Learn how to ask for and follow directions
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Gabriella: Hi everyone! Welcome back to GermanPod101.com. You’re listening to Absolute Beginner Season 3, Lesson 3, Have You Lost Your Way in Germany? I’m Gabriella. |
| Frank: Hi, my name is Frank. What are we learning in this lesson, Gabriella? |
| Gabriella: In this lesson, you'll learn how to ask for directions in German. |
| Frank: That’s going to be essential for you listeners, especially in a German speaking country! So, first, we're going to listen to a conversation that takes place on a street in Germany. |
| Gabriella: The conversation is between Jens and a passerby. |
| Frank: So, they'll be using formal German. |
| DIALOGUE |
| Jens: Entschuldigung! |
| Passant: Ja? |
| Jens: Wir suchen die Goethe-Schule. Kennen Sie die? |
| Passant: Lernt ihr Deutsch? |
| Jens : Ich nicht. Ich bin Deutscher, aber meine Bekannte Kate lernt Deutsch. Wo liegt die Goethe-Schule? |
| Passant: Ja... Das ist das Gebäude da. |
| Jens: Da links? |
| Passant: Nein, rechts. |
| Gina: Let's hear the conversation one time slowly. |
| Jens: Entschuldigung! |
| Passant: Ja? |
| Jens: Wir suchen die Goethe-Schule. Kennen Sie die? |
| Passant: Lernt ihr Deutsch? |
| Jens : Ich nicht. Ich bin Deutscher, aber meine Bekannte Kate lernt Deutsch. Wo liegt die Goethe-Schule? |
| Passant: Ja... Das ist das Gebäude da. |
| Jens: Da links? |
| Passant: Nein, rechts. |
| Gina: Now, let's hear it with English translation. |
| Jens: Entschuldigung! |
| Gabriella: Excuse me! |
| Passant: Ja? |
| Gabriella: Yes? |
| Jens: Wir suchen die Goethe-Schule. Kennen Sie die? |
| Gabriella: We are looking for the Goethe School. Do you know it? |
| Passant: Lernt ihr Deutsch? |
| Gabriella: Are you learning German? |
| Jens : Ich nicht. Ich bin Deutscher, aber meine Bekannte Kate lernt Deutsch. Wo liegt die Goethe-Schule? |
| Gabriella: I'm not. I'm German, but my acquaintance Kate is learning German. Where is the Goethe School? |
| Passant: Ja... Das ist das Gebäude da. |
| Gabriella: Yes, it's that building there. |
| Jens: Da links? |
| Gabriella: On the left? |
| Passant: Nein, rechts. |
| Gabriella: No, on the right. |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Frank: Okay. I think it’s time to talk about politeness in Germany! In this lesson we saw the other two ways of saying “you” in German. ihr is used when you’re talking to a group of people. |
| Gabriella: And apart from this plural form of “you”, German has two ways of addressing one person as “you”, which are du and Sie, informal and formal respectively. |
| Frank: That’s right. So altogether there are three forms-du, Sie, and ihr, but their usage is pretty straight forward. |
| Gabriella: Okay, Frank, let’s talk a little bit about how you'd use the informal du as opposed to the formal Sie to address someone. |
| Frank: Your default should be to address all Germans you meet as Sie. Older people especially are very sensitive when it comes to how you address them. So, using the formal Sie is the easiest way of saying “I respect you” in German. |
| Gabriella: That’s why even some people who’ve known each other for quite a while still use the formal language with each other. Generally, you should only use informal language with a new acquaintance when... |
| Frank: ...you’re talking to someone under eighteen... |
| Gabriella: ...you and the person you’re conversing with are both young, around the age of a student... |
| Frank: ...or if you and the person you’re talking with are related. |
| Gabriella: In all other cases you should wait for your senior to switch to informal language. |
| Frank: Yes. It all depends on how long you've known someone too. But if you just start by addressing a stranger informally, he may feel offended thinking that you’re treating him like a child. |
| Gabriella: That being said, as a foreigner you certainly have some leeway in case you should forget. Alright! Let’s take a look at the vocabulary for this lesson. |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Gabriella: The first word we shall see is... |
| Frank: ihr [natural native speed] |
| Gabriella: you (plural) |
| Frank: ihr [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Frank: ihr [natural native speed] |
| Gabriella: Next |
| Frank: rechts [natural native speed] |
| Gabriella: right |
| Frank: rechts [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Frank: rechts [natural native speed] |
| Gabriella: Next |
| Frank: links [natural native speed] |
| Gabriella: left |
| Frank: links [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Frank : links [natural native speed] |
| Gabriella: Next |
| Frank: da [natural native speed] |
| Gabriella: there |
| Frank: da [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Frank: da [natural native speed] |
| Gabriella: Next |
| Frank: Gebäude [natural native speed] |
| Gabriella: building |
| Frank: Gebäude [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Frank: Gebäude [natural native speed] |
| Gabriella: Next |
| Frank: kennen [natural native speed] |
| Gabriella: to know something or someone |
| Frank: kennen [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Frank: kennen [natural native speed] |
| Gabriella: Next |
| Frank: Sie [natural native speed] |
| Gabriella: you (formal) |
| Frank: Sie [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Frank: Sie [natural native speed] |
| Gabriella: Next |
| Frank: aber [natural native speed] |
| Gabriella: but |
| Frank: aber [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Frank: aber [natural native speed] