There are so many things to learn by heart in German! Learning a new noun means learning its gender. Each irregular verb seems to have its own rules of conjugation. It’s hard to know whether to use haben or sein in the present perfect.

 

Therefore, in this article, I will provide you with seven pieces of advice to get around these nightmarish learning-by-heart obstacles. They might not work 100% of the time, but they do work most of the time. Have a look and you will learn how, by using deduction and word creation, you can effortlessly take your German skills to the next level.

 

Let’s start German-hacking!

 

Tip #1: Create a noun out of an adjective with –heit, -keit and –igkeit

 

For most adjectives that do not have suffixes, there exists a noun version that ends in -heit. So, if you know how to say faul (lazy), you can easily learn die Faulheit (laziness), for example.

 

On the other hand, most adjectives that have the suffixes -bar, -ig, -isch, -lich, -sam, -el and -er have noun forms that end in -keit.

 

Similarly, adjectives with the suffixes -los and -haft have noun forms ending in -igkeit. An example of this is Hilflosigkeit.

 

Tip #2: Create a noun out of a verb just by adding the article das

 

For instance, you know how to say sich verhalten (to behave), but not das Verhalten (behaviour). All you have to do is put the article das before the verb!

 

Tip #3: Guess how irregular verbs are conjugated (there are only fourteen rules, not 200!)

 

View the table below to understand the fourteen rules for conjugating German verbs.

 

Vowel root

Infinitive examples

present

past

present perfect

Conjugation examples in the 3rd person

ie

bieten, frieren

ie

o

o

bietet, bot, geboten

ei

Bleiben

ei

ie

ie

bleibt, blieb, geblieben

eif, eiß

greifen, heißen

ei

i + the following consonant twice

i + the following consonant twice

greift, griff, gegriffen

eid

Leiden

ei

itt

itt

leidet, litt, gelitten

ess

essen, fressen

i

a

e

isst, aß, gegessen

in

finden, binden

in

an

un

Findet, fand, gefunden

e

geben, gelten

i

a

e

gibt, gab, gegeben

at, as, ad, ag

braten, schlagen

ä

u

a

schlägt, schlug, geschlagen

end

senden, wenden

end

andt

andt

sendet, sandte, gesandt

al, af

schlafen, fallen

ä

ie

a

schläft, schlief, geschlafen

eh

fehlen, befehlen,

e

ie

o

befehlt, befiehlt, befohlen

i + the following consonant twice

schwimmen, gewinnen

i

a

o

schwimmt, schwamm, geschwommen

e+nn

brennen, nennen

enn

annt

annt

brennt, brannte, gebrannt

an, än

fangen, hängen

ä

i

a

fängt, fing, gefangen

 

Tip #4: Guess how to use haben and sein in the present perfect tense (Perfekt)

 

Haben can be used with transitive verbs (including reflexive ones with sich) and modal verbs (dürfen, können, etc.).

 

Sein can be used with stative verbs (sein, liegen, sitzen, stehen, frieren, brennen, geschehen, etc.), as well as with verbs expressing movement (gehen, fahren, fliegen, ziehen, legen, setzten, schwimmen, stellen, etc.).

 

Tip #5: Create an adjective out of a noun by adding the suffix -mäßig

 

What if you want to say that the park you went to this weekend was “full of flowers” but you don’t know how to say “full of flowers” in German?

 

You may already know that the word Blumen means “flowers.” With this knowledge, you can say Ich habe am Wochenende einen Blumenmäßigen Park besucht. You should note that this isn’t the best way of saying this. However, you will avoid the awkwardness of pausing to think of words, and everybody will understand you.

 

Tip #6: Guess noun genders without learning each of them separately

 

All you need to do is pay attention to the noun’s ending, and study the lists below.

