1Learn German In 6 Days!By: Zane MadisonThis book will greatly help your understanding of the Germanlanguage. Instruction and practice is the only way you will learn. Ifyou live in or travel in a German speaking country and want toimprove your skills, this is for you. If you have an interest inGerman or want an A+ in your schoolwork, this is also for you.Best of luck and Auf Wiedersehen for now!The German AlphabetThe German alphabet is the most important feature to learn. Thesame goes for any language, if you do not know what letters makeup basic words, how can you put a word together? Moreimportantly, how is it spelled?The German alphabet is a crucial part in understanding thelanguage. Please take a look over this chart to make sure you havegrasped the concept. Many words in English that are broken downinto letter form are pronounced with longer sayings in German.Once you feel you know this chart, head on over to the next lesson.If you may have noticed right from the start, this alphabet has 30characters. Yes, that is four more than our English counterpart. Iurge you to memorize this list. You will be much better off, goodluck! Hint: Can you notice the similarity to English?2AaBbCcDdEeFfGgHhIiJjKkLlMmNnOoPpQqRrSsTtUuVvWwXxYyZz

3German VowelsThe letters which represent the German vowels are the same asEnglish. There is one exception though, and that is the addition ofthree extra vowels. Let us take a look shall we? There are eightvowels in German and they are, "a", "e", "i", "o", "u", "", "", "".Not too complicated is it now? Let us move on.German vowels have a distinct difference as compared to theEnglish language. The vowels are separated into two maincategories. Do you happen to know what those categories mightbe? The categories are long and short. Now what is a long andshort vowel you ask?Short vowels or otherwise known as "lax", have a quick distinctsound to them. Once you understand how the classification works,it is easy to pick out a long and short vowel. Normally it is easiestto know if the vowel is short by using one simple trick. Would youlike to know this simple tip?If there are a bunch of consonants following the vowel, it is mostlikely a short vowel. What does "a bunch" mean exactly? I mean atleast two or more consonants following the vowel. Please note fora side reference that there is also a "super short" sounding vowelsound but that is not really necessary at this point.Now on the other side of this coin is the long vowel. Sometimesthis is also called a "tense" vowel as well. What are the importantthings to know about this category? Well there are a few actually.Remember how short vowels could be pointed out because theyhad two or more consonants following them? Well a long vowelcan be pointed out by having only a single consonant following it.Another common factor which is a dead giveaway is the doublingof vowels. Also known as pairing, this is when you see the vowelrepeated twice. Examples are "aa", "ee", "oo", and so on. Also just

4to point out as a side note, it is not unusual for a long or tensesounding vowel to have the letter "h" following the vowel.As you can see, learning the German vowels is pretty basic. In factit's very easy. If you did not fully understand this just by reading,please go back and read it a couple of times. In no time at all youwill have the grasp of the vowels and how they play an importantpart into the structure of this language. Are you ready to continue?German Alphabet PronunciationGerman alphabet pronunciation is in all honesty, not that hard tolearn. As with anything, things take practice. This alphabet actuallysounds a little similar to English in a few ways. Take your timetrying to learn and proceed when ready.Each letter has its own special sound, just like English and anyother language does. The German language however, does havespecial characters called "Umlaut". What distinguishes an"Umlaut" from a regular letter?Take a look below at the German alphabet pronunciation table andsee if you can point out which letters are a little bit different. Haveyou found them? Ok, good, let us continue then. The "Umlaut"letters are letters with the dots above them. What do the dots meanexactly?These dots are used to create a sharper sound. This sound is doneusing the front part of your mouth. This may be a little harder forsome of us, since the English language does not use this kind ofsound technique. How do you know when to use these dotsthough?

