Learn German Grammar for Beginners (A1 / A2) - Introduction and Outline

Summary

Stefanie, a native German speaker, introduces her German grammar course aimed at complete beginners. The course is designed to teach grammar, precise pronunciation, and basic vocabulary up to the A2 level. Stefanie emphasizes the importance of consistency and active learning, highlighting that her videos will focus on grammar with vocabulary included in example sentences. She outlines the course structure, covering nouns, verbs, prepositions, adjectives, and sentence structure. While the course won't teach speaking fluently, Stefanie offers additional support through private sessions. Her goal is to provide a thorough, university-level education in German grammar.

Takeaways

• 👋 Welcome to the course! My name is Stefanie, a native German speaker with experience in online teaching.
• 📚 This course is designed for complete beginners and will focus on German grammar from the ground up, aiming to help you reach a written proficiency level of A2.
• 🎥 The course will include detailed grammar explanations, example sentences, and exercises to help you understand and use German accurately.
• 🗣️ While the course emphasizes receptive language skills like reading and understanding, it does not cover speaking practice. For that, consider private sessions or small group lessons.
• 🎯 The primary goal of this course is to provide thorough and precise grammar education, with a secondary focus on vocabulary through example sentences.
• ⌛ Consistency is key! Aim to study regularly, even if it's just 10-15 minutes per day, to make steady progress in your German language skills.
• 📖 The course will cover essential grammar topics such as noun genders, cases, articles, pronouns, verb conjugations, prepositions, adjectives, sentence structure, and more.
• 📈 Reaching A2 proficiency will require 150-200 active learning hours, including self-study, repetition, and practice outside of the video lessons.
• 🎤 Pronunciation tips will be integrated into the lessons rather than covered separately, helping you learn correct pronunciation contextually.
• 🎓 The ultimate aim is to provide an in-depth and academically rigorous understanding of German grammar, equivalent to university-level education.

Q & A

Who is the instructor of the course?

The instructor of the course is Stefanie, a native German speaker.

What is the main focus of Stefanie's course?

The main focus of Stefanie's course is German grammar for beginners, aiming to teach accurate German pronunciation and thorough grammar.

What level of German proficiency does the course aim to achieve?

The course aims to achieve an A2 level of written proficiency in German.

What are some of the grammatical topics covered in the course?

The course covers topics such as gender of nouns, plural of nouns, the four cases (nominative, genitive, dative, accusative), articles, pronouns, verbs, prepositions, adjectives, adverbs, particles, numbers, and sentence structure.

How many active learning hours are required to reach A2 proficiency according to the Goethe Institute?

To reach A2 proficiency, between 150 and 200 active learning hours are required.

Does the course cover speaking fluency in German?

No, the course cannot teach speaking fluently in German as it focuses primarily on grammar and accurate construction of sentences.

Is vocabulary training a primary focus of this course?

No, vocabulary training is not the primary focus of this course, but vocabulary will be included in example sentences and grammatical exercises.

How does Stefanie suggest supplementing the course for vocabulary learning?

Stefanie suggests using a good dictionary, creating flash cards, and self-studying vocabulary on the side to supplement the course.

What does Stefanie recommend for achieving consistency in learning?

Stefanie recommends studying consistently, even if it is only for 10 or 15 minutes per day, to advance in German language skills.

How does Stefanie plan to handle pronunciation lessons?

Stefanie plans to highlight aspects of pronunciation during the lessons, explaining them as relevant words come up in example sentences.

Outlines

00:00

🎓 Introduction to the Course

Stefanie welcomes viewers to her German grammar course. She introduces herself, explains her background in teaching German online, and acknowledges her unfamiliarity with recording lessons for a camera. This course aims to teach German from scratch, covering grammar comprehensively and focusing on accurate pronunciation. Stefanie outlines the structure of the course, which is designed for beginners, and mentions her plan to create separate playlists for different proficiency levels (A1, A2, B1, B2, C1, C2). The goal is to help learners achieve A2 written proficiency in German.

05:01

📚 Goals and Course Structure

Stefanie explains the goals of the course, emphasizing that it targets receptive language skills such as reading and writing. The course aims to build detailed grammar knowledge and a vocabulary at the A2 level through example sentences and exercises. She stresses that fluency cannot be achieved through an online course alone, but by the end of this course, students should feel comfortable communicating at an elementary level in German.

