Learn another irregular German verb
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Chuck: Chuck here. Absolute Beginner, Season 1, Lesson 20 – “The Black Forest of Germany”. Hello and welcome to GermanPod101.com, the fastest, easiest and most fun way to learn German. |
| Judith: I’m [Judith] and thanks again for being here with us for this Absolute Beginner, Season 1 Lesson. |
| Chuck: In this lesson, you’ll learn how to order coffee and cake in German. |
| Judith: This conversation takes place at a German café. |
| Chuck: The conversation is between Joe, [Anke] and the waiter. |
| Judith: Joe and [Anke] are friends and they will be speaking informal German. They will; however, speak formal German with the waiter. |
| Chuck: Let’s listen to the conversation. |
| DIALOGUE |
| Kellner: Hallo, kann ich Ihnen schon etwas bringen? |
| Anke: Hmm, ja, ich nehme einen Kaffee. |
| Joe: Ja, ich auch. Und ich möchte auch noch Kuchen. |
| Kellner: Kaffee bringe ich Ihnen gerne. Kuchen müssen Sie drinnen bestellen. |
| Joe: Ok! |
| Anke: Und was nimmst du? |
| Joe: Ich nehme Schwarzwaldtorte. |
| Anke: Äh, meinst du Schwarzwälder Kirschtorte? |
| Joe: Oh, haha, ja. Der Name ist aber auch schwierig! |
| Anke: Haha, ja! |
| Joe: Anke, kannst du mir gleich helfen? Ich muss eine Postkarte an einen Freund in München schreiben. |
| Anke: Natürlich helfe ich dir, kein Problem. Hast du schon eine Postkarte oder musst du noch eine kaufen? |
| Joe: Nein, ich habe schon eine Postkarte. Hier. |
| Anke: Ah, die ist schön. Hast du auch schon eine Briefmarke? |
| Joe: Oh, nein! Ich habe noch keine Briefmarke! |
| Anke: Kein Problem. Dann müssen wir einfach gleich zur Post gehen und dort eine Briefmarke kaufen. |
| Joe: Super, dann kann ich sie dort ja auch gleich wegwerfen. |
| Anke: Haha, du meinst, du kannst sie einwerfen. |
| Joe: Oh, ja natürlich, einwerfen! Wenn ich sie wegwerfe, muss mein Freund ja sehr lange auf die Postkarte warten! Haha… |
| Waiter: Hello, can I bring you something already? |
| Anke: Hmm, yes, I'm taking a coffee. |
| Joe: Yes, me too. And I’d also like cake. |
| Waiter: I’ll gladly bring you coffee. Cake, you’ll have to order inside. |
| Joe: Ok! |
| Anke: And what are you taking? |
| Joe: I’ll take Black Forest Cake. |
| Anke: Ehm, do you mean Black Forest Cherry Cake? |
| Joe: Oh, haha, yes. The name is so difficult! |
| Anke: Haha, yes! |
| Joe: Anke, can you help me later? I have to write a postcard to a friend in Munich. |
| Anke: Of course I'll help you, no problem. Do you have a postcard already or do you have to buy one? |
| Joe: No, I have a postcard already. Here. |
| Anke: Ah, it is pretty. Do you have a stamp already? |
| Joe: Oh, no! I don't have a stamp yet. |
| Anke: No problem. We’ll just simply go to the post office later and buy a stamp there. |
| Joe: Great, then I can immediately throw it away there too. |
| Anke: Haha, you mean you can throw it in [into the mailbox] there. |
| Joe: Oh, yes of course, throw in! If I throw it away, my friend will have to wait for the postcard for a long time! Haha... |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Judith: Now with all this talk of postcards, I almost forgot but there was a mention of Schwarzwälder Kirschtorte in a comment that passed by. |
| Chuck: Of course you’d remember the cake, wouldn’t you? I know the cake lessons are for you and the beer lessons are for me, right? |
| Judith: Something like that. But “Black Forest cherry cake” is just one of Germany’s most famous cakes. |
| Chuck: It’s not just one of Germany’s most famous cakes, it’s one of my favorite cakes. Which is much more important, of course. |
| Judith: Yeah, no bakery can avoid featuring this cake occasionally if not all the time. The cake originally comes from the Black Forest area and it’s very yummy. Most of the time, it contains a bit of [Kirschwasser] that is “cherry firewater”, some alcohol based on cherries and it also tastes good without, actually, I prefer it without. |
| Chuck: No, it doesn’t. Okay, maybe it does. It’s just so much better the other way. |
| Judith: Yeah. If you want to try and make it, there’s a link to a recipe in the PDF because I think the chances of you finding it in the American bakery are quite low. |
| Chuck: Yeah, when I lived in Heilbronn, it was featured quite a lot in the nearby bakery, but I think it’s also quite common to me because I lived pretty close to Black Forest, I guess. |
| Judith: Another really famous cake is the [Donauwelle]. |
| Chuck: “Waves of Danube”. It involves chocolate, vanilla, cherries, and butter cream and has a very distinct look. If you’d like to try baking authentic German cake, don’t feel like something as complicated as the “Black Forest Cherry cake” and it’s also a lot easier to pronounce, well, I think so at least, this cake may be for you. |
| Judith: Yeah, again we found a good recipe for it that we will refer to you in the PDF. |
| Chuck: So, when you come to class next week, be sure to bring some cake with you. |
| Judith: You can also just make fruit cakes. They are also very popular in the summer. |
| Chuck: No, they have to make this other cake and bring it. |
| Judith: Okay. |
| Chuck: But, be aware, what the Americans call “German Chocolate Cake”, did you know it doesn’t actually come from Germany? It’s the invention of a Texan with a last name “German”. Of course, Germans still love chocolate cake. One of the most popular ones is the [Sachertorte]. |
| Judith: Yes, Sachertorte. I love that. To get authentic Sachertorte however, you have to go to the Sacher Hotel in Vienna, which invented it. But the Sachertorte is an Austrian invention and the recipe is a closely guarded secret. However, in Germany a lot of bakeries will offer their own version of Sachertorte and it’s always delicious. |
| Chuck: Why haven’t we had the authentic one yet? |
| Judith: Because you can only get it in Austria at that one hotel in Vienna, and it’s really expensive too. |
| Chuck: And you haven’t wanted to go to Vienna yet? Note; however, that most German chocolate cakes are not as sweet and rich as the American chocolate cakes. |
| Judith: Yeah, they are very different, but I also like them. |
| Chuck: Before we get too sidetracked, let's take a look at the vocabulary for this lesson. |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Chuck: The first word is? |
| Judith: [Kuchen] |
| Chuck: “Cake” or “pie” |
| Judith: [Kuchen, der Kuchen] and the plural is the same. |
| Chuck: Next? |
| Judith: [drinnen] |
| Chuck: “Inside” |
| Judith: [drinnen, drinnen] |
| Chuck: Next? |
| Judith: [bestellen] |
| Chuck: “To order” |
| Judith: [bestellen, bestellen] |
| Chuck: Next? |
| Judith: [schwierig] |
| Chuck: “Difficult”. |
| Judith: [schwierig, schwierig] |
| Chuck: Next? |
| Judith: [helfen] |
| Chuck: “To help” |
| Judith: [helfen, helfen] and this a vowel-changing verb, so the form is [Er hilft]. |
| Chuck: Next? |
| Judith: [Postkarte] |
| Chuck: “Postcard” |
| Judith: [Postkarte, die Postkarte] and the plural is [Postkarten] |
| Chuck: Next? |
| Judith: [schreiben] |
| Chuck: “To write” |
| Judith: [schreiben, schreiben] |
| Chuck: Next? |
| Judith: [kaufen] |
| Chuck: “To buy”. |
| Judith: [kaufen, kaufen] |
| Chuck: Next? |
| Judith: [Briefmarke] |
| Chuck: “Stamp” |
| Judith: [Briefmarke, die Briefmarke] and the plural is [Briefmarken]. |
| Chuck: Next? |
| Judith: [einfach] |
| Chuck: “Easy, simple” or “simply”. |
| Judith: [einfach, einfach] |
| Chuck: Next? |
| Judith: [Post] |
| Chuck: “Mail” or “post office”. |
| Judith: [Post, die Post] and there’s no plural. |
| Chuck: Next? |
| Judith: [dort] |
| Chuck: “There” |
| Judith: [dort, dort] |
| Chuck: Next? |
| Judith: [wegwerfen] |
| Chuck: “To throw away” |
| Judith: [wegwerfen, wegwerfen] with this one, you have two things to pay attention to, one is that it’s a vowel-changing verb and one is that the [weg] splits off. So, for example, the third person singular is [Er wirft weg] . |
| Chuck: Next? |
| Judith: [einwerfen] |
| Chuck: “To throw in” or “drop”. |
| Judith: [einwerfen, einwerfen] and because it’s also based on [werfen], much the same thing goes. The third person singular is [Er wirft ein] |
| 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 word is [Schwarzwald]. |
| Chuck: “Black Forest” |
| Judith: [schwarz] |
| Chuck: “Black” |
| Judith: And [der Wald] |
| Chuck: “The forest”. |
| Judith: So, this is a compound noun [Schwarzwald]. There’s a region in South Western Germany in the state of [Baden-Württemberg] . |
| Chuck: Is it worth visiting? |
| Judith: Mmm? |
| Chuck: Do you think it’s worth visiting? |
| Judith: Of course. Especially if you like hiking. Not so much if you like big cities, because they don’t have many. |
| Chuck: Alright. To form an adjective based on any city or region, just add “er”. For example, [Schwarzwälder] relating to “The Black Forest”, [Berliner] relating to Berlin or [Münchener] relating to Munich and so on. Note that you can’t just put the word right in front of something else, to make it [mean], like you can’t say [Berlin Laden] to mean “Berlin stores”. |
| Judith: No, you have to say [Berliner Laden]. |
| Chuck: It’s pretty important. |
| Judith: Yes and we’ve seen an example of that in the name [Schwarzwälder Kirschtorte] because this is the original German name of the “Black Forest cherry cake”. [Schwarzwälder] is for something relating to the Black Forest, then [Kirsch] means, well it relates to [die Kirsche]. |
| Chuck: “Cherry” |
| Judith: And [die Torte] is a fancy cake or pie involving cream. |
| Chuck: Learn more about well-known German cakes and pies in today’s cultural point. |
| Judith: Look it up in the PDF. |
| Chuck: In this dialogue, Joe confused [einwerfen], “to throw in” and [wegwerfen], “to throw away”. Both of these German verbs are based on the verb [werfen], “to throw” and the prefix [ein] or [weg] are the kind that splits off. Review Lesson 13 for details on this kind of verb. |
| Judith: Now, let’s do some grammar. |
Lesson focus |
|---|
| Judith: The grammar focus of this lesson is the irregular verb [müssen]. |
| Chuck: The verb [müssen] is also somewhat irregular in German. Actually it matches [wollen] and [können] in it’s ending behavior. |
| Judith: The singular uses the stem [muss], that is without umlaut and the plural uses the stem [müss] with the umlaut. |
| Chuck: So wait, how does that work? |
| Judith: Well, the forms are [Ich muss] |
| Chuck: “I must” |
| Judith: [Du musst] |
| Chuck: “You must” |
| Judith: [Er muss] |
| Chuck: “He must” |
| Judith: And then it changes the vowel, [Wir müssen] |
| Chuck: “We must” |
| Judith: [Ihr müsst] |
| Chuck: “You all must” |
| Judith: [Sie müssen] |
| Chuck: “They must”. That just about does it, for today. |
Outro |
| Judith: Wanting to test what you just learned? |
| Chuck: Yeah! Oh wait, you mean them. Oh, yeah, yeah. Make this lesson’s vocabulary stick by using lesson-specific flashcards in the learning center. |
| Judith: There’s a reason everyone uses flashcards. |
| Chuck: They work! |
| Judith: They really do help in memorization. |
| Chuck: You can get the flashcards at... |
| Judith: GermanPod101.com |
| Chuck: Okay, see you next week! |
| Judith: [Also bis nächste Woche] |
| -- |
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