Learning German vocabulary

German has a reputation for being hard. Most of the marks, though, go on three small things you can practise directly.

Learn the article with the noun

A German noun without its article is half a word. Knowing "Tisch" is not enough when the question is "the table" and the answer has to be "der Tisch". So never learn them separately: der Tisch, das Fenster, die Tür.

A trick that often works: make up a short sentence for it, or give der, die and das a colour each and picture the word in that colour.

The capital letter counts

Every German noun takes a capital letter. Tests are strict about it, and it is exactly the kind of thing you get wrong when you type quickly.

Umlauts and the ß

ä, ö, ü and ß are not decoration: Bücher is not the same as Bucher. They are awkward to type on a phone, which is precisely why people leave them out and then learn the word wrong.

In Toetsklaar a row with ä, ö, ü and ß sits above your keyboard as soon as you practise a German list, so you type it right the first time.

Sequences are learned in order

Ich bin, du bist, er ist: a set of forms is not a pile of separate facts but an order. Practise it in that order, top to bottom, not shuffled.