we're talking about modern English & German here - the interesting thing is, though, that Shakespeare can, in some instances, be easier to read for Germans (with a good grasp on the English language, ofc) than for a native speaker. We don't even question some sentences with an unusual structure, since we might be aware that it's not the way it works today, but still understand it intuitively. The two languages were a lot closer once, after all... such a shame that's changed ;)
Deutsch für Euch In Gedichten und Liedern ist so gut wie alles möglich, im Deutschen wie im Englischen, wenn ich jemanden anspreche mit: "Auf einem Baum ein Kuckuck saß" wirkt dies wohl sehr befremdlich. Viele amerikanische Deutschlehrer vermitteln ihren Schülern, dass man im Deutschen alle Objekte und adverbielle Bestimmungen einfach an den Anfang setzen darf, um sie zu betonen. Stilistisch ist das aber oft grauenhaft, und gerade Anfänger sollten sich erstmal an die normale Reihenfolge halten.
Deutsch für Euch But now, we have more silent letters, three less letters in our alphabet, more inconsistent spelling, the th sound that blocks many people off of English, and and obscene amount of greek eponyms. YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY.
Hallo Katja. Native English speaker here. I think you are looking for "conjugated" verbs versus "infinitive" verbs. ("I go/he goes/etc" vs "to go"). "Infinite" in English is not an adjective you apply to verbs (conjugated or not), it is really only the opposite of "finite" z.B. "limitless" vs "limited." "To + verb" is an "infinitive." Thanks for the great videos.
When you said 'and a certain type of jokes'....you're supposed to say either 'a certain type of joke' or 'certain types of jokes'. You probably know this already, and i feel cheeky correcting you but for some reason you seem like the sort of person that won't mind! Great lesson!
Oh no, I actually didn't notice or know that, thank you for the hint! :) "Types of jokes" wouldn't fit here I think, since it's only the one type, that might've been confusing.
Ich wunsche mir dass ich sofort zuziehe nach Germany! Ich komme aus slowenien, heutzutage Staat dier nicht mehr funktioniert. Fast jeder ist bei uns von Armut bedroht. Meine deutschen Kenntnisse sind schlecht, und so bin ich sehr dankbar deine kanal zu finden. Hoffe ich verbessere deutsch schnell, du bist so nett und freigebig(?) free lectures) mit uns.
In retrospect, I would've found it useful if you'd not only highlighted the German verbs, but color coated all parts of speech and mapped them to their English counterpart. Also, I'm sure a fellow pedant 10,000 leagues below me pointed out the difference between 'who' and 'whom'. Generally, this is something to overlook in casual conversation, but when it comes to teaching a slightly more complex case system evident in German, it would be beneficial to clearly distinguish the two. This way, English speakers will be able to understand the difference between 'wer', 'wem', and 'wen'.
I know I'm a little tardy to the party so you may not see read this, but i just wanted to let you know that you were correct the fist time you said this... 3:31 & it sounded perfect too!
Maybe it's because I'm italian and we also don't always have the SVO type of clause, but it's not that difficul as you make it sound at the beginning! :) Also your way of explaining things is amazingly clear and complete. Ever thought about becoming a teacher? Danke und Tschuss :)
There's always this issue I have with German sentence structures being explained - its that even though English is my first language, in class we are only taught really about noun verb adjective adverb and so when people say the words clause and conjugated I don't actually know what they're on about (embarrassing)
thanks so much for the Video once again you speak clearly and make things understandable. We just started sentence structures in deutsch klasse and yes im overwelmed by it. after getting most of der,die,das down moving Forward this is scary but i will Keep reviewing your Videos over and over.. they actually make alot of sense i just have an english mind learning german. I'm glad you took time out of your life to put These up and help us move Forward!
Katia, Thanks for your videos! they're awesome! Also, our teacher showed your channel in a beginning German class at university as a good example of lessons on youtube! :) thought you'd like to know ha ha
German sentence structure drives me crazy; especially confusing are verbs at the end of a sentence. Thinking of these as clauses and elements helps quite a lot.
Hey Katya, I love your show! I never had more fun learning another language...hehe..needless to say I have dramatically improved my German. If you ever want to meet up for a cup of coffee or a glass of wino..feel free to drop me a line. That would be my ultimate dream to have a personal German teacher like you!!! Willi from Kaapstad
I must add that your English is perfect. Having grown with German as your Muttersprache, how hard was it for you to learn English? Or wasn't it? Have you tried Spanish? I can help you with that one!
