Lessons for English speakers

Learn to read German

A short, active path into reading German: decode nine real words from a ten-rule sound table, learn where the verb goes and why der becomes den, then read a fable whose pronunciation and English begin hidden.

13 core sections · ≈ 33 min + 4 optional lookups · ≈ 53 min with everything

Verbs and stories

4 sections

The verbs a story runs on, now and then

≈ 3 min

What you'll learn

Books narrate in the one-word past: war, kam, sah, sagtevar, kahm, zah, ZAHK-tuh.
Ordinary verbs bolt -te onto the end; -te means the past almost every time.
The common old verbs change their vowel instead, as English does in sing and sang.
With dudoo a verb ends in -st; with erair it ends in -t.
German quotes open low and close high; after a quote the doing word comes before the speaker.

Somebody says something, somebody asks, somebody sees. A handful of doing words carry every page of every fable, and books print them in the one-word past.

The story verbs, now and then — with er, “he”

Now	Then
er sagtair zahkt“he says”	er sagteair ZAHK-tuh“he said”
fragtfrahkt“asks”	fragteFRAHK-tuh“asked”
antwortetANT-vor-tet“answers”	antworteteANT-vor-te-tuh“answered”
siehtzeet“sees”	sahzah“saw”
istist“is”	warvar“was”
gehtgayt“goes”	gingging“went”
kommtkomt“comes”	kamkahm“came”
fälltfelt“falls”	fielfeel“fell”
nimmtnimt“takes”	nahmnahm“took”

Cover the right column and guess. Half are English words in disguise: kam and came, sah and saw, fiel and fell, war and was.

Two kinds of past shape, told apart at a glance

sagenZAH-gen“to say”

sagteZAHK-tuh“said”

Ordinary verbs bolt on -te, and -te on a doing word means the past almost every time — the one German ending that carries meaning.

sehenZAY-en“to see”

sahzah“saw”

The common old verbs change their vowel instead, as English does in sing and sang.

Who is doing it: two endings

With	To go	To be
ichich“I”	geheGAY-uh“I go”	binbin“I am”
dudoo“you”	gehstgayst“you go”	bistbist“you are”
erair“he”	gehtgayt“he goes”	istist“he is”

-st for dudoo, -t for erair — the pattern for nearly every verb. “To be” refuses, as it does in English. The full set is in the verb lookup.

I am hungry.

Ich habe Hunger.

ich HAH-buh HOONG-uh

Word for word: I have hunger — the normal way to say it. HungerHOONG-uh is a thing, so it wears a capital letter.

How German prints speech

“Good morning,” said the fox.

„Guten Morgen“, sagte der Fuchs.GOO-ten MOR-gen, ZAHK-tuh dair fooks

The opening mark sits low, the closing one high — it looks like a mistake and is not. After a quotation the doing word comes before the speaker, exactly like English “said the fox”.

Now, then, and who said it

Der Fuchs sah einen Vogel.
The past shape is one vowel from the English word.
Show answer +Hide answer −
Der Fuchs sah einen Vogel.dair fooks zah INE-en FOH-gul“The fox saw a bird.”
„Guten Abend“, sagte der Bär.
Read the low mark as an opening quote.
Show answer +Hide answer −
„Guten Abend“, sagte der Bär.GOO-ten AH-bent, ZAHK-tuh dair bair““Good evening,” said the bear.”