Basics
Alphabets
The German Alphabet is a vital part of the language, which is spoken by more than 130 million people in 38 countries of the world, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Liechtenstein, Belgium, and 33 other countries. The alphabet consists of the same 26 letters as English alphabet, plus some extra ones. German pronunciation of letters is in many places the same as English, as well as how to write them, however there are some unique letters and different ways of pronouncing some other letters.
Compound letters:
Sch: sounds like “sh”.
Ch: sounds sometimes like “sh” or like “kh”.
St: sounds like “sht” at the beginning, and like “st” at the end of a word.
Sch: sounds like “sh”.
Ch: sounds sometimes like “sh” or like “kh”.
St: sounds like “sht” at the beginning, and like “st” at the end of a word.
German Cardinal Numbers:
German Numbers are easy to learn, cardinal numbersare a piece of cake if you understand the logic behind them, from 0 to 12 you will find unique words, that you just need to memorize as is. 13 to 19 are composed words meaning (3- 10) for 13 (dreizehn), (4-10) for 14 (fierzehn).(check the table below). For 16 and 17 (sechzehn instead of sechszehn) and (siebzehn instead of siebenzehen) So now you can easily count to 20.
The logic that numbers from 21 to 99 is the opposite of English, for example in English we say: “twenty one” for 21, in German we say “one and twenty”, note that it’s not only read the opposite way, but also there is an extra “and” which is in German “und”, and all numbers are connected (einundzwanzig).
From 100 on, “und” is not used between numbers
It’s easy to master this your first day if you look at the table above and read the notes following it carefully.
German Numbers are easy to learn, cardinal numbersare a piece of cake if you understand the logic behind them, from 0 to 12 you will find unique words, that you just need to memorize as is. 13 to 19 are composed words meaning (3- 10) for 13 (dreizehn), (4-10) for 14 (fierzehn).(check the table below). For 16 and 17 (sechzehn instead of sechszehn) and (siebzehn instead of siebenzehen) So now you can easily count to 20.
The logic that numbers from 21 to 99 is the opposite of English, for example in English we say: “twenty one” for 21, in German we say “one and twenty”, note that it’s not only read the opposite way, but also there is an extra “and” which is in German “und”, and all numbers are connected (einundzwanzig).
From 100 on, “und” is not used between numbers
It’s easy to master this your first day if you look at the table above and read the notes following it carefully.