5You do not have to know. The dots on these letters are sort of "justthere". They are a rule and are used in conjunction with certainwords. Is this confusing you a little bit? Think for example, how dowe end a sentence? We end a sentence with a period mark ofcourse. So too, do certain words automatically use the "Umlaut"letters.Aa - AhBb - BehCc - TsehDd - DehEe - EhFf - EffGg - GehHh - HahIi - IhJj - YottKk - KahLl - ElMm - EmmNn - EnnOo - OhPp - - PehQq - KuhRr - ErrSs - EssTt - TehUu - UhVv - FauWw - VehXx - Iks

6Yy - YpsilonZz - TzettSuccess Story: Gavin Pendergast"Hi Guys,I have been traveling around Europe for the last couple of monthsand have been practicing my German extensively while I havebeen in Germany and Switzerland. Your software has certainlyhelped me take leaps and bounds out of the learning process. Ihave found that I am ordering food and coffee with no problem atall and one of the best things is that the locals want to talk to meand find out what I am up to so I am finding a whole bunch of newexperiences and great people!!The best part of the course for me has been Nik and Paul's audiotracks, especially handy with the amount of traveling I have beendoing. Finding my way round the post office and ordering wine(everyone leaves me to do it!) have made me the person othertravelers turn to for getting stuff!Thanks for putting together a great course that makes learning funrather than a chore! Auf Wiedersehen"-Gavin PrendergastWASHINGTON, USA

7German DiphthongsGerman diphthongs are basically two vowels which are puttogether. It is rather simple really. Instead of pronouncing eachvowel separately, you blend them together. The German languageis a lot more into phonetics than our English counterpart. Whatdoes this mean?It means German really isn't that confusing. You pronounce theword as you see it. Instead of silent letters, most words are a "saywhat you see" deal. There are no real exceptions like English hasand this is what makes learning this language fun and interesting.You are not going to be tricked. Exceptions normally come fromwords that have a foreign (English, French) background. Once youknow how to pronounce the letters, you will be able to say wordseven if you have never seen them before. So learn the letters anddiphthongs or rather know what they are, and how to go aboutsaying them.In German some sounds are created by using diphthongs. We havesomething similar in English. Take the word fish, where thecombination sh makes you pronounce it in a different way thaneach letter is pronounced. In German, sch is the same sound assh in English, and, to keep the example, Fisch has the samepronunciation. Hey, you just learned another word! Im sure youcan remember this one! Although, strictly speaking, sch is not adiphthong, as this term only applies to the combination of vowels.But its the same principle. Once again, the diphthongs are acombination of two vowels. They are: "au" (pronounced like the ow in Howard) "eu" and u ( both like the oy in oyster) "ei" and ai ( both like eye) ie (like eeh)

8Learning the diphthongs, alphabet, and consonants will give you astrong solid base. It will allow you to progressively and activelyspeak the German language without wondering what or when touse a certain letter. I am confident these lessons will make youbetter understand the German language. I encourage you to actnow as well and take hold of this software if you really are seriousabout learning German.German City NamesGerman city names are based on many factors. Some of thesefactors include the origin of the German language, wars, andpolitics. An example of this was the name change of the EastGerman city of Karl-Marx-Stadt. After the time when the BerlinWall was torn down, it got its old name Chemnitz back. Commonendings for towns and cities include -stadt, -furt, -berg, -burg, -hausen, -ingen and -ow.When you travel around Germany, you will notice many cities andtowns having a mixed background. This is true because ofmigration and the influence of other cultures. Some towns willhave a Polish sounding name, or a French one. Perhaps some willeven sound a little bit Ukrainian.Below I have compiled a list of all the major cities in Germany.They are sorted by alphabetical order. If you are planning to travelto Germany this would be great to know. Please take a look overthis chart. I am sure you will find the city you are looking for. Alsoremember, that this software is a great program for people whowant to travel to Germany.

