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Many of the German Alphabets sound the same as the English ones. But still, I kept forgetting their pronunciation. Learning and revising them through melody did help me a lot.

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Das Alphabet - ABC Lied - Lernlied -  Kinderlieder deutsch

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I learnt the way to introduce myself using some basic German words after learning how to greet other people. I do find difficulties in remembering pronunciation of some of the words. One reason is that sometimes I still follow the English pronunciation when I saw words that are very similar to or completely the same with their corresponding English words.
Besides, I practiced the basic verb conjugation using a mobile App called Duolingo. Practicing helped me better understand the conjugations and become more familiar with the pronunciation of the basic words.

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This is my second week learning German. The conjugation of regular verbs is a bit confusing for me at the beginning. However, after realising that there is an obvious pattern for the ending of the verbs, I found it manageable to learn the conjugation.

Ich -e
du -st
er/sie/es -t
sie -en

I wrote down these endings on my notebook and this really help me get more familiar with them.

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This is my third week learning German and I learnt how to count from 1 to 100. I found it a bit hard initially as the way German counts is quite different from the way English counts.

I used this video to revise the pronunciation of German numbers. The melody is simple and the song is just about repeating 1 to 20 over and over so it helps me memorize the pronunciations. The video also shows the Arabic number and the German words at the same time and this further enhance my memory.

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♫ GERMAN Numbers Song 1-20 ♫ Zählen von 1 bis 20 ♫ Zahlenlied ♫ Zahlen Lernen

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This week is a tough week for me as we begin learning the separable verbs. This is my first time learning verbs that can be separated into two part and be placed in different position of a sentence. This is interesting and it helps me remember the meaning of a word based on their two parts once I get used to them.

Also, when using adverbs of frequency, initially I tend to follow the grammar of English which does not work in German. It took me some time to remember that verbs should be always placed in the second position of the sentence wherever the adverbs of frequency are.

Adverb of Frequency + Verb+ Subject+.........
Subject + Verb +Adverb of Frequency+..........

Time Manner Place

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I leant the nominative and accusative case in this week. The grammar for these two case is quite similar to that of English.   However, the word "the" and "a" have more variations and this takes me a long time to remember all the different form of articles even though they are not really difficult. I wrote down the summary of articles and this helps a lot as I kept referring back to them.

I did struggle with the gender of words so  I think I will just do more exercise to help myself remember more German words with their gender. Also, this video helps me a bit in finding some patterns of gender.

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How to know a word's gender | Super Easy German (70)

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This week I learnt the possessive articles. Unlike English, these possessive articles change with the gender of the noun after them. So again, the importance of knowing the gender of words is demonstrated.
This video explains well how the possessive articles are used for different cases and give easy but useful examples.

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Possessive pronouns in German - www.germanforspalding.org

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I learnt the way to express likes& dislikes this week.  At the beginning , I always forgot to use the infinitive form of verbs when saying "gern/lieber/am liebsten". The position of the words expressing likes or dislikes follow the principle that was stated in Woche 5 which means it is always positioned after the verbs(Ich kaufe gern ein) and can be placed at the head of the sentence.(Am liebsten trinkt sie.)

I also learnt more ways to talk about time. The only one that is confusing to me is "halb" as in English, people say "half past" while in German people say "half to".
The video below briefly explains how people say time in different ways in German. It is helpful and practicing is indeed very necessary.

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Learn German - How to Tell the Time in German

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A learn German video from http://www.doubletranslate.com where we go through how to tell the time in German. We go through how to ask what the time is, and how to say the time in a number of different points throughout the day and night.

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Modal words in German are not difficult to remember as some of them are similar to the English modal words, especially "Können" and "Müssen". The position of modal words is important. They are placed always at the head of a yes/no question and at the second position(after subject) when used as the main verb.
The video below explains the modal verbs quite well and helps me revise.

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Learn German | German Grammar | Modalverben | Modal verbs | A1

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I got more confused when I learnt about dative case. But after working on exercise, I understand more about the circumstances in which dative case and accusative case are used.
The website below provide tables of articles for words with different gender in different cases and it is useful for me to look through them more frequently.

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This lesson will focus on the four German cases: nominative, accusative, genitive and dative case. It will provide you with a simple overview of the cases and how to use them with examples.

There are important links at the end of this lesson to additional lessons on the individual cases.

I won't lie to you, this is where German grammar becomes rather more difficult to digest. I remember sitting in my German A-Level lessons and getting all hot and bothered as I tried to get my head around the German cases. So, take your time and follow my tips. As in all my other lessons, I will try to keep things as simple as possible.

Before we start: are you familiar with German nouns? If not, I highly recommend you read my German nouns lesson now, otherwise things will get confusing. Don't worry, I'll wait! ;)

Back so soon - brilliant! Let's start learning the German cases.

German Cases

First of all, what is a case?

No, it's not a suitcase, or any other kind of 'case' as you know it! A grammatical case is simply a way to show which role each noun (a person, thing or object) plays in a sentence.

German nouns appear in four cases, depending on their function in a sentence. The four German cases are called the: nominative case, accusative case, genitive case and dative case.