"In 2014 I spent 4 days in Berlin". Which (if any) is the correct one? Am 2014 ich war in Berlin vier Tage. Am 2014 war ich vier Tage in Berlin. "And during my stay in Berlin I visited Dresden for a day". This one I don't know how to say it. I might try but I'm sure I will fail. Danke
No "am", that's only for days. "2014 war ich 4 Tage in Berlin." is correct. For the word order, watch Syntax 3 - the before section always only contains one element at a time. Btw: Please just edit your comments when you have something to add, otherwise additional comments might get autodetected as spam.
I will add that annotation, thank you - although I'm afraid that won't help you with "doch", I haven't talked about our (nearly unnecessary) adverbs like "ja, doch, mal (...)" yet.
Could you possibly do a mini episode specifically for the placement of nicht? It confuses me so badly, I always place nicht wrong. If you have already done one and I haven't gotten there yet, feel free to ignore this.
Wirst du auch mal ein Video über diese komischen, sich aufteilenden Verben machen? Z.B. Infinitiv ist nachfragen aber man sagt "Ich frage mal nach" oder auch "Ich denke grad nach" usw.
Difference between Who and Whom This video best describes the difference when it comes to proper English. I must say that it is very rare top run across Americans that know much property English. Whom is not nearly as rate as the other words I listed. The other words I mentioned I almost never hear used, but they were the closest comparisons I could think of.
Can you pls do a episode on Schmelzen und Kraken( pain and sickness) I know I can't spell. We are learning this topic in schule and I would like a natives view. Pls
Hahaha... oh mann. Da hast du dir echt was vorgenommen mit der Satzstruktur ^^ aber ich finde, du hast es gut erklärt. Das Thema an sich ist leider nicht sehr intuitiv (Ich mein, ich studier´s und hatte Probleme) und ich hoffe, dass sich deine Follower das Ganze ein paar Mal ansehen ^^ du könntest übrigens irgendwo die Tabelle, die die Satzstruktur erklärt zeigen - bei mir zumindest hat sie dafür gesorgt, dass es Klick macht, ich fand es eine hilfreiche Visualisierung. Lg, Maike
Oh ja... ich hab auch immer noch etwas Bammel, wie das weitergeht und ob ich mir nicht irgendwo selbst ein Bein stelle... :D Danke dir :) Ja, momentan hab ich das so vor Augen, dass ich nochmal ein Zusammenfassungsvideo mache, wenn ich durch alle Einzelelemente durch bin... aber man wird sehen, wie ich das nach den nächsten Videos sehe.
Mach dir keine Sorgen, das wird schon irgendwie ^^ wenn du Fragen hast, kannst du mich auch gern nochmal konsultieren. Und wenn du doch irgendwas falsch erklärst: Es ist das Internet. Irgendwer wird es schnell genug sagen XD"
Do you pronounce it "Va-nil-je" or ""Va-nil-le"? I'm German and it seems to me that as soon as a lot of Germans(not all, just a lot) often pronounce a foreign word wrongly after it has been around for a while. I don't want to be picky, but I'm learning Spanish right now, which is my third language right now, if you exclude Latin, people like me easily notice those "mistakes". Other examples would be "Polyester", which you actually pronounce without a "J"-sound, or "Glycerin", which is actually "Glycerol", because it is an alcohol.
