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| spud (profile) wrote, on 10-19-2005 at 4:57pm | |
| Current mood: sehr gut! Music: BnL - Some Fantastic Subject: Deutsch (with translations provided by yours truly) |
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| One of the things you will learn is that Germans aren't so good with making words up on the spot. I'm sure they do it, but not like we English speakers do. And if you're speaking German with an accent, then forget it ... they'll just assume you're an idiot. :) Of course, I probably sounded like an idiot even when I was using the right words. Ja, das Umlaut. (yeah, the umlaut) Das ist schwer. (that is difficult)Einige Beispiele sind einfach, andere sind unmöglich. (they are simple to play with, and at the same time are impossible. ä = long "a" sometimes: ärgern = air-gurn short "e" other times: hässlich = hess-lich ö = "ur" without the "r" hören = hur-enn is easy because the "r" is already there (But you need to figure out how to trill the "r" on your own. I'm terrible at that.) blöd = blurd but de-emphasize the "r" schön = schurn, again de-emphasize the "r" ü = A total mess. We just don't have that sound in English. You need to literally learn to round your lips when you say it. Try saying EEE-EWWW but with rounded lips on the EWWW (and don't say it like you're disgusted!). The EEE kinda gets your mouth going with the voice and the EWWW with the round lips gets you closer to the final sound. You really will need a true German speaker to teach you that one. I still don't do it very well. But learning this one is necessary, it can mean the difference between hot & humid, and homosexual! Honest! schwül = shvuel, kinda like "fuel" = hot & humid schwul = shvool as in "fool" = gay (I'm not trying to be politically incorrect and equate gay with fool!) Genders are something you just need to memorize. But I will say, once you get a good number of them memorized, then you'll be able to get new words right probably 80-90% of the time without looking them up. I can do that. Some are absolutes, like anything ending in -heit or -keit is always "die" and anything ending in -chen (the diminutive form or a noun) is "das". I'm sure your textbook has the rules. Others aren't absolute, but are damn good guesses. Ending in -e generally makes it "die" and the plural generally adds an "n" on the end. Of course, two extremely common exceptions are Der Name and Der Junge, although the plural still works. Hey, it's lunchtime. Gotta eat something. Viel Spaß! (have fun! Ryan (which is completely unpronounceable in German!) * wow, that really helps. a lot. seriously. Ich habe viel Arbeit. Ach. |
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tabletop | 10-21-05 12:23am The umlaut is a noble piece of punctuation.
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spud | Re:, 10-24-05 2:58pm in German it would probably be Vanta
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