A Real Map
An actual touchable map on a single page shows the relationships between 18+ parts of speech.
To Think Like a Native
See what native speakers know naturally. Switch grammar mid-thought.
In Sentence Flow
You think in sentences, so learn in sentence structure.
Make Speech Connections
The Noun Grammar Map shows the valid grammar choices relevant in the moment.
Learn It All, Use It All... Today
Use Full Grammar from Day One
Soooo Fast and Painless
In 2 hours or less, memorize the full noun grammar via the systematic, pain-free copying method of The Noun Grammar Map Workbook. It does double duty: memorize the grammar as you learn to read a VisiGrammar map.
Point, Relax, & Never Guess Again
Study less, succeed more. It’s natural to learn paths by repetition, so building correct grammar habits is easy. It’s time to relax and use grammar with confidence.
Bridge Your Native Language
You already use sophisticated grammar in your native speech. Use VisiGrammar to map it onto German. If you don’t see it, you can’t say it in German.
Oh! I See...
Truly… see the grammar logic. See the overwhelming consistency. With an actual big picture, you’ll get more out of every text from advertisements to test questions.
German, Now Easy to Teach
NOTE: VISIGRAMMAR DOES NOT OFFER A CURRICULUM
Suggestion: How to Begin
1 The Noun Grammar Workbook. Yes… GRAMMAR memorization FIRST (completion time: 1-2 hours comprised of simple copying).
2 Working from The Noun Map, demonstrate a flurry of sentences. The point is to show that we speak in cases and how to travel the map. Students should see that cases are merely thought categories. No further understanding is necessary.
3 Demonstrate the purpose of each case using pantomime, internet video, etc.
4 Introduce a set of regular verbs. Demonstrate forming the stem. Demonstrate the meaning.
5 Introduce objects labelled by gender. Set the objects in the same gender order as VisiGrammar. (Note: the less common Der / Das / Die is used.) Ideally, students have their own set of objects in front of them.
6 Start talking about the objects. As you speak and touch through the map, have the students touch through the grammar as paths in their own books.
7 To find holes in their understanding, have students explain to each other how the map works.
… in a lively classroom
- It is not only a good idea, but also a stipulation of the licenses that students each have their their own copy of VisiGrammar Point & Speak German Grammar Maps to touch.
Suggestion: Teaching in "Reverse Order"
Grammar First and 1. & 2. Person Pronouns Last
Start in the most varied and interesting conversational territory right away. Save talking about oneself for last.
Talk About The Most
Look at The Noun Map. The vast majority of grammar uses just two verb endings. If you stick with regular verbs in the main area, students practice the most grammar while speaking about the most things. They get the most versatility with the most focused practice. That’s the most useful and the most fun. The conversations are the most natural.
Talk About Yourself Later
Leave the other four verb endings for later (1. and 2. person pronouns; singular & plural). There isn’t even any fun grammar there.
No need to worry – everyone learns to talk about themselves. Following the map, students will quickly realize how to speak in 1./2. person.
Like Teaching a Dance
Demonstrate the steps and repeat until the fun sets in. Anyone can learn by following, no skill needed. Forget slooowly trudging through the grids.
No One Gets Lost
It’s the beauty of a map: you are “here” but should be “there”. Visual learners, rote learners, and physical learners … Touch-Path learning supports everyone. Just follow your finger.
Show How Natives Make Choices
Every correct grammar alternative can be demonstrated by pointing. Change of thought? Move your finger up and down for new options. Low effort, big results.
Be the Speed Your Students Need
Life needs nuance in communication. Get to complex expressiveness faster as you blaze by grammar hurdles. That’s how to speed students’ jobs and friendships.
Not a Hack, Tip, or Trick. This is grammar.
…the same grammar students have long struggled with. The grids have been compiled and restructured by a designer for maximum clarity. You point, they speak. The maps’ clear, memorable relationships give even struggling students the excitement of success.
Learn in Sync
Beginners Can Teach Each Other Grammar
A map is something everyone can relate to. Beginners who understand the mechanics can pass on their knowledge to fellow native speakers.
Versatile and Engaging Teaching Tools
Use meaningful colors, spatial relationships, and reminder imagery of all kinds. Engage the group with your own gamification cards and physical demonstrations. It’s 100% visual, 100% free of jargon.
