German language basic http://www.languagehelpers.com/words/german/basics.html http://www.bbc.co.uk/languages/german/quickfix/basics.

shtml

Travel Deutsch Basic German for Travelers A Simple Travel Phrasebook English yes / no please/thanks You're welcome. You're welcome. (for a favor) Excuse me! Where's the restroom/toilet? left / right downstairs / upstairs ja / nein (yah/nine) bitte/danke (BIT-tuh/DAHN-kuh) Bitte. (BIT-tuh) Gern geschehen. (ghern guh-SHAY-un) Entschuldigen Sie! (ent-SHOOL-de-gen zee) Wo ist die Toilette? (vo ist dee toy-LET-uh) links / rechts (linx/rechts) unten / oben (oonten/oben) Essential German The bare minimum on ONE page! German Travel Newsletter German for Beginners Hello!/Good day! Good-bye! Good morning! Good night! My name is... I am... Do you have...? a room a rental car a bank the police Guten Tag! (GOO-ten tahk) Auf Wiedersehen! (owf VEE-der-zane) Guten Morgen! (GOO-ten morgen) Gute Nacht! (GOO-tuh nahdt) Ich heisse... (ich HYE-suh) Ich bin... (ich bin) Haben Sie...? (HAH-ben zee) ein Zimmer (eye-n TSIM-air) ein Mietwagen (eye-n MEET-vahgen) eine Bank (eye-nuh bahnk) die Polizei (dee po-lit-ZYE) Deutsch

the train station the airport

der Bahnhof (dare BAHN-hof) der Flughafen (dare FLOOG-hafen) English-German Travel Glossary German-English Menu Guide German Travel Newsletter More German Lesson Newsletters German for Beginners Our free online German course.

MORE > See the links below for more basic German lessons...

Mixing any of the above phrases-for example, "Haben Sie..." plus "ein Zimmer?" (Do you have a room?)-may work, but requires a bit more grammar knowledge than a real beginner is likely to possess. For instance, if you wanted to say, "Do you have a rental car?" you would have to add an -en to "ein" ("Haben Sie einen Mietwagen?"). But leaving it off would not prevent you from being understoodassuming you are pronouncing the basic German correctly. You won't find too many questions in our guide. Questions require answers. If you ask a question in fairly decent German, the next thing you're about to hear is a torrent of German in the answer. On the other hand, if the restroom is left, right, upstairs, or downstairs, you can usually figure that outespecially with a few hand signals. Of course, it's a good idea to go beyond the bare minimum if you can. Several important areas of vocabulary are relatively easy to learn: colors, days, months, numbers, time, food and drink, question words, and basic descriptive words (narrow, tall, small, round, etc.). All of these topics are covered in our free German for Beginners course. You'll need to set your own priorities, but don't forget to learn at least some essential German before your trip. You'll have "eine bessere Reise" (a better trip) if you do. Gute Reise! (Have a good trip!)

IMP== http://german.about.com/library/blwfreq_spk30.htm

Word Frequency in German: Speaking

Worthufigkeit - gesprochenes Deutsch The Top 30 German Words
You are here: Introduction > Reading Words 1-50 > Words 51-100 > Spoken Top 30 Top 30 Words - Spoken German Ranked by frequency of use German Speaking Vocabulary Rank 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 ich das die ist nicht ja du der und sie so Word "I" - personal pronoun See Personal Pronouns "the; that (one)" neuter - definite article or demonstrative pronoun) See Nouns and Gender "the" f. - definite article See Nouns and Gender "is" - form of "to be" (sein) See Verbs: sein "not" "yes" - See Essential German "you" familiar - See Sie und du "the" m. - definite article See Nouns and Gender "and" "she, they" "so, thus" Comment/Link

12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30

wir was noch da mal mit auch in es zu aber habe / hab' den eine schon man doch war dann

"we" - personal pronoun See Personal Pronouns "what" "still, yet" "there, here; since, because" "times; once" - particle "with" - See Dative Prepositions "also, too" "in, into" - See 2-Way Prepositions "it" - personal pronoun See Personal Pronouns "to; at; too" preposition or adverb See Dative Prepositions "but" - See Coordinating/Subordinating Conjunctions "(I) have" - Verbs: haben "the" - (form of der or dative plural) See Accusative Case and Dative Case "a, an" fem. indefinite article See Nouns and Gender "already" "one, they" Personal Pronouns "but, nevertheless, after all" particle See 'Doch' ...and Other Tricky German Words "was" - past tense of "to be" (sein) "then" See comments below. Introduction - German Word Frequency WEB > Word Frequencies (TU Wien) Also see the (unedited) Top 1000 German Words.

