Benny Lewis's Blog, page 31

Here’s an English Poem to Show How Crazy English Can Get

What if I could show you how crazy English is in one poem?

I’m serious. An English poem is all it takes to show you how crazy English is.

Us language learners can have the bad habit of fearing our target language, even if just a little bit. Everything’s new, and it can be overwhelming

But what about all the complications we’ve already gotten used to?

Perhaps a refresher of how much effort a language we already know requires can make us look differently at our target language.

Whether you’re learning French, Spanish, German, Mandarin, or Korean… Here’s a poem to show you that English can be just as challenging.

The English Poem That Shows You How Tricky English Is

I am going to show you a funny video. It is entirely in English and is very simply just me reciting a poem.

But this is no ordinary poem! It was written by Gerard Nolst Trenité in 1922. The original title was "The Chaos". I changed some parts of it to make it truer to me, but most of it is still the same.

The point of the poem is to demonstrate the weird spelling convention that English follows. It is incredibly difficult to read without practising it a lot in advance!

When I was an English teacher, I used to offer the best students in my classes €100 if they could read the entire thing without slipping up.

Considering that I couldn't even do this myself, I knew that the money was safe! (I slip up once in the video even this time. And I probably pronounce one or two words wrong.)

This poem is generally used to prove that English is the "hardest language in the world". I shit you not: as I always say every language makes this claim. In a very similar way, the Shi Shi poem is used to "prove" Chinese's impossibility. Myth Busted), though.

I've decided to hijack any searches people make for this poem and add some humour to a normally dull and discouraging concept. And then add some encouragement of my own at the end!

To make the video more interesting, I've included the corresponding pronunciation in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m-JDu3...

Here’s an image with the start and finish of the poem. You can download it and practice them!

But if you feel brave enough to take on the whole thing…

The Full Crazy English Poem “The Chaos”, Edited by Me

Dearest creature in creation, Study English pronunciation. I will teach you in my verse Sounds like corpse, corps, horse, and worse. I will keep you, Suzy, busy, Make your head with heat grow dizzy. Tear in eye, your dress will tear. So shall I! Oh hear my prayer.

Just compare heart, beard, and heard, Dies and diet, lord and word, Sword and sward, retain and Britain. (Mind the latter, how it's written.) Now I surely will not plague you With such words as plaque and ague. But be careful how you speak: Say break and steak, but bleak and streak; Cloven, oven, how and low, Script, receipt, show, poem, and toe.

Hear me say, devoid of trickery, Daughter, laughter, and Terpsichore, Typhoid, measles, topsails, aisles, Exiles, similes, and reviles; Scholar, vicar, and cigar, Solar, mica, war and far; One, anemone, Balmoral, Kitchen, lichen, laundry, laurel; Gertrude, German, wind and mind, Scene, Melpomene, mankind.

Billet does not rhyme with ballet, Bouquet, wallet, mallet, chalet. Blood and flood are not like food, Nor is mould like should and would. Viscous, viscount, load and broad, Toward, to forward, to reward. And your pronunciation's OK When you correctly say croquet, Rounded, wounded, grieve and sieve, Friend and fiend, alive and live.

Ivy, privy, famous; clamour And enamour rhyme with hammer. River, rival, tomb, bomb, comb, Doll and roll and some and home. Stranger does not rhyme with anger, Neither does devour with clangour. Souls but foul, haunt but aunt, Font, front, wont, want, grand, and grant, Shoes, goes, does. Now first say finger, And then singer, ginger, linger, Real, zeal, mauve, gauze, gouge and gauge, Marriage, foliage, mirage, and age.

Query does not rhyme with very, Nor does fury sound like bury. Dost, lost, post and doth, cloth, loth. Job, nob, bosom, transom, oath. Though the differences seem little, We say actual but victual. Refer does not rhyme with deafer. Feoffer does, and zephyr, heifer. Mint, pint, senate and sedate; Dull, bull, and George ate late. Scenic, Arabic, Pacific, Science, conscience, scientific.

Liberty, library, heave and heaven, Rachel, ache, moustache, eleven. We say hallowed, but allowed, People, leopard, towed, but vowed. Mark the differences, moreover, Between mover, cover, clover; Leeches, breeches, wise, precise, Chalice, but police and lice; Camel, constable, unstable, Principle, disciple, label.

Petal, panel, and canal, Wait, surprise, plait, promise, pal. Worm and storm, chaise, chaos, chair, Senator, spectator, mayor. Tour, but our and succour, four. Gas, alas, and Arkansas. Sea, idea, Korea, area, Psalm, Maria, but malaria. Youth, south, southern, cleanse and clean. Doctrine, turpentine, marine.

Compare alien with Italian, Dandelion and battalion. Sally with ally, yea, ye, Eye, I, ay, aye, whey, and key. Say aver, but ever, fever, Neither, leisure, skein, deceiver. Heron, granary, canary. Crevice and device and aerie.

Face, but preface, not efface. Phlegm, phlegmatic, ass, glass, bass. Large, but target, gin, give, verging, Ought, out, joust and scour, scourging. Ear, but earn and wear and tear Do not rhyme with here but ere. Seven is right, but so is even, Hyphen, roughen, nephew Stephen, Monkey, donkey, Turk and jerk, Ask, grasp, wasp, and cork and work.

Pronunciation — think of Psyche! Is a paling stout and spikey? Won't it make you lose your wits, Writing groats and saying grits? It's a dark abyss or tunnel: Strewn with stones, stowed, solace, gunwale, Islington and Isle of Wight, Housewife, verdict and indict.

Finally, which rhymes with enough — Though, through, plough, or dough, or cough? Hiccough has the sound of cup. My advice is to give up!!!*

*Disclaimer: My advice is actually to never give up!! ;)

Practice Your English With This Poem

Here’s a challenge…

Learn the poem, practice pronouncing it, and realize how English is actually more complicated than you thought. And how your target language looks simpler.

If you feel like it, you can share a video of your progress with us on social media! Tag Fluent in 3 Months on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, or YouTube.

I’d love to see if you could have snatched those $100 ;)

The post Here’s an English Poem to Show How Crazy English Can Get appeared first on Fluent in 3 months - Language Hacking and Travel Tips.

How to Learn a Language in Record Time With Frequency Lists

Do you find yourself wondering where to start learning a new language? What are the basics you need to start with? What are the right words to learn? We’ve got the answers right here.

Learning a language, especially from scratch, can be a slow and tedious process. Sometimes, learners find it hard to have a conversation in their target language even if they put in the effort and keep learning new words constantly.

The problem lies within their choice of words to learn.

Languages are made up of a large number of words. The English language, for instance, comprises over a million total words! However, learning all the words in a language is not necessary to be proficient in a language.

Now you might be wondering which words out of these should be learned?

This is why you need frequency lists.

What are Frequency Lists?

Frequency lists are lists of words in a language grouped according to their frequency of occurrence within a given text corpus. A text corpus is a large and structured collection of authentic texts used as a language resource. Your text corpus will be the general literature from a language of your interest.

To put it simply, frequency lists are a collection of words most frequently used in a language. These lists can help you identify which words are most important in a language depending on their usage, and how often they appear during speech.

Frequency lists are very important for language learning. They provide you with a list of words you will find in abundance while trying to learn so that you can familiarize yourself with them.

Some examples of frequency lists are NGSL and Top 100 Spanish words.

Why are Frequency Lists Important?

Frequency lists are used for language analysis and are an important criterion of vocabulary selection for language learning.

A language is a collection of specific words, and as time passes, new words are constantly added, left out, or replaced.

We constantly create new words, slang and start using these in general conversations. There are also words whose usage slowly decreases. Similarly, there are words we keep constantly replacing with words from different languages.

This process of addition and removal of words is a slow process, but in the long run, it alters languages significantly.

Due to these changes, many words become useless to learn, and many new words gain popularity.

This is the reason why a completely unfamiliar learner may find himself confused while trying to learn from language and grammar books composed in the past, or books that only teach formal language.

It is much more useful to start learning languages by frequency lists instead of trying to rely on a particular linguistics book, as it may be possible that some words you are trying to learn are rarely or no longer used in that language.

Frequency lists help learners determine which words they need to learn and which words they should prioritize in order to comprehend a language and have a conversation in it.

If you memorize the most frequently used words of a language, you will be able to understand more of the words you encounter, and eventually, you will be able to use those words in speech.

According to research, a relatively small number of words enable one to understand 80 to 90 percent of a language. In the English language, for example, learning 3000 words enables one to understand 90 percent of the language.

Now, this does not mean that learning any 3000 words from the dictionary will make you able to comprehend the language.

The words used in abundance in literature are the ones you need to target and memorize.

How are Frequency Lists Compiled?

Basically, a frequency list is a list of most used words within a collection of selected literature of a language.

For the compilation of a frequency list, a text corpus is selected. As explained earlier, “text corpus” is the name given to a large, structured set of texts of a language.

For a new language learner, the corpus will be a general collection of texts in their target language.

For a person already fluent in the language wishing to expand their vocabulary or wishing to get familiar with vocabulary specific to a certain field, the text corpus will be the collection of specific literature that interests them.

For instance, someone wanting to get familiar with a language for a trip to a country can select travelogues as corpus. This is quite similar to the approach of learning the most common phrases of a language.

Next, certain computer tools, like wordcount are used to analyze the data and count word frequency within the corpus.

These computer tools analyze the text corpus, checking which are the words used most abundantly, and provide a list of these words along with their frequency of occurrence.

In this way, you can get a frequency list from the corpus provided which can help you understand which words are the most important to memorize.

This can help you comprehend literature regarding any field of your interest or familiarize yourself with basic words needed to understand a completely new language in a very short period of time.

How to Use Frequency Lists to Learn English

Many people who are passionate about learning new languages struggle while trying to determine the basics they should start with.

It is not always clear where you can take the first step to learning a new language.

Only 3000 words of the English language are required to provide a basis for comprehension. That's a very small number of words as compared to the total vocabulary of over one million words.

But the question that boggles the mind is: “Which are the right words to start memorizing to learn a language?”

To learn English, or any other language, you can start by finding a frequency list of the language on the internet and learn the words in the list. Do so in decreasing order, from the word with the most frequency downwards.

You can give yourself a daily target of words to learn regularly. For example, challenge yourself to completely memorize 5 words a day. Meeting a target like this one takes less than half an hour, and does not even require any special effort.

Try to learn a small number of words each day to understand their meanings. Challenge yourself regularly to meet your goal. This way, you will reach the end of your frequency list in no time.

Continue to revise and practice the words and try to use them in basic sentences. When you have reached a point where you have basic frequent words memorized, you can try watching movies or reading books in your target language.

This way, your vocabulary will start expanding quickly and you will soon be able to fully understand as well as speak fluently.

What Can You Achieve By Knowing the 500 or 1000 Most Frequently Used Words?

We have heard countless times, “slow and steady wins the race.”

Language learning is a process that requires persistence, patience and effort. But with the help of frequency lists, the process of language learning is not as tedious and slow as it seemed to be while relying completely on books.

