How to remember German articles using eidetics. Mnemonics, or how to learn German easily? How to remember articles in German

“How to remember German articles?!

Techniques for working at the initial stage of learning German"

“Every noun has its own gender, but don’t look here for logic or system; and therefore the gender of each noun separately must be memorized by heart. There is no other way. To cope with this task, you need memory as capacious as a ledger. In German, a girl has no gender, although, say, a turnip has one. What excessive respect for the turnip and what an outrageous disregard for the girl!” Mark Twain wrote in his article “On the Terrifying Difficulty of the German Language” and he was right. But still he managed to perfectly master written and spoken German.

I personally speak about German with love. This is a language that has not only grammatical rules, the observance of which is mandatory, but also many phonetic ones, an error in which can lead to misunderstanding. What's the beauty? The fact is that, having learned the rules and exceptions to them, everyone can be confident in the verbal correctness of their statements. For all students of German, the concept of the German article is familiar. How to remember German articles?! The question and exclamation marks are not accidental here. The question mark indicates that the process of memorizing this material always causes difficulties for students, especially at the junior level of education. When the child is still little familiar with the parts of speech, their constant features (in this case, gender). And the exclamation mark, I hope, has the right to be present, because... I want to talk about the possibilities of relieving difficulties in learning articles from German nouns, while awakening children's interest in this complex topic.

The first acquaintance with German nouns occurs already at the beginning of grade 2 (the first year of teaching German). German nouns, just like in Russian, answer the same questions and designate objects, but there are significant differences:

All nouns in German are written with a capital letter.

have articles

It is this last difference that always causes difficulty when learning German nouns. An article is a word before each noun, which determines the gender, number and case of the noun. In addition, the gender of German and Russian nouns often does not coincide. Hence the difficulty in memorizing and further application. For example:

die Mutter – mother (female) coincides

der Vater – father (m.b.) coincides

das Kind – child (m.b.) does not match

das Buch – book (female) does not match

In the plural, all nouns take one single article die, which in turn coincides with the feminine article. Of course, for a child just starting to learn German, this is not only difficult to remember, but even difficult to perceive. In addition, as in the Russian language, there are a number of nouns that are used only in the plural. How can a beginning “foreigner” not confuse them?

My main task when working on this material is to teach children to clearly identify the article of a particular German noun and not rely on the Russian language in this case. Of course, there are a number of grammatical topics where it is simply necessary to draw an analogy with the Russian language, but not in this case, here the analogy will only get in the way.

Therefore, I begin work on memorizing articles, one might say, from the very first steps. There are important points that I always observe:

Avoid learning German nouns without articles. There shouldn't be "Mutter" instead of "die Mutter". If a child uses a word without an article, I always ask the questions “What is the article?”, “What article does this word have?” At the same time, I explain that a German noun cannot exist without article, it cannot be missed, not noticed;

Focus on nouns whose gender does not coincide with the Russian language, especially with words with the same root:

der Bruder – brother (m.b.) coincides

das Brüderchen - little brother (sr.) does not match

Vocabulary work can and should be made interesting and encourage children to develop themselves. In my lessons, from the second quarter of 2nd grade, I begin teaching students a dictionary. Someone will say early, they don’t know how to write normally yet, it’s difficult, etc. I beg to differ. Unfortunately, modern children write little anyway; their motor skills are less and less developed. And when maintaining a German dictionary and the work that we do in it, in addition to the usual rewriting of words, it arouses interest among my students. This seemingly boring and time-consuming work can be exciting, helping the child get away from the fear of making mistakes.

Everyone knows that a primary school student has a visual-figurative type of thinking. I myself am a visual person and a big fan of stationery, so in any unclear situation I draw diagrams and highlight information in different colors. Same with articles. I've seen advice to have three notebooks for different kinds of nouns - in my opinion, this is too much, and besides, this is impossible in elementary grades. But the idea of ​​highlighting nouns in different colors depending on their gender is great.
The brain is still designed in such a way that it tries to make its work easier and not remember what it considers unnecessary information. If about “die Katze” even without an article it is clear that this is a “cat”, then he does not particularly strive to remember the gender. Until he comes across die Band/der Band/das Band. You can either remind yourself each time to focus on that very “die”, or use a Cunning Plan: have four highlighter markers.
For example, mark the feminine gender in red, the masculine gender in blue, the neuter gender in green, and leave yellow for the plural. When the brain again does not remember the article (they are all small and on “d” anyway!), it will be possible to remember that “Tisch” was blue - that means “der”. From experience, I want to say that children are less likely to make mistakes in changing nouns by case at an older stage if, using this technique, they learn the original article of a German noun. The process is not complicated and even creative.