MORE > German Words 1-100 (reading) Comments: A few observations about the Top 30 Spoken German Words:

In this list of the top 30 spoken German words, there are no nouns, but lots of pronouns and articles. Prepositions are important in spoken (and reading) German. In the top 30 spoken words there are three prepositions (all dative or dual): mit, in, and zu. The rank for spoken words can vary greatly from that for reading vocabulary. Examples: ich (spoken 1 / reading 51), ist (4/12), da (15/75), doch (28/69). All the top 30 words are "small words." None has more than five letters; most have only two or three! Zipf's Law seems to hold true: There is an inverse relationship between the length of a word and its frequency.

http://german.about.com/library/blessent.htm ESSENTIAL GERMAN 1

Common Phrases yes - no - maybe ja - nein - vielleicht yah - nine - fee-lycht Hello! - Goodbye! Guten Tag! - Auf Wiedersehen! GOO-ten tak - owf-VEEder-zane Good morning! Guten Morgen! GOO-ten morgen ALSO SEE: Part 2 & Glossary A-Z At the Hotel Is breakfast included? Mit Frhstck? mitt FRUY-stuyck downstairs/upstairs unten/oben oonten/oh-ben ALSO SEE: German for Travelers
Ads

Getting Around train - plane - car Zug - Flugzeug - Auto tsoog - FLOOG-tsoyk - OW-toe train station - airport Bahnhof - Flughafen BAHN-hof - FLOOG-hafen left - right links - rechts linx - rechts ALSO SEE: German for Travelers Food & Drink bread/rolls Brot/Brtchen broht/brutchen beer - wine - juice Bier - Wein - Saft beer - vine - zahft ALSO SEE: Food and Dining

Download Google ChromeSearching is fast and easy with Google's web browser.www.Google.com/Chrome Dining Out waiter - waitress Ober - Kellnerin oh-ber - kellner-in Where's the restroom/toilet? Wo ist die Toilette? vo ist dee toy-LETa Shopping That's cheap/expensive. Das ist billig/teuer. dahs ist billik/toy-er department store - grocery store Kaufhaus - Lebensmittelgeschft kowf-house - -ge-sheft

ALSO SEE: Food and Dining

ALSO SEE: Money & the Euro

Sie Sie sie

You She they

2. German is 3D Language
German is 3D (3 dimensional language) which means all the objects/nouns are made up of 3 genders (masculine, feminine, neutral) unlike other languages which have only 2 genders (masculine and feminine) der das die masculine neutral feminine

Notice the underlined last letter to differentiate the gender. This is the easiest way to remember in case you confused with. German is almost same in context to english language. If somebody says das ist in german, the same an english man will say that is in english. Practically the variations with these two languages is because historically these languages originated from the same ethnic western european language. English German

Hello is that what? here I for has and language Doctor English House Music

Hallo ist das was? hier ich fr hat und Langue Doktor Englisch Haus Musik

There are so many terms, just in small differences in spellings. Tip: Notice the case sensitivity in writing Langue in german against language in english.

3. Fusion of Words in German

The admirable property in learning german is concatenating or joining different nouns into one single one. Germans exploit this in their writings. For example. die Touristeninformation das Gasthaus Tourist information Guest house (gast means guest and haus means house) New years day der Neujahrstag Neu = new Jahr = year tag = day Account opening form Konto = account das Kontoerffnungsformular erffnung = opening formular = form Word of thought: Ever wondered what Lufthansa means? You must have travelled many times with this world class german airliner. Lufthansa = Luft + Hansa Luft means air in german and Hansa means for now lets keep in mind that its a bird in german. (i really need to lookup the actual meaning for hansa. Will post later!)

