Learn reflexive German verbs and show you appropriate formal conversation wherever you are
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Chuck: Chuck here, intermediate series season 3 lesson four. German beer, I'm all ears. Hello and welcome back to germanpod101.com, the fastest, easiest, the most fun way to learn German. I'm in the studio with... |
| Judith: Hello everyone Judith here. |
| Chuck: In this lesson you'll learn how to talk to your colleagues at a pub. |
| Judith: This conversation takes place first outside the office and then at a German pub. |
| Chuck: The conversation is between Mrs. Bayer and Mr. Jones. The speakers are new acquaintances therefore they will be speaking formal German. Let's listen to the conversation. |
| DIALOGUE |
| Bayer: Herr Jones, warten Sie! |
| Jones: Oh, Frau Bayer, habe ich etwas vergessen? |
| Bayer: Nein, das nicht, aber ich treffe mich später mit einigen Kollegen noch auf ein Bier. Kommen Sie doch mit! |
| Jones: Auf ein Bier? |
| Bayer: Ja, wir gehen noch etwas trinken. |
| Jones: Ach so. Ja, gerne. Wo treffen Sie sich denn? |
| Bayer: Wir treffen uns um 21 Uhr in der „Fassbrause“, das ist eine Bar gleich hier um die Ecke. |
| Jones: Okay, ich komme gern. |
| - |
| Bayer: Hallo, Herr Jones! |
| Jones: Ah, hallo. |
| Bayer: Schön, dass Sie da sind! Haben Sie gut hergefunden? |
| Jones: Ja, das war kein Problem. |
| Bayer: Hier ist noch Platz frei, setzen Sie sich! |
| Jones: Danke. |
| Bayer: Was möchten Sie trinken? |
| Jones: Hmm, ich weiß nicht. Was trinken Sie denn? Das sieht interessant aus. |
| Bayer: Das ist Berliner Weiße mit Schuss. |
| Jones: Oh. Das kenne ich noch nicht. Warum ist es so grün? |
| Bayer: Das Bier ist mit Waldmeister-Sirup gemischt. |
| Jones: Hmm, ich glaube, das nehme ich auch. Grünes Bier aus Deutschland muss man doch mal probieren! |
| Judith: Und jetzt langsam. And now slowly. |
| Bayer: Herr Jones, warten Sie! |
| Jones: Oh, Frau Bayer, habe ich etwas vergessen? |
| Bayer: Nein, das nicht, aber ich treffe mich später mit einigen Kollegen noch auf ein Bier. Kommen Sie doch mit! |
| Jones: Auf ein Bier? |
| Bayer: Ja, wir gehen noch etwas trinken. |
| Jones: Ach so. Ja, gerne. Wo treffen Sie sich denn? |
| Bayer: Wir treffen uns um 21 Uhr in der „Fassbrause“, das ist eine Bar gleich hier um die Ecke. |
| Jones: Okay, ich komme gern. |
| - |
| Bayer: Hallo Herr Jones! |
| Jones: Ah, hallo. |
| Bayer: Schön, dass Sie da sind! Haben Sie gut hergefunden? |
| Jones: Ja, das war kein Problem. |
| Bayer: Hier ist noch Platz frei, setzen Sie sich! |
| Jones: Danke. |
| Bayer: Was möchten Sie trinken? |
| Jones: Hmm, ich weiß nicht. Was trinken Sie denn? Das sieht interessant aus. |
| Bayer: Das ist Berliner Weiße mit Schuss. |
| Jones: Oh. Das kenne ich noch nicht. Warum ist es so grün? |
| Bayer: Das Bier ist mit Waldmeister-Sirup gemischt. |
| Jones: Hmm, ich glaube, das nehme ich auch. Grünes Bier aus Deutschland muss man doch mal probieren! |
| Bayer: Mr Jones, wait! |
| Jones: Oh, Mrs Bayer, did I forget something? |
| Bayer: No, that's not it, but I'm meeting a few colleagues for a beer later. You should come along, too! |
| Jones: For a beer? |
| Bayer: Yes, we will go have a drink. |
| Jones: Ah. Yes, gladly. Where are you meeting up? |
| Bayer: We will meet at 9pm in the "Fassbrause", that's a bar right around the corner here. |
| Jones: Okay, I will gladly come. |
| - |
| Bayer: Hello Mr Jones! |
| Jones: Ah, hello. |
| Bayer: It's nice that you're here! Have you found the way easily? |
| Jones: Yes, it wasn't a problem. |
| Bayer: There's a free seat here, sit down! |
| Jones: Thanks. |
| Bayer: What would you like to drink? |
| Jones: Hmm, I don't know. What are you drinking? This looks interesting. |
| Bayer: This is laced Berliner Weiße. |
| Jones: Oh. I don't know that yet. What is it so green? |
| Bayer: The beer is mixed with woodruff syrup. |
| Jones: Hmm, I believe I shall take that as well. You have to try green beer from Germany! |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Judith: All right, how do we talk about this strange beer that he's going to try? |
| Chuck: All right. Let's say [Berliner Weiße] it's a weak beer special to Berlin and by special I mean special. Well, some people really like it of course, I don't care for it that much, generally it has a very fruity taste. |
| Judith: But quite sour if you don't have it mixed with any kind of syrup, but yeah, today it's served with sweet syrup and then it tastes fruity and sweet. |
| Chuck: Also woodruff doesn't grow in North America so you may not have encountered the flavor before. |
| Judith: Yes, you can get it in woodruff flavor or raspberry flavor. I guess you should go for woodruff if you're looking for a really special drink, strange drink. About [Fassbrause] as much as the name of a pub it's also another drink that is special to Berlin. It's a kind of homemade not to sweet soda. It tastes of apple and also vaguely of herbs. |
| Chuck: All over Germany you can get other weird sodas such as the [Bionade] brand. They jumped in the organic food band wagon but often sodas made from organic foods. The flavors are quite bizarre, ginger and orange, Lychee, herbs and elderberry. It's quite interesting because it's brewed like a beer but it's totally non alcoholic. |
| Judith: Yes, they use the fermentation process to make sugar rather than beer or alcohol. You can also get flavored water in Germany and don't forget the German national drink [Apfelschorle] that is carbonated mineral water mixed with apple juice. |
| Chuck: And also note that in general if you ask for water they'll bring it to you carbonated so if you want it without carbonation, be sure to ask for that. |
| Judith: And know that you will pay for the water. |
| Chuck: Yeah. Let's take a look at the vocabulary for this lesson. |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Judith: [vergessen] |
| Chuck: To forget. |
| Judith: [vergessen] the forms are [Er vergisst, Er vergaß, Er hat vergessen] next [sich treffen] |
| Chuck: To meet up. |
| Judith: [sich treffen] the forms are [Er trifft sich, Er traf sich, Er hat sich getroffen] next [Kollege] |
| Chuck: Colleague. |
| Judith: [Kollege, der] and the plural is [Kollegen] next [Ecke] |
| Chuck: Corner. |
| Judith: [Ecke, die] and the plural is [Ecken] next [Herr] |
| Chuck: To hear as in a place. |
| Judith: [Herr] next [sich setzen] |
| Chuck: To sit down. |
| Judith: [sich setzen] next [Aussehen]. |
| Chuck: To look or have the appearance. |
| Judith: [aussehen] next [Er sieht aus, Er sah aus, Er hat ausgesehen]. |
| Chuck: Shot, as in a drink or a gun. |
| Judith: [Schuss] this word is masculine and the plural is [Schüsse] next [Waldmeister] |
| Chuck: Sweet woodruff or literally forest master. |
| Judith: [Waldmeister] this word is masculine, next [Syrup] |
| Chuck: Syrup. |
| Judith: [Syrup, der] next [probieren] |
| Chuck: To try out. |
| Judith: [probieren] |
| 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 look at is [Auf ein Bier]! |
| Chuck: For the purpose of having a beer. |
| Judith: Yes, it's a set German expression and you'll find in phrases like [ich treffe mich auf ein Bier]. |
| Chuck: I'm meeting someone for the purpose of having a beer together. |
| Judith: Similarly you could say [Auf einen Kaffee] but don't try to make up your own variations, only set expressions go. |
| Chuck: So you can't say [auf eine Bionade]? |
| Judith: No, no way |
| Chuck: Okay, that's good to know. |
| Judith: Or [Auf eine Cola] ! |
| Chuck: You pretty much hear beer if you want to drink alcohol and coffee, if you want to drink non alcoholic although you can say [Tee] too can't you or not |
| Judith: Not really. |
| Chuck: Okay, guess I get to learn something too today. |
| Judith: You can say [Auf einen Plausch] for a chat, it's not just for drinks but really it's only a set of expressions and you can't vary them. |
| Chuck: I would only use beer or coffee. |
