Learn the two types of German noun plurals
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Chuck: Chuck here. Absolute Beginner, Season 1, Lesson 14 – “German Ice-cream With a View of Berlin”. Hello and welcome to GermanPod101.com where we learn modern German in a fun educational format. |
| Judith: So, brush up on the German that you started learning long ago or start learning today! |
| Chuck: Thanks for being here with us for this lesson, [Judith]. What are we looking at today? |
| Judith: In this lesson you’ll learn how to order an ice-cream in German. |
| Chuck: This conversation takes place in the Reichstag viewing platform in the dome. The conversation is between Joe and a clerk selling audio guides and later between Joe and an ice-cream parlor waitress. |
| Judith: The speakers are in an employee-customer relationship therefore they’ll be speaking formal German. |
| Chuck: Let’s listen to the conversation. |
| DIALOGUE |
| Joe: Entschuldigung, wo finde ich die Audio-Guides? |
| E: Gleich hier vorn. |
| Joe: Der Audio-Guide ist doch kostenlos, oder? |
| E: Ja. Und es gibt den Audio-Guide in vielen Sprachen. Welche Sprache sprechen Sie? |
| Joe: Hmm, ich spreche Englisch, Französisch und ein bisschen Deutsch. Aber ich glaube, ich nehme Deutsch. |
| E: Gut. Hier bitte, viel Spaß! |
| Joe: Danke. |
| … (Später auf der Dachterrasse) ... |
| Joe: Hallo. Eine Kugel Eis bitte. |
| Kellnerin: Gerne. Welche Sorte? |
| Joe: Hmm, welche Sorten haben Sie? |
| Kellnerin: Wir haben Schokolade, Vanille und Erdbeere. Und dann gibt es noch Zitrone und Banane als Wassereis. |
| Joe: Hmm, so viele Sorten. Ich glaube dann nehme ich drei Kugeln. Schokolade, Banane und Zitrone, bitte. |
| Kellnerin: Gut, das kostet 3 Euro. |
| Joe: Hier bitte. |
| Kellnerin: Guten Appetit! |
| Joe: Excuse me, where do I find the audio guides? |
| E: Immediately here in front. |
| Joe: The audio guide is free, isn't it? |
| E: Yes. And the audio guide is available in many languages. Which language do you speak? |
| Joe: Hmm, I speak English, French and a little German. But I believe I shall take the German. |
| E: Good. Here you go, have fun! |
| Joe: Thanks. |
| ... (Later on the roof terrace) ... |
| Joe: Hello. One scoop of ice-cream please. |
| Waitress: Gladly. What kind? |
| Joe: Hmm, what types do you have? |
| Waitress: We have chocolate, vanilla and strawberry. And then there's lemon and banana as water ice. |
| Joe: Hmm, so many types. I believe I shall take three scoops then. Chocolate, banana and lemon please. |
| Waitress: Good, that will cost you 3 euros. |
| Joe: Here you are. |
| Waitress: Enjoy your meal! |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Judith: Okay, now this is a topic I like. Let’s talk about ice-cream! |
| Chuck: I think it will give me a lot of energy ahead of the beginning of the lesson. |
| Judith: Okay. Ice-cream and ice-cream sundaes are really, really popular in Germany especially if the ice-cream is homemade by an Italian ice-cream parlor. You see, Italians have the reputation of making the best ice-cream! |
| Chuck: And even if you go to Italy, you’ll see a lot of people walking with ice-cream in the evenings, is that right? |
| Judith: Yes. I mean, Italy is the land of ice-cream. |
| Chuck: Alright. So, I guess the Italian parlors are the place to go. And you’ll find in Germany that they’re quite small or I guess in Italy as well, probably, so I say they have 30 people inside and in summer they also offer many seats outside, as well. |
| Judith: Yes, it’s beautiful. You can sit in the pedestrians zone or you can sit on the sidewalk, well, on the chairs they put out and - |
| Chuck: Taking the romantic view. |
| Judith: Yeah and it’s so popular that you’ll struggle to find a seat, especially if the place is known to be good or maybe if it’s next to a sight [relevant] or next to a street. |
| Chuck: You’ll find out that the ice-cream parlors are quite different from American ones. It’s very rare to see the ice-cream parlor that says “We have 150 flavors!” |
| Judith: No, most places only have very few flavors. I know a place that’s really, really good that only have three flavors. |
| Chuck: Three flavors? |
| Judith: But that’s kind of unusual in Germany, too. |
