German Grammar Strikes Back

Just when I thought English grammar had taken over (and posted about it), Lilia surprised me.

She wanted to go outside and help me throw the paper and cardboard garbage into the bin, so I told her to put on her shoes and her coat. I then went off to fetch something.

Soon after I heard her struggle and cry, so I asked what was going on. She said: "Meine Jacke... ich kann das nicht reachen!" ("My coat... I cannot reach it!")

Note the word "reach": she used what would be the German infinitive form (if it was a German word, that is). Pretty amazing.

Again this is something Souad and I do a lot ourselves. I even sometimes do it when I speak German to other Germans. I need to pay attention, I think.

English Grammar is Easy (like German?)

Lilia has started to use a couple of interesting constructions of phrases in German lately and it took me some time to figure out why: she uses English grammar!

My guess is that she does that when she is unsure how to build a sentence in German.

She seems to have understood English grammar fairly well, and since German grammar is far more complicated, she hasn't quite understood it so far. Her assumption that German and English are somehow similar (I mentioned that before) means that she just resorts to saying it the English way.

I think that's cool.

It surely means that she is resourceful and intelligent, and that she uses language in a creative way. I like that.

I'm looking forward to seeing how our next trip to Germany will change things...

Alphabet Quiz

BK (Babel Kid) goes to pre-school three mornings a week. This term, children are focusing on letters of the alphabet. I personally think this is too early for 3-year olds, but who am I to know better than the specialists... Each week has a letter theme. This week, it's L. So each child brings an item beginning with the letter L. BK took a lego lamb this morning, two L's in one go!

The problem is the language of course. She obviously needs to take something beginning with L in English. Knowing that a lamb is called Schaf (in German) or Agneau (in French), it could be hard to grasp the principle of alphabet at this stage. Or maybe not.