In English, you don't need to worry about noun gender. But in languages such as German, Dutch, French, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, etc. you do.
The Non-logic of it All
There seems to be little logic about the gender of nouns. Take the word for "sun," for example. In German, it's "die Sonne" (feminine), in French, it's masculine: "le soleil," and in Dutch, it's "de zon," a word of common gender, which is a masculine/feminine category.
On the other hand, "house" is neuter in both German and Dutch: "das Haus" and "het huis," but feminine in French: "la maison."
So, how can you learn the articles for all these nouns? Well, you can't get around doing it. But here are three ways you can make this task a little easier and stick better.
1. Auditory Memory
A language is a series of sounds. Even if you're just reading or writing, you're often silently "sounding out" the words in your mind.
Sound is a powerful tool for memorization. Don't memorize "Haus is neuter." Repeat "das Haus" a few times, focusing on the sounds that go together, in this case, "-s with Haus."
Later, when you're trying to remember the gender of "Haus," - the feminine or masculine articles will just not sound right with this word.
Similarly, if you say "la maison" a few times and remember that the "la" article goes with the "ai" sound, using the masculine article will not fit as well.
2. Visual Memory
Unless you only want to hear and speak a language, you'll spend plenty of time reading and writing it. These are excellent ways to get words, phrases, and structures into your visual memory.
Don't just memorize "soleil is masculine." When you write out "le soleil" a few times and remember the “e” in both the “le” and “soleil”, the feminine article will simply not look right with "soleil."
3. General Rules and Exceptions
There are no iron-clad rules about the gender of nouns. But there are general rules you certainly should add to your tools and each language has a few that can supplement your auditory and visual memory. (Following are just a couple of examples, it's by no means an exhaustive list.)
In French, nouns ending in "-e" are feminine, barring a few notable exceptions, such as "le problème."
In Spanish and Italian, nouns ending with “o” are generally masculine, those ending with “a” mostly feminine (with "el problema" [Spanish] and "il problema" [Italian] again one of several exceptions.)
In German, words ending in "-e" are mostly feminine; words that have the diminutive ending "-chen" or "-lein" are always neuter. For example, die Küche (kitchen), die Straße (street); and "das Mädchen" (girl), "das Sträßlein" (little street).
Learn to Trust Yourself
And once you've learned the general rules, you'll be able to apply your auditory and visual memory to the exceptions as well.
With time, you'll learn to trust your auditory and visual memory more and are on your way to building that wonderful, uncanny skill that we all strive for: a real feel for the language.
Let us know about YOUR experiences with visual and auditory memory!
Learning Swedish recently moved to the top of my language "to do" list. We'll be spending some time in Stockholm in the fall and that's excellent motivation for me.
Besides, I've always loved the sound of Swedish, in the Bergman movies, and most recently watching the three Swedish movies based on Stieg Larsson's popular novels, "Män som hatar kvinnor" (The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo), and its two sequels.
So, I signed up for one month to learn Swedish with an online language program. Besides getting a good grasp of Swedish basics, I again experienced the advantages of learning a new foreign language online.
For me, three key aspects drive my language learning: 1. motivation, 2. figuring out how the language works, and 3. building vocabulary.
These three aspects apply to all four language skills: reading, listening comprehension, writing, and speaking. The Swedish online course that I followed did a nice job with all four.
Motivation
This is the engine that drives learning. To truly learn something, you've got to love your subject, and find ways, again and again, to stay crazy about it.
There's a lot of talk about "addictive" programs for learning. I'm not sure that's the answer. You've got to be addicted to the subject - in this case, the language itself. Then, at best, a good program will make learning the language a pleasure.
Figuring Out How the Language Works
Our brain is wired for language and we are definitely capable of figuring out how a language functions. Kids do this all the time. By listening to a language, and reading, writing, and speaking it, we become aware of grammatical patterns.
In addition, some of us like to check with a grammar book, to see if there's a rule that makes things clear. I, for one, don't memorize grammar rules. My favorite grammar books are very thin ones. The one I use for Swedish is a slim booklet called "Essential Swedish grammar."
Building Vocabulary
Some people like to start a language by memorizing lists of words, or even just practicing all the sounds of the alphabet. I find that boring.
I prefer to start with everyday phrases or short sentences, and to add relevant lists a little later. I want to see the spelling, hear the words spoken, say them myself, and even write out some of them.
That way, my language learning brain is fully engaged. Whatever vocabulary I learn has to be part of a context or a setting that is meaningful to me.
So far, I've spent one month learning Swedish. I'm definitely still motivated and yes, I've figured out how the Swedish language works.
The program confirms that I've learned 380 basic words and phrases. That's a good start! In a later blog post, I'll talk about what program I used and how it specifically helped me build the four basic skills.
Very likely you've heard “La Paloma” sung in your native language. It's a very popular song.
In this YouTube video of “La Paloma”, Victoria de los Angeles, one of the great voices of the 20th century, sings the original Spanish lyrics, and the video shows the English translation. (There is also a wonderful Spanish version by Nana Mouskouri here, but without the text, you could listen to later!)
Did you know?
“La Paloma (meaning “the dove”) was composed and written by the Basque /Spanish composer Sebastián Iradier (later Yradier) after he visited Cuba in 1861. (You can read in this Wikipedia entry that the motif of “La Paloma” dates back to an episode that occurred in 492 BC!)
