How easy it is to learn German

A practical pedagogy tip for learning German

Flavio Musa de Freitas Guimarães
2 min readAug 10, 2023

By Sonaira D’Ávila, at https://www.doriopraca.com/

I swear that in these comings and goings from Rio to here (living from sun to sun) six months in Rio and six in Germany, I keep trying to understand the language and grammar for myself, first to learn and then not to forget.

When I’m in Rio, I don’t go near this “talk”; when I return to Germany, I need to dive headlong into this universe.

The best example I found, which explains my “excitement” with the language, was the one given by Master Deonísio da Silvana in the following story:

http://www.renegadebroadcasting.com/media/Kangaroo-at-Sunset

“The book tells us that the “bag rats” or kangaroos (Beutelratten) are captured and placed in cages (Kotter) covered with a cloth (Lattengitter), to shelter them from bad weather.

These cages are called, in German, “cloth-covered cages” (Lattengitterkotter); as soon as they put a kangaroo in them, it is called Lattengitterkotterbeutelratten, “the cloth-covered cage kangaroo.”

One day the Hottentots captured an assassin (Attentater), accused of having killed a Hottentot mother (Mutter) — Hottentottermutter -, who had a stuttering and dizzy son (stottertrottel).

That poor mother , in German, is called, Hottentottenstottertrottelmutter, and her murderer is called Hottentottenstottertrottelmutterattentater.

The police arrested the murderer and temporarily confined him in a kangaroo cage (Beutelrattenlattengitterkotter), but the prisoner escaped.

The searches had barely begun when a Hottentot warrior appeared, shouting:

“I’ve captured the murderer!” (Attentive).

- Yes? Which? Asked the boss.

“The Lattengitterkotterbeutelratterattentater! replied the warrior.

- Like this? The killer in the cloth-covered kangaroo cage? Asked the chief of the Hottentots.

“Yes, yes. It is the Hottentottenstottertrottelmutteratentater (the murderer of the Hottentot mother of a dizzy and stuttering boy),” replied the native.

- Well, replied the chief, you could have said from the beginning that you had captured the Hottentotterstottertrottelmutterlattengitterkotterbeutelrattenattentater.”

As you can see, German is an easy language; it’s enough for us to be a little interested… and start putting everythingtogether.

Now just hit the right article. Is it masculine, feminine or neuter (der, die or das)?

doriopraca.com/pos

Easy, easy, right?

So repeat after me:

Hottentotterstottertrottelmutterlattengitterkotterbeutelrattenattentater

#Germany #SonairaDAvila

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Flavio Musa de Freitas Guimarães

Already watching the eighty-eight turn of the Earth in curtsy around its King, I’m an engineer that became a writer, happy, in perfect health, body and mind.