James G Clancy

German Learning for Dummies James G Clancy

I am an English-speaker. My mother tongue is English. I am also fluent in French, which I learned earlier in life. So when, about five years ago, I decided to start learning German, I thought at the time that, hey, German could not be more difficult to learn than French with its many tenses and many exceptions. I was sure that I would be fluent in German within a year. Five years later, although I now have a working knowledge of German and am able to participate in conversations, I am still learning this complex language of 100,000 words, tough grammar with three genders and many forms, verb usage requiring super-precision, and many other challenges. Why did I decide to write this book? Most books on learning German are written by German language experts, people whose mother tongue is German, people who may not fully appreciate the hurdles English speakers may face when trying to learn a language as complex as German. I wanted to write a book on learning German from the perspective of a non-German native. Aside from beginners in the German language, this book may also be useful as a reference for English speakers with limited knowledge of German, and, conversely, German speakers with limited knowedge of English. This book has nearly 2,500 pages in total. Unfortunately, Amazon has a maximum limit of 630 pages for any 8.5" x 11" book published directly through them. Therefore, this book has been artificially divided into 4 parts. If you like the content of this part of the book, it is essential that you get all four parts of the book for proper learning. What does this book contain? Part 1 - Pronouncation tips: letters of the alphabet are obviously pronounced differently in German compared to English - Grammar Summary, including rules for differentiating masculine, feminine and neuter nouns, tips for determining the plural of nouns (unlike simple English, the plural of nouns in German does not systematically mean adding an "s" at the end), verb conjugation and types, an overview diagram of prepositions used for positioning, different forms for articles of nouns (Nominativ, Genitiv, Akkusativ, Dativ), declinations of adjectives and personal pronouns, sentence construction, etc. - Base Vocabulary of several thousand words: A to Sq (English to German) Part 2 - Base Vocabulary: St to To, including list of verbs (English to German) Part 3 - Base Vocabulary: Tr to Z (English to German) - Detailed Grammar with many examples: Adjective Declinations, Personal Pronouns, Adjectives for Comparison, Reflexive Pronouns, Relative Phrases, Genitiv, Akkusativ & Dativ, Konjunktiv II, etc. - Prepositions - List of Colors - List of Numbers - List of words related to Date & Time - People - Extensive list of Conversational Phrases - Detailed Structure of different kinds of sentences with multiple examples - Specialized Categories, each with a list of words by specific area: Anatomy, Animals, Clothing & Accessories, Countries, Crime, Eat & Drink, Education, Electronics & Computer, Email Part 4 - Specialized Categories, each with a list of words by specific area: Entertainment, Environment, Government, Health, Household / Buildings, Justice, Language, Meetings / Phone Calls, Remembering / Memory, Safety, Shopping / Business / Finance / Work, Sports / Exercise, Transport, Travel & Leisure, Weather - Advanced Expressions & Sayings For many words there are example sentences and/or phrases in German using the word, with English translations of the sentences and phrases There are sample conversations at the end of many of the specialized categories, for example, conversations with a pharmacist, at a supermarket, at a bank, at an airport, and many other examples. Also included are references to helpful Apps and Websites. There are variations in the format in different sections of the book. This is done on purpose in order to keep the reader's attention.