Learn German in Six Days

Learn German In 6 Days! By: Zane Madison This book will greatly help your understanding of the German language. Instruction and practice is the only way you will learn. If you live in or travel in a German speaking country and want to improve your skills, this is for you. If you have an interest in German or want an A+ in your schoolwork, this is also for you. Best of luck and Auf Wiedersehen for now!

The German Alphabet The German alphabet is the most important feature to learn. The same goes for any language, if you do not know what letters make up basic words, how can you put a word together? More importantly, how is it spelled? The German alphabet is a crucial part in understanding the language. Please take a look over this chart to make sure you have grasped the concept. Many words in English that are broken down into letter form are pronounced with longer sayings in German. Once you feel you know this chart, head on over to the next lesson. If you may have noticed right from the start, this alphabet has 30 characters. Yes, that is four more than our English counterpart. I urge you to memorize this list. You will be much better off, good luck! Hint: Can you notice the similarity to English?

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Aa Ää Bb Cc Dd Ee Ff Gg Hh Ii Jj Kk Ll Mm Nn Oo Öö Pp Qq Rr Ss ß Tt Uu Üü Vv Ww Xx Yy Zz

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German Vowels The letters which represent the German vowels are the same as English. There is one exception though, and that is the addition of three extra vowels. Let us take a look shall we? There are eight vowels in German and they are, "a", "e", "i", "o", "u", "ä", "ö", "ü". Not too complicated is it now? Let us move on. German vowels have a distinct difference as compared to the English language. The vowels are separated into two main categories. Do you happen to know what those categories might be? The categories are long and short. Now what is a long and short vowel you ask? Short vowels or otherwise known as "lax", have a quick distinct sound to them. Once you understand how the classification works, it is easy to pick out a long and short vowel. Normally it is easiest to know if the vowel is short by using one simple trick. Would you like to know this simple tip? If there are a bunch of consonants following the vowel, it is most likely a short vowel. What does "a bunch" mean exactly? I mean at least two or more consonants following the vowel. Please note for a side reference that there is also a "super short" sounding vowel sound but that is not really necessary at this point. Now on the other side of this coin is the long vowel. Sometimes this is also called a "tense" vowel as well. What are the important things to know about this category? Well there are a few actually. Remember how short vowels could be pointed out because they had two or more consonants following them? Well a long vowel can be pointed out by having only a single consonant following it. Another common factor which is a dead giveaway is the doubling of vowels. Also known as pairing, this is when you see the vowel repeated twice. Examples are "aa", "ee", "oo", and so on. Also just 3

to point out as a side note, it is not unusual for a long or tense sounding vowel to have the letter "h" following the vowel. As you can see, learning the German vowels is pretty basic. In fact it's very easy. If you did not fully understand this just by reading, please go back and read it a couple of times. In no time at all you will have the grasp of the vowels and how they play an important part into the structure of this language. Are you ready to continue?

German Alphabet Pronunciation German alphabet pronunciation is in all honesty, not that hard to learn. As with anything, things take practice. This alphabet actually sounds a little similar to English in a few ways. Take your time trying to learn and proceed when ready. Each letter has its own special sound, just like English and any other language does. The German language however, does have special characters called "Umlaut". What distinguishes an "Umlaut" from a regular letter? Take a look below at the German alphabet pronunciation table and see if you can point out which letters are a little bit different. Have you found them? Ok, good, let us continue then. The "Umlaut" letters are letters with the dots above them. What do the dots mean exactly? These dots are used to create a sharper sound. This sound is done using the front part of your mouth. This may be a little harder for some of us, since the English language does not use this kind of sound technique. How do you know when to use these dots though?

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You do not have to know. The dots on these letters are sort of "just there". They are a rule and are used in conjunction with certain words. Is this confusing you a little bit? Think for example, how do we end a sentence? We end a sentence with a period mark of course. So too, do certain words automatically use the "Umlaut" letters. Aa - Ah Ää Bb - Beh Cc - Tseh Dd - Deh Ee - Eh Ff - Eff Gg - Geh Hh - Hah Ii - Ih Jj - Yott Kk - Kah Ll - El Mm - Emm Nn - Enn Oo - Oh Öö Pp - - Peh Qq - Kuh Rr - Err Ss - Ess ß Tt - Teh Uu - Uh Üü Vv - Fau Ww - Veh Xx - Iks 5

Yy - Ypsilon Zz - Tzett

Success Story: Gavin Pendergast "Hi Guys, I have been traveling around Europe for the last couple of months and have been practicing my German extensively while I have been in Germany and Switzerland. Your software has certainly helped me take leaps and bounds out of the learning process. I have found that I am ordering food and coffee with no problem at all and one of the best things is that the locals want to talk to me and find out what I am up to so I am finding a whole bunch of new experiences and great people!! The best part of the course for me has been Nik and Paul's audio tracks, especially handy with the amount of traveling I have been doing. Finding my way round the post office and ordering wine (everyone leaves me to do it!) have made me the person other travelers turn to for getting stuff! Thanks for putting together a great course that makes learning fun rather than a chore! Auf Wiedersehen" -Gavin Prendergast WASHINGTON, USA

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German Diphthongs German diphthongs are basically two vowels which are put together. It is rather simple really. Instead of pronouncing each vowel separately, you blend them together. The German language is a lot more into phonetics than our English counterpart. What does this mean? It means German really isn't that confusing. You pronounce the word as you see it. Instead of silent letters, most words are a "say what you see" deal. There are no real exceptions like English has and this is what makes learning this language fun and interesting. You are not going to be tricked. Exceptions normally come from words that have a foreign (English, French) background. Once you know how to pronounce the letters, you will be able to say words even if you have never seen them before. So learn the letters and diphthongs or rather know what they are, and how to go about saying them. In German some sounds are created by using diphthongs. We have something similar in English. Take the word “fish”, where the combination sh makes you pronounce it in a different way than each letter is pronounced. In German, “sch” is the same sound as “sh” in English, and, to keep the example, “Fisch” has the same pronunciation. Hey, you just learned another word! I’m sure you can remember this one! Although, strictly speaking, “sch” is not a diphthong, as this term only applies to the combination of vowels. But it’s the same principle. Once again, the diphthongs are a combination of two vowels. They are: • • • •

"au" (pronounced like the “ow” in “Howard”) "eu" and “äu” ( both like the “oy” in oyster”) "ei" and “ai” ( both like “eye”) “ie” (like “eeh”)

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Learning the diphthongs, alphabet, and consonants will give you a strong solid base. It will allow you to progressively and actively speak the German language without wondering what or when to use a certain letter. I am confident these lessons will make you better understand the German language. I encourage you to act now as well and take hold of this software if you really are serious about learning German.

German City Names German city names are based on many factors. Some of these factors include the origin of the German language, wars, and politics. An example of this was the name change of the East German city of Karl-Marx-Stadt. After the time when the Berlin Wall was torn down, it got its old name Chemnitz back. Common endings for towns and cities include “-stadt”, “-furt”, “-berg”, “burg”, “-hausen”, “-ingen” and “-ow”. When you travel around Germany, you will notice many cities and towns having a mixed background. This is true because of migration and the influence of other cultures. Some towns will have a Polish sounding name, or a French one. Perhaps some will even sound a little bit Ukrainian. Below I have compiled a list of all the major cities in Germany. They are sorted by alphabetical order. If you are planning to travel to Germany this would be great to know. Please take a look over this chart. I am sure you will find the city you are looking for. Also remember, that this software is a great program for people who want to travel to Germany.

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Aachen Augsburg Bergisch Gladbach Berlin Bielefeld Bochum Bonn Bottrop Braunschweig Bremen Bremerhaven Chemnitz Cottbus Darmstadt Dessau Dortmund Dresden Duisburg Düren Düsseldorf Erfurt Erlangen Essen Esslingen Flensburg Frankfurt Freiburg Fürth Gelsenkirchen Gera Göttingen Gütersloh Hagen Halle 9

Hamburg Hamm Hanau Hannover Heidelberg Heilbronn Herne Hildesheim Ingolstadt Iserlohn Jena Kaiserslautern Karlsruhe Kassel Kiel Koblenz Köln Krefeld Leipzig Leverkusen Lübeck Ludwigsburg Ludwigshafen Lünen Magdeburg Mainz Mannheim Marl Minden Moers Mönchengladbach Mülheim München Münster Neuss 10

Nürnberg Oberhausen Offenbach Oldenburg Osnabrück Paderborn Pforzheim Potsdam Ratingen Recklinghausen Regensburg Remscheid Reutlingen Rostock Saarbrücken Salzgitter Schwerin Siegen Solingen Stuttgart Trier Ulm Velbert VillingenSchwenningen Wiesbaden Wilhelmshaven Witten Wolfsburg Wuppertal Würzburg Zwickau

