Play
"The Name Game"
Discover the German you already know
One
of the essential elements of the Accelerated Learning foreign
language system is the "Name Game" which quickly
shows you that you already know many more words of German
than you thought you knew.
It
challenges you to work out for yourself (with a little help)
the many ways in which German and English are similar: they
both have common roots.
Understanding the similarities is a tremendous motivator
because you come to realize that there are thousands of
German words you can immediately identify through just a
few simple principles.
For
example, if you spoke no German whatsoever you would still
almost certainly be able to translate the following sentence:
Das
Baby ist in dem Kindergarten and hat den Ball in der Hand
as
The baby is in the kindergarten and has the ball in the
hand.
And,
you've actually just learned something else! Notice the
difference between the German and English sentences? German
nouns always start with a capital letter. So the English
may be "the hand" but the German is "die
Hand."
Many
German words are exactly the same––or very similar.
Look
at these:
|
der
Arm
dir Finger
der Winter
warm
wild
mild
bringen
finden
|
|
the
arm
the finger
the winter
warm
wild
mild
to bring
to find |
By
gradually working through plenty of examples you are not
only learning a lot of vocabulary very quickly, but you
are also building up a mental picture of how German is constructed.
Let's
show you part of Name Game #7
|
|
|
Principle
ss
in German (and sometines s) can often be
rendered "t" in English (but only when
it comes at the end of a syllable or word).
|
More
Examples:
|
das
Wasser
Ich muss
der Fuss
der Fussbal
weiss
was ist
aus
ausser
|
|
the
water
I must
the foot
the football
white
what is?
out
outer (or really outside, except, apart from) |
One
last example from Name Game #9.
|
|
|
Principle
d
in German is often "th" in English when
it comes at the start of a word.
|
More
Examples:
|
das
Ding
eine Distel
ein Dortn
da
danken
drei
dann
der Durst
der Donner
|
|
the
thing
a thistle
a thorn
there
to thank
three
then
the thirst
the thunder |
You're
on your way to learning German!
