Resources and materials for learning German

Hello my English friends or friends of German! Maybe you are are intersted in new langauges, especially German. This is a great idea! German is a beautiful and easy to learn language, if you know how. If you are familia with English you may have no difficulties with German. You will do it easy, because German has a very simular grammar like English and otherwise. Additionally you have to learn the gender-articles, but also specific declinations. German is also a reflexive language like French or Spanish. If you love linguistics, especially grammar and phonetics, you will doing well with learning German!

By the way: Germany with a Y at the end of the word is the name of a country close to Austria and Swiss, but German without a Y at the end of the word is the name of the German language which is spoken in Austria, Swiss and Germany. If you are not sure which German you should lern, just choose the Austrian one, it’s much better than the Germanys one!

If you are looking for good resources for learning German by yourself I would suggest you the following websites:

What is culture? – American Culture with the Cimorellis (Part 2)

In the first part of „What is culture?“ you got to know all about culture! How you can define what a culture is, what the markers and artefacts of a certain culture are and so on…

This is the second part of the „What is culture?„-series. In this part you watch a music-clip called „Made in America“ by the famous American girl band Cimorelli.

In this clip you find a lot of cultural markers and artefacts which are typical for the American culture. What are these? Which ideals and typical pattern do you find in this clip?

Exercise: Write it down in the comments below, what you found out about culture in the music-video „Made in America“ by the American girl band Cimorelli!

A hint if you are new into Culture Studies to and try to solve the exercise: Do you know something about the so-called American Dream and the Independence Day, the 4th of July?

Auxiliary Verb „to be“

Ă„hnlich wie in der deutschen Sprache gibt es auch in der englischen Sprache so genannte Hilfszeitwörter. Sie heiĂźen auf Englisch „auxiliary verbs“. In diesem Artikel geht es um das Hilfszeitverb „to be“. Dieses entspricht dem deutschen Hilfszeitverb „sein“.

Wie im Deutschen wird auch „to be“ im Englischen dekliniert (abgewandelt). Hier eine Ăśbersicht nach Zeiten (Tenses):

„to be“ – present simple

Singular (Einzahl)Plural (Mehrzahl)
I am –
Ich bin
We are
Wir sind
You are
Du bist
You are
Ihr seid
He/ She/ It is
Er/ Sie/ Es ist
They are
Sie sind

Hier ein paar Beispielsätze mit dem Verb „to be“ (Present Simple):

I am from Austria.
Ich bin/ komme aus Ă–sterreich.

You are the one, I was looking for!
Du bist diejenige/ derjenige, nach dem ich schon länger gesucht/ Ausschau gehalten habe!

It is very rainy outside today.
Heute ist es dauĂźen sehr regnerisch.

We are a lot of students and pupils.
Wir sind eine Menge von Studierenden und SchĂĽlerInnen.

You are in a good mood today!
Ihr seid heute gut drauf!

They are a awesome team!
Sie sind ein groĂźartiges Team!

„to be“ – past simple

Singular (Einzahl) Plural (Mehrzahl)
I was
Ich war
We were
Wir waren
You were
Du warst
You were
Ihr wart
He/ She/ It was
Er/ Sie/ Es war
They were
Sie waren

Hier ein paar Beispielsätze mit dem Verb „to be“ (Past Simple):

I was at Tim’s Party yesterday.
Ich war gestern auf Tim’s Party.

I heard you were ill the whole last week.
Ich hörte, dass du die ganze letzte Woche krank warst.

He/ She was very motivated at work last year.
Er/ Sie war letztes Jahr in der Arbeit sehr motiviert.

We were very supised about it.
Wir waren darĂĽber sehr ĂĽberrascht.

You were in a good mood this morning!
Ihr wart heute frĂĽh gut drauf!

They were a awesome team concerning the last projekt!
Sie waren ein groĂźartiges Team bezĂĽglich des letzten Projekts!

Französische Bands und SängerInnen

Hier entsteht eine Liste mit berühmten französischen Bands und SängerInnen und deren bekanntesten Lieder.

Die Liste wird laufend aktualisiert.