Natural Reinforcement
Refer back to the maps all day, drawing sentences like a path. Students echo the touch-paths. Learning a path is human nature.
Compatible with Existing Course Materials
Learned and done! No matter how students learn grammar, once they do, the class can keep moving in your curriculum without dragging a grammar anchor. (VisiGrammar is not a curriculum.)
The Minimum Level - Minimal Indeed
Start teaching the full grammar with a few gender-labelled objects, VisiGrammar Maps, and pantomime. In parallel, the copying-based Noun Grammar Workbook enables quick and painless memorization of the full grammar in about 2 hours.
NOTE: VISIGRAMMAR DOES NOT OFFER A CURRICULUM
inspo
What Tha Deutsch?
Using VisiGrammar on YouTube
What could it look like? Where to start?
Select a thumbnail to begin your brainstorm. These sets are slideshow prototypes of VisiGrammar content. The screen pops are included in the license for a quick start.
inspo
The Case Detective
Play problem? Either change your cookie settings with the green lock symbol below or go to YouTube with this Simple URL Link
Case-Oriented Content
Solve the mystery of when to use each case!
Echoing VisiGrammar color and spatial mapping, train your mind on where thoughts go.
Keep your eyes on these images
Follow the story
… Creators, it’s your turn to innovate …
Students, what do YOU think of these?
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Reverse Engineer
Gender
How
Grammar is a 2-Way Street
If you must use the gender to be correct, then you must also be able to see the correct gender, right? The two-way street is obvious in VisiGrammar because VisiGrammar is a real a map.
The VisiGrammar Point & Speak book shows you the specific instances where you can deduce gender. It’s all in plain sight on The Noun Map.
Let the words all around you in daily life reveal their gender on packaging, ads, print, radio jingles, and conversations. Would you like to be able to “read” the gender off of product labels, descriptions, and advertisements, then discuss the product on the spot using the correct grammatical case structure?
With VisiGrammar and a little practice, you can.
Because word gender is so frustrating, VisiGrammar shortens REVerse ENGineering to… REVENGE! Take revenge on memorizing vocabulary.
The Noun Map Looks Empty?
It's a whole book.
The Noun Grammar Map shows everything aaaaaaaaaaaall the way to the end of most grammar books.
How
VisiGrammar is Premised on Relationships
Traditional methods start with individual parts of speech, working through them one by one. Jargon is necessary to discuss the parts and keep them straight. For consistency, even when there is no change, information needs to be duplicated across grammar grids. So, yes, the grammar grids are redundant. VisiGrammar eliminates this redundancy because all parts of speech are shown together at the same time.
Rather than a single part of speech, VisiGrammar uses case as the starting point. Case is what all parts of speech have in common. Duplication makes no sense if arranged by what’s in common. As a result, the Noun Map feels somewhat empty.
Want a Blueprint?
You may be curious “where everything went.” A blueprint is found at then end of the VisiGrammar Point & Speak German Grammar Maps book.
What's in the Noun Map?
- Interrogative Pronouns
- Personal Pronouns
- Reflexive Pronouns
- Possessive Pronouns
- Indefinite Pronouns
- Relative Pronouns
- Demonstrative Pronouns
- Demonstrative Articles
- Negative Pronouns
- Adjectives Without Articles
- Definite Articles
- Indefinite Articles
- Negative Articles
- Possessive Articles
- Adjective Endings for All Types of Articles
- Present-Tense Regular-Verb Endings
- Prepositions
- Polite Pronouns
- Nominative, Accusative, Dative, Genitive Cases
- Masculine, Neutral, & Feminine Genders
- Singular & Plural
- Strong, Weak, & Mixed Declension
- Rules for Adding a Final Letter
Go To The Books
Essential Info for Making VisiGrammar Content
Free - Streaming Content Creator License
Free - Live Online Educator License
App Developers - Product Integration
Watching Someone
Learn German is... Fun ??
It is now.
FAQ
Is a teacher required?
Is a teacher required?
No, not at all. You can benefit from the books alone. The books explain everything.
Do I still need a teacher?
Everyone gets something from a real teacher. You’ll get farther with help.
My teacher likes the old way. What then?
There is no problem using VisiGrammar alongside regular course materials. If you get through all the VisiGrammar resources on your own, you’d be showing up to classes able to use your time to focus on content, vocabulary, and usage rather than gender and endings.
Is there a curriculum?
