Unlocking German with Paul Noble: Your key to language success with the bestselling language coach. Paul Noble

are just a bit different, with the German word being pronounced as a “kom” rather than a “kum” sound.

      Now again, what is “she can”?

      sie kann

      (zee kan)

      So how would you say “she can come”?

      Sie kann kommen.

      (zee kan kom-urn)

      And how would you say “she can’t come”?

      Sie kann nicht kommen.

      (zee kan nikht kom-urn)

      Now again, what is “I can not”?

      ich kann nicht

      (ikh kan nikht)

      So how would you say “I cannot come” / “I can’t come”?

      Ich kann nicht kommen.

      (ikh kan nikht kom-urn)

      And what is “she can”?

      sie kann

      (zee kan)

      And how would you say “she can camp”?

      Sie kann campen.

      (zee kan camp-urn)

      The word for “but” in German is:

      aber

       (ah-ber)

      So how would you say “she can camp but…”

      Sie kann campen aber…

      (zee kan camp-urn ah-ber)

      And now try “she can camp but I can’t come”.

      Sie kann campen aber ich kann nicht kommen.

      (zee kan camp-urn ah-ber ikh kan nikht kom-urn)

      And how about “I can camp but she can’t come”?

      Ich kann campen aber sie kann nicht kommen.

      (ikh kan camp-urn ah-ber zee kan nikht kom-urn)

      “Today” in German is:

      heute

      (hoy-ter)

      And again, what is “she can come”?

      Sie kann kommen.

      (zee kan kom-urn)

      Now, if you want to say “she can come today” in German, you will say:

      Sie kann heute kommen.

      (zee kan hoy-ter kom-urn)

      So, literally, this is “she can today come”.

      Now again, how would you say “she can camp”?

      Sie kann campen.

      (zee kan camp-urn)

      And so how do you think you would say “she can camp today”?

      Sie kann heute campen.

      (zee kan hoy-ter camp-urn)

      So, once again, notice the word order: “she can today camp”.

      What is “I can” in German?

      ich kann

       (ikh kan)

      And “I can camp”?

      Ich kann campen.

      (ikh kan camp-urn)

      And so how would you say “I can camp today”?

      Ich kann heute campen.

      (ikh kan hoy-ter camp-urn)

      And how about “I can come today”?

      Ich kann heute kommen.

      (ikh kan hoy-ter kom-urn)

      So the word order is a little different than it is in English. In German, the thing that you can do – whether it’s to camp, to come, or whatever – likes to go at the end.

      Let’s try some more examples to make this even clearer.

      “Here” in German is:

      hier

       (hear)

      Now again, how would you say “I can camp”?

      Ich kann campen.

      (ikh kan camp-urn)

      So, how do you think you would say “I can camp here”?

      Ich kann hier campen.

      (ikh kan hear camp-urn)

      So, literally, this is “I can here camp”. Therefore once again the thing you’re going to be doing (camping in this case) goes at the end.

      Now, what is “park” / “to park” in German?

      parken

      (park-urn)

      So how would you say “I can park”?

      Ich kann parken.

      (ikh kan park-urn)

      What about “I can park here”?

      Ich kann hier parken.

      (ikh kan hear park-urn)

      “You can” in German is:

      du kannst²

      (doo kanst)

      So how would you say “you can park here”?

      Du kannst hier parken.

      (doo kanst hear park-urn)

      How about “you can camp here”?

      Du kannst hier campen.

      (doo kanst hear kamp-urn)

      And what about “you can camp today”?

      Du kannst heute campen.

      (doo kanst hoy-ter kamp-urn)

      “Tonight” in German is literally “today night”, which is:

      heute Nacht

      (hoy-ter nahkht)

      So how would you say “you can camp tonight”?

      Du kannst heute Nacht campen.

       (doo kanst hoy-ter nahkht kamp-urn)

      So we now know that “you can” is “du kannst”. If we want to turn this into a question, we simply reverse the word order just like we do in English, turning “you can” into “can you”. Do that now and say “can you?”

      Kannst du?

      (kanst doo)

      So how would you say “can you camp?”

      Kannst du campen?

      (kanst doo kamp-urn)

      How about “can you camp tonight?”

      Kannst du heute Nacht campen?

      (kanst doo hoy-ter nahkht kamp-urn)

      What