Coffee Break German

Lesson 07
Study Notes

Coffee Break German: Lesson 07 - Notes page 1 of 14

LESSON NOTES

WO IST DAS STADTZENTRUM?

In this episode you’ll learn to use German to find your way around a
town. In addition to learning the words for a number of places in the
town, you’ll also learn how to cope with the scenario of asking for
directions using a map.

INTRODUCTION
The opening section of this lesson includes a new expression:

Mark: Hallo. Ich heiße Mark.

Thomas: Hallo. Mein Name ist Thomas, und herzlich
Willkommen zu Coffee Break German.

herzlich Willkommen zu ...

a warm welcome to ...

The word herzlich can mean “warm”, “heartfelt” or “sincere”.

Following on from the last lesson, Thomas explains:

heute lernen wir etwas über die Stadt

today we’re learning a little about the town

Note lernen in second position: the sentence begins with heute,

meaning “today”, so the verb lernen and the subject pronoun wir
swap position.

Coffee Break German: Lesson 07 - Notes page 2 of 14

REVIEW
This lesson’s review section introduced the words plus (“plus”) and
minus (“minus”), so it is possible to practise the numbers using
simple arithmetic:

vier plus vier ist acht

four plus four is eight

vier minus zwei ist zwei

four minus four is two

Thomas challenged Mark with some arithmetical translations:

sieben plus eins ist acht

seven plus one is eight

zwei plus vier ist sechs

two plus four is six

According to Thomas, the next translation is a bit schwerer (“more

difficult”).

neun minus fünf ist vier

nine minus five is four

drei plus neun minus sieben ist fünf

three plus nine minus seven is five

Two additional phrases which came up in the Review section were:

ich glaube nicht

I don’t think so

Coffee Break German: Lesson 07 - Notes page 3 of 14

ich glaube
I think so (literally “I believe”)

TALKING ABOUT THE TOWN

To get someone’s attention when asking about places in the town, you
can use the following expression:

können Sie mir helfen?

can you (formal) help me?

Consider the following conversation:

Mark: Entschuldigung, bitte. Können Sie mir helfen?

Thomas: Ja, natürlich.

natürlich
naturally, of course

PLACES IN THE TOWN

As with all nouns, it’s best to learn the word with the definite article
so that you learn the gender of the word at the same time.

der Bahnhof
the station

der Strand
the beach

Coffee Break German: Lesson 07 - Notes page 4 of 14

der Supermarkt
the supermarket

die Bank
the bank

die Apotheke
the pharmacy, chemist

das Hotel
the hotel

das Stadtzentrum
the town centre

ASKING “WHERE IS...?”

To ask the question, “where is the hotel?” you can use the phrase:

wo ist ... ?
where is ... ?

So, for example we can ask:

wo ist das Hotel?

where is the hotel?

wo ist die Bank?

where is the bank?

wo ist das Stadtzentrum?

where is the town centre?

Coffee Break German: Lesson 07 - Notes page 5 of 14

Putting all the words and phrases we’ve learned so far together, we
could say:

Entschuldigung, bitte. Können Sie mir helfen? Wo

ist das Stadtzentrum?
Excuse me, please. Can you help me? Where is the town centre?

We will cover a range of possible answers to this question in future

lessons including complex directions like “take the third street on the
left and go across the square”. However, for the time being, let’s
imagine that we have a map and we are asking where something is on
the map. Use this phrase:

können Sie mir das bitte auf der Karte zeigen?

can you please show me it on the map?

It is interesting to note that the verb zeigen (“to show”) is pushed

right to the end of this sentence. For an explanation of why this
happens, we’ll consult our Grammar Guru Kirsten.

GRAMMAR GURU

OK, it’s time for our next lesson on word

order. Do you remember we talked about the
verb coming in second position in a
simple sentence? For example, at the start of
the lesson we had heute lernen wir etwas
üuber die Stadt. There we had lernen
coming after the adverb heute, and
swapping places with the subject wir so that
it could come in second position. This really does sound a lot more
complicated than it actually is, so don’t worry about it! As I

Coffee Break German: Lesson 07 - Notes page 6 of 14

 explained previously, you’ll begin to recognise these patterns as
you work through the course and get more exposure to the
German language and its strange word order! Of course, Germans
think that English speakers have strange word order too!
Over the last two episodes we’ve come across a few examples
where the word order is a bit different:
Kann ich Ihnen helfen?
Können Sie mir helfen?
Können Sie mir das bitte
auf der Karte zeigen?
You’ll notice that these examples start with a verb. That’s because
they’re questions and they are formed the same way as in English,
so we start with the simple statement
Sie können mir helfen.
(“You can help me.”)
and then swap the subject pronoun Sie with the verb können:
Können Sie mir helfen?
(“Can you help me?”)
You’ll also notice, however, that können isn’t the only verb in this
sentence: we also have helfen, meaning “to help”. It comes at the
end of the sentence. That’s because können is what we call a
modal verb and it sends the main verb - helfen - to the end of the
sentence. This happens both with questions and with statements:
Kann ich Ihnen helfen?
(“Can I help you?”)
Ich kann Ihnen helfen.
(“I can help you.”)
The main verb is always pushed to the end by the modal verb.
Think back to the tricky sentence, können Sie mir das bitte auf
der Karte zeigen? Literally this means “can you me that please
on the map show?” Despite all the words in the middle of this

Coffee Break German: Lesson 07 - Notes page 7 of 14

 sentence, the fact that we have the modal verb können means
that the main verb zeigen is pushed right to the end.
This will make more sense as you see more examples of it in future
lessons. Hopefully this little insight into the seemingly mysterious
wordl of German word order!