The key is to just take the first step. Once you are halfway there, you will automatically be motivated to keep learning and keep expanding your vocabulary.

If you keep learning at a steady pace and challenge yourself daily, you will soon reach your goal and start understanding your target language with minimal effort.

If you learn the 1000 most frequently used English words, you will be able to understand up to 80% of English language texts, as long as these are not too specialized!

With only 1000 most frequently used words, you can understand most conversations, and 500 will help you understand basic conversations. This means that understanding a completely new language is possible in a very short time if your choice of words to learn is right.

Once your vocabulary is developed enough to get a gist of general conversations, it will motivate you to learn more words. Once the general words are familiar to you, listening and reading will naturally continue to expand your vocabulary. Sentences will start making sense automatically, even with new words, and this slowly builds and expands your vocabulary.

Frequency lists are a very common learning tool that can make language learning very easy, less time-consuming, and fun. They can easily be found on the internet for any language of choice, and can even be custom generated to fit your needs.

If you want to learn a language fast, frequency lists are what you need. They will not only decrease language learning time, but decrease the amount of effort you need to put into learning.

A Quick Way to Create Your Frequency Lists

There are other ways to use frequency lists in language learning.

Beeblio, for instance, is an app that uses the concept of frequency lists to boost your language skills.

You provide a text to the application, then it removes all the instances of the most frequently used words up to the range you specified, and presents the resulting words as a list of resources to learn from.

For each word you're interested in, you can directly open its dictionary entry, or you can read and listen to sentences that contain the word from the provided text. You can also save these resources to study later.

The post How to Learn a Language in Record Time With Frequency Lists appeared first on Fluent in 3 months - Language Hacking and Travel Tips.

You Can Learn a Language Living Abroad – Here’s What Worked for Me (And What Didn’t)

Intuition will tell you that there is no better way to learn Italian than to get up and move yourself to Italy. A summer in Italy, living with an Italian family, and speaking Italian every day -- it's the perfect immersive environment. How could you NOT learn Italian, right? Workaway presents the perfect opportunity to do just that. Workaway is a website that connects travelers who want free room and board with hosts that want five hours of free labor five days a week. You choose from one of the 170 countries and narrow down your opportunities by location and the type of labor you want to do. A year membership costs anywhere from $44-$56 depending on whether you're single or traveling with someone. They even have a whole section showing you how it's the perfect environment to learn a language. So, I was basically sold. Free board in Italy and free language learning? Sign me up!

In fact, this very quote from the Workaway website convinced me that this was exactly what I needed at this point in my language journey:

Whatever language you are studying, there is no doubt that the best way to learn is to go to the country where the language is actually spoken, and to immerse yourself completely. However, my almost two months in Italy and three separate Workaway experiences turned out quite differently than I had imagined. Doing Workaway in a country that speaks the language you want to learn is not as "immersive" as the website makes it seem. Here’s why:

Actually Getting Your Host to Speak to You in Their Language is More Difficult than You'd Think

Before heading to Italy, I had been studying Italian for a few months and one thing I heard over and over was that a lot of Italians did not speak English and that you'd need Italian to travel around the country. This led me to believe that the hosts would want to speak with me in Italian even though my Italian was not that advanced yet. However, in each of the three Workaways I visited, the hosts spoke excellent English. Not only that, but their English was so much better than my Italian that they did not want to speak to me in Italian. Instead, they were practicing English. Following Benny Lewis' advice on getting natives to talk to you in their language, I only responded to them in Italian (to the best of my ability) and I asked them to please speak to me in Italian instead of English. To be honest, this didn't work as well as I'd hoped. They would speak in Italian for a few minutes and then switch back and the next day I'd be back to asking them to help me practice. It got quite frustrating, especially since their learning English was not a part of the agreed-upon five hours of labor (which for some hosts is part of what they want you to do).

You Might Be Underestimating the Number of Hours You'll Be Working

When you sign up for a Workaway, you are signing up for five hours a day for five days. The host gets to decide which days you get off and what work you do each day. This sounds easy in theory, but once you get to your Workaway you will most likely notice that counting those five hours gets a little difficult. Technically, you should only be working those hours, but the lines get blurry and there is no timer keeping track. When your host asks you to help with something and you've already done your five hours for the day, the chances are that you're not going to say no. In two out of the three Workaways that we did in Italy, we worked more than just the 5 hours. But what's the problem with that and language learning?

While You Work, Your Host Most Likely Won't Be There With You

While you are gardening or doing chores, your host most likely will not be at your side. That's the whole reason why they have you there, to work while they do something else. That means that all those hours that you spend working are not spent speaking in your target language. Instead, you'll probably be alone or with another Workawayer, who probably doesn't speak the language you want to learn either.

Most Workaways are Gardening & Manual Labor, Which Gets Exhausting

If you are not accustomed to manual labor or gardening, the work might be more difficult than you think. I brushed that fact aside, in the beginning, thinking that I'd get in shape and maybe get a good tan out of it. Instead, I found myself quite exhausted at the end of the workday. Including the fact that most of the time I was working more than the 5 hours required.

I was also doing certain chores that I wouldn't have anticipated but I felt uncomfortable saying no to. For example, spending multiple days on my hands and knees scrubbing a deck with bleach or making dinner for the family even after working 5 hours that day. At the end of the day, I still tried to speak to the hosts in Italian, but my energy was spent and I wasn’t learning much from those very short conversations.

Some Hosts May Not Have the Patience to Help You Learn (Especially if You are a Beginner)

At the end of the day, your hosts are not language teachers. They have a lot of work on their plate already and you are there to make their life easier. When you are just starting to learn a language, you are at a very beginner level that can really frustrate a native speaker trying to communicate with you. In the end, that was my biggest mistake and oversight by far. After reading this blog post, I realized that I had done this experience backward. Instead of heading straight to Italy as a complete A1 beginner, I should have tried these Workaways once I'd hit a B1 level.

What I Did Instead that ACTUALLY WorkedI Moved to Turkey

I know this sounds counterintuitive but bear with me! Immediately after our three Workaways in Italy, we visited Greece and then went on to Turkey, where we spent a little over two months. In those two months in Turkey, I learned more Italian than in the whole two months living in Italy. This may not be a revelation to you, but it definitely was to me. It forever changed the way I looked at learning languages and what you ACTUALLY need in order to become conversational.

I Started Taking 2-3 iTalki Classes per Week with Language Exchanges Mixed in

In Turkey, instead of working five plus hours a day for a Workaway host, I was working four plus hours teaching English online.

This made a huge difference in my energy levels and I spent every minute outside of those four hours studying Italian. However, the BIGGEST and most important part of my journey to learn Italian was taking iTalki classes. I started to take 2-3 iTalki classes per week, as well as free language exchanges with partners that I found through iTalki (unfortunately, they no longer have this feature on their website). Like Benny Lewis always says, speak as soon as possible. To save money, I took conversation classes only and never ever spoke in English during my classes.

I Used Duolingo in Every Spare Moment

People love to hate on Duolingo, but for someone who doesn't love actually studying grammar, it was the perfect way to study. The most efficient way to use Duolingo is to use it like you are completing activities in a Language Textbook. Instead of trying to understand why you are conjugating a verb that way or using that article there, try to spot patterns. My main goal by using Duolingo was to not just learn Italian but to feel when something is wrong instead of just knowing when it is. With English, I wouldn't need to be able to explain the grammar concepts to know that "We goes to the park" sounds wrong and is wrong. Instead, I just intuitively know that it should be "We go to the park." Of course, once I got better at Italian (speaking from the future here!) I would actually study and understand those concepts better. However, when my mind was swimming with so many new words and concepts, this method kept me sane. Duolingo also gamifies learning languages by having you compete in leagues against other users and keeping track of your progress using points (called XP). This helped me stay motivated even when I didn’t always feel like studying.

I sang in Italian to Help with Pronunciation

As soon as possible, I wanted to connect to Italian not just through learning materials, but for materials made for native speakers. My favorite way to do that is by listening to the top hits in that country and learning the lyrics. Each day I'd spend time on Youtube listening to the lyric videos of the top songs in Italy while singing along. Eventually, I was able to memorize a bunch of songs and by singing them, I found out that I was trying to speak Italian like Spanish. I changed the "t" sound and worked on fluctuating my voice so that it sounded more like an Italian speaker. The added plus of this is that I can turn on any of those songs now and still sing those lyrics. I have favorite Italian artists that I listen to even to this day that I found during these exercises.

I Watched Kid Shows in Italian to Work on my Listening Skills

There's not much of a point in being able to speak Italian if you can't understand what they're saying back to you! Listening comprehension is one of the hardest things to master, so I had to find something I enjoyed but that also challenged me to really listen. The best mix of challenge and enjoyment was… watching TV made for children! Netflix was the shining star here with tons of options in Italian, from Disney-esque kid dramas to cartoons. This was also something that I could do after I had already worked hard all day and just wanted to relax a bit. Pro Tip: To get more Italian shows with your Netflix subscription, invest in a good VPN and change your country to Italy!

So...Did I Need to Move to Italy to Learn Italian?

No, absolutely not. Of course, I don't regret my time in Italy (who the heck would?) but I didn't learn much there. (Placeholder for Pic of me & Jake in front of Trevi Fountain) By the time I left Italy, I still couldn't hold a conversation with a native speaker and would sometimes slip in Spanish words instead of Italian. After two months of iTalki, Duolingo, Youtube, and Netflix in a completely unrelated country, I finally was starting to "get" Italian. After leaving Turkey, I ran into Italians in the Philippines and Nepal and was actually able to have full conversations with them! Of course, I made mistakes, but the native speakers were comfortable enough with my language level that they felt relaxed and spoke to me in their language. No more English conversations for me! So the moral of the story is, before moving to the country that speaks the language you want to learn, make the most of what you have at home first. Get your language level high enough that you can hold a conversation, then head to that country and you'll actually be able to learn because native speakers will be more willing to speak to you.

The post You Can Learn a Language Living Abroad – Here’s What Worked for Me (And What Didn’t) appeared first on Fluent in 3 months - Language Hacking and Travel Tips.

How to Learn the Irish language (Gaeilge)

I’m happy to see that you’re interested in the Irish language!

Irish is the first official language of Ireland. Many people think it’s English with an Irish spin, but not at all!

The Irish language is also known as Gaeilge, and it’s a completely different language to English. I am here to tell you more about how it works and how you can learn it.

Here’s an overview of what we’ll talk about:

Table of contentsWhat Is Gaeilge?Níl Sé Deacair ar Chor ar Bith - “It Is Not Difficult at All”Cad Atá Tú Ag Caint Faoi? - “What Are You Talking About?”Resources to Learn Irish GaelicTá an Teanga I Ngach Ait! - “The Language Is Everywhere!”*Lee este articulo en espanol aqui! (Read this article in Spanish here!)

I wrote this post for Seachtain na Gaeilge(“Irish language week”). It’s the week celebrating the Irish language and culture leading up to St. Patrick's day.

So, are you ready to learn more about the Irish language?

Follow me!

What Is Gaeilge?

Gaeilge, Irish, or "Irish Gaelic" is the national and first official language of Ireland, as well as one of the official languages of the European Union.

Although everyone in Ireland speaks English, there are regions known as the Gaeltacht that use Irish as the main language, both in businesses and in families.

When we say Irish, the language, we don't mean our accent in English. That’s Hiberno English. No, we mean a language on a completely different branch of the European language family tree!

More distant than French and Spanish, stranger than Slavic languages and more exotic and beautiful than many languages, Irish is an interesting specimen.

Níl Sé Deacair ar Chor ar Bith - “It Is Not Difficult at All”

While Irish is quite different, there are some things that make it pretty straightforward to learn.

It only has 11 irregular verbs. That’s nothing compared to the 500 or so in English and thousands in Spanish/French/etc.!

There's also no indefinite articles, so you can just say Tá leabhar agam (literally I have book). And even though Gaeilge has masculine and feminine nouns, the definite article "an" (the) is the same for both.

Gaelic uses the same alphabet as other European languages. But it is the only language that still traditionally uses its own special font!

The phonetics (pronunciation based on spelling) are quite different, and this usually scares a lot of people. But you can learn the differences very quickly. After that, they are consistent. This means that you can read any given text aloud pretty well after a small amount of study.

Most of the letters work pretty similarly to how they do in most European languages, but some change. This includes:

mb = mgc = cth = hdt = d,fh = silent

Some consonants change sound depending on if they are before i/e or a/o/u. This happens in Spanish/French/Italian and other languages too, but it’s slightly different in Irish.

For example S before i or e makes an sh sound. This is why the well-known name Seán is pronounced (and spelled, in America) as Shawn.

Most of the vowels work similarly to as they would in English, with the exception of ao pronounced as ee, so the name Aoife is pronounced Ee-fa.

The subtle difference between how some consonants are pronounced takes some practice, but you can indeed learn it :) This is important for saying Irish people's names correctly. Even when you’re just speaking English.

Some titles are not translated in Ireland. Instead of a "prime minister", we have a Taoiseach. 'Ch' is pronounced gutturally as in loch. Based on that and what I said above, you will see better why this is pronounced Tee-sho[ch].

The Irish language also interestingly has no word for yes or no. We simply repeat the verb of the question. Like this: Ar ith tú do lón? D'ith! (“Did you eat your lunch? I did!”). Literally, it translates to “I ate”.

Cad Atá Tú Ag Caint Faoi? - “What Are You Talking About?”

There are a few tricky aspects of the language that deserve a mention.

In most languages, you change the end of words in certain situations.

Examples:

to show plural: car → carsto change a verb’s tense: I eat → he eats

Other times, it’s the middle of the words that changes: man/men, mouse/mice.

In Irish, we very merrily change the beginning of words. This is something common in other Celtic languages and it adds to a nice flow between words.

For those of you who don't know, my name is actually Brendan (Benny is my nickname). In Irish, this is originally written Breandán. When followed by verbs and such, it stays the same:

Tá Breandán ag ithe - “Brendan is eating.”

However, thanks to the magic of initial mutations, we can change the start of words in many situations!

So if you want to get my attention some day, don't shout Breandán!! Instead, use A Bhreandán!! It is actually pronounced ah Vrendawn since bh=v!

(For the linguists out there who want to know the exact term to describe this change, it is the vocative case.)

Here’s another example: Mo (“my”) and madra (“dog”) become mo mhadra together. Since mh=w, this is pronounced mo wadra.

This strange use of spelling and the other examples mentioned above may seem off putting. But believe it or not, it's actually quite helpful! Let me explain.

We keep the letter of the original base word in a modified version of the word.

Example: crann (“tree”) becomes i gcrann (“in a tree”). The 'c' is silent, but essential for recognising the original word when the modified one is written.

This is way better than if the language was perfectly phonetic. Even if you knew the word crann it would be much more confusing for you to see grann in a dictionary or text.

Welsh is in the same language family as Irish. I'm told that it works more phonetically despite the same initial mutation situation. I'd personally miss my original letters for recognition!

The vocabulary of the language is of course quite different. It's one of the few languages I've seen that has its own word for things like the Internet (Idirlíon). Even words you would hope would be slightly similar go way off: "vegetarian" is feoilséantóir (literally means, "meat shunner").

But despite the huge differences, Irish words are formed logically using prefixes, suffixes and combinations of roots.

A lot of Irish words do this, so after you have some basic vocabulary it isn't that bad. You can recognise more complicated words and very quickly build up your base of vocabulary.

For example, astronomy is réalteolaíocht. Réalta is “star”, eolas is knowledge/information, and íocht is y/ity/other suffixes. More generally, the second part of réalteolaíocht, eolaíocht, means science. In the end, you get “star science”.

But sometimes we just separate the words in an easy way. “Exit” is simply bealach amach (“way out”).

You should also know that word order changes a bit from English. And we have preposition conjugation, like in Spanish/Portuguese when con and tu become contigo.

A fun fact to conclude the section with good humour: Because of the initial mutations mentioned above, capital letters (upper case) can occur as the second or third letter in a word! So Donegal, a county in the northwest is spelled Dún na nGall.

These things do take some getting used to, but it really isn't that bad :)

Resources to Learn Irish Gaelic

If you feel ready to get started on Gaeilge yourself, I’ve got a couple of resources to help you. Maybe you can use them to work towards having a 15-minute conversation in Gaeilge after 90 days!

I’ve listed the best ones here, but here are some more!

Even if you aren't in Ireland, the possibilities of listening to and practising Irish are endless! An idea that I've already mentioned before is to use meetup.com to see if there are other interested Irish learners in your city.

If you’re more of a solo learner, you can turn to books. Whether in Ireland or abroad, there are usually some books in major libraries on learning Irish.

If you can’t access them near you, you might need to look for them online. One of my favourites for beginners is the multimedia Turas Teanga course (you can get it on Amazon US/UK). It is from Irish language RTE newsreader Sharon Ní Bheolain. She teaches the language while going around the country showing it used by natives.

Teach Yourself is also a great book about Irish for complete beginners (Amazon US/UK).

The more adventurous of you can even read Harry Potter in Irish! (Amazon US/UK).

But reading doesn’t have to be long and hard! You can also try short, simple texts. I do this with all of my maintained languages. You can follow me on Twitter @ilteangach for small bits of Irish Gaelic.

You can also change the language of your computer and software to be entirely in Irish! Chrome, Firefox, Open Office, Ubuntu and many more interfaces are available as Gaeilge.

There are also lots of websites to help you practice your Irish. Here are some of my favourites:

Gramadach na Gaeilge - It’s an extremely in-depth look at Irish grammar. Perhaps it’s more interesting to linguists. It gets very detailed! Daltaí forum Abair.ie - An amazing voice synthesiser for Irish text. It uses the beautiful Tír Conaill accent and can help train you in your pronunciation. RnaG - Listen to Ireland's main Irish language radio station live. This is the best way to hear what the language actually sounds like! The entire page is in Irish, but click on "RnaG beo" link beside the radio image in the top-right to open up the stream. Tg4 - This is Ireland's Irish language TV station. What's better than listening to the radio in Irish? Watching TV shows originally in Irish! Check out the Ros na Rún page (and click "Féach ar" [watch]) to watch a soap opera entirely in Irish! Focal.ie - Here’s a free dictionary database. It lists every Irish contemporary word found on the Internet. There are links to the page where you can find the words’ definitions.Tá an Teanga I Ngach Ait! - “The Language Is Everywhere!”

The best part of all, is that Irish speakers are generally always happy to help!

We are a long cry from arrogant perfectionists, something that holds too many people back from speaking a language. If you can form some sentences, we'll be very happy to hear them. Even if there are some grammatical mistakes :)

Whenever I hear a cúpla focal (“a couple of words”) from someone, I always encourage them to keep going!

My Irish is far from perfect. My accent is definitely not as lovely as so many others that you would hear. But I enjoy the language!

The course I took to learn Gaeilge was given by Oideas Gael in Donegal and takes place regularly every year for all levels.

You can check out a video I made about my experience in the Gaeltacht. Or maybe you’d like to see me introduce Irish as a leprechaun.

If you’re curious about the Irish language, I hope this post gives you a little hint into how to learn and use it!

Don't forget to share this post with your other Irish-at-heart friends through twitter and facebook :)

Go n-eirí an bóthar libh!

*Lee este articulo en espanol aqui! (Read this article in Spanish here!)

The post How to Learn the Irish language (Gaeilge) appeared first on Fluent in 3 months - Language Hacking and Travel Tips.

How to Learn the Future Tense in Spanish – an Easy Guide

Welcome to this guide on changing verbs to future tense in Spanish!

We’ll cover:

The Spanish future tense endingsThe irregular verbs in future tensesHow to conjugate future tenses in Spanish

I’ll walk you through the different Spanish future tenses and help you learn with charts and simple explanations.

By the end of the article, you’ll feel confident in how to use the Spanish future tense.

Grab your pen to take notes and let’s get started!

Future Tense in Spanish: What Do We Mean By That?

So you want to learn the future tense in Spanish. But do you know which one?

When someone mentions the “future tense”, they’re usually talking about the simplest of future tenses: the future indicative. You know, the one that in English goes “I will do” and “she will have”.

But there are many more future tenses, most of all in Spanish. The subjunctive mode (used to express emotions, doubts, and the abstract) needs to have its own, for example. If only to make your life more difficult.

If this all sounds more foreign than Spanish to you, you might need a quick refresher. You’re in luck because that’s exactly what I had planned next.

Future Tense Conjugation in Spanish: The Basics

There are a few things you need to pay attention to in Spanish conjugation. Some you will know because they exist in English as well. Others might be new, but that does not mean they will be harder to learn.

Spanish Verb Groups

The first concept we have to talk about is the verb classification according to a verb’s ending.

Spanish verbs have three possible endings: -ar, -er, and -ir. The verbs ending in -ar belong to the first group, those in -er to the second group, and those in -ir to the third group.

Why is this relevant? Because it makes your life easier.

Most of the time, the verbs that have the same ending conjugate in the same way. For example, cortar (“to cut”) will conjugate like amar (“to love”). Comer (“to eat”) like beber (“to drink”). And dormir (“to sleep”) like vivir (“to live”).

This will be useful to learn for the conjugation of some future tenses.

Spanish Subject Pronouns

Spanish subject pronouns may seem like a lot at first glance, but don’t forget that they’re rarely used in speech! They’re mostly an indication for conjugation.

Quickly review them with this chart.

Spanish Pronouns English Equivalents yo I tú you (singular and informal) vos you (singular and informal only in some Latin American countries) él, ella, usted he, she, you (singular formal) nosotros, nosotras* we vosotros, vosotras you (plural informal in Spain) ellos, ellas, ustedes they (masculine or general), they (feminine), you (plural formal) Spanish Conjugation Moods

Another important aspect to remember when you work on Spanish conjugation is the moods.

We have them in English too. Most of the time, we use them without really paying mind to it.

