I'd say both phrases are active. Anyway their meanings are pretty much the same.

Zela, du lernst Deutsch in der Schule.

Ja, solche online-Wörterbücher sind schon praktisch. Aber man sollte die Wörter immer gegenchecken, bevor man sie verwendet. Das heißt, wenn man ein englisches Wort sucht, sollte man es nochmal auf Deutsch zurück-übersetzen lassen. Dann merkt man nämlich sehr schnell, ob das Wort in dem Zusammenhang wirklich passt.
@CelticIrishLass92: Ich lerne in der Schule Hebräisch - aber freiwillig. In zwei Wochen mache ich mein Hebraicum. Was mich mal interessieren würde: Zu Chanukka singt man doch immer "Maos Zur". Gibt es für Pesach ein ähnlich bekanntes Lied?

Indeed, such online dictionaries are really handy. But you should always counter-check a word before you use it. I. e. if you're searching for a word in English, you should have it translated back into German. This way, you'll notice very quickly whether a certain word really fits the context.
@CelticIrishLass92: I learn Hebrew at school - but voluntarily. I will sit my Hebraicum exam two weeks from now. There's something that I'd be interested in: At Hanukkah you usually sing "Maoz Tzur". Is there an equally popular song for Passover?

Hallo! Ich komme aus Deutschland (Norddeutschland) und dachte mir ich trete einfach mal in die Gruppe ein xD
Lg Bella

Hello! I'm from Germany (Northern Germany) und I just thought being a member of this group would be a great idea, so here I am xD
xoxo Bella

Hallo! Ich heiße Matthew. Ich bin deutsch, aber ich war die geborenen USA. Entschuldigen Sie bitte meine deutschen Fehler, ich lerne noch.

Hello! My name is Matthew. I am German, and was born in the USA. Please excuse my German mistakes, I still learn.

Hallo! Ich heise Courtney. Ich komme aus Georgia. Ich bin dreiundzwansig Jahre alt. Ich liebe Deutsch und Sims! Ich spreche so so Deutsch. Ich lernst Deutsch im der Schule.

Hi there!

I wonder if you are still interested in corrections..? Well, I think I'll give you the last two, although the messages are quite old by now. But if I can revive the group again, I would be glad.

mattc117

- Ich bin in den USA geboren worden.

Temporal. "ich bin geboren worden", not "ich war geboren". You translated literally from "I was born", I assume.

"die USA" is right, but in your sentence it was an adverbial specification. "Where were you born? In the USA." And in German, that is "in den USA", because "die USA" is plural. We use "USA" as abbreviation, too, but actually it's "die Vereinigten Staaten von Amerika" = the United States of America = plural.

- Entschuldigt bitte meine Fehler, ich lerne noch.

"Entschuldigen Sie" is absolutely right. I chose to correct, however, because it's too formal. It's fine addressing each other informally, it's just an internet community, right? That's what I do normally. And I never saw something else at a web forum, as long as it's about some kind of hobby (like the sims).

In German, you cannot say "deutsche Fehler", "Fehler" is just fine, because that you refer to the mistakes you do in German is clear enough through context. "Deutsche Fehler" on the contrary is not very clear - the literal translation would be "german mistakes" and then I'd ask "Well, what's a german mistake? And is it something else than an english mistake?" You get the point.


Pochacco1986

- Ich bin dreiundzwanzig Jahre alt.

Just a spelling mistake.

- Ich liebe die deutsche Sprache und die Sims.

Here it's better to use "die deutsche Sprache" than "Deutsch". Although I understand what you mean when you say "Deutsch", it doesn't sound absolutely correct. And I suggest to use a definite article with "Sims", even if I'm not sure why.
Sorry that I cannot explain this better...

- Ich spreche Deutsch so lala.
- Ich spreche Deutsch durchschnittlich gut.

The first version is colloquial, the second is better.

- Ich lerne Deutsch in der Schule.

Just minor mistakes, which are quite obvious and self-explanatory, I think.