Learning Country Names and Cities in German

Indien (India) sterreich (Austria) Belgien (Belgium) Frankreich (France) Deutschland (Germany) Spanien (Spain) Schweiz (Switzerland) Trkei (Turkey) Gro -brittanien (Great Britain) USA (USA) Schweiz (Switzerland) NOTE: In Switzerland, there is no such thing called swiss language. Infact German, French, Italian are official languages in Switzerland, yet German is used by more than half of people. Swiss Cities Genf = Geneva Zrich = Zurich Berne = Bern (Hauptstadt) German Cities Kln = Cologne Berlin = Berlin (Hauptstadt) Dresden = Dresden Mnchen = Munich Frankfurt = Frankfort Note: die Hauptstadt means Capital City. Warning!: Dont confuse Die Stadt with Der Staat Der Staat = state (something big) Die Stadt = city (not big enough,so feminin) Land (Country) Hauptstadt (Capital city) Capital Cities (Hauptstadt) of course! written in german

Deutschland Berlin Schweiz - Bern Frankreich Paris sterreich Wien (Vienna) Italien Rom (Rome) Polen Warschaw (Warsaw) Russland - Moskau Portugal Lissabon Belgien - Brssel Tschechische Republik (Czech Republic) - Prag (Prague)

How to complete Application/Printed Forms in German!

Filed in German Basics 0 comments How to complete or understand an application form that is written or printed in German ?? In many situations, if you frequently travel, or land in german speaking countries like Austria, German, Switzerland, Liechtenstein, you might be asked to complete a form possibly printed in german. It can be in the airport, hotel or a tourist information center. In most cases if there arent any option, you had to run for translators or you will need to go and ask for somebody to fill it up for you. Trust me! Its amazingly simple! You can easily prevent this problem, by just knowing a few set of words, that is commonly found in printed forms in german. Take a look at this example of this simple form in German.

Joining multiple German Nouns to form a Noun

Filed in German Basics 0 comments German nouns can be fused or joined with other nouns and to form a new noun. This adds simplicity to the language in terms of writing. In most occassions german words are just mere fusions of many individual nouns, which is very easy to decipher the meaning the the word. Rule: The gender of the new Noun formed as a result of fusion or join has always the gender of the last noun. see orange highlighted words. Rule: The whole noun formed as a result of join , must begin with capital letter. No capital letters are allowed in between. Also there must not be any spaces. It must be written continously. das Kontoerffnungsformular das Konto = account (noun) die Erffnung = Opening (noun) das Formular = Application Traveloffice das Reisebro Reise = Travel Bro = Office Living Room das Wohnzimmer Wohn = Living Zimmer = Room Cinema ticket die Kinokarte Kino = Cinema Karte = Ticket Foreign language die Fremdsprache Fremd = Foreign Sprache = Language

Midday newspaper die Mittagszeitung Mittag = Midday (tad =day) Zeitung = Newspaper If you know only a very few nouns and their correct gender, you can exploit this technique by forming large number of words on your own. Let us assume that you know das Zimmer (room) has neutral gender das. We will form or derive as many nouns as we can using das Zimmer as base word. das Zimmer das Wohnzimmer = living room das Schlafzimmer = sleeping room das Einzelzimmer = single room das Doppelzimmer = double room die Karte die Postkarte = Postcard die Speisekarte = Food Menu die Fahrkarte = Travel ticket die Visitenkarte = Visiting card die Kinokarte = Cinema Ticket die Ansichtskarte = Picture cards die Platzkarte = Seat reservation ticket

Learning Umlauts in German

Filed in German Basics 0 comments Most of german nouns come with two dots above the character commonly known as umlaut in german. Even names of persons or cities or verbs can contain umlauts in their names. By noticing umlauts in their names you can easily predict the persons origin is from german speaking country. For example.. Frank Mller (persons name) Zrich (city in switzerland) sterreich (Austria) fr ( for) Rule: Umlauts can ONLY be placed above vowels a, o, u. This can be in uppercase or lowercase. This also means that umlauts above i,e do not exist. Beware that German is very case sensitive language. Some of the examples are ber fr das Bro fnf das Glck Kln Zrich der Geshftsmann knnen Miroslav Klse over for office five luck Cologne (city in germany) City in Switzerland Businessman. can (verb) famous football forward for German team

