If you pick it up again, it’s definitely not as hard as learning a new language; also, I like to find this kind of thing to listen to as background music, so I look for YouTube channel owners who repost videos, allowing me to listen without a VPN 
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Actually, yesterday was already winter break.
Sorry, that was a typo. I meant to say “mix”.
But on Duolingo I remember that when I wrote “mein papa” it was marked wrong, and I had to change it to “meine papa” (or the question was “mama”; I’m guessing it’s based on the gender of the noun that follows to distinguish using “meine” and “mein”).
I used “mine” here because I thought the pronunciation was very similar; if based on meaning, it should be “my”.
Turns out that capitalization actually has different meanings; I never noticed that.
Now I see that Duolingo really isn’t professional enough; it keeps repeating without correcting my misunderstandings.
Thanks to @PipaQinse233 for the correction!
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It feels like the French mon, ma, mes?
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Yes, it is indeed related to grammatical gender, not biological sex. German has three genders, and each noun belongs to one, for example:
- der Mond, masculine (the moon)
- die Sonne, feminine (the sun)
- das Mädchen, neuter (little girl)
Take parents (Eltern) as an example: for Vater, Vati, Papa, Papi, Pa, etc., it is (masculine) mein ~; for the corresponding Mutter, Mutti, Mum, Mama, Mami, etc., it is (feminine) meine ~; if it is not just one
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Right, for example
- mon Père
- ma Mère
- mes chaussures
Corresponding
- mein Vati
- meine Mutti
- meine Schuhe
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How amazing, it happens to be the opposite of French le soleil la lune 
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The relationship between the gender of German nouns and sex is not very significant, and these three words are typical examples.
However, this pair is probably related to the Germanic mythological system.
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French is the same 
you have to cram it yourself 
but it feels that the sun and moon thing is different from the common perception in Chinese and even Greek mythology
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That’s how it is: if there’s an article, memorize it with the article; if not, you have to find a numeral to put in front.
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It seems that French never has situations where there’s no article before it 
Hey, it looks like we’ve been chatting a lot; maybe we should move to another floor.
The discussion has been moved.
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Uu, do you think Cantonese is easy to learn? I’m from Guangdong, but I always hear people say Cantonese is hard to learn, though Cantonese is my native dialect—I don’t really feel the difficulty in learning it.
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I find it easy to understand but hard to speak. It always sounds awkward when I try to speak.
I mistakenly replied to the wrong person and tried to edit. Now it feels like the page crashed.
German Notes
Preparation
Typing German Letters on a US Keyboard
US International keyboard layout
My approach was to download German language support and add the US English International keyboard layout. Press Win + Space to switch between them.
Still not very fluent yet.
äÄüÜöÖߧ
©¢æÆáÁðЮ®Éé
Nouns
-
Capitalization: All nouns have their first letter capitalized.
- Pronoun Sie (you formal) is capitalized.
- Sentence-initial words are capitalized.
-
Cases: Similar to sentence components; there are four cases:
- Nominative (1st case): Subject
- Accusative (4th case): Object
-
No pronunciation guide provided.
-
Plurals: Need to memorize noun plurals.
-
Gender: All nouns have gender. Definite articles are added:
- Masculine: Student, Bus → der
- Neuter: Buch, Bett → das
- Words ending with -chen are neuter (e.g., Mädchen – girl).
- Feminine: Wand, Tür → die
Articles
Indefinite Articles
Refer to a general “one”; used for first mentions.
Nominative (N):
- Masculine/Neuter: ein
- Feminine: eine
Accusative (A):
- Masculine: einen
- Neuter: ein
- Feminine: eine
Plurals have no indefinite article since it refers to “one.”
Definite Articles
Refer to a specific; used for second mentions or “this/that.”
Nominative (N):
- Masculine: der
- Neuter: das
- Feminine/Plural: die
Accusative (A):
- Masculine: den
- Neuter: das
- Feminine/Plural: die
Zero Articles
No article used, similar to English:
- Countries, uncountable nouns, proper nouns.
