Learn how to pronounce vowels and consonants. Vowels followed by double letters are short, while vowels followed by an "h" are long. German also has three extra vowels: a-umlaut, o-umlaut, and u-umlaut. (An umlaut, or diareses in English, is a pair of dots placed over the vowel.) Consonants are pronounced similar to those in English, but with some differences; notably, "j" is pronounced like the English "y," "v" is pronounced like "f" and "w" is pronounced like "v," while "g" is always pronounced as a hard g.
Capitalize all nouns, which are divided into masculine, feminine and neuter genders, and add the correct articles and case endings for the nominative, dative, accusative and genitive cases. Articles for the nominative case are "der" (masculine), "die" (feminine), and "das" (neutral), with "die" used for plural nouns.
Use the same case endings for adjectives as you would for the nouns they precede. Do not, however, use an adjective when referring to yourself as a citizen of a community; the correct form is "Ich bin Berliner," not "Ich bin ein Berliner."
Distinguish between formal and informal personal pronouns. German uses "Sie" as a formal second-person pronoun for addressing people one doesn't know well and "du" and "ihr" for addressing a person or people one is familiar with. Note that in German, the second person formal pronoun is capitalized, while the first person singular, "ich," is not unless it begins a sentence.
Write and speak numbers similar to Middle English. Numbers from 0 to 20 are worded similar to modern English, but numbers from 21 to 99 are worded such that the ones digit is identified before the tens digit. (For example, "24" in German is "vierundzwanzig" or "4 and 20.")
Memorize the important forms of each verb: infinitive, imperfect tense, past participle, third person singular of the present indicative, and third person singular of the perfect tense. For "gehen" (to go), the forms are gehen (infinitive), ging (imperfect), gegangen (past participle), geht (third person singular present), ist gegangen (third person singular perfect). (Note that most third person singular perfect tense forms take "hat" instead of "ist.")
Study the language through classes, books, tapes, video, software and the Internet as necessary to reinforce and expand on the information in the previous steps. Allow yourself sufficient time to practice what you learn before putting it to use.