The question arises: “And so all my life?” Highlight, teach, emphasize? In fact, no, all the main work is done at the initial stage, when the basic vocabulary is expanded. “Der Tisch”, “die Lampe”, “das Auto” - something that needs to be overcome. But then one feature of the language, which terrifies you at the very beginning, begins to work in your favor. These are the same words of 20 letters from several roots - Zusammensetzungen, compound nouns. If you know that "Stelle" is exactly "die Stelle", then you also know the genus of "Haltestelle", "Tankstelle" and even "Familienberatungsstelle", because it always depends on the last root.
There is a special rule, the so-called determination of gender by the end of a word. This is the rule of special endings that tell us the gender of the word. For better memorization, we come up with non-existent words consisting of endings. And for this word we will come up with a story and draw a picture. For example:

der Ig-ling-or-(i)smus is a virus that sticks to masculine words in German.

die Heit-ung-keit-ei-schaft-tion-(i)tät-ik - a female scientist working to create an elixir of omniscience.

das Tum-chen-ma-ment-um-lein is a cute creature that will help you learn German.

Of course, there are no ideally working techniques for determining the gender of German nouns, but there are some guidelines that will help when studying this material at the initial stage of learning the German language.

The so-called German words with articles are nouns (nouns). All German (German) words with articles (art.) in modern language must be written with a capital letter. This tradition historically developed a long time ago and distinguishes it. against the background of other languages. Once upon a time, only the name of the Almighty was written with a capital letter, then - all kinds of rulers, representatives of the nobility, officials, and in the end there was a transition to writing all beings. with a capital letter. This rule was finally legalized by Duden at the very beginning of the twentieth century. Art. in him. there are only seven in the language, six of them are used with nouns in the singular (Singular), and one is used in the plural (Plural). In Singular, the name can have an indefinite or definite art. depending on the gender (gender), of which there are only three: middle, female and male: beetle – ein Käfer / der Käfer (male), caterpillar – eine Raupe / die Raupe, living organism, living creature – ein Lebewesen / das Lebewesen. In the plural, there is one common function word for all Germans. words with art. - definite article die: die Käfer, die Raupen, die Lebewesen. Nouns that are used with an indefinite function word in Singular do not have one at all in Plural.

Art. otherwise called service words, since they are not independent, do not convey any meaning, but simply “serve” the nouns that follow them, indicating their gender and number, as well as the case in which the name appears. Art. inextricably linked with him. noun, which is a significant part of speech, denoting animate or inanimate, proper or common, concrete or abstract objects, properties, actions, states, characteristics, processes, etc. A noun always answers one of the questions: wer? (who?) or was? (What).

Examples of German words with articles:

• (wer?) (der) Wolfgang – Wolfgang (proper name, animate, masculine)
• (wer?) der Angeklagte - defendant (common noun, animate, masculine)
• (was?) (das) Novgorod – (city) Novgorod (proper name, inanimate, middle r.)
• (was?) das Gestell - stand (common noun, specific object, middle p.)
• (was?) die Sucht – passion, mania (common noun, abstract, feminine)
• (was?) die Tournee - tour (common noun, abstract, feminine)

German words with art. can be abstract (presence – die Anwesenheit) and specific (stool – der Hocker). To abstract nouns. one can include all kinds of feelings, states, signs, actions, properties, etc. expressed by names. (mistrust - das Misstrauen, embarrassment - die Verwirrung, sloppiness - die Schlampigkeit, walking - der Spaziergang, hypnotic state - die Hypnose, afternoon - der Nachmittag). Concrete nouns are divided into proper nouns (Milky Way – die Milchstrasse) and common nouns (remote control – die Fernbedienung). Proper names include surnames, first names, names of various geographical, space objects, etc. (The Hague (city) – der Haag). Common nouns name specifically existing objects of the surrounding world as individually (button, key – die Taste), and in total (mammals – die Sä ugetiere), as well as all kinds of substances (nickel silver - das Neusilber) and products (lemonade – die Limonade).

German words with articles = im. noun necessarily demonstrate such grammatical categories as case, gender and number. Rod im. noun not in all cases coincides with the gender of similar entities. in Russian and can be masculine (der Schä ferhund – shepherd, gender does not match when translated), female (die Geldgier - selfishness, greed) and average (das Hü hnchen – hen, chick, gender does not match when translated).