The Spanish moods include el indicativo (“the indicative”), el imperativo (“the imperative”), and el subjuntivo (“the subjunctive”). Each of them has their own tenses, both simple and compound.

If you want to learn more about Spanish conjugation, you’re welcome to visit this post that I wrote on the topic.

But for now, let’s get right into conjugating future tense.

How Many Spanish Future Tenses Are There?

Before you banish the information on conjugation moods to the back of your mind, guess why I included them in this post.

That’s right: moods have their own future tenses with their own rules and meanings.

So how many Spanish future tenses are there?

The answer is four: two indicative future tenses and two subjunctive future tenses.

They are:

*el futuro simple del indicativo: simple future of the indicative mood

el futuro perfecto del indicativo: compound future of the indicative mood*el futuro simple del subjuntivo: simple future of the subjunctive moodel futuro perfecto del indicativo: compound future of the subjunctive moodHow to Form the Spanish Future Tense

Have you already studied other Spanish tenses, like the preterite for example? If you have, you know that Spanish conjugation is a bit more complex than in English.

I’ve prepared some charts to help you through it.

Simple Future Tense in Spanish: El Futuro del Indicativo

El futuro del indicativo, also called futuro imperfecto (“imperfect future”) and futuro simple (“simple future”), is the simplest future tense in Spanish. It’s part of the standard trio of tenses that Spanish learners study first.

It’s also often their favourite because of how simple its conjugation is, as I’ll show you below.

Before jumping to the conjugation, though, let’s talk about the many uses of the simple future tense in Spanish.

Its most important function is to place an action in the future, such as me iré mañana (“I will leave tomorrow”).

But sometimes it communicates a supposition, like in serán las dos (“it must be two o’clock” or “it’s probably two o’clock”). And sometimes it’s used as a form of imperative: irás a la fiesta, sí o sí (“you will go to the party”).

Spanish Future Tense: Endings

Forming el futuro del indicativo is different than forming other simple Spanish tenses. Mostly because you keep the whole infinitive of the verb instead of only its root.

Add these endings to the infinitive:

yo -é tú -ás vos -ás él, ella, usted -á nosotros, nosotras -emos vosotros, vosotras -éis ellos, ellas, ustedes -án

The same endings work with verbs from all three groups, as you can see in this chart:

Amar ("to love") Comer ("to eat") Vivir ("to live") yo amaré comeré viviré tú amarás comerás vivirás vos amarás comerás vivirás él, ella, usted amará comerá vivirá nosotros, nosotras amaremos comeremos viviremos vosotros, vosotras amaréis comeréis viviréis ellos, ellas, ustedes amarán comerán vivirán Identify the Irregular Future Tenses in Spanish

There are a few exceptions to the simplicity of the simple future -- see what I did here. Some Spanish verbs have an irregular future tense.

But don’t worry! There are only a few of them, and the slight changes only happen in their infinitive.

You can see them in the following charts:

Caber ("to fit") Haber ("to have") Hacer ("to do") Decir ("to say") yo cabré habré haré diré tú cabrás habrás harás dirás vos cabrás habrás harás dirás él, ella, usted cabrá habrá hará dirá nosotros, nosotras cabremos habremos haremos diremos vosotros, vosotras cabréis habréis haréis diréis ellos, ellas, ustedes cabrán habrán harán dirán Poder ("to can") Poner ("to put") Querer ("to like"/"to want") Saber ("to know") yo podré pondré querré sabré tú podrás pondrás querrás sabrás vos podrás pondrás querrás sabrás él, ella, usted podrá pondrá querrá sabrá nosotros, nosotras podremos pondremos querremos sabremos vosotros, vosotras podréis pondréis querréis sabréis ellos, ellas, ustedes podrán pondrán querrán sabrán Salir ("to go out"/"to exit") Tener ("to have") Valer ("to be worth") Venir ("to come") yo saldré tendré valdré vendré tú saldrás tendrás valdrás vendrás vos saldrás tendrás valdrás vendrás él, ella, usted saldrá tendrá valdrá vendrá nosotros, nosotras saldremos tendremos valdremos vendremos vosotros, vosotras saldréis tendréis valdréis vendréis ellos, ellas, ustedes saldrán tendrán valdrán vendrán Future Perfect Tense in Spanish: El Futuro Perfecto del Indicativo

El futuro perfecto del indicativo, commonly known as just el futuro perfecto, is used to talk about an action that will be done by the future moment you’re referring to.

Take as an example en tres años a partir de ahora, habré terminado mis estudios (“in three years from now, I will have finished my studies”).

El futuro perfecto is even easier to build than el futuro imperfecto.

El futuro perfecto is a compound tense, meaning that it is composed of two verbs. The first of the two is the verb haber (“to have”) conjugated in future tense. The second is a participio (“participle”).

The rule to form the participle of a verb in Spanish follows this pattern:

verb root + -ado for verbs that end in -ar, or -ido for verbs that end in -er and -ir

Here is a chart with examples of the futuro perfecto:

future perfect chart

Amar ("to love") Comer ("to eat") Vivir ("to live") yo habré amado habré comido habré vivido tú habrás amado habrás comido habrás vivido vos habrás amado habrás comido habrás vivido él, ella, usted habrá amado habrá comido habrá vivido nosotros, nosotras habremos amado habremos comido habremos vivido vosotros, vosotras habréis amado habréis comido habréis vivido ellos, ellas, ustedes habrán amado habrán comido habrán vivido

Note: There are some exceptions to the participle rule. But there aren’t many and you won’t get in trouble with this tense if you learn them. Here are a few of the most commonly used:

abrir (“to open”) → abiertodecir (“to say”) → dichoescribir (“to write”) → *escritohacer (“to do”) → hechoponer (“to put”) → puestover (“to see”) → vistovolver (“to come back”) → vuelto

Keep in mind that when the last letter of a verb’s root is a vowel and the ending you will add is -ido, the i has to be accented.

Examples:

traer (“to bring”) → traídooir (“to hear”) → oídoThe Future Tenses of Your Favourite Spanish Mood: Los Futuros del Subjuntivo

I’ll tell you right now, these tenses are not used in everyday Spanish. But you will come across them in popular sayings, literature, or academic texts.

So while you’re here, why not get familiar with them?

(Pssst… If you need a quick refresher on what’s the subjunctive and how it works, jump to this post.)

El Futuro Imperfecto del Subjuntivo

As you may remember, the subjunctive mood is used to point out actions that could happen. With the subjunctive present tense, there is an implicit belief that an action might happen. But with the subjunctive future, the action could be true if the conditions were right.

An example: By saying El que me ame me siga, you’re saying “Those who love me follow me”. But if you were to say El que me amare me siguiere, you would be saying “If there was someone who loved me, may they follow me”.

It’s a bit complex, but I find it fascinating.

The simple future of the subjunctive mood isn’t as simple as the indicative one. But it’s still fairly easy to master.

El futuro imperfecto del subjuntivo is built from the verb’s root. You then have to add a specific ending depending on what group the verb belongs to.

Here’s how the endings work:

Verbs of 1st group (-ar) Verbs of 2nd and 3rd group (-er, -ir) yo -are -iere tú -ares -ieres vos -ares -ieres él, ella, usted -are -iere nosotros, nosotras -áremos -iéremos vosotros, vosotras -areis -iereis ellos, ellas, ustedes -aren -ieren

Examples:

yo amaretú comieresella viviere

There are exceptions, but as this tense has become obsolete, you don’t really have to learn them.

El Futuro Perfecto del Subjuntivo

Actually, there’s one exception that might be worth learning. And that’s only because it’s useful to build this tense.

I’m just giving you el futuro perfecto del subjuntivo so you know it exists and you don’t get too surprised when you see it on a conjugation site.

Like its indicative version, this tense is a compound one. You form it with the subjunctive future of haber and a participle.

Haber yo hubiere tú hubieres vos hubieres él, ella, usted hubiere nosotros, nosotras hubiéremos vosotros, vosotras hubiereis ellos, ellas, ustedes hubieren

Examples:

yo hubiere amadotú hubieres comidoella hubiere vividoFuture Tenses in Spanish: Practice!

The best way to become a pro at using the future tense of verbs in Spanish is to practice. Create your own future tense Spanish sentences to make sure you use as many verbs as possible.

Learning conjugation is about trying and trying until the suffixes stick into your head.

If you’ve got someone you can practice out loud with, that’s even better! If you don’t have a conversation partner yet, check out iTalki or consider joining the Fluent in 3 Months Challenge. We’re a supportive community who motivate each other to reach our goals in our target language.

I’ll See You in the Future!

It’s time to say goodbye, but it doesn’t have to be a long one. You can check out more easy guides to tricky Spanish topics.

Why not look at this list of the best resources for Spanish learning? I’m sure you’ll find something to help you practice!

The post How to Learn the Future Tense in Spanish – an Easy Guide appeared first on Fluent in 3 months - Language Hacking and Travel Tips.

German Articles – Everything You Need to Know [with Charts]

German articles - that is, the German for “the” and “a” - are very different than in English. Every article must agree with its noun in both gender and case, and if you get it wrong it can change the meaning of your sentence.

Here’s what I’ll cover in this guide:

Table of contentsGerman Article ChartsGerman Definite articles (the)German Indefinite articles (a/an)Gender in German ArticlesCases in German ArticlesWhen to Use Each German CaseThe Nominative Case in German - Der/Die/DasThe Accusative Case in German - Den/Die/DasThe Dative Case in German - Dem/Dem/DerThe Genitive Case in German - Des/Des/DerPlural Articles in GermanHow to Remember the German ArticlesHow English Pronouns Can Help You Remember German Articles (and Visa Versa)How to Pronounce the German Articles

There are three genders in German: masculine (männlich), feminine (weiblich) or neutral (sächlich). There are also four cases: nominative, accusative, dative and genitive. To translate “a” or “the” into German, you must choose the correct entry from the following German article charts:

German Article ChartsGerman Definite articles (the) Masculine Neutral Feminine Plural Nominative der das die die Accusative den das die die Dative dem dem der den Genitive des des der der German Indefinite articles (a/an) Masculine Singular Feminine Plural Nominative ein ein eine -eine Accusative einen ein eine -eine Dative einem einem einer -einen Genitive eines eines einer -einer Masculine Singular Feminine Plural Nominative mein mein meine meine Accusative meinen mein meine meine Dative meinem meinem meiner meinen Genitive meines meines meiner meiner

Unsure how to use these charts? Don’t worry: this article will explain everything you need to know. The two critical concepts to understand are: gender and case.

Gender in German Articles

Like most European languages, German has genders. Three of them, to be precise. Every noun is categorised as either masculine (männlich), feminine (weiblich) or neutral (sächlich).

To use a noun correctly, you must know its gender.

Look at these examples, and notice how I use a different article (der/die/das) depending on the noun’s gender:

der Hund (the dog) is a masculine noundie Frau (the woman) is a feminine noundas Boot (the boat) is a neutral noun (as well as the name of a classic German movie)

(Remember that all German nouns are always written with a capital letter.)