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German Consonants Many German consonants are pronounced similarly to our English language. There are a few differences however. At the end of a word, some consonants are pronounced sharper than usual. In those cases the letter "b" is pronounced like a "p", “g” is pronounced like “k” and "d" is pronounced like a "t". There are also a few others. Pronunciation of some grouped consonants in a little bit different as well. A couple of the "ich" and/or "ach" sounds in German may be troublesome for you. They are tricky to pronounce at first but once you understand them, it becomes second nature to you. Just remember a few simple rules. The "ch" can be pronounced in two different ways. If it follows a, o, u and au it is pronounced like in the Scottish word “loch”, otherwise it is pronounced in the front of the mouth. There is no sound like that in English. This software course is a great help to master German pronunciation. See for yourself today how it can help you! The “h” can be silent or pronounced. But the rule for that is easy: if the h follows a vowel, it’s silent (like in “leihen” (borrow), pronounced LY-EN). If it precedes a vowel, it’s pronounced (like in “Hut” (hat), pronounced HOOT) Do not try to pronounce everything as you would in English. This is the German language, not the English language. Try not to pronounce certain consonants heavily, such as the letter "r". If you keep these things in mind and follow the course, you will be speaking the language in no time at all. This may seem like a lot to take in, but it really isn't. Just try sounding off the words with the pronunciation techniques you learned in the German alphabet.

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German Vowel Pronunciation German vowel pronunciation is easier to learn than most people believe it to be. With only a couple extra vowels, it only takes a couple minutes longer to learn. We can consider the extra vowels special sounding vowels for now. This will make things easier. The vowels are, "a", "e", "i", "o", "u", "ä", "ö", and "ü". German has long vowels and short ones. Short vowels are pronounced with a short crisp clear sound. There is no blending or rubbing or the vowels. Every German vowel has its own clear pronunciation. The hardest of the vowels to learn is the "umlaut". This is because the English language does not use it. It is a sound that is not needed for us to communicate. Think of it as riding a bike, if you never have ridden a bike, it will be a little tricky to learn at first. Once you know how though, you never forget. The "umlaut" is spoken from the front of the mouth. It uses the tongue in a curling action to produce the sound needed. Try practicing this technique a little bit before diving into words. The skill will come with time so do not get disheartened.

German Adjectives German adjectives, normally go in front of the noun which they are modifying. German adjectives have an ending before a noun. This ending, which is mostly “-e” in the singular and “-en” in the plural, depends on several factors like the gender of the following noun and the case. There are four cases in the German language: nominative, genitive, dative and accusative. The different cases are used depending on the function of the sentence. You’ll get some examples for that in a minute. 13

The nominative adjective refers to the subject of a sentence. This makes it easy for us to pick out, since nouns start with a capital letter. Now don't you wish English had that? What a struggle it was to learn all of this is grammar school. You can ask yourselves “who” or “what” to find the subject of a sentence that you are looking for. The questions of are normally used in conjunction with nominative adjectives. Why is this so? Nominative cases use articles most of the time. Examples of these are “der”, "ein", "die", "eine", and so on. Take the term “der kleine Junge” (the little boy). Here the ending is “-e”. In the plural it is “die kleinen Jungen” (the little boys). See, not too difficult. To see this in action with interactivity and audio please visit this site here. As you can see, it just takes practice and a bit of learning to master the basics of German. Keep reading for the rest of our adjective lesson. Let us move on to the accusative adjectives now. The accusative case is the direct object of a sentence. Did you forget what a direct object is? It is an animal, thing, person, or something which the action of the sentence is happening about or to. Think of it as the popular thing in the sentence. What all the buzz is about. Does that make a little more sense? Accusative endings are the same as those in the nominative case most of the time. The exception to this rule is with the masculine gender. It is the loner, the only one which has a different appearance, upon changing from “-e” in the nominative to “-en” in the accusative. Accusative adjectives and articles are directly related to one another, whether it is masculine, feminine, or neutral. The accusative ending must also reflect the case of the preceding noun. Let us have a look at the dative case. Do you remember what the accusative format dealt with? It’s the object of the sentence. Dative deals with the indirect object of the sentence. This time it is not 14

about who or what the action is being performed by but rather who or what the action is being performed to. Question words are to whom or what the sentence is about. The ending of adjectives in the dative case is easy: it’s “-en” for all (male, female, neutral, singular or plural). Let's take a look at this closer. A couple of examples include, "To whom did he throw the ball?" "To whom are you speaking?" To see full lots of examples of what I am explaining in action pick yourself up a copy of this software today. Learn German the easy way, the fun way. Finally, we come to the genitive case. In German, the genitive shows the possession of something. In English you use the apostrophe-s ‘s or “of” to express this. Like in “my parent’s house”. The endings adjectives are identical to the dative case.

