User:FreeMediaKid!/English-to-German tips
The following is Gamingforfun365's list of tips based on Duolingo and Duden as the page's main sources that can be used to understand German better, to communicate with our German(-speaking) neighbors, or even to improve German Wikipedia.
Gender
[edit]
A core feature of German is grammatical gender, and every common noun and many proper nouns have one, two, or possibly even three of the genders: masculine, feminine, and neuter.
Gender suffixes
[edit]As I would describe them, "gender suffixes" are suffixes that determine the outcome of the gender(s) of a noun.
| Suffix | Gender | Example | Plural | English approximation |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| -er | masculine | Arbeitgeber (employer) |
-er | -er |
| -in | feminine | Arbeitgeberin (female employer) |
-innen | -ess |
| -ismus | -masculine | Autismus (autism) |
N/A | -ism |
| -ung | feminine | Strahlung (radiation) |
-ungen | N/A |
Numerical system
[edit]To learn how German's system of numerics works, here are three things that must be kept in mind: decimal points, pronouncing numbers, and variables.
Decimal points
[edit]We have or will have been taught what the English decimal points are: (.), but have you ever heard of using these as a means of grouping digits by threes? That is exactly what German does: it uses "English decimal points" to group digits, and it uses "commas" used in English-written numbers as numbers' decimal points, making English opposite of German, so, instead of writing for example 1,088,732.6 in German, it should be written as 1.088.732,6.
Word forms
[edit]In the English language, we would pronounce and write for example 42 as "forty-two", but, in German, there is a major change in the system: German-speaking people pronounce the number not as vierzig-zwei, but rather as zweiundvierzig, which is literally translated as "twoandforty" or "two-and-forty".