In general, the category of a number is determined by the fact which group it belongs to. noun – to countable names (which can be counted) or to uncountable names (which cannot be counted). Most countable nouns. can be used in singular and plural. (thief: der Dieb – die Diebe, edge, edge: die Kante – die Kanten, foreign word: das Fremdwort – die Fremdwö rter), however a number of nouns. is used only in one of these numbers, and such cases also do not always coincide in it. and Russian languages.

German Uncountable nouns are almost always used only in the singular and include:

• minerals and chemical elements: potassium – das Kalium, mica – der Glimmer;
• a variety of plant and animal products: butter – die Butter, cotton (raw material) – die Baumwolle, oil – das Erdöl;
• all kinds of abstract nouns: nudity - die Nacktheit, friendliness – die Freundlichkeit, astronomy – die Sternkunde;
• many nouns that have a global collective meaning: fauna, animal world - die Tierwelt, solar system - das Sonnensystem, stage workers - das Bühnenpersonal;
• proper names if they name someone specific or something specific or unique: (mountain) Kazbek - der Kasbek, North Sea - die Nordsee, Thomas Mann - Thomas Mann.

But, as always, there are exceptions, for example: die Edelstahle - various grades of noble steel.

Exclusively in plural form The following “German words with articles” are used:

• some diseases: chicken pox - die Windpocken, rubella - die Röteln, measles - die Masern;
• some associations of people: grandparents - die Grosseltern, sister and brother - die Geschwister;
• some geographical names: Pyrenees - die Pyrinäen, Cordillera - die Kordilleren, United Arab Emirates (UAE) - die Vereinigten Arabischen Emiraten (VAE);
• separate collective concepts in different areas: home textiles – die Heimtextilien, travel expenses – die Reisespesen, die Reisekosten;
• separate time periods: winter holidays - die Winterferien.

The third very important grammatical category characterizing German. words with art., is case. There are only four of them in the German language: nominative - Nominativ (who? what? - wer? was?), genitive - Genitiv (who? whose? - wessen?), dative - Dativ (to whom? - wem?), accusative - Akkusativ ( who? what? – wen? was?). Them. noun always stands in one of the listed cases. The original form presented in all dictionaries is the nominative case.

	Singular			Plural
Nominativ (who? what? – wer? was?)	der Greiner - crybaby	die Wiege - cradle	das Bildband - album	die Greinerdie
Genitiv (who? whose? – wessen?)	des Greiners	der Wiege	des Bildbandes	der Greinerder
Dativ (to whom? – wem?)	dem Greiner	der Wiege	dem Bildband	den Greinernden
Akkusativ (who? what? – wen? was?)	den Greiner	die Wiege	das Bildband	die Greinerdie

The declension of nouns in the plural is carried out equally in all cases; a distinctive feature of the dative case is the addition of an additional ending –n, if it is absent in the nominative case of the plural part of the noun and if the plural part is not formed using the ending –s. In the singular part, the change in cases depends on the gender and type of declension, of which there are four in the German language - feminine, weak, strong and mixed.

	Singular				Plural
Declension type	feminine	strong	weak	mixed	Common to all
Nominative	die Schraube (nut)	das Geräusch (rustling)	der Futurologe (futurologist)	der Unglaube (unbelief)	die Schrauben
Genitiv	der Schraube	des Geräusches	des Futurologen	des Unglaubens	der Schrauben
Dativ	der Schraube	dem Geräusch	dem Futurologen	dem Unglauben	den Schrauben
Akkusativ	die Schraube	das Geräusch	den Futurologen	den Unglauben	die Schrauben die Futuro logen

Declension German words with articles in a single clause is a rather capacious and difficult topic, and therefore is subject to separate consideration

I talked about how to learn the gender of German nouns with specific endings in the 1st video. But you need to keep in mind that the previous method will not work for most German nouns. Why? Most nouns do not have hint endings. The gender of such nouns, unfortunately, will simply have to be memorized, because articles are distributed without any logic. In order to remember the gender of such nouns, use the 2nd method. Method 2 – Paired memorization Before showing how you can memorize German articles using this method, you need to understand how the method itself works. Imagine that you need to remember one pair of words: Man - tea As you can see, these are just 2 words unrelated to each other. In order to remember them well, we need to take the 1st step:

1. These words need to be connected to each other.

For example, let’s make the following sentence with them: a man drinks tea. There is now a clear relationship between the two separate words. Step 2:

1. Words need to be visualized.

To do this you need to use your imagination! Come up with a bright picture. Imagine a specific man with a cup of tea in his hand. How to use this method with German articles? In fact, a German noun and an article are also 2 words. But how can we remember this pair of words if one of them (the article) does not make any sense to us? We cannot visualize or represent any of the articles in a picture. We need to do the following: Replace the article with an image that is understandable to us (substitution method). We need to find images for three articles: derdiedas Der is a masculine article, therefore, we need to replace it with an image that we associate with masculinity. This could be a strong man or, say, a lion. Die is a feminine article. Ask yourself what picture appears in your mind when you think about femininity. This may be the image of a fragile girl. Das is a neuter article. Finding an image for this article is a little more difficult. Let it be something neutral, not associated with masculine and feminine genders. For example, sea, water. So, let's look at this method again using a specific example. Our task is to learn the gender of the noun dasPapier (paper) In order to remember the article, do the following::

1. Replacement. We replace the article das with a symbolic image - the image of the sea, water.
2. Relationship. We build a relationship between the words paper and sea using the sentence: the paper is wet from the water.
3. Visualization. We present this situation in a picture.

Important! You can choose any image images. It is important to work with the same pictures to remember the gender of nouns. How to visualize an abstract word? In order to remember the gender of a noun, we need to build a relationship between the noun and the symbol word and visualize them. How to visualize an abstract word, such as the word "freedom"? – To do this, you need to replace the abstract word with a symbol. Say the word “freedom”, what image comes to your mind? Maybe the Statue of Liberty? This is the symbol! All we have to do is connect the image of the Statue of Liberty and the image chosen for the feminine gender (since the word freedom in German is feminine). Let's say a woman is carrying the Statue of Liberty in her hand.

All students of German simply groan at the masculine, neuter and feminine articles, because in general, it is difficult to determine from the noun itself which gender it belongs to.

I recently got carried away eidetics- a way of memorizing information without any effort, but with the help of imagination, without tedious memorization. As eidetic methodologists say, “people don’t need to remember anything, they already remember everything automatically, they just need to learn to extract information.”

So, what options would I suggest?

1) color the words in three different colors according to gender.

Standard color association, this is, of course, blue for the masculine gender, red for the feminine gender, and green for the neuter gender. These words should be written down in the dictionary in different colors. This is a very old technique, it is used in German textbooks for children.

Stuhl

lamp

Buch

2) This technique can be improved according to eidetics, namely using extended associative series. For example, imagine that the masculine gender includes all associations associated with the color blue, for example the sea, sky, turquoise, blue birds, bruises, cyanotic alcoholics, blue noses, frost, and so on. The more vivid the associations, the better. You can also add sound association the noise of the sea, for example.

With the color red we can associate the pioneers, the Octobrists, the mausoleum, blood on the sword, sunsets and sunrises, flames, Rosa Luxemburg and Clara Zetkin. As a sound association, I can choose the sound of crackling logs in a flame. Or the Pioneer drum roll (for example, every feminine word can be associated with a drum roll (especially important for tired husbands :))) Beauty is also associated with the color red.

There are many associations with the color green, everything is green, meadows, fields, and...green aliens. The more extraordinary and funnier, the better. As a sound association, you can choose the sounds of rustling leaves, for example.

In general, if you are very musical, assign each gender the sound of a specific musical instrument, for example, for the masculine gender - saxaphone, for the feminine gender - violin, guitar and/or cello, for the neuter gender - whistle. And then turn on music in your head for every word.

Now let's imagine how it works:

Stuhl is a chair. Introducing how sea broken by the surf chair about the shore and at the same time imagine the sound of the sea.

but this is an abstract concept. the word der Tat is an act, a deed. Imagine cyanotic an alcoholic who dances in tact Viennese waltz - performs an extraordinary act.

On red Squares of 10 identical Roses of Luxembourg carry a huge red lamp.

Or a romantic couple looks at the crimson sunset And love fits in Liebe(Love)

Green commander-in-chief of the aliens - feld The marshal runs like he was scalded across the field (Feld): das Feld - field.

We hear the rustling of leaves near the huge green beech oh, and instead of leaves he has books - Buch.

As you can see, I also wove the words themselves into the associations. This is more effective: both articles and words are remembered.

3) The next memorization method is spatial memory. This is when we present our apartment and give rooms for different births.

For example, kitchen is feminine, living room is masculine, and bath is neuter.

Everything you place in your own kitchen is feminine, everything you put in the living room is masculine, and everything you flush in the bathroom is neuter.

Spatial associations using your own apartment are very effective.

We need to learn 10 randomly selected words with articles, namely:

der Schuh, der Stecker, die Mikrowelle, die Minute, der Helm, die Karte, die Gruppe, das Radio, der Schrank, das Bett.

Now let’s imagine how in our kitchen we open a Mikrowelle microwave, put a group of Karte geographic maps in there and set the timer for Minute.

We can add color associations for reinforcement: open the red microwave, put in a red playing card, and set the timer for a minute.

We can add character associations: Clara Zetkin with large size 7 breasts in a red apron with white polka dots and a red pioneer tie, puts a red map of the USSR in a beautiful microwave, and sets the timer for the red minute, and grouping herself, does a somersault.

At first it may seem that coming up with associations may take some time, but in fact the human brain has an amazing resource - limitless imagination, where it is its own director with the ability to shoot any films with any plot twists and the most ambitious special effects.

You can also work on continuing the story. Meanwhile, a cyanotic alcoholic in one Schuh shoe enters your living room (remember that everything that lies in the living room is masculine), spreads his fingers, and tries to stick them like a Stecker plug into a socket. He is electrocuted and hits the turquoise Schrank cabinet with force, but since he is wearing a blue Helm motorcycle helmet on his head, this saves his head.

It won’t be difficult to come up with a story about the neuter gender, right?

And remember: the more unconventional and vivid the association, the easier it is to remember!

In German, nouns are used with articles. The article shows the definiteness and indefiniteness of the noun, as well as gender, number and case. If you compare the German language with the Russian language, then in many ways articles resemble endings, only they are not at the end of the word, but before it, for example:

• der is a masculine definite article,
• die – feminine definite article,
• das is the feminine definite article.

In order to correctly use nouns in speech, you need to know exactly what article it corresponds to. Unfortunately, it is impossible to explain the gender of many nouns. This is why all German teachers recommend memorizing nouns together with the definite article. In this article we will talk about 4 ways to make it easier for you to remember articles.

METHOD 1: COLOR ASSOCIATIONS

To do this you will need a notebook and three pens of different colors. Each of the colors will correspond to one of three articles, for example:

• blue = der
• green = das
• red = die

Now, when you find a new noun, pay attention to its article and write it down in your notebook in the appropriate color.

METHOD 2: RHYMING RHES

In one of our previous articles, we already wrote that sometimes the gender of a noun can be determined by its suffix. For example:

• suffix ung – die,
• suffix er – der,
• suffix chen – das.

Read more about how to determine the gender of a noun by suffix.

Learning all the suffixes of German nouns is not the easiest task. That is why we have prepared for you several rhyming reminders with most of the German suffixes.

Male genus
Der, der der, ein einfach Ding,
wenn's Nomen endet mit
-et, -ant, -or, -eur, -loge und –ling

Average genus
Neutrum oder "das" ganz fein,
wenn am End steht
-um, -o, -ment, -chen oder –lein

Female genus
Substantive heißen "die"
wenn sie enden auf
-ät, -ion, -anz, -ur, -nis und -ie
und natürlich jederzeit,
Wenn's Ende heißt
-schaft, -tum, -ung, -ik, -rei, -heit und -keit.

METHOD 3: QUASI-WORDS

If you have a poor memory for rhymes, then we have prepared for you another way to memorize articles - quasi-words. Quasi words are made up words that do not exist in the language. You can make quasi-words from suffixes of nouns of the same gender and use them as an association to remember articles.

As an example, let's look at a quasi-word from the suffixes –ent, –ling and –er. These suffixes are indicators of the masculine gender. If you put them together, you get der Entlinger. Learn this word along with the article and you will never have problems with these suffixes again.

For better memorization, you can come up with a visual association with this word. Imagine what it looks like. Item? Human? Animal? Draw your association to better consolidate the word in your memory.

Quasi-words can also be invented for other suffixes, for example:

• die Inkeitschaftung (suffixes -in, -keit, schaft, -ung).
• das Leinchenment (suffixes -lein, -chen, -ment).

METHOD 4: CARDS WITH WORDS

Take a stack of stickers (cards with a sticky backing) and use them to sign all the objects in your home in German. Don't forget about articles and plural forms. Here's what a typical card might look like:

das Regal - e
Substantiv, m
bed

After you sign all the items in the house, return to your normal lifestyle. Now cards with words will always be in your sight and soon you will learn which article corresponds to which noun.

TEST YOUR KNOWLEDGE IN PRACTICE

Now it's time to test your knowledge in practice. Below you will find several exercises that will help you do this.
Register to continue.

MORE PRACTICE WITH A NATIVE GERMAN SPEAKER

If you want to master German prepositions perfectly, sign up forfree lesson with Christoph Daninger. Christophe is a professionalGerman tutor from Germany, who will be happy to answer all your questions related to the German language and German culture, and will also help you create the optimal schedule.