‘einfach’ is the everyday German word for easy, and it also means plain and single. It began as a counting word, ‘one-fold’, and the ‘easy’ sense came after.
The resource is 18 black-and-white cards on ‘einfach’, followed by a sources page and summary pages. Laminated and clipped onto a ring they make a deck; the summary pages work straight from the printer.
What’s included
The fish-weir - what the ‘-fach’ in ‘einfach’ meant to the people who first used it, and why a fisherman, a joiner and a builder all needed it.
The school timetable - what a German pupil’s ‘Fach’ is, and the much older meaning still standing in the same classroom.
Two entries - why a German dictionary lists ‘einfach’ twice.
A sources page and a short guide for the adult.
For personal use in home education and tutoring only.
Who it’s for
KS3 and KS4 German learners, who meet ‘einfach’ early and keep meeting it
Learners building German words from parts, such as ‘Einfachheit’ and ‘vereinfachen’
Dyslexic learners and those in specialist tuition, who find a word easier to keep once they know what its parts are doing
Home-educated children learning German
Parents and adults coming back to German
Why this exists
‘einfach’ turns up constantly and seems to mean three things at once, which can make it hard to pin down. Seeing it as ‘one’ plus a counting ending ties the meanings to a single picture, and the ending turns up again in other counting words.
Originally created for my dyslexic son.
How it prints
For the deck, print the 18 cards and the sources page on one side only, laminate, trim, punch each top-left corner and add a binder ring. That means a printer, a laminator and a ring, and putting the deck together yourself. On the ring it goes in a bag or stays on the dinner table, and the word-building card can come off to lay out next to a learner’s own attempts. The summary pages need none of that: print them and use them.
Available now as a PDF download.
‘einfach’ is the everyday German word for easy, and it also means plain and single. It began as a counting word, ‘one-fold’, and the ‘easy’ sense came after.
The resource is 18 black-and-white cards on ‘einfach’, followed by a sources page and summary pages. Laminated and clipped onto a ring they make a deck; the summary pages work straight from the printer.
What’s included
The fish-weir - what the ‘-fach’ in ‘einfach’ meant to the people who first used it, and why a fisherman, a joiner and a builder all needed it.
The school timetable - what a German pupil’s ‘Fach’ is, and the much older meaning still standing in the same classroom.
Two entries - why a German dictionary lists ‘einfach’ twice.
A sources page and a short guide for the adult.
For personal use in home education and tutoring only.
Who it’s for
KS3 and KS4 German learners, who meet ‘einfach’ early and keep meeting it
Learners building German words from parts, such as ‘Einfachheit’ and ‘vereinfachen’
Dyslexic learners and those in specialist tuition, who find a word easier to keep once they know what its parts are doing
Home-educated children learning German
Parents and adults coming back to German
Why this exists
‘einfach’ turns up constantly and seems to mean three things at once, which can make it hard to pin down. Seeing it as ‘one’ plus a counting ending ties the meanings to a single picture, and the ending turns up again in other counting words.
Originally created for my dyslexic son.
How it prints
For the deck, print the 18 cards and the sources page on one side only, laminate, trim, punch each top-left corner and add a binder ring. That means a printer, a laminator and a ring, and putting the deck together yourself. On the ring it goes in a bag or stays on the dinner table, and the word-building card can come off to lay out next to a learner’s own attempts. The summary pages need none of that: print them and use them.
Available now as a PDF download.
