Stuttgart, Porsche, und das Museum

Tour of the Porsche Museum by Kaffee und Kuchen

Last month...I had a chance to visit the Porsche Museum in Stuttgart-Zuffenhausen. I had driven past this museum every time I'd taken the bus into Stuttgart (so well over 100 times) but until that day, I had never stepped inside. When the Metropolitan Club of Stuttgart organized a free tour of the museum, I knew it would be the perfect opportunity to finally go check it out. While I'm not a car buff by any stretch of the imagination, I was curious to see this world-famous auto museum minutes from my home.

Porsche sculpture in front of the Porsche Museum.

Opened in 2009, the museum is located right next to the Porsche Headquarters in Zuffenhausen. The design proposal from the Viennese architects Delugan Meissl was selected from over 170 entries in a European-wide competition. To reflect the company's bold and dynamic nature, the monolithic main structure of the museum is supported on only 3 V-shaped columns to make it appear as if it's floating above ground.

We visited the museum on May 22 ("Transaxle-Day") to see the special Transaxle Exhibit. Unlike Porsche's famous 911 model with the rear-mounted engine, the transaxles built by Porsche between 1976 and 1995 featured water-cooled front engines and rear-transaxles. We got a chance to see 23 unique transaxle models as well as several other cars and exhibits throughout the museum.

Each member of our tour group received a headset connected to our guide's microphone so we could easily hear him as we wandered through the museum. The tour ran for 30 minutes and covered some of the key displays in the museum, especially the transaxles in the special exhibit. The tour was in German and our guide used a lot of car-specific vocabulary so a lot of it went over my head. However, the museum itself is a work of art and the exhibits were clearly drool-worthy amongst the sports car aficionados in our group.

After the tour, we were free to roam the rest of the museum at our own pace. Some of my favourite cars on display included the Porsche police car (the one-millionth sports car produced by Porsche and gifted to the German Federal State of Baden-Württemberg), an old red fire truck, and a life-size model of Sally Carrera (the love interest of race car Lightning McQueen from the 2006 animated movie "Cars").

The Transaxle Exhibit runs from April 27 to October 16, 2016 if you're curious to check it out yourself.

How to get there: The Porsche Museum is located at Porscheplatz 1 in Stuttgart-Zuffenhausen and is open from Tuesday to Sunday, 9am – 6pm. If using public transportation to get to the museum, you can take the S-Bahn on the S6 line to the Neuwirtshaus/Porscheplatz stop.

Wiederholung aus Österreich: Was kann ich auf Deutsch?!

LINK HERE TO REVIEW MATERIALS

Heiner der Eimer (mit Untertitel)

Hier die Geschichte, gelesen.  Mit Untertitel.



Fragen dazu:

der Eimer
das Loch
das Mädchen

FC Kölle -- Kindergesang!

Die Kinder singen das Ende Strophe 3, aber in Dialekt.

Songtexte von den Höhen, hier in Hochdeutsch, anstatt in Kölsch.

1. Ehrenfeld, Raderthal, Nippes, Poll, Esch, Pesch und Kalk,

überall gibt es Fans vom FC Köln.

In Rio, in Rom, Gladbach, Prüm und Habbelrath,

überall gibt es Fans vom FC Köln.

2. Freud oder Leid, Zukunft und Vergangenheit,

ein Gefühl, das verbindet, FC Köln.

Ob vor, ob zurück, neues Spiel heißt neues Glück,

ein Gefühl, das verbindet, FC Köln.

Wir schwören dir hier auf Treue und auf Ehre,

wir stehen zu dir, FC Köln,

und wir gehen mit dir wenn es sein muss durch das Feuer,

halten immer nur zu dir, FC Köln!

3. Ob jung oder alt - ob arm oder reich,

zusammen sind wir stark, FC Köln.

Durch dick und durch dünn - ganz egal wohin,

nur zusammen sind wir stark, FC Köln.

Wir schwören dir...

Wir schwören dir...

Self-directed Learning!

FluentU May 2016

Self-directed Learning? What’s That?   

Basically, anyone who decides to take control of their studies and find what works for them is a self-directed learner.

A self-directed learner might be an adult choosing to take up a language in his or her free time after work.

A self-directed learner might also be a university student enrolled in a number of language classes who chooses to go beyond the requirements and try out different language learning methods after the school day is over.

