German for Beginners

Linguistica 360

Our Get Up To Speed (G.U.T.S.) course is a fun and innovative course designed to help you solidify the basics, with dialogues, stories, lessons, and quizzes.

Our goal here is to start at zero German and then end with the ability to continue as a regular listener of "News in Slow German for Beginners". We'll start slow and will gradually pick up the pace as we go. In fact, in the first lesson, we promise you… yes, PROMISE you that you will be able to understand an entire paragraph in German through the magic of cognates and learning just two simple verbs. Sounds impossible? See for yourself: https://www.newsinslowgerman.com/series/guts/0/wow/1

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20 episodes
Updated Jan 3, 2025

Episodes20

Newest first

Lesson 25: Wanderlust / The Adjective Endings in the Akkusativ and Dativ
First we will cover die Deklination im Akkusativ and then we'll explore the Dativ. We hope you'll find these so helpful you'll refer to them again and again! Review the transcript, study the lesson and do the quizzes: www.newsinslowgerman.com/series/guts/25/transcript
Jan 3, 2025 · 14 min
Lesson 24: Die weibliche Perspektive / Adjective Endings in the Nominative
This is one of the most important points in German, and the German language is (in)famous for its endings, so you've likely heard of them already. Here you want to be sure to take small steps and you want to avoid trying to learn all the endings in all the cases all at once. It bears repeating to be sure to learn these adjective endings one case at a time. Review the transcript, study the lesson and do the quizzes: www.newsinslowgerman.com/series/guts/24/transcript
Jan 3, 2025 · 13 min
Lesson 23: Ausgemalt (Envisioned) / Verbs in the Perfekt
The word tense or tenses refers to the time that a verb describes. The present tense describes now, today, or currently. The future tense indicates something that will happen later today, tomorrow, or five or 50 years from now. Review the transcript, study the lesson and do the quizzes: www.newsinslowgerman.com/series/guts/23/transcript
Jan 3, 2025 · 12 min
Lesson 22: Reif für die Insel / Verbs in Present and Future Tenses
The word tense or tenses refers to the time that a verb describes. The present tense describes now, today, or currently. The future tense indicates something that will happen later today, tomorrow, or five or 50 years from now. Review the transcript, study the lesson and do the quizzes: www.newsinslowgerman.com/series/guts/22/transcript
Jan 3, 2025 · 9 min
Lesson 21: Tooooor (Gooooooal) / Wechselpräpositionen
These Wechselpräpositionen are also known as the "two-way prepositions." You could also think of them as double-use prepositions or change-up prepositions. To understand how that double-use functions, you need to already be familiar with the Akkusativ and the Dativ, which you are. First we'll look at the prepositions and then we'll walk through how they are used. Review the transcript, study the lesson and do the quizzes: https://www.newsinslowgerman.com/series/guts/21/transcript
Jan 3, 2025 · 14 min
Lesson 20: Im falschen Film / Präpositionen mit Dativ
The Dativ prepositions are also very reliable. Difficult sometimes, but always reliable. Review the transcript, study the lesson and do the quizzes: www.newsinslowgerman.com/series/guts/20/transcript
Jan 2, 2025 · 11 min
Lesson 19: Klavier oder Küche? / Präpositionen mit Akkusativ
The two most important things to know about prepositions are: 1. Prepositions tell us how one thing is related to something else. 2. Prepositions are language-specific. Here we won't deal with an exhaustive list of prepositions, but we will work with the most commonly used prepositions. As you discover additional prepositions in the news articles you read, feel free to add to these lists. It's important, too, to note that you don't need to learn an exhaustive list of translations for these prepositions. It's most important that you use the prepositions in German, that you develop a sense of how to do so. Review the transcript, study the lesson and do the quizzes: www.newsinslowgerman.com/series/guts/19/transcript
Jan 2, 2025 · 13 min
Lesson 18: Zombie Nation / Personalpronomen und Possessivpronomen in the Three Cases
This lesson serves two purposes: one is to help you learn more about the Personalpronomen (personal pronouns) and the Possessivpronomen with the declensions (endings) they require in the three cases. The other is to serve as a reference for you. If you were to repeat this lesson dozens of times, we'd be thrilled! Review the transcript, study the lesson and do the quizzes: www.newsinslowgerman.com/series/guts/18/transcript
Jan 2, 2025 · 14 min
Lesson 17: Wir sind im Bilde / Dativ
The third and final case we'll explore is the Dativ. It's completely unlike the other two cases, so everything really is different in the Dativ. Review the transcript, study the lesson and do the quizzes: www.newsinslowgerman.com/series/guts/17/transcript
Jan 2, 2025 · 15 min
Lesson 16: Schlaue Frauen / Akkusativ
The second case we'll explore is the Akkusativ. It's very similar to the Nominativ, with one important difference. Review the transcript, study the lesson and do the quizzes: www.newsinslowgerman.com/series/guts/16/transcript
Jan 2, 2025 · 12 min
Lesson 15: Märchenwälder / Nominativ
As mentioned in lesson 13, there are four cases in German. The cases refer to the very specific ways we must speak about anything in German. The four cases are the Nominative, the Accusative, the Dative, and the Genitive. In German, these cases are called Nominativ, Akkusativ, Dativ und Genitiv. It's easiest and least frustrating when you learn them one at a time, and we're even going to leave one of them out because you don't need it as a beginner. The Genitive is the case we're going to leave out completely. Review the transcript, study the lesson and do the quizzes: www.newsinslowgerman.com/series/guts/15/transcript
Dec 29, 2024 · 11 min
Lesson 14: The Never Ending Story / Simple Past (Limited)
The simple past tense has several additional names: the Präteritum (preterite) or the Imperfekt(imperfect). Use whichever name works best for you. Here, we'll use the Präteritum. This is a form of the past tense that is used somewhat in spoken German, somewhat in news articles, and frequently in literature. There won't be a lot of this for you to learn until you reach a high-intermediate level and start reading German literature. Review the transcript, study the lesson and do the quizzes: www.newsinslowgerman.com/series/guts/14/transcript
Dec 28, 2024 · 14 min
Lesson 13: Kleider machen Leute / Possessivartikel
To keep things manageable for this beginner's course, we're going to work with the Possessivartikel (the possessive articles) in the Nominative case only. (The Nominative case is one of four cases in German, and these are the only four ways anything can be expressed in German. We'll cover that in the following lessons.) Seeing as there are 36 possessive articles per case, that makes a total of 144 possessive articles for you to learn (36 articles x 4 cases = 144 articles). So you can see why we're only going to cover them in one case. This is also why we heartily recommend you only work on them in one case at a time. Review the transcript, study the lesson and do the quizzes: www.newsinslowgerman.com/series/guts/13/transcript
Dec 28, 2024 · 15 min
Lesson 12: Glück oder Unglück? / Verneinung mit kein und keine
You learned kein, keine, kein, keine back in lesson 7.3 as answers to Ja-/Nein-Fragen. You can also simply use them in sentences to say everyday things like "There is no bread in the house" or talk about the fact that "Serena Williams will play no more professional tennis matches." This is how you negate information. Review the transcript, study the lesson and do the quizzes: www.newsinslowgerman.com/series/guts/12/transcript
Dec 28, 2024 · 15 min
Lesson 11: Ein Hundeleben (A dog's life) / Indefinite articles
Now that you can see the direct relationship between people, things, pronouns, and definite articles, it's time to branch out one step further to the indefinite articles. If you haven't yet, you'll begin to see even more in this lesson why it's imperative that you work to get a handle on which nouns belong to which der/die/das/die grouping, because that is foundational information for your German learning. Review the transcript, study the lesson and do the quizzes: www.newsinslowgerman.com/series/guts/11/transcript
Dec 28, 2024 · 12 min
Lesson 10: Erfindungen und Entdeckungen / Pronouns
In lesson 1 you learned that we can replace someone's name with a pronoun. You may specifically remember that we talked about Gisela (sie): Gisela liest die Nachrichten und trinkt Tee. Here we'll work more on replacing names with pronouns and we'll take that one step further. Review the transcript, study the lesson and do the quizzes: www.newsinslowgerman.com/series/guts/10/transcript
Dec 28, 2024 · 16 min
Lesson 9: Lernen lernen / General review and repetition of articles: der die das
In this lesson, we're going to build upon what you learned about the articles in Lesson 3 and add one more layer. We'll also cover a bit of the rules of der/die/das groupings and a couple of techniques to help you learn which article goes with which noun. Review the transcript, study the lesson and do the quizzes: www.newsinslowgerman.com/series/guts/9/transcript
Dec 28, 2024 · 12 min
Lesson 8: Wage es, weise zu sein / W-Fragen
Now that you've got a handle on Positions 1 and 2, you can start working with questions that will help you acquire more information than only a Yes/No answer. These are called W-Fragen, or W Questions, which are frequently referred to as open-ended questions. Review the transcript, study the lesson and do the quizzes: www.newsinslowgerman.com/series/guts/8/transcript
Dec 28, 2024 · 13 min
Lesson 7: Traditionen / Ja/Nein-Fragen
In lesson 6, we used the verb in Position 1 to create the Imperativ. You also need to utilize Position 1 to ask a question for which there is a Yes or a No answer. So, first be very clear in your mind that we've now switched to asking questions. Review the transcript, study the lesson and do the quizzes: www.newsinslowgerman.com/series/guts/7/transcript
Dec 27, 2024 · 8 min
Lesson 6: Pick Up After Yourself! / Der Imperativ
The command form or Imperativ in German is used differently and much more frequently than it is in English. So, this lesson is as much a cultural lesson as it is a grammatical one. Review the transcript, study the lesson and do the quizzes: www.newsinslowgerman.com/series/guts/6/transcript
Dec 26, 2024 · 12 min

