Finished working through that checklist and made less than three mistakes? Yes? Wonderful!
As that’s the case, what I now want you to do now is to repeat exactly the same process again below, except that this time you’ll be reading through the English and trying to recall the German. So, it will be the other way around. So, just relax and work your way up and down the list until you can give the correct German translation for each of the English words / expressions again without making more than three mistakes in total. It’s not a competition – and I’m not asking you to memorise them. No! Just look at the English words (on the left-hand side) while you cover up the red German words on the right-hand side and see if you can remember how to say them in German.You’ll be surprised by how much you get right, even on the first try!
Okay, off you go!
| I can | Ich kann (ikh kan) |
| not | nicht (nikht) |
| begin / to begin | beginnen (baig-in-urn) |
| I cannot begin. | Ich kann nicht beginnen. (ikh kan nikht baig-in-urn) |
| park / to park | parken (park-urn) |
| bring / to bring | bringen (bring-urn) |
| camp / to camp | campen (camp-urn) |
| she can | sie kann (zee kan) |
| come / to come | kommen (kom-urn) |
| She can come. | Sie kann kommen. (zee kan kom-urn) |
| She cannot come. | Sie kann nicht kommen. (zee kan nikht kom-urn) |
| but | aber (ah-ber) |
| 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) |
| today | heute (hoy-ter) |
| She can come today. | Sie kann heute kommen. (zee kan hoy-ter kom-urn) |
| here | hier (hear) |
| I can camp here. | Ich kann hier campen. (ikh kan hear camp-urn) |
| you can | du kannst (doo kanst) |
| You can park here. | Du kannst hier parken. (doo kanst hear park-urn) |
| Can you? | Kannst du? (kanst doo) |
| tonight | heute Nacht (hoy-ter nahkht) |
| come over / to come over / to come by | vorbeikommen (for-by-kom-urn) |
| Can you come over tonight? | Kannst du heute Nacht vorbeikommen? (kanst doo hoy-ter nahkht for-by-kom-urn) |
| Can I? | Kann ich? (kan ikh) |
| this morning | heute Morgen (hoy-ter mor-gurn) |
| Can I come over this morning? | Kann ich heute Morgen vorbeikommen? (kan ikh hoy-ter mor-gurn for-by-kom-urn) |
| Can we? | Können wir? (kurn-urn veer) |
| this afternoon | heute Nachmittag (hoy-ter nahkh-mit-arg) |
| go / to go | gehen (gay-urn) |
| Can we go this afternoon? | Können wir heute Nachmittag gehen? (kurn-urn veer hoy-ter nahkh-mit-arg gay-urn) |
| work / to work | arbeiten (ar-bite-urn) |
| Can we work this afternoon? | Können wir heute Nachmittag arbeiten? (kurn-urn veer hoy-ter nahkh-mit-arg ar-bite-urn) |
Well, that’s it, you’re done with Chapter 1! Now, don’t try to hold on to or remember anything you’ve learnt here. Everything you learn in earlier chapters will be brought up again and reinforced in later chapters. You don’t need to do anything extra or make any effort to memorise anything. The book has been organised so that it does that for you. Now, off you go and have a rest. You’ve earned it!
Between Chapters Tip!
Between chapters, I’m going to be giving you various tips on language learning. These will range from useful tips about the German language itself to advice on how to fit learning a language in with your daily routine. Ready for the first one? Here it is!
Tip Number One – study (at least a little) every day.
Learning a language is like building a fire – if you don’t tend to it, it will go out. So, once you have decided to learn a foreign language, you really should study it every day.
It doesn’t have to be for a long time though. Just five or ten minutes each day will be enough, so long as you keep it up. Doing these five or ten minutes will stop you forgetting what you’ve already learnt and, over time, will let you put more meat on the bones of what you’re learning.
As for what counts towards those five or ten minutes, well, that’s up to you. Whilst you’re working with this book, I would recommend that your five or ten minutes should be spent here, learning with me. Once you’re done here, however, your five or ten minutes could be spent reading a German newspaper, watching a German film, or chatting with a German-speaking acquaintance. You could even attend a class if you want to learn in a more formal setting. The important thing though is to make sure that you do a little every day!
I wouldn’t like to do it now because I’m very busy.
I wouldn’t like to do it now because I’m very busy.
The first chapter has shown you that you can learn how to create full sentences in German with relative ease, even though the word order can be different than in English. It also began to show you how you can change English words into German words, for instance by adding “en” onto the ends of words such as “bring” and “begin”.
This is a great way to acquire new vocabulary which, in effect, costs you nothing.
I’m now going to show you an additional way to change English words into German ones in our first letter swap…
Time to swap some letters!
Letter Swap Number 1
Around half of the words in modern English have come into our language via Germanic languages. Using a few simple tricks, you can begin to use these words in German, which will provide you with a large, instant, usable vocabulary. And after all, why bother learning German vocabulary when you can simply invent it!
The first trick we are going to use to start inventing words is to swap the letter “d” in English words for a “t” in German.
So, for instance, if we swap the “d” in the English word “hard” for a “t” we will get the German word for “hard” – which is “hart”. If we try this again with the English word “under”