Key learning points

1. [a] can be short or long, but an 'e' at the end of a word is always very short, for example 'danke'.
2. All German nouns start with a capital letter.
3. German has three words for 'the': der (masculine), die (feminine) and das (neuter).
4. Wo ist ..?', meaning 'Where is ... ?' is followed by the definite article and noun for simple location questions.
5. Simple location questions can be answered using 'ist' (is) and 'hier' (here) or 'da' (there).

Keywords

• [a] - pronounced [a] as in 'kalt' and [a] as in 'sagen'

• Noun - a word for a person, place, or thing

• Der, die, das - words for 'the'

• Wo ist? - where is?

Common misconception