If you are using english keyboard and since umlauts are special characters, you can alternatively write umlauts by adding e to the umlaut vowel. For example to write Mller, you alternatively write Mueller

 written as `ae` written as `oe` written as `ue` There are also keyboard shortcuts possible in english keyboards. Here is how you need to combine the keys. Keyboard Shortcuts to Umlauts Ae Alt+142 Oe Alt+153 Ue Alt-154 ae Alt+132 oe Alt+148 ue Alt+129 ss Alt+0223

Important German Phrases and Words used in Everyday Life

Filed in German Basics 0 comments You might be a travellor new to Germany, Austria or Switzerland where german is prolifically used. It doesnt hurt you if you learn some real simple and powerful german phrases that can be applied when you visit these countries. Very Useful German Words Guten Tag! der Geshftsmann die Strasse das Reisebro der Flughafen der Zug der Bahnhof die Unterschrift das Mineralwasser das Zimmer das Telefon das Taxi der Reisepa der Ausweis Good Day. der Tag means day. Businessman. der Mann means man. Street Reise + bro = travel + office Airport. der Flug = airplane Train Station Signature Mineral Water Room Telephone Taxi Travel Passport Identity card

Note: This symbol can be replaced and written as ss. Very Useful German Phrases I have compiled some very useful phrases in german very simple, yet powerful even for a beginner. Whenever you are new to any language, the verbs such as want, help, are very powerful. See their equivalents in german Ich bin Herr John. I am Mr. John

Ich mchte ein Mineralwasser, bitte. Guten Tag! Vielen Dank! Ich komme aus California in USA. Ich habe zwei Reisekarte. Wo ist bitte die Toilette? Was kostet das?

I want mineral water, please Good Day Many Thanks! I come from california in USA I have two travel tickets. Where is the toilet? How much it costs?

You shouldnt blink to say yes or no and it can be quite easily remembered. YES NO Ja (Pronounced Yaa in German) Nein

Hope this short tutorial is helpful for travelers wanting to learn german!

Basics of understanding German Language!

Filed in German Basics 1 comments I have admired german language a lot and have a lot of respect for Germans just because of their language. I just dont know why. Having learned many languages i have felt that German stands apart from other languages. Please keep in mind that German is not best explained by English as reference language. In my opinion as a learner, there is languages belonging to south India (especially `Tamil`) which best explains German much much better than any other language i have seen. Because of the grammatical complexity involved, both languages go hand in hand with each other. This is what i understood about German when i learnt the language for the first time. I am writing this as a complete stranger and despite coming from other side of globe. German language is

1. Case sensitive language.

German people place a lot of importance for case sensitivity in german. For example, all nouns/names or starting after fullstop must start with capital letter. Nouns or names irrespective of where they occure must have a capital starting. For example, take this personal pronoun sie written with or without case senstive format. See how its meaning changes for the same pronoun. Further, its meaning can still change whether or not it is placed at start or middle of sentence. That is why many people who find german grammar real difficult or confusing. Sie Sie sie You She they

2. German is 3D Language

German is 3D (3 dimensional language) which means all the objects/nouns are made up of 3 genders (masculine, feminine, neutral) unlike other languages which have only 2 genders (masculine and feminine) der das die masculine neutral feminine

Notice the underlined last letter to differentiate the gender. This is the easiest way to remember in case you confused with. German is almost same in context to english language. If somebody says das ist in german, the same an english man will say that is in english. Practically the variations with these two languages is because historically these languages originated from the same ethnic western european language. English German

Hello is that what? here I for

Hallo ist das was? hier ich fr

has and language Doctor English House Music

hat und Langue Doktor Englisch Haus Musik

There are so many terms, just in small differences in spellings. Tip: Notice the case sensitivity in writing Langue in german against language in english.

3. Fusion of Words in German

The admirable property in learning german is concatenating or joining different nouns into one single one. Germans exploit this in their writings. For example. die Touristeninformation das Gasthaus Tourist information Guest house (gast means guest and haus means house) New years day der Neujahrstag Neu = new Jahr = year tag = day Account opening form

das Kontoerffnungsformular

Konto = account erffnung = opening formular = form Word of thought: Ever wondered what Lufthansa means? You must have travelled many times with this world class german airliner. Lufthansa = Luft + Hansa Luft means air in german and Hansa means for now lets keep in mind that its a bird in german. (i really need to lookup the actual meaning for hansa. Will post later!)