9AachenAugsburgBergischGladbachBerlinBielefeldBochumBonnBottropBraunschweigBremenBremerhavenChemnitzCottbusDarmstadtDessauDortmundDresdenDuisburgDrenDsseldorfErfurtErlangenEssenEsslingenFlensburgFrankfurtFreiburgFrthGelsenkirchenGeraGttingenGterslohHagenHalle

10HamburgHammHanauHannoverHeidelbergHeilbronnHerneHildesheimIngolstadtIserlohnJenaKaiserslauternKarlsruheKasselKielKoblenzKlnKrefeldLeipzigLeverkusenLbeckLudwigsburgLudwigshafenLnenMagdeburgMainzMannheimMarlMindenMoersMnchengladbachMlheimMnchenMnsterNeuss11NrnbergOberhausenOffenbachOldenburgOsnabrckPaderbornPforzheimPotsdamRatingenRecklinghausenRegensburgRemscheidReutlingenRostockSaarbrckenSalzgitterSchwerinSiegenSolingenStuttgartTrierUlmVelbertVillingen-SchwenningenWiesbadenWilhelmshavenWittenWolfsburgWuppertalWrzburgZwickau

12German ConsonantsMany German consonants are pronounced similarly to ourEnglish language. There are a few differences however. At the endof a word, some consonants are pronounced sharper than usual. Inthose cases the letter "b" is pronounced like a "p", g ispronounced like k and "d" is pronounced like a "t". There arealso a few others.Pronunciation of some grouped consonants in a little bit differentas well. A couple of the "ich" and/or "ach" sounds in German maybe troublesome for you. They are tricky to pronounce at first butonce you understand them, it becomes second nature to you. Justremember a few simple rules. The "ch" can be pronounced in twodifferent ways. If it follows a, o, u and au it is pronounced like inthe Scottish word loch, otherwise it is pronounced in the front ofthe mouth. There is no sound like that in English. This softwarecourse is a great help to master German pronunciation. See foryourself today how it can help you!The h can be silent or pronounced. But the rule for that is easy: ifthe h follows a vowel, its silent (like in leihen (borrow),pronounced LY-EN). If it precedes a vowel, its pronounced (likein Hut (hat), pronounced HOOT)Do not try to pronounce everything as you would in English. Thisis the German language, not the English language. Try not topronounce certain consonants heavily, such as the letter "r". If youkeep these things in mind and follow the course, you will bespeaking the language in no time at all.This may seem like a lot to take in, but it really isn't. Just trysounding off the words with the pronunciation techniques youlearned in the German alphabet.

13German Vowel PronunciationGerman vowel pronunciation is easier to learn than most peoplebelieve it to be. With only a couple extra vowels, it only takes acouple minutes longer to learn. We can consider the extra vowelsspecial sounding vowels for now. This will make things easier.The vowels are, "a", "e", "i", "o", "u", "", "", and "". Germanhas long vowels and short ones. Short vowels are pronounced witha short crisp clear sound. There is no blending or rubbing or thevowels. Every German vowel has its own clear pronunciation.The hardest of the vowels to learn is the "umlaut". This is becausethe English language does not use it. It is a sound that is notneeded for us to communicate. Think of it as riding a bike, if younever have ridden a bike, it will be a little tricky to learn at first.Once you know how though, you never forget.The "umlaut" is spoken from the front of the mouth. It uses thetongue in a curling action to produce the sound needed. Trypracticing this technique a little bit before diving into words. Theskill will come with time so do not get disheartened.German AdjectivesGerman adjectives, normally go in front of the noun which theyare modifying. German adjectives have an ending before a noun.This ending, which is mostly -e in the singular and -en in theplural, depends on several factors like the gender of the followingnoun and the case. There are four cases in the German language:nominative, genitive, dative and accusative. The different cases areused depending on the function of the sentence. Youll get someexamples for that in a minute.