Hallo, ich habe gerade angefangen , Deutsch zu lernen und ich dachte, ich würde dieser Gruppe beitreten . Meine Großmutter ist Deutsche , und sie ist immer sprechen sie , so dass ich dachte, ich würde es zu lernen. Wie ist mein Deutsch?

Hi, I have just started learning German and I thought I'd join this group. My grandmother is German, and she's always speaking it, so I thought I'd learn it. How is my German?

Zu viele Kommas ?

heh heh heh...

:too many commas?:

Since the spelling reform most Germans are unsure about the wrong and right of commas. I'd say the first comma of the second sentence is optional, it depends. Commas are to indicated pauses, so I think you'd make a comma if you wanted to emphasize that your grandmother is German before you go on saying that she speaks it all the time.
"she's speaking it" translates to "sie spricht es". "Es" because in the first sentence you translated German as "das Deutsch" which is neutral. The female "sie" that you used in the second sentence would belong to "die Sprache Deutsch" (the language German). I know this "der/die/das" thing is confusing to English learners. Even more so since there's no real sense in which objects are male, which are female and which are neutral. Best thing is to learn the articles in one piece with the words: "der Löffel", "die Gabel", "das Messer"

"I thought I'd ...": Your translation is understandable. However, "real" German would rather be " ich dachte mir, dass ich ...".
And on second thought I think there's a comma missing in the first sentence after "Deutsch zu lernen" because the second part could be its own sentence. But again I'm not sure if you must put it there.
So complete translation would be:

Hallo, ich habe gerade angefangen, Deutsch zu lernen, und ich dachte mir, dass ich dieser Gruppe beitrete. Meine Großmutter ist Deutsche, und sie ist spricht es immer, so dass ich mir dachte, dass ich es lerne.

Your German is very good for a beginner.

Hallo ich komme aus Berlin und bin neu sowohl hier in der Gruppe als auch im Spiel. Ich finde die Seite hier echt toll nur leider reicht mein englisch für manches noch nicht aus. Zum Glück hab ich ja jetzt diese Gruppe gefunden. Schade das die Gruppe "The German Modding Beginners" nur für Sims 3 gedacht ist denn ich spiele nur Sims 2 und will irgendwann auch gerne mal anfangen da eigenen Kram zu erstellen und hochzuladen. Bisher sind mir die Hilfe-Foren dafür aber leider noch zu schwer zu verstehen...
Naja wollte auf jeden Fall mal Hallo sagen, vielleicht gibts ja auch ein paar andere deutschsprachige hier die erst küzlich zu spielen angefangen haben ?

Hi I'm german and from Berlin, don't want to translate everything I wrote above sorry.

Oh ich bin froh eine "deutschsprachige" Gruppe gefunden zu haben! Ich bin nicht sooo sehr gut in Englisch und hatte hin und wieder ein paar kleine Probleme. Ich hoffe hier kann ich in Zukunft vielleicht ein wenig Hilfe bekommen (auf deutsch )



I'm so glad I found a "german-speaking" group! I'm not very good at English and had some small problems here and there. I hope I can here in the future, maybe get a little help (in German )

Grüße aus Süddeutschland!
Ich bin dann doch überrascht, wie viele deutsche Mitglieder es auf ModTheSims gibt
Ich interessiere mich viel für Sprachen, mache 2012 auch Abitur unter anderem in Englisch und Französisch.
Na dann wünsche ich euch noch viel Spaß, Grüße
Nasenfahrrad

Greetings from Southern Germany!
I'm pretty surprised about the number of german-speaking members at ModTheSims
I'm very much interested in languages, I look forward to make the Abitur in English and French in 2012.
Hope you have lots of fun.
Greetings,
Nasenfahrrad

(Maybe you want to know what "Nasenfahrrad", my nickname, actually means? It's an informal german word for 'glasses'. If you would translate it literally it would mean 'bicyle on the nose' )

Hallo, meine Name ist Rob (Manuel in deutsch Klasse). Ich kann so-so deutsch gesprochen (Ist das verb-form richtig?) Ich liebe deutsch, es ist sehr interessant und leicht fuer mich. Ich wohne in Pennsylvania (USA) und liebe Buecher und Filme.

mein Grammatik ist nicht gut -_- Sorry!

