Basics 1 · 5855a0423cfc79836a02ec61b1e6ebc4

---

Welcome!

Did you know that German and English are in the same language family? German might seem tricky, but there are also a lot of similarities. Welcome to the German course! Let’s get started!

Verbs

In English, verb forms usually don’t change (for example, I walk and we walk), but there are exceptions. For example, we say I am, but you are, and she is. In German, verbs change depending on whether the person is I, you, she, etc.

	sein​ to be​
ich​ I​	bin​ am​
du​ you​	bist​ are​
er​ he​	ist​ is​
sie​ she​	ist​ is​
es​ it​	ist​ is​

Gender

In German, all nouns are either masculine, feminine, or neuter. This is called gender, and it’s just a way to sort nouns! Often, a noun’s gender doesn’t correspond to the social idea of gender. For example, the word for girl (Mädchen) isn’t feminine, and most objects aren’t neuter.

By the way, notice that in German, all nouns are always capitalized!

In English, we say a woman and a man, but in German, words like a change depending on the noun’s gender. We’ll be learning more rules as we go along, but for now, just remember to say eine with feminine nouns, and ein for masculine and neuter nouns.

Masculine	ein Mann​ a man​ ​ ein Junge​ a boy​
Feminine	eine Frau​ a woman​
Neuter	ein Mädchen ​ a girl​ ​ ein Kind​ a child​

German Sounds

Some letters in German make a different sound than they do in English. Let’s go over a couple of them!

Wasser
Wasser, wir, willkommen​
(as in “vine”)

Junge
Junge, Julia, ja​
(as in “yes”)

ich
ich, Mädchen, sprechen
(as in "humid", but stronger)

Try saying humid or human and hold that h sound. That’s similar to the ch sound in German! The back of your tongue should be raised more, but not too far back. You should be able to feel air if you hold your hand in front of your mouth, and it kind of sounds like a cat hissing!