You need to remember the gender of every German noun that you learn. Don’t be discouraged: it’s easier than it looks. There are many time-saving shortcuts you can learn: for example, that all words which end in -heit, -keit, -schaft, -ung, and -tion are feminine.

See here for a comprehensive guide to remembering noun genders in German.

Cases in German Articles

You’ll be familiar with grammatical gender if you’ve studied a Romance language like French or Spanish. German, however, goes a step further: as well as a gender, each noun has a case: nominative, accusative, dative and genitive.

(It could be worse: Hungarian has a whopping eighteen cases!)

Unlike its gender, a noun’s case isn’t fixed. So for example, while Hund is always masculine, it can be any of the four cases depending on the context. Case conveys meaning: it tells you something about what the noun is doing (or what it had done to it) in relation to the other elements of the sentence.

You may be surprised to learn that English has cases too. Once upon a time, English had a case system as rich as German’s, but it’s mostly lost. The one place it survives is in pronouns, and to see what I mean consider the following sentences. Do they sound correct?

Him kissed Sarah.Sarah kissed he.

Nope. He and him are the wrong way around. Both words refer to a male individual, but you need to use the correct one depending on whether “he” is the subject or the object of the sentence. That’s like a simplified version of how case works in German.

When to Use Each German Case

As mentioned above, the word for “dog” is Hund, a masculine noun. Looking at the chart, we can see that there are four ways of translating “the dog”: der Hund, den Hund, dem Hund or des Hund. Which case should we use?

The Nominative Case in German - Der/Die/Das

The nominative case is used for the subject of the sentence. The subject is the person or thing that is doing or performing the described action:

der Hund beißt ihn - “the dog bites him” die Frau ist schön - “the woman is pretty” das Boot sank - “the boat sank”The Accusative Case in German - Den/Die/Das

The accusative case is used for the direct object of the sentence. The direct object is the person or thing that the action is being done to:

der Mann beißt den Hund - “the man bites the dog”der Hund beißt die Frau - “the dog bites the woman”der Mann rudert das Boot - “the man rows the boat”

Notice how the feminine and neutral articles haven’t changed. It’s only the masculine gender where there’s a visible difference between the nominative and accusative article.

Case allows German to be more flexible with its word order than is possible in English. For example, compare “the dog bites the man” with der Hund beißt den Mann.

In English, if you swap things around you get “the man bites the dog”, which completely changes the meaning. In German, however, the articles der and den contain information about who is doing the biting. So you can say den Mann beißt der Hund and it still means the same thing as the original sentence.

The Dative Case in German - Dem/Dem/Der

The dative case is a little bit more complicated. It’s generally used for indirect objects. For example, in the English sentence “I gave a present to John”, “a present” is the direct object and “John” is the indirect object.

Sometimes (but not always) you can translate the dative article as “to the” or “to a”. You must also use the dative after certain prepositions like mit (with) or aus (out).

Ich gab dem Hund einen Knocken. - “I gave the dog a bone.” (Or “I gave a bone to the dog”.)’Ich kam mit der Frau. - I came with the woman.Ich zog ihn aus dem Boot. - I pulled him out of the boat.

A small number of verbs always take a dative object:

antworten - “to answer”danken - “to thank”gehören - “to belong to”gefallen - “to like” (more literally: “to be pleasing to” or “to be liked by”)glauben - “to believe”helfen - “to help”

For example:

Ich glaube nicht der Frau. - “I don’t believe the woman.”Er gefällt nicht dem Hund. - “The dog doesn’t like him.” (lit: “He is not pleasing to the dog.”)The Genitive Case in German - Des/Des/Der

Finally, the genitive case denotes possession. It’s similar to the ‘s construction in English, and in fact. the two have the same origin. (The English “apostrophe and s” construction is sometimes called the Saxon genitive.)

Generally, when a masculine or neutral noun is genitive you also need to add -s or -es on the end, e.g. der Hund becomes des Hundes. There are some other situations in which you might need to change the noun’s ending; see here for a detailed guide.

Der Knochen des Hundes - “the dog’s bone"Das Kleid der Frau - “the woman’s dress”Der Kapitän des Bootes - “the boat’s captain”

This only a brief overview of how cases work in German. There are various subtleties I haven’t covered. However, the above should be more than enough for a beginner.

Plural Articles in German

You may have noticed that the der/die/das chart above has a fourth column labelled “plural”. This is a strange thing about German: all nouns use the same articles when plural, regardless of gender.

So for example, when you want to talk about “the dogs”, “the women” or “the boats” in the nominative case, the article is always die, even though these nouns all have different genders. (die Hunde, die Frauen, die Boote.) For the accusative, dative and genitive it’s die, den and der respectively.

Another important point: the German indefinite article has no plural. Just like there’s no plural form of “a” in English (you can’t say “a dogs”), there’s no plural form of “ein” in German.

So why does the indefinite article chart have a “plural” column? Well, the entries in this column aren’t real articles. Instead, they tell you how to construct the plural forms of certain related words like kein and mein.

For example, mein is a possessive adjective meaning “my”, and it’s declined exactly like ein:

Masculine Singular Feminine Plural Nominative mein mein meine meine Accusative meinen mein meine meine Dative meinem meinem meiner meinen Genitive meines meines meiner meiner

Can you see how each entry in this chart is exactly the same as the equivalent entry for “ein”, except with an extra “m” in front? Unlike “ein” or “eine” in German, there’s no reason why mein can’t be used with a plural noun, like meine Hunde (“my dogs”).

This is why you need to learn the plural endings for the indefinite article. They’re not valid words in their own right, but they’re used to construct other important words.

How to Remember the German Articles

Let’s have another look at the chart for German definite articles:

Masculine Neutral Feminine Plural Nominative der das die die Accusative den das die die Dative dem dem der den Genitive des des der der

There are sixteen positions on the chart (three genders plus plural, and four cases), but, as you’ve probably noticed, there aren’t sixteen different definite articles. In fact, there are only six (das, dem, den, der, des, die). The following observations might help you remember what goes where:

das is always neutral (nominative or accusative)dem is always dative (masculine or neutral)den is either masculine accusative or plural dativeder is either masculine nominative, plural genitive, feminine dative or feminine genitivedes is always genitive (masculine or neutral)die is feminine or plural, and nominative or accusative

What about the indefinite articles?

Masculine Singular Feminine Plural Nominative ein ein eine -eine Accusative einen ein eine -eine Dative einem einem einer -einen Genitive eines eines einer -einer

Isn’t it annoying that you need to memorise two whole tables? Not so fast: if you take a closer look, you’ll notice that there are a lot of similarities in the way the two charts are organised.

Just follow these rules:

Replace the nominative masculine der, and both instances of das, with ein.Replace die with eine. It helps if you remember that they both end with “e”.For everything else, change the d- to ein-. So des becomes eines, dem becomes einem, etc..

Do you see the logic?

This means that learning both sets of German articles is easier than it might initially have looked. Once you’ve learned the definite articles, it’s easy to remember the indefinite articles.

How English Pronouns Can Help You Remember German Articles (and Visa Versa)

Have you spotted the similarities between German case declensions and certain features of English? English is, after all, German’s cousin. They’re both descended from proto-Germanic, an extinct language thought to have been spoken in Scandinavia roughly 2,500 years ago.

I already mentioned the obvious similarity between the German genitive and the English “Saxon genitive”. Compare, for example, des Hundes and des Boots with “the hound’s” and “the boat’s”.

But you can also see echoes of German in certain English pronouns. For example, “him”, “them”, and “whom” all end in “-m”, just like the German dem. And they’re used in roughly the same situations: dem is a dative article, and you usually use (say) “them” in the situations that would call for a dative in German.

Many native English speakers are unsure when to use “who” and when to use “whom”. If you master German cases, it will probably help you with your English grammar as well!

How to Pronounce the German Articles

Remember that the ie in German is pronounced like an English ee as in “see”, and ei is pronounced like the English “eye”.

So the article ein rhymes with “mine”. Die in German is pronounced like “dee”, not like the English word “die”. Remember this classic Simpsons joke:

httpvh://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gaXigSu72A4

Other than that, the articles are pronounced how you’d expect based on the spelling. The only thing to watch out for is the difference between -e and -er (as in eine vs. einer), which can be tricky. The explanation and audio recordings on this page should help you figure it out.

The post German Articles – Everything You Need to Know [with Charts] appeared first on Fluent in 3 months - Language Hacking and Travel Tips.

10+ Ways to say ”Hello” in Arabic and Other Arabic Greetings

How do you say “hello” in Arabic?

Are you planning to go to the Middle East or North Africa and would like to know the different variations of “hello” in Arabic? Or would you just like to show off in front of your friends that you know how to speak Arabic?

Either way, you have landed on the right page!

Here are 10+ Arabic greetings you can use so you’ll know how to say hello in Arabic, whatever the situation. I’ve also included the literal translations into English.

Here are the greetings you’ll learn:

Table of contents1. مرحبا (Marhaba) - “Hello/Hi”2. Salamo Alaykom - “Peace be Upon You”3. Awefe - “Healths”4. Ya’teek el ‘afye - “[May God] give you health”5. Marahib - “Hellos”6. Salam - “Peace”7. Sabaho, Sabah el Kheir, Sabah el Noor - “Morning (Good morning, light morning)"8. Kifak - “How are you?”9. - Naharak sa’eed - “Good day”10. Sho el Akhbar - “What Are the News?”Bonus information on Arabic GreetingsSay “Hello” in Arabic!

And here’s an infographic you can download for quick reference:

Let’s get started!

1. مرحبا (Marhaba) - “Hello/Hi”

How do you say “hello” in Arabic? The answer is مرحبا (Marhaba).

Marhaba is the simplest type of greeting that is used across the Arabic speaking world.

Marhaba is the ideal general greeting: it is soft to say and is considered to be polite and neutral.

2. Salamo Alaykom - “Peace be Upon You”

Salamo Alaykom is known to be the Muslim greeting.

Salamo Alaykom was the traditional Arabic greeting that was practised when Islam first started spreading. It means “Peace be upon you”.

Wa Alaykom el Salam (“and peace be upon you”) is the typical response, which basically means “And upon you peace”, as in “peace be upon you too”.

Salamo Alaykom is used when speaking to groups of people. Although it is in plural form, it can be used with both a single person or a group.

If you want to be precise though, here are the variations of Salamo Alaykom depending on whom you’re addressing.

Salamo Alayka - Singular MasculineSalamo Alayki - Singular FeminineSalamo Alaykoma - Dual (Feminine, masculine or mixed)Salamo Alaykonna - Plural FeminineSalamo Alaykom - Plural (Can be masculine or mixed)

Nowadays, this is considered to be a religious Islamic greeting, however no one will be offended if it is or isn’t used in this manner!

It’s amazing to see the difference between cultures in how to say “hello”. Look how long Salamo Alaykom is - six syllables! I live in Germany, and our main greeting is Na.

3. Awefe - “Healths”

This is also kind of a soft and nice thing to say. In some regions however, like in the Middle East, it might be considered funny, since it is not typically used.