Hi, Rob! "Name" is male, "Grammatik" female: "mein Name", "meine Grammatik". There's no real system which things are male and which are female, the best way is to learn all words in pairs with the right article.
In German "so-so" is "so lala".
The right verb-form in combination with "kann" is always infinitive: "Ich kann so lala Deutsch sprechen."
"gesprochen" is used as adjective or for actions in the past.
gesprochenes Deutsch = spoken German
Ich habe gesprochen. = I have spoken.

I just guessed die for Name since most words that end in e are die, exceptions suck I shot in the dark with Grammatik XD

My teacher taught it as so-so, so lala sounds funner to say though. Thanks :D

I never heard any German say that, we say "so lala". The only time we say "so so" is in another context when we have doubts about something. I'm not sure how to translate that expression correctly. I think the closest as a direct response would be "Is that so?"

"Ich will japanisch lernen." - "So so."/"So so, du willst also Japanisch lernen?"
"I want to learn Japanese." - "Is that so?"/"So you want to learn Japanese?" (I doubt you're smart enough.)

"Ich habe den Kuchen nicht gegessen!" - "So so."/"So so, du hast also den Kuchen nicht gegessen?"
"I didn't eat the cake!" - "Is that so?"/"So you didn't eat the cake?" (I doubt that you're honest.)

Well, sometimes it's also used in a neutral way just to acknowledge that we're listening, like "I see" or "aha" ("aha" is used in German, too).
Rarely it might also be used in a rude way to tell someone to shut up and you don't care, similar to "Ja ja!" (Whatever!)

It was like in the first week or two of Deutsch 1 when we talked about that. "Wie gehts?" "Ich bin gut/moode/schlecht/so-so etc.". My teacher worked in Austria so maybe it was a little different there? Teachers do make mistakes too especially with foreign languages.

moode = müde (If you meant tired.)

Yes, in fact it might be different in Austria. I live in the high north of Germany, far away.

Hallo, ich bin Daphne, Ich bin funfzehn Jahre alt! Ich lerne Deutsch zu sprechen in meine schule, es ist schwer, aber ich liebe sprechen Deutsch! Ich nicht kenne viel Deutsch, aber Ich learne!


Hello, I'm Daphne, I am fifteen years old! I'm learning to speak german in my school, it is hard, but I love speaking German! I know not much German, but I'm learning!

Today we learned about Modalverbs? We're still covering them, but they"re quite confusing to conjugate and memorize! I also have a hard time pronouncing the umlaut O! I had to do that yesterday and today and my teacher kept trying to teach me the right way! It sounds very similar to the U lol. But alot of people have been having trouble.

Wait until you learn the past tense verb charts in Perfekt and Imperfekt past tense! Oh and don't forget dative case too!

I learned ae as in bahh (like a sheep), oe as in moo (like a cow) and ue as like the oi in oink (like a pig).

The Ä-letter could also be spelled like the "ai" in air.
It must be interesting and maybe even funny how non-native speakers are pronouncing ä, ö, and ü.

Besides from that it's always funny to see tourists in cities like Leipzig, München or Stuttgart where people speak dialect so much that you sometimes cannot find any relationship to German in it anymore^^

But back to theme: In fact it's really hard to find words in English that are spelled like our German Ä, Ö, and Ü, but I've found some:

Ä like "air" or "and"
Ö like the first e in "service"
Ü like the 2nd u in "ouverture" (I'm not completely sure if that's an English word cause it's a french one, but there are lots of them in English)

And then there is our lovely German-only "ß", called "Scharf-S" (that doesn't mean "spicy" s, but "sharp s"). In some cases you use it as a replacement for a double-s.
(That's by the way why it's shaped like that: an old german s (the integral sign is in fact one of these) connected with another, normal s)

You use our "ß", when a double-s would stand after a long vowel like in "Fuß" (foot). Is the vowel spoken short, then you use the double s, like "Fluss" (river).

