Learning German, advice or help appreciated!

[Aroura]

Her favorite show is Teen Titans Go!  I wonder if I can find that in German?  

If that's the show, I found at least one episode.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wbr92Tw8YuQ

That guy has a lot of toon shows in German.

That rocks, thank you!!

[BrianSoddingBoru4]

Anyone wishing to learn German should first read Twain's essay, 'The Awful German Language'. It is important to know what you're in for.

Boru

[Aroura]

Nothing can be more "hither and thither" than English, IMO.  Yeah, I've already read it.  

My Grandmother was born here in the US, but her parents were German immigrants, and she spoke some broken German at us my whole childhood, so it was always an interest to me.  I took 2 years of it in HS, but you know how well HS language classes generally work. 

[abaris]

Anyone wishing to learn German should first read Twain's essay, 'The Awful German Language'.  It is important to know what you're in for.

Boru

I found it rather easy the other way round. Words are often the same or nearly the same, just spelled differently. German grammar is a bit more difficult, but that's about all. Even proverbs have mostly the same meanings. The only difficulties I see are how to spell the vovel mutations for someone speaking english. But that's rather easy too, at least in most cases. If you take the Ö it's spoken like the u in murder. In fact, the deed nearly sounds the same as the german word for the perp: Mörder. The Ä has nearly the same sund as the a in "take". Only the Ü is a bit more difficult. It's closest relative would be the y in syntax.

Also there's some getting used to that there's no universal "the" in German. It's three different gender dependent words.

[Aroura]

Anyone wishing to learn German should first read Twain's essay, 'The Awful German Language'.  It is important to know what you're in for.

Boru

I found it rather easy the other way round. Words are often the same or nearly the same, just spelled differently. German grammar is a bit more difficult, but that's about all. Even proverbs have mostly the same meanings. The only difficulties I see are how to spell the vovel mutations for someone speaking english. But that's rather easy too, at least in most cases. If you take the Ö it's spoken like the u in murder. In fact, the deed nearly sounds the same as the german word for the perp: Mörder. The Ä has nearly the same sund as the a in "take". Only the Ü is a bit more difficult. It's closest relative would be the y in syntax.

Also there's some getting used to that there's no universal "the" in German. It's three different gender dependent words.

One of the things I'm struggling the most with right now is Ihr vs Er.  They sound identical to my ear, and the only way to tell the difference is in the context of the verb, like Er hat or irh habt.  He, you, they...ugh.
But since I'm still learning which verb form goes with which pronoun, I find I'm mistaking this one often.   

The die, der, das for "The" is a tad confusing, but after I hear it attached to the noun a handful of times, I find I'm able to remember it reflexively....most of the time.

[abaris]

One of the things I'm struggling the most with right now is Ihr vs Er.  They sound identical to my ear, and the only way to tell the difference is in the context of the verb, like Er hat or irh habt.  He, you, they...ugh.
But since I'm still learning which verb form goes with which pronoun, I find I'm mistaking this one often.   

The die, der, das for "The" is a tad confusing, but after I hear it attached to the noun a handful of times, I find I'm able to remember it reflexively....most of the time.

You'd have to given me a concrete example for that. Ihr can have different meanings. Posessive for a female person or item, as in her's, or politely adressing another person you're not very close with.

Ihr and Er shouldn't sound the same. The I in Ihr is, pardon my french, spellled like the I in shit. The H is only there to symbolize that the word is drawn out when spoken. The E in Er, well, again, think of the A in take or make and you come pretty close.

But since you mentioned Ear, come to think of it, it rather sounds like the word Ihr should be spelled.

[Aroura]

One of the things I'm struggling the most with right now is Ihr vs Er.  They sound identical to my ear, and the only way to tell the difference is in the context of the verb, like Er hat or irh habt.  He, you, they...ugh.
But since I'm still learning which verb form goes with which pronoun, I find I'm mistaking this one often.   

The die, der, das for "The" is a tad confusing, but after I hear it attached to the noun a handful of times, I find I'm able to remember it reflexively....most of the time.

