Learn a German expression that means, "there is" in English as well as a German word to turn your sentences into negative ones
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Chuck: Chuck here. Absolute Beginner, Season 1, Lesson 12 – “A German Hotel Nightmare”. Hello and welcome back to GermanPod101.com, the fastest, easiest and most fun way to learn German. I’m joined in the studio by? |
| Judith: Hello everyone, [Judith] here! |
| Chuck: In this lesson, you’ll learn how to book a hotel room in German. |
| Judith: This conversation takes place at a German hotel. |
| Chuck: The conversation is between Joe and a hotel clerk. |
| Judith: The speakers are in a business relationship therefore they will be speaking formal German. |
| Chuck: Let’s listen to the conversation. |
| DIALOGUE |
| Hotel: Guten Tag. |
| Joe: Hallo. Mein Name ist Joe Cardigan. Ich habe eine Reservierung. |
| Hotel: Ja, warten Sie bitte... Hmm. Ich sehe keine Reservierung für heute... Wie heißen Sie noch mal? |
| Joe: Cardigan, Joe. Ich habe ein Zimmer für eine Woche. |
| Hotel: Aah. Hier. Jetzt sehe ich es. Sie haben Zimmer 101. Geben Sie mir bitte Ihren Pass? |
| Joe: Hier. Und hier ist meine Mastercard. |
| Hotel: Danke. Bitte unterschreiben Sie hier. |
| Joe: Bitte. ... Gibt es ein Telefon auf dem Zimmer? |
| Hotel: Ja, natürlich. |
| Joe: Und gibt es auch Internet? |
| Hotel: Nein, es tut mir leid. Es gibt kein Internet auf dem Zimmer, nur an den Computern hier vorne. |
| Joe: Okay. Und wann gibt es Frühstück? |
| Hotel: Frühstück gibt es von 7 Uhr bis 10 Uhr. |
| Joe: Okay, Dankeschön. |
| Hotel: Good day. |
| Joe: Hello. My name is Joe Cardigan. I have a reservation. |
| Hotel: Yes, please wait... Hmm. I don't see a reservation for today... What is your name again? |
| Joe: Cardigan, Joe. I have a room for a week. |
| Hotel: Aah. Here. Now I see it. You have room 101. Give me your passport please? |
| Joe: Here. And here's my mastercard. |
| Hotel: Thanks. Please sign here. |
| Joe: There you go. ... Is there a phone in the room? |
| Hotel: Yes, of course. |
| Joe: And is there internet as well? |
| Hotel: No, I'm sorry. There is no internet in the room, just at the computers here in front. |
| Joe: Okay. And when is breakfast? |
| Hotel: Breakfast is from 7 o'clock to 10 o'clock. |
| Joe: Okay, thank you very much. |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Chuck: Hey, I think today we can talk about accommodation, what do you think? |
| Judith: Sounds good. |
| Chuck: When you come to Germany, there are several options where to stay. |
| Judith: One option would be at a hotel, like in the dialogue. Most would probably do that. Depending on your need for luxury, you can spend very little or very much money. Unlike in Africa, for example, the German star ranking of hotels corresponds closely to the international star ranking. |
| Chuck: Well, I don’t know, I think because we’re doing a podcast, more of our listeners are younger. So, I think they’d be more likely to go to a youth hostel. |
| Judith: Yeah, or generally a hostel. A hostel would be called [Gasthaus] or a [Pension], in German and it typically be a cheaper, less luxurious and more homey place to stay. |
| Chuck: So, I guess that’s more like a bed in breakfast, right? |
| Judith: Yes, it’s comparable. It’s usually family operated and not as commercial as the hotels. Not as fine neither, not as much luxury. But if you’re youth, you can go to special case where you can head back in the youth hostels. They’re mainly located to a school or teenage kids and families. The furnishings are very basic and there’s a lot of noise because of the school classes, but these places are not limited to young people, so if you think you can stand it then you can go there at any age. |
| Chuck: Yeah and you’re also likely to find rooms with, let’s say, six beds in them. |
| Judith: Yeah. |
| Chuck: So, if you don’t mind sleeping with a bunch of other people in the same room then sounds good. |
| Judith: Well, if you have a little group of people. |
| Chuck: That works too. Well now, if you stay in hostels and you get to know people from all over the world that way. Now, what about if you’re driving around the stop by motel or something cheap like that? |
| Judith: Germany has a very few classic roadside motels and an interesting way to see Germany, especially if you’re traveling as an individual is if you’re doing a homestay with a German family. That way you can speak a lot more German and experience the real German culture and the real German food and everything. There are several companies that offer to organize these homestays and either in combination with language courses or just like that or you can also sign up for a hospitality network, like a couch surfing is pretty large in Germany. |
| Chuck: Remember, if you’re staying with a German family to definitively bring a gift along from your region. Well, unless you’re paying them. You can also help with chores around the house, say, like washing dishes or buying some grocery some time. Just act like a normal member of the household. |
| Judith: Definitively. Especially if you’re staying for more than a few days and let me just also say that if you have a really, really bad emergency, let’s say your couchsurfing person has dropped you without a notice and you can’t find anywhere else - |
| Chuck: You just arrived at midnight. |
