Department of German, King’s College London

Resources for language learning

September 2011

In the following pages, you will find details of books and links to a number of websites which you can

use to practise your grammar and vocabulary outside the classroom. We hope that you will find

these useful as a starting point. If you need further advice on language learning materials, please feel

free to ask your language tutor.

Grammar Paul Joyce German Course (University of Portsmouth, formerly University of Exeter) http://userweb.port.ac.uk/~joyce1/abinitio/

→ Website providing an easy-to-understand, comprehensive guide to German grammar

→ Accessible for beginners

→ The grammar slides at http://userweb.port.ac.uk/~joyce1/gramlect/ are very useful for

brushing up on the basics

Deutsch-lernen.com http://www.deutsch-lernen.com/

→ Comprehensive coverage of German grammar, taking you through from beginner to

advanced level

→ Convenient “bite-sized” units, each focusing on one grammatical point

→ Exercises are available, so you can practise what you have learned

→ It is necessary to register for access to some materials

→ Written mostly in German

The Internet Handbook of German Grammar http://travlang.com/languages/german/ihgg/

→ Concise summaries of the major grammatical topics (e.g. adjective declension; use of modal

verbs; sequence of verbs etc.)

→ Clearly presented declension and inflection tables

→ Written in English

Deutsch Online http://www.deutschonline.de/Grammatik/inhalt.htm

→ Detailed explanations

→ Written in German

German quickly http://www.quia.com/cb/3736.html

→ Interactive one- and two-person quizzes to test your knowledge of difficult constructions

and phrases, time phrases, modal verbs, relative pronouns, idioms, and the passive.

Resources for German 2

E. L. Easton Languages Online http://eleaston.com/grammar.html

→ A portal providing links to explanations of grammar and quizzes

→ Also contains links to some useful culture-related encyclopaedia entries

→ Covers a range of levels

Deutsch Lernen (Goethe-Institut) http://www.goethe.de/lrn/lks/gra/deindex.htm

→ A portal with links to grammar websites

DaF-Portal Übungen und Tests http://www.daf-portal.de/uebungen/index.php?viewCat=2

→ A selection of exercises to test your grammar

Language comprehension Jetzt Deutsch Lernen (Goethe-Institut) http://www.goethe.de/z/jetzt/deindex.htm

→ An online magazine featuring texts, videos and quizzes to help you develop your

comprehension skills

Jetzt Deutsch Lernen (Goethe-Institut) http://www.goethe.de/lrn/duw/auf/sta/deindex.htm

→ Links to a range of online exercises across all levels, to help improve your language skills

Deutsch Online http://www.deutsch-online.com/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=index

→ A selection of language tests and exercises

Online bilingual dictionaries LEO German-English Dictionary http://dict.leo.org

→ Extremely comprehensive

→ Has a forum for discussing translations of complex or colloquial language

→ Links directly to canoo.net for finding conjugations and declensions

→ A mobile app is available so you can even access LEO from your smartphone!

dict.cc http://www.dict.cc

→ Comprehensive coverage, and new entries are added all the time by users

→ The ‘VocabTrainer’ allows you to build up your own personalised vocabulary list

Resources for German 3

→ Can be accessed on your phone through ‘pocket.dict.cc’ and is available as an offline

application for the iPhone

Specialist dictionaries and vocabularies Anglizismen und Übersetzungsfallen http://uebersetzungsfallen.de/

→ Catalogue of false friends, near misses and stylistic variants

→ Useful for translation work

Redensarten-Index http://www.redensarten-index.de/suche.php

→ Searchable database of Redensarten, Redewendungen, idiomatische Ausdrücke and feste

Wortverbindungen

Books

You will, of course, also want to use traditional printed material as part of your language

learning. You might therefore find the following books useful:

Grammar and vocabulary Dreyer, Hilke, and Richard Schmitt. 2009. Lehr- und Übungsbuch der deutschen Grammatik.

Hueber.

Durrell, Martin. 2011. Hammer’s German Grammar and Usage (5th edition). Hodder.

Durrell, Martin. 2000. Using German Synonyms. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Durrell, Martin, Katrin Kohl, and Gudrun Loftus. 2011. Practising German Grammar (3rd

edition). Hodder.

Hall, Karin, and Barbara Scheiner. 2011. Übungsgrammatik Deutsch als Fremdsprache für

Fortgeschrittene. Hueber.

Hachenburger, Petra, and Paul Jackson. 1999. Topics, Questions Keywords: A handbook for

students of German. London: Routledge.

Hering, Axel, Magdalena Matussek and Michaela Perlmann-Balme. 2002. EM

Übungsgrammatik: Deutsch als Fremdsprache. Hueber.

Hirschfeld, Ursula, Kerstin Reinke, and Eberhard Stock. 2007. Phonothek intensiv:

Aussprachetraining. Langenscheidt.

Rug, Wolfgang, and Andreas Tomaszewski. 2008. Grammatik mit Sinn und Verstand. Klett.

Turneaure, Brigitte M. 1996. Der treffende Ausdruck.

Bilingual dictionaries A recent edition of one of the following:

Collins German-English, English-German dictionary; or

Oxford Duden German dictionary

Monolingual dictionaries

Der kleine Duden 01. Deutsches Wörterbuch.

Resources for German 4

Newspapers, magazines, radio and television websites Reading German newspapers, listening to the radio and watching television is a great way to

improve your language. You will obviously be able to find lots of magazines, newspapers, and radio

and television stations online by searching the internet or using a portal (e.g. yahoo.de), but here are

a few suggestions to get you started… (And remember, you can also watch foreign language

television in the Open Learning Centre.)

Newspapers and magazines

Der Spiegel www.spiegel-online.de

Der Stern www.stern.de

Die Welt www.welt.de

Die Zeit www.zeit.de

Focus www.focus.de

Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung www.faz.de

Süddeutsche Zeitung www.sueddeutsche.de

Der Kurier www.kurier.at

Der Standard www.derstandard.at

Die Presse www.diepresse.at

Profil www.profil.at

Salzburger Nachrichten, Salzburg www.salzburg.com

Vorarlberger Nachrichten, Vorarlberg http://vn.vol.at

Wiener Zeitung, Wien www.wienerzeitung.at

Neue Zürcher Zeitung www.nzz.ch

Radio Deutschlandfunk www.dradio.de

Funkhaus Europa www.funkhauseuropa.de

Inforadio Berlin (+ Bundesliga am Samstag) www.inforadio.de

Österreichischer Rundfunk http://radio.orf.at

Television channels Erstes Deutsches Fernsehen www.ard.de

Zweites Deutsches Fernsehen www.zdf.de

ARTE Deutschland www.arte.de

3sat www.3sat.de

Deutsche Welle www.dw-world.de

Westdeutscher Rundfunk www.wdr.de

Österreichischer Rundfunk (TV Thek) www.orf.at

Schweizerischer Rundfunk www.sfdrs.ch