German Prepositions German prepositions can only be learned in one way: you have to memorize them. Sometimes in life there is no shortcut to the high road. This happens to be one of those times. Memorize the prepositions, learn them, and you will be much better off! Prepositions come in many different shapes and forms. They deal with travel, people, and gender to name a few. Learning a second language can be problematic because we already know how to speak one language. We have this idea in our heads of how a language should be conducted. We must step back away for a moment and take a look at what this is all about. Learning German prepositions is absolutely critical if you want to speak the language.

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A good example is if you are sick. What do we do when we are sick? We take something for our sickness correct? Well in German, you would take something against your sickness. See the difference here? It is little subtle things like this which make up the whole picture. English has the object of the preposition; all prepositions are in the same case. German has more and you have to know when to use each preposition. Just like in adjectives, we have the accusative and dative cases with prepositions. Certain German prepositions are ruled by the accusative case. I would suggest you become familiar with these as they are used a lot in German. We will go over the basics of the accusative prepositions now. First of all, there are two different kinds. There are ones that will always be accusative. Then there are ones that can either be dative or accusative. A couple of the main German accusative prepositions include für, gegen, and durch. In English these mean for, against, and through. A couple of the "two way" prepositions include an, auf, and zwischen. These mean at, on, to, upon, and between. As I mentioned earlier in this free course, be wary of translations between the languages though. A two way preposition can have more than one English meaning or translation. It is best if you learn the vocabulary, learn the basics of German grammar as I am teaching you, and then practice everything you have learned utilizing the ultimate this software package. Now we shall go on towards the dative case. Not too much different here either. Just like in the accusative case. Dative can either be "always dative" or "sometimes dative". The common dative prepositions include aus, außer, bei, mit, von, and zu. The meaning of these in the same order is, from, besides, near, by (or with), from, and to.

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I hope this gives you some sort of basic foundation in learning what prepositions are all about. Utilizing the tools given here will make you a better speaker. It will allow you to speak basic conversation, order from restaurants, tell the time, and ask people simple questions. The power of learning German is in your hands. Viel Glück!

German Adverbs & Directions German adverbs are used in many different ways. They have different reasons for using them and I am here to help you. Let us refresh our heads really quick and try to recall what an adverb is? Can you find that memory somewhere in your brain? When did we learn that anyways, third grade? An adverb helps the verb in the sentence. That is a really general summary of what it does. In English, adverbs normally end with ”ly”, which makes them easy to identify. Not so in German. Let us take a look at the German meanings then shall we? There are three categories of adverbs: those for time, for the manner and for the place. They tell you “when, how long”, “how” and “wo, wohin”, respectively. Here are some examples from each category: TIME: heute (today), immer (always), gestern (yesterday), manchmal (sometimes), bald (soon), früh (early) MANNER: schwierig (difficult), leise (quietly), sehr (very), ziemlich (rather), leider (unfortunately), vielleicht (maybe) PLACE: hier (here), dort (there), überall (everywhere), zu Hause (at home), in Deutschland (in Germany)

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This lesson will focus on the uses of adverbs in asking directions. Why would I choose directions? Most people, who want to learn German, use it for traveling. What do you do when you travel? You ask for directions that's what! So with no further delay, let us dive in. When you ask how to get to a certain place, keep in mind that German has many meanings. What do I mean by this? I mean that the use of the word can be something totally different in another context. If you ask "Where is my hat?", it would be completely different if you were to ask "Where is she going?". Do you see what I am getting at? The first one is asking for a location, the second one for a motion or direction. If you are going to ask something with the word "where" in the question, use these rules. The word "wohin" is used when talking about motion or direction. The word "wo" is about asking location. So if you were to ask, "Where is my hat?", you would use "wo". If you were to ask, "Where is she going?", you would use "wohin". Now that you have that under your belt, it is time to consider the consequences. That's right, how often do you think before you act? I really hope you do. You may be the world's greatest person at asking for directions in German. Yet, do you have any darn clue on what the answer will be and how to comprehend it? Perhaps, but I think if you asked the average person, you would have no idea what they said back. So to make things easy, make your question easy. It is a simple concept, easy questions equal easy answers. You should ask questions using basic German words, such as left, right, back, turn, and so on. If this does not help in any way do not start crying and freaking out. Control yourself and use the ever so known way of communication. Draw a picture! Below is a list of common adverbs, asking-directions related words and their meanings. 18

