Top German Mistakes Made by Beginners

Top German Mistakes Made by Beginners Unfortunately, there are much more than ten mistakes you can make in German. However, we want to concentrate on the top ten kinds of mistakes that beginning students of German are likely to make. But before we get to that, think about this: How is learning a second language different from learning a first? There are many differences, but the most significant difference is that with a first language there is no interference from another language. An infant learning to speak for the first time is a blank slate- without any preconceived notions of how a language is supposed to work. That is definitely not the case for anyone who decides to learn a second language. An English  speaker who is learning German must guard against the influence of English. The first thing any language student has to accept is that there is no right or wrong way to construct a language. English is what it is; German is what it is. Arguing about a languages grammar or vocabulary is like arguing about the weather: you cant change it. If the gender of Haus is neuter (das), you cant arbitrarily change it to der.  If you do, then you risk being misunderstood. The reason languages have a particular grammar is to avoid breakdowns in communication. Mistakes Are Unavoidable Even if you understand the concept of first-language interference, does that mean youll never make a mistake in German? Of course not. And that leads us to a big mistake that many students make: Being afraid to make a mistake. Speaking and writing German is a challenge for any student of the language. But the fear of making a mistake can keep you from making progress. Students who dont worry so much about embarrassing themselves end up using the language more and making quicker progress. 1. Thinking in English Its only natural that youll think in English when you begin to learn another language. But the number one mistake made by beginners is thinking too literally and translating word-for-word. As you progress you need to start to think German more and more. Even beginners can learn to think in German phrases at an early stage. If you keep using English as a crutch, always translating from  English to German, youre doing something wrong. You dont really know German until you start to hear it in your head. German doesnt always put things together like English.   2. Getting Genders Mixed Up While languages such as French, Italian, or Spanish are content to have just two genders for nouns, German has three! Since every noun in German is either  der, die,  or  das,  you need to learn each noun with its gender. Using the wrong gender not only makes you sound stupid, it also can cause changes in meaning. It can be aggravating that any six-year-old in Germany can rattle off the gender of any common noun, but thats the way it is.   3. Case Confusion If you dont understand what the nominative case is in English, or what a direct or indirect object is, then youre going to have problems with case in German. Case is usually indicated in German by inflection: putting different endings on articles and adjectives. When  der  changes to  den  or  dem, it does so for a reason. That reason is the same one that makes the pronoun he change to him in English (or  er  to  ihn  in German). Not using the correct case is very likely to confuse people a lot! 4. Word Order   German word order (or syntax) is more flexible than English syntax and relies more on case endings for clarity. In German, the subject may not always come first in a sentence. In subordinate (dependent) clauses, the conjugated verb may be at the end of the clause. 5. Calling Someone Sie Instead of du Almost every language in the world- besides English- has at least two kinds of you: one for formal use, the other for familiar use. English once had this distinction (thou and thee are related to German du), but for some reason, it now uses only one form of you for all situations. This means that English-speakers often have problems learning to use  Sie  (formal) and  du/ihr  (familiar). The problem extends to verb conjugation and command forms, which are also different in  Sie  and  du  situations. 6. Getting Prepositions Wrong One of the easiest ways to spot a non-native speaker of any language is the misuse of prepositions. German and English often use different prepositions for similar idioms or expressions: wait for/warten auf, be interested in/sich interessieren fà ¼r, and so on. In English, you take medicine for something, in German  gegen  (against) something. German also has two-way prepositions  that can take two different cases (accusative or dative), depending on the situation. 7. Using Umlauts German Umlauts (Umlaute  in German) can lead to problems for beginners. Words can change their meaning based on whether they have an umlaut or not. For example,  zahlen  means to pay but  zhlen  means to count.  Bruder  is one brother, but  Brà ¼der  means brothers - more than one. Pay attention to words that may have potential problems. Since only a, o, and u can have an umlaut, those are the vowels to be aware of. 8. Punctuation and Contractions German punctuation and the use of the apostrophe is often different than in English. Possessives in German usually do not use an apostrophe. German uses contractions in many common expressions, some of which use an apostrophe (Wie gehts?) and some of which do not (zum Rathaus). Related to the prepositional hazards mentioned above are German prepositional contractions. Contractions such as  am,  ans,  ins, or  im  can be possible pitfalls. 9. Those Pesky Capitalization Rules German is the only modern language that requires the capitalization of all nouns, but there are other potential problems. For one thing, adjectives of nationality are not capitalized in German as they are in English. Partly due to  German spelling reform, even Germans can have problems with spelling hazards like  am besten  or  auf Deutsch. You can find the rules and a lot of hints for German spelling in our capitalization lesson and try our spelling quiz. 10. Using the Helping Verbs Haben and Sein In English, the present perfect is always formed with the helping verb have. German verbs in the conversational past (present/past perfect) can use either  haben  (have) or  sein  (be) with the past participle. Since those verbs using to be are less frequent, you need to learn which ones use  sein  or in which situations a verb may use  haben  or  sein  in the present or past perfect tense.