| Chuck: I’m sure they have rainbow sherbet and cookie dough, right? |
| Judith: No. They have chocolate, vanilla and strawberry and they make the most amazing strawberry sundaes. |
| Chuck: They don’t even have Rocky Road? |
| Judith: It’s not all-brand flavors! Generally the flavors, well the one you define natural flavors like fruit and chocolate and vanilla and [Stracciatella] that’s a kind of vanilla with chocolate pieces in it, we call it [Stracciatella] but in Italy you would call [Stracciatella] because it is an Italian flavor, but everyone mispronounces it. And I think it doesn’t exist in the States, probably it isn’t extreme enough just a few blocks of chocolate in the ice-cream, but it’s very good. |
| Chuck: I bet you can find it somewhere. Since it’s pretty big. |
| Judith: Yeah. Well, if you go to a bigger place you might find other flavors like yogurt flavors, like strawberry yogurt or apricot yogurt and you can find mocha, nut flavors, peppermint, but things like cookie dough, marshmallow, double chocolate, sorry, they just don’t exist at the ice-cream parlors here. |
| Chuck: Yeah, for example you might want some Ben and Jerry’s at your local video rental store. |
| Judith: Yeah, or [Häagen-Dazs] those are the two brands that we have here that offer these strange flavors, which can be quite good, but you know, they’re not what you can get at the ice-cream parlors. |
| Chuck: And they’re also incredibly expensive. |
| Judith: Yes. |
| Chuck: From personal known. |
| Judith: Really expensive. |
| Chuck: And I think in the states it’s already quite expensive. All right, let’s stop making me hungry and get to the vocabulary. |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Chuck: The first word is? |
| Judith: [finden] |
| Chuck: “To find”. |
| Judith: [finden, finden] |
| Chuck: Next? |
| Judith: [gleich] |
| Chuck: “Equal, same, immediately” or “shortly”. |
| Judith: [gleich, gleich] |
| Chuck: Next? |
| Judith: [glauben] |
| Chuck: “To believe”. |
| Judith: [glauben, glauben] |
| Chuck: Next? |
| Judith: [Kugel] |
| Chuck: “Sphere” or “scoop of ice-cream”. |
| Judith: [Kugel, die Kugel] and the plural is [Kugeln] |
| Chuck: Next? |
| Judith: [Eis] |
| Chuck: “Ice” or “ice-cream”. |
| Judith: [Eis, das Eis] |
| Chuck: Next? |
| Judith: [gern] or [gerne] |
| Chuck: “Gladly”. |
| Judith: [gern, gerne, gern, gerne] |
| Chuck: Next? |
| Judith: [Sorte] |
| Chuck: “Sort, kind, type, variety” or “species”. |
| Judith: [Sorte, die Sorte] and the plural is [Sorten] |
| Chuck: Next? |
| Judith: [Schokolade] |
| Chuck: “Chocolate”. |
| Judith: [Schokolade, die Schokoladen] and the plural is [Schokoladen] |
| Chuck: Next? |
| Judith: [Vanille] |
| Chuck: Vanilla. |
| Judith: [Vanille, die Vanille] |
| Chuck: Next? |
| Judith: [Erdbeere] |
| Chuck: “Strawberry”. |
| Judith: [Erdbeere, die Erdbeere] and the plural is [Erdbeeren] |
| Chuck: Next? |
| Judith: [Zitrone] |
| Chuck: “Lemon”. |
| Judith: [Zitrone, die Zitrone] and the plural is [Zitronen] |
| Chuck: Next? |
| Judith: [Banane] |
| Chuck: “Banana”. |
| Judith: [Banane, die Banane] and the plural is [Bananen] |
| Chuck: Next? |
| Judith: [Appetit] |
| Chuck: “Appetite”. |
| Judith: [Appetit, der Appetit] |
| 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 [Eiscreme] |
| Chuck: “Ice” or “ice-cream”. |
| Judith: Even though it’s possible to say [Eiscreme] in German, Germans usually won’t call it that. We just refer to both “ice” and “ice-cream” as [Eis] |
| Chuck: You’ll also know that the Germans will often make this mistake in English as well. “I’d like a scoop of ice.” |
| Judith: Okay, the next thing we should look at is [gern] or [gerne], the “e” is really optional. This is word does not really have an English equivalent. It’s possible to translate is as “gladly” or “willingly”, but [gerne] is a lot more common in German than either of these. It can replace the verb “to like” for example [Ich fahre gerne Taxi]. |
| Chuck: “I’d like to ride in a taxi.” |
| Judith: Okay, finally [Guten Appetit] |
| Chuck: Literally this means “Good appetite!” |
| Judith: Yeah. It means someone is wishing that you may have a good appetite that you’ll be able to eat some. It’s same as French [Bon Appetit] or Italian [Bon Appetito] but there’s no English equivalent except “Enjoy your meal.” |