Be careful in using `sein` verb in past and present

Filed in German Grammar 1 comments When you are learning german grammar, be careful with the past and present of the infamous `be` verb in german sein sein (present) ich du er/es/sie Wir ihr Sie bin bist ist sind seid sind sein(past) war warst war waren wart waren

Let us see the following sentences which often mislead those who are beginners in german. The answers to these sentences really depends on a clue which will say whether the sentence context is present or past. Depending on that you have to use the sein verb. Wo _____ du gestern? Wo _____ du heute? Ich _____ in Berlin. _____ Sie schon mal in Berlin? Ja, ich ___ schon mal in Berlin.

Before you look at their true meanings below, First! Guess what possible meanings of each german word could be before you reach for meanings below Ihr Name / Nachname Last name

Der Vorname Herr Frau Die Anmeldung Das Formular Bitte in Blockschrift ausfllen! Bitte = Please Blockschrift = Block + letters (caps) ausfllen = fillup / complete Das Geburtsdatum Die Nationaitt Der Auslander / Die Auslanderin Ja / Nein Die Strae or Die Strasse Postfach Der Ort PLZ (Die Postleitzahl) Der Stadt Das Land Der Beruf Der Arbeitgeber Datum Die Unterschrift

Firstname Mr. Ms. Registration Application form

Birth date Nationality Foreigner (he/she) Yes / No Street PO Box Place Zip State Country Profession/ work Employer Date Signature

Feminine Nouns in German

Filed in German Grammar , Miscellaneous 0 comments

All feminine nouns in german begin with die. Most feminine nouns in german would only be easy for you to learn if you learn the gender along wit h the noun, if not it would be really difficult. For example. die Karte learn as a whole. die Zeit die Zeitung die Unterschrift die Strae die Altstadt die Bestellung die Rechnung die Autobahn die Bank die Uhr die Musik die Sprache Tips to Isolate Feminine Nouns There are some tips available to remember feminine gender which is described below 1. Persons or Relationships Persons or the relationships that are females, are indeed feminine in nature. Sometimes the gender is given depending on work or profession of female people. (for example female doctor) die Mutter die Tochter die Schwester die Freundin die Kundenberaterin 2. -e endings In german, most people had succeeded in isolating most nouns end with -e are feminine. There are indeed exceptions and yet some can be plural as well. Plural nouns start with die as well. -e endings Mother Daughter Sister Girl Friend Customer Service (female) Time Newspaper Signature Street Old Town Order Invoice / Bill Road for Motor cars Bank Clock Musik Language

Most feminine nouns are famous for -e endings. Not all -e ending nouns are of feminine in gender, but most. die Kirche = Church die Karte = Ticket or card die Speise = Food die Reise = Travel die Leute = People die Strasse = Street die Adresse = Address die Farbe = Colour die Kche = Kitchen die Seite = Page die Stunde = Hour die Maschine = Machine 3. -ion endings Most nouns that has -ion endings generally fall into feminine gender. However this applies for most not all. - ion endingsdie Information = Information die Inflation = Inflation die Organisation = Organisation 4. -ung endings Most german nouns that end in -ung also most probably should fall into category of feminine gender. - ung endingsdie Bestellung = Order die Rechnung = Invoice or Bill die Zeitung = Newspaper die Kreuzung = Crossroad die Wohnung = Living die Bedienung = Service die Erffnung = Opening 5. -ur endings Nouns ending in -ur (not all) fall into feminine gender - ur endingsdie Natur = Nature die Kultur = Culture

6. -ik / -ek endings -ik ending nouns are also considered to fall into feminine gender. Most nouns fall into this trick but not all. - ik / -ek endingsdie Musik = Music die Bibliothek = Library die Discothek = Discotheque. die Bundesrepublik = Democratic Republic 7. -tt endings German nouns that end in -tt most probably will be of feminine gender. - tt endingsdie Nationalitt = Nationality die Qualitt = Quality 8. -keit or -heit endings Look for -keit / -heit endings on any noun. This should be of feminine gender. - keit endingsdie Mglichkeit = Possibility die Fahigkeit = Capability die Notwendigkeit = Necessity die Gesundheit = Health