| Judith: - and the hotels don’t have rooms anymore because of a conference. If all of these come together, in a really bad emergency, then you can also go to the [Bahnhofsmission], that is a shelter for the homeless and it’s available mostly at the train stations. But you can only stay there one or two nights, so it’s just, if you’re about to sleep under the bridge then that’s where you can go. |
| Chuck: But the bridges are quite picturesque too. Okay, probably not if you’re sleeping on. Let’s take a look at the vocabulary for this lesson. |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Chuck: The first word is? |
| Judith: [Name] |
| Chuck: “Name”. |
| Judith: [Name] this word is masculine, and the plural is [Namen] |
| Chuck: Next? |
| Judith: [Reservierung] |
| Chuck: “Reservation”. |
| Judith: [Reservierung, die Reservierung] and the plural is [Reservierungen] |
| Chuck: Next? |
| Judith: [für] |
| Chuck: “For”. |
| Judith: [für, für] |
| Chuck: Next? |
| Judith: [Zimmer] |
| Chuck: “Room”. |
| Judith: [Zimmer, das Zimmer] and the plural is the same. |
| Chuck: Next? |
| Judith: [unterschreiben] |
| Chuck: “To sign”. |
| Judith: [unterschreiben, unterschreiben] |
| Chuck: Next? |
| Judith: [Es gibt] |
| Chuck: “There is” or “There are”. |
| Judith: [Es gibt, Es gibt] |
| Chuck: Next? |
| Judith: [Telefon] |
| Chuck: “Telephone”. |
| Judith: [Telefon, das Telefon] and the plural is [Telefone] |
| Chuck: Next? |
| Judith: [an] |
| Chuck: “At” or “too”. |
| Judith: [an, an] |
| Chuck: Next? |
| Judith: [Computer] |
| Chuck: “Computer”. |
| Judith: [Computer, der Computer] and the plural is the same. |
| Chuck: Next? |
| Judith: [wann] |
| Chuck: “When”. |
| Judith: [wann, wann] |
| Chuck: Next? |
| Judith: [Frühstück] |
| Chuck: “Breakfast”. |
| Judith: [Frühstück, das Frühstück] |
| Chuck: Next? |
| Judith: [von] |
| Chuck: “Of” or “from”. |
| Judith: [von, von] |
| Chuck: Next? |
| Judith: [Uhr] |
| Chuck: “Clock” or “o’clock”. |
| Judith: [Uhr, die Uhr] and the plural is [Uhren] |
| Chuck: Next? |
| Judith: [bis] |
| Chuck: “Until” or “till”. |
| 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 is [nochmal] |
| Chuck: “Once again.” |
| Judith: This consists of [noch] and [mal] means “still” and [noch, mal], “once” or “twice” or any amount of times. Next, we should talk about [Uhr] |
| Chuck: “O’clock” or “clock”. |
| Judith: Apart from referring to the clock on the wall, like this, you can also use it to talk about the time in German. For example, [Sieben Uhr] |
| Chuck: “Seven o’clock.” |
| Judith: Note that in this case, you do not use the plural of [Uhr]. The plural would be [Uhren] but you say [Sieben Uhr] as if it was singular. Finally, there is this phrase [von bis] |
| Chuck: “From, to.” |
| Judith: For example, you would use this [Von April bis September] |
| Chuck: “From April to September.” Could you also use it for locations at this time? |
| Judith: Yeah, I’m thinking of subway stops for example, if they say no service between [Friedrichstraße] and [Schönholsten] and says [von Friedrichstraße bis Schönholsten kein Verkehr]. |
Lesson focus |
|---|
| Judith: Okay now, let’s do some grammar. |
| Chuck: So, there is some grammar? |
| Judith: Yes and the point is [Es gibt] |
| Chuck: [Es gibt] literally means “it gives”. It’s a unique German expression. It’s equivalent to the English “there is” or “there are”, except there’s always [Es gibt], it doesn’t change. Can you give some examples? |
| Judith: Yes. [Es gibt Internet auf dem Zimmer] |
| Chuck: “There’s internet available in the room.” |
| Judith: [Es gibt ein Telefon auf dem Zimmer] |
| Chuck: “There’s a phone in the room.” |
| Judith: [Es gibt viele Menschen im Hotel] |
| Chuck: “There are many people in the hotel.” |
| Judith: It’s always [Es gibt], no matter if you have a [ein] or nothing after that or [viele], that’s the plural. Always [Es gibt] |
| Chuck: Now, let’s go to the next part, this is a very common error that English speakers make. In this case you want to use [kein] instead of [nicht] to make a negative sentence. |
| Judith: Yes, you can’t use [Es gibt nicht], that sounds kind of strange. You say [Es gibt kein Internet auf dem Zimmer] |
| Chuck: “There isn’t any internet in the room.” |
| Judith: [Es gibt kein Telefon auf dem Zimmer] |
| Chuck: You can also think this is “no” like in “There is no telephone in the room.” |
| Judith: [Es gibt keine Menschen in dem Hotel] |
| Chuck: “There aren’t any people in the hotel.” [viele] and [keine] have the “I” ending, denoting a plural. |
| Judith: [viele Menschen, keine Menschen] |
Outro |
| Chuck: Well, that just about does it for today. Remember, you can 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 by GermanPod101.com |
| Judith: Click on “comments”. |
| Chuck: Enter your comment and name. |
| Judith: And that’s it. |
| Chuck: So, no more excuses. We’re looking forward hearing from you. See you next week! |
| Judith: [Bis nächste Woche] |
| -- |
| Judith: [Hier, jetzt sehe ich es. Sie haben Raumnummer 101. Geben Sie mir bitte Ihren Pass]? |
| Chuck: [Hier und hier ist meine Mastercard]. |
| Judith: [Danke. Bitte unterschreiben Sie hier]. |
| Chuck: [Bitte. Gibt es ein Telefon auf dem Zimmer.] |
| Judith: [Ja, natürlich] |
| Chuck: [Und gibt es auch Internet]? |
| Judith: [Nein, es tut mir leid. Es gibt kein Internet auf dem Zimmer. Nur an den Computern hier vorne]. |
| Chuck: [Okay, und wann gibt es Frühstück]. |
| Judith: [Frühstück gibt es von sieben bis zehn Uhr]. |
| Chuck: [Okay, dankeschön]. |
| -- |
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