 

Usually Feminine (die):

 

  • -a
  • -anz
  • -ei
  • -enz
  • -heit
  • -ie
  • -ik
  • -in
  • -keit
  • -schaft
  • -sion
  • -sis
  • -tät
  • -tion
  • -ung
  • -ur

 

Plus -ade, -age, -anz, -enz, -ette, -ine, -ion, -tur if the word is foreign or borrowed from another language.

 

Usually Masculine (der):

 

  • -ant
  • -ast
  • -ich
  • -ig
  • -ismus
  • -ling
  • -or
  • -us
  • -en when it is not related to a verb. For example: der Ofen (the oven).
  • Nouns that do not come from verbs, such as das Essen and das Verhalten
  • -er when it is an instrument and has a verb root designating what it does, such as Kugelschreiber, Tacker, etc.

 

Usually Neuter (das):

 

  • -al
  • -an
  • -ar
  • -ät
  • -ent
  • -ett
  • -ier
  • -iv
  • -o
  • -it
  • -on
  • -il
  • -ma
  • -ment
  • -tel
  • -tum
  • -um
  • Diminutives ending in -lein or -chen, such as Mädchen (little girl) and Fraulein (woman).
  • Dialect diminutives -le, -erl, -el, -li.
  • Most words that have the prefix ge- and most nouns that end in -nis and -sal.

 

You can also guess a noun’s gender by thinking about its meaning and construction, as seen in the lists below:

 

Usually Feminine (die):

 

  • Female people and animals.
  • Planets and stars, such as die Sonne (the Sun).

 

Usually Masculine (der):

 

  • Male people and animals.
  • Seasons, months, days.
  • Celestial bodies, such as der Mond (the Moon), cardinal points.

 

Plus, most nouns that come from verbs (without the ending -en). For example:

 

  • ansteigen (to increase).
  • Der Anstieg (the increase).

 

This takes the verb participle form with the ge- prefix and the -t or -en endings.

 

Usually Neuter (das):

 

  • Metals, chemical elements.
  • Letters of the alphabet.
  • Hotels, restaurants, cinemas.
  • Young versions of animals (including humans) such as Das Kind (child), das Kalb (calf) and das Lamm (lamb).
  • Verbs that are transparently turned into nouns, such as Das Verhalten (the behavior) and Das Essen (food).
  • Continents and most countries. Exceptions include countries with nouns in their name, like the US and Switzerland (die Schweiz), Irak and Iran.
  • Most nouns that come from other languages, like das Internet.

The are some exception to this last one. Namely, when it sounds like an instrument and ends in -er, such as in der Computer and when it sounds like a German word, such as in die Website and die Seite.

 

Tip #7: Creating a concept from a basic noun

 

Adding the suffix -schaft to a noun that doesn’t already have a suffix will usually create a new concept. You can use this when you think that you aren’t a good enough German speaker to guess the word by yourself.

 

Here’s an example: you know how to say der Kunde (client) but you don’t know how to say customers. The answer is die Kundschaft.

 

This trick works pretty well for creating translations of words that have the suffix “-ship” in English. For example: Freundschaft (friendship) and Partnerschaft (partnership).

 

Bonus: Conversational hijacking tricks

 

This last part is very non-academic and should only be used if you want your German to sound better quickly. Don’t use these tricks too much, since they can become a bad habit.

 

If you don’t know whether you should use die, dem, der, den or das, just say it as if you were talking very quickly and say dae (ae has to be pronounced like the i in fish). Most Germans speak too quickly to pronounce the final consonants in their articles. Therefore, most won’t notice.

 

Here’s another tip: to gain time when searching for words, use filler words like irgendwie (somehow) or so zu sagen (I would say). Avoid eigentlich (which could mean either “more or less” or “actually”) since it’s kind of ambiguous.

 

Thanks to these German-pirating tips, you will quickly feel much more comfortable speaking German without learning too much by heart. And remember: feeling comfortable and being self-confident is just as important as vocabulary or grammar in your quest for proficiency.

 

Image Sources

 

Hero Image by Nicolas Raymond (CC BY 2.0)