14The nominative adjective refers to the subject of a sentence. Thismakes it easy for us to pick out, since nouns start with a capitalletter. Now don't you wish English had that? What a struggle it wasto learn all of this is grammar school.You can ask yourselves who or what to find the subject of asentence that you are looking for. The questions of are normallyused in conjunction with nominative adjectives. Why is this so?Nominative cases use articles most of the time. Examples of theseare der, "ein", "die", "eine", and so on. Take the term der kleineJunge (the little boy). Here the ending is -e. In the plural it isdie kleinen Jungen (the little boys). See, not too difficult. To seethis in action with interactivity and audio please visit this site here.As you can see, it just takes practice and a bit of learning to masterthe basics of German. Keep reading for the rest of our adjectivelesson. Let us move on to the accusative adjectives now.The accusative case is the direct object of a sentence. Did youforget what a direct object is? It is an animal, thing, person, orsomething which the action of the sentence is happening about orto. Think of it as the popular thing in the sentence. What all thebuzz is about. Does that make a little more sense?Accusative endings are the same as those in the nominative casemost of the time. The exception to this rule is with the masculinegender. It is the loner, the only one which has a differentappearance, upon changing from -e in the nominative to -en inthe accusative. Accusative adjectives and articles are directlyrelated to one another, whether it is masculine, feminine, orneutral. The accusative ending must also reflect the case of thepreceding noun.Let us have a look at the dative case. Do you remember what theaccusative format dealt with? Its the object of the sentence. Dativedeals with the indirect object of the sentence. This time it is not

15about who or what the action is being performed by but rather whoor what the action is being performed to. Question words are towhom or what the sentence is about. The ending of adjectives inthe dative case is easy: its -en for all (male, female, neutral,singular or plural).Let's take a look at this closer. A couple of examples include, "Towhom did he throw the ball?" "To whom are you speaking?" Tosee full lots of examples of what I am explaining in action pickyourself up a copy of this software today. Learn German the easyway, the fun way.Finally, we come to the genitive case. In German, the genitiveshows the possession of something. In English you use theapostrophe-s s or of to express this. Like in my parentshouse. The endings adjectives are identical to the dative case.German PrepositionsGerman prepositions can only be learned in one way: you have tomemorize them. Sometimes in life there is no shortcut to the highroad. This happens to be one of those times. Memorize theprepositions, learn them, and you will be much better off!Prepositions come in many different shapes and forms. They dealwith travel, people, and gender to name a few.Learning a second language can be problematic because wealready know how to speak one language. We have this idea in ourheads of how a language should be conducted. We must step backaway for a moment and take a look at what this is all about.Learning German prepositions is absolutely critical if you want tospeak the language.

16A good example is if you are sick. What do we do when we aresick? We take something for our sickness correct? Well inGerman, you would take something against your sickness. See thedifference here? It is little subtle things like this which make up thewhole picture.English has the object of the preposition; all prepositions are in thesame case. German has more and you have to know when to useeach preposition. Just like in adjectives, we have the accusativeand dative cases with prepositions. Certain German prepositionsare ruled by the accusative case. I would suggest you becomefamiliar with these as they are used a lot in German.We will go over the basics of the accusative prepositions now.First of all, there are two different kinds. There are ones that willalways be accusative. Then there are ones that can either be dativeor accusative. A couple of the main German accusativeprepositions include fr, gegen, and durch. In English these meanfor, against, and through. A couple of the "two way" prepositionsinclude an, auf, and zwischen. These mean at, on, to, upon, andbetween.As I mentioned earlier in this free course, be wary of translationsbetween the languages though. A two way preposition can havemore than one English meaning or translation. It is best if youlearn the vocabulary, learn the basics of German grammar as I amteaching you, and then practice everything you have learnedutilizing the ultimate this software package.Now we shall go on towards the dative case. Not too muchdifferent here either. Just like in the accusative case. Dative caneither be "always dative" or "sometimes dative". The commondative prepositions include aus, auer, bei, mit, von, and zu. Themeaning of these in the same order is, from, besides, near, by (orwith), from, and to.