It basically means: “may you have a lot of health to keep you in shape for all the stuff that you are doing”. That’s why I translated it as “healths” and not “health”, because it is in the plural form, hence “healths”.

Just as a joke, write the word “health” on a lot of small pieces of paper, and throw them at an Arabic-speaking friend. It might take them a while to understand, but it will be funny and worth it.

4. Ya’teek el ‘afye - “[May God] give you health”

This greeting is a bit like Awefe, but this time it is just singular and with the addition that God is referred to in the passive form. The word for “God” is not in the sentence, but is implied. Who gives you health? God gives you health. Hence, “[May God] give you health”. Important point, this is not considered to be religious and can be used in neutral form like Marhaba.

5. Marahib - “Hellos”

This is the plural form of Marhaba. When just one “Hello” is just not enough, you throw all the hellos at them! Marahib!

6. Salam - “Peace”

“We come in peace!” - Martians How nice is it to be greeted with the word peace? This is a calm and soft “peace” to use in greeting. It is basically like Namaste but in Arabic. Peace out.

7. Sabaho, Sabah el Kheir, Sabah el Noor - “Morning (Good morning, light morning)"

Sabah is morning, so Sabaho doesn’t only mean morning; It means “his” morning. Who’s morning? No idea.

Sabah el Kheir is “good morning”, plain and simpleSabah el Noor is the answer for Sabah el Kheir, and means “light morning”.

A typical conversation with these phrases:

“Good morning”“Light morning”And then you move on with your day.

Bonus point: Yis’idle Sabahak/ik/kon. This means “Your morning made me happy!” How sweet is that? The “ak”, “ik” and “kon” is the difference between masculine, feminine and plural forms. “Ak” is for masculine, “ik” is for feminine and “kon” is for plural.

8. Kifak - “How are you?”

Kifak becomes Kifik if you’re speaking to a woman. It is the best known way to say “How are you?” in Arabic.

You can also say Kif Halak? which means “How is your health?” Sometimes it comes directly after the Marhaba. So to say it all in Arabic it would be Marhaba, kifak?/Kif halak?

When someone says this to you, you can reply with Lhamdella or Mnih.

Lhamdella is “Thanks, God”, as in thanking Him for being in good health. Mnih is “well” or “good”.

But we all know that we lie by saying “well”. So if you are feeling down or not so much yourself that day, you can reply with meshe lhal. The literal translation of meshe lhal is “the situation is walking”. The closest translation would be “it’s okay”.

9. - Naharak sa’eed - “Good day”

I know I translated this as “good day”, but it doesn’t actually mean “good day”. It means “happy day”. In my humble opinion, wishing someone a “happy day” when you first see that person, is the sweetest greeting ever.

This is more of a “Fusha” a.k.a. “Modern Standard Arabic” than it is around a specific Arabic dialect.

10. Sho el Akhbar - “What Are the News?”

Sho el Akhbar literally means “what are the news” as in, “what’s new?”

You can also say Sho fi ma fi. The literal translation for it would be “What’s in not in?”.

True story. This also means “What’s new”. I wouldn’t use it as a first greeting though. My advice is to use it is right after Marhaba.

Bonus information on Arabic Greetings

Every Arab country has its own dialect, so even Marhaba can be different from one country to another.

For instance in Tunisia they don’t say Marhaba they say aslema which means “on peace” and bislema for goodbyes! In Lebanon however, sometimes they don’t use the word Marhaba, they just go with Cava?!

Say “Hello” in Arabic!

Wow, you’re ready to use Arabic greetings. That’s amazing, it means you can start conversations with people! It could even be your very first step to having a 15-minute conversation in Arabic in 90 days.

Sounds like something you’d like to do?

If you’re set on learning Arabic for good, you will probably love this post on 33 Free Online Arabic classes.

Or you could check what Benny Lewis, founder of Fluent in 3 Months, recommends! He has a go-to list of varied resources to learn Arabic. Watch him speaking in Arabic here!

Original article by Ali Matar, updated by the Fluent in 3 Months team.

The post 10+ Ways to say ”Hello” in Arabic and Other Arabic Greetings appeared first on Fluent in 3 months - Language Hacking and Travel Tips.

“Cute” in Korean and 44 More “Aegyo” Korean Phrases

If you’re learning Korean, you may have wondered how to say “cute” in Korean or asked what does aegyo mean. Because “cute” culture is a big part of learning Korean, and you’ll run into it everywhere!

In fact, if you’ve watched Korean dramas at all, you’ve most definitely heard and witnessed aegyo and Korean emphasis on cuteness.

That’s because many women in Korea want to be seen as cute -- which is one of the best compliments you can give someone. Very similar to kawaii culture in Japan, being called “cute” is top praise in Korea.

This may surprise you a bit if you’re from an English-speaking country, because “cute” is often patronizing, especially after childhood.

So, here’s how to say “cute” in Korean -- as well as some bonus words, phrases, and tips for sounding cute!

How to Say “Cute” in Korean

“Cute” in Korean is 귀엽다 (gwiyeopda). That’s its dictionary form, so it actually means “to be cute.”

귀엽다 (gwiyeopda) is perfectly fine to say to yourself, or in exclamation about something cute you see -- like a cute puppy! (Because don’t we all do that?)

But like all things in Korean, you need to remember to change the ending of the word to be the appropriate politeness level.

When you’re talking with friends, family, or someone on the same “level” as you (for instance, the same age or younger), then you can use the casual form.

Drop the -pda ending and add -wo: 귀여워 (gwiyeowo)

In standard polite form, you just add -yo onto the casual form: 귀여워요 (gwiyeowoyo). Use this version at work, with people older than you, a teacher, boss, or anyone “above” you in rank or age.

Last up, the most formal way to say “cute” is by adding the -seumnida ending. For this one, drop the -da and add -seumnida to the dictionary form: 귀엽습니다 (gwiyeopseumnida).

The most formal form of the word is used mostly on TV or when speaking to large audiences. For example, you’ll often hear this formal form used to talk about aegyo celebrities who have built their image around cuteness.

But you’ll use the casual or polite forms most often.

“You are Cute” in Korean

To say “you are cute” in Korean, you actually don’t need to change anything at all. You can just say 귀여워 (gwiyeowo) (or the appropriate variation).

In Korean, the subject is often left out as long as it’s understood. So you can use this phrase to mean “it’s cute,” “she’s cute” or “you’re cute”.

But if you want to use “cute” to modify a noun, then you’d use 귀여운 (gwiyeoun).

For example, if you see a cute Korean girl, you could say 귀여운 소녀 (gwiyeoun sonyeo).

A cute puppy? That’s 귀여운 강아지 (gwiyeoun gangaji).

Here are some other nouns you may want to pair with 귀여운 (gwiyeoun):

Baby: 아기 (agi)Cat: 고양이 (goyang-i)Animal: 동물 (dongmul)Dress: 드레스 (deureseu)Shoes: 신발 (sinbal)Outfit: 차림새 (charimsae)Person: 사람 (saram)

For that last one though, you could also say 귀요미 (gwiyomi), which means “cutie” or “cute person”.

If you want to exclaim “So cute!” or “Too cute!”, just add 너무 (neomu, “too”) to make 너무 귀여워! (neomu gwiyeowo!).

Complimenting a Guy: “Handsome” in Korean

Now, you’ll notice I didn’t say you could use any of those words above to mean “he is cute” -- because you wouldn’t say that in Korean. Instead, use the word 잘생겼다 (jalsaenggyeotta) which means “handsome” or “good looking”.

That’s the dictionary form, but you’ll conjugate it like you did with 귀엽다 (gwiyeopda).

Casual: 잘생겼어 (jalsaenggyeosseo)
Polite: 잘생겼어요 (jalsaenggyeosseoyo)
Formal: 잘생겼습니다 (jalsaenggyeotseumnida)

Aegyo Korean -- What is Aegyo?

As we’ve mentioned so far, aegyo is “cute” culture -- it’s a way of speaking and acting cute in Korean.

Aegyo is super popular among Korean celebrities, especially K-Pop idols (both genders) and actresses.

Basically, it’s acting childish or babyish in some way. Aegyo can also be a visual aesthetic -- the way you dress (think like Hello Kitty-style) or how you present yourself.

Aegyo has become a way to flirt or show affection too, and it’s primarily used by women to men.

That said, aegyo can come off a bit whiny or annoying. So even though “cute” culture is popular and common in “Hallyuwood” (the “Korean wave” + Hollywood, meaning the Korean entertainment industry), it’s not always well-received. In fact, some people straight-up hate aegyo.

Because of that, some women use it on purpose to tease their husband or boyfriend, or to joke around.

And aegyo can typically only be pulled off by people who are “naturally cute”. So someone who doesn’t fit the general aesthetic would come off weird using aegyo. For instance, it’s often a comedy gag for older men to use aegyo.

But that’s true with anything right? Even in Western cultures, we have this -- think Instagram aesthetic and how it’s a gag for dads to mock their daughter’s IG game.

How to Use Aegyo

There are lots of ways to use aegyo. The two many ways to use aegyo in speech are to draw out the final vowel sound in a word or to add ㅁ (“m”) or ㅇ (“ng”) to the end of the word.

Let’s look at the first example. The most common aegyo word is probably 오빠 (oppa), which means “older brother” but is also used as a cute nickname for boyfriends and husbands.

Since it’s often used with one’s significant other, it’s super common to hear women draw out the “ah” sound at the end to make it sound “cuter.” So it ends up sounding like “Oppaaaaaaa!”

If you’ve watched K-Dramas at ALL, I know you’ve heard what I’m talking about here.

Other common words to use this with are exclamation words like 어떻게 (eotteoke, “How?”) or 세상에 (sesangae, “Oh my God!” or “What in the world?!”). And of course, whining “I’m hungry” with 배고팡 (baegopang).

This video on YouTube shows you just how dramatic it can sound.

Now, when it comes to the second way to use aegyo in speech, you’ll add the “m” or “ng” sound to the end of the word.

Looking at oppa again, it becomes 오빵 (oppang). Another common one is 어디야 (eodiya) which means “Where are you?”. Add on the “m” sound and it becomes 어디얌 (eodiyam).

You’ll see this often in text, as well, followed by tons of cute emojis.

But you can also use aegyo with your body language. For example, bbuing bbuing, or the “crying” gesture is a favorite among K-Pop idols. You’ll also see lots of hearts and face-framing!

Cute Korean Words and Phrases

Okay, you’ve learned about aegyo, so now it’s time to learn some cute Korean words and phrases! You can use these with your significant other or friends whenever you want to sound extra cute. Plus, some cute and romantic phrases in Korean to say to your love interests.

“Aren’t I cute?” - 내가 귀엽지? (naega gwiyeobji)“I love you” - 사랑해요 (saranghaeyo)“I miss you” - 보고 싶어 (bogo sipeo)“Sweetheart” - 애인 (ae-in)“Honey” or “Darling” - 여보 (yeobo)“Baby” - 자기야 (jagiya)“Don’t go” - 가지마 (gajima)“BFF” - 베프 (bepeu)“Honey jam” (aka, something’s really fun) - 꿀잼 (gguljaem)“Be happy” (used to say goodbye) - 행쇼 (haengsyo)“You’re pretty” - 예쁘 네요 (yeppeuneyo)“Don’t lie” - 뻥치지마 (ppeongchijima)“Like this?” - 이렇게 (irreoke)“Buy this for me” (Make sure to be super whiny!) - 사줘 (sajwo)“I promise” - 약속애요 (yaksokaeyo)

Remember, some of these you could add on cute exaggerated endings as well to make even cuter! A lot of it comes down to context and your tone.

