158 lines
4.5 KiB
ReStructuredText
158 lines
4.5 KiB
ReStructuredText
Chapter 1: introduction
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Cognates
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--------
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A cognate is a word that is derived from the same original form such as kühl and
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cool. We'll explore some consonant relationships that exist between German and
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English to make guessing more accurate and faster but of course, always consider
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checking the dictionary for the definitive answer.
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.. list-table:: Cognates
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:header-rows: 1
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* * German
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* English
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* Examples
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* * f, ff (medial or final)
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* p
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* hoffen - to hope, scharf - sharp
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* * pf
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* p, pp
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* Apfel - apple, Pfeife - pipe
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* * b (medial or final)
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* v or f
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* geben - to give, halb - half
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* * d
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* th
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* Ding - thing
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* * ch
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* k
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* Buch - book, machen - to make, suchen - to seek
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* * cht
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* ght
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* Macht - might, Sicht - sight, Recht - right, Nacht - night
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* * g
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* y or i
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* sagen - to say, legen - to lay, Nagel - nail, fliegen - to fly
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* * k
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* c
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* kommen - to come, kritisch - critical
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* * s, ss, ß (medial or final)
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* t
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* hassen - to hate, grüßen - to greet, besser - better, Fuß - foot
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* * tz, z
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* t
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* Katze - cat
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* * t
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* d
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* trinken - to drink, kalt - cold, Tochter - daughter
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Note that sometimes it may require some flexibility with vowels to get the
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correct word e.g., hören - to hear. Try to figure out the following words: Haus,
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lassen, Sonne, Wort.
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Good? What about Pfefferminze and tanzen (try your luck with stripping -n/-en if
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you think it's a verb in its infinitive form)
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Okay let's learn proverbs. Well, first there's this thing with German where it
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is possible to "glue" multiple words to produce another word referred to as
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compounds for example Sprichwörter means proverbs! look both of them up. Now for
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the actual proverbs.
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* Blut ist dicker als Wasser. Blood is dicker(thicker) als(as)
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Wasser(ss->t).
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* Reiche Leute(people) haben fette Katzen.
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Book titles! Buchtitel, apparently used for both singular and plural.
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* Yasmina Khadra, was der Tag der Nacht schuldet (haven't read it yet by the
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way).
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Genders
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-------
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.. note::
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Find a way to ease the process of memorizing these? being able to
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quickly remember and map the endings would be very helpful.
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Complex stuff, unsure how to deal with it other than just practicing it often.
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But with what?
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It's very important to know what your subject's gender is to understand the
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context of the passage in hand. The corresponding German definite articles are
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as follows
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.. list-table:: Genders articles
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:header-rows: 1
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* * Gender
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* Article
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* * Masculine
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* der
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* * Feminine
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* die
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* * Neuter
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* das
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* * Plural
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* die
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Masculine
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^^^^^^^^^
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1. Nouns denoting male beings.
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2. Most nouns ending with -er that are agents of a specific activity e.g., der
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Computer.
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3. The days, months and seasons. Look them up!
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4. Nouns ending in -ig, -ich, -ing, -ast, -mus e.g., König (king), der
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Socialismus (Socialism).
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5. Points of compass. Norden, Süden, Oster und Westen.
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Feminine
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^^^^^^^^
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1. Nouns denoting female beings.
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2. Nouns of most trees, fruits and flowers. Look your favorites up!
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3. Nouns ending with -er, -ie, -ik, -in, -ion, -hiet, kiet, -schaft, -tät,
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-ung, -ur e.g., die Gesundheit (health), die Gesellschaft (society) und die
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Hoffung.
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Neuter
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^^^^^^
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.. note::
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Diminutive nouns usually have an umlaut if the stem vowel is a, o, u or
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au so a becomes ä...
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1. Nouns with diminutive endings -chen, -lein e.g., das Buch -> das Büchlein,
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das Männlein.
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2. Most nouns of foreign origin that end in -o e.g., das Auto.
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3. Infinitives used as a noun e.g., das Kommen.
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4. Nouns ending with -ium, -um e.g., das Vism.
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Compounds
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New words in German sometimes can be formed by combining simpler words. Some of
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these words can be particularly graphic. For example.
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* Abend (evening) + Land (country) = (occident).
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* Morgen + Land = (orient).
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* Morgen + Röte = (dawn).
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* Eier (eggs) + Auflauf(crowd) = Eierauflauf (soufflé).
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The gender of the noun is determined by *its final component*. Thus, even in a
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word as long as Unfallversicherungsgesellschaft (accident-insurance-society),
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the article will be *die* because the suffix *-schaft* is feminine. This seems
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difficult...
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* Standard German is known as Hochdeutsch, try figuring that out. Northen dialects
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are referred to as Platt which you *should* be able to guess.
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* Sie haben eine nette Dreizimmerwohung etwa 10 kilometer von der Stadtmitte.
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* Deutschland ist eine Bundesrepublic in diverse Länder oder Bundesländer
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unterteilt. Die Länder habt lokal Kontrolle uber Bildung und jeder hat sein
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Landesregierung.
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Plural
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------
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