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Copyright

Published by Collins

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First edition 2018

© Paul Noble 2018

eBook Edition © November 2017 ISBN 9780008218744

Version: 2017-11-29

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Acknowledgements

Images from Shutterstock.

MANAGING EDITOR

Maree Airlie

CONTRIBUTORS

Val McNulty

Silke Zimmermann

FOR THE PUBLISHER

Gerry Breslin

Kevin Robbins

Vaila Donnachie

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People who know no German at all.

People who know some German already.

People who studied German at school.

People who didn’t study German at school.

People who didn’t like how languages were taught at school.

People who are amazed by just how closely grammar books resemble furniture assembly instructions.

Who is this book for?

People who think they can’t learn a foreign language.

People who’ve listened to one of Paul Noble’s audio courses.

People who haven’t listened to one of Paul Noble’s audio courses.

People learning German for the first time.

People coming back to the language after a break.

People curious about whether they can learn a language.

People who feel confused by the way languages are normally taught.

Contents

Cover

Title Page

Copyright

Footnotes

About the Publisher

Did you know you already speak German?

Did you know you already speak German?

Did you know you already speak German? That you speak it every day? That you read and write it every day? That you use it with your friends, with your family, at work, down the post office – even in the shower when you read the label on the shampoo bottle?

Were you aware of that fact?

Well, even if you weren’t, it’s nevertheless true.

Of course, you might not have realised at the time that what you were reading / saying / writing was actually German but I can prove to you that it was. Just take a look at these words below:

Have you read through them? Yes? Good.

Now, answer me this, are they:

A: English words

B: German words

C: Both

Well, if you’re reading this book then you’re clearly already a highly intelligent person with good judgement, so you will have correctly chosen “C”.

Yes, these are words that we have in English but they also exist in German, having originally come into English from Germanic languages. And these are by no means isolated examples of words that exist in both German and English but rather they are merely the tip of a truly enormous iceberg.

In fact, around half of all English words have close equivalents in German.Yes, that’s right, half!

If we begin using these words, together with an extremely subtle method that shows you how to put them into sentences in a way that’s almost effortless, then becoming a competent German speaker becomes really quite easy.

The only thing that you will need to do to make this happen is to follow the three simple rules printed on the following pages. These rules will explain to you how to use this book so that you can begin unlocking the German language for yourself in a matter of hours.

Well, what are you waiting for? Turn the page!

Rule Number 1:

Don’t skip anything!

Using this book is extremely simple – and highly effective – if you follow its three simple rules.

If you don’t want to follow them then I recommend that, instead of reading the book, you use it to prop up a wobbly coffee table, as it won’t work if you don’t follow the rules. Now get ready – because here’s the first one!

Each and every little thing in this book has been put where it is, in a very particular order, for a very particular reason. So, if the book asks you to read or do something, then do it!Who’s the teacher after all, you or me, eh?

Also, each part of the book builds on and reinforces what came before it. So, if you start skipping sections, you will end up confused and lost! Instead, you should just take your time and gently work your way through the book at your own pace – but without skipping anything!

Step by Step

Rule Number 2:

Don’t try to memorise anything!

Trying to jam things into your head is boring and it doesn’t work. People often cram for tests and then forget everything the moment they walk out of the exam. Clearly, we don’t want that happening here.

Instead, I have designed this book so that any word or idea taught in it will come up multiple times. You don’t need to worry about trying to remember or memorise anything because the necessary repetition is actually already built in. In fact, trying to memorise what you’re learning is likely to hinder rather than help your progress.

So, just work your way through the book in a relaxed way and, if you happen to forget something, don’t worry because, as I say, you will be reminded of it again, multiple times, later on.

Rule Number 3:

Cover up!

No, I’m not being a puritan grandmother and telling you to put on a long-sleeved cardigan. Instead, I’m asking you to take a bookmark or piece of paper and use it to cover up any red text that you come across as you work your way through the book.

These red bits are the answers to the various riddles, challenges and questions that I will pose as I lead you into the German language. If you read these answers without at least trying to work out the solutions to the various riddles and challenges first, then the book simply won’t work for you.

So make sure to use something to cover up the bits of red text in the book while you have a go at trying to work out the answers. It doesn’t matter if you sometimes get them wrong because it is by trying to think out the answers that you will learn how to use the language.

Trust me on this, you will see that it works from the very next page of this book.

Take a look at the page on the right to see how to use your bookmark or piece of paper to cover up correctly.

CHAPTER 1

Can you come over tonight?

“Can you come over tonight?”

Not such a complicated sentence in English really, is it? Or is it…?

I have taught many people over the years, ranging from those who know no German at all through to those who may have studied German for several years at school, and yet whether they have studied the language before or not, many of them still struggle to construct a basic sentence like this when I first meet them.

Admittedly, they might know how to say other far less useful things, like “I’m 37 years old and have two sisters and a goldfish” – an unusual conversation opener from my perspective – but they nevertheless can’t ask someone to come over later.

Well, in just a few minutes’ time, you will be able to do this – even if you’ve never learnt any German before.

Just remember though: don’t skip anything, don’t waste your time trying to memorise anything but do use your bookmark to cover up anything red you find on each page.

Okay now, let’s begin!

“I can” in German is:

Ich kann

(pronounced “ikh kan”¹)

And the word for “begin” in German is:

beginnen

(pronounced “baig-in-urn”)

So how would you say “I can begin”?

Ich kann beginnen (ikh kan baig-in-urn)

Did you remember to cover up the red words while you worked out the answer?

