LESSON NOTES

Absolute Beginner S1 #3
German In-Formalities

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

# 3
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 GERMAN

1. D: Herr Cardigan...

2. A: Bitte nennen Sie mich nur Joe.

3. D: Also gut. Ich bin Anke.

4. D: Joe, kommst du als Tourist nach Berlin oder beruflich?

5. A: Als Tourist.

6. D: Und wie lange bleibst du?

7. A: Ich bleibe zwei Wochen.

ENGLISH

1. D: Mr Cardigan...

2. A: Please just call me Joe.

3. D: Alright. I am Anke.

4. D: Joe, are you coming to Berlin as a tourist or for business reasons?

5. A: As a tourist.

6. D: And how long are you staying?

7. A: I am staying two weeks.

VOCABULARY

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 Ge r man English C lass Ge nde r

please, you're
bitte welcome interjection

personal pronoun,
mich me accusative

nennen to name, call verb

gut good adjective

personal pronoun,
du you (informal) nominative

als as preposition

Tourist tourist noun masculine

lange long, a long time adverb

wie how pronoun

bleiben stay, to stay verb

zwei two numeral

Woche week noun feminine (die)

by profession,
beruflich professionally adjective, adverb

SAMPLE SENTENCES

Bi tte ra u ch e n Si e h i e r n i ch t. Ei n G l a s Wa sse r, bi tte .

Please do not smoke here. A glass of water, please.

Bi tte a n tw o rte n Si e so sch n e l l w i e Ve rste h st d u m i ch , w e n n i ch a u f

m ö g l i ch . En g l i sch spre ch e ?

Please answer as quickly as possible. Do you understand me when I speak on

(in) English?

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Ist d a s Pa ke t fü r m i ch ? H a bt i h r n o ch Pl a tz fü r m i ch ?

Is that package for me? Do you still have some space for me?

Er n e n n t si ch j e tz t "Se n se i ". N e n n e n Si e d re i Fl ü sse i n Asi e n .

He calls himself "Sensei" now. Name three rivers in Asia.

Ich fü h l e m i ch g u t. D i e Stu n d e w a r w i rkl i ch g u t, u n d

i ch ka n n d i e N ä ch ste ka u m
I feel good.
e rw a rte n .

The class was really good, and I can't wait

for the next one.

H e u te i st e i n g u te r Ta g . D a s kl i n g t g u t.

Today is a good day. Sounds good.

D u bi st g u t. Bi st d u d i r si ch e r?

You are good. Are you sure?

Ich a rbe i te a l s L e h re r. Wa s m a ch st d u a l s L i n g u i st?

I work as a teacher. What do you do as a linguist?

Am Bra n d e n bu rg e r To r si e h t m a n Mu sste st d u l a n g e w a rte n ?

i m m e r vi e l e To u ri ste n .
Did you have to wait a long time?
At the Brandenburg Gate you always see
many tourists.

Wi e te u e r si n d d i e Äpfe l ? Wi e g e h t e s Ih n e n h e u te ?

How much are the apples? How are you today?

Ich w o l l te i n e i n e m sch ö n e n H o te l Ich m ö ch te n i ch t g e h e n , a l so bl e i be

bl e i be n a be r i ch h a tte ke i n G e l d . i ch .

I wanted to stay at a nice hotel, but I had I don't want to go, so I stay.
no money.

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Mö ch te st d u e i n o d e r z w e i Mi ch a e l a h a t d i e se Wo ch e
Brö tch e n ? G e bu rtsta g .

Do you want one or two rolls? It's Michaela's birthday this week.

Wa s m a ch st d u be ru fl i ch ? Se i n e be ru fl i ch e Z u ku n ft i st
i n te re ssa n t.
What do you do?
His professional future is interesting.

VOCABULARY PHRASE USAGE

1. „Bitte nennen Sie mich “ = Please call me . You can use this phrase to request
that people use a nickname for you, but in today's dialog Joe uses it in order to
request a switch to informal language.

2. „Also gut. Ich bin Anke“ agrees with that switch. Joe knows that the woman next to
him is called Anke Löwen, but she tells him „I'm Anke“ anyway in order to
confirm that he has the right to address her informally from now on.

3. "zwei Wochen" = two weeks. Wochen is the plural of Woche. There are several
different ways of forming the plural in German, but one of the most common ones is
for words ending in -e to add an -n.

GRAMMAR

Th e fo cu s o f th i s l e sso n a re re g u l a r ve rbs, pa rt 2
Wi e l a n g e bl e i bst d u ?
"H o w l o n g a re yo u sta yi n g ? "

Today we've encountered two more forms of regular verbs.

First, there is the informal second person of verbs. Whenever you address somebody as „du“,
you also need to take off the -en verb ending and replace it with -st. -st is the marker of the
informal second person. Whenever we talk to a friend or family member, we use the -st verb
ending.

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Bleiben Sie in Deutschland? = Do you remain in Germany? Will you remain in Germany?
(formally, to a stranger)
Bleibst du in Deutschland? = Do you remain in Germany? Will you remain in Germany?
(informally, to a family member, friend, good acquaintance or young person)

We've also seen how to make a request – Mr Cardigan requested that Mrs Löwen just call
him by his first name. „Bitte nennen Sie mich nur Joe“ (Please just call me Joe). To make a
polite request, start with „bitte“ (please) and then put the formal form of the verb and the word
„Sie“, then whatever else is left of the sentence. Examples follow.

Bitte bleiben Sie! = Please stay!

Bitte kommen Sie! = Please come!
Bitte arbeiten Sie nicht! = Please don't work!

CULTURAL INSIGHT

R e a so n s fo r co m i n g to G e rm a n y

Germany sees a lot of foreign visitors every year – have you visited yet? If not, here are some
reasons for you to visit.

First, Germany features many different historic sites, ranging from the Neanderthal valley to
Roman ruins to medieval castles and of course more recent history. There are also a lot of
beautiful spots, such as the German islands in the North Sea, the Black Forest, the beautiful
traditional houses, the Alps... there you can also do winter sports.
Business or conferences may also bring you here. Germany's economy is ranked 4 th in the
world, and it's no. 1 in exporting goods. If you're lucky, your company will want somebody to
explore new markets in Germany and YOU will be chosen because you have learned some
German!

Many GermanPod101 listeners also have friends or family in Germany whom they want visit
at some point.
Finally, if you're looking to practise German, what better place to do that than Germany??

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