Learn how to speak using German superlatives
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Chuck: Chuck here, upper and intermediate season 3 lesson 23. Exercising in Germany is a lot to think about. |
| Judith: Hi my name is Judith and I’m joined here by Chuck. |
| Chuck: Hey everyone, welcome back to germanpod101. |
| Judith: What are we learning today? |
| Chuck: In this lesson, you’ll learn how to talk about the best, brightest and most awesome things in German. |
| Judith: This conversation takes place at a German office. |
| Chuck: The conversation is between Mr. Jones and Mrs. Bayer. |
| Judith: The speakers are colleagues, therefore they’ll be speaking formal German. |
| Chuck: Let’s listen to the conversation. |
| DIALOGUE |
| Jones: Sagen Sie, Frau Bayer, kennen Sie ein gutes Fitness-Studio? |
| Bayer: Ähm, aber Sie sind doch erkältet! Wenn man krank ist, sollte man besser keinen Sport treiben. |
| Jones: Ja, ich weiß. Aber wenn ich gesund bin, möchte ich wieder mehr Sport treiben. Da dachte ich, es ist am besten, wenn ich mich in einem Fitness-Studio anmelde. |
| Bayer: Ach so. Hmm, also ich bin in einem Fitness-Studio für Frauen. Da fühle ich mich am wohlsten. Aber ich habe gehört, dass das Fitness-Studio hier um die Ecke auch sehr gut sein soll. |
| Jones: Okay, das hört sich gut an. Wissen Sie, wie teuer die Mitgliedschaft dort ist? |
| Bayer: Hm, nein. Also ich zahle in meinem Fitness-Studio 30 Euro im Monat. |
| Jones: Oh, das ist ja nicht billig. |
| Bayer: Ja, das stimmt. Aber umsonst ist nur der Tod und der kostet das Leben. |
| Jones: Hä? |
| Bayer: Das heißt, alles hat seinen Preis. |
| Jones: Ach so. |
| Bayer: Mein Studio ist eines der teuersten Fitness-Studios hier in der Gegend, aber dafür gibt es ein Schwimmbad und eine Sauna. Und ich kann trainieren so oft ich will. |
| Jones: Hmm. Am besten ist wohl, ich frage einfach mal im Fitness-Studio nach. |
| Bayer: Ja, das ist eine gute Idee. Meistens kann man auch ein kostenloses Probetraining machen. |
| Jones: Na dann! |
| Jones: Tell me, Ms Bayer, do you know a good gym? |
| Bayer: Ehm, but you have a cold! When you're sick, you rather shouldn't do sports. |
| Jones: Yes, I know. But when I'm healthy I want to do more sports again. Then I thought it's best if I sign up at a gym. |
| Bayer: Ah. Hmm, well, I'm at a gym for women. I feel most comfortable there. But I heard that the gym around the corner here is also supposed to be very good. |
| Jones: Okay, that sounds good. Do you know how expensive membership is there? |
| Bayer: Hmm, no. I pay 30 euros a month at my gym. |
| Jones: Oh, that's not cheap. |
| Bayer: Yes, that's right. But only death is free, and that costs your life. |
| Jones: Wha? |
| Bayer: That means everything has its price. |
| Jones: Ah. |
| Bayer: My gym is one of the most expensive gyms in this area, but in exchange there is a swimming-pool and a sauna. And I can train as often as I want. |
| Jones: Hmm. I guess it would be best if I just ask at the gym. |
| Bayer: Yes, that's a good idea. Most of the time it's also possible to do a free trial training. |
| Jones: Well then! |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Judith: Okay let’s talk about being fit in Germany. |
| Chuck: Sounds great. Germans are very health conscious these days. There is an increase in the amount of healthy products or should I say healthier products available in the supermarkets and seems like a new gym’s opening every week. |
| Judith: Yes. Well, they can use it I mean because of the high beer consumption and the heavy cuisine with a lot of bacon, there are actually… |
| Chuck: That’s the best part. |
| Judith: Yes but the thing is that they are actually statistically more overweight people in Germany than in other European countries. |
| Chuck: Are you trying to hint at something? |
| Judith: No, no not at all. Also most people are just mildly overweight. There are almost no really obese people. |
| Chuck: That’s true, still the German government’s supporting various programs in order to promote a healthier lifestyle. One of the programs that’s very popular right now is the [Gesund abnehmen] or lose weight in a healthy way program which already has half a million participants. |
| Judith: It’s a free online diet change program offered by the [Apothekenumschau] this is the name of the free magazine that you can pick up at any German pharmacy. If you want you can try out this program yourself, it’s quite effective. |
| Chuck: Are you paid to advertise in our show? |
| Judith: It’s all free and non-commercial, they don’t try to sell you any product, they don’t have you taking special pills or drinks or whatever, and it’s just regular food. |
| Chuck: That sounds cool. |
| Judith: Yes and it’s all in German so you’d have to practice your German while going through the site. |
| Chuck: No! An English version? |
| Judith: No, no!So I think on the whole it’s a big plus on all accounts. |
| Chuck: Where is it? |
| Judith: You have to sign up online. The address is http://gesund-abnehmen.apotheken/umschau.de and for those of you who are not so comfortable about writing this down in German, I will also put it in the pdf and the comments. |
| Chuck: Or maybe they are driving. |
| Judith: Yes. |
| Chuck: You don’t want people to take out their notebooks really quick to write this down when they are driving. Please don’t do that if you are driving. |
| Judith: Just look in the pdf or in the comments. |
| Chuck: So let’s take a look at the vocabulary for this lesson. The first word is; |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Judith: [erkältet]. |
| Chuck: Having a cold. |
| Judith: [erkältet] |
| Chuck: Next. |
| Judith: [treiben] |
| Chuck: To impel, chase, drive or do. |
| Judith: [treiben] and the forms are [Er treibt, Er trieb, Er hat getrieben] |
| Chuck: Next. |
| Judith: [anmelden] |
| Chuck: To register or sign up. |
| Judith: [anmelden] and the [an] splits off. |
| Chuck: Next. |
| Judith: [sich wohl fühlen] |
| Chuck: To be well, feel good or be comfortable. |
| Judith: [sich wohl fühlen] |
| Chuck: Next. |
| Judith: [Mitgliedschaft] |
| Chuck: Membership. |
| Judith: [Mitgliedschaft, die] and the plural is [Mitgliedschaften] |
| Chuck: Next. |
| Judith: [umsonst] |
| Chuck: Free of charge or in vain. |
| Judith: [umsonst] |
| Chuck: Next. |
| Judith: [Tod] |
| Chuck: Death. |
| Judith: [Tod, der] and the plural is [Tode] |
| Chuck: Next. |
| Judith: [Leben] |
| Chuck: Life. |
| Judith: [Leben, das] and the plural is the same. |
| Chuck: Next. |
| Judith: [Gegend] |
| Chuck: Area. |
| Judith: [Gegend, die] and the plural is [Gegenden] |
| Chuck: Next. |
| Judith: [Schwimmbad] |
| Chuck: Swimming pool. |
| Judith: [Schwimmbad, das] and the plural is [Schwimmbäder] |
| Chuck: Next. |
| Judith: [Sauna] |
| Chuck: Sauna. |
| Judith: [Sauna, die] and the plural is [Saunen] |
| Chuck: Next. |
| Judith: [trainieren] |
| Chuck: To train. |
| Judith: [trainieren] |
| Chuck: Next. |
| Judith: [Probe] |
| Chuck: Trial or rehearsal. |
| Judith: [Probe, die] and the plural is [Proben] |
| 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 [Fitnessstudio] |
| Chuck: It’s what you call a gym in Germany. |
| Judith: Yes but only if it’s the kind of gym that anyone can go to in order to use the machines. If you are thinking of a gym that would be used by schools or clubs, those are called [Turnhalle] okay another phrase we should talk about is [Sport treiben] |
| Chuck: Literally to drive sports. |
| Judith: Yes to do sports. |
| Chuck: Is driving like the word used for driving a tractor or what is that? |
| Judith: No driving like to drive to expel to, drive cattle. |
| Chuck: Okay. |
| Judith: Another expression. [Alles hat seinen Preis]. |
| Chuck: Everything has it’s price. |
| Judith: Yes it’s kind of like you get what you pay for. And finally [eines der teuersten]. |
| Chuck: What are the most expensive? |
| Judith: Another common phrase you should be aware of is [einer der besten] |
Lesson focus |
|---|
| Chuck: One of the best. The focus of this lesson is the superlative. |
| Judith: In the last lesson we already covered how to compare things and say that one is better. That grammatical form is called the comparative. |
| Chuck: However, if you want to say something is the very best out of a large group, you need the superlative. Superlative is the most augmented form of an adjective, for example superlatives in English are strongest, hardest or most beautiful. |
| Judith: In German, the superlative is formed in much the same way by adding “st” or “est” to the adjective and then the adjective ending. For example [stärkste] or [härteste]. |
| Chuck: In contrast to English, it’s not possible to use the word most to form the superlative. SO most wonderful would be [wunderbarste] use [am] to take the place of “the” in this form. [Am wunderbarsten] is the most wonderful. What are some more forms? |
| Judith: Well, for [schlimm] you get [am schlimmsten]. |
| Chuck: The direst or the most dire. |
| Judith: [stark, am stärksten] |
| Chuck: The strongest. |
| Judith: [wirksam, am wirksamsten] |
| Chuck: The most effective or most strongly. |
| Judith: [süß, am süßesten] |
| Chuck: Oh the sweetest. |
| Judith: [wenig, am wenigstens] |
| Chuck: the least. |
| Judith: And again there are a few irregular forms, most importantly [gut] changes to [am besten] |
| Chuck: The best. |
| Judith: And [viel] changes to [meisten] |
| Chuck: The most. |
| Judith: And now let’s look at the usage in a sentence for example I could say [Diese Schokolade ist am süßesten] |
| Chuck: This chocolate is the sweetest. |
| Judith: But to use this as an adjective as an attribute I have to say [Die süßeste Schokolade ist die von Ritter Sport]. |
Outro |
| Chuck: The sweetest chocolate is the one by ritter sport. Still getting sports in there. That just about does it for today. |
| Judith: Ready to test what you just learned? |
| Chuck: Make this lesson’s vocabulary stick by using lesson specific flash cards. |
| Judith: There is a reason everyone uses flashcards. |
| Chuck: They work. |
| Judith: They really do help memorization. |
| Chuck: You can get flashcards for this lesson at; |
| Judith: germanpod101.com. |
| Chuck: Okay, now go for a workout. See you next week. |
| Judith: [Also bis nächste Woche]. |
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