Example:
fließen (to flow) needs a "ß" because the "ie" is a stretched i. But if you use the past form, "geflossen", you need the double-s, because the "o" is spoken short.
And please remember, that "ß" is only a minuscule! There is in fact no majuscule for it, you must write like that:
"Das Licht war gleißend hell." But: "Das Licht war GLEISSEND HELL!!"
"Light was blazing."

Very confusing, I know, but I hope I could explain this chapter of German grammar in an understandable way.

You can use instead of the "ß" a "B", if this does not look too strange for you...
For "Ä", "Ö" and "Ü" you can write "ae", "oe" and "ue" like it is done in crosswords. Then you write "ß" also as double-s.

Never give up: At one point you'll do it right automatically

^ I knew most of that but interesting none the lest!

So now it's time to ask a question that I've been burning to ask for a while. What about y? After two years of speaking German I've yet to come across any words using Y except for das Xylophon and der Yak. Y isn't the most common letter in English either but it's certainly used more. And how is it pronounced? When we learned the alphabet it was pronounced something like "oopsilan", I have no idea how that would fit into a word...

"oopsilan" is just the name of the letter, in words it can actually have different pronunciations: In Xylophon it's like Ü with a bit of I, in Yak (and most of the time when it's the first letter) it's like J. In fact, words like Yoga, Yacht or Yoghurt are commonly written as Joga, Jacht and Joghurt. You can listen to it at this dictionary when you click on the loudspeaker symbol on the right:
http://dict.leo.org/ende?lp=ende&la...search=xylophon
http://dict.leo.org/ende?lp=ende&la...r=&search=yacht
I don't know any real German words with Y, they're all from other languages. There're quite a few in science and medical things, like Physik, Symbiose, Synonym, Physiotherapie, Psychiater, so most words you have in English, too. And then of course we also use English bits like Pony (not only the horse, it can also mean bangs) and Handy (that's what we call cell phones, don't laugh ).

Ooh that's interesting, it seemed like all the words I was finding were of foreign origin!

I knew Handy, I always think of Blue's Clues and their handy dandy notebook! (Please tell me I'm not the only 90s baby who was obsessed with Blue's Clues? Germans might not get it...)

Yes, I know that series too as I watched it when I went to kindergarten^^ In German it was called "Blues Clue's - blau und schlau" (Blue and smart)

It seems that the Germans kind of fear the "Y", for whatver reason. Maybe it's because "Y" and "Ü" sound most of the time quite the same, you pronounce "Y" as "Üpsilon"

But the Y is not the only letter that is hard to find - also the X is one of the rarest letters. The only real words with x in my German-English dictionary are
"x-Achse" (x-axis), "X-Beine" (knock-knees), "x-beliebig" (any old...), "Xenon" (xenon), "xenophob" (xenophobic), of wich I even do not know what it is, "Xerogramm" (xerographic), "Xerokopie" (xerographic print), "x-fach" (umpteen), "x-mal" (umpteen), Zum "x-ten" Mal (for the umpteenth time) and "Xylophon" (xylophone). That's all what I can find.

"Handy" is a false friend, because the anglish word "handy" means "praktisch", but that is just what cell phones are, aren't they?

Nasenfahrrad

Hallo jedermann! Mein Deutsch ist nicht sehr gut, Ich lerne sie nur 6 monate lange, aber ich lerne sehr gern Deutsch. Ich bin Amy (that's just my nickname), ich wohne in Ungarn und ich bin 15 jahre alt. Ich lerne in eine Gymnasium. Mein hobbys sind Musik hören, singen, spazieren gehn und Sims spielen und schreiben in forums.