Hallo Katja.I'm Karim from Morocco.I'm one of your funs..thanks for your useful lessons.I have a note for the episode 19 ,21 and 23 (Declining the German Personal Pro).you said that the male possessive pronoun of " ich " and "du" are "miner" and "deiner".but i find in another lesson that the male possessive pronoun of those are "mines" and "deines".so I used Google translation to translate : "the teacher of my son",the result is :"der Lehrer meines Sohnes".i'm so confused..Thank you in advance ;)
You're talking about different cases here. In "the teacher of my son", the "my" is in the Genitiv case in German, so of course it's going to be different than the Nominativ. The male possessive pronoun is "meiner". Its Genitiv is "meines", which unfortunately is also the Nominativ of the neutral possessive pronoun. And, as I mentioned in Episode 19, "meiner" is also the Genitiv of the personal (not possessive) pronoun for "ich". I know, so much confusion, i wish it wasn't so. I will explain all of this in detail when I make a video on these pronouns, though, don't worry :)
Yes, the Genitiv of "ich" (=meiner) is the same as the Nominative of "meiner", which is the possessive pronoun of the 1st person singular (possessive pronoun ≠ personal pronoun). Hope that helped :)
Deutsch für Euch I understand what you say but i found in another lesson that the genitive of "ich" is meines..if "meiner" is the genetive of "ich"..i should have : "der Lehrer meiner Sohnes " in the translation. Okeyy..never mind..sorry for the derangement.please don't stop to teach German because it's very helpful ;)
No you shouldn't - that is exactly why I keep pointing out that the Genitive of the personal pronouns is NOT limited to possession. "mein Sohn" is possessive (your son "belongs" to you), the possessive pronoun is "mein". We are not talking about your son, though, but about his teacher, in English this is indicated by using "of" or " 's" (my son's teacher), in German we use the Genitiv. Therefore, the possessive (not personal, can't stress this enough) pronoun has to be in the Genitiv case, which is "meines". You have the personal and possessive pronouns mixed up - that's understandable, since they are very close in German and we have 4 forms for each of them. The Genitiv of "ich" is not used for possession. The most popular example to demonstrate its proper use is "He remembers me" which can be translated to "Er erinnert sich meiner." The use of the Genitiv of personal pronouns is very confusing, not only to foreigners, but aslo to native speakers. Don't let it get to you ;) Your other source is completely right - but they are talking about possessive pronouns, while I so far have only talked about personal pronouns. The first is "my ____" (German: "mein/meine/mein_____"), the second is "I/me" (German: "ich"). So "meines" is not the Genitiv of "ich", but the Genitiv of "mein".
If Yoda in English leaves the verbs for the end of the sentences then how is it dubbed in German?, it would sound normal if he uses that sentence structure.
Well, Yoda mostly speaks in main sentences, where the verb very expressly doesn't go at the end, so that switch sounds equally foreign. It is indeed a tiny bit more tricky when there is a combination of two verbs. But they also switched other elements, usually the subject and object (also similar to the English version). E.g. "no greater gift there is" - "kein größeres Geschenk es gibt" vs "es gibt kein größeres Geschenk" - - "use the force you must" - "die Macht du nutzen musst" vs "du musst die Macht nutzen".
@@DeutschFuerEuch Thank you Katia for the quick answer and all the details. I follow your channel since I moved to Germany 10 years ago, I lived there for 5 years but I never managed to be fluent in it. Now I'm having a nostalgia moment and picked it up again. It's great to see how much your channel has grown, it's a great example for me as I started one last year. My question came because yesterday I discovered that The clone wars DVDs have the option for German language so my first question was, How does Yoda speaks in German? I'll pay attention to your explanation as I binge watch it in the following days, luckily I watched it in English many times so if I don't understand all I can guess what's happening. Thanks again for your dedication to your channel and viewers. regards. Jorge.
Bitte kannst du meine Frage antworten? Ich habe einen Jahr bis meinem Urlaub. Sommer im Jahre 2015 Ich kann auf deutsch anständig sprechen aber ich komplett perfektion will. achso, Kannst du persönlich mit meiner Grammatik helfen? (über Nachrichten) Danke... Und dein Englisch ist einwandfrei. :)
(Not being rude because I pronounce a lot of German words wrong :3 ) But it was throwing me off the way you pronounce the words infinite and finite but great video, German word order is so hard for me I've been trying to learn some-what-decent German for years :/
Yeah, I got a bit irritated at myself about that, but it's not like I can change it now ;) I got confused because the word "finite" is rarely heard outside of grammatical context, but since it's pronounced so much differently than "infinte" (yay for English phonology!) so I figured that maybe the grammatical "infinite" was just pronounced differently. Should've looked it up :P
Deutsch für Euch I actually think it was a good choice, because pronouncing "infinite" conjures the association of "infinity", and it's good to make a distinction for grammatical usage
With the examples of wishful exclamations, would those be used, like, sarcastically? For example- A: 'Beeile dich und decke den Tisch für das Abendessen!' B: 'Könnte ich doch in die Küche gehen....'
Haha, they definitely can be! That is nottheir originally intended use, but probably the most likely scenario in everyday-situations. "Mama, ich will was essen!" - "Wenn du doch nur etwas dagegen tun könntest..." (If only you could do something about that)
Erm, I have to say I don't really go by levels. I explain what I deem important and focus on making grammar less headache-y, that's kind of my main philosophy... :D
For the most part wem actually translates to the English whom, but you will only hear really old Americans ever use that word. Also thus, hence, thou, thine etc. Usually when people do use that outside of reading Shakespeare they are seen as though they have lost their mind.