| Chuck: Also notice this will pretty much be always said before every one meal, it’s quite impolite if you start eating without saying “Good Appetite!” first. |
| Judith: Yeah or if someone says “Good Appetite” you heave the leash. You have to say “Good Appetite” back or you have to say [Gleichfalls] or [Danke]. |
| Chuck: You’d feel pretty bad if you say “Good Appetite!” but your host doesn’t. |
| Judith: Yeah, it’s a bit strange in today’s dialogue because for cold meals or snacks, like ice-cream we don’t typically say it because those are not things for wish you have an appetite to eat you just eat them anyway. So, that’s why it was said in a half-joking way. Some people would do that. |
Lesson focus |
|---|
| Chuck: The focus of this lessons is noun plurals, part one. German plurals can be a mouthful, there’s so many different groups of words that form the plural differently. Today we will look at two types, but before that please note that the German definite articles is always [die] for plural nouns. So, at least when it’s plural you don’t have to worry about [der] or [die, das] |
| Judith: Yes. And the first type of nouns that we’ll look at does not get any new ending for the plural. It in fact, it’s just the same. For example, nouns ending in “er” or “en” are in this group and this easy group includes a lot of very common words for – |
| Chuck: Wait! Would that be like [Amerikaner]? |
| Judith: Yes! I was about to say, for example, nationalities as you said [Amerikaner] or [Japaner], also professions like [Designer, Programmierer] all of these words have a really easy plural pattern and also diminutives with a [-schen] ending, [-schen] in German makes everything smaller, for example [Bier], well you know [Bier] and [Bierschen] it’s a “little beer”. |
| Chuck: Yeah, I know beer. I don’t think I know “little beers” though. |
| Judith: Yes, but [Bierschen] is important if you want to convince your wife to let you have another beer [Nur noch ein Bierschen]. |
| Chuck: Okay, sounds pretty important, then. |
| Judith: Or there’s also [Häusschen] is a “little house”. So, these are also covered they never change for plural. |
| Chuck: They also add an “en” or an “n”. |
| Judith: Yes, that’s the second type. |
| Chuck: It’s a really common way of forming the plural covering most feminine nouns. For example, all the ice-cream flavor names we saw in this lesson. |
| Judith: Yes. [Erdbeere] |
| Chuck: “Strawberry”. |
| Judith: [Banane] |
| Chuck: “Banana”. |
| Judith: [Zitrone] |
| Chuck: “Lemon”. |
| Judith: [Schokolade] |
| Chuck: “Chocolate”. |
| Judith: And the same rule applies to many Latin or Greek derived words, for example [Nationalität]. |
| Chuck: “Nationality”. |
| Judith: The plural is [Nationalitäten]. And also masculine nouns ending in “I” or masculine nouns describing a living being, for example [Der Deutsche] |
| Chuck: “The German”. |
| Judith: And the plural [Die Deutschen] |
| Chuck: “The Germans”. |
| Judith: In the previous lessons we’ve already encountered the following nouns that have this type. They’re really many of them [Ampel, Ausgabe, Entschuldigung, Farbe, Frau, Herr, Kontrolle, Mensch, Name, Polizist, Reservierung, Sonne, Sprache,Telefonnumer, Tourist, Uhr] and [Woche]. |
| Chuck: Do you recall what all of those mean? If not, look up in the dictionary at GermanPod101.com |
| Judith: Since they’re different types of nouns requiring different endings for plural, we shall always tell you what kind of plural and noun choses when we get to a new noun. |
Outro |
| Chuck: Well that just about does it for today. Before we go, I want to tell you about a way to improve your pronunciation drastically. |
| Judith: The voice recording tool. |
| Chuck: Yes! The voice recording tool in the premium learning center. |
| Judith: Record your voice with a click of button. |
| Chuck: And play it back just as easily. |
| Judith: So, you record your voice and then you listen to it. |
| Chuck: Compare it to the native speakers. |
| Judith: And adjust your pronunciation. |
| Chuck: This will help you improve your pronunciation fast. So, see you next week! |
| Judith: [Bis nächste Woche] |
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