10:01

📈 Learning Expectations and Hours

Stefanie discusses the expectations for achieving A2 proficiency in German, including the recommended 150-200 hours of active learning. She advises learners to be patient and consistent, emphasizing the importance of repetition and self-study. The course focuses on grammar, with vocabulary incorporated into examples. She also mentions the possibility of private sessions for speaking practice.

15:01

🗂️ Course Content Overview

Stefanie provides an overview of the grammar topics covered in the course, including nouns, articles, pronouns, verbs, prepositions, adjectives, adverbs, particles, numbers, and sentence structure. She highlights the importance of understanding German grammar thoroughly to succeed at higher levels. The course will cover three tenses, imperative forms, passive voice, conjunctives, and verb-object relationships.

🗣️ Sentence Structure and Pronunciation

Stefanie outlines the focus on sentence structure and word order in German, which is crucial for mastering the language. She plans to integrate pronunciation tips throughout the lessons rather than dedicating separate sessions to it. The course aims to provide a deep academic understanding of German, equipping learners with skills equivalent to university-level education.

💬 Encouragement and Additional Resources

Stefanie encourages learners to study consistently and highlights what the course does not cover, such as fluency and targeted vocabulary training. She invites interested learners to contact her for private or small group lessons. She concludes by urging viewers to subscribe to her channel, engage with the content, and provide feedback to support their learning journey.

Keywords

💡German Grammar

German grammar refers to the system and structure of the German language, including syntax, morphology, and phonology. In the video, the instructor, Stefanie, aims to teach comprehensive German grammar to beginners, starting from the basics and covering various grammatical rules and structures.

💡A1 and A2 Levels

These are levels of language proficiency defined by the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR). A1 is the beginner level, and A2 is the elementary level. Stefanie's course is designed to take students from no knowledge of German to an A2 level, where they can understand and use basic phrases and sentences in everyday situations.

💡Pronunciation

Pronunciation involves the way in which a word or a language is spoken. Stefanie emphasizes teaching accurate German pronunciation with a clear standard dialect. She plans to highlight pronunciation aspects as they come up during the lessons, integrating them with grammar and vocabulary practice.

💡Receptive Language Skills

These skills include listening and reading, where the focus is on understanding the language rather than producing it. Stefanie's course targets receptive skills by teaching grammar, sentence building, and vocabulary through listening to her explanations and reading example sentences.

💡Goe Institute

The Goethe Institute is a German cultural association operational worldwide, promoting the study of the German language abroad and encouraging international cultural exchange. Stefanie references their standards and vocabulary requirements for reaching A2 proficiency in German.

💡Vocabulary

Vocabulary refers to the set of words known and used by a person in a language. While Stefanie's primary focus is on grammar, she includes A1 and A2 level vocabulary in her example sentences and grammatical exercises to help students build their word bank alongside learning grammar.

💡Sentence Structure

Sentence structure is the arrangement of words in a sentence to make grammatically correct and meaningful sentences. Stefanie plans to cover the placement of verbs, the formation of questions, and the overall syntax, which are crucial elements in mastering German grammar.

💡Cases in German

German uses four cases (nominative, genitive, dative, and accusative) to indicate the grammatical function of nouns and pronouns in a sentence. Stefanie's course will include detailed lessons on how these cases are used, which is essential for accurate sentence construction in German.

💡Regular and Irregular Verbs

These are two categories of verbs in German. Regular verbs follow a predictable pattern when conjugated, while irregular verbs do not. Stefanie will differentiate between these types of verbs and teach their conjugations in various tenses, which is fundamental for forming correct sentences.

💡Active Learning Hours

Active learning hours refer to the time spent actively engaging with and practicing the language. Stefanie mentions that achieving A2 proficiency in German requires 150 to 200 active learning hours, including watching her videos, doing exercises, and self-study activities like using flashcards.

Highlights

Welcome and introduction by Stefanie, a German native speaker.

Stefanie's background in teaching German online through one-on-one sessions.

Focus of the course: German grammar for beginners, aiming for A2 level proficiency.

Emphasis on accurate German pronunciation with a clear standard German dialect.

