Try your first book

Five things this path left out on purpose, and what to do when each one turns up. Then open Twelve Tales from the Green Hill and read a scene with the English beside you.

≈ 1 min of reading · Practise at your own pace

What’s in this chapter

Start with the Green Hill fables, which use deliberately limited language.
Read the German line before looking across at the English.
Words you have never seen in every paragraph is normal, not a sign that you started too early.
After Green Hill, move to Winnie-the-Pooh, then Doctor Dolittle.

Real books are longer and looser than this path. That is expected. One habit matters most: keep going. Take the English for a stuck word and move to the next line — the words that matter come round again, and that is how they stick.

Five things this path left out on purpose

Real books use things this path skipped. Each row names one and tells you what to do when it turns up.

You will see	What to do
demdaym, desdess in front of nouns	More jobs for the little word. Read past them.
großenGROH-sen, kleinemKLINE-em	Describing-word endings. Ignore them, take the word.
ich habe gesehenich HAH-buh guh-ZAY-en	The two-word spoken past. It means “I saw”; the second word carries the meaning.
WaldwegVALT-vayk	A compound. Split at the seam; the last piece is the real thing.
FreundinFROYN-din	An -in makes a person a woman. Same word otherwise.

When you're ready

Into the reading room

Try your first book.

Open Twelve Tales from the Green Hill and read a scene with the English beside you.

Books open inside a Zaban account, so you’ll be asked to log in first.

Go back a chapter

Try a story before you reveal the help

Read a second story with the pronunciation and the English hidden until you reveal them. If you can recover who did what, you are ready for your first book.

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