17I hope this gives you some sort of basic foundation in learningwhat prepositions are all about. Utilizing the tools given here willmake you a better speaker. It will allow you to speak basicconversation, order from restaurants, tell the time, and ask peoplesimple questions. The power of learning German is in your hands.Viel Glck!German Adverbs & DirectionsGerman adverbs are used in many different ways. They havedifferent reasons for using them and I am here to help you. Let usrefresh our heads really quick and try to recall what an adverb is?Can you find that memory somewhere in your brain? When did welearn that anyways, third grade?An adverb helps the verb in the sentence. That is a really generalsummary of what it does. In English, adverbs normally end with -ly, which makes them easy to identify. Not so in German. Let ustake a look at the German meanings then shall we?There are three categories of adverbs: those for time, for themanner and for the place. They tell you when, how long, howand wo, wohin, respectively. Here are some examples from eachcategory:TIME: heute (today), immer (always), gestern (yesterday),manchmal (sometimes), bald (soon), frh (early)MANNER: schwierig (difficult), leise (quietly), sehr (very),ziemlich (rather), leider (unfortunately), vielleicht (maybe)PLACE: hier (here), dort (there), berall (everywhere), zu Hause(at home), in Deutschland (in Germany)

18This lesson will focus on the uses of adverbs in asking directions.Why would I choose directions? Most people, who want to learnGerman, use it for traveling. What do you do when you travel?You ask for directions that's what! So with no further delay, let usdive in.When you ask how to get to a certain place, keep in mind thatGerman has many meanings. What do I mean by this? I mean thatthe use of the word can be something totally different in anothercontext. If you ask "Where is my hat?", it would be completelydifferent if you were to ask "Where is she going?". Do you seewhat I am getting at? The first one is asking for a location, thesecond one for a motion or direction. If you are going to asksomething with the word "where" in the question, use these rules.The word "wohin" is used when talking about motion or direction.The word "wo" is about asking location. So if you were to ask,"Where is my hat?", you would use "wo". If you were to ask,"Where is she going?", you would use "wohin".Now that you have that under your belt, it is time to consider theconsequences. That's right, how often do you think before you act?I really hope you do. You may be the world's greatest person atasking for directions in German. Yet, do you have any darn clue onwhat the answer will be and how to comprehend it? Perhaps, but Ithink if you asked the average person, you would have no ideawhat they said back.So to make things easy, make your question easy. It is a simpleconcept, easy questions equal easy answers. You should askquestions using basic German words, such as left, right, back, turn,and so on. If this does not help in any way do not start crying andfreaking out. Control yourself and use the ever so known way ofcommunication. Draw a picture! Below is a list of commonadverbs, asking-directions related words and their meanings.

19Straight ahead - GeradeausNorth - NordenEast - OstenSouth - SdenWest - WestenBack - ZurckForward - VorwrtsLeft - LinksRight - RechtsGoing - GehenLeaving - VerlassenArriving - AnkommenWhere is - Wo istHow do I get to - Wie komme ich nachHow far is it to - Wie weit ist es nachPlease speak slowly - Bitte sprechen Sie langsamGerman Verb ConjugationGerman verb conjugation is a great aspect of the Germanlanguage. It is not too difficult at all, and it is extremely importantif you don't want to sound like a retard when speaking German!With no further delays, let us begin this lesson.Conjugating a verb is sort of like cutting a rose. Weird analogy youmight think? Well let me show you why. The stem of a rose, as weall know, does not change. The rose branches may be cut, brokenoff, bloom with flower petals, but the stem is strong and firm. It isalways constant.20So is the stem of a verb. Conjugation in German is not hard. Itrequires identifying the stem of the verb and knowing what to dowith it, once you find it. Let us look at an example.What are some verbs in English that we can look at first? Think ofsome off the top of your head. How about running, walked, looked,jumping, and tripped. What is the stem of these verbs? The stem ofthese verbs is run, walk, look, jump, and trip.The same principles and ideas apply to the stems of verbs inGerman. Locate the stem, keep it constant, and apply the change asnecessary. Does that sound easy to you? It does to me. Now let ushave a look at a German example.The infinitive form of regular German verbs ends with "en". Andthe stem is this basic form without the ending. So if we take theverb gehen, to go, what do you think the stem is? Right, itsgeh, which alone is not a word, just the stem. Now you may bewondering just how many verb endings the German language has.Well, it does have more verb endings than English. Do not getdisheartened though. Some verb endings are normally repeated andthere is some sort of pattern to things. Let me explain. Whichendings do you have to add to the stem? That depends on thecontext of the verb. For regular verbs in the present tense theendings are:-e ich gehe (I go)-st du gehst (you go)-t er/sie/es geht (he/she/it goes)-en wir gehen (we go)-t ihr geht (you go)