Course structure: playlists for different levels (A1, A2, B1, B2, C1, C2).

Goals of the course: achieving written proficiency in German at A2 level.

Explanation of receptive language skills: understanding, reading, and writing in German.

Importance of repetition and self-study time for language learning.

Targeted vocabulary of approximately 1200 words for A2 level proficiency.

Expected learning hours: 150-200 active learning hours for A2 level.

Outline of course content: nouns, articles, pronouns, verbs, prepositions, adjectives, adverbs, particles, numbers, and sentence structure.

Detailed explanation of grammatical tools and items at A1 and A2 levels.

Importance of consistency and regular study for language learning progress.

Mention of additional private or small group lessons for speaking practice.

Encouragement for feedback, comments, and subscriptions for course updates.

Transcripts

hello

guten tag hello and welcome everybody

thank you for joining me in my course

here

you certainly clicked on that thumbnail

because you would like to learn german

and this is exactly what i would like to

teach you so

a one welcome from my side my name is

stefanie

i'm a german native speaker and actually

up until now i have been used to

teaching german

online like through skype for example in

one-on-one sessions

but i'm not really very acquainted yet

with giving lessons

talking to a camera only so um it's new

for me

please bear with me let's see how it

goes i'm gonna do my best

so as you can see by the title of this

video

and by the outline of it this is going

to be a german grammar course for people

who would like to learn german

from scratch from the beginning so i

don't know maybe you have had some

german lessons back in school when you

were at university

or you studied a little bit by yourself

but never really got to a

much advanced level with that so this

course is for you

it is designed to be really thorough

really precise

and along the way i will also teach you

very accurate

german pronunciation with some clear

standard german dialect

and this is supposed to be the intro the

introduction video to my course

so the content of this video is actually

just going to be

to introduce to you how my courses are

designed

what their purpose is what their

function is and

so since this is a grammar course for

complete beginners

i would like to explain to you the goals

of this course

the concept of my lessons and give you

an outline of the content that you're

going to study

within this playlist so i'm going to

create playlists for

beginners a1a2 level then some

intermediate and advanced

students b1 b2 and once i get to that

i'm also going to create videos

for very advanced learners of german

like c1

c2 level to really get you speaking

well so why not start with

the goals of this course so

once you completed this playlist this

course you will

ideally this is my goal you will have

reached a

written proficiency of german at level

a2

i am kind of saying written here because

of course you're looking at a screen

i am talking to you you're listening to

me but of course you don't have any

possibility of talking

back to me so everything we're going to

study here

is primarily targeted at your receptive

language skills meaning

understanding reading building building

sentences of your own and also actually

even

writing but everything actively

producing language

cannot be covered uh by by a youtube or

online language course so this is

unfortunately

not possible but if you follow my

courses consistently at the end of it

you will have a quiet detailed grammar

skills

at elementary and upper elementary level

this is how i term the a1 and a2 levels

in german and you will also have

acquired

a vocabulary at this level a2 which i'm

going to do through numerous example

sentences

and also grammatical exercises that are

going to contain the vocabulary of a1

and a2 level however this course is

primarily targeted at teaching you

grammar and the vocabulary is going to

be included in the example sentences but

it's not targeted at vocabulary

exclusively

i'm actually considering creating

another course specifically

for vocabulary training so that's going

to be in a different playlist than

eventually

what is the concept of my lessons

first of all we should actually try to

clarify what does

a2 level of proficiency in german

actually entail

what does it mean so maybe you're um

acquainted with this terminology already

if you're not this is how the gert

institute

one of the authorities on teaching

german as a foreign language

on their website they state that at an

a2 level

of proficiency in german you're able to

understand and use sentences

and common expressions in everyday

situations

you will also be able to make yourself

understood in simple and routine

situations that demand an exchange of

information

on topics that are common and familiar

to you

so you will not of course not yet be

able to talk about quantum physics for

example or maybe not even like the

details of

a free market economy but you will be

able to talk about all the aspects of

your daily life

that you just need to survive and

communicate in germany so i assume this

is your goal

and lastly according to greater

institute you will be able to describe

your background and education

as well as your immediate surroundings

and other matters associated with your

immediate needs in a very simple and

concise way

so actually they are very unprecise in a

sense that they don't tell you you will

be able to say this and use that and