UNDERSTANDING POSSIBLE ANSWERS

If you ask someone Können Sie mir das bitte auf der Karte
zeigen? then you may hear responses similar to the following:

Sie sind hier. Der Bahnhof ist dort.

You are here. The station is there.

Die Strand is hier, aber die Bank ist dort.

The beach is here, but the bank is there.

Das Hotel ist hier, aber der Bahnhof ist dort.

The hotel is here, but the station is there.

CULTURAL CORRESPONDENT
In this lesson’s Cultural Correspondent
feature, Julia takes us on a tour of Germany
and introduces us to four of the biggest cities
in Germany.

Hi Mark, hallo Thomas und hallo an alle

unsere Coffee Break German Zuhörer. Hier
bin ich wieder, Julia, your Cultural
Correspondent.

Coffee Break German: Lesson 07 - Notes page 8 of 14

 In this report - and in lesson 8 - I’m going to take you on a journey
through some of the highlights of the German-speaking world.
Each place is famous for different things. Let’s start in the north
and work our way south.

Hamburg

Köln

Frankfurt
München

Germany’s second largest city, Hamburg, is famous for having

Germany’s biggest seaport, although the city is not directly on the
North Sea. Hamburg is famous for where the Beatles started their
career, and next to Berlin it can be seen as the musical centre of
Germany, a place where many new bands come from.

Further south in the west we come to Cologne, or as we call it,

Köln. As you’ve already learned, Köln is a town famous for its

Coffee Break German: Lesson 07 - Notes page 9 of 14

 carnival time every year in February. Köln is also a centre for
many TV productions.

In the very middle of our country there is Frankfurt, known

especially as Germany’s financial centre. Parts of the city centre
may remind you of a small version of downtown New York. The
river Main passes through the city, and because of this the city
even has the nickname Mainhattan. Frankfurt is also the place
where Germany’s national poet, Johann Wolfgang Goethe, was
born.

In the south of Germany lies the town that Thomas has already
mentioned: München (Munich), the capital of the region called
Bavaria, or Bayern in German. Many of the things which are
typically thought of as German come from this area, and are
perhaps less likely to be found elsewhere, such as Lederhosen
(“leather trousers”) and that typical folk music featuring
accordions and tubas, much like the Coffee Break German theme
tune! München’s Oktoberfest is known worldwide and attracts
visitors from many different countries who enjoy discovering the
city and mixing with the locals in the many Biergärten (“beer
gardens”) the town has to offer.

Of course, it doesn’t stop here: there are so many beautiful areas

of Germany which are worth mentioning, but we may come back
to these at a later date. Next time we’ll have a look at interesting
cities in Switzerland and Austria.

hier bin ich wieder

here I am again

Coffee Break German: Lesson 07 - Notes page 10 of 14

 COMING UP NEXT TIME
In the final section of the lesson we learned one additional phrase:

vielen Dank
thank you very much, many thanks

In lesson eight we will be looking further at the town and dealing

with directions and locations.

DAS REICHT FÜR HEUTE

Ready for more? Turn the page to continue with the

bonus materials for this lesson.

Coffee Break German: Lesson 07 - Notes page 11 of 14

CORE VOCABULARY
schwer
difficult, heavy

schwerer
more difficult, more heavy

ich glaube
I think (so)

ich glaube nicht

I don’t think so

natürlich
naturally, of course

wo ist ... ?
where is ... ?

der Bahnhof
the station

der Strand
the beach

der Supermarkt
the supermarket

die Bank
the bank

Coffee Break German: Lesson 07 - Notes page 12 of 14

die Apotheke
the pharmacy, chemist

das Hotel
the hotel

das Stadtzentrum
the town centre

können Sie mir helfen?

can you help me?

können Sie mir das bitte auf der Karte zeigen?

can you show me it on the map please?

Sie sind hier

you are here

der Bahnhof ist dort

the station is there

vielen Dank
thank you very much, many thanks

BONUS VOCABULARY
die Fußgängerzone
the pedestrian area

der Flughafen
the airport

Coffee Break German: Lesson 07 - Notes page 13 of 14

das Rathaus
the town hall

das Einkaufszentrum
the shopping centre

das Internet Café

the internet café

Coffee Break German: Lesson 07 - Notes page 14 of 14