Straight ahead - Geradeaus North - Norden East - Osten South - Süden West - Westen Back - Zurück Forward - Vorwärts Left - Links Right - Rechts Going - Gehen Leaving - Verlassen Arriving - Ankommen Where is… - Wo ist… How do I get to… - Wie komme ich nach… How far is it to… - Wie weit ist es nach… Please speak slowly - Bitte sprechen Sie langsam

German Verb Conjugation German verb conjugation is a great aspect of the German language. It is not too difficult at all, and it is extremely important if you don't want to sound like a retard when speaking German! With no further delays, let us begin this lesson. Conjugating a verb is sort of like cutting a rose. Weird analogy you might think? Well let me show you why. The stem of a rose, as we all know, does not change. The rose branches may be cut, broken off, bloom with flower petals, but the stem is strong and firm. It is always constant.

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So is the stem of a verb. Conjugation in German is not hard. It requires identifying the stem of the verb and knowing what to do with it, once you find it. Let us look at an example. What are some verbs in English that we can look at first? Think of some off the top of your head. How about running, walked, looked, jumping, and tripped. What is the stem of these verbs? The stem of these verbs is run, walk, look, jump, and trip. The same principles and ideas apply to the stems of verbs in German. Locate the stem, keep it constant, and apply the change as necessary. Does that sound easy to you? It does to me. Now let us have a look at a German example. The infinitive form of regular German verbs ends with "en". And the stem is this basic form without the ending. So if we take the verb “gehen”, to go, what do you think the stem is? Right, it’s “geh”, which alone is not a word, just the stem. Now you may be wondering just how many verb endings the German language has. Well, it does have more verb endings than English. Do not get disheartened though. Some verb endings are normally repeated and there is some sort of pattern to things. Let me explain. Which endings do you have to add to the stem? That depends on the context of the verb. For regular verbs in the present tense the endings are: „-e” ich gehe (I go) „-st“ du gehst (you go) „-t” er/sie/es geht (he/she/it goes) „-en“ wir gehen (we go) „-t“ ihr geht (you go)

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„-en“ sie gehen (they go) Unfortunately there are irregular verbs as well, and like in English the endings change with the tense you use (like we add “-ed” in the past tense). But you can learn and practice all that and more in detail using this course.

German Verbs I decided to place German verbs after German verb conjugation because I thought it would flow better. For some reason people tend to have a better understanding of all the verb types after they have seen the conjugation and separation of verbs. We took a look at the conjugation of verbs and how to do that in the last lesson. For this lesson, I will be reviewing verb endings with you. There are singular and plural endings, just to keep things simple, as well as irregular verbs. But we will tackle that in a minute. First, let us review the singular verb endings. Singular verbs deal with the status of one, obviously. In English, singular could mean him or her. The plural of that would be them. The same goes for German. Here are a few of the endings for verbs. For the singular verbs, the endings include, "e", "st", and "t". For the plural verbs, the endings include, "en", and "t" respectively. What about irregular verbs? Do they not have a place in this language too? They most certainly do, and let me show you just what they are all about. If we can quickly go back and recap what a verb stem is, we would know that it does not change. This is true for all regular verbs in 21

German. The stem stays constant. The only addition is the verb ending, which is placed on the ending of course! This is not true for irregular verbs. Irregular German verbs sometimes need to have the stem changed. In fact, many of the verbs in the German are known as "stem changing", so be prepared for the unexpected. Let's have a look at a couple examples of irregular verbs. Remember, as with anything, you will get the grasp of this with practice and only with practice will you master the basics. You will learn German, and have fun doing so! You may be interested to know that there are 170 irregular verbs in the German language. That may seem a little daunting, but, what about English? There are 283 irregular verbs in English. Which languages have the least amount of irregular verbs? Well Chinese takes the cake with this one, as it only has 1 irregular verb. But their alphabet is crazy so we won't go there.

