The ultimate guide to learning German vocabulary
German, Deutsch is an official language of both Germany and Austria and one of the official languages of Switzerland. German belongs to the West Germanic group of the Indo-European language family, along with English, Frisian, and Dutch (Netherlandic, Flemish). The recorded history of Germanic languages begins with their speakers’ first contact with the Romans, in the 1st century BCE. At that time and for several centuries thereafter, there was only a single “Germanic” language, with little more than minor dialect differences. Only after about the 6th century CE can one speak of a “German” (i.e., High German) language. German is the native language of more than 100 million speakers, spoken by a total of over 130 million people. German is ranked among the languages with the most native speakers worldwide. German is widely studied as a foreign language and is one of the main cultural languages of the Western world.
The most important aspect of learning a language is its vocabulary. To learn a language and use it in a conversational setting, you must expand your vocabulary. The more words you know, the better you will be able to speak and understand the language. Naturally, this is true for German as well as any other language. The German vocabulary is no more difficult than the vocabulary of French, Spanish, or even Italian. In fact, you might be surprised at how much German and English have in common. There are more German words that sound very similar to their English translations than you might think. The more words you learn, the faster you will be able to understand conversations, and vice versa.
Vocabulary is a topic that finds introduction much after you have learnt consonants, vowels and grammar rules.
In order to be able to learn the vocabulary of any language there are a few common steps that each beginner could follow; let’s now have a quick look at these:
- Apply LSRW (Listen, Speak, Read, Write) technique to every study material you get hold of!
- Try to capture as many new words as possible that are commonly used in day to day conversations.Learn the correct usage of a word. Understand the technicalities/grammar rules which direct how a particular word is to be used in different situations/ context, differently
- Find reliable resources that can help you learn online or offline. Try SRS (flashcards) apps such as Anki and Memrise. Use the internet to its fullest capability. Use Mnemonics.
- Learn via an immersive technique. Label objects in your home with their respective names in the target language. Whenever you are comfortable, change the language of your devices to be able to see it every day and get pushed to learn as a way to understand
- Read a lot of literature, including children’s books
- Watch online movies, videos, YouTube videos, documentaries, talk shows, and soap operas to capture the accent and the way the words are pronounced. Use shadowing technique to assist you in speech and accent. Speak a lot with your pet, a plant or yourself in the mirror.
- Shadow the dialogues you hear to the closest accent, no matter how weird or funny it sounds. Even if you are able to effectively copy only 10% of the pronunciations and accents you hear in the audio clips for videos to begin with, believe me when I say it’s a victory in itself!
- Listen to as many reliable resources as you can find, German music, audiobooks, audio resources, stories that you can find, to register the correct pronunciation of the word being used and of course recognize which word is being used in which context and to garner commonly spoken words in day to day life.
- Set attainable short and long term measurable goals to learn new words consciously is the best strategy you could start with!
- Setting attainable goals is also an excellent way to keep yourself motivated while learning a new language.
- Set goals that you truly want to achieve. Be realistic. Do not be overzealous or overambitious and bring yourself to the misery of burnout.
- Study diligently. Dedicate at least 2 hours of learning and 2 hours of practising the German language.
- Use the Pomodoro technique to divide the study into smaller achievable chunks.
- If you’re not sure what to do, I suggest following the below-mentioned recommendations:
- Do not be over-ambitious and try learning complex words until you have a good hang of the language; for a very simple reason. Most of the conversations that are held each day by German speakers do not use such complicated words. Instead of day to day conversation utilizes the most simplistic of the words such as milk, dog, pen, paper, phone, etcetera.
- Keep a journal or a diary handy with you, at all times, so as to be able to capture all and any new word(s) or phrases that you come across from online audio or video source that you may be listening or watching while on your way to work or back from work.
- Another very helpful way for you to gather really good vocabulary for yourself, to be able to hold your first conversation with the German speaker, would be to consciously look for phrases to add in your vocabulary rather than only the words. Look for relevant phrases that contain the word you learnt. So when you get familiar with the word ‘good’ or ‘morning’, I suggest you add phrases such as Good morning, Good morning to you, Isn’t it such a good morning? or What a good morning it is! in your vocabulary bank. It may also be useful to learn related words in clusters such as the word’s synonyms and or antonyms.
- I also strongly recommend learners of German to keep an English German Dictionary handy to refer to whenever needed.
- It might also be worth a try to break the words into parts that help you memorize the word when you remove the prefix or suffix from it. With this effort, you would also be able to remember its prefix and suffix and the context in which they were used with the word. Breaking a word also helps a learner understand the conjugations used behind the word.
- One could also use Mnemonics to remember the pronunciation of the German word until the time a learner Learns to write in the German language. A similar effect in learning is seen when learners use flashcards to eat to their learning such cards would be colour coded for nouns, verbs, adjectives for antonyms and synonyms or anything as they please.
- Reading magazines, newspapers and children’s books in German would further enhance your vocabulary, as it introduces you to new words each day. I would also like to add that when you start to learn these words, do try to register and jot down the context in which the particular word was used. This will enable a learner to register the correct usage of the word and remember it henceforth.
- I suggest that as a German learner you actively look to gather new words each day from multiple sources.
- You could also improve your vocabulary by playing online word building games for offline games such as scrabble et cetera.
- Try taking casual vocabulary tests to test your vocabulary knowledge and how much you retain of your vocab lists;
- Find yourself a native German speaker to be able to practice speaking German with you could find one in and around your neighbourhood, if not, there are plenty of websites offering you conversation partners such as Hello Talk, Italki, Tandem etcetera.
- You could use your own methods to remember the German words and phrases, in ‘pairs or opposites’ or ‘clusters of the similars’ or if you are a visual learner you could use pictures to remember.
- Last but the most important suggestion: NEVER miss practising, practise whatever you have learnt regularly. Get into the rhythm of practice, correct, repeat! Remember there is no escape from practice and this is the only way you will be able to learn German or any other language of your choice
Finally,
German is believed to have originated from Proto-Germanic, which began to develop around 2000 B.C., as people began to settle in western areas of the Baltic Sea. The first-ever record of the German language dates back to a time when the Romans came into contact with inhabitants of the Rhine-Danube area during their occupation in the first century BC. Since then German has gone through many changes, from Old High German (from about 700 AD to the eleventh century); Middle High German (from about 1050 to 1350); Early New High German (1350 to 1600) to New High German (from about 1600 to the present). Modern-day German often referred to as “High German”, or Hochdeutsch, used as the language of administration, higher education, literature, and the mass media, is likely to be unrecognisable from the language that the Romans first observed.
If you are willing to learn the German language, you can rely on Multibhashi without any doubt. It is an online platform that provides a lot of courses including the German language learning course.