BNA INDIA January/February 2015

LEARN GERMAN - LESSON 1
German vowels can be pronounced as long or as short
ones. Often, it changes the meaning of the word entirely.
Long vowels are often in combination with a “h”,
short ons are often followed by double characters:
gehen (chalna), fahren (chalana), sehen (dekhna)
rennen (daurna), kommen (aana)
GRAMMAR
Articles:
In German there are three different articles which
mark the genus (masculine, feminine, neutral) of the
noun:
der Bruder (m) - the brother - bhai
die Tochter (f) - the daughter - beti
das Kind (n) - the child - baccha
die Leute (plural) - the people - log
There is no special marker like a special ending for the
correct article of the noun in singular. Therefore in
German you have to learn the correct article directly
in combination with the noun. The article for plural
forms is always “die”.
In many cases you can form the female form of a noun
by adding a -in at the end:
der Student (m) - the student - chatre
die Studentin (f) - the student - chatra
Notice: In German every noun is written with an
upper-case character in the beginning.
Personal pronouns:
ich bin - I am - main hoon
du bist - you are - tum ho / tu hai (familiar)
er ist - he is - yah hai
sie ist - she is - yah hai
es ist - it is - yah/vah hai
wir sind - we are - hum hain
ihr seid - you are - aap hain
sie sind - they are - yeh/veh hain
Sie sind - you are - aap hain (formal)
BNA INDIA January / February 2015
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