lieb (German) - Structured Vocabulary Support
£2.00
'Lieb' is one of the first German words a learner meets and one of the last they finish understanding. It is dear, kind, good - and in 'Es ist mir lieb' it means something closer to 'that suits me', which no beginner sees coming.
'Lieb' goes back through Middle High German 'liep' and Old High German 'liob', around the year 800, to an Indo-European root associated with caring for, desiring and loving. The range was already wide at the start: dear, pleasant, welcome, beloved. English kept the same word as 'lief', now rare, and the root also gives 'love'.
The company it keeps in German is the surprise. 'Glauben' to believe, 'loben' to praise and 'erlauben' to allow are all distant relatives on that root, later branch developments rather than the old core sense - and through 'erlauben' comes 'Urlaub', a holiday.
· The etymology comic - illustrated stage cards, one idea to a page, with short learner captions and pronunciation respellings on every German form
· The word-history breakdown, Indo-European to modern German, with a date at each stage the record allows
· A grammar page on adjective endings, with 'ein liebes Kind' against 'das Kind ist lieb'
· The sources page
· A short how-to-use guide for the adult
For personal use in home education and tutoring only.
The word turns up from the first term of German onward, so the range is wide:
· Anyone who enjoys word origins
· KS3 and KS4 German learners
· Home-educated children working through German
· Learners with dyslexia or weak working memory
· Parents keeping half a step ahead of a child
· Adults returning to German after school
It is not a first-lesson resource. It assumes the learner can already read a short German sentence aloud and knows what an adjective is, even if they could not define one.
Learners are told 'lieb' means 'dear' and then meet it meaning 'good' about a child and 'welcome' in a fixed phrase, and conclude the word is slippery. It is not. The senses hang together once the old meaning is visible, and seeing them laid out in order is what stops the word feeling like three words wearing one coat.
How it prints
The pages print two ways. Printed single-sided and laminated, they trim into large cards - one idea each - that punch and clip onto a binder ring, so the stages can be laid out on a table and put back in order. The last page holds the whole word on one sheet: print it and it is ready, no laminating. You will need a printer, and a laminator and a ring for the deck.
One more thing
The false friend to know: 'der Leib' means the body, and has nothing to do with 'lieb'. Duden takes it back to Middle High German 'līp', related to 'leben', to live.
I first made these for my dyslexic son before a test.
Available now as a PDF download.
'Lieb' is one of the first German words a learner meets and one of the last they finish understanding. It is dear, kind, good - and in 'Es ist mir lieb' it means something closer to 'that suits me', which no beginner sees coming.
'Lieb' goes back through Middle High German 'liep' and Old High German 'liob', around the year 800, to an Indo-European root associated with caring for, desiring and loving. The range was already wide at the start: dear, pleasant, welcome, beloved. English kept the same word as 'lief', now rare, and the root also gives 'love'.
The company it keeps in German is the surprise. 'Glauben' to believe, 'loben' to praise and 'erlauben' to allow are all distant relatives on that root, later branch developments rather than the old core sense - and through 'erlauben' comes 'Urlaub', a holiday.
· The etymology comic - illustrated stage cards, one idea to a page, with short learner captions and pronunciation respellings on every German form
· The word-history breakdown, Indo-European to modern German, with a date at each stage the record allows
· A grammar page on adjective endings, with 'ein liebes Kind' against 'das Kind ist lieb'
· The sources page
· A short how-to-use guide for the adult
For personal use in home education and tutoring only.
The word turns up from the first term of German onward, so the range is wide:
· Anyone who enjoys word origins
· KS3 and KS4 German learners
· Home-educated children working through German
· Learners with dyslexia or weak working memory
· Parents keeping half a step ahead of a child
· Adults returning to German after school
It is not a first-lesson resource. It assumes the learner can already read a short German sentence aloud and knows what an adjective is, even if they could not define one.
Learners are told 'lieb' means 'dear' and then meet it meaning 'good' about a child and 'welcome' in a fixed phrase, and conclude the word is slippery. It is not. The senses hang together once the old meaning is visible, and seeing them laid out in order is what stops the word feeling like three words wearing one coat.
How it prints
The pages print two ways. Printed single-sided and laminated, they trim into large cards - one idea each - that punch and clip onto a binder ring, so the stages can be laid out on a table and put back in order. The last page holds the whole word on one sheet: print it and it is ready, no laminating. You will need a printer, and a laminator and a ring for the deck.
One more thing
The false friend to know: 'der Leib' means the body, and has nothing to do with 'lieb'. Duden takes it back to Middle High German 'līp', related to 'leben', to live.
I first made these for my dyslexic son before a test.
Available now as a PDF download.
