Learn Hardcore German: Einen Lerntipp finde ich besonders hilfreich: Ich schreibe neue Wörter in mein Wörterheft. - I find one learning tip especially helpful: I write new words into my vocabulary notebook.

Nominative: Ein Lerntipp ist hilfreich. – A learning tip is helpful.
Accusative: Ich finde einen Lerntipp hilfreich. – I find a learning tip helpful.

In the sentence, “Einen Lerntipp” is the direct object of finde, so we need the accusative form einen.

Why does the sentence start with “Einen Lerntipp” instead of “Ich”?

German has a flexible word order, but the finite verb must be in second position in main clauses (the “V2 rule”).

The “normal” order would be:

Ich finde einen Lerntipp besonders hilfreich.

Here, the speaker wants to emphasize the object (“one learning tip”) by putting it first:

Einen Lerntipp (1st position, emphasized object)
finde (2nd position, verb – V2 rule is satisfied)
ich besonders hilfreich (rest of the sentence)

This is a common pattern in German:

Dieses Buch finde ich sehr interessant.
Heute gehe ich ins Kino.

Fronting an element puts focus on it, but doesn’t change the basic meaning.

Could we also say “Ich finde einen Lerntipp besonders hilfreich”? Is there any difference?

Yes, that version is perfectly correct:

Ich finde einen Lerntipp besonders hilfreich.

Differences:

Word order:
- Einen Lerntipp finde ich… → emphasizes the tip.
- Ich finde einen Lerntipp… → neutral; just states what I find helpful.
Meaning: essentially the same; both mean the speaker considers one learning tip particularly helpful.

In spoken German, changing what comes first changes emphasis, not the basic content.

What exactly does “Lerntipp” mean and how is it formed?

Lerntipp is a compound noun:

lernen → to learn
der Tipp → tip, hint, piece of advice

Together: der Lerntipp = a tip about learning / a study tip / learning advice.

Compounds like this are very common in German:

der Lernplan – study plan
die Lernstrategie – learning strategy
die Lerntechnik – learning technique

Why is “besonders hilfreich” used instead of just “hilfreich” or “sehr hilfreich”?

hilfreich = helpful
sehr hilfreich = very helpful
besonders hilfreich = especially / particularly helpful

besonders adds the nuance that this tip stands out compared to others. It’s not just very helpful; it’s helpful in a special way, more than usual, or compared to other tips.

All three are grammatically fine, but they express different degrees of emphasis:

hilfreich – helpful, no special emphasis
sehr hilfreich – very helpful, strong but general emphasis
besonders hilfreich – especially helpful, stands out among others

Why is there a colon (:) after “hilfreich”?

The colon introduces an explanation or example of what that “especially helpful learning tip” is.

Structure:

Einen Lerntipp finde ich besonders hilfreich:
→ There is one learning tip I find especially helpful:
Ich schreibe neue Wörter in mein Wörterheft.
→ I write new words in my vocabulary notebook.

In German, after a colon:

If what follows is a full sentence, it starts with a capital letter, as here: Ich schreibe…
The colon signals: “Now I will explain/illustrate what I just mentioned.”

Why are “Lerntipp”, “Wörter”, and “Wörterheft” capitalized?

Because in German, all nouns are capitalized, regardless of where they appear in the sentence.

der Lerntipp – noun → capitalized
die Wörter – noun (plural of das Wort) → capitalized
das Wörterheft – noun → capitalized

Adjectives and verbs are not capitalized (unless at the beginning of a sentence or used as nouns), so:

besonders, hilfreich, neue, schreibe all start with lowercase letters.

Why is it “neue Wörter” and not “neuen Wörtern”?

Two things are going on here: case and preposition use.

Case of “neue Wörter”
- “Wörter” is the direct object of “schreibe” (What do I write? → new words).
- Direct objects are accusative.
- Accusative plural, no article → neue Wörter.
  - Nominative plural, no article: neue Wörter
  - Accusative plural, no article: neue Wörter (same form)
Why not “neuen Wörtern”?
- neuen Wörtern would be dative plural (e.g. mit neuen Wörtern – with new words).
- Here, “Wörter” are not an indirect object or object of mit/zu/bei etc., but the direct object of the verb.

So “Ich schreibe neue Wörter …” correctly uses accusative plural.

Why is it “in mein Wörterheft” and not “in meinem Wörterheft”?

The preposition in can use accusative or dative, depending on meaning:

Accusative: movement into something (direction, change of location)
Dative: location in something (no movement, just position)

In our sentence:

Ich schreibe neue Wörter in mein Wörterheft.
→ The words move into the notebook (you put them there by writing).
→ This is movement towards a place → accusative.

Forms with mein-:

Neuter nominative/accusative: mein Wörterheft
Neuter dative: meinem Wörterheft

So:

in mein Wörterheft (accusative, movement) – into my notebook
in meinem Wörterheft (dative, location) – in my notebook (already there)

Example contrast:

Ich schreibe neue Wörter in mein Wörterheft.
→ I write new words into my notebook.
Die neuen Wörter stehen schon in meinem Wörterheft.
→ The new words are already in my notebook.

Why does “mein” in “mein Wörterheft” have no ending (no extra -e, -en, -em, etc.)?

Because “Wörterheft” is:

neuter (das Wörterheft)
in the accusative case
and mein is a possessive determiner (like “my”)

For neuter singular with ein-/kein-/mein-/dein-, the nominative and accusative forms are identical and have no extra ending:

Nominative: mein Wörterheft ist neu.
Accusative: Ich habe mein Wörterheft vergessen.

So “mein” is already in the correct form; we do not say meins or meinem here.

Why are “Wörter” and “Worte” both possible plurals of “Wort”? Why is “Wörter” used here?

das Wort has two plural forms with slightly different typical uses:

die Wörter
- used for individual, countable words as separate items
- e.g. vocabulary, words on a list
- Ich lerne neue Wörter. – I’m learning new words.
die Worte
- used more for connected speech, “words” as a unit of expression:
- seine letzten Worte – his last words
- einige nette Worte sagen – to say a few kind words

In this sentence, we’re talking about vocabulary items written into a notebook, so “Wörter” is the correct plural.

Why is there no article before “neue Wörter”? Why not “die neuen Wörter”?

In German, indefinite plural nouns often appear without an article, similar to English:

Ich kaufe Bücher. – I buy books.
Sie lernt neue Wörter. – She learns new words.

We say “neue Wörter” here because we are talking about new words in general, not a specific set already known in the context.

If you say “die neuen Wörter”, then you refer to specific new words that both speakers already know about:

Ich schreibe die neuen Wörter in mein Wörterheft.
→ I write the (specific) new words into my notebook (for example, the ones from today’s lesson).

So:

neue Wörter – some new words, in general
die neuen Wörter – those particular new words you have in mind

How is “schreibe” formed, and what is the infinitive?

The infinitive is schreiben = to write.

Schreibe is the 1st person singular, present tense:

ich schreibe – I write / I am writing
du schreibst – you write
er/sie/es schreibt – he/she/it writes
wir schreiben – we write
ihr schreibt – you (plural) write
sie/Sie schreiben – they / you (formal) write

So Ich schreibe neue Wörter in mein Wörterheft literally means “I write new words into my vocabulary notebook.”