LESSON NOTES

Absolute Beginner S3 #1
Learning the Basics of German

CONTENTS
2 German
2 English
2 Vocabulary
3 Sample Sentences
4 Vocabulary Phrase Usage
4 Grammar
6 Cultural Insight

# 1
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 GERMAN

1. Jens: Entschuldigung...

2. Kate: Ja?

3. Jens: Wie heißen Sie?

4. Kate: Ich heiße Kate Andrews.

5. Jens: Ich heiße Jens Schneider!

6. Kate: Ich freue mich, Sie kennen zu lernen!

7. Jens: Ja, freut mich auch!

ENGLISH

1. Jens: Excuse me...

2. Kate: Yes?

3. Jens: What's your name?

4. Kate: My name is Kate Andrews.

5. Jens: I'm Jens Schneider!

6. Kate: It's nice to meet you!

7. Jens: Yes, you too!

VOCABULARY

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 Ge r man English C lass

apology; excuse me; I’m

Entschuldigung sorry

to get to know (someone), to

kennenlernen get acquainted verb

ja yes adverb

ich I personal pronoun

heißen to be called verb

auch also, too adverb

Sie you (formally) personal pronoun

sich freuen to be happy verb

SAMPLE SENTENCES

Ich n e h m e d i e En tsch u l d i g u n g a n . An g e n e h m , Si e ke n n e n z u l e rn e n .

I accept the apology. Nice to meet you. (get to know you)

N a sch ö n , d u h a st j a R e ch t. J a , d a s sti m m t.

Fair enough, you're right. (In the sense of Yes, that's right.
"I'm giving in.")

Ich h a tte l e tz te Wo ch e so vi e l z u Ich bi n L i sa .

tu n !
I am Lisa.
I was so busy last week!

Si e h e i ßt Eri ka . Th o m a s ko m m t a u ch .

She’s called Erika. Thomas is coming, too.

H a be n Si e e i n e a n d e re Kre d i tka rte ? Spre ch e n Si e En g l i sch ?

Do you have another credit card? Do you speak English?

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Si e si n d H e rr Sm i th D i e Ki n d e r fre u e n si ch a u f d i e
Fe ri e n .
You are Mr Smith.
The kids are looking forward to the
holidays.

Ich fre u e m i ch ü be r d e n Bri e f vo n Ich fre u e m i ch a u f m e i n

d i r. L i e bl i n g se sse n .

I am happy about your letter. I am looking forward to my favorite dish.

VOCABULARY PHRASE USAGE

Si e

The German language has two forms of formality and therefore has two different second
person plural pronouns, namely Sie and du.

Sie is a personal pronoun used to address a person formally in German. It has its own
conjugation which is different from the informal second person pronoun form du.

The dictionary form (infinitive form) of the verb is applicable to the conjugation of Sie, for
example Sie heißen, meaning "you are called," or Sie trinken, meaning "You are drinking" or
"You drink."

The informal second person pronoun is du. Regular verb conjugations for du take an -st
ending. For example, du heißt or du trinkst.

si ch fre u e n

Sich freuen is a reflexive verb in German and a useful one to know. It literally means "to be
joyful about something," "to be happy about," or "to look forward" to something. The reflexive
part is the word sich, which is used to refer to the speaker. Both the verb freuen and the
reflexive particle sich need to be conjugated depending on the pronoun used.

En tsch u l d i g u n g

Entschuldigung is a term used to get someone's attention as in "Excuse me," but it can also
be used to express the term "(I'm) sorry." Entschuldigung is a noun, and its verb form is
entschuldigen, meaning "to apologize." It's usually accompanied by the reflexive particle sich
to form sich entschuldigen, meaning "to excuse oneself" or "to say sorry."

GRAMMAR

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Th e Fo cu s o f th i s L e sso n i s R e g u l a r Ve rb C o n j u g a ti o n , Pa rt 1
Ich h e i ße Ka te .
"I' m ca l l e d Ka te ."

As this is your very first German lesson of this ABS series, this will be a brief introduction of
German grammar.

Below are some pronouns and their respective translations:

ich - "I"
du - "you" (informal)
er - "he"
sie - "she"
es - "it"
wir - "we"
ihr - "you" (plural)
sie - "they"
Sie - "you" (formal/polite)

Please note that when a verb is given in the vocabulary section of these lessons, they will end
in -en. This form is called the infinitive, like "to be" as opposed to "am," "are," "is," or the like.
It's the form that you would expect to find in a dictionary. For example, if you wanted to
translate the sentence "He has kids" to German, and you wanted to know what "has" is in
German, you wouldn't expect to find an entry for "has" in a bilingual dictionary. Instead, there
is an entry for "have." This is the infinitive. In German, the infinitive always ends in -en.

That doesn't mean that verbs will always end in -en though. When the subject of a sentence
(the person doing something) is ich ("I"), then a German verb will drop the -n and the ending
that remains is -e. For example, heissen ("to be called") → Ich heiße ("I'm called"). When the
subject of a sentence is Sie ("you" formal), then the verb retains its original ending though.
And for other subjects, there are other endings, much like in Spanish, French, Russian, or
other European languages. Please see some additional examples below.

singen ("to sing") → ich singe ("I sing"); Sie singen ("you sing")

trinken ("to drink") → ich trinke ("I drink"); Sie trinken ("you drink")

finden ("to find") → ich finde ("I find"); Sie finden ("you find")

existieren ("to exist") → ich existiere ("I exist"); Sie existieren ("you exist")

Please note that if there are two verbs in a German sentence, then the first one will be
conjugated to match its pronoun, as we have discussed above. The second verb, however,

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will remain in its dictionary infinitive form.

Let's take a look at an example from the dialogue.

The dialogue, Ich freue mich, Sie kennenzulernen is a perfect example sentence of this as
the first verb freuen is conjugated, while kennenzulernen is not conjugated.

Important to note is that the second verb is sent to the end of the sentence—its object or the
thing it is affecting in the sentence comes before it. In the sentence Ich freue mich Sie
kennenzulernen, the pronoun Sie, to which kennenzulernen is referring, comes before it in
the sentence. The words of the phrase "to get to know you," then are in reverse order in
German in a two-verb-sentence construction, in comparison to English sentence structure.

CULTURAL INSIGHT

Me e ti n g N e w Pe o pl e i n G e rm a n y

When meeting somebody new, only young people hug or exchange kisses on the cheek like
the French, for example. Most Germans will shake hands while bowing their heads a little,
similar to a nod. An older or higher-ranking person should offer his or her hand first. The
handshake must be firm. Giving a weak handshake in Germany may be considered a sign of
weakness, so bear this in mind.

Even though not all Germans are known to observe the rules, please try to observe German
etiquette, especially if you are in Germany on business. Also, it is quite important you don't
forget to bow your head a little when shaking hands. If you keep looking straight ahead,
people will instinctively perceive you as arrogant.

If you meet someone new at a party, for example, where most people are young, a simple
nod of the head to greet new acquaintances often suffices. The younger generations are
generally more relaxed about these kinds of formalities at parties. However, rules of etiquette
still apply in all business situations, for all ages.

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