German Skill:New Home

New Home is the fifty-second skill in the language tree for German. It has five lessons and teaches some more uses for prepositions while talking about moving into a new place.

Grammar Notes[]

Swing prepositions[]

Prepositions in German that we've seen so far are mostly confined to one case, but this skill introduces a bunch of prepositions that can be accusative or dative depending on what they're used for! Accusative is used for movement or actions, while the dative gets used for locations or states:

Ich gehe in das Restaurant. = I'm going to the restaurant. (movement = accusative)
Die Zeitschriften liegen auf dem Bett. = The magazines are (lying) on the bed. (location = dative)

The ones in this skill are in and auf. There are many more though; it'll be indicated which preposition goes with which case.

With in, a lot of people contract the definite article as well:

in + dem = im
in + das = ins

Gefällt es dir?[]

The verb gefallen means "to like," but you use it the wrong way around. The subject is the thing liked, and the object (in dative) is the person doing the liking. The verb is also irregular, but it's extremely rare to hear it beyond the third person:

Das Sofa gefällt mir nicht, es ist zu groß. = I don't like the sofa, it is too big.
Dieser Tisch ist lila, gefällt er euch? = This table is purple, do you like it?

Lessons[]

Lesson 1[]

die Tische = tables
die Kommode = dresser
dunkel = dark
hell = bright
neue Wohnung = new apartment
der Keller = basement
das Wohnzimmer = living room

Lesson 2[]

das Möbelhaus = furniture store
der Drogeriemarkt = drug store
die Bank = bank
in + accusative = to (see above)
die Seife = soap
die Haltestellen = (bus, train) stops

Lesson 3[]

stellen = to place
stell = place
gefallen = to like (see above)
er/sie/es gefällt = likes him/her/it
bringen = to bring
bring = bring
die Küche = kitchen

Lesson 4[]

der Spiegel = mirror
andere = other
das Regal = shelf
die Regale = shelves
gemütlich = comfortable
in + dative = in (see above)

Lesson 5[]

der Boden = floor
liegen = to lie
auf = on
legen = to lay
der Bleistift = pencil
die Zeitschriften = magazines

References[]

Duolingo Lesson: www.duolingo.com/skill/de/New-Home