Learn how to say "goodbye" by changing particular German verbs and how to ask for a phone number or contact number
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Chuck: Chuck here. Absolute Beginner, Season 1, Lesson 10 – “It’s Never Been So Easy to Say Goodbye to New Friends, to All of Them, in German!” |
| Judith: Hello everyone, I’m Judith and welcome back to GermanPod101. |
| Chuck: With us, you’ll learn to speak German with fun and effective lessons. |
| Judith: We also provide you with cultural insights. |
| Chuck: And tips you won’t find in a text book. In this lesson, you’ll learn how to take leave of new friends in German. |
| Judith: This conversation takes place outside the Berlin Airport, near the bus stop. |
| Chuck: The conversation is between Joe and Anke. |
| Judith: The speakers are getting to know each other better therefore they will be speaking informal German. |
| Chuck: Let’s listen to the conversation. |
| DIALOGUE |
| Anke: Gut, also…Wie kommst du jetzt in dein Hotel? |
| Joe: Hmm. Ich nehme wohl ein Taxi. Und wie fährst du nach Hause? |
| Anke: Ich fahre mit dem Bus. |
| Joe: Ah, okay. Und wo hält dein Bus? |
| Anke: Da vorne. |
| Joe: Hmm, ich sehe es nicht. Wo? |
| Anke: Da! Siehst du den Polizisten?! |
| Joe: Hmm, ja… |
| Anke: Da hält mein Bus und da halten auch die Taxis. |
| Joe: Aaah…okay. |
| … |
| Joe: Gibst du mir noch deine Telefonnummer? Oder ich gebe dir meine Telefonnummer… |
| Anke: Aber du hast doch meine Telefonnummer schon! Und ich habe deine! |
| Joe: Ach ja, natürlich! Entschuldigung! |
| Anke: Kein Problem! … Ah, da kommt mein Bus. Joe, ich hoffe wir sehen uns bald wieder! |
| Joe: Ja, hoffe ich auch! |
| Anke: Tschüss! |
| Joe: Bis bald! |
| Anke: Good, so... How do you get to your hotel now? |
| Joe: Hmm. I will probably take a taxi. And how will you go home? |
| Anke: I will ride the bus. |
| Joe: Ah, okay. And where does your bus stop? |
| Anke: Over there in front. |
| Joe: Hmm, I don't see it. Where? |
| Anke: There! Do you see the policeman?! |
| Joe: Hmm, yes... |
| Anke: There my bus will stop and the taxis stop there too. |
| Joe: Aaah... okay. |
| ... |
| Joe: Will you give me your phone number? Or I could give my phone number to you... |
| Anke: But you already have my phone number! And I have yours! |
| Joe: Ah yes, of course! I'm sorry! |
| Anke: No problem! ... Ah, there's my bus. Joe, I hope we will see each other again soon! |
| Joe: Yes, I hope so too! |
| Anke: Bye! |
| Joe: See you soon! |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Judith: Allright! How about we talk a bit about taking the bus in Germany? |
| Chuck: Alright. Let’s say it’s a bit different then how you do it in the States and I think also, some of our listeners might have never taken a bus before. How about we talk about how to do it? |
| Judith: Yes. First, the bus stops. You can identify bus stops by tall metal posts or columns spreading a flag like a “wait” sign and this sign should have the letter “H” in green or yellow background inside a green round circle. It’s quite distinguished and, even though there’s a lot of independent bus companies in Germany, they all use this sign. |
| Chuck: And I also know that when you’re at the bus stop, you’ll usually see schedule there as well. With all of the part times and which busses run there. |
| Judith: There has to be a schedule unless hooligans removed it. |
| Chuck: And also make sure to look at the top which tells you which direction it goes, because you don’t want to take it in the wrong direction, especially if it’s the last bus of the day. |
| Judith: Yes. If the bus is going in the wrong direction, look for a similar bus station pole on the other side of the street, not too far away. |
| Chuck: It’s quite easy to navigate the busses here and you’ll never have to call on the phone for directions or information here. Also know that some common bus stops have rain shelters, benches and some even have electronic displays showing when the next bus is going to come. |
