Tips I Wish I Knew Before Learning German

Have you ever wondered what it’s like to unlock the doors to one of the world’s most fascinating languages?

German opens gateways to ancient philosophy, cutting-edge engineering, and the timeless beauty of classical music.

But behind those doors lie hidden challenges, surprising truths, and unexpected rewards.

What if unlocking this language could transform the way you see the world and yourself?

Stay with us as we explore the keys to learning German, from opportunities to obstacles and everything in between.

What you discover might just change the path of your journey forever.

Number 1 - German nouns have genders

While in English we say “the” in front of any noun regardless of the intrinsic gender (or lack of gender) of the person, animal or thing being described, such as the man, the woman, the window, in German, there are different words we put in front of different nouns.

Sometimes this is based on intrinsic gender such as der Mann (the man) and die Frau (the woman), which uses the masculine article “der” for the masculine man and the feminine article “die” for the feminine woman. Other times it can seem entirely arbitrary such as der Tisch (the table) and die Gabel (the fork). Why is a table masculine and a fork feminine? Who knows?

Long story short, you need to memorize the grammatical gender of each noun as you learn new vocabulary, so you don’t use the wrong article. While there are some rules and guidelines you can use to help you figure out which gender a noun will use, which you can learn about in my video linked in the description, your only sure-fire way to make sure you don’t get it wrong is to memorize the genders as you learn the nouns.

If you want to learn tips and tricks for figuring out which gender a noun will be, I have a post breaking down the patterns of noun genders in German here.

Number 2 - German articles change

In addition to the genders of nouns, there are four cases in the German language. This is a fancy way of saying that depending on how a noun is used within a sentence, the words we use in front of them change. This means instead of “der Mann” we might say “den Mann” or even “dem Mann” or “des Mannes”.

This case system is complex, if you are trying to learn the rules outright, but my recommendation is to learn the rules as a combination of rote memorization and language exposure. Sure, learn about the rules via videos like my video “Mastering the German Case System” that breaks down each of the four cases and everything you will ever need to learn about them, but combine that rote memorization with an abundance of reading, listening and watching German content, so you start to find a natural feel for the language or what we German speakers call Sprachgefühl. It really isn’t that bad once you get a feel for the rhythm of the language.

Number 3 - The rest of the case system

In addition to the definite articles (words for the) you use with certain parts of the case system, there are also indefinite articles (words for a or an), personal pronouns (I, me, you, he, him, she, her, etc), possessive articles (my, you, his, their, etc), and a myriad of other grammatical topics you will have to tackle that are all changed based on the case system. Again, I recommend my video Mastering the German Case System if you really want to take a deep dive into this system. Of course, I also wrote a book that goes into even more detail, if you like books.

Number 4 - Word Order Can Be Different From English

Generally speaking, there are a lot of similarities between the word order rules of English and the rules in German. There are, however, enough differences that it can sometimes be irritating for English speakers.

The verb is in the second position in simple sentences. Even when you start with something other than the subject, the verb is still second. This means that instead of saying “Tomorrow, I am going to the store.” we say “Morgen gehe ich zum Geschäft.” (Literally: Tomorrow am going I to the store.)

In slightly more complex sentences, you can find lots of instances when one verb is in second position, but the secondary verb is at the end of the sentence.

Wir möchten einen Kuchen backen. -
We would like to bake a cake.

In even more complicated sentences you can have a verb at the end of a sentence, but not in position 2.

Mein Bruder möchte einen Kuchen backen, weil er morgen Geburtstag hat. -
My brother would like to bake a cake, because he has his birthday tomorrow.

Some sentences require the verb to be next to a comma in the middle of the sentence where another verb is located, as well.

Da mein Bruder morgen Geburtstag hat, möchte er einen Kuchen backen. -
Because my brother has his birthday tomorrow, he would like to bake a cake.

In addition to the differences in where the verb goes, there are also subtle differences with the other pieces of the sentence. I have a playlist about word order here, if you want to start down that rabbit hole.

Number 5 - you vs you vs you

Once you get past the case system and the word order rules, most everything else about the German language is pretty simple. One thing that isn’t so simple, however, is the differences between du, ihr and Sie. These words all mean “you”. The differences are two-fold. First, there is a difference between formal and informal. Both “du” and “inr” are informal, while “Sie” is formal. This difference is also known as familiar vs formal. The other issue is singular vs plural. “Du” and “ihr” are both informal, but “du” is singular and “ihr” is plural. Depending on the situation, “Sie” can refer to a singular person or multiple people. For a deeper dive into these words, click here.

Number 6 - Compound nouns

You may have seen the viral video of Rhabarberbarbara as a rap by the comedians Bodo Wartke and Marti Fischer. This highlights the absurdity of German compound nouns. Basically, because of how German compound nouns are created, you can make a word as long as you like. Just keep adding new words to the compound.

This can be overwhelming until you get the hang of it. It can also make it very difficult to read words, if you don’t know where one part of the compound starts and the other ends. For example:

Rhabarberbarbarabarbarbarenbartbarbier is the barber for the barbarians who frequent Rhubarb Barbara’s bar.

Rhabarber - rhubarb.
Barbara - Barbara.
Bar - Bar.
Barbaren - barbarians.
Barbier - barber.

There are a few good things about nouns like this. First, you can always find the gender of the entire noun by looking at the last part. In this example, “Barbier” is the last part of the noun, which makes the entire noun masculine.

Second, Once you get into the habit of breaking apart words like this, it becomes incredibly easy to pick up new vocabulary, because a lot of vocabulary is just a combination of other vocabulary you have already learned.

For example: If you know the noun “die Geburt” (birth) and the noun “der Tag” (day), when you combine them, it is a Geburtstag (Birthday). Add “der Kuchen” to make “der Geburtstagskuchen” (Birthday cake).

Click here for my rendition of Rhabarberbarbara.

Number 7 - All nouns are capitalized.

Speaking of nouns, all of them are capitalized all of the time. There is probably a reason for this, if you know, leave a comment below, but the end result is that you can find any noun in a sentence in German by looking for the ones with capital letters. It isn’t like in English where we decided whether or not to capitalize a noun based on a list of convoluted rules. In German, all of the nouns are capitalized. Without exception.

Aktschually! das iPhone is always lower case!

Number 8 - German sentences can go on forever.

Not only are the nouns long in German, the sentence structure allows for a variety of ways to make sentences seem to go on forever. This includes conjunctions to connect clauses or phrases together, relative pronouns to describe things in more detail, and even question words that act like relative pronouns. 

Number 9 - Dialects are plentiful and diverse.

When I teach German on this channel and in my real classroom, I teach “Hochdeutsch”, which is a fancy way of saying “standard German”. No one really seems to know how many dialects there are in German.

The AI on Google claimed there are as many as 250. Depending on where I go in Germany, I may or may not be able to understand what is being said, because the dialect of the local German population doesn’t overlap well enough with my German knowledge.

That said, most Germans are pretty nice about recognizing that you aren’t from around there and they will switch to standard German.

Now you know the challenges of learning German, I hope you’re still excited to Learn! I faced these same obstacles while learning German back in high school and university in the USA, but guess what? I overcame them, so can you too! With the lessons on this site, I’ll guide you every step of the way. Click here to get started learning German with Herr Antrim today!