21-en sie gehen (they go)Unfortunately there are irregular verbs as well, and like in Englishthe endings change with the tense you use (like we add -ed in thepast tense). But you can learn and practice all that and more indetail using this course.German VerbsI decided to place German verbs after German verb conjugationbecause I thought it would flow better. For some reason peopletend to have a better understanding of all the verb types after theyhave seen the conjugation and separation of verbs.We took a look at the conjugation of verbs and how to do that inthe last lesson. For this lesson, I will be reviewing verb endingswith you. There are singular and plural endings, just to keep thingssimple, as well as irregular verbs. But we will tackle that in aminute. First, let us review the singular verb endings.Singular verbs deal with the status of one, obviously. In English,singular could mean him or her. The plural of that would be them.The same goes for German. Here are a few of the endings forverbs.For the singular verbs, the endings include, "e", "st", and "t". Forthe plural verbs, the endings include, "en", and "t" respectively.What about irregular verbs? Do they not have a place in thislanguage too? They most certainly do, and let me show you justwhat they are all about.If we can quickly go back and recap what a verb stem is, we wouldknow that it does not change. This is true for all regular verbs in

22German. The stem stays constant. The only addition is the verbending, which is placed on the ending of course! This is not truefor irregular verbs.Irregular German verbs sometimes need to have the stem changed.In fact, many of the verbs in the German are known as "stemchanging", so be prepared for the unexpected. Let's have a look ata couple examples of irregular verbs. Remember, as with anything,you will get the grasp of this with practice and only with practicewill you master the basics. You will learn German, and have fundoing so!You may be interested to know that there are 170 irregular verbs inthe German language. That may seem a little daunting, but, whatabout English? There are 283 irregular verbs in English. Whichlanguages have the least amount of irregular verbs? Well Chinesetakes the cake with this one, as it only has 1 irregular verb. Buttheir alphabet is crazy so we won't go there.German NounsWell after learning about verbs, German nouns are not thatdifficult. What is a noun again? Are they not things, places, ideas,or people? Yes they most certainly are. Examples of nouns includecomputer, desk, sun, sky, cloud, water, shoes, camera, cat, boat,and so on.German nouns can be plural, singular, masculine, feminine, orneither. This depends on the use of course and what you are usingthe noun for. Let us take a closer look at how to distinguishbetween noun type and gender.Nouns which are feminine in nature do not mean the noun isfeminine. There is a fine line here and it is important to understand.