So how do you know if this is the right approach for you? Well, it’s quite simple, really…

All Language Learners Can Afford to Be More Creative

Classes and classroom mentalities aren’t the only ways to learn new information. Even if you’re studying on your own, it’s easy to keep thinking like you’re taking a class. But with self-directed learning, there are a whole lot more options out there!

Think about it—most classes are designed to cater to groups of 10 to 30 children or adults, as they should be. Organized lessons and textbooks and quizzes help the instructor keep track of everyone’s progress. Not all learning is classroom learning, though, and you can always afford to think outside the box. You’re one person, so even if you’re taking a class, classroom rules need not apply to you when you’re not in the classroom.

Unfortunately, if you’re like most people, the only learning style with which you’re familiar is the one used in schools and universities. You may try to emulate this at home with varying levels of success and, likely, waning interest.

Things can be different, though! You can stay motivated and work towards fluency by getting creative.

Even being creative in small ways will keep you motivated and learning until you reach your goals.

Here are three tips to start you off with breaking the mold!

3 Creative Ways to Have a Blast with Self-directed Language Learning

1. Ditch method loyalty, and try all sorts of things!

Just as some people might try to create a makeshift classroom and curriculum in their house for their language study, a lot of learners are liable to stumble upon one method and stick to it, regardless of how much value it has for them personally.

There are a huge variety of language learning methods out there, and they all have some value.

The benefit of being a vagabond language learner of any kind is that it allows you the freedom to experiment.

Experimentation keeps things fun and exciting, because there’s always something new to try. As long as it’s in the target language, it certainly can’t hurt you!

Here are some ideas of ways to branch out:

Media-based immersion. This means watching TV and movies, listening to radio and reading novels—all in your target language! This is meant to imitate the experience of living in a country that speaks your language. YouTube has plenty of material in major world languages, and TuneIn can lead you to radio stations in your target language!

• All kinds of language learning books. This might sound contrary to what was said above, but many people are unreasonably turned off by all textbooks. Textbooks can be an important resource; you just have to make them work for you. For popular languages, there are endless options. These can give you vocabulary for everyday circumstances and present grammar in an easy-to-understand way. Some newer books are pretty engaging and provide a lot of variety. Check out the Teach Yourself series (easily found on Amazon for many languages) for cheap, well-designed instructional books to use alongside whatever other methods tickle your fancy.

• SRS flashcards. These are flashcards that are timed using an algorithm that maximizes the utility of your memory! This means that you can forget about forgetting vocab and grammar items. The great thing about SRS is that it works well with other methods.

• Shadowing. This is a method promoted by polyglot Alexander Argüelles in which the student repeats audio in the target language, concentrating on rhythm and accent. The key is to speak each word as close to simultaneous with the audio as possible. For example, you could try shadowing an audiobook or a slowed-down dialogue created for beginners. Here’s a video that explains shadowing in plenty of depth.

• Babbling. Babbling is a stage of language development that all babies go through before they say their first words. Even though adults learn differently from babies in some ways (and also have mature musculature to their advantage), I think babbling can work well for adults, too! I like to think of it as the cousin of shadowing. Instead of focusing on following audio word for word (as is explained in the video linked above), focus on simply imitating the sounds you hear. This works well for fast-paced talk radio or movies—audio in which you can’t yet distinguish exact phrases or words. This is great for producing native-like intonation, the “music” of sentences and phrasing that sometimes gets lost when we think too much about each specific word. Think of it like you’re mocking the speakers!

Try a lot of methods and see what sticks. Just because you try a certain textbook or program doesn’t mean you have to stick with it forever, and it certainly doesn’t mean you have to only use whatever you started with.

If you’re a fan of immersion, try cracking open a textbook once in a while. If you love the organization of textbooks or audio courses, try listening to native talk radio or using SRS flashcards to shake things up. You never know what’ll improve your fluency!

Different tools are great for different things. As someone taking control of their language learning, you have a level of independence that works only to your advantage. You can create your own curriculum (or supplement your classes) and decide on any combination of methods to use.

So keep an open mind, because there’s a lot out there. And on the other hand, if something isn’t working or bores you, toss it out and try something new!

2. Leverage your time to your advantage

If you’re taking on a language on top of work, school or family responsibilities, the task can seem pretty daunting at the beginner stage. Time is a commodity hard to come by these days, so how are you supposed to learn a language? Or say you’re in a class, but need to learn more outside of the classroom—with a full course load and a job, things can start to seem impossible.

But remember that with self-directed learning, you don’t need to limit yourself to traditional classroom time blocks of 30 minutes or an hour. You don’t need to imitate your three-credit college German class!

