Learning 'der die das' all wrong?? | German with Laura

(👆 UPDATED VERSION of 'English Grammar for German Learners')

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This mini-course explains WHY learning the difference between der die and das is so important.

In this ‘German for beginners’ video, you’ll discover the FIRST STEP in leveraging your advantage as an adult learner of German. Not only do you need to START WITH GRAMMAR, but you need to start with NOUN GENDER (der die das) specifically.

But, there are smarter vs. harder ways to learn German noun gender!

In this video we’ll talk about the power of working with NOUN ENDINGS and NOUN GROUPS to help you learn thousands of German nouns in a fraction of the time (and with much less aggravation, too).

Despite what you might think from working with Duolingo and the like, the ‘der die das’ coming in front of German nouns is NOT random!

There are principles & patterns that govern the assigned gender of most German nouns. There are about 70 distinct noun endings and groups that, if memorized, will give you major mileage toward learning thousands of German nouns!

And you MUST know the gender of any noun in order to actually USE it in a sentence. In fact, German noun gender is one of THREE grammar components that impact the DECLENSIONS we use as part of the German CASE SYSTEM (more on this coming up in this series!).

But, in brief:
1. German noun gender MATTERS a great deal.
2. Trying to memorize a RANDOM ‘der die das’ in front of thousands of nouns is a TERRIBLE idea that will ultimately FAIL.
3. Working with the PRINCIPLES & PATTERNS of noun groups & endings is the smarter, not harder way!

[pradeepsyamala]

Laura, You are the best German grammer teacher in YouTube. Can't tell you enough how much helpful they are. I hope you continue doing them.

[advocatrix]

I have taken German classes (in Germany!) up to B2.2 and have never been taught this information. Very helpful -- danke sehr!

[anyatigeorge]

Your approach to teaching is simple and precise that everyone learning will easily grasp the meaning of what you're talking about. Keep on teaching the world. I'm very grateful for all your lessons. Congratulations....

[pmberkan]

Thank you! You will be best german language teacher in the you tube.

Best regards🙏🏽

[fraktal]

Your English is crystal clear so i am able to watch you at 1.75-2.00 speed without losing any meaing. thanks for that.

[fayette]

There are also strong tendencies for german nouns in the basic form:
First step is to discriminate between words of one and words of two syllables.

The bi-syllabic nouns consist of one long(pronounced) and one short(unpronounced) syllable. The second (short and unpronounced) syllable carries the information for the Artikel in its noun ending.
-e --> feminine: die Har-fe, die Blu-me, die Do-se, die Kat-ze, die Bir-ne...
-er --> masculine: der Ha-fer, der Ei-mer, der Be-cher, der Stec-ker, der Pfef-fer, der Kel-ler...
-en --> masculine: der Ha-fen, der Bal-ken, der Re-gen, der Schin-ken, der Brun-nen...
-el--> mostly masculine: der Dac-kel, der Krei-sel, der Pin-sel, der Schlüs-sel.... here the plural form doesn´t change (one Pinsel, lots of Pinsel)
but if the plural form is formed with additional "-n" it´s feminine: die In-sel (lots of In-seln), die Windel (lots of Win-deln), die Ta-fel (lots of Ta-feln)..

Mono-syllabic nouns consist of one very long syllable. They are mostly masculine, but the plural form is decisive. In the plural form this very long syllable splits is one long and one short syllable. The second syllable carries the information for the Artikel in its plural ending:
-er --> neuter: das Kind (lots of Kin-der), das Kleid (lots of Klei-der), das Schloss (lots of Schlös-ser)...
-e plus vowel change in the stem (Umlaut = vowel letter with two dots above) --> masculine: der Stuhl (lots of Stüh-le), der Wolf (lots of Wöl-fe), der Topf (lots of Töp-fe)
-en --> feminine: die Bahn (lots of Bah-nen), die Fahrt (lots of Fahr-ten)...

[meganj]

Ich denke, dass du die beste Deutschlehrerin auf YouTube bist. Deine Webseite hat mir auch sehr viel geholfen.

[tracekat]

Laura you're top notch! I wish I had a spanish instructor that taught like you teach German 😉
I look forward to my courses with you every day🤗🎉

[meganj]

Wow VIELEN DANK für dieses sehr hilfreiche Video! Meine Deutschlehrer haben mir nie gesagt, dass es ein Muster gibt!

[Florida]

This is MARVELOUS!! I shall make my students watch this.

[hilingtrip_]

I am a beginner in German and has confused to learn this, and finally found your channel. Such a piece of luck!

[pro]

Though I am an English speaker primarily, I should say you are doing so well, clear voice, and lucid explanation, just super

[souadbauer]

Thank you. I just started learning German on a language app and it’s a struggle without the explanation. This is very helpful and useful. 🙏

[deedeeannash]

I'm happy that I came across your channel. You're good at this.
As an anglophone who's studied French, I have no problem with French noun gender. It's because I have heard the language enough now that I can hear the music.
I expect that I will pick up the music of German as I need to.

[Psalm_.]

Laura,

You’re very very knowledgeable in German! Your lessons will be highly effective in my review of, and growth in, German language skills.

I HOPE the following may be useful to German language learners.

When I first studied German in high school, I did not even think to use colors to help me associate masculine, feminine, or neuter.

However, about 37 years later, when I studied Hebrew, I wrote feminine nouns and feminine verb endings with pink ink, and masculine nouns and masculine verb endings with blue ink. I used purple to write endings that applied to group endings which would include male AND female, because pink and blue make PURPLE!! 😄 There is no neuter in Hebrew, so I didn’t have to think about it.

I also incorporated the MONTESSORI grammar symbols to mark my vocabulary so that it would remind me whether the word was a verb, noun, adjective, adverb, an article, pronoun, preposition, interjection, or a conjunction.
Some people may NOT want to be this detailed, but it may help those who like to be very INTERACTIVE with their learning! 😄

So NOW, for German review of NEUTER nouns, I think I will use pencil since it looks GREY, or BLACK ink for neuter!

Thank you again, for your excellent teaching!! You are helping many people!

All the best!!!

[PhaulTscuheng]

Finally find a channel to teach basic German, great and thanks!

[kristinejadesorita]

Great, amazing teacher! Your videos are the best I've seen so far!

[Srod-xc]

Thanks a lot for these videos, the didactic skills you have are amazing. Everything feels so much better when is not just hardcoded rules waiting to be memorized but there's an invitation for your brain to understand what's going on and play with it.

[Coyyang]

Laura, this is the best video I found so far on explaining noun groups and gender.
Danke!

[impinkie]

Tysm this is so helpful I was going to go insane from trying to recall each noun’s “the” but I can just memorise a few ending to be almost always right!!