| Judith: Once the bus is there, get into the front door and buy a ticket there. If you already have a ticket, just wave that at the bus driver because some areas are quite strict about that. You can buy single pass tickets which are available within a certain zone even if you have to change or you can also buy reduced fare tickets, multi-pass tickets or day tickets. |
| Chuck: Yeah, it’s often best if you know you’re going to be traveling a lot in a certain area to even ask a German to help you figure it out. And I remember my first time in Germany I had three Germans pick me up and they spent about five minutes debating which ticket would be the best one for my trip here. |
| Judith: When you’ve chosen the type of ticket, you just hand the money directly to the bus driver and he’ll give you the change back if necessarily, but if you have very large bills you’ll be unable to do so and you’ll have to ask some people in the bus for proper change. |
| Chuck: A general rule is you can’t get more than 10 euros back in change. |
| Judith: As soon as the bus starts moving you should sit down or hang onto something as soon as possible because you can’t sue the bus company if you fall and you probably don’t want to sleep on the bus even if some people do so because you have to be alert and you have to hit the button that’s labeled [Halt] or [Stop] as soon as the bus draws closer to your desired stop otherwise it would just pass by. |
| Chuck: But notice that most busses today have an electronic display in the front and some even in the middle as well they say the next stop or even what the next few stops are. |
| Judith: Yes, otherwise you have to ask a local to alert you in time so you can press the button. |
| Chuck: And when the bus comes to a stop, go out the back door because someone’s going to get very mad if you’re going out the front, because there’s where people are supposed to come in. |
| Judith: Yes. It depends on the region. Some regions are very strict about getting into the front and getting and getting out in the back and always showing your tickets and some regions they just don’t care. |
| Chuck: Also if you’re a handicapped or have a stroller you want to wait in the middle of the bus and push the handicapped stroller button and then the driver will come and put the ramp down for you. |
| Judith: Now if the bus has stopped and you try to get out and the door just doesn’t open then you should look for a button on the door or near the door and that button will open the door for you. But in many cases, the bus will stop and the bus driver opens the door for you by hitting the button from the front. |
| Chuck: If the button doesn’t work you just yell “Trr!” |
| Judith: Yes, that’s right. I guess you’ve survived your first bus ride in Germany. |
| Chuck: Sounds good. Hey, but we didn’t pay it yet. Let’s take a look at the vocabulary for this lesson. |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Chuck: The first word we shall look at is? |
| Judith: [Hotel] |
| Chuck: “Hotel”. |
| Judith: [Hotel, das Hotel] and the plural is [Hotels] |
| Chuck: Next? |
| Judith: [nehmen] |
| Chuck: “To take”. |
| Judith: [nehmen, nehmen] This is about changing verb, so the third person verb is [Er nimmt] |
| Chuck: Next? |
| Judith: [Taxi] |
| Chuck: “Taxi”. |
| Judith: [Taxi, das Taxi] and the plural is [Taxis] |
| Chuck: Next? |
| Judith: [fahren] |
| Chuck: “To drive” or “to drive a vehicle”. |
| Judith: [fahren, fahren] |
| Chuck: Next? |
| Judith: [Haus] |
| Chuck: “House”. |
| Judith: [Haus, das Haus] and the plural is [Häuser] |
| Chuck: Next? |
| Judith: [wo] |
| Chuck: “Where”. |
| Judith: [wo, wo] |
| Chuck: Next? |
| Judith: [halten] |
| Chuck: “To hold”, consider somebody or something as “to think” or “to stop”. |
| Judith: [halten, halten] |
| Chuck: Next? |
| Judith: [geben] |
| Chuck: “To give”. |
| Judith: [geben, geben] |
| Chuck: Next? |
| Judith: [natürlich] |
| Chuck: “Of course, natural” or “naturally”. |
| Judith: [natürlich, natürlich] |
| Chuck: Next? |
| Judith: [hoffen] |
| Chuck: “To hope”. |
| Judith: [hoffe, hoffen] |
| Chuck: Next? |
| Judith: [Tschüss] |
| Chuck: “Bye”. |
| Judith: [Tschüss, Tschüss] |
| Chuck: Next? |
| Judith: [bis] |
| Chuck: “Until”. |
| Judith: [bis, bis] |
| VOCAB AND PHRASE USAGE |
| Chuck: Let’s have a closer look at the usage for some of the words and phrases from this lesson. |
| Judith: The first phrase we’ll look at is [nach Hause] |
| Chuck: “To house” literally, but it means “house” as a direction. |
| Judith: This is a said expression relic of older times, you can tell because “house” does not normally get in “ie” ending in modern German, but [nach Hause] is “home” like in “going home”. |
| Chuck: Generally if you use [nach] is for location, all right? |
| Judith: Yes. The other thing I wanted to talk about is [bis] |
| Chuck: “Until”. |
| Judith: This can be used before a form of German goodbyes, for example [Bis bald] |
| Chuck: “Until soon” or “See you soon”. |
| Judith: [Bis nächste Woche] |
| Chuck: “See you next week”. |
| Judith: [Bis morgen] |
| Chuck: “See you tomorrow”. |
| Judith: And [Bis Juni] |
| Chuck: “See you in June”. |
| Judith: You can form anything with this. |
Lesson focus |
|---|
| Chuck: The grammar focus of this lesson are the objects personal pronouns. But not just that, this lesson you’ll also encounter more verbs that change their vowels for the [do] and [er] forms. |
| Judith: They behave just like the verb [sprechen] that we’ve seen in Lesson 6. Just the verbs [nehmen] and [sehen] change their spelling a bit to reflect the pronunciation. |
| Chuck: Have a look at the PDF for that. Anyway, for [nehmen, sehen, geben] the “e” changed to an “I”. |
| Judith: Where else for [fahren] and [halten] the “a” changed to an “e”, so it gets an umlaut. |
| Chuck: The ending stays the same just the informal “u” and “e” forms use the other vowels. |
| Judith: Now, there’s something tricky with the verb [geben] |
| Chuck: “To give”. |
| Judith: And also other verbs we’ll see. |
| Chuck: You could say for example “You give your phone number to me”. But, what’s that word “me” there? It’s a form of “I”, that’s used here because “I” is not the subject of the sentence. |
| Judith: In German, this changes also a course. In the same sentence in German, you have to say [mir] instead of [ich] is the German equivalent of “to me”. |
| Chuck: If you try the same with the word “we”, you notice that it also changes. Instead of “You give your phone number to we” you say “You give your phone number to us”. |
| Judith: In German, “to us” is [uns] and German goes one step further by having such words for each of the personal pronouns. |
| Chuck: Could you list those for us? |
| Judith: Of course. [Ich] becomes [mir] |
| Chuck: “To me”. |
| Judith: [Du] becomes [dir] |
| Chuck: “To you” – informally. |
| Judith: [Er] becomes [ihn] |
| Chuck: “To him”. |
| Judith: [Sie] becomes [ihr] |
| Chuck: “To her”. |
| Judith: [es] stays the same. |
| Chuck: “To it”. |
| Judith: [wir] becomes [uns] |
| Chuck: “To us”. |
| Judith: [ihr] becomes [euch] |
| Chuck: “To you” –plural. |
| Judith: And [Sie] becomes [Ihnen] |
| Chuck: “To them” or “to you” –formally. |
| Judith: Now, if you see the sentence [Oder ich gebe dir meine Telefonnummer] in today’s dialogue, you’ll hopefully no longer be confused. |
Outro |
| Chuck: Okay. Well, that just about does it for today. Before we go, we want to tell you about a way to drastically improve your pronunciation. |
| Judith: The voice recording tool. |
| Chuck: Yes, the voice recording tool in the premium learning center. |
| Judith: Record your voice with a click of a button. |
| Chuck: Then play it back just as easily. |
| Judith: So, you record your voice and then listen to it. |
| Chuck: Compare it to the native speakers. |
| Judith: And adjust your pronunciation. |
| Chuck: This will help you improve your pronunciation fast. So, see you next week. |
| Judith: [Bis nächste Woche] |
| -- |
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