No. VisiGrammar is not a curriculum and does not offer one. However, the VisiGrammar idea is to teach vocabulary inside the grammar framework from day one. The VisiGrammar recommendation is elaborated above in the Teacher block.
How can grammar be taught without grammar terminology?
Specialist grammar terminology, or jargon, gives labels to what we understand as natural parts of life. The concepts can easily be demonstrated. For example: “yours”, “mine”, “these”, “those”. Or, “your dog”, “my dog”, “his dog”.
The purpose of the labelling is to rise to a meta level, to communicate the relationship between the parts. To explain the relationship, one needs labels for discussion. However, to show the relationship, the labels are superfluous.
There might be other goals for teaching the specialist terminology – a goal besides fluent speech. However, most new speakers are only interested in fluent speech. For them, the specialist’s terminology is more difficult to understand than what is being labelled. They resist learning it and will forget it quickly.
An exception: some new speakers bring concepts not included in German (or English) or they lack concepts we take for granted. Those students can be given specialist explanations. Alternatively, they can be shown “where to put the concepts” into a place of similar functionality without a detailed explanation. It is what it is.
VisiGrammar is Not a Curriculum
Teaching without jargon is only one of many possibilities. A teacher can create a hybrid use – terminology with map. No problem.
Blueprint
For reference purposes, The Noun Grammar Map blueprint is at the end of the VisiGrammar Point & Speak German Grammar Maps book.
Is this a learning strategy like mnemonics?
No, it’s a map of the actual grammar. The grammar has been restructured to display relationships.
Is this compatible with...
Yes, it is compatible with both grammar grids and “grammar absorption” methods. Because… there is only one grammar. You learn it. You use it.
It is similar to learning a song via the radio vs learning a song via sheet music. You can learn one way or both ways. You can use both, in any order. There is only one song. After it is learned, you can hum it, sing it, perform it. Depending on what you do, there’s more work to be done. Still, there is only one song.
In other areas of life, instruction types could conflict. This is the case where the style of doing it is part of doing it. For instance, learning two styles of driving at the same time – tourism bus and Formula One – is a problem. Grammar isn’t like that at all. Grammar is more like learning to use a hammer. Grammar doesn’t have styles.
There is one grammar. What’s learned is learned, and yours to use.
What is "visual-spatial" learning?
Visual-spatial learning is the natural learning of every day life. For example, you know how to get to the grocery store, although you never studied it. You simply know where something is in space (spatial), accompanied by the visuals of the space.
Our brains create visual-spatial memory naturally, use them quickly, and hold on to them for a long time.
Like your knowledge of your own house – what it looks like, where things are, and the surroundings. Like knowing where something is on a messy desk. Like how to exit the building you’re in right now. You didn’t study any of that. It’s a talent of your brain. You can go into a building after years in between, still pretty much knowing the layout. It’s effortless.
Likewise, your brain loves images. It makes and uses them constantly. If you read a book, your brain will invent images for the story, such as faces and spaces. German grammar is a tough one to imagine, which is why it took a few centuries for VisiGrammar to arrive.
VisiGrammar as a Visual-Spatial Tool
A map is an abstraction of visual-spatial learning, so it’s a tool rather than being the real thing. A subway is not the kind of space you can experience as you would walking to the grocery store. To create you own spatial memory of the subway system, there is both too much and too little information at the same time.
The layout of a map is a spatial relationship of something you cannot experience, delivered as an image. The layout compiles all the system information. Through the magic of design, the layout organizes the invisible system by what is most meaningful to the user of the map,
Like a subway map, VisiGrammar maps show all your invisible grammar options along your sentence journey.
If the workbooks are not for practice, what are they for?
The workbooks are strictly for memorization through copy repetition in the color and spatial format of VisiGrammar. After, you should be able to drop in the right information into the maps when needed.
Specifically, there are no sentences to practice, no self-test quizzes, nor anything similar. Nothing offered by VisiGrammar is a course or trainer or a curriculum. What you learn should be practiced elsewhere.
For what skill level is this?
The maps are suitable for any skill level, including beginners.
What do you mean by map?
A real map, organized by connections and showing relationships for circa 300 (by the traditional method) data points, and which can be visually navigated.
Is English required?
No, not really. Visual explanations are the premise of VisiGrammar. Therefore, the books contain a low amount text. Someone with low English skills, or a smartphone translation tool, can manage to get through the book.