23If the noun is masculine, it simply is referring to something ofmasculine nature. An example would be a male waiter. This is amasculine noun. A feminine noun would read a female waitress.Now obviously these are silly examples but you get the point.Choices of the noun can seem a little random and that is alright.Each culture has its own history and way of shaping theirlanguage. So sometimes you just have to roll with the facts folks.However, there are almost always exceptions to rules governingnouns.Depending on the noun's suffix, it may or may not give away thegender that it is. Nouns ending in "ik" normally are feminine.Knowing the gender will come with practice and speaking theGerman language. If you want a lot of practice with German, givethis course a try today. It has detailed games and audio with easywords to learn and follow along with.The suffix "in" is also a giveaway most of the time for a femininenoun. Again though, there are a few words ending in "in" whichare not feminine. Also please note that the use of this cansometimes be used for turning something that is masculine innature into a feminine word. The "er" ending means masculinemost of the time. Remember from previous lessons how certainwords may be feminine or masculine? Well if a noun is associatedwith that word it is probably of the same gender. Keep this in mindas you go through your learning.German ParticiplesAfter all this, we come to German participles. What is aparticiple? A participle is a word which can take on a differentform. This depends on the context of the sentence or what thesituation is all about. Let us take a closer look.24German is a fun language to learn. It has a great ring to it alongwith crisp clear words. However, there are a few obstacles whichwe will all inevitably run into along the way. What are theseobstacles? They are the obstacles of participles.German participles are words which can be used in more than oneway. They can cause problems if you do not know when to usethem. A headache in the least! Words such as halt, nur, aber, andschon are included in the troublemakers. Why so much errorthough? There is so much error because these words must be usedin different situations.Translation is a difficult aspect of some participles. I mentionedearlier in these lessons that not all words translate correctly. That istrue of some participles. The word just does not translate correctly.These words are just misfits, plain and simple.Please note that there are no present participles which are used likethe "ing" endings in English. There is no present progressive tensein German and this is the reason why. So do not use participles inthis tense. Not even the German dictionary helps with dealing withparticiples. A little ironic wouldn't you think?Did you know that a past participle can also be used as anadjective? The real difference between the usage of participles inEnglish and German is that German requires certain endings on theparticiple if it precedes a noun. Make sure you know what form ofparticiple to use though. Past participles can also be used as anadverb.A common form of endings for the present participles in German isthe "end" ending. This is somewhat similar to the "ing" ending inEnglish. These types of participles can be used as an adverb orperhaps an adjective. Again it depends on the context of thesentence. Try to remember that endings must match the grammarof the sentence. Everything is sort of "grouped" together. Present25participles are used more in writing than in speaking. Why is thisso? Perhaps tradition, or just the way the language originated.German PronounsWell you are almost completed with your journey of this freecourse. I strongly recommend that you continue your learning withthis course. I believe it is hands down the best German learningpackage available today. For many reasons I believe this is true.Just to name a few real quick here, customer support, the price(lowest out there), tools available, audio downloads, interactivegames, and more. But first, back to German pronouns.English pronouns include words such as we, they, I, and so on. TheGerman pronouns are a little similar, but with a small twist. Youknow how there are two ways of saying "you" in English? Well itis double that in German!The pronoun "ich" does not begin with a capital letter. This isdifferent from say, the letter "I" in English, which is always acapital if on its own. The pronoun "ihr" can mean the plural of"you". It can also mean "her". This is crazy is it not? No it is not,be patient, you will learn in time.Other things, such as pronouns in the third person, can take ondifferent meanings. They may be placed in for a masculine orfeminine noun. We already covered nouns though, so you shouldhave a basic understanding of how that works.First person German pronouns are referring to the speaker. Secondperson pronouns talk about the person who is being spoken too.Lastly, the third person pronouns are used to substitute for nominalphrases. Although with the substitution, it must have the samegender, and case.26The older tradition of language has sort of fallen by the wayside.The polite forms of the word you, are really no longer