this grammatical function and this and

that vocabulary

but there is a certain level of speaking

competence required are you able to get

by

with the grammatical tools and means and

vocabulary that you have

so it is actually much more about how

you use what you have learned

instead of what you have learned

in order to reach a2 level in german

good institute recommends

a required vocabulary of approximately

1200

words however this number is to be

understood with some caution because

it is interpreted differently whether or

not and to what degree

this for example includes numbers like

do you count 22 23

24 as separate words or actually just

one to ten

and then pronouns and and many detailed

words that

can expand your vocabulary very quickly

but don't really add to your toolbox so

numbers are always

to be looked at a little bit separately

and also this is a very important point

that i would like to highlight because

nowadays i found that people want to get

to their goals extremely

quickly which is not a bad thing in

itself i i would like to

reach proficiency in foreign languages

very quickly myself that would be

wonderful

however i would like to just give you a

brief overview of what expectations

regarding german language are reasonable

to have

so that you will be able to

to set your plan accordingly because

in order to reach a2 level in german you

will need to invest

between 150 and 200

active learning hours so when you look

at how long my videos are going to be i

cannot possibly cover those 200 hours to

lead you to a2

however in those learning hours is

always included

repetition repetition is so important in

language learning

self-study time working with flash cards

reading some articles on the side so my

course as i told you is only focus on

on grammar and kind of includes the

vocabulary in that

however you will also always need some

extra time in order to

actually study the vocabulary by

yourself go through some of the

exercises again

and actually do conversation with people

which is impossible for me to cover

in an online course so after 150

to 200 active learning hours you will be

speaking

confidently in german at level a2 which

is the level that you need to survive

without any like stomach pain or

constant problems

and the incapacity to express yourself

so you're going to feel comfortable

to communicate in simple and concise

and targeted manners with people in

germany which is a nice thing to do

so this is actually a table that i found

um

concerning information from the greater

institute it outlines to you

how many learning hours you will need to

invest even beyond that once we get to

b1

b2 levels you see that the required

amount of hours

kind of increases not exponentially but

the b levels are usually much more time

consuming than a levels were

the numbers on the left are actually for

adults so 80 200

350 or i don't assume you're a child

because my

lessons would be very boring to you but

if a child wanted to learn german

you see on the right hand side the

amount of hours that would be needed

for a child to invest which i also find

very interesting

so as you probably see by the way

my course is designed i am not focusing

well at least not primarily on

entertainment although i would

love it if you enjoy my courses if you

find them entertaining i'll i'll do my

best to

to use um interesting exercises

interesting example sentences and i'll

try not to make the course too dry

of course but my primary target is

educational i would like to provide

quality

education because there are so many

people who can do the entertainment

much better than i can very very

proficient

and really like fun and exciting

teachers out there

so if that's the type of lesson you

prefer i totally understand you're very

very welcome to do that

i'll do the best within my means to be

entertaining as well

but i am aiming at education and quality

of explanations

and depth of explanations so

actually in order to learn any language

consistency

is key i will be uploading my lessons

on a very regular basis so that you can

follow them on a very regular basis as

well

if you would like to really advance in

your skills

i strongly advise you to study

consistently

and if you only have 10 or 15 minutes

per day that's already perfect

so some of my lessons are going to be a

bit longer some are going to be a bit

shorter

maybe you're going to split them or

re-watch them over and over maybe you're

going to skip a couple of them

that's totally up to you it's perfectly

your choice

please try to do it consistently and you

will notice

how much further that gets you

so i would also mention what my course

does not cover

because i don't want to promise you that

and i cannot promise you that and anyone

who does promise you that

um has very ambitious goals for an

online format because this course cannot

possibly teach you

speaking fluently in german how can it i

mean you're very very welcome to talk

back

to the screen please do please speak

after me that is i i strongly encourage

that

but i am teaching you accuracy here

i teach you how to form and construct

speech

in german accurately but in order to

gain

fluency this is not possible when i talk

at you and you listen to me

so in case you are maybe interested in

covering the

speaking part with me in private

sessions or maybe like small group

lessons

uh please find my email address in the

info box below you can contact me there

and maybe we will find a possibility to

arrange like

one-on-one speaking or in small groups

