Hello everyone,
and welcome :).
First things first… you probably have noticed that the cartoon is exceptionally beautiful this time.
Well, that’s because it was done by an actual artist, instead of me.
Some of you might already know her. Her name is Helen, and in her freetime, she draws really lovely cartoons about German words and her learning journey overall. You can find her on Instagram here:
Helen-Handshoes – Comics about German
And the best thing is… we’re making a book together. About German prefix verbs. Everyone’s favorite topic.
We’re still working on the layout, but we’re about 70% done and we’ve actually set up a little info page about it.
So if you’re interested in prefix verbs, check it out :)
Our Upcoming Book (info page and newsletter)
But now let’s jump into today’s episode and this will be a new episode in our practical guide series for German verbs.
In this series, we take one important German verb and go over the most important phrasings and structures together.
So you will get a feeling for how to use the verb in practice, and ALSO, you’ll repeat various aspects of the core German grammar.
And the best thing is, we’re not just doing this in theory but in actual factual practice.
Because you will have to speak!
Yes, it’s speech AI time again.
The verb we’ll go over today is
aufhören
and as usual we’ll practice all the basics that you need to have to communicate in German:
- present tense (and future)
- past tense
- questions and
- modal verbs
Those are kind of the basics, but each verb has different “needs”, so each verb gives us the opportunity to see a special bit of German grammar in practice.
And for aufhören, we’ll get special focus on:
- prefix verbs
- nounified verbs
- zu-constructions and
- imperative
And we’ll also get some insights into the placement of nicht and German word order.
Sounds like a lot but don’t worry… it’s not as much as it sounds, and it’s pretty intuitive.
So are you ready to jump in?
Then let’s freaking gooooooooooooooooo……
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Es hat sehr gut funktioniert.
Vielen lieben Dank für deine Mühe.
A question: here we are saying “Ich will nicht aufhoeren Deutsch zu lernen”, but I feel as though I’m missing an important element. I would probably have said “Ich will nicht damit aufhoeren, Deutsch zu lernen”. So is the latter actually incorrect, or can the phrase be constructed either way? Probably confusing as you have explained the difference between using mit and zu for aufhoeren, but I think the construct I am talking about isn’t actually related? Or am I going mad?!
Both versions are correct, but without the “damit” is more idiomatic, for no special reason.
Hallo Emanuel, thanks for the exercise! I find all your exercises quite hard, but very very helpful!!.You give wonderful explanations that make it so much easier to understand! I have to write the sentences in order to remember how to say them, but like you say, practice makes perfect. I still watch German movies with subtitles in German in order to help getting used to hear the words and the sentences structure. Have a great day! Louise
Thanks for the great feedback and yes, the first time around, an exercise like this is really difficult. It’s like pushups. You need to practice to get good. But I think if you do this one 10 times over the course of a few weeks, you’ll start assimilating the pattern…. or let’s say your brain will do that. You don’t have to do anything, just give your brain enough opportunity to store it.
Emanuel, that’s a great method to practice ” Satzmelodie” too.
Thank you so much
I love these deep dives into verbs–will you be dong more/ Please?
Yes, absolutely. Have you found the other episodes, as well?
Hey there! Not sure if you respond to every comment but any advice on how to improve speaking?
I am practicing the pronunciation but my issue is I can understand reading and more or less listening on B1 level, however when I try to say something suddenly I’m A1/A2 :D It has been like that for ages now, hence my nickname.
I’d be extremely grateful for any advice! the website is awesome btw.
Well, one thing that has helped me in this situation is reading out aloud to myself and really being careful to do it properly.
Besides that, you can try out my AI speaking exercises. There aren’t that many yet, but you can do them a few times to get some fluency with the verbs I discuss there.
Thankss! Will try that out for sure!
Really enjoyed this kind of exercises where you have to practice all kinds of sentences constructions (with modal verbs, in the past, with negations etc.). It’s a really well rounded exercise. Thank you!
Happy to hear that. I’ll post a new one soon.
Guten
Tag
Super hilfreich! Es hat so vie Spaß gemacht dass ich nicht aufhören wollte! (funny – before I did this exercise I would have thought that my previous sentence meant – ‘It was so much fun that I didn’t want to hear it any. more’ :) LOL Am Ende hatte ich ein echtes Verständnis des Wortes – “aufhören”
Oh, super, das freut mich wirklich zu hören!!
Eine ausgezeichnete Übung! Vielleicht besser als ein normaler Lehrer! Der Computer kann sich nicht langweilen und seine Geduld nicht verlieren, also kann man so lange üben, wie man will.
Vielen Dank, und bitte mach weiter so, wenn du Zeit hast.
Außerdem sollte ich (als Kroate) anmerken, dass, obwohl ich zustimme, dass Primošten sehr schön ist und Split viele gute Restaurants hat, Kroatien im Allgemeinen sehr schön ist und viele kleine kroatische Städte auch ausgezeichnete Restaurants haben!
Ja, das glaube ich gerne :). Kroatien hat viel zu bieten!
Guter Punkt mit der Geduld. Das ist tatsächlich ein Vorteil von Computern/AI.
Honestly thought my German pronunciation was well above average but I’m really struggling to get any of the pronunciations above 80%. It’s weird. What is the baseline used to the recordings?
It might be a mic issue or you’re too far away from the mic. That has a big impact.
The AI works with the text, not a recording. It builds an expectation based on the text it is given and then compares that with the audio it gets.
I usually get either a full score or like 95% so it can accurately detect a native speaker, even with all the normal slurring and mumbling that I do.
Anyway, try to get closer to the mic, that might help.
Viel Spaß und sehr nützlich. Ich liebe die Sprechkomponente!
Viiiielen Dank! Hat mir so viel Spaß gemacht! :)
Das freut mich :)
Ich fand die womit-Übungen besonders hilfreich. Vielen Dank dafür!
Gerne :)
Ausgezeichnet!
Sehr nützlich!
Sehr hilfreich! Es war uns geboten, “nützlich” weniger zu benutzen!
LOL
Ja, stimmt, das hier ist ein Beispiel dafür :).
(Das war in einem anderen Artikel Thema)
Danke! Eigentlich habe ich nur kürzlich darüber erfahren..
Echt toll danke sehr!
Ich kann es nicht hören.
Hi Charles, could you please be a little more specific?
What is “es”? What happens? And what device are you using?
I’m trying to help and make it work for everyone, but I need to know what is not working, and how it looks.
Thanks a lot.
Es ist jetzt besser, ich kann jetzt hören. Konnte gestern nicht
Super, freut mich, dass es jetzt funktioniert :)
Super klar, aber ich konnte nicht mitmachen, obwohl ich den Zugriff auf das Mikrofon erlaubt habe!
HI Alan,
could you please give me a bit more information what exactly is not working?
What happens when you press the recording button?
And what device are you using?
Danke!!
My PC. I was asked for access to the microphone which I granted and the mic sybol is showing on the screen top left. However when I press and the circle changes (green border) and I then speak, press again and the comment box comes up NaN 0% with a red cross.
What browser are you using?
Does the microphone work on other applications? Like, can you make a recording here:
https://online-voice-recorder.com/de/
Interesting! It doesn’t work on that link but works fine on Zoom and Teams. Confusing!
Are you using an Apple? Because Apple Safari browser has issues playing and recording mp3s and ad hoc recordings. It’s been an issue since 2010 and they don’t really give a crap, it seems.
Super nutzvoll und hilfreich! Aber meine Aussprache für “trinken” gefällt der Maschine nie. :(
Have you listened back to your version? Maybe you click stop too fast and it gets cut off. Sometimes the AI has indeed issues with a word, but “trinken” works great for me and I get my 100% (as a native).
If you can upload a recording of yourself saying it somewhere, I’ll give you feedback.
This was my first opportunity to work through one of your blog posts from beginning to end. I am in awe. I’ve been working on improving my German. I’ve tried many different approaches most of which have provided value. However, this blog post took me to a new level that I didn’t know existed. It will be long before I forget about aufhören and where, how, and when one uses it after this lesson. I appreciate your diligence in this lesson’s preparation.
I’m really happy to hear that the format works well for you :).
I did some more exercises with the same format already, so if you want, I can post the links here.
I probably should give them a proper archive link soon, as I will expand that into a real series.