Are you wondering: 'Do I really have to learn all about these pesky German cases?' Or maybe: 'Why are they so important?'

Quite simply you must find time to learn the German cases if you are serious about learning German properly, because certain German words change their form - the official word is 'decline' - depending on which case is being used, an example in English would be 'she' to 'her'.

In German there are a whole host of different forms for 'the' and 'a', for example, depending on which case is being used and, of course, the gender of the noun.

Even adjectives (descriptive words such as 'beautiful' for example) are declined differently in German depending on the case, but let's look at that in another lesson.

Enough chat. Let's take a look at the four German cases and find out how to work out which case is which.

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The subject of a sentence is always in the nominative case. The subject is normally the person or thing performing the action of a verb.

For example:

Thomas fährt das Auto. (Thomas drives the car)
Thomas is the subject as he is driving the car. He is performing the action of the verb: the driving and is thusin the nominative case.

The direct object is always in the accusative case. A direct object is the person or thing which directly receives the action of the verb. Tip: You can ask: 'what?' or 'whom?' of the verb to identify the direct object.

A couple of examples:
1.) Thomas fährt ein Auto. (Thomas drives a car)
'A car' is the direct object as that is 'what' is being driven and thus 'a car' takes the accusative case.

2.) Wir wissen die Antwort. (We know the answer)
'The answer' is the direct object as that is 'what' is known.

So why is it important to know what the direct object of a sentence is?

Because in German, the article (definite article = the / indefinite article = a/an) of a masculine noun in the accusative case changes, for example, from 'der' to 'den' and 'ein' to 'einen'. This change will be demonstrated towards the end of this lesson in a German case table.

The dative case identifies the indirect object of a sentence. The indirect object is the thing indirectly affected by the action of the verb.

A good way to identify the indirect object if you are not sure is by asking 'to whom' or 'for whom' with the subject and verb of a particular sentence.

A couple of examples:

1.) Ich habe dem Mann ein Geschenk gekauft.
(I bought the man a present)
For whom did I buy the present? 'The man' is the indirect object.

2.) Ich habe dem Baby die Rassel gegeben.
(I gave the baby a rattle)
To whom did I give the rattle? 'The baby' is the indirect object.

So why is it important to know what the indirect object of a sentence is?

Because in German, the articles (definite article = the / indefinite article = a/an) of all nouns (feminine / masculine / neuter / plural) change. These changes will be demonstrated in a table towards the end of this lesson.

The primary function of the genitive case is to demonstrate possession. The person or thing that possesses, i.e. the 'possessor', is in the genitive case. It is very similar to the 's' or 'of' in English.

Let's look at some examples:

1.) Das ist die Tasche des Lehrers. (That is the teacher's bag)
The bag is possessed by 'the teacher', therefore, 'the teacher' is in the genitive case.

2.) Das ist das Auto des Nachbarns. (That is the neighbour's car)
The car is possessed by 'the neighbour', therefore, 'the neighbour' is in the genitive case.

You will notice that the possessed person or object comes first followed by the possessor.

Why is the genitive case important to learn?
Because the definite and the indefinite articles of all nouns will change form in the genitive case, as demonstrated in the tables below.
Grammatical Tables - The German Cases

Some of the most important aspects of German grammar are detailed in the three tables right below and can be seen as a summary of this lesson so far.

Tip of the entire lesson: make it a priority to learn the content of these three tables off by heart - it will help you so much in so many ways and is core to many other elements of German grammar.

The first table will list the various words for 'the' in all four German cases. The second table will detail the words for 'a' / 'an' in German and the third table will detail personal pronouns in German in the various cases, such as 'I', 'you', 'he' and 'she'.

By the way, personal pronouns are simply small words which replace nouns i.e. 'it', instead of 'the car'.

Table 1 - Definite articles by case
(i.e. the various ways of saying 'the' in German depending on the case / gender of noun)

Table 2 - Indefinite articles by case
(i.e. the various ways of saying 'a' and 'an' in German depending on the case / gender of noun)

Table 3 - Personal pronouns by case
(The small words which replace nouns i.e. 'it', 'she', 'he' depending on the case)

* By singular I mean when addressing just one person.

** By plural I mean when addressing more than one person.

*** You will notice there is no distinction made in German when addressing one person 'formally' or several people 'formally'. At least that makes life a little easier!

Unsure of what I mean by formal and informal? Please visit my lesson for an explanation.

So, there you have it, my summary of the four German cases. I hope you have been able to follow this lesson and are now ready to find out a little more about each of the individual cases. These final parts of the German cases lesson will hopefully clarify any further questions you may have.

Go directly to the lesson.

By the way, I've partnered with the Rocket German Learning System.

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That's why I encourage you to click here and learn what Rocket German is about.

It will help you speed up the process. In fact, it's one of the best - and quite enjoyable - processes I've found to date for learning German effectively.

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German Cases: An Easy Guide for Beginners

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This lesson will focus on the four German cases: nominative, accusative, genitive and dative case. It will provide you with a simple overview of the cases and how to use them with examples. There are important links at the end of this lesson to additional lessons on the individual cases.