The focus of this lesson is the verb "sein" (to be)
Ich bin Joe.
"I am Joe."

In this lesson we've seen three forms of the verb „sein“, „to be“. This verb is irregular in almost all languages, and German is no exception. Here are the forms we've seen;

sein – to be

ich bin – I am

es ist – it is

Sie sind – you are (formally)

We've also seen that German word order corresponds to English so far. When you're asking a question, the verb moves to the front of the sentence in German, just like in English.

Sind Sie Joe? = Are you Joe?

Sind Sie sicher? = Are you sure?

„Sie“ = you, formally. There is a notion of formality in German, just like in French, Spanish, Italian and other languages. If you're addressing somebody by their family name, you should also call them „Sie“ and use the corresponding form of the verbs. If you're addressing somebody by their first name, you will usually use another pronoun, „du“. The formal address is the default in German unless you're talking to children or people who explicitly asked you to switch to an informal address. As a foreigner, you'd do well to address everybody as „Sie“ initially.

Apologizing and reacting

The most general word of apology in German is „Entschuldigung“. This literally means „apology“, and it's used in most situations:

• when you've accidentally done something bad

• when you want somebody's attention

• when you want people to make room

It is NOT used when somebody tells some sad news about themselves, because that is not something you should apologize for – unless you had any stake in it.

If you need something stronger than „Entschuldigung“, use „Es tut mir leid“ (literally „it does me harm“). And you can make it even stronger by adding an adverb before the „leid“.

Es tut mir wirklich leid. - I'm really sorry.

Es tut mir sehr leid. - I'm very sorry.

To accept an apology informally, say;

Es ist (schon) okay. - It's okay (now).

Kein Problem. - No problem.