German For Idiots

Before blurting out my blah-blah in this post, I would like to say that the title of this post was inspired by a internet domain name called ‘Fat Loss For Idiots’, which I stumbled upon when I was link-hopping/crawling on the internet. Apart from that, I would like to disclaim that “whatever I write in this post is just based out of my own experiences (living in Bavaria/Bayern, Germany and travelled good enough in Europe) and with limited capabilities to play with German language (I started learning by myself, since I came to Germany – A little more than 1 year)”. Ok, I’ll cut the crap….and here I go:

1) Many of the words in German language have close resemblance to ‘English’. Indeed, with many other languages in North, Middle and Western Europe. This is because, they are all ‘Germanic/Teutonic Languages’. Although they have close similarities, I know a lot of people who find it very hard to learn/understand German, even after many years of living in Germany. Despite the fact that they are ‘Germanic/Teutonic Languages’, there are striking differences in grammar, formation of phrases/sentences, et al. Apart from that, even if you find similar words in English and German, the way you pronounce it is totally different, most of the times. For Ex: “Station”, which is German is pronounced as “Staatsion”.

2) German alphabet has the same number of letters as in ‘Roman/Latin alphabet’ (which applies to English too, being a derivative of Latin alphabet). Apart from that, German language additionally uses the “Umlaut Symbols” (ä, ö, ü / Ä, Ö, Ü) and ‘ß’ (which is called Sharp ‘S’ , because it is similar to the way you pronounce “SS”. So, ß = SS).
Umlaut Symbols :
ä – ae
ö – oe
ü – ue

3) In German ‘V’ is pronounced as ‘Fou’ (in English) and ‘W’ as ‘V’ (in English). For Example, the Volks-Wagen (VW) is pronounced as ‘Folks-Wagen’ (Fou-V). One more example is ‘Vater’. I’m not talking about “Water” here, its “Father” (More preciously, Faater).

4) As with any other country/region, there exists dialects in German and Germany. There is a very noticeable difference in the way, North and South Germans speak. I’m more influenced by Bavaria, since I live there, at the moment. And because of friends and travelling around, I can notice the other differences. Infact, there is again a bit of difference in North Bavarian and South Bavarian dialects. In North Bavaria (around Nuremberg), they speak Franconian and consider themselves as just ‘Franconians’ and not ‘Bavarians’..haha..You can see this kind of stuff, everywhere. First, its between countries. Then its between states/provinces. Then its between districts/regions..And it goes on and on and on…!

5) If you want to use Franconian dialect, use “na/nae” at the end of most of the phrases that you use. For Example: “Wetter is schön, nae”, “Kommisch, nae”, et al.

6) South Bavarian (Bayerisch) is a bit different from Franconian. Apart from that, Bavarian lifestyle is more similar to Austrian and Swiss lifestyle than North German’s.

7) In Bavaria, people use “Gruß Gott (Gruss Gott)” to greet other people. It means “Greet God”. Youngsters of this generation dont really use this, as it is outta fashion and just use ‘Hallo/Hai” most of the times. Also, if you use this phrase in North Germany, you will probably get weird looks…haha. Here’s some idiotic tip to pronounce that greeting : Just use “Scott” (Sounds more like ‘Gruss Gott’ and also people feel like you are talking slang and proficient in German).

In German, “Tschüss” is the word which is mostly used as a ‘farewell’ term/word. Here’s a ‘German for Idiots’ tip: Just pronounce it as “Shoes” ..lol

9) In South Germany, people use “Guten Morgen” to wish “Good Morning”, “Guten Nach-Mittag”, for “Gud Afternoon” and “Guten Abend” for “Good Evening”. In North Germany, they use “Moin” for any part of the day. One more word that people use is “Mahlzeit” during noon. It means “Meal Time”. It doesn’t make sense sometimes, when people use it all the time between 10 AM and 3 or 4 PM), but thats how it is.

Thats it for now. There’s lot to tell, but I’ll keep it brief for now and will gradually edit this post and add more ‘German For Idiots’ tips.

Viel Spaß (Pronounced in English as ‘Feel Shpass’ – which means “Have Fun”). Tschüss!