Anlage zu Stunde 8

How to understand a word without a dictionary

1. First read the whole text without looking up any word. Try to understand the basic meaning of the text:
   1. What is it about?
   2. What is the setting (place and time of the contents in the text)?
   3. Are there any people mentioned in the text? Are they important? What is their function in the text?
2. Check if sentences before or after the unknown word (context) help you to understand it. Can you guess the meaning of the word?
3. Check if you can understand the sentence without understanding the word.
4. Try to understand the grammatical function of the word within the sentence. Does it belong to the
   1. subject of the sentence (usually at the beginning of the sentence),
   2. predicate (usually after the subject),
   3. object (if there is any, it is usually after the predicate),
   4. adverb (if there is any, it is in most cases at the very beginning or end of the sentence)?
   5. Often it helps to know what word class the word belongs to. Look for typical endings!
5. Check if you know any words in German or in another language which sound or look similar to the unknown word.
6. Look out for
   1. prefixes (e.g. un important),
   2. suffixes (e.g. help less ) and
   3. compounds (work + sheet = worksheet).
   4. Maybe you know another member of the word family or part of the word, if it is a compound or has prefixes.

Can you guess the meaning of the word now? If so, you have survived without a dictionary!

Stunde 8: Lesen herunterladen [docx][27 KB]
Stunde 8: Lesen herunterladen [pdf][25 KB]