Learn German Word of the Day – 18th May 2012

die Blume – flower

German: Wann haben Sie das letzte mal Blumen bekommen?
English: When was the last time that you were given flowers?

The verb lügen – to lie

strong verb, formed with haben

Below are the verb tables detailing how the German verb lügen is formed depending on the tense of the sentence. Knowing the different forms of lügen through the tenses will allow you to construct sentences much easier.

	Present Tense	Future Tense	Conditional Tense
ich	lüge	werde lügen	würde lügen
du	lügst	wirst lügen	würdest lügen
er/sie/es	lügt	wird lügen	würde lügen
wir	lügen	werden lügen	würden lügen
ihr	lügt	werdet lügen	würdet lügen
sie/Sie	lügen	werden lügen	würden lügen

	Perfect Tense	Imperfect Tense	Pluperfect
ich	habe gelogen	log	hatte gelogen
du	hast gelogen	logst	hattest gelogen
er/sie/es	hat gelogen	log	hatte gelogen
wir	haben gelogen	logen	hatten gelogen
ihr	habt gelogen	logt	hattet gelogen
sie/Sie	haben gelogen	logen	hatten gelogen

Imperative: lüg!/lügen wir!/lügt!/lügen Sie!

Past Participle: gelogen

Example Sentences:

Bitte lüg mich nicht an. – Please don’t lie to me.
Ihr Exmann hat immer gelogen. – Her ex husband lied to her all the time.
Ich werde morgen lügen und denen sagen, dass ich krank bin. – I’m going to tell them a lie tomorrow and say that I’m sick.

Learn German Word of the Day – 17th May 2012

das Wasser – water

German: Manche Wissenschaftler sagen, dass wir bis zu 3 Liter Wasser am Tag trinken sollen. Manche sagen nur einen Liter. Was ist nun richtig?
English: Some scientists say that we should drink 3 litres of water a day. Some others say only one litre. Which is correct?

The Weather – Das Wetter: German Video Lesson

Solutions

1. What is the wind strength in North Germany? Solution: The wind strength is 6.
2. What is the temperature at night in North Germany? Solution: The temperature is 8 degrees.
3. What will the weather be like in South Germany at night? Solution: There will be a thunderstorm.
4. What is the temperature in Spain? Solution: The temperature is 32 degrees.
5. In Vienna, is it windy with rain, or dry and sunny? Solution: The weather is dry and sunny.
6. How is the weather in Switzerland on Saturday morning? Solution: It is cloudy.
7. What is the temperature in Switzerland on Sunday? Solution: The temperature is 22 degrees.

Learn German Word of the Day – 16th May 2012

gesund – healthy

German: Deine Lebensweise ist nicht sehr gesund.
English: Your way of living is not very healthy.

Learn German Word of the Day – 15th May 2012

beautiful – schön

German: Das ist die schönste Liebesgeschichte, die ich je gehört habe.
English: This is the most beautiful love story I have ever heard.

Das Verb to help – helfen

Unten ist die Verbtabelle des Verbs “to help”. In dieser Tabelle könnt ihr sehen, wie das Verb entsprechend den unterschiedlichen Zeitformen konjugiert wird.

	Simple Present	Future Tense	Conditional Tense	Present Progressive
I	help	will help	would help	am helping
you	help	will help	would help	are helping
he/she/it	helps	will help	would help	is helping
we	help	will help	would help	are helping
you	help	will help	would help	are helping
they	help	will help	would help	are helping

	Present Perfect	Simple Past	Pluperfect	Past Progressive
I	have helped	helped	had helped	was helping
you	have helped	helped	had helped	were helping
he/she/it	has helped	helped	had helped	was helping
we	have helped	helped	had helped	were helping
you	have helped	helped	had helped	were helping
they	have helped	helped	had helped	were helping

Imperativ: help!

Past Partizip: helped

Example Sentences:

My parents helped me. – Meine Eltern haben mir geholfen.
I helped her to learn German. – Ich half ihr beim deutsch Lernen.
Eva will help her this afternoon. – Eva hilft ihr heute Nachmittag.
Will you help to cook this evening? – Wirst du heute Abend beim Kochen helfen?
I would gladly help him but I don’t have any money. – Ich würde ihm gerne helfen, doch ich habe kein Geld.

Learn German Word of the Day – 14th May 2012

der Schuh – shoe

German: Meine Schuhe sind zu klein.
English: My shoes are too small.

Learn German Word of the Day – 11th May 2012

lachen – to laugh

German: Wann habt ihr das letzte mal gelacht?
English: When have you laughed the last time?

German Masculine Nouns

Should I use der, die or das? This is one of the first questions that you will ask when learning German. The first thing you need to understand is that it is not related to the perceived gender of the noun it is attached to. Here are a couple of quick examples:

• der Rock – the skirt
• die Hose – the trousers

As you can see, traditionally a skirt is worn by women so your first instinct would be that it is a female item and therefore would use die. Also, trousers are associated more with men and therefore you would normally perceive the gender as male and use the der article. As you can see from the above two examples these are the opposite to what you would expect. Therefore it is important to get the idea out of your mind straight away that the articles der, die or das have anything to do with the noun itself, rather it is to do with the word.

As a general rule, you should learn the correct der, die or das article by heart with each noun as you learn them. That means when learning a word, learn the article too and test yourself on the noun including the article. If you get the article wrong then re-learn it until you get it right. However there are a few general rules you can learn to help you in those situations where you don’t know whether to use der, die or das.

The good news is: There are guidelines which will make it easier to choose between them. In this post we will be looking at the guidlines for der words

Guidlines for Masculine Nouns

1. People/Animals

All nouns which refer to a male person or animal are der words. Here is a list of the most common ones:

2. Male Occupations

Job titles which refer to a male person are der words. Here are some examples:

3. Days, Months, Seasons and Points of the Compass

There are some groups of words that are also mostly der words such as days, months, seasons, points of the compass. Here are some examples:

There are however few exceptions. For example: das Jahr – year, die Woche – week etc

4. Chemical Elements, Minerals and Stones

There are some groups of words that are also mostly der words such as chemical elements, minerals and stones. Here are some examples:

There are however few exceptions. For example: das Kalzium – Calcium, die Kohle – coal etc.

5. Certain Endings

Nouns that end in the following are always der nouns:

• ismus
• ner
• ich
• ling
• ig

Here are some examples:

The nouns that end in the following are also usually der nouns:

• er
• ist

Here are some examples: