German Vocabulary
The German vocabulary is large but also quite user friendly. As you start to memorize words, you will find many tricks to remembering what may seem like a bewildering array of new sounds and words. You can look for both explicit and hidden similarities to English, but you should also pay attention to how the words work in their grammatical and idiomatic contexts. That way, you can be sure to understand the words instead of just having them memorized. Keeping an eye out for the following aspects of German vocabulary words will save you plenty of time when learning new lists of words and also help you stay on the lookout for potential misunderstandings.
English speakers will find many cognates, or similar-sounding words, due to the shared inheritance from ancient Teutonic. Some of the clearest examples of this include “der Mann,” “das Bier,” “Natur,” “falsch,” “Doktor,” “Professor,” and many others. And although German verbs conjugate in different ways from English, you can still often hear “to pass” in “passen” or fall in “fallen.” Cognates make retaining your German vocabulary words much easier.
German is also unique in the way that it combines many smaller words to form new words. One of the most famous examples of this is the German “Biergarten” which is an outside bar, combining the word for beer, “Bier” with the word for garden, “Garten.” Because of this feature, you can often increase your German vocabulary by simply breaking down longer words into their components to add to your knowledge.
Remember that the German vocabulary can also be categorized in a number of different ways. Nouns are broken into three gender groups, for example. Verbs also come in different groups, such as regular and irregular, but also can be grouped according to different rules for conjugation. Keeping track of the similarities among words like this will help you remember not only the word’s meaning, but also how it is used.
Knowing your German vocabulary as a list of memorized words will not always give you perfect understanding, however. As with any language, beware of too literal translation, even if you think you know what a word means. Every language has its own idiom, in which words may have meaning other than their literal dictionary definition. In English, one can tell someone that they are funny by saying “You’re killing me!” which, of course, is not meant literally. In German, similarly if someone says they are “blau,” or blue, it means they are drunk. Keep on the lookout for situations like this.
Learning vocabulary, then, requires a strong balance of memorization, categorization and grouping, and also understanding words in particular (and even multiple) contexts. Many words, of course, have different meanings in different situations, and German is no exception. Doing plenty of reading, listening, and, if you have the opportunity, taking part in conversation will help you retain the vocabulary you learn by actually using it and manipulating it to fit your needs in the moment. Learning German vocabulary successfully requires not only bookwork, but also a good understanding of how the words fit into the language as a whole.