German GrammarPod

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Your recommendations for German podcasts Aug 12, 2007

Show notes

Hello blog readers,

A couple of weeks ago, I had a request from Chris in Menomonee Falls, Wisconsin, asking if I could recommend any good podcasts for learning German in general. I don't listen to any other German podcasts, so I'm no use for giving a recommendation on that. But I thought, if anyone can, my listeners can.

So I promised I'd ask if any of you have a recommendation. If you do, please could you add it as a comment to this blog (along with a quick word about what level of German you're at, so others will know which podcasts are best for their level)? No negative recommendations please, so I don't get angry emails from makers of other podcasts. I'm sure there are some fantastic learn German podcasts out there, and if anyone knows about them, it'll be my listeners. So if you have a spare moment, can you list which ones you like on my blog and why? Also, if they're not in the iTunes podcast directory, can you say where people should find them?

I meant to put this request in my podcast itself, but I've just put another episode of German GrammarPod up on air, and I'm afraid I completely forgot. I will try and remember to put a request in the next one. But until then, if anyone has a recommendation, this is the place :)

The present tense Aug 12, 2007

Show notes

The present tense is pretty simple in German: there's only one. So where English has to choose between Sarah is walking to work and Sarah walks to work, German has only Sarah geht zu Fuß zur Arbeit. However, whereas English only has two different forms of each verb in the present tense (apart from for the verb to be), e.g. walk and walks, have and has, German verbs have lots of different forms in the present tense (typically four or five), depending on which personal pronoun you're using. (Personal pronouns are words like I, you, we and they.) This podcast explains more about the present tense and the different forms the verbs you use in it take.
To listen to the podcast on you computer, click here.

Cases: The Genitive Case Jul 01, 2007

Show notes

The genitive case is used to indicate possession, like of or apostrophe-s ('s) does in English. However, apart from in formal, written texts (and in its version of adding 's, which is just to add an s to the end of proper nouns), German tends to avoid the genitive. Most of the time in spoken German, Germans use a von plus the dative instead of a genitive to mean of. The genitive is unusual in German, because as well as affecting determiners (words like the and a) and adjectives, it also affects nouns, adding an -s (or -es) to the end of neuter and masculine nouns.
To listen to my podcast directly on your computer, click here.

Gap between episodes May 27, 2007

Show notes

Hi everyone,
I was planning to do another German Grammarpod this weekend, but my laptop's been stolen, so I'll have to wait till I get a replacement before I can do the next one. Hopefully that will be within two or three weeks. (I'm currently writing on a borrowed laptop, but I can't download the software I need to make the recording onto it.)
Just so everyone knows, it's my plan to do one episode each calendar month. It's easier for me to keep track like that and I seem more or less to be able to write and record them quickly enough to keep up with that time scale.

The Dative Case May 06, 2007

Show notes

The dative case is used for the indirect object (that's the noun or pronoun which is impacted indirectly by the action, as opposed to the one to which the action is done directly). The classic example is he gives me the book (er gibt mir das Buch), where the direct object is the book and the indirect object is me. The dative also follows certain prepostions (words like with, to and between). All determiners (that's words like the and a) change in the dative, although a couple of personal pronouns are the same as in the accusative. The most important ones to remember are ich (I) becomes mir (me) and du (you) becomes dir (you).
To listen to my podcast directly on your computer, click here.

The Accusative Case Mar 18, 2007

Show notes

The accusative case is used for the direct object (that's the noun or pronoun to which an action is done). It's like the shark in Peter ate the shark where shark is the noun that gets eaten. It also follows certain preopstions (words like for, through and without).
Only singular (i.e. not plural) masculine nouns change in the accusative. All the determiners and adjectives that stand before these always end in -en. The other nouns stay the same as in the nominative.
Some pronouns also change. The most important ones to remember are ich (I) becomes mich (me) and du (you) becomes dich (you). As you can see, that means that not all pronouns change in English to mark the object either.
If you want to listen to this podcast directly on your computer, click here.

Cases: The Nominative Case Feb 25, 2007

Show notes

This podcast is about cases, which are a way of showing what role the different words are playing in a sentence. German has four cases:

Nominative
Accusative
Dative
Gentitive

This podcast describes how cases work in general, then goes on to look at the nominative case in more detail.
To listen to the audio file directly on your computer, click here. Or, if you'd like to subscribe to the podcast, click the link on the top left of this blog.

How to subscribe Jan 21, 2007

Show notes

It's occurred to me that not everyone who wants to know about German grammar knows what you need to do to download a podcast onto their iPod or any other type of MP3 player, so I thought I'd better make sure the instructions were in my blog. If you happen not to use iTunes, then I'm afraid you'll have to just use these instructions as a rough guide, as I only know how to use iTunes in detail. If anyone knows how to use the other programs, could you add a note to comments to say if it's very different? I can always add more information to the blog.

The first thing you have to do is click the link up in the top left-hand corner of this blog that says subscribe to my feed.
This will take you to http://feeds.feedburner.com/germangrammarpod
On the right-hand side, simply click Add to iTunes
Then open up iTunes in your computer
German GrammarPod will appear under Podcasts (you can get to that page by using the menu on the left hand side)
Plug your iPod (or other MP3 player) into your computer via a USB port
Your iPod/MP3 player will appear in the menu on the left. Drag episodes of German GrammarPod across to your iPod/MP3 player in the menu.

Alternatively, instead of simply clicking Add to iTunes, you can:

Copy the web address shown in feedburner (the one on the right, under the Add to iTunes button)
Open up iTunes
In the menu across the top click Advanced,
then Subscribe to Podcast...
then add the web address (also known as a URL) to the window that appears
then click OK

After that, it's the same as if you'd clicked the Add to iTunes button.

Deleting Podcasts

After I've listened to a podcast, I like to delete it from my iPod. I do that by going into the podcasts part of my iPod in iTunes, using the menu on the left of iTunes. I left click the podcast once, then click the Delete button on my keyboard, to get rid of it from my iPod. If I want it back, I just download it again from my computer, as I've got my iTunes set up to hang onto my podcast downloads unless I decide to get rid of them.

The Gender Podcast Jan 11, 2007

Show notes

I finally have my first podcast up and running. You wouldn't believe how complicated publishing podcasts is, and I thought the long bit was going to be writing the podcast :) Anyway, I'm all up and running now, so welcome to the first episode. First of all in this episode you get a bit of an introduction to the podcast and who it's aimed at (basically everyone who wants to learn German, but I'm hoping to get some feedback to make sure I'm not overstretching myself a bit there. So if you think the podcast isn't right for your level, but you'd like it to be, add a comment or email me at the email address given at the end of the podcast and tell me about it). Anyhow, after that, we go onto the grammar. This time I'm covering gender:

What is gender?

How does it work in German?

How does that affect me?

Tips and tricks for working out what gender a word is

What effect does gender have on German?

I've also put some tables, some lists of endings and a transcript of the podcast up on my other German GrammarPod website - you can use the link up on the top left of this blog under LINKS to get to it or just click here. To listen to the podcast, you can either subscribe or click here: MP3 link

About the Podcast Jan 01, 2007

Show notes

The podcast accompanying this blog is aimed at explaining the world of German grammar. Its aim is to be accessible to all levels of learner, but on its own it's not intended to be enough to teach German - in fact very little German is used in the podcast. That's because I figure there are plenty of places you can find content in German, from elsewhere on the web to schools, evening classes and university. What tends to be in shorter supply is a thorough and easily accessible explanation of German grammar.
Grammar itself provides an understanding of a language that takes you from being able to parrot phrases someone else has given you to being able to use the words you've learnt as building blocks to create new sentences. And this podcast will provide you with the grammar you need to do that.

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