Megan's Langblr

Language Learning Ideas Printable

Here is a printable I made that I hope can help you out on your language learning journey. It has different activities based on how much time you have, as well as a checklist for frequent activities. By using it, you can see what works for you and what doesn’t. 

I tried to include as many things that many people can use, but some activities can’t be used by all language learners, unfortunately. The links to the website are clickable in the PDF file. I tested this myself and have even included a blank version if you prefer to write your own activities. Again, these are just some ideas for you to incorporate and I hope that they are useful.

Download Links: Dropbox

Full Activities 

The Greeks had this word, right, we have no idea where it came from, it just kinda popped up out of nowhere, and it could mean either apples, cheeks, or boobs. Problem is it looked and sounded *exactly* like another, unrelated word which could mean sheep, goat, or any animal in general really, which must have got confusing if you were a farmer talking about your livestock, but anyway…

Then the Romans, having stolen practically everything else from the Greeks, thought they’d nick this word too, because Latin isn’t confusing enough without throwing in a bunch of loan words. And they adopted it to mean a pumpkin.

Then the English came along and were all like “when in Rome”, and stole it, where it became our word ‘melon’. Which has now come back to mean boobs.

If they could be explained in one post, i’m sure we’d all have less problems lmao but i’ll try! 

1. What cases are there? 

German has four cases: Nominativ, Genitiv, Dativ und Akkusativ. (for any Latin nerds: Same as in Latin minus Ablative and Vocative.) 

2. Why are they necessary? 

Well, for once, you’ll need them if you want native speakers to understand what you’re saying. But let’s go a little deeper and compare German to English: 

In English, the meaning depends on the sentence structure. “The man bit the dog” and “The dog bit the man” have very different meanings even though both sentences use the same words - that’s because of the typical SVO-order. In English, the subject generally comes first, then some kind of verb, then the object (there are more difficult cases of course, but let’s not go into that rn). English has very little morphology, meaning that nouns/pronouns/determiners don’t inflect (a lot) depending on the case they’re in. 

In German, you can switch stuff around until you’re dizzy. “Der Hund biss den Mann” and “Den Mann biss der Hund” both mean the same, because “den” indicates that “Mann” is in the Akkusativ, thus he’s the one being bitten, no matter where you put him in the sentence. The case morphology allows a freer sentence order without leading to possible misunderstandings. 

3. So how do I know which case I need? 

This is the moment where it gets more complicated. You can associate the following questions with each case: 

Nominativ = Wer oder was? (Who?. The subject of a sentence is always in the nominative case.)

Genitiv = Wessen? (Whose?. Typically describes possession or comes as a rule after certain prepositions like “wegen” or verbs like “gedenken”.)

Okay, we can deal with that. Now on to the more difficult stuff: 

Dativ = Wem? 

Akkusativ = Wen oder was? 

To understand this, some knowledge of grammar is definitely an advantage. Consider the following sentences: 

I have a book. = Ich habe ein Buch. 

This is all well and nice. Subject (NOM), Verb, Object (AKK). 

In English, you would call “a book” a direct object because the verb “to have” is transitive, meaning it carries one object. “I have.” isn’t generally a full sentence and is expected to be followed by an object.

So apparently all our problems are solved with the Akkusativ/direct object. What now? 

I give you a book. = Ich gebe dir ein Buch. 

This is the critical moment. Subject (NOM), Verb, Object (DAT), Object (AKK). 

Suddenly we have two objects because the verb “to give” makes us expect information about what we’re giving (direct object, AKK) and to whom we’re giving it (indirect object, DAT). 

Such verbs are called ditransitive, meaning they can carry two objects. Just saying “I give.” leaves us wondering what you’re talking about because we’re missing key information. 

English, as explained above, solves this with sentence order by making the indirect object come first or by indicating it with “to” (“I give a book to you”). German solves it with inflection, putting the indirect object in a different case. 

That’s why things like “Ein Buch gebe ich dir” and “Dir gebe ich ein Buch” are both possible in German.

There are also intransitive verbs which carry either no object at all or just a dative object (“Ich antworte ihm”). 

4. How do I know which verbs carry which object(s)? 

This list will save you.  At some point (once you’ve gotten to a certain level in German), you’ll have a gut feeling about which object(s) to use just from experience. Give it some time! 

5. What about determiners and pronouns? 

I actually think this is less work because it’s one table of endings each, and once you’ve got that down you should be fine. 

This handbook explains everything really well in my opinion. 

Here’s a whole page about pronouns (relative, personal, and every other kind you can think of.)

Here are a LOT of exercises. 

Here are printables for German case declensions by @languageoclock. 

un arc-en-ciel - a rainbow 

des paillettes - glitter

un papillon - a butterfly

des nuages - clouds

une fleur - a flower

une guirlande de pâquerettes - a daisy chain

la soie - silk

une perle - a pearl

un petit gâteau - a cupcake

une abeille - a bee 

un coquillage - a seashell

un bracelet à breloques- a charm bracelet

un collier - a necklace 

une bicyclette - a bicycle 

les étoiles - stars

l’océan - ocean

la lune - moon

le lever du soleil - sunrise

le coucher du soleil - sunset 

le crépuscule - twilight 

une robe - dress

gökkuşağı - rainbow

parıltı - glitter

kelebek - butterfly

bulutlar - clouds

çiçek - flower

papatya tacı - daisy chain

ipek - silk

inci - pearl

cupcake / kapkek - cupcake

arı - bee

deniz kabuğu - seashell

uğur bilekliği - charm bracelet (However, it is not common to say charm bracelet in Turkish. We would say bileklik which means bracelet, basically)

kolye - necklace

bisiklet - bicycle

yıldızlar - stars

okyanus - ocean

ay - moon

gün doğumu - sunrise

gün batımı - sunset

dolunay - twilight

elbise - dress

unicorn / tek boynuzlu at - a unicorn

Translated from @frenchaise‘s  some pretty things in french ✨ vocab list

My other Turkish vocab lists:

enfys(au) - rainbow(s) gliter - glitter pili pala / glöyn byw / iâr fach yr haf - butterfly cwmwl (cymylau) - cloud(s) blodyn (blodau) - flower(s)  cadwyn llygaid y dydd - daisy chain llwyn rhosyn - rosebush liliwen (fach) - white lily sidan - silk cacen cwpan / cupcake - cupcake (I’ve given the literal translation here but most people would just use the word “cupcake” in all honesty) gwenynen (gwenyn) - bee(s) cragen y môr - seashell breichled tlysau - charm bracelet tylluan / gwdihŵ - owl mwclis - necklace beic- bicycle seren (sêr) - star(s) y môr(oedd) - the sea(s) traeth - beach cefnfor - ocean lleuad / lloer - moon codiad yr haul / y wawr - sunrise machlud yr haul - sunset gyda’r nos - twilight ungorn - a unicorn 

and for some typically welsh things… tylwyth(au) teg - fairy (fairies) tywysog(es) - prince(ss) brenin / brenhines - king / queen teyrnas(au) - kingdom(s) chwedl(au) - legend(s), myth(s) hud a lledrith - magic dewin(au) - wizard(s) gwrach(od) - witch(es)