German for Beginners

Lesson 25: Wanderlust / The Adjective Endings in the Akkusativ and Dativ

Lesson 24: Die weibliche Perspektive / Adjective Endings in the Nominative

Lesson 23: Ausgemalt (Envisioned) / Verbs in the Perfekt

Lesson 22: Reif für die Insel / Verbs in Present and Future Tenses

Lesson 21: Tooooor (Gooooooal) / Wechselpräpositionen

Lesson 20: Im falschen Film / Präpositionen mit Dativ

Lesson 19: Klavier oder Küche? / Präpositionen mit Akkusativ

Lesson 18: Zombie Nation / Personalpronomen und Possessivpronomen in the Three Cases

Lesson 17: Wir sind im Bilde / Dativ

Lesson 16: Schlaue Frauen / Akkusativ

Lesson 15: Märchenwälder / Nominativ

Lesson 14: The Never Ending Story / Simple Past (Limited)

Lesson 13: Kleider machen Leute / Possessivartikel

Lesson 12: Glück oder Unglück? / Verneinung mit kein und keine

Lesson 11: Ein Hundeleben (A dog's life) / Indefinite articles

Lesson 10: Erfindungen und Entdeckungen / Pronouns

Lesson 9: Lernen lernen / General review and repetition of articles: der die das

Lesson 8: Wage es, weise zu sein / W-Fragen

Lesson 7: Traditionen / Ja/Nein-Fragen

Lesson 6: Pick Up After Yourself! / Der Imperativ