Be sure to study the corresponding material on pp. 9-12 of your workbook before doing each exercise in the workbook for this chapter. See the pointing finger after each exercise heading and directions. The same material is found in the same order in your book, which you should practice also before writing each exercise. The more of this stuff you can internalize, the better. You need to remember all of it when in Chap. 4 or 7, since it is the basis for new structures you will be learning then.
Don't just guess! ALWAYS THINK OF THE MEANING OF WHAT YOU ARE READING AND WRITING. And always remember the point of each exercise. Why are you being asked to do the activity? You should always know the answer to this question in order to learn effectively.
It is best to learn the material by heart as well as you can first, then attempt the exercise without looking at the charts. After you are finished, go back and verify your work. A key skill to good language study is TEST YOURSELF, TEST YOURSELF, TEST YOURSELF. The less you allow yourself to do your work while referring to the book, the faster you will be able to use your German for real communication.
REVIEW PREVIOUS MATERIAL FREQUENTLY. This is super important for vocabulary.
Here are some hints and/or a couple of answers for you for each exercise.
1-1 Leicht zu verstehen (*Can you tell what English expression in the directions is the translation for this phrase?)
The point here is to recognize cognates, or words that are similar
to their English relatives. As you do this exercise, read each item
aloud. Note that many inanimate things are "masculine (der)"
or "feminine (die)" in German, whereas we would call them all
"it".
*Answer to question above: Easy to understand
1-2 Familie Ziegler (*How would you say "Schmid family"? Your own family?)
ARTICLES here refers to the definite article "the". Remember to
use the proper gender in German. This exercise practices all natural
gender and helps you guess the cognate words for different family
terms. Draw a little family tree for part A if it will help you in
part B. ALWAYS THINK OF MEANING. Capitalize all nouns.
*Answer to question above: Familie Schmid; Familie X.
1-3 Was passt wo? (What fits where?)
Don't use the definite article (der/die/das) if it is not logical to say "the". Do you need it in #1? No, of course not. Otherwise, if you wrote Thomas ist mein der Bruder you'd be saying Thomas is my the brother. Always think of meaning!!
1-4 Pluralformen (*Any idea what this title means?)
Remember to capitalize all nouns. Remember that ALL PLURAL NOUNS
use die, regardless of what they do in the singular! A couple
of answers: #2 die Hämmer (umlaut, but no ending); #4 die
Amerikanerinnen (double the -n before adding -en); #6
die Fußbälle (umlaut is on the part of the compound
word that is actually being made plural,namely "ball", not "foot");
#9 die Finger (note that only the change from der to
die tells you that this word is plural).
*Answer to question above: plural forms.
1-5 Was passt wo? (Remember what this means? Hint: See 1-3.)
Use the correct indefinite article (ein or eine), according to the gender of each noun. Think logically about what word fits! If it needs to be plural (e.g., #4: "A year has twelve monthS"), be sure to use the correct plural form as abbreviated for you in the box. Try to say sentences using numbers and plural forms throughout the day so that you gradually memorize the plural forms.
1-6 Fakten oder Meinungen? (*What does this mean? The answer is contained in the directions.)
Remember that kein(e) means "no..." or "not a, not any", so
think carefully about meaning in order to decide whether the
statements represent fact or opinion. Translations of #1-3: 1. No
beer is as good as Löwenbräu. 2. No day is as long as the
21st of June. 3. No flower ['bloom'] is as pretty as a rose.
Use the -e ending on kein only before feminine nouns
(die-words). Otherwise, the form is simply kein.
Use your head on these! This activity and many others are meant to
get you used to GUESSING THE MEANING from context and from similarity
to English words. You can figure out an awful lot of German without
actually "knowing" them!
*Answer to question above: facts or opinions?.
1-7 Kleine Gespräche (small conversations)
Remember to place the verb in the proper position, as explained in section 4, WB p. 10. Remember that sentence elements can consist of more than one word: #3 Wie heiß es heute? 'How hot it today?' Obviously, you don't want to insert "ist" right after "wie" or your sentence would be "How is hot it today?" Nonsense in English or German. The entire first element is 'wie heiß', or 'how hot'.
1-8 Was sind die Fragen? (*What does this mean?)
The question you write could produce just the boldfaced part of
the answer. For example, #2 "Brian Adams is from Canada"
obviously is the answer to "Where is Brian Adams from?" If someone
asked you that question, you could respond simply "From
Canada" (i.e., the information in boldface). So: Woher
ist Brian Adams? (Brian Adams ist) aus Kanada.