I am an Asian and perhaps I wont go to the other side...get it..but you sound fun..didn't understand anything much because you are a little fast on phase but kind of zoned out in my dream land was fun dreaming..
You just have excellent control for making different sound. I am still learning how to say “schön”. I have been watching your videos from day one (perfect timing). Love them you’re a big help! I also enrolled in the local Volkshochschule….I still have a long ways to go. Ich danke sehr
Huh, interesting. But no, I can't say I'm anywhere past cringy amateur "pff-tsk"-sounds :D How come you ask, do you beatbox? And thank you, it's great to know people that started watching 10 months ago (holy f) are still with it :)
Sorry for the delay. No I can’t beat box either. Your episode 1 reminds me of a “you tube” beat box training video lol. Which I have watch about 10 time to get my sounds right…so don’t delete it, please. Thanks again PS do you take “donations” for your hard work?
Haha, that's one comparison I hadn't heard yet :D No worries, I won't :) I do, yes, and I feel very honored that you're considering making one :) I use the same email for Paypal that I use on here, so dfekontakt@gmail.com- thank you ^-^
Okay, so: "I can help you" translates to either "Ich kann dir helfen." (easy, most common version) or "Dir kann ich helfen." - "You I can help." (context might be "I can't help person A, but I CAN help person B (="you").") So there's a shift in emphasis here. English is less free to do this kind of thing with anything outside of personal pronouns, really, as nothing outside of them is declined any longer (outside of possession, but that's not important here). So a sentence that I could not turn around would be "The boy helps the girl.", as it would reverse subject and object: "The girl helps the boy." - unless I put both parties before the verb again: "The girl the boy helps." = "It is the girl, the boy helps." Now. German declines all nouns, which means that, even though subject-verb-object is still a common word order for us, too, we are more free to switch it up depending on context/intended emphasis. While we CAN'T do the inversion I showed above (The girl the boy helps.), because there can't be more than one segment before the conjugated verb (watch Syntax 3 for more information on this), we CAN invert the positions of subject and object. Why? Because German, unlike English, doesn't have to rely on word order to convey relational meaning. We know that in simple sentences, the word that remains in the nominative (a noun's "basic form") is always the subject (excluding special grammaticla forms that are too complex to include here), just as we know that when a noun is in the Genitiv, Dativ or Akkusativ, it is some form of object or attribute. So in the sentence: Mir kannst du helfen. while the order is changed, we still know for certain that "mir" is the object here because it is the Dativ form of "ich", while "du" is in the Nominativ. The sentence "Mir du kannst helfen" is NEVER correct under any circumstances, though (see above, watch my third episode on Syntax). Why the translation programm you used would make such a fundamental error, I can't tell you. Be careful with those. Hope this helped! :)
Thanks for this mighty effort to explain. I wont pretend that I understood but I'll try to watch your two videos more. Damn! You really think life is too short to learn German? :) Thank you very much.
See, i already know this stuff, and i speak english too, and i was completely lost x.x those big confusing words.... i am an honors english student in America and didnt understand half of what she said
It does, in time :) Also, remember that this channel is focused on detailed grammar explanaitions; so while I do feel that I give information that can rarely be found explained in such detail, this is definitely not the most rewarding way to go. I'm trying to find a way to provide exercises that let you practice what I teach, but that takes a lot of time I don't have atm :/
It does, just start writing out a few sentences everyday, and, most importantly, start reading basic German sentences. Syntax is hard to explain, but easy to get once you see it enough.
Das mit dem speziellen Witz ist gut, obschon manche Leute immer so reden, wenn sie "berichten": Sagt der mir: ich komm gleich, sag ich: wann? und der:gleich!!, sag ich: mach schneller! Boah, nervt das! Asi-Deutsch halt. 3:02 ist auch lustig, wo deine rechte Schulter plötzlich bedeckt ist ;-)
Ha, das ist wohl wahr... hab ich gar nicht bedacht. Aber zum Glück ist das "nur" umgangssprachlich... :D Ja, das Hemd ist leider sehr vielseitig in seinen Entschlüssen, wo es gerade liegen möchte.