so contact me on my email address if you

like

and this course also does not cover a

targeted vocabulary training targeted in

the sense that i would give you

lists and talk through each of the

vocabulary items and explain what it

means

i cannot do that within this course as i

mentioned i might create another

vocabulary

playlist separately but i will do my

very best to include as much vocabulary

of the a2 level into my example

sentences

and texts as i can so that you kind of

will be able to study two in one however

please also consult any good dictionary

for vocabulary

that i can't or didn't explain in every

single exercise so feel free to just

grab a pen

and some paper take some notes and look

up the vocabulary

later in the dictionary and create some

flash cards i will do whatever i can to

make it easier for you

however there's also always going to be

a little bit of studying on the side

and work that you need to do by yourself

so

outline what is my course actually going

to include

so there is disagreement on what

grammatical

tools and items you should be able to

use at watch

at what level uh different textbooks

include

different grammatical items i find

several of them need to be taught early

on

although they are quite complex and a

little bit

unintuitive to understand for speakers

of other languages so it depends on if

you're in

a native spanish speaker native english

speaker and native russian speaker

chinese speaker you will find

very different challenges compared to

speakers of other languages

however i find it very useful to include

in this a1a2 course

first of all starting with nouns you

already

maybe already know that german has three

different genders so we'll talk about

gender of nouns plural of nouns

and the four different cases that we

have so we put

nouns and articles and pronouns and

adjectives into the nominative genitive

data and accusative case

so we're going to study how that works

we will study

articles and pronouns you see very very

different kinds of articles and pronouns

here they sound very complicated but

really they are not

but i will along those lines give you a

very detailed knowledge of

grammar in general because it hugely

helps once

once you get to the higher more advanced

levels in german

and if you skip on that part you might

regret it a bit later

so i'm sorry if this looks overly

technical but trust me it is

it is necessary it's worthwhile and it

will look very familiar to you

once i explained the concepts to you so

don't worry

extremely important in german grammar as

in most other languages are

verbs we will differentiate regular and

irregular verbs and we're going to study

three different tenses the present tense

present perfect and past tense

as well as the imperative and then some

other categories of verbs like reflexive

and separable verbs

we will see how the passive works in

german and also conjunctives why

the infamous infamous mode that a german

seems to be

full of and also how verbs with direct

or indirect

objects work in german

we will study prepositions those that

come with dative case those that come

with accusative case and those that come

with both

we will study adjectives and how

adjective declension works that is the

most terrifying topic to most of my

students at the moment because

it does look a little bit more

complicated in the beginning but i will

do my very best to explain this concept

well to you

we will learn how to do comparisons with

the comparative and superlative of

adjectives

we will study adverbs particles and

numbers

and also extremely importantly and i

think i will do that much earlier than

in the last position i might do it

immediately like after

after talking about verbs but sentence

structure where do you

position the verb in a german sentence

and this is maybe the most

complex or not intuitively understood

aspect of german grammar

where do i need to put the verb in the

main sentence in a subordinate clause

how does negation work what is this

infamous

sentence bracket in german how do we

formulate yes no questions

and open-ended questions and you might

now

ask yourself what about pronunciation

actually

i myself always found pronunciation

lessons the most boring lessons of any

language course

because you invest hours and hours into

studying something and then you don't

even know how to say a single sentence

once you're done

so what i would like to do is highlight

aspects of pronunciation to you

while we are in it so whenever we can

come across a word that is pronounced

in very interesting way i will explain

that when we

use that word in an example sentence for

example

so i will not cover that part separately

i will do it as we go

as you can see it it is my goal to give

you a very

deep knowledge of german in terms of

accuracy

on an academic level so i would really

like to do it

so thoroughly that at the end of it you

will have gained

knowledge that and i know this sounds

ambitious

is equivalent to university education

and i will do

the best i can to meet that goal and uh

i hope

for your interest thank you for your

interest i hope for your support

and for your consistency and i would

love it if you uh

if you subscribed to this channel so you

will get notified

every time a new video is uploaded and

i'm very much looking forward to doing

this with you

i appreciate your feedback please leave

leave comments

down below like or dislike the video

depending on how you liked it

and i'm looking forward to teaching you

my native language

very soon thank you very much guys see

you