| Judith: Next expression [Um die Ecke] |
| Chuck: Around the corner. |
| Judith: Yes a German idiom [Um die Ecke] careful if somebody threatens to [Um die Ecke bringen]. |
| Chuck: It literally means take someone around the corner, but secretly it means they want to kill you so be careful. |
| Judith: Yes, it's a different slang term so [es ist um die Ecke] it is okay but [um die Ecke bringen] is something else. |
| Chuck: I think you would usually hear this as [Ich bringe dich um die Ecke] right? |
| Judith: Yeah, in gangster movies or something. |
| Chuck: [Ich bringe dich um die Ecke]! |
| Judith: Finally, let's look at [Schuss] |
| Chuck: This means shot. |
| Judith: Yeah, but [mit Schuss] means that another liquid has been added to the drink, typically some hard alcohol, for example [Kaffee mit Schuss] means coffee mixed with rum and [Berliner Weise mit Schuss] just means that syrup is added. |
| Chuck: So laced is about the closest you can come to an English translation. Could this also mean drugs mixed in with a drink? |
| Judith: [Mit Schuss] I've never heard it like that no. |
| Chuck: Do you know Christian/ Okay, so I guess it's just alcohol. |
| Judith: Yeah, or syrup occasionally. |
Lesson focus |
|---|
| Chuck: Note also that [Schuss] can mean a shot from a gun. The focus for this lesson are the reflexive verbs, reflexive verbs are verbs that refer back to the subject. In English you can recognize such a verb because it's used with a pronoun ending in self or selves as in 'I dry myself off'. |
| Judith: In German [Ich trockne mich ab] you probably recognize the [mich] as the accusative of [Ich]. |
| Chuck: In German there are no special pronouns for these reflexive verbs, they just use the accusative personal pronouns except that the third person singular and plural is always [sich]. |
| Judith: So it is [Er wäscht sich] he washes himself, rather than [Er wäscht ihn] would mean that he washes some other male person. |
| Chuck: Or the [ihn] could also reference an object that is grammatically masculine in German. A lot of verbs can be reflexive or not as the above case demonstrates, you can wash yourself, which would be reflexive but you can also wash your car which would not be reflexive. |
| Judith: A special case is when you're washing something that is a part of you for example your face [das Gesicht] then the verb is still reflexive but on the other hand you need an accusative object to indicate what you're washing. |
| Chuck: This is a problem because German citizen must not have two accusative objects at the same time. 'You' to indicate being reflexive and your face, so what happens then? |
| Judith: Well the pronoun will change to dative. |
| Chuck: Ah, okay. |
| Judith: But it's still [sich] if it's the third person. For the other forms you'd say for example [ich wasche mir das Gesicht] so it translates very firmly to 'I wash myself the face ' or 'I wash to me the face' |
| Chuck: Nice, but it's a really quirky part about reflexive verbs in German but you'll get used to it quickly as you hear it more often. |
| Judith: In today's lesson we saw that reflexive verbs [sich treffen] literally to meet oneself or rather to meet each other and we also saw [sich setzen], to sit down. Neither of them are reflexive in English but in German there's a whole lot more reflexive verbs than in English. |
Outro |
| Chuck: Well that just about does it for myself today, don't forget that you could leave us a comment on this lesson. |
| Judith: So if you have a question or some feedback, please leave us a comment. |
| Chuck: It's very easy to do, just stop yourself by germanpod101.com. |
| Judith: Click yourself on comments. |
| Chuck: Then enter your comment and name yourself. |
| Judith: And that's it. |
| Chuck: No excuses, we're looking forward to hearing from all of you. |
| Judith: See you next week. |
| Chuck: [Bis nächste Woche]! |
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