And the many different versions in many of the world's languages and performed by many famous singers are a testimony to its popular appeal across cultures and centuries.
The Original Lyrics
The original Spanish lyrics of the first verse are below. (Note that you will find other Spanish versions as well.)
Cuando salí de la Habana,
¡Válgame dios!
Nadie me ha visto salir
Si no fuí yo.
Y una linda Guachinanga
Allá voy yo,
Que se vino trás de mi,
Que si señor.
Si a tu ventana llega
Una paloma,
Trátala con cariño
Que es mi persona.
Cuéntala tus amores,
Bien de mi vida,
Corónala de flores
Que es cosa mía
Ay chinita que sí ,
ay que darme tu amor
Ay que vente conmigo,
Chinita, a donde vivo yo.
Typical Spanish Constructs
Some of the lyrics of the original version may be difficult for a beginner, but, with the translation provided in the video, you'll be able to decipher the meaning quite easily.
You'll also notice a number of typical Spanish constructions, e.g. valgame, trátala, cuéntala, corónala, darme, in which the object is added to the end of the verb. (You can also start paying attention to the spelling of words like "si" [if] and "sí" [yes])
By watching the YouTube video with its translation several times you can start memorizing the Spanish lyrics and their English meaning. Not only will the song sound even more beautiful now that you understand it, you'll remember the object constructs next time you see them in other contexts.
And when you hear other versions in Spanish (or in other languages) you may also recognize the changes in the lyrics.
Postscript:
(1) We also have posts about French, German, and Italian songs that are fun to listen to – and, when memorized, can remind you of some key aspects of the respective language.
(3) We recently discovered a Spanish language site which uses Spanish songs a their lyrics as part of their program. You won't find "La Paloma" but many contemporary songs on Language Zen. Also read our "Language Zen" - Learning Spanish - A Review
Does your day look really busy, but you would hate missing your language learning fix?
Are you looking to boost one or the other of your new foreign language skills? (Even the Shuttle, left, needed some boosters!)
Learning a foreign language as an adult requires you to find those methods and routines that work best for you and that allow you to apply them - ideally - on a daily basis.
5 ways to create a quick language learning moment
1. READ 3-4 sentences ALOUD - preferably from an ongoing book you've been following. Reading aloud (or even in a whisper) gets you to work on your "mouth mechanics" - the way you need to move your mouth in order to produce the correct sounds. In the meantime, your brain is registering word order and an idiom or two.
2. Type or WRITE out (copy) a few interesting sentences from a book, magazine, Internet site, etc. Writing out a language is very different from reading it. You become much more aware of structure, spelling, endings, etc.
3. Take a useful sentence from a book or story, MEMORIZE it, and then write it out from memory. It can also be a famous saying. The sentence can be as short or long as you wish. Do this with 2 or 3 sentences, checking back to see if what you wrote was correct.
4. Doodle or DRAW 4-5 objects, such as furniture, clothing, fruit, items on your desk. Then write the name of each item in your new language. Maybe you'll have to look up the words. No-one has to see your drawing, unless you're a Picasso. But the act of creating images and labeling them is a great way to engage your brain.
5. LISTEN for a few minutes to your favorite foreign language song and follow the lyrics closely. Music is a compelling way to experience the rhythm and intonation of a language. (We had posted suggestions for French, German, Italian, and Spanish.)
Any of these 5 quick boosts will keep you learning. For steady progress, nothing can beat a regular learning routine, and these brief techniques can keep you going even in busy times.
(Updated: Our site is free for all learners. You can play all Quick Games and Podcasts by just clicking on the link.
To play our courses, you do need to register. That way you can continue where you left off, once you return to the site. We don't run Ads.)
This month, GamesforLanguage ran a 6-Day Trial for any (or all) of our four languages: French, German, Italian, and Spanish.
All our users come to our site “organically,” either through a translation search of the indexed words or phrases of our program, by “word of mouth,” or through other site referrals.
We also sprinkled a few questions among our various games, and here are the results: How would you rate your language Fluency? Beginner: 63% Intermediate: 25% Advanced: 12%
How do you rate “Word Invaders”? (a word-order game) Too Easy: 44% Just right:16% Challenging: 36% Too difficult: 4%
Learning for me with Scene 1 was: Easy: 39% Hard: 3% Right On: 58%
As the “language fluency” question appeared with the first game, it received the most answers. The “Word Invaders” question appeared in the middle, and the final question at the end of the first Scene.
Some users either did not complete the first scene or skipped right to the next Scene after meeting their score goal, other players skipped the first game, all of which makes correlating the answers a little difficult.
We are somewhat surprised by the split in the Word Invader question, but are reassured that the majority felt our Scene 1 was “easy” or “right on.”
Most of the 63% of the users who came to our site in May and who are beginners found it easy to play and learn with our games.
We also realize that very few users are able to commit the time to learn and practice on a daily basis.
The maximum score reached during the six days for one language was 2,355 points in Italian, which brought the player to Scene 4, in Level 2.
We continue to invite feedback on our programs and games.
In English, you don't need to worry about noun gender. But in languages such as German, Dutch, French, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, etc. you do.
Does your day look really busy, but you would hate missing your language learning fix? 
(Updated: Our site is free for all learners. You can play all Quick Games and Podcasts by just clicking on the link.