Department of German, Kings College London

Resources for language learning

September 2011

In the following pages, you will find details of books and links to a number of websites which you can
use to practise your grammar and vocabulary outside the classroom. We hope that you will find
these useful as a starting point. If you need further advice on language learning materials, please feel
free to ask your language tutor.

Grammar
Paul Joyce German Course (University of Portsmouth, formerly University of Exeter)
http://userweb.port.ac.uk/~joyce1/abinitio/
Website providing an easy-to-understand, comprehensive guide to German grammar
Accessible for beginners
The grammar slides at http://userweb.port.ac.uk/~joyce1/gramlect/ are very useful for
brushing up on the basics

Deutsch-lernen.com
http://www.deutsch-lernen.com/
Comprehensive coverage of German grammar, taking you through from beginner to
advanced level
Convenient bite-sized units, each focusing on one grammatical point
Exercises are available, so you can practise what you have learned
It is necessary to register for access to some materials
Written mostly in German

The Internet Handbook of German Grammar

http://travlang.com/languages/german/ihgg/
Concise summaries of the major grammatical topics (e.g. adjective declension; use of modal
verbs; sequence of verbs etc.)
Clearly presented declension and inflection tables
Written in English

Deutsch Online
http://www.deutschonline.de/Grammatik/inhalt.htm
Detailed explanations
Written in German

German quickly
http://www.quia.com/cb/3736.html
Interactive one- and two-person quizzes to test your knowledge of difficult constructions
and phrases, time phrases, modal verbs, relative pronouns, idioms, and the passive.

Resources for German

E. L. Easton Languages Online

http://eleaston.com/grammar.html
A portal providing links to explanations of grammar and quizzes
Also contains links to some useful culture-related encyclopaedia entries
Covers a range of levels

Deutsch Lernen (Goethe-Institut)

http://www.goethe.de/lrn/lks/gra/deindex.htm
A portal with links to grammar websites

DaF-Portal bungen und Tests

http://www.daf-portal.de/uebungen/index.php?viewCat=2
A selection of exercises to test your grammar

Language comprehension
Jetzt Deutsch Lernen (Goethe-Institut)
http://www.goethe.de/z/jetzt/deindex.htm
An online magazine featuring texts, videos and quizzes to help you develop your
comprehension skills

Jetzt Deutsch Lernen (Goethe-Institut)

http://www.goethe.de/lrn/duw/auf/sta/deindex.htm
Links to a range of online exercises across all levels, to help improve your language skills

Deutsch Online
http://www.deutsch-online.com/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=index
A selection of language tests and exercises

Online bilingual dictionaries

LEO German-English Dictionary
http://dict.leo.org
Extremely comprehensive
Has a forum for discussing translations of complex or colloquial language
Links directly to canoo.net for finding conjugations and declensions
A mobile app is available so you can even access LEO from your smartphone!

dict.cc
http://www.dict.cc
Comprehensive coverage, and new entries are added all the time by users
The VocabTrainer allows you to build up your own personalised vocabulary list

Resources for German

Can be accessed on your phone through pocket.dict.cc and is available as an offline
application for the iPhone

Specialist dictionaries and vocabularies

Anglizismen und bersetzungsfallen
http://uebersetzungsfallen.de/
Catalogue of false friends, near misses and stylistic variants
Useful for translation work

Redensarten-Index
http://www.redensarten-index.de/suche.php
Searchable database of Redensarten, Redewendungen, idiomatische Ausdrcke and feste
Wortverbindungen

Books
You will, of course, also want to use traditional printed material as part of your language
learning. You might therefore find the following books useful:

Grammar and vocabulary

Dreyer, Hilke, and Richard Schmitt. 2009. Lehr- und bungsbuch der deutschen Grammatik.
Hueber.
Durrell, Martin. 2011. Hammers German Grammar and Usage (5th edition). Hodder.
Durrell, Martin. 2000. Using German Synonyms. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Durrell, Martin, Katrin Kohl, and Gudrun Loftus. 2011. Practising German Grammar (3rd
edition). Hodder.
Hall, Karin, and Barbara Scheiner. 2011. bungsgrammatik Deutsch als Fremdsprache fr
Fortgeschrittene. Hueber.
Hachenburger, Petra, and Paul Jackson. 1999. Topics, Questions Keywords: A handbook for
students of German. London: Routledge.
Hering, Axel, Magdalena Matussek and Michaela Perlmann-Balme. 2002. EM
bungsgrammatik: Deutsch als Fremdsprache. Hueber.
Hirschfeld, Ursula, Kerstin Reinke, and Eberhard Stock. 2007. Phonothek intensiv:
Aussprachetraining. Langenscheidt.
Rug, Wolfgang, and Andreas Tomaszewski. 2008. Grammatik mit Sinn und Verstand. Klett.
Turneaure, Brigitte M. 1996. Der treffende Ausdruck.

Bilingual dictionaries
A recent edition of one of the following:
Collins German-English, English-German dictionary; or
Oxford Duden German dictionary

Monolingual dictionaries
Der kleine Duden 01. Deutsches Wrterbuch.

Resources for German

Newspapers, magazines, radio and television websites

Reading German newspapers, listening to the radio and watching television is a great way to
improve your language. You will obviously be able to find lots of magazines, newspapers, and radio
and television stations online by searching the internet or using a portal (e.g. yahoo.de), but here are
a few suggestions to get you started (And remember, you can also watch foreign language
television in the Open Learning Centre.)

Newspapers and magazines

Der Spiegel
Der Stern
Die Welt
Die Zeit
Focus
Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung
Sddeutsche Zeitung

www.spiegel-online.de
www.stern.de
www.welt.de
www.zeit.de
www.focus.de
www.faz.de
www.sueddeutsche.de

Der Kurier
Der Standard
Die Presse
Profil
Salzburger Nachrichten, Salzburg
Vorarlberger Nachrichten, Vorarlberg
Wiener Zeitung, Wien

www.kurier.at
www.derstandard.at
www.diepresse.at
www.profil.at
www.salzburg.com
http://vn.vol.at
www.wienerzeitung.at

Neue Zrcher Zeitung

www.nzz.ch

Radio
Deutschlandfunk
Funkhaus Europa
Inforadio Berlin (+ Bundesliga am Samstag)

www.dradio.de
www.funkhauseuropa.de
www.inforadio.de

sterreichischer Rundfunk

http://radio.orf.at

Television channels
Erstes Deutsches Fernsehen
Zweites Deutsches Fernsehen
ARTE Deutschland
3sat
Westdeutscher Rundfunk

www.ard.de
www.zdf.de
www.arte.de
www.3sat.de
www.dw-world.de
www.wdr.de

sterreichischer Rundfunk (TV Thek)

www.orf.at

Schweizerischer Rundfunk

www.sfdrs.ch

Deutsche Welle