Objekte üben

Review the vocabulary that you learned in class (Objekte) and then complete the following quiz to test your learning. Remember that you can repeat the activities that you completed in class to help you memorize the vocabulary.

der Beamer, ein Beamer, zwei Beamer
das Buch, ein Buch, zwei Bücher
der Computer, ein Computer, zwei Computer
das Fenster, ein Fenster, zwei Fenster
das Heft, ein Heft, zwei Hefte
der Stift, ein Stift, zwei Stifte
der Stuhl, ein Stuhl, zwei Stühle
die Tafel, eine Tafel, zwei Tafeln
der Tisch, ein Tisch, zwei Tische
die Tür, eine Tür, zwei Türen
die Uhr, eine Uhr, zwei Uhren

 

Objekte zählen

• Finden Sie Objekte zu Hause und zählen Sie sie! Schreiben Sie 3 Sätze mit Zahlen.

Beispiel: Ich habe zu Hause 14 Bücher.

• Look up the German word for at least 5 objects that you have at home. Write the words down along with their plural forms. Now write 5 additional sentences with these objects, following the pattern above.

 

zählen / die Zahlen

• Memorize the numbers 1-20.
• Practice saying your phone number in German (as individual numbers).

Beispiel: 6 – 5 – 1 – 2- 7 – 2 – 9

• Write your phone number down on a slip of paper to bring to class. As a warm-up activity, your teacher will collect all the slips of paper and hand them out to someone else. Walk around the room and find the person who has your phone number—without looking at the slip of paper. Each student will read the number on their slip of paper to try to find the match.

 

Arbeit mit dem Wortschatz

 

Definite and Indefinite Articles

As you read in the main lesson, in German, unlike English but like many other languages, each noun has what linguists call a gender. It might be helpful to think about these as noun classes: some nouns take die or eine in front of them, some nouns take der or ein, and some nouns take das or ein depending upon the gender or class of the noun. In other words, the definite article (‘the”) and the indefinite article (“a”) for the noun has to match the gender or class of that specific noun. Thus we have many ways of saying “the” (die/der/das) and “a” (ein/eine) in German.

die, eine = feminine or e-word, die Tür
der, ein = masculine or r-word, der Tisch
das, ein = neuter or s-word, das Buch
die = plural, die Bücher, die Türen, die Tische

	die (Pl)	die (Fem)	das (Neut)	der (Mask)
Nominativ	die –	die eine	das ein	der ein

 

Because each noun has a specific class, you need to learn the class when you learn a noun. Yes, this will be a challenge, but learning the classes now will help you in the long run. Here are a few suggestions:

• when you learn a noun, say the noun plus the definite article (die/der/das) out loud at least five times.
• when you write down nouns into a vocabulary list, use different colors to indicate different classes (e.g., use red for masculine, blue for feminine, etc).
• write the nouns you are trying to learn on post-its and hang them in locations you see often. Try using different walls or different spaces to group the nouns by class.
• if you make flash cards, use the space on the card differently for different classes. Write the die words in the upper left, the der nouns in the center, and the das nouns in the lower right, for example. Also use different colors for each different class.

 

However, you should know that the genders or classes of nouns are not random! You should be able to figure out the class of around 80% of nouns by knowing these rules about the words themselves and the meaning of the words.

Noun Class	Noun endings	Other linguistic indications	Meanings
die	-a, -anz, -ei, -enz, -heit, -ie, -ik, -in, -keit, -schaft, -sion, -tät, -tion, -ung, -ur	*Nouns ending it -t and that come from verbs; *Most nouns ending in -e	*Female animals and humans; *Planes, ships, and motorbikes; *Names of numerals
das	-chen, -lein, -ma, -ment, -sel, -tel, -tum, -um	*Most nouns starting with Ge-; *Many nouns ending with -nis and -sal; *Most nouns with the endings -al, -an, -al, -är, -at, -ent, -ett, -ier, -iv, -o, -on	*Young humans and animals; *Letters; *Citys, towns, countries, provinces, continents; *Different parts of speech used as nouns (like infinitives of verbs, also colors); *Metals and chemical elements; *Scientific units; *Names of companies with no article
der	-ant, -ast, -ich, -ig, -ismus, -ling, -or, -us	*Most nouns with only one syllable; *Most nouns ending in -le, -er, -en; *Most nouns that come from a strong verb with a vowel change	*Male animals and humans; *Seasons, months, days of the week; *Mountains and mountain ranges; *Rivers outside of Germany; *Rocks and minerals; *Compass points and words about weather and wind; *Names of currencies; *Car brands

 

die, der oder das?

 

eine oder ein?

 

The Verb haben

Review the basic forms of the verb. Then complete the following quiz to test your learning.

ich habe
du hast
es/er/sie hat
Sie haben

 

Plural forms of nouns

In English, we usually create the plural form of a noun by adding -s to the end of the word. But in German, each word constructs the plural in different ways. Here are a few examples:

eine Uhr, zwei Uhren
ein Stuhl, zwei Stühle
ein Heft, zwei Hefte
ein Fenster, zwei Fenster

How do you know what the plural form of a word is? You got it—you need to memorize it or look it up in a dictionary. Again, learning the plural forms of nouns as you learn the base form will help you in the long run. Practice that while you learn the vocabulary words in the list below.

 

A note about plural forms

Now that you’ve learned about how to form the plural for nouns, you will notice that the plural form is included in the list of vocabulary in each of these sections. Nouns are followed by a comma and then the plural form. If there is an umlaut over a vowel in the word, that umlaut will be included as well as any ending that the plural form may take. Look at the following examples so that you understand how the plural form will be indicated in the coming lessons.

der Beamer, –  >>  plural form die Beamer
das Buch, -¨er  >>  plural form die Bücher
der Stift, -e  >>  plural form die Stifte
die Zahl, -en  >>  plural form die Zahlen

Nouns

der Beamer, –
das Buch, -¨er
der Computer, –
das Fenster, –
das Heft, -e
der Stift, -e
der Stuhl, -¨e
die Tafel, -n
der Tisch, -e
die Tür, -en
die Uhr, -en
die Zahl, -en

Verbs

zählen

Other useful words and phrases

Wie viele…?
die Zahlen 1-20 [the numbers from one to twenty–learn and practice them!]