I began to learn German through self-study in 2018, whereupon I continued until 2021, giving up altogether because I felt as though I was flailing around without much progress.
I began to use LingQ just over a month ago, my hope being to restart my progress with German, my goal having always been to one day be more or less fluent in it. Since then, I have made progress listening to the A1 course for Nicos Weg, as well as other videos and courses. I typically listen to the lesson, go back to highlight new LingQs, and then review it using the SRS, saying the words out loud as I do so.
Whilst my acquisition of vocabulary seems to be improving (apparently I now know 836 words), my understanding of German grammar, namely sentence structure, doesnât seem to have improved much at all.
My question is, will continuing on my current course, i.e. immersing myself through listening on LingQ, eventually cause my brain to begin to understand German grammar more implicitly, or should I be doing something else to acquire an understanding of it? I do not feel as though listening on LingQ is making a dent in my understanding of German sentence structure thus far.
I am according to LingQ still a beginner in German, A2 level, after 18 months including one year using LingQ. I doubt I could understand the grammar without an explanation of the case system. I could not pick it up ânaturallyâ. However, there are plenty of useful summaries online and in books.
I have slowly come to the conclusion that the built in German content in LingQ is not suitable for me. I came to the same conclusion with French too, though my level in that language is much higher. I just wasnât getting anywhere, I did not know words I had supposedly learnt months earlier. So now I import countless German learner videos from YouTube, such as those by Herr Antrim. I need huge amounts of basic content e.g. Kann man sie woanders abholen? and Deshalb genieĂe ich die Zeit mit meiner Familie und die vielen Abenteuer, die wir zusammen erleben.. For me huge amounts of repetition works. As for grammar, I am slowly picking that up from the content, with an occasional check in a grammar book when something does not make sense to me. Oh and I also use Anki. I put useful phrases in Anki, and that helps me a lot with learning words and grammar. And lastly, I increased my time spent on German to one hour a day, to spend more time on easier content.
Yes. I say this because Dutch grammar is very similar to Germanâs and it has improved mine. What I found most effective is if you keep coming across a structure you donât understand on Lingq, is to then look it up online and learn it. Then go back to Lingq and keep that in mind and you will absorb that grammar.
IMO, LIngQ is not sufficient for learning German grammar. You need some formal training. We see the same phenomenon with immigrants in Germany. There are countless, who after being in the country for a year or two, attain fluency in the language without formal training, but their grammar is atrocious.
My favorite online source for learning German grammar is âBenjamin der Deutschlehrerâ YouTube channel. Benjamin is a brilliant language teacher. Although he has many free videos on the channel, the real value comes from subscribing. For something like $15/month, you get complete access to all his content, including complete courses for every level from A1 to C2, which would cost you thousands of dollars if you enrolled in a regular German language school.
While itâs definitely possible to use LingQ (or, more broadly: input) to acquire German grammar over the really long run, I have found that on some languages I really need the grammar explained to me to âjumpstartâ it. Iâm a native speaker, but I bet German would be one of the languages where Iâd want an explanation if I were learning it. There are many bits of German grammar that are unintuitive to my students (notoriously: the placement of verbs in the sentenceâŚ)
Hereâs what I think LingQ can do for you: after youâve had the grammar explained, itâs very normal to keep on making the same mistakes over and over again, even though you technically know theyâre mistakes. (e.g. âHeute Abend ich lerne Deutschâ - should be: âHeute Abend lerne ich Deutschâ; but it takes forever to drill that pattern into your subconscious.) I think input is the way to get these patterns into your subconscious, replacing any word-to-word translations you might otherwise rely on that produce a mistake. But of course, it takes a while for these things to enter your subconscious, and then it takes a long time after that for your subconscious German intuition to override your mistakes. Think of it as a long-term project.
As I said, you can theoretically try relying purely on input to acquire these patterns, but itâs probably a whole lot more efficient to learn them consciously first - if nothing else, it helps you decide between different options when your subconscious gives you both âheute Abend ich lerneâ and âheute Abend lerne ichâ. If all you have is intuition from input, hard to decide. If you know that the verb comes in second position in a main clause (pushing the subject back if thereâs something else in the first position, such as a time adverbial) , then you know itâs the latter.
You could do it by lots of exposure to the language, but if you donât know a similar language or have a strong theoretical knowledge of grammar usage in other languages or know multiple languages, it will be a slow process, as some of the concepts of German grammar are very strange for a native English speaker. In my opinion, it will be better to study at least a few hours of grammar to understand the more fundamental concepts. Concepts which are worth looking into as a beginner in German include:
Grammatical gender (der, die, das)
Word order, including Hauptsatz and Nebensatz
Perfekt past tense
Donât worry about memorising tables or what not, but rather just go for a conceptual understanding, so when you encounter them in your reading and listening, you have some idea of how these concepts can be applied. Itâs probably enough to read a couple of blogs on summaries of German grammar. Alternatively, copy-paste sentences you donât understand into ChatGPT and ask for a grammar explanation. Or you can hire a tutor for two or three sessions with the goal of them explaining you beginner grammar concepts.
That said, after you grasp the fundamental concepts of beginner German grammar (probably a few hours for the basics), the long road of vocabulary acquisition will be your biggest weakness for a long time, like in pretty much every language, which isnât a sister language. So be sure to continue with your input.
TL;DR Itâs probably more efficient to learn the basics of German grammar through blogs, ChatGPT, or a tutor, then to beat your head against the wall for hundreds of hours, because some of the concepts are quite unintuitive to a native English speaker (and of many other languages).
Just ask ChatGPT for a grammar structure that you donât understand, ask for more examples if you want.
Donât pay much attention to Cases for now. This is complicated sphere and will not bring you much profit, comparing to other grammar spheres.
As a good lessons, I recommend books by Olly Richards. It has audiobooks took.
Iâve done three things: LingQ (including Nicos Weg), Lingoda, and Babbel. This is my fourth language and first with cases. Separable verbs, other than whatâs done in colloquial English, are also rather new. With LingQ specifically, Iâve got a 250-day streak in German.
That said, I find Lingodaâs more traditional lessons helping me conceptually understand cases and separable verbs and Babbel helping me start to develop an ear for these features as well as the pronunciation.
LingQ has helped me get to B2-level French. I find that LingQâs value really kicks in when one can engage content that one finds interesting.
I believe LingQ (input) helps. Listening alone (as you stated: will continuing on my current course, i.e. immersing myself through listening on LingQ,) I think is not enough. Reading and getting a visual on the sentence structure itself is very important and more tangible.
Having said that, I agree with what some others have said. If you see a particular structure in your reading and listening over and over and you wonder why it is like thatâŚTHEN look up the grammar for why. Easiest would be to ask chatgpt to explain the grammar in this sentence: < your sentence >. Someone suggested this already. You could also then read about the concept specifically that you are curious about online. i.e. why is the verb put in all these different spots in the sentence.
I think it is less beneficial to read about grammar on its ownâŚat least for hours. Youâre not going to remember any of it. If you want to learn a particular conceptâŚread about the grammar for itâŚthen maybe ask chat gpt for a bunch of examples that demonstrate it so you drill it in a bit. Or try to notice it in your normal reading on LingQ if itâs a fairly common concept.
And btwâŚyouâll still probably forget it again =). It takes time and lots of repetition of reading, listening, utilizing some concepts to ingrain the patterns. Reading and listening can do this quite well on its own imoâŚonce you are at least familiar with the grammar concept.
I dont think that ChatGPT is reilable source of Grammar knowledges. Yes, it can point out what structure you see, and give tons of examples. But for normal explanation and rules I would refer to special resources, Youtube, websites or grammar books. I often ask ChatGPT to explain me grammar rules, but often it just invents them))