And don’t forget to pair it with your cute hand gestures!

Go On - Be Cute in Korean!

Go ahead and show your cute side off in Korean! And if you want more examples, make sure you watch some Korean TV shows and see how aegyo is done.

But wait -- 가지마! (gajima!), “Don’t go!”

There’s still so much Korean left to learn!

If you’re new to the language, then you have to learn these Korean phrases to ace your first conversation. And the 101 core Korean words are so helpful for building your Korean vocabulary fast!

And if you want to know more about Korean and Korean culture, then learn WTF is mukbang or check out my review of 90 Day Korean so you can master the language while learning the culture!

The post “Cute” in Korean and 44 More “Aegyo” Korean Phrases appeared first on Fluent in 3 months - Language Hacking and Travel Tips.

Read in French: 10 French Reading Tips, Resources and Exercises

Do you read in French? If you’re learning French, I hope you do! And I’m here to help you find more French reading material.

I’ve searched the web for a variety of reading resources that will help you learn French more quickly. The best part is: they won’t cost you a penny!

And in case you’re wondering, “to read” in French is lire.

Now, here are the French reading resources I’ll be sharing in this article:

Table of contentsApprendre à Lire - French Phonics LessonsThe French Experiment - Children’s Stories in FrenchInternational Children’s Library - Children’s Books in FrenchLanguageGuide - Short French TextsThe Works of Guy de Maupassant - Short Stories in FrenchEbooks Libres & Gratuits - Free French EbooksAmilova - Graphic Novels and Comic Books in FrenchCuisine à la Française - French Online CookbookTest Yourself: French Reading Comprehension Quizzes5 Tips to Learn to Read Better in FrenchYou’re Ready to Read in French!Apprendre à Lire - French Phonics Lessons

Level: Absolute Beginner

Apprendre à lire means “learn to read” in French.

Apprendre à Lire is incredibly useful for absolute beginners in French. The site is meant to teach French children how to read, but there’s no reason why you can’t use it too!

It covers virtually every French sound, including those not found in English. There are several exercises for each letter, so you can choose the ones that you find most helpful.

Apprendre à lire teaches you:

how to read soundshow to use them in real words,how to pronounce them.

This is handy for beginners! Although the French alphabet is identical to the English alphabet, many of the letters sound very different.

The site is all in French, including the instructions for each exercise. But don’t worry! They’re relatively simple. If you struggle with them, plug them into Google Translate to get the gist with an OK English translation.

The French Experiment - Children’s Stories in French

Level: Beginner

The French Experiment offers some of the most popular children’s fairy tales in French.

Stories like The Three Little Pigs, Goldilocks and the Three Bears, Little Red Riding Hood and The Ugly Duckling are translated into French on this website and accompanied by an optional audio recording. Since you’re probably already familiar with these stories, you’ll pick up the vocabulary more quickly than you would reading a brand new story.

Plus, you’ve got the option to see each paragraph’s English translation right when you read!

You can find even more fairy tales in French on The Fable Cottage. Even though the video and audio versions are not free, you can still make the most out of the text and translation!

International Children’s Library - Children’s Books in French

Level: Beginner to Intermediate

The International Children’s Library is an online library filled with children’s books in dozens of languages, including 60 in French.

I absolutely love its presentation!

Some of the stories are well-known to the English-speaking world. If your French is limited, I recommend you start with the stories you’re familiar with, so you’ll have some help with vocabulary due to your prior knowledge.

Many of the stories also have an English translation you can use if you need some help.

LanguageGuide - Short French Texts

Level: Beginner to Intermediate

LanguageGuide(http://www.languageguide.org/french/r...) is a superb website that provides a simple, condensed way to learn the basics of vocabulary and grammar for many languages.

It is one of the best sources I’ve found for beginner to intermediate French reading comprehension.

The French section features several reading samples, each accompanied by a spoken recording. The more difficult words are highlighted, letting you hover your mouse over them to see the English translation.

You can also see the English translation of entire sentences by hovering your mouse over the punctuation mark at the end of each sentence.

If you want pure reading practice without the audio, just click the pause button any time to pause the recording and focus on reading.

The Works of Guy de Maupassant - Short Stories in French

Level: Intermediate to Advanced

Maupassant.free.fr is a great place to find French short stories. If you want to expand your knowledge of classic French literature, this is one of the best places to start.

Guy de Maupassant was a famous French writer who wrote more than 300 works of fiction during the late 19th century. He is often considered one of the fathers of the modern short story, and for good reason!

The website contains nearly all of de Maupassant’s short stories, most of which come with an English translation. Each of his stories is only about 3000 words long, but is remarkably captivating. I haven’t yet read one that I didn’t like.

This is definitely one of the more advanced resources in this list, but don’t let that scare you. Don’t be afraid to challenge yourself! You’ll learn more quickly if you don’t just stick to books where you know all of the words.

Plus, the English translations are always there to help you if you get stuck.

Ebooks Libres & Gratuits - Free French Ebooks

Level: Intermediate to Advanced

Ebooks Libres & Gratuits is an absolute goldmine of free French ebooks.

You can choose from hundreds upon hundreds of free, complete books. They’re available in almost every file format you could hope for: from Kindle, Kobo and Sony e-reader formats to PDF and HTML for reading on your computer.

Ebooks Libres & Gratuits has dozens of masterpieces such as Le Petit Prince(“The Little Prince”) and Alice au Pays des Merveilles (“Alice in Wonderland”).

Some ebooks even have full-colour illustrations!

If you’re a beginner, go to the search box at the top of the page, and select “Jeunesse” (“youth”) from the dropdown menu next to “Genre”. This will show you all of the books for children and young adults.

Amilova - Graphic Novels and Comic Books in French

Level: Intermediate to Advanced

Amilova is a huge online community for graphic novel enthusiasts. It contains almost a thousand high-quality stories in their entirety, available to read online for free.

Comic books and graphic novels aren’t just for kids and geeks anymore. You wouldn’t believe the variety of genres that are available today, for every taste imaginable: horror, romance, drama, parody…you name it!

The big advantage of using graphic novels to help improve your French is that many of them are strongly dialogue-orientated. This means you get to read a lot of everyday spoken vocabulary that people use in real life.

Instead of reading the purely classical literary form, you’re improving your spoken informal French skills and reading an engaging story at the same time.

Tip: Be sure to click the flag in the upper right corner to change the language to French. That way you’ll only see the stories available in French.

Cuisine à la Française - French Online Cookbook

Cuisine à la Française has a database of nearly 2,000 classic recipes alphabetically or by category.

I don’t normally recommend cookbooks to help improve your target language, but I’ll make an exception for French. After all, French cuisine is one of the most popular and influential in the world. It was added to UNESCO’s intangible world heritage list because of its global reputation.

If you ever visit France, you’ll notice immediately how big a role the cuisine plays in everyday life. It’s a good idea, then, to read as much as you can about French cuisine while you’re studying the language.

You’ll learn practical vocabulary to use when visiting France, eating at French restaurants, or when talking with native speakers. You’ll get valuable insight into an essential aspect of French history and culture and learn to cook delicious recipes.

Cuisine à la Française is the perfect place to start your reading on French cuisine.

Be sure to click on the “Histoire de la Cuisine” tab to learn all about the long and fascinating history of food in France, from 12,000 years ago up to modern day! Also check out “Recettes Anciennes” (''ancient recipes”) at the bottom of the page. You’ll find authentic French recipes from hundreds of years ago.

Give French cooking a try yourself, and improve your French reading comprehension in the process!

Test Yourself: French Reading Comprehension Quizzes

Instead of just reading in French, why not test yourself to see how well you understand what you’re reading?

This page on Thoughtco.com provides you with several excerpts in French that you can read and then do a quiz to check your comprehension.

For each excerpt, first click Lire (“read”) to read the text, then click Étudier (“study”) to see a list of key vocabulary from the excerpt along with the English translations. Finally, click Passer l’examen to do the quiz related to the excerpt.

It’s useful to open Passer l’examen in a separate window so you can see the test questions and the text at the same time.

Bonne chance! (“Good luck!”)

5 Tips to Learn to Read Better in French

Written French is very different to spoken French, and the differences can trip you up.

Think about:

silent letters, like in dehors (“outside”) and parfait (“perfect”),the words written in different ways but that sound alike, such as sang (“blood”) and sans (“without”),the liaison that makes separate words sound like one, as in les oiseaux (”lez‿wazo”, “the birds”).

So, before you leave, let me give you a few of my best tips to help you read in French:

Read according to your level and preferences. If you read something too hard or that you don’t like, you’ll be more likely to drop it.Don’t translate everything. Instead of getting stuck and looking up every word, try to understand the words you don’t know based on the concept.Take notes. It can be of the vocabulary you’re learning or of a special sentence structure. The point is: make sure you can come back to study them.Be consistent. Read every day.Accept mistakes and make them a part of your learning process.You’re Ready to Read in French!

Choose one or several of the resources from this post, follow these tips, and you’re all set up to work on your French reading!

But remember: to learn French faster and better, you have to focus on both written French and spoken French.

If you want to work on your spoken French, check out some of my favourite resources from all over the Internet. Some of the most amazing tools on there is italki: it helps you find native speakers to have conversations with!

Bonne lecture ! (“Happy reading!”)

The post Read in French: 10 French Reading Tips, Resources and Exercises appeared first on Fluent in 3 months - Language Hacking and Travel Tips.

Duolingo Review: The Quick, Easy, and Free Way to Learn a Language

Can you really learn a language with Duolingo? How does Duolingo work, and how can you use the app effectively?

Here’s your quick answer: Yes, you can learn a language with Duolingo. But can you become fluent with Duolingo? Not quite.

And here’s what I’ll be sharing about in this review:

Table of contentsHow does Duolingo work?Duolingo LessonsDuolingo: What are the Lessons Like?Duolingo Helps You Target Your Weakest WordsDuolingo Tracks Your Daily ProgressDuolingo: What's Good?Help With MotivationStart Using Simple Sentences From Day 1Visual Revision RemindersA Beautiful InterfaceVisual LearningAdditional Learning Features: Duolingo Stories and the Duolingo PodcastA Few Cautionary Notes on DuolingoThe Hearts System Can Be Discouraging For SomeSome Sentences are UnnaturalNot Enough Control Over Vocabulary TopicsNo Human InteractionThere are a LOT of Ads if You Don’t Go With Duolingo PlusSo Why Is Duolingo “Bad”? And Is Duolingo As Good As Rosetta Stone?Conclusion: Duolingo is a Great Tool for Language Learners

The free language learning app Duolingo offers 37 language courses for English speakers.