Life is made up of 3-minute chunks, not long stretches.

Most people just don’t have hours of empty time to fill each and every day. Nevertheless, you probably have some three-minute chunks of time between classes, during breaks at work, early in the morning, during your commute, etc. You can easily take advantage of these moments—and they add up fast!

So, what can you do with 3 minutes?

• SRS programs are made for short sprints of repetitions. If you have an SRS program on your phone, you can quickly review some flashcards whenever you’re on public transportation or waiting in line. It’s short, it’s quick and it doesn’t even draw attention!

• Podcasts are another great resource for limited periods of time. Many podcasts aimed at language learners, like the LanguagePod101 series, are quite short in length, and great for a moment of free time. Many podcasts aimed at native speakers—like news and culture podcasts—are also in the three-to-five-minute range. You can find these by searching for “news” in your target language on iTunes. You can also find interesting podcasts by switching your iTunes country to the one in which your language is spoken. All of the suggestions will now be in your target language! (While you can’t buy anything outside of your actual region, you can still download the free podcasts.)

• Are you used to curling up with a good book for an hour or two? Well, it may seem counter-intuitive, but books also work great for short sprints. It takes some getting used to, but fitting in a page or two whenever you have a chance really does count towards larger reading goals. You can find books in your target language through Amazon third-party sellers, Multilingual Books (a site that specializes in selling books in a number of languages) and  Project Gutenberg (YES, Online for FREE !!!!).

• The same methods can be applied to TV episodes and movies—if you can download them onto your phone or tablet, they’re available all the time for some quick language practice. Waiting for a spare hour or two is too restrictive—imagining a movie or TV episode as something that can be broken up into smaller bits is freeing.

Everyone is busy, but it’s what you choose to do with your small amounts of free time that really matters.

3. Treat yourself like a kid again!

I think it’s unfortunate that at some point after elementary school, teachers and textbooks stop using colors and pictures to teach people. They stop trying to engage adults and excite them visually or with humor.

Remember when you lamented the lack of pictures in a book when you were a kid? That’s the kind of attitude you need with language learning. But you might have to create visual excitement yourself. Think of language learning as an excuse to revert back to childhood. You get to experience the whole world a second (or third, or fourth…) time over!

Pretty good deal, isn’t it?  But what exactly should you do?  For a start, use the three C’s.  The three C’s for language learning are color, cartoons and comics.

Color

Bringing color into your language learning life will give you relief from your drier textbooks, and the language will seem way less scary and intimidating. Remember how your elementary school classrooms looked—bulletin boards covered in construction paper decorations, walls plastered with drawings, alphabet across the chalkboard, maps on every bare surface? You can’t help but get a jolt of energy from it, can you?

So how can you implement this? Get yourself to the store and buy some big boxes of crayons. Get some markers and construction paper while you’re at it, too. Make posters captioned with target language text from a favorite TV show or book. Practice your writing and then draw a picture to go along with it.

If you’re learning a language that uses a different writing system, make posters with all of the characters you plan to learn that month. If a specific character is giving you trouble, draw a picture to go with it. You’ll have a blast and feel like a kid again!

Cartoons

I know, I know. You’re a very intelligent and cultured person. You got into your target language for poetry, for film, for high literature! That’s great and all, but have you thought about what cartoons can do to get you to that point?

Esoteric media like literature and arthouse films are wonderful, but they’re hard to understand for beginners and intermediate learners.

Linguist Stephen Krashen advocates using comprehensible input to efficiently learn a language, and cartoons are darn comprehensible!  Cartoons are full of plenty of visual humor that you can grasp even when you don’t understand a lick of your target language. They use a smaller vocabulary since they’re aimed at children. As an added plus, I’ve found that the voice-overs used for cartoons tend to provide much clearer speech than your run-of-the-mill TV show or movie.

If you don’t know where to start looking for cartoons in your target language, I would suggest trying to find dubbed versions of shows you liked as a kid. Search for the TV show in English (or other language) on Wikipedia, and then switch the site language to your target language—this is an easy way to find changes in the title when it was dubbed.

Then, you can search that title on YouTube or a video-sharing website in your target language. If you want to own the cartoons, you can try Amazon third-party sellers, or buying through the regional Amazon website of the country in question. (Just make sure that you have the right equipment to play them!)

Another idea is to find network websites of certain shows. Nickelodeon, for instance, has regional networks (Dutch Nickelodeon and German Nickelodeon, for example) in a number of different countries, each with its own website. Many are region-locked, but if you can find a way around that, these websites often have a good number of complete episodes.

If you don’t have a specific cartoon in mind, I personally like to search “[target language] cartoon” (in English) on YouTube and see what the wellspring of the Internet will give me. As an additional idea, raw beginners can try cartoons meant for very small kids, ages 3-6 (preschool age) or so. These tend to be five to ten minutes in length and meant to be educational for native speakers of your language. This is great for the adult learner, because the characters point out certain objects and repeat things over and over. Kids’ shows that have been dubbed in a number of languages are harder to find, but many English-language shows have been dubbed, so if you’re familiar with those, you might be able to find them in your target language. Just use the same techniques as above to hunt stuff down.

To get more leads on cartoons for toddlers and young kids, I would also suggest checking out forums that discuss your target language—this is especially helpful if you don’t live in the country. Surely someone does, and can tell you what’s on TV. After that, again, check out YouTube, Amazon and TV network websites.

Once you find some favorites, you can try applying some of the creative techniques above to get the most out of this great resource (shadowing the voices to your heart’s content, doodling pictures of the characters to keep you entertained or writing out the titles of the show in crayon).

Comics

The rationale for using comics is similar to that of cartoons—comics have comprehensible input with plenty of context for you to easily pick up vocabulary and expressions. Still, many people avoid comics and head straight for novels and classics, even when their level isn’t high enough just yet. The resulting lagging motivation and frustration is something that’s easy to remedy.

Comics have visual humor aplenty, and the text is broken into smaller pieces. This gets you reading more from the start—comics aren’t as intimidating as straight literature. As for finding comics, use the same techniques as above to see if your favorite childhood comics have been translated. Use the Wikipedia technique to find titles of translated comics, then search for those on Amazon—with luck, third-party sellers will have what you’re looking for.  Multilingual Books, again, is a good resource.

If you already collect vintage comics, MyComicShop.com has a variety of older comic books in a number of different languages. You can also search for fan-made translations of favorite comics online.

Comics have an even more convenient medium, however—webcomics! Webcomics can be short form (think newspaper comic strips) or long form (think graphic novels, superheroes and manga), but I find short form to be especially helpful in learning a language.

Webcomics are addictive and fun to read, and you get exposed to a sense of the humor in your target language. To dig these up, I recommend Googling in your target language “best webcomics” (“webcomics” might remain the same word depending on what your language is). You can add a nationality if you want to get more specific.

Once you’re reading comics regularly, try entering some short sentences into your SRS (with English definitions on the back of the cards!) so that you don’t forget all the new words you’re learning. [If you’re working with a new writing system, copy out the sentences in colorful marker and crayon to practice your penmanship.]

There you go—three ways to get creative with your language learning.

A lot of creativity just has to do with a simple change in mindset.

Take control of all of the different ways to learn out there, and get experimenting!

5 Sticking Points to Irregular Verbs

By emilycataneo Comments are closed

Want to Get German Irregular Verbs Right? Just Conquer These 5 Major Sticking Points

Imagine you really want to tell some friends a story in German. And let’s say this story is about a character who had ordered some food, and you wanted to describe that action.  All right, so you would need the Präteritum (literary past tense) to do that. So, knowing that essen means “to eat.”
you think…sie esste? Is that right?  If only!

It’s actually, completely illogically, is aß (she ate). If you’ve been studying German for awhile, it should come as no surprise to you that the language has some wacky irregular verb forms.
And chances are that you’ve been getting some of them wrong.  But don’t worry! Just study our list below of five reasons why you might be getting those irregular verbs wrong.

But first, let’s look at why you really need to know your irregular verbs in the first place.

Why Is It Important to Understand German Irregular Verbs?

The three auxiliary verbs are all irregular.

The auxiliary verbs haben (to have), sein (to be) and werden (to become) are all used as helping verbs, which means you’ll need them a lot. You use haben and sein to form the Particip II, which is the equivalent of saying “He was singing” in English. You use werden to form the passive tense, as well as for a panoply of other purposes. And, of course, these three common verbs are all irregular. If you don’t know their forms, you’ll be in a bad place indeed.

The modal verbs are all irregular (but thankfully, all in the same way -- and a way which makes sense - Conjugation 2).

The 3 auxiliary verbs are essential, yes, but so are the 6 modal verbs. These are the verbs

können (can)         müssen (must; to have to), 

wollen (want to)         sollen (shall; should), 

dürfen (to be allowed to)        mögen (to like to). 

As you can imagine, these verbs can and are used in a wide variety of contexts, from Ich kann singen (I can sing) to Sie darf nicht in der Disco tanzen (She is not allowed to dance in the club). And they are all irregular.

By learning them, you’ll drastically increase the number of German sentences and moods that you can craft masterfully!

Plenty of other common verbs are irregular, and you’ll mark yourself as a foreign speaker pretty quickly if you mess them up.

Ich habe geholfen. (I was helping.)

Er hat gedacht. (He was thinking.)

To think, to help, to eat, to run—all of these common verbs are irregular. And unfortunately, messing up verb conjugation can mark you pretty quickly as a non-native speaker. (Imagine if you heard someone say “I runned” instead of “I ran.” It would be a tip-off that this person was learning English.)  That’s why it’s important to learn how to conjugate these verbs.

Just one more thing first.

Quick Review of Regular German Verb (a.k.a. Weak Verb) Conjugation

Almost there! But before we get started with the reasons you might not understand German irregular verbs, let’s take a second to review regular German verb conjugation. Regular German verbs are called weak verbs, and they follow a simple conjugation pattern.

Let’s use sagen   (to say)  as an example.

Ich sage             (I say)

Du sagst            (You say)

Er/sie/est sagt    (He/she/it says)

Wir sagen          (We say)

Ihr sagt              (You all say)

Sie sagen           (They say)

Particip II: Ich habe gesagt  (I was saying; I've said)

Präteritum: sagte   ([I] said)

Simple enough, right? Once you’re solid on how to conjugate a regular (weak) German verb, let’s move on to…

5 Reasons You’re Getting German Irregular Verbs Wrong

1. You don’t understand what a “strong verb” is.

It stands to reason that in a language with weak verbs, you would also find strong verbs. But what’s a strong verb? If you’re not sure, that might explain why you’ve been saying du fahrst instead of du fährst (you go).

What’s a strong verb?

Did you notice how for the weak verb conjugation, the stem (sag-) remained the same in all the tenses? Alas, a strong verb’s stem changes based on the conjugation, as well as in the two past tenses. Some of these stem changes in the present tense simply involve adding an ä or an ö in place of an a or an o. Other stems in the present tense undergo a complete change.

A good way to tackle the strong verbs is to remember that they don’t all follow different rules. The verbs with vowel changes often follow similar patterns, for example, and the more you study German, the more you’ll develop a sense for how these verbs actually change.

Check out this helpful list —which organizes the strong verbs into 3 general categories.
There's also a song by Tage Wahlstedt, which, poetically, puts 40 strong verbs into a song (see yesterday's BLOGSPOT post - rsb).

Examples
Let’s take a look at fahren (to go, a verb with a vowel change) and geben (to give, a verb with a complete stem change).
fahren (to go) ---------------------------------  geben (to give)

ich fahre      (I go)------------------------  ich gebe          (I give)

du fährst     (you go)--------------------- du gibst          (you give)

er fährt       (he goes)-------------------- er gibt            (he gives)

wir fahren   (we go)--------------------- wir geben       (we give)

ihr fahrt       (you all go)---------------- ihr gebt          (you all give)

S/sie fahren  (YOU FORMAL / they go)----  S/ie geben     (YOU FORMAL/ they give)

2. You’ve got the (strong verbs) present tense down, but you’re lost on the past tense.

All right, so you studied the pattern-following irregular verbs and memorized the really wacky ones. Present tense is no problem for you. Then you realize you still want to tell that story about that character who ate something. You learned the irregular stem for essen (to eat): isst. Is the past form isste? No! The past tense of essen is aß, remember? How are you supposed to learn all of these forms?

How to tackle past tense for these forms

Yes, unfortunately, these strong verbs break the rules for Particip II and Präteritum as well. 

The good news is that all strong verbs in German use -en at the end of their stem to form the Particip II.   For example:      Ich habe begonnen. (I was beginning.)

The other good news is that no new German verbs are being added to the strong verb category—all new additions to the German language are being incorporated as weak verbs.

The bad news is that these strong verb forms are often quite unpredictable, so they often must be memorized.

Something that I found helpful when memorizing these past tense stems is a little song. My German teacher played this tune for my class, and its gentle but persistent chant helped me in slowly but surely sticking these forms into my mind. You can find the lyrics here and follow along.
In general, listening can really help in hammering home verb forms, whether it’s listening to music, audiobooks or really any kind of audio material.

Examples    Let’s look at a few common verbs:

essen (to eat)

Ich habe gegessen (I was eating)

Ich aß (I ate)

lesen (to read)

Ich habe gelesen (I was reading)

Ich las (I read)

rufen (to call)

Ich habe gerufen (I was calling)

Ich rief (I called)

3. You draw a blank when you hear about mixed verbs.

All right, so there are weak verbs (regular) and strong verbs (irregular). But some verbs fall into an in-between category! [If you’ve been saying Ich habe gedenkt instead of Ich habe gedacht (I was thinking), then you’ve stumbled across the mixed verb problem.]

What’s a mixed verb?

A mixed verb combines some characteristics of weak verbs and strong verbs.

Almost all mixed verbs are regular in the present tense, but in the past tense, they combine the ending of a weak verb (–t for Particip II, and –te for Präteritum) with the vowel change of a strong verb.
The good news? There aren’t too many mixed form verbs. Look at the examples below to find out about the most common.

Examples

haben, hatte, gehabt            (to have, had, was having)

denken, dachte, gedacht      (to think, thought, was thinking/have thought)

bringen, brachte, gebracht   (to bring, brought, was bringing/ have brought)

wissen, wusste, gewusst         (to know a fact, known, was knowing/ have known)

kennen, kannte, gekannt      (to be familiar with or know, known, was knowing/have known)

rennen, rannte, (bin) gerannt (to run, ran, was running/have run)

nennen, nannte, genannt       (to call, called, was calling/ have called)

brennen, brannte, gebrannt  (to burn, burned, was burning/ have burned)

4. The –ieren verbs are all lumped into the Unaccented First Syllable Rule: DON'T ADD a "ge" to the participle.

Remember how I said above that weak verbs are regular German verbs? Well, I didn’t mention the one tricky exception: verbs that end in –ieren. If you’ve been saying Ich habe gestudiert for “I was studying,” well, then you’ve stumbled into the –ieren trap.

What’s an –ieren verb?
Basically,  –ieren verbs are a growing list of hundreds of internationally recognized verbs -- Germanized into this accepted verb format, which ends in –ieren.  They are largely easy to understand; and especially easy to use (you might actually feel as if you are inventing a new word, but it's probably already been invented), so this should motivate you to acquire their universal format.  They follow the pattern of weak verbs, except the Participle form, skips putting ge- at the beginning, and simply puts a –t on the end.

Examples

diskutieren (to discuss) is formed in the past as Ich habe diskutiert  (I was discussing/have discussed).
existieren  (to exist) is formed in the past as Ich habe existiert   (I was existing/have existed).
fotografieren (to photograph) is formed as Ich habe fotografiert (I was photographing/have photographed).

HERE"S A LINK TO OTHER -IEREN VERBS   As you can see, there are a page and a half of these verbs which begin with the letter "a"!   Need help deciphering what these mean?    adressieren     absorbieren   adoptieren   ambulieren  ?  (Try removing the -ieren, to see if the meaning screams to you.  -rsb)

5. You don’t know how to conjugate the modal and auxiliary verbs.

Finally, let’s talk about some of the most important verbs in the German language: the modal verbs and auxiliary verbs. If you’re saying Er habt instead of Er hat (he has), you’re confused about the conjugation of these highly important but highly irregular verbs. These verbs all fall into the category of strong or mixed verbs, but it’s important to study them separately since, as I said earlier, they are some of the most important verbs in the German language.

Conjugating these forms

Luckily, the modal verbs follow a similar pattern to each other.
Let’s take müssen (must/to have to) for an example.

ich muss         (I must)

du musst        (you must)

er/sie/es musst (he/she/it must)

wir müssen     (we must)

ihr müsst         (you all must)

S/sie müssen   (YOU FORMAL / they must)

This table will show you how to conjugate all of the modal verbs.

Examples

Sie müssen einen Computer finden. (They must find a computer.)

Wir dürfen ins Kino gehen. (We are allowed to go to the movies.)

Finally, this will help you out with those critical auxiliary verbs.

Examples

Ich bin müde. (I am tired.)

Sie werden einen Computer finden. (They will find a computer.)

Zu Weihnachten wird er nach Mallorca fahren. (Next Christmas he will travel to Mallorca.)

I hope that you’ve now figured out why you’re conjugating incorrectly—by learning the difference between weak, strong and mixed verbs, as well as that inportant  -ieren-  weak verb exception, and the modal/auxiliary verbs.  Once you do, you're on your way to achieving German fluency!

Kaufen wir im Fussgaengerzone!