I remember a friend of mine that was just starting with a language course in German. After a few classes he came up to me and told me:
“Manuel, I’m really committed to learn this new language, everyone told me how hard it is, but I really think I have the right mindset for it. I am aware that I will have to learn a lot of vocabulary and grammar.
However, today they added a new parameter that I really didn’t expect.
They told us to learn each new noun with its respective article. There are only 3 articles and I really get along learning the new words, but it is so hard to memorize these tiny little 3 articles with the noun. The teacher is constantly correcting my articles because I’m not matching them properly. It is a very different situation to speak to one of your friends in German which you feel confident with, but if you have to speak to a native German speaker that you don’t know so well…It’s really frustrating and it gets you even more nervous knowing that almost every sentence will have articles and you don’t really feel that comfortable to use them always correctly.
When I asked our teacher which was the best way to learn them, he just told me that I should learn them one by one with every new noun. To be honest, that’s not very helpful.
But the best thing is still to come: they told us that later we will have to use up to 16 articles and they all depend on those 3.
Manuel, you really told me that German is not that difficult?”
I could only smile that moment and admit that I had no better advice.
As a native speaker and an engineer I promised him to commit to find an easier way to approach this.
After researching a while I found some mnemonics that were really helpful to master the German articles. In the last article I showed you a powerful method to master the German articles of about 20% of German nouns with the help of some endings.
So how should we approach the rest?
Do we really need to learn each noun with its article as suggested in traditional textbooks or language courses?
You will find this recommendation almost everywhere. And there is no bad intention behind that, because articles are really important in the German language since we use declension and cases.
But the approach does not seem to be very sophisticated: “if you want to learn 20 nouns and the relevant articles, learn them one by one.” Sounds pretty time consuming, don’t you think?
Let’s take for example these 10 simple nouns:
- die Sonne (sun)
- der Mond (moon)
- das Wasser (water)
- der Wein (wine)
- der Finger (finger)
- die Hand (hand)
- das Bett (bed)
- der Tisch (desk)
- die Nacht (night)
- der Tag (day)
You might notice that it’s not that easy to memorize each article. “Der, die, das” are very abstract words and not always very logical as well. I mean why is “die Sonne” (sun) feminine and “der Mond” masculine? Or “das Wasser” (water) neuter and “der Wein” (wine) masculine? And look at this: one Finger (“der Finger”) is masculine, but 5 fingers, a hand (“die Hand”) is feminine.
Let’s be honest, if I ask you to recall the right articles after reading them JUST ONCE you would probably have to guess most of them.
Try it, if you would like, by following this link:
10 Nouns 10 articles – Try to guess
This leads, inevitably, to the typical drills relying on a large number of repetitions to learn new nouns.
See, the key problem is that abstract words are hard to memorize.
But let me show you a REALLY QUICK way that will allow you to memorize EVERY one of these 10 articles by simply going through them ONLY ONCE.
Let me start with a quick story so you understand the idea behind how this works.
A few days ago I was telling a friend about a very funny commercial I saw on TV. I said to him: “Hey, did you see this funny ad from (Brandname).” He replied: “No, I don’t think so.” Then I said to him: “you must have seen it!, There is this agent like James Bond, that drives this fancy Ferrari and at the end he …” Then he stopped me and said: “hold on, yes of course, you mean the one where he picks up this beautiful woman in his Ferrari at the end? Now I got it, yes (brandname), of course.”
I think you get the point. My friend couldn’t relate the abstract word of the (brandname) at first, but he immediately remembered the story and the scene once I described it to him. This is because stories and pictures are much easier to remember and relate to than single words.
So let’s take advantage of this and use it to learn the articles in a much more effective and fun way, instead of in a dull, repetitive way.
Let’s take the abstract articles “der, die, das” and substitute them with symbols that are much easier to memorize and to relate.
Let’s take for example “der Löwe” (lion) for “der”, “das Flugzeug” (plane) for “das” and “die Ballerina” (ballerina) for “die”.
der Löwe
das Flugzeug
die Ballerina
Now let’s take another look at the list of 10 nouns we had before and create some “short ads” or pictures for each word.
- die Sonne (sun): Imagine “die Ballerina” dancing under the sun.
- der Mond (moon): Imagine “der Löwe” falling asleep under the moon.
- das Wasser (water): Imagine “das Flugzeug” making an emergency landing on the water.
- der Wein (wine): Imagine “der Löwe” sipping on some wine after eating.
- der Finger (finger): Imagine “der Löwe” pointing with his finger.
- die Hand (hand): Imagine “die Ballerina” clapping her hands while dancing.
- das Bett (bed): Imagine “das Flugzeug” full of new cabins with beds to sleep.
- der Tisch (desk): Imagine “der Löwe” resting under your desk.
- die Nacht (night): Imagine “die Ballerina” waking up at night to practice her dancing.
- der Tag (day): Imagine “der Löwe” stretching out once the day begins.
I think you get the picture: Create a funny scene where you relate your symbol with your noun. The important detail here is to picture this scene in your mind as vividly as possible and also to add funny nuances and details. Your memory will love it and will reward you by storing it immediately.
This method can also be applied for abstract nouns. For example:
die Furcht (fear).
Just find an adequate picture to represent the noun and your memory will link it properly. In this case for example:
Imagine “die Ballerina” nervous and fearful a few moments before her big show.
You don’t have to use the symbols: lion, ballerina and plane. Feel free to create your own symbols that are meaningful to you and easy to remember and to relate.
But keep in mind 2 important rules:
1. Choose symbols that use the adequate German article. Lets take for example “girl”. It could represent the feminine article “die” but in German girl is “das Mädchen”, neuter (I know this is weird, but its true). It will be easier and less confusing if you choose one that uses the right German article.
2. Choose symbols that differentiate clearly. What I mean is, lets take for example “der Löwe” (lion), “die Kuh” (cow), “das Pferd” (horse). I mean, they are all animals and the pictures you will create could be very similar and lead to some confusions on the long run. But using our symbols for example (lion, plane, ballerina), you can create very different scenes that are easy to differentiate.
So, ready for a new test?
Try to guess the right articles here again. I’m sure that now, if you have truly created the image in your mind, you will know them all.
10 Nouns 10 articles – Try to guess
Ok, I know, you might say this is not fair we already went through these 10 nouns before.
Well, try these other 20 here:
20 Nouns 20 articles – Try to guess
Try to use our method and create YOUR “ads” and then test it. I’m sure you will see how powerful and easy this method is.
Here you have a complete sheet with a helpful scene for each word.