The Duolingo app also includes language courses for speakers of other languages. These include French for Portuguese speakers, English for Czech speakers, Chinese for Japanese speakers, and so on. And they’re always adding more.

I've used Duolingo to learn Spanish, German and Swedish. Let's take a look at how this cool little app works and how it can support you in your language learning adventure!

By the way, if you want the tl;dr version, scroll to the bottom for my pros and cons list summarizing everything.

How does Duolingo work?

Duolingo is a great example of a straightforward language app. It's simple to use.

You set up a profile, choose your target language, set your weekly goals (only if you're brave enough), and off you go!

I've made a video in which I explain what Duolingo is, and talk about its pros and cons. You can watch it below. Otherwise, continue reading!

httpvh://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SBjeXF_Osm4

Here’s what Duolingo says you’ll learn during their course in Spanish:

Duolingo Lessons

Each course in Duolingo is made up of modules (the circles in the screenshot below) which are grouped to form skills.

Duolingo dictates the order in which you need to complete the different modules. New modules becoming active only once you've completed the previous one. This is also the case with individual lessons within each module. You need to complete lesson 1 to be able to progress to lesson 2, and so on.

That said, Duolingo allows you to “test out of” individual modules as well as groups of modules (skills).

Pressing the “key” button on a category lets you take a shortcut if you want to avoid going through the individual lessons that you're already familiar with. You need to pass the test to do that, though, because there are no shortcuts in language learning!

The option to “test out” also applies when you begin a new language. You can start with the basics or you can take an entry test and let the app determine your fluency level.

Duolingo: What are the Lessons Like?

Each lesson in Duolingo is made up of a range of activities, such as translation. Here’s what Duolingo Spanish looks like for this exercise:

Or this activity where you have to speak into the mic what you see:

New vocabulary is often taught with images and grammar points are explained in little speech bubbles. Or, you can click on “tips” to see more grammar insights.

There are also listening exercises where you need to type what you hear, among others.

But if you’re not able to speak into the microphone or listen at that moment, that’s okay. The app does give you the option to deactivate your microphone or skip listening exercises for the time being.

Duolingo also uses a “hearts” system that only allows you to mess up so many times during a session. If you lose all your hearts, you have to go back and study previous material to regain hearts.

Your hearts automatically refill every day. But, if you have Duolingo Plus, you get unlimited hearts, as well as progress quizzes and some other nifty features.

Duolingo does this because their studies have shown people tend to plow through their lessons and not go back and review. So this encourages people to slow down and review to really learn.

Duolingo Helps You Target Your Weakest Words

Once you've finished the lessons in a module another screen appears. You’ll be given the option to review with either “regular practice” or “hard practice”.

You can strengthen your weakest words there and then, or go back at a later point.

Whenever you’ve kept up with your review, your module icon will turn gold. But as the days go by, it’ll start to go back to color and have a bar showing how “remembered” it is. So keep up your review!

Duolingo Tracks Your Daily Progress

At the end of each lesson, you get a progress report that also shows your streak - the number of days in a row that you've completed. If you've earned any “lingots” (the Duolingo currency you earn as you answer questions correctly) that's also indicated on the screen.

You can use the lingots to buy different costumes for the Duolingo owl mascot, Duo, or freeze your streak if you know you’ll miss a day.

Of course, we’ve all seen the Duolingo memes with Duo and how you’ll get tons of reminders from him to keep up your streak.

Duo will show up in your notifications (repeatedly), your email, etc. You can of course turn these features off in the settings. But many users have joked how “aggressive” Duo can be, like he’s going to stalk you and make you study.

So much so, Duolingo played on the joke with a “coming soon” meme:

So be prepared for that.

Duolingo: What's Good?

Here are a few things that Duolingo is good at which helped me in my language learning adventures.

Help With Motivation

Duolingo recognizes language learners need to be motivated to make sure they come back to the app and engage in some more language fun. Duolingo uses several different methods to keep you hooked.

The first is its goal-setting tool.

The goals you can choose from vary from “casual” to “insane”, depending on how serious you are about learning and how quickly you want to progress.

I've picked the “regular” goal for my Spanish course and the “casual” one for German. Duo reminds you every day if you're on track to reach your goal.

This works well for those learners who are motivated by the idea of streaks and maintaining stats. It works for me. If my goal is recorded in the app, it has to happen!

And it's so nice when Duo tells me I'm on track.

Duolingo’s other two main methods are earning lingots by getting correct answers, and the leaderboard. Their leaderboard ranks you against your friends in the app or other language learnings studying your language.

Start Using Simple Sentences From Day 1

If you're an impatient language learner like me, you'll want to be able to create simple sentences straight away. Duolingo allows you to do that.

Let's look at the first lesson in the first module of the Spanish course. You start with learning some vocabulary, such as boy, apple, and water. After the first three or four slides, you'll will have learned how to say a sentence:

All you need to do now is go out there and start speaking to real people (rather than your smartphone screen)!

Visual Revision Reminders

The “strength” bars showing around your modules are a great reminder of the brain's imperfections. You think you've learned something and can move on but really what you need is spaced repetition to make sure the new language sticks.

Spaced repetition in language learning is a method where you revise specific words. Gradually, the intervals increase between each revision session. The theory is that, eventually, you can have an interval of several months without forgetting what something means. Duolingo makes it easy to know when your next revision session is.

A Beautiful Interface

I love everything about the sleek interface of Duolingo. One of my favourite things is the little turtle button that allows you to listen to “slow” pronunciations of the word or phrase. This creepily slow voice is a very useful feature in the exercises that ask you to type what you hear:

Visual Learning

A lot of the learning that goes on in Duolingo is visual. There are pictures for learning vocabulary, colours that show whether you're right or wrong. And highlighted tappable text for new words or grammar points.

If you're a visual learner like me, you'll love it.

Plus, as you continue on through the lessons, you start to learn more by context and visual cues rather than English-to-Spanish translation. This is super helpful!

Additional Learning Features: Duolingo Stories and the Duolingo Podcast

Duolingo also has the Stories feature now, where once you unlock 10 crowns (or 10 mastered topics), you get access and can start reading in your language.

This is a helpful feature to expand on your skills as you progress. It’s currently only available for Spanish, Italian, French, German, and Portuguese though.

Plus, Duolingo has a podcast for Spanish, French, and English learners. It’s essentially an audiobook to listen to stories in the language and improve on your listening comprehension. While Stories is in the app, the podcast can be listened to on Spotify, Apple, or Google.

A Few Cautionary Notes on Duolingo

Although Duolingo can be very helpful in supporting your language learning progress, there are a couple of things you should bear in mind when deciding whether the app is for you. Let me give you a brief summary of the things I noticed that could be improved.

The Hearts System Can Be Discouraging For Some

Making mistakes is an inevitable and essential part of language learning. The journey to fluency is often about having the courage to say things even if you know it's not perfect.

But with the hearts system, you can only make 5 mistakes a day. Some people may get discouraged and feel like they can’t make mistakes -- even though it’s a fantastic part of learning!

But this has been improved over the years.

In the past, Duolingo used to be even tougher on mistakes. The tiniest typo or mispronunciation would cost you a heart. Now, this feature has been refined and starts to recognize typos and the like. It’ll still point them out, but it’s less harsh.

Even still, my advice to you would be: don't take Duo's perfectionism too seriously. It’s okay to make mistakes!

Some Sentences are Unnatural

This is especially true as you progress and you're learning more complex grammatical structures.

Some of the sentences that the app makes you translate would not normally be used in natural speech. Their point, though, is to illustrate certain language concepts, so it's almost forgivable.

After all, you never know when you might need to talk about milk-drinking elephants or a burger made of fish!

Not Enough Control Over Vocabulary Topics

New lessons and modules are only activated in the app once you've completed the previous lesson. So you sometimes need to learn vocabulary which is not necessarily relevant to your learning objectives.

Words for clothes and animals are not something I expect to be using at all in German but I can't continue until I've proven to Duo that I know how to say “tie” and “mouse”.

I wish I had more control over choosing which words are the ones that matter to me.

No Human Interaction

Duolingo gives you the illusion that you're practicing your speaking skills. But what the app actually asks you to do is to repeat what you can already see on the screen in written form.

So when doing Duolingo “speaking” exercises, you're essentially repeating after the app. You're not retrieving anything from memory or asking your brain to create anything from scratch.

As such, Duolingo is an app that allows you to practice pronunciation but not to speak from day 1.

That's why it's very important for language learners to supplement Duolingo with another resource. Especially one focused on speaking and interacting with other users of their target language, such as the Fluent in 3 Months Challenge.

There are a LOT of Ads if You Don’t Go With Duolingo Plus

There are so many ads in the app, including for Duolingo Plus, unless you buy Plus. This is a bit annoying and distracts from language focus.

So Why Is Duolingo “Bad”? And Is Duolingo As Good As Rosetta Stone?

Duolingo has gotten some poor reviews in the past, namely because of the things I mentioned here. Especially in the past, Duolingo used to use many unnatural sentences that became memes or jokes. This has been improved on, although it’s still there.

Even so, many people became frustrated with it. Plus, many users noticed that they would study and keep their streak up for days and days, and still not be able to speak the language or could only speak at an intermediate level.

And this comes from a lack of human interaction and real speaking practice.

So, no, you can’t become fluent with Duolingo alone. But, if you pair it with other resources, it can be an amazing tool to boost your studies as a beginner to intermediate learner.

Now as far as comparing Duolingo vs Rosetta Stone? There’s no comparison. Check out Fluent in 3 Months founder Benny Lewis’ review of Rosetta Stone for the full scoop.

You’ll learn something with both of these programs. But Rosetta Stone takes a “full immersion” approach so far it becomes a flaw. Duolingo more seamlessly helps you learn in-context and wean off of English-to-Spanish translations.

So that makes it the winner here.

Conclusion: Duolingo is a Great Tool for Language Learners

Alright, to wrap this up, here’s a summary of the pros and cons of Duolingo. If you scrolled from the top for the tl;dr version, here it is.

Pros:

Duolingo tracks your progress and weakest wordsThe Duolingo app has many built-in features to boost motivationYou learn simple sentences from day 1Lots of visual revision reminders so you know what needs to be reviewedA beautiful interface and easy-to-use “gamified” learning approachLots of visual learning and learning through contextStories and a podcast for supplemental learning

Cons:

The penalization for mistakes can be discouraging for someSome sentences are unnaturalNot enough control over vocabulary topics to pick words relevant to youNo human interaction or real speaking practiceLots of ads unless you go with Duolingo Pro

Duolingo is not a stand-alone language course, but it's an excellent addition to a language learner's toolbox. It's easy to use, it's fun and it works.

Don't forget to do the homework, though. If your aim is to achieve real fluency, remember to read, speak, and truly live the language that you're learning!

One more thing: if you are bored with Duolingo's repetitive tasks, try Clozemaster, which is Duolingo on steroids: it helps you to internalize real sentences with context.

Original review by Agnieszka Murdoch with updates by the Fluent in 3 Months team.

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