That's all for now I can sa about myself in German, auf Deutsch... The reason why I joined this group because I want to develop my German as well, but in school we're learning really slowly. I hope I'll manage to get some knowledge... :D

Hallo Amy, dein Deutsch ist sehr gut für nur sechs Monate Lernen! Your German is very good for only six months learning!
Leider ist hier nicht viel los. Unfortuantely there's not much going on here. Du könntest dir dailyknoedels Videos anschauen, ich finde ihn lustig und er hat eine gute Aussprache. You could watch dailyknoedel's videos, I find him funny and he has good pronunciation.

Vielen dank! =)

Hallo,ich bin elfinitty,ich bin 16 Jahre alt und ich komme aus der Türkei.Ich lerne Deutsch ,aber ich denke ich spreche nicht so gut.Ich will einen Kurs gehen für sprechen besser.Ich bin glücklich ,einen Platz zum sprechen finden

Hallo! Ich heiße Julie und komme aus Brazil. Ich bin dreiundzwanzig Jahre alt und Physik Studentin. Ich lerne Deutsch für ein Monate.

Hi! I'm Julie and I come from Brazil. I'm 23 years old and I'm a physics student. I've been learning German for a month now. Hopefully that's what I just said!

I'm hoping to get my master's degree in Germany so I have about one year and a half to learn enough to survive there.
I'd love to hear from any germans who'd like to tell me what is it like for foreign students in their home country - feel free to PM me too. I don't know many citizens from the fair Deutschland except for two exchange students I've talked to in person on occasion and another one I've only met online. It would be nice to have people to visit once I do get there!

Julie, sehr gut für nur ein Monat! Jetzt fühle ich mich gut weil wir haben eine neue Deutschlehrerin. Sie ist sehr nett nicht so wie unser anderen Lehrer. Als Studentin möchte ich Englisch lernen, und ich muss anderen Sprichtrüfungen haben zu aufnahmen. Und sie unterrnimmt mir zu lernen intensiv. Ich beginne es am Freitag (nicht Morgen). Entschuldigen für mir schlecht Deutsch.

Julie, very good for one month! Now I feel good because we have a new German teacher. She is very kind not like our teacher before. When I'll be in university, I want to learn English studies (too), and I need to have another language exams. And she undertakes me to learn quicker. I begin on Friday (next friday, not tomorrow). Sorry for my bad German!

Ich bin Schotte, aber ich studierte Germanistik in den 80. Jahren an der Uni. Waehrend meines Studiums studierte und wohnte ich 2 Semester (1 Jahr) an der Universitaet Goettingen. Heute bekomme ich nur selten die Moeglichkeit, Deutsch zu sprechen, und ich weiss, dass ich deswegen viele Sprachfeher machen werde. Jedenfalls gruesse ich die anderen Mitglieder dieser Gruppe!

(If I can translate my own German properly...) I am Scottish but I studied German at University in the 1980's. In the course of this study, I lived and studied for a year (2 Semesters) at the University of Goettingen. Nowadays I rarely get an opportunity to speak German so I know I'll make lots of mistakes. In any case, Greetings to the other members of this group!

Guten Morgen,
ich bin halbwegs neu hier im Forum und habe grade von dieser Gruppe erfahren. Da ich es sehr geniesse englisch schreiben zu können, dachte ich, dass ich euch helfe auch Deutsch schreiben zu können

Good morning,
I'm more or less new to the forum and just learned about this group. Since I really enjoy writing English I thought I'd help you to have the possibility to write German.

Ich habe auch gerade erst von dieser Gruppe erfahren, da haben wir etwas gemeinsam. ^^
Ich kann es gar nicht glauben, dass ich in all den Jahren auf Mod the Sims nie in die Social Groups geschaut habe. :D
Koennte aber auch daran liegen, dass ich im World Wide Web viel lieber Englisch benutze.

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I just learned about this group too. So we have something in common. ^^
Just can not believe that i never take a look into the social groups here on MTS. :D
Maybe it's because I prefer English for the World Wide Web.

(I really need to practice more ._.)