INSTANT GERMAN

This work‑sheet should give you access to a large German vocabulary and relieve some of the stress of confronting German.

You already know a significant amount of German. This is because English and German are sister languages which come from closely related Germanic dialects of fifteen centuries ago. Although both languages have greatly changed since then, they still have a large stock of words in common, words which not only look very similar but also have virtually the same meaning. This is very obvious when you look at words which have not changed in either language, as for example English finger and German Finger. It gets less obvious when you compare words like death and Tod. Such related words are called COGNATES.

These cognates are of enormous advantage when learning German. From the start, there are hundreds of German words more or less familiar to an English speaker. Their number increases greatly when one knows a bit about the evolution of the sounds of English and German. The following outline will introduce you to some of the principles and will help you expand your German vocabulary very rapidly.

A. GERMAN AND ENGLISH IDENTICAL CONSONANTS

Most German consonants correspond directly to English consonants.

The list below compares the German consonants with their English counterparts. Please note that we are dealing here with the letters only and not with their pronunciation. The pronunciation of two identical letters in German and English may be a bit different (e.g. German Japan is pronounced like "yapan").

1. b – b Bank ‑ bank

2. d – d Drama ‑ drama

3. f – f Form ‑ form

4. g – g Gold ‑ gold

5. h – h Hand ‑ hand

6. j – j Jaguar ‑ jaguar

7. k – k Kilo ‑ kilo

k –c Kredit ‑ credit

8. l – l Land ‑ land

9. m – m Million ‑ million

10. n – n Name - name

11. p – p Park ‑ park

12. s – s Sand ‑ sand

13. t – t Tempo ‑ tempo

14. w – w Wind ‑ wind

15. z – z Zoo ‑ zoo

Exercises

1. The following German words have English cognates which are virtually identical in spelling (except for German capitalization of nouns). There are some differences in pronunciation which should not concern you now. Find the English cognates.

Arm Fall mild

Ball Film Plan

Bar Form Rest

Bier Gas Ring

bitter Glas so

blind Golf Sport

blond Gras Stand

Bus Hammer still

Butter Horn warm

Dung Hunger wild

England in Winter

2. German words frequently take endings that we do not use in English. Verbs, for instance, end with –en in their infinitive forms. However, despite the German endings (here: -e or -en), you should be able to easily determine the cognates.

alle hindern singen

backen Kanne sinken

beginnen Knoten Sorte

binden korken starren

bringen kosten stinken

Bulle Lampe trinken

drillen lernen wandern

Ende Lippe warnen

finden Liste waschen

Flamme packen winden

hängen Rolle spinnen

3. The following cognates differ a bit in spelling but are of similar pronunciation.

NB German “ei” is pronounced similarly to English “eye” (long i sound). German “ie” is pronounced similarly to English long e sound. German “au” is pronounced similarly to English “ow.” Write what you think are the most likely cognates to each word listed below.

Amerika Haus sauer

bei hier scheinen

bevor Kanada Schuh

brauen kauen Schwein

Eis Maus Staat

faul mein strikt

fein Preis Suppe

fett Reis Wein

Gruppe Sack wenn

4. The following words are mostly derived from Latin and Greek roots.

Apart from some spelling differences, some endings and pronunciation they are almost identical with their English cognates. (NB ß = ss). Write the cognates of fifteen words.

Adresse Kritik Prozeß

aktiv Kultur Qualität

Auto Liter Religion

direkt Maschine reparieren

Diskussion Medizin Restaurant

Doktor Metall Resultat

Droge Meter Rezept

elektrisch Minute Sekunde

Familie modern Semester

Funktion Moment Sofa

Gramm Motor Stil

gratulieren Museum Student

Hotel Musik Summe

Humor nervös Taxi

ideal Nummer Technik

intelligent Papier Temperatur

interessant passiv Text

Kabel Patient Theater

Kaff ee Pause Theorie

Kamera Person Titel

komisch Politik Tradition

kompliziert Polizei Typ

Konzert produzieren Universität

5. Many words have been borrowed directly from English. Here are some examples:

Baby Jazz Start

Bar Jeans stoppen

boxen Job Streik

Computer Picknick Streß

fair Smog Tip

Hobby Star Trend

B. GERMAN AND ENGLISH VOWELS

German and English vowels do not correspond as simply as most consonants do. Compare the German au with its English cognates in these pairs: blue and blau, grey and grau, room and Raum, dream and Traum, sow and Sau. For our purposes here it is enough if you assume that virtually any German vowel may correspond to any English vowel (e.g. Kuß ‑ kiss, und ‑ and, wohl ‑ well), although in most cases the corresponding vowels will be somewhat similar (e.g. frisch ‑ fresh, kühl ‑ cool, rund ‑ round).

Exercises

6. Find an English cognate by changing the stressed vowel of the German word. (You may notice some patterns here.) The consonants are the same.

lang bersten Brust

an frisch Hut

Nase irren Wunde

mager Onkel wundern

Nadel Sommer Kuß

Stahl Sohn für

Gast kommen Küste

Stamm stottern Faust

wann lose Stein

Feld Stroh Geist

nett roh Heim

See wohl meist

sehen Ohr allein

stehlen hören fein

Tee Öl steif

gehen rund Feuer

mehr Grund neu

Werk Bluse Freund

C. GERMAN AND ENGLISH SHIFTED CONSONANTS

Due to reasons like the sound‑shifts mentioned above, the German consonants above (1 ‑ 13) can also correspond to other, different English consonants. Some of these shifted correspondences are very common and are therefore worth knowing:

1. d th Bad ‑ bath

2. t d Garten ‑ garden

3. Z/tz t Salz ‑ salt

4. s/ss/B Wasser ‑ water

5. f p Seife ‑ soap

6. k ch Kinn chin

7. ch k Milch ‑ milk

8. ch gh Nacht ‑ night

9. b v Silber ‑ silver

10. g y Garn ‑ yarn

11. sch sh Fisch ‑ fish

12. sch s Schnee ‑ snow

Exercises

7. The following cognate pairs show the indirect correspondences of the patterns above. Write the cognate for at least four words in each pattern.

Pattern 1: d – th	Pattern 2: t – d		Pattern 3: z/tz – t	Pattern 4: s/ss/ß – t
beide	alt	laut	Herz	aus
Bruder	Bart	leiten	Hitz	beißen
danken	Bett	Mitte	Katze	besser
dann	Blut	Schatten	Netz	es
dünn	breit	Seite	setzen	Fuß
Durst	Brot	tanzen	Sitz	groß
Erde	falten	Tat	zehn	grüßen
Kleidung	Gott	tot	zu	hassen
Leder	gut	tun		heiß
	halten	Tür		lassen
	hart	unter		was
	kalt	weit		weiß
	Karte	Wort

Pattern 5: f – p	Pattern 6: k – ch	Pattern 7: ch – k	Pattern 8: ch – gh
Griff	kauen	Becher	acht
helfen	Kirche	brechen	hoch
hoffen	Kiste	Buch	lachen
offen		machen	leicht
reif		suchen	Nachbar
scharf		wach	Nacht
Schiff		Woche	recht

Pattern 9: b – v	Pattern 10: g – y/i/ow	Pattern 11: sch – sh	Pattern 12: sch – s
eben	betrügen	schaudern	Schliem
haben	fliegen	Schulter	schmieren
halb	folgen	schier	schmuggeln
heben