German Nouns Well after learning about verbs, German nouns are not that difficult. What is a noun again? Are they not things, places, ideas, or people? Yes they most certainly are. Examples of nouns include computer, desk, sun, sky, cloud, water, shoes, camera, cat, boat, and so on. German nouns can be plural, singular, masculine, feminine, or neither. This depends on the use of course and what you are using the noun for. Let us take a closer look at how to distinguish between noun type and gender. Nouns which are feminine in nature do not mean the noun is feminine. There is a fine line here and it is important to understand. 22

If the noun is masculine, it simply is referring to something of masculine nature. An example would be a male waiter. This is a masculine noun. A feminine noun would read a female waitress. Now obviously these are silly examples but you get the point. Choices of the noun can seem a little random and that is alright. Each culture has its own history and way of shaping their language. So sometimes you just have to roll with the facts folks. However, there are almost always exceptions to rules governing nouns. Depending on the noun's suffix, it may or may not give away the gender that it is. Nouns ending in "ik" normally are feminine. Knowing the gender will come with practice and speaking the German language. If you want a lot of practice with German, give this course a try today. It has detailed games and audio with easy words to learn and follow along with. The suffix "in" is also a giveaway most of the time for a feminine noun. Again though, there are a few words ending in "in" which are not feminine. Also please note that the use of this can sometimes be used for turning something that is masculine in nature into a feminine word. The "er" ending means masculine most of the time. Remember from previous lessons how certain words may be feminine or masculine? Well if a noun is associated with that word it is probably of the same gender. Keep this in mind as you go through your learning.

German Participles After all this, we come to German participles. What is a participle? A participle is a word which can take on a different form. This depends on the context of the sentence or what the situation is all about. Let us take a closer look. 23

German is a fun language to learn. It has a great ring to it along with crisp clear words. However, there are a few obstacles which we will all inevitably run into along the way. What are these obstacles? They are the obstacles of participles. German participles are words which can be used in more than one way. They can cause problems if you do not know when to use them. A headache in the least! Words such as halt, nur, aber, and schon are included in the troublemakers. Why so much error though? There is so much error because these words must be used in different situations. Translation is a difficult aspect of some participles. I mentioned earlier in these lessons that not all words translate correctly. That is true of some participles. The word just does not translate correctly. These words are just misfits, plain and simple. Please note that there are no present participles which are used like the "ing" endings in English. There is no present progressive tense in German and this is the reason why. So do not use participles in this tense. Not even the German dictionary helps with dealing with participles. A little ironic wouldn't you think? Did you know that a past participle can also be used as an adjective? The real difference between the usage of participles in English and German is that German requires certain endings on the participle if it precedes a noun. Make sure you know what form of participle to use though. Past participles can also be used as an adverb. A common form of endings for the present participles in German is the "end" ending. This is somewhat similar to the "ing" ending in English. These types of participles can be used as an adverb or perhaps an adjective. Again it depends on the context of the sentence. Try to remember that endings must match the grammar of the sentence. Everything is sort of "grouped" together. Present 24

participles are used more in writing than in speaking. Why is this so? Perhaps tradition, or just the way the language originated.

German Pronouns Well you are almost completed with your journey of this free course. I strongly recommend that you continue your learning with this course. I believe it is hands down the best German learning package available today. For many reasons I believe this is true. Just to name a few real quick here, customer support, the price (lowest out there), tools available, audio downloads, interactive games, and more. But first, back to German pronouns. English pronouns include words such as we, they, I, and so on. The German pronouns are a little similar, but with a small twist. You know how there are two ways of saying "you" in English? Well it is double that in German! The pronoun "ich" does not begin with a capital letter. This is different from say, the letter "I" in English, which is always a capital if on its own. The pronoun "ihr" can mean the plural of "you". It can also mean "her". This is crazy is it not? No it is not, be patient, you will learn in time. Other things, such as pronouns in the third person, can take on different meanings. They may be placed in for a masculine or feminine noun. We already covered nouns though, so you should have a basic understanding of how that works. First person German pronouns are referring to the speaker. Second person pronouns talk about the person who is being spoken too. Lastly, the third person pronouns are used to substitute for nominal phrases. Although with the substitution, it must have the same gender, and case. 25

The older tradition of language has sort of fallen by the wayside. The polite forms of the word you, are really no longer relevant in most of today's society. The "sie" you form is used in a general way, when addressing pretty much anybody except yourself. However, if you find yourself becoming lost, just use the formal way of "Sie". Most relationships are formal anyways when you first meet, later turning to a more casual way of saying hello. This would be accomplished by using "du".

