Welcome to an online Beginners' German course designed by Paul Joyce of the University of Portsmouth. It currently contains twelve chapters of dialogue and exercises which have been designed to give the absolute beginner a grounding in the rudiments of the German language, as well as providing background information about life and culture in the German-speaking countries.

German Course Chapter index Chapter 1     Chapter 7  Chapter 2     Chapter 8  Chapter 3     Chapter 9  Chapter 4     Chapter 10  Chapter 5     Chapter 11  Chapter 6     Chapter 12

Each chapter consists of:

• conversations, many of which are available with audio files
• an online pronunciation guide complete with sound files
• a guide to the German alphabet and the German language
• a full glossary of vocabulary used in the course
• explanations of the key points of grammar which you will confront
• an online verb table for both regular and irregular verbs
• background information about the history and culture of the German-speaking countries
• exercises on vocabulary, grammar and German culture

Getting started
Before starting the first chapter of this course, you are recommended to do the following:

Getting started Why learn German? Reasons why you should learn German German pronunciation Practice German sounds with our online pronunciation guide. The German Alphabet An guide to the German alphabet complete with exercises. Chapter 1 You're now ready to start the first chapter of our course!

This site has been updated in 2008 from the version which I originally developed with support from the University of Exeter. Previous visitors to the online German course will note that the pronunciation guide, language exercises and verb tables have all been expanded and that internal navigation within the site has been made easier. As this course was needed for use on the German Extension Course at the University of Portsmouth in April 2009, I have had to relaunch the site a little earlier than planned, which means that a few links need to be amended in the final four chapters. The site should be fully operational by May 2010, and I would be grateful if users of the course could bear with me until then.

As the older version of the site at Exeter is no longer being maintained, please amend your bookmarks for this site to the new URL:

http://userweb.port.ac.uk/~joyce1/abinitio/

The further development and future location of this German course is dependent on funding and on my future employment. The material needed to expand the course has been written, but further funding would be required to allow me to adapt this material into a web-based format. The website will remain here at this location at least until the end of my current contract in August 2010. After that, its future location will depend on my next place of work. For further information, please e-mail the author of this course.

Paul Joyce, January 2010

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