relevant inmost of today's society. The "sie" you form is used in a generalway, when addressing pretty much anybody except yourself.However, if you find yourself becoming lost, just use the formalway of "Sie". Most relationships are formal anyways when youfirst meet, later turning to a more casual way of saying hello. Thiswould be accomplished by using "du".German GreetingsYou may find it ironic that I chose to use German greetings as thefinal lesson in this free course. However, I think it is appropriatefor more than one reason, you now have the basic understanding ofthe language and how it is used. You also should head on over tothis course and pick yourself up a copy if you want to practice andbecome proficient in German. I cannot recommend this programhighly enough.German greetings are not that hard to master. Most of them are lessthan four words. You can memorize the words as you see fit. Youcan also use them as you see fit. These are very helpful for youfolks out there that are planning on traveling to Germany, or as thenatives call it, Deutschland.Listed below I have put up a whole bunch of common greetings.Some of these you may already know but that is alright. It neverhurts to practice something again. After all, practice makes perfect.As you memorize these phrases, please keep in your mind what wejust went over. The usage of the word "you" is very different inGerman than compared to English. Remember to use the formalgreeting and you should be ok most of the time. The usage of firstnames only in greetings is particularly common.27As with all generations now, the German culture is becoming morerelaxed about the rules. However, the rules still apply and youshould approach the learning of the language with a strictcoherence to the way it has been spoken for many generations.Their language in general, is a little more formal overall thanEnglish. This is a good thing, after all, who ever said that beingpolite was something to be ashamed about? I wish you the best inyour learning and I will see you in the members area of thiscourse.Hello - HalloGoodbye - Auf WiedersehenLater! - Spter!Have Fun - Haben Sie SpaBye - TschuessMerry Christmas - Frohe WeihnachtenHappy Easter - Frhliche OsternHow Are You? - Wie Geht Es Ihnen?I Am Fine - Ich Bin FeinHow Is The Weater? - Wie Das Wetter Ist?What Time Is It? - Welche Zeit Es Ist?Where Is The Bathroom? - Wo Das Badezimmer Ist?May I Have The Bill? - Mag Ich Die Rechnung Haben?I Would Like... - Ich Mchte...Wonderful! - Wundervoll!I Am Sorry - Ich Bin TraurigGood Luck - Viel GlueckTake Care - Mach's GutCheers - BeifallGreat - GroMay I? - Mag Ich?No Thanks - Kein Dank28Why Learn German?This is quite a good question actually. Why learn German? Wellfor starters, why would you not want to expand your personalknowledge? The world is full of idiots and the remainingintellectual few are dwindling. How many people just within yourinner circle, do you know that are able to speak a second languagefluently? Probably not very many I might imagine.The world is rapidly becoming more populated and with time,languages may become intermingled to the point where no nationhas any one major language. Look at the United States forexample. Spanish is now almost taking the cake as the most spokenlanguage in California. Who is to say that German won't one daybecome a worldwide language?The world is in need of translators and writers. The workforce is inneed and demand of people who have bilingual skills. The world isa big place and someone who knows two languages instead of onehas a major advantage in the competitive edge of the businessworld. The choice is yours for the taking.Learning German does not have to be a painful experience. Thiscourse ensures that the process is an easy fun filled experience.You are able to play the audio tracks on your own personal audioplayer if you wish. How many language products can boast aboutthat? Not very many can at all. I encourage you to continue theprocess of education and joyful learning by picking yourself up acopy of this course, and seeing exactly what German is all about.Thanks for taking this course and I wish you the best.29Success Story: James Brito"Before I got this course, I only had a basic understanding of German, and couldn't find the time to attend classes and tutorials. Now, thanks to your lessons, I can learn the language whenever Iwant, without forking over $500 for a ten-week class that I hardly have the time for! The lessons have been great. I have greatly increased my understanding of the pronunciation and vocabularynecessary to carry out conversations in German. Can't wait to go to Deutschland next year! The conversations are also really easy to listen to, and the instructions are simple and clear. I really like the Members Area, it has a colorful layout and is easy to maneuver. The extra resources I get are great, too. The MegaGerman game is really cool, and being able to read the ebookonline helps a lot-no worries if I forget to bring the paper book with me. Oh yeah, and the voices in the online lessons are very entertaining! Nik and Paul have a fun, entertaining chemistry.Danke schon, and keep up the great work!"-James BritoNEW YORK, USA