When you are learning new words in a foreign language it helps to have a letter to remind you, and to distinguish two similar words from each other. In German the nouns have capital letters.
Das Bier - beer - sounds the same, same first and last letters. If you need to remember that the second vowel is pronounced in German, think of the word Bier. Pronounced like bee - er.
fertig - ready (fERtig - REady)
Have - habe - ich habe - I have (three letters the same; only the letter v and b are changed)
Der Hut - the hat, same first and last letters. But the plural of hat, hats, in German is Hüte. Two little hats on the letter ü.
Das Kleid - clothing or dress (remember clad - they were clad in their glad rags)
Die Mädchen - the girls (same word as maidens and maids which have the same sound the same first two letters and the same middle letter d and the same last two letters en.
Der Rock - the skirt. (At first sight rocks have no connection with skirts. But look again at the letters. The letters R and K in Rock appear in sKiRt. Or make a memory aid: We wrapped the rocks up in skirts and carried them home.
Das Saltz - the salt - same first two letters.
Der Schuh - the shoe (add c in German after the s).
Wasser - water - starts with the same two letters (although the German w is pronounced as a V - easier to remember if you know to say 'v e r s h t' and eggs (borsht)
You can use these connections when you are teaching German to yourself or English speaking children or adults, or when teaching English to German speaking children or adults.
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, language teacher.
Das Bier - beer - sounds the same, same first and last letters. If you need to remember that the second vowel is pronounced in German, think of the word Bier. Pronounced like bee - er.
fertig - ready (fERtig - REady)
Have - habe - ich habe - I have (three letters the same; only the letter v and b are changed)
Der Hut - the hat, same first and last letters. But the plural of hat, hats, in German is Hüte. Two little hats on the letter ü.
Das Kleid - clothing or dress (remember clad - they were clad in their glad rags)
Die Mädchen - the girls (same word as maidens and maids which have the same sound the same first two letters and the same middle letter d and the same last two letters en.
Der Rock - the skirt. (At first sight rocks have no connection with skirts. But look again at the letters. The letters R and K in Rock appear in sKiRt. Or make a memory aid: We wrapped the rocks up in skirts and carried them home.
Das Saltz - the salt - same first two letters.
Der Schuh - the shoe (add c in German after the s).
Wasser - water - starts with the same two letters (although the German w is pronounced as a V - easier to remember if you know to say 'v e r s h t' and eggs (borsht)
You can use these connections when you are teaching German to yourself or English speaking children or adults, or when teaching English to German speaking children or adults.
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, language teacher.
No comments:
Post a Comment