6 mistakes YOU should avoid when speaking German! 🇩🇪 | Feli from Germany

++Reason for blurs/muted audio: This channel was renamed in Oct 2021. All references to the old name have been removed.++
German is a tough language to learn - we all know that. Grammar and vocab are things that you'll just have to learn and practice unfortunately, but by avoiding certain mistakes and working on those specific things, you might be able to improve pronunciation and confidence with the language by a lot! That's why I put together a list of 6 mistakes that you should avoid/6 tips as to how to improve that specific issue. I hope it's helpful for you and if you have more tips, please share them in the comments below! :)
-------------------------

-------------------------
0:00 Intro
0:55 Lingoda
3:02 ie vs. ei
5:22 CH-sound
7:29 Don’t overpronounce R
8:13 More pronunciation
10:21 Capitalization
11:46 Use the present tense

FOLLOW ME ON SOCIAL MEDIA:
▸Mailing address:
PO Box 19521
Cincinnati, OH 45219
USA
-------------------------
ABOUT ME: Hallo, Servus, and welcome to my channel! My name is Felicia (Feli), I'm 26, and I'm a German living in the USA! I was born and raised in Munich, Germany but have been living in Cincinnati, Ohio off and on since 2016. I first came here for an exchange semester during my undergrad at LMU Munich, then I returned for an internship, and then I got my master's degree in Cincinnati. I was lucky enough to win the Green Card lottery and have been a permanent resident since 2019! In my videos, I talk about cultural differences between America and Germany, things I like and dislike about living here, and other experiences that I have made during my time in the States. Let me know what YOU would like to hear about in the comments below. DANKE :)
-------------------------
MY FILMING EQUIPMENT

GoPro Vlogging Setup:

*These links are Affiliate links. If you buy the product through that link, I'll receive a small provision while the price for you stays the same! Thanks for your support! :)
-------------------------

[FelifromGermany]

Which of these tips did you find most helpful? :) And what are YOUR TIPS when it comes to learning German or which MISTAKES should people try to avoid? Let me and everyone else know in the comments below!
EDIT: Yes, "ick" or "icke" is also part of the Berlin accent/dialect but that's the only place where people say that and in my opinion, it doesn't really work if you only use that one word of the dialect.

[maikehudson]

Most important: when speaking German, don't try to sound like Nazis in the movies. Talk like a normal human being.

[littlegiantrobo]

Learn. Every. Noun. with the. Article. From the beginning. It will save you A LOT of problems later.

[Sabsi]

I'm German. I'm watching an English video how to speak German correctly. Something is wrong with me 😂

[connkahn]

I always think of "Bier" and "Wein" to make sure I pronounce "ie" and "ei" correctly since these words are so similar to the English equivalent.

[hepunk]

I started learning German w/ duolingo about a year ago, and in one of the sections where users can leave comments someone said it helps to think of the "ch" sound as mimicking the hissing sound a cat would make. That helped me a lot to get close to its correct pronunciation.

[mats]

EVERY TIME I mention to an American I’m German, they start to yell the 3 German words they know at me aggressively... I usually reply with my best cowboy impression...

[kgzmf]

Ei vs ie is important. In my beginning German course at university, the professor was teaching the use of the word "gern." And we had to form a sentence using it and write it on the board. At the time, I was on the university rifle team, so, I wanted to say that I like to shoot. However, in my haste, I misread the dictionary, and I wrote, "Ich scheiße gern." The professor looked at me and started laughing. He said, "I think you meant "schieße." What you said was that you like to shit." Lesson learned.

[DruSolis]

My high school German teacher told us "when i and e go walking, the second one does the talking" - never forgot that how to pronounce "ie" and "ei" after that.

[magicmaxx]

Your english is so perfect its hard to believe you aren't american

[yafud]

In Scotland the "ch" sound is used for words like Loch and its pronounced the same as german

[hughmungus]

The "ei" / "ie" confusion was illustrated in a very amusing way in a documentary I saw some years ago. Some German veterans were interviewed about how they came to surrender to the Allies and one of them recounted an anecdote. His unit had been surrounded by American soldiers who had all been taught the phrase "Hande hoch oder ich schiessen!" ("Hands up or I'll shoot!). One of the Americans shouted this phrase at the German unit but inverted the "ie" in "schiessen" and actually said "Hande hoch oder ich scheissen!" ("Hands up or I'll shit!"). The Germans found this so amusing that they burst into laughter and one soldier who spoke some English shouted back "Anything but that! We surrender!".

[kevinconnell]

"When I and E go walking, the second does the talking". That's the way I was taught a long time ago.

[nickmiller]

A couple tips that I give my students:

1. Even though it is hard, do not skip learning noun genders. At some point everything else is going to focus on that. You have to know genders once you start applying cases, and then you have to know genders really well once you learn adjective endings.

2. In the same spirit as my first tip, learn the endings that are commonly one gender or another. For example, -er is commonly masculine, -e is commonly feminine (I tell my kids, "if it ends with -e, its probably 'die'"), -ung is always feminine, -heit/-keit are always feminine, -chen is always neuter. There are others, but these are common ones that you encounter early.

3. There are no helping verbs in the present tense. Even though we say "I am playing" in English, you just say "ich spiele" in German (not "ich bin spiele" or something).

4. Word order is important. In a statement, you have subject+verb (du singst=you are singing), but questions are verb+subject (singst du?= Are you singing?) Also, if you have two verbs in one clause, the second one is at the end, not right after the first one (ich MUSS nach Hause GEHEN= I MUST GO home)

5. Be able to understand how nouns function in a sentence. For example, you have to know how a subject, direct object, and indirect object differ (ich gebe dem Kind einen Hund "I give the kid a dog" is very different from "ich gebe dem Hund ein Kind" "i give the dog the child"--notice the endings on the words "the" and "a")

[bergerle]

Another one: Assuming that an "e" at the end of a word is silent. Like Porsche.

[Custerd]

My German professor got a huge laugh out of one of us students reading a passage about an amusement park and telling about scheissbuden. Between his laughs he managed to spit out, "yes, a shitting gallery..." (Schiessbuden would be shooting galleries.)

[brianharrell]

In my German class, someone once asked why the grammar were so tricky. He responded that the German language was invented during a long winter.

[flytyme]

You should do a video about compliments and insults. I am sure that there are things that non-Germans unknowingly do or say while in Germany that are insulting or insensitive.

[pinky]

Regarding "ie and ei" this is what I was taught: "In German, when two vowels go walking, the second one does the talking."

[jozoakrap]

I don’t know why I’m watching this (I’m a fourth year Germanistics student 🤣), but I can’t stop.
P. S. Good job!