“Not” in German is:

nicht

(nikht)

Now again, what is “I can”?

ich kann

(ikh kan)

So how would you say “I can not”?

ich kann nicht

(ikh kan nikht)

And so how would you say “I cannot begin”?

Ich kann nicht beginnen.

(ikh kan nikht baig-in-urn)

The word for “bring” in German is:

bringen

(bring-urn)

You will notice very quickly that the word for “bring” in German – “bringen” – is very similar to “bring” in English. In fact, by simply adding an “en” to the end of the English word “bring” we have effectively created the same word in German. And we can actually do the exact same thing with a great number of other English words.

For example, let’s take the English word “camp”/ “to camp”. Now, to say “camp” in German, again we can simply add an “en” to the end of the English word “camp”. Let’s try that now: take the English word “camp” and add “en” onto the end of it. What does that give you?

campen

(camp-urn)

And this means “camp” in German.

Let’s try another example, doing exactly the same thing, but this time let’s use the English word “park” / “to park”. Again, we’ll simply add “en” onto the end of the word “park” and we’ll end up with the word that means “park” in German. So, do that now – add “en” onto the end of the English word “park” and tell me, what is the word that means “park” in German?

parken

(park-urn)

And once again, what is “begin” in German?

beginnen

(baig-in-urn)

And what is “bring”?

bringen

(bring-urn)

And what is “park”?

parken

(park-urn)

Finally, what is “camp”?

campen

(camp-urn)

What was “I can” in German?

ich kann

(ikh kan)

So how would you say “I can camp”?

Ich kann campen.

(ikh kan camp-urn)

What is “not” in German?

nicht

(nikht)

And so what is “I can not” / “I cannot”?

ich kann nicht

(ikh kan nikht)

So, how would you say “I cannot camp”?

Ich kann nicht campen.

(ikh kan nikht camp-urn)

How about “I cannot park”?

Ich kann nicht parken.

(ikh kan nikht park-urn)

And “I cannot begin” / “I can’t begin”?

Ich kann nicht beginnen.

(ikh kan nikht baig-in-urn)

“She can” in German is:

sie kann

(zee kan)

So how would you say “she can begin”?

Sie kann beginnen.

(zee kan baig-in-urn)

How about “she can camp”?

Sie kann campen.

(zee kan camp-urn)

And so how would you say “she can’t camp” / “she cannot camp”?

Sie kann nicht campen.

(zee kan nikht camp-urn)

How about “she can’t begin”?

Sie kann nicht beginnen.

(zee kan nikht baig-in-urn)

So, we’ve got a few of these words now – words like “begin” (beginnen), “camp” (campen), “park” (parken), and “bring” (bringen) – which we’ve found simply by adding an “en” onto the end of an English word. I want to find one more. This time, we’ll try the English word “come”. So, just as we did before, we’ll take the word “come”, and then add “en” onto the end of this, which will hopefully give us the word that means “come” in German. So, take the English word “come” and add “en” onto the end of it. Doing this, what do you get?

Well, if you don’t know any German already, you’ll probably have arrived at something like “comen”.

However, this perhaps is just a bit too English because Germans actually write “come” as:

kommen

(kom-urn)

So, the word is similar to the English, but the spelling and pronunciation are just a bit different, with the German word being pronounced as a “kom” rather than a “kum” sound.

Now again, what is “she can”?

sie kann

(zee kan)

So how would you say “she can come”?

Sie kann kommen.

(zee kan kom-urn)

And how would you say “she can’t come”?

Sie kann nicht kommen.

(zee kan nikht kom-urn)

Now again, what is “I can not”?

ich kann nicht

(ikh kan nikht)

So how would you say “I cannot come” / “I can’t come”?

Ich kann nicht kommen.

(ikh kan nikht kom-urn)

And what is “she can”?

sie kann

(zee kan)

And how would you say “she can camp”?

Sie kann campen.

(zee kan camp-urn)

The word for “but” in German is:

aber

(ah-ber)

So how would you say “she can camp but…”

Sie kann campen aber…

(zee kan camp-urn ah-ber)

And now try “she can camp but I can’t come”.

Sie kann campen aber ich kann nicht kommen.

(zee kan camp-urn ah-ber ikh kan nikht kom-urn)

And how about “I can camp but she can’t come”?

Ich kann campen aber sie kann nicht kommen.

(ikh kan camp-urn ah-ber zee kan nikht kom-urn)

“Today” in German is:

heute

(hoy-ter)

And again, what is “she can come”?

Sie kann kommen.

(zee kan kom-urn)

Now, if you want to say “she can come today” in German, you will say:

Sie kann heute kommen.

(zee kan hoy-ter kom-urn)

So, literally, this is “she can today come”.

Now again, how would you say “she can camp”?

Sie kann campen.

(zee kan camp-urn)

And so how do you think you would say “she can camp today”?

Sie kann heute campen.

(zee kan hoy-ter camp-urn)

So, once again, notice the word order: “she can today camp”.

What is “I can” in German?

ich kann

(ikh kan)

And “I can camp”?

Ich kann campen.

(ikh kan camp-urn)

And so how would you say “I can camp today”?

Ich kann heute campen.

(ikh kan hoy-ter camp-urn)

And how about “I can come today”?

Ich kann heute kommen.

(ikh kan hoy-ter kom-urn)

So the word order is a little different than it is in English. In German, the thing that you can do – whether it’s to camp, to come, or whatever – likes to go at the end.

Let’s try some more examples to make this even clearer.

“Here” in German is:

hier

(hear)

Now again, how would you say “I can camp”?

Ich kann campen.

(ikh kan camp-urn)

So, how do you think you would say “I can camp here”?