German Greetings You may find it ironic that I chose to use German greetings as the final lesson in this free course. However, I think it is appropriate for more than one reason, you now have the basic understanding of the language and how it is used. You also should head on over to this course and pick yourself up a copy if you want to practice and become proficient in German. I cannot recommend this program highly enough. German greetings are not that hard to master. Most of them are less than four words. You can memorize the words as you see fit. You can also use them as you see fit. These are very helpful for you folks out there that are planning on traveling to Germany, or as the natives call it, Deutschland. Listed below I have put up a whole bunch of common greetings. Some of these you may already know but that is alright. It never hurts to practice something again. After all, practice makes perfect. As you memorize these phrases, please keep in your mind what we just went over. The usage of the word "you" is very different in German than compared to English. Remember to use the formal greeting and you should be ok most of the time. The usage of first names only in greetings is particularly common. 26

As with all generations now, the German culture is becoming more relaxed about the rules. However, the rules still apply and you should approach the learning of the language with a strict coherence to the way it has been spoken for many generations. Their language in general, is a little more formal overall than English. This is a good thing, after all, who ever said that being polite was something to be ashamed about? I wish you the best in your learning and I will see you in the members’ area of this course. Hello - Hallo Goodbye - Auf Wiedersehen Later! - Später! Have Fun - Haben Sie Spaß Bye - Tschuess Merry Christmas - Frohe Weihnachten Happy Easter - Fröhliche Ostern How Are You? - Wie Geht Es Ihnen? I Am Fine - Ich Bin Fein How Is The Weater? - Wie Das Wetter Ist? What Time Is It? - Welche Zeit Es Ist? Where Is The Bathroom? - Wo Das Badezimmer Ist? May I Have The Bill? - Mag Ich Die Rechnung Haben? I Would Like... - Ich Möchte... Wonderful! - Wundervoll! I Am Sorry - Ich Bin Traurig Good Luck - Viel Glueck Take Care - Mach's Gut Cheers - Beifall Great - Groß May I? - Mag Ich? No Thanks - Kein Dank 27

Why Learn German? This is quite a good question actually. Why learn German? Well for starters, why would you not want to expand your personal knowledge? The world is full of idiots and the remaining intellectual few are dwindling. How many people just within your inner circle, do you know that are able to speak a second language fluently? Probably not very many I might imagine. The world is rapidly becoming more populated and with time, languages may become intermingled to the point where no nation has any one major language. Look at the United States for example. Spanish is now almost taking the cake as the most spoken language in California. Who is to say that German won't one day become a worldwide language? The world is in need of translators and writers. The workforce is in need and demand of people who have bilingual skills. The world is a big place and someone who knows two languages instead of one has a major advantage in the competitive edge of the business world. The choice is yours for the taking. Learning German does not have to be a painful experience. This course ensures that the process is an easy fun filled experience. You are able to play the audio tracks on your own personal audio player if you wish. How many language products can boast about that? Not very many can at all. I encourage you to continue the process of education and joyful learning by picking yourself up a copy of this course, and seeing exactly what German is all about. Thanks for taking this course and I wish you the best.

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Success Story: James Brito "Before I got this course, I only had a basic understanding of German, and couldn't find the time to attend classes and tutorials. Now, thanks to your lessons, I can learn the language whenever I want, without forking over $500 for a ten-week class that I hardly have the time for! The lessons have been great. I have greatly increased my understanding of the pronunciation and vocabulary necessary to carry out conversations in German. Can't wait to go to Deutschland next year! The conversations are also really easy to listen to, and the instructions are simple and clear. I really like the Members Area, it has a colorful layout and is easy to maneuver. The extra resources I get are great, too. The MegaGerman game is really cool, and being able to read the ebook online helps a lot-no worries if I forget to bring the paper book with me. Oh yeah, and the voices in the online lessons are very entertaining! Nik and Paul have a fun, entertaining chemistry. Danke schon, and keep up the great work!" -James Brito NEW YORK, USA

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