*Answer to question above: What are the questions?
1-9 Ergänzen Sie! (*Any guess what this means? It's in the English directions again.)
Remember to put time expressions before those of place. Two ways
to remember this: T-M-P, or TeMPo (time-manner-place). Another
crutch: These expressions answer the questions Wann? Wie? Wo?
(or wohin?) in German, which happen to be in alphabetical
order. Combine the two with some cheerleading practice! Wann? Wie?
Wo? - Wann? Wie? Wo? - TeMPo, TeMPo, Wann? Wie? Wo?
Be sure your verb is in the proper form. It must be in SECOND
POSITION, except in Yes/No questions where it is first (like #3 &
5).
*Answer to question above: Complete!
1-10 Ja oder nein?
Be sure to study in your textbook and on p. 11 of the WB the info on position
of nicht before doing this exercise. Remember to keep the verb SECOND
if a non-subject item starts the sentence (like in #1: Heute[1]
IST[2] es [subj. follows verb to keep verb second]
nicht warm.) Watch for this in nos. 4 & 5.
Remember to use kein(e) instead of nicht for negating nouns (items
3, 8). Remember also that "Ja," or "Nein," beginning a sentence
are NOT part of the sentence and do not count at all as a sentence element.
They do not affect word order.
1-11 Kleine Gespräche (Remember? See 1-7.)
Remember that IT can be ER (for der-words), SIE (for
die-words) or ES (for das-words only). English
would use IT for any inanimate object, so your impulse will be to use
ES all the time. Don't fall for the trap (check items 2, 3, 4, 10, 11
in particular). BE SURE YOU KNOW WHAT NOUN ER,SIE, ES OR
SIE (pl.) ARE REPLACING.
Use proper forms of sein 'to be' to match the subject.
Especially be careful of sie ist ('she is'), sie sind
('they are'), Sie sind ('you are'--said to someone with
whom you are on polite terms). You MUST memorize this verb ASAP.
Recall that du (you) and its plural form ihr (you guys)
are said only to family members, animals, young people about 15 or
under, fellow students and others with whom you are on a first-name
basis. Anyone else is Sie, and you would never use a
Sie-person's first name--always Herr or Frau X.
(When I use your first name in class but still call you Sie,
it's a sort of cultural mix--American informality with the first
name, but German formality with Sie. Be aware that this would
not be done in a German-speaking country. Only your last name would
be used anyone who uses Sie with you.)
1-12 Kleine Gespräche
Careful to use the right form for the subject expressed. Be sure you are using
the logical verb. You should know absolutely what each conversation means.
Careful of verbs requiring slight spelling changes, e.g. heißen, tanzen,
sitzen, kosten, finden, regnen, arbeiten. (See footnotes on p. 12, sect.
10 in WB.) Remember that sein 'to be' has very irregular forms (sec.
9, p. 12).
As an exercise, go back and analyze why the verb is placed where it
is in each sentence.
1-13 Was passt? (What fits?)
Your choice of verb must be logical. Pp. 18-19 and 47 in the textbook may be convenient to look at for verbs you've had so far. Memorize any you don't know! Watch for spelling irregularities as in 1-12.
1-14, 1-15, 1-16 fairly self-explanatory. Be sure you know exactly what each sentence or question says! Don't simply approximate. Force yourself to be precise.
1-17 In this and all reading passages, read first through
for overall comprehension, then a second time where you pay closer
attention to details. Try to read in phrases and sentences, not one
word at a time. Be aware that the answers to the questions may not
appear exactly as they are stated in the questions, but you can
answer them based on info you've read in the text. If you have
understood it, you'll know the answers.
For extra practice: Identify all verbs in the text and explain their endings
and their position in the sentence. See if you can explain why nicht is
placed where it is.
1-18 & 1-19 See separate page with key to translation. Remember NOT to translate WORDS, but rather IDEAS. Here's one example of how to think:
What will you be doing there?
vocab needed: was - du - machen - dort
The plain old present tense is also generally used for actions that are clearly in the future, so you will need present tense of machen, du-form. The verb must be second, after the question word was. So:
Was machst du dort?In July and August I'll be working in Munich.
vocab needed: Juli - August - ich - arbeiten - München
Same point as before about future actions, so you need the present-tense ich-form of arbeiten. Use im before months (it really is a contraction of in dem, which means 'in the'--we don't use 'the' in this context in English). Verb must be second after Im Juli und im August (which is the first element). Do not capitalize ich unless it's the first word of the sentence. So:
Im Juli und im August arbeite ich in München.