---
title: "Learning German vocabulary through concepts, not translations"
author: "Veselin Slavchev"
date: 2020-05-03
tags: ["german language", "learning"]
description: "Learn foreign vocabulary by tying words to concepts instead of translations, with the many meanings of the German pronouns sie, du, ihr and Sie as an example."
url: https://vsslavchev.com/blog/learning-german-vocabulary/
---

# Learning German vocabulary through concepts, not translations

Learning words in a new language is best done when connecting the concept of something directly to the word in the new language - as opposed to mapping the new word to the one in your mother tongue which is in turn mapped to the concept.

To help you and me form the habit of directly mapping the new word to the concept, I will show an example with words that makes this approach a necessity: the pronouns in the German language. German has multiple uses for 'sie' and in English we say 'you' for many different cases, so this mismatch and repeatedly using the same word for different meanings is a good example.

So first let's imagine or visualise the concepts:

![Single person being addressed](https://vsslavchev.com/img/german_pronouns/you.svg) Imagine talking to a friend. You are about to tell him something.

![Multiple people being addressed](https://vsslavchev.com/img/german_pronouns/you_plural.svg) Imagine talking to multiple people.

![A king, representing formal address](https://vsslavchev.com/img/german_pronouns/king.svg) Imagine speaking to the king. Address him formally.

![Group of people not in the conversation](https://vsslavchev.com/img/german_pronouns/they.svg) Imagine talking about a group of people who are not present in the conversation.

![A woman not in the conversation](https://vsslavchev.com/img/german_pronouns/she.svg) Imagine talking about a woman who is not present in the conversation.

Nominativ:

| Example sentence | Concept |
| --- | --- |
|Hast du das getan? | ![du (you, informal singular)](https://vsslavchev.com/img/german_pronouns/you.svg) |
|Habt ihr das getan? | ![ihr (you, plural)](https://vsslavchev.com/img/german_pronouns/you_plural.svg) |
|Haben Sie das getan? | ![Sie (you, formal)](https://vsslavchev.com/img/german_pronouns/king.svg) |
|Haben sie das getan? | ![sie (they)](https://vsslavchev.com/img/german_pronouns/they.svg) |
|Hat sie das getan? | ![sie (she)](https://vsslavchev.com/img/german_pronouns/she.svg) |

Akkusativ:

| Example sentence | Concept |
| --- | --- |
|Ich sehe dich. | ![du (you, informal singular)](https://vsslavchev.com/img/german_pronouns/you.svg) |
|Ich sehe euch. | ![ihr (you, plural)](https://vsslavchev.com/img/german_pronouns/you_plural.svg) |
|Ich sehe Sie. | ![Sie (you, formal)](https://vsslavchev.com/img/german_pronouns/king.svg) |
|Ich sehe sie. | ![sie (they)](https://vsslavchev.com/img/german_pronouns/they.svg) |
|Ich sehe sie. | ![sie (she)](https://vsslavchev.com/img/german_pronouns/she.svg) |

Dativ:

| Example sentence | Concept |
| --- | --- |
|Ich gebe dir etwas. | ![du (you, informal singular)](https://vsslavchev.com/img/german_pronouns/you.svg) |
|Ich gebe euch etwas. | ![ihr (you, plural)](https://vsslavchev.com/img/german_pronouns/you_plural.svg) |
|Ich gebe Ihnen etwas. | ![Sie (you, formal)](https://vsslavchev.com/img/german_pronouns/king.svg) |
|Ich gebe ihnen etwas. | ![sie (they)](https://vsslavchev.com/img/german_pronouns/they.svg) |
|Ich gebe ihr etwas. | ![sie (she)](https://vsslavchev.com/img/german_pronouns/she.svg) |

sources:
[https://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/German/Grammar/Pronouns](https://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/German/Grammar/Pronouns)
[https://german.stackexchange.com/a/48144](https://german.stackexchange.com/a/48144)

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