Pronouns
Personal Pronouns
Nominative (N):
- I: ich
- You (informal): du
- He: er (regardless of whether the noun is masculine or neuter, e.g., das Kind is a boy → use es for it).
- It (neuter): es
- She: sie
- We: wir
- You (plural/informal): ihr
- They: sie
- You (formal): Sie (German has formal and informal “you”; use formal on first meeting).
Accusative (A):
- I: mich
- You (informal): dich
- He: ihn
- It: es
- She: sie
- We: uns
- You (plural/informal): euch
- They: sie
- You (formal): Sie
Possessive Pronouns
The following words may vary in gender, number, and case, following the same rules as articles.
- My: mein
- Your (informal): dein
- His/its: sein
- Her: ihr
- Our: unser
- Your (plural/informal): euer
- Exception:
- N: euer (masc.), euer (neut.), eure (fem./pl.)
- A: euren (masc.), euer (neut.), eure (fem./pl.)
- Exception:
- Their: ihr
- Your (formal): Ihr
Verbs
Stem + ending. Original form ends with -en.
Present Tense Conjugation (Weak Conjugation)
- ich: -e
- du: -st
- er/es/sie/ihr: -t
- wir/Sie/sie (they): -en
Note: In German declarative sentences, the verb stays in second position (after the subject). The rest of the sentence can be rearranged without changing meaning.
Example: Ich liebe China. (I love China.) → China liebe ich. (China I love.) → Not “China loves me.”
Sentence Structure
Declarative Sentences
- Verb in second position.
General Questions
- Verb moves to first position.
Vocabulary
(To be added later)
This note is a bit messy; I’ll continue writing in CodiMD instead. Join me there and follow along!
German Notes - CodiMD
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To practice adjective endings, you can use the pattern kein, where the inflections for subject, object, and genitive are -e, -e, -en, -er. Simply add -en to the end of the adjective.
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This part can be understood like this; I’ll update the details later.
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I’m looking for courses to study, but I haven’t found any in a style I like.
Currently, I’m listening to New Oriental’s past German grammar courses, which I find very clear. The source is from YouTube reposted on Bilibili (B站).
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Studying German notes gave me new insights into Markdown (md)!
But I’ve been using German as an excuse to avoid reading academic papers—even though the workload isn’t too heavy, I just don’t feel like doing it. Also, I haven’t been sleeping well lately, even though it’s winter break and I can’t fully relax mentally.
By the way, if there are any German learners here (maybe just @pipaqinse233), could you share what books/materials you used and how you structured your study with them?
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I previously studied German for a while when I looked at German math textbooks and mathematicians’ manuscripts. The Goethe series materials are quite good.
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I suddenly remembered something… I’m really sorry, I’m just so overwhelmed
-
Set Goals: The motivation for learning German should be clear—learning to a certain level for a specific purpose. For example: I want to read primary sources to understand the development of German ceremonial uniforms, so I need to be able to comprehend fairly formal German texts.
-
Consistent Input: Language acquisition comes from extensive exposure to content slightly above your current level. For instance, when starting with beginner lessons learning letters and their pronunciations, characters like Ää, Öö, and ß are entirely new, alongside the remaining 27 pairs of uppercase and lowercase letters, which together help master the German alphabet. Now that you’ve reached a beginner level, the input should cover four areas:
- Listening
- Reading
- Vocabulary
- Grammar
-
Active Output: You must use German—speak and write as much as possible, or combine both. For example, I often write weekly journals in German (I initially wrote daily journals, but they were too fragmented and I couldn’t even read them myself
), using voice input. I jot down whatever comes to mind in dreams or thoughts, making it convenient. This integrates speaking and writing, efficiently training output skills.
Additionally, under the domestic education system, “learning English” and “acquiring English” are two different things: the former is a subject for exams, while the latter is a tool for daily use. The same applies to German and other foreign languages. The content here focuses on acquisition, prioritizing communication over correctness and fluency over precision. I believe after two months of practice, I’ll have the ability to handle the final exam, so I’m not covering exam strategies for now. I also happened to organize my German learning journey, and I’ll update the rest later, leaving only the main content here for now
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