You'd have to given me a concrete example for that. Ihr can have different meanings. Posessive for a female person or item, as in her's, or politely adressing another person you're not very close with.

Ihr and Er shouldn't sound the same. The I in Ihr is, pardon my french, spellled like the I in shit. The H is only there to symbolize that the word is drawn out when spoken. The E in Er, well, again, think of the A in take or make and you come pretty close.

But since you mentioned Ear, come to think of it, it rather sounds like the word Ihr should be spelled.

Huh, well in the program I am using (Duolingo), both sound like the English word "ear", so it sounds like she is saying Ihr correctly, but Er incorrectly.  Must just be an issue with this specific speaker I'm learning from, not German in general.

And yes, Ihr is confusing all by itself because it can mean she, they, and you, with the verb being my best clue as tow which Ihr it is.  I think it's one of those things that we will just learn as we hear it in use more and more.

Still, I <3 German, and am determined to learn it! : I've read that for people going into technical fields, it is the best second language to learn after English, so that is another good reason to keep at it.

[abaris]

And yes, Ihr is confusing because it can mean she, they, and you, with the verb being my best clue as tow which Ihr it is.  I think it's one of those things that we will just learn as we hear it in use more and more.

No, no, no. I never means she. It can only mean her's. For female items as well as persons. And then there's the adress. To give a simple example, think of "your wellbeing". If you aren't close to the person, the polite adress is "Ihr Wohlbefinden". If you are friends or otherwise close to the person, it would be "dein Wohlbefinden". Another hurdle for english natives, since the adress differs between close and removed.

But there's another hurdle that I found hard to take in school. The english "must not". In German, it sounds similar (müssen nicht), but it means something entirely different. In German it means, you're not obliged to, in english, well, it's kind of the opposite.

[Aroura]

And yes, Ihr is confusing because it can mean she, they, and you, with the verb being my best clue as tow which Ihr it is.  I think it's one of those things that we will just learn as we hear it in use more and more.

No, no, no. I never means she. It can only mean her's. For female items as well as persons. And then there's the adress. To give a simple example, think of "your wellbeing". If you aren't close to the person, the polite adress is "Ihr Wohlbefinden". If you are friends or otherwise close to the person, it would be "dein Wohlbefinden". Another hurdle for english natives, since the adress differs between close and removed.

Ah, thank you for the clarification (though I did mean her, I know it's possessive in that case, don't know why I typed that wrong).  

So I hear "ihr trinkt wasser" or "sie trinken wasser" and for the life of me, I will always think the first one means they drink water, even though it is "you" drink water.  Then with sie, I'm jumping to it always being "her" and forgetting it can also mean "they" when combined with the "en" on the end of a verb.

Wow, is there some way to clarify the pronouns relationships to their verbs?  Because really, it's very specifically pronoun with correct verb usage I'm struggling with, I think.  At least in these early stages, lol.  I probably just need to keep listening to it being used by natural speakers.

Yes, since English does not contain any differences when speaking with a stranger or speaking with a close friend or family, that aspect is indeed adding to the confusion.  I do not know if I'm learning the close or removed version of a phrase. 

Sorry, I'm really new to this (we did it for a few weeks last year, but really want to be serious about it this year), so I'm probably making a lot of serious newb errors.  I hope I don't sound completely retarded to the German speakers here. 

[abaris]

So I hear "ihr trinkt wasser" or "sie trinken wasser" and for the life of me, I will always think the first one means they drink water, even though it is "you" drink water.  Then with sie, I'm jumping to it always being "her" and forgetting it can also mean "they" when combined with the "en" on the end of a verb.

I didn't even think of this. Of course it is also used when talking about several people doing something. So, Ihr can mean her's (item or person), adressing someone not close to you and for talking about a group of people doing something. Same goes for Sie, which can simply mean she - again when talking about female persons or items - or to tallk about several persons, as in "they walked" - sie gingen.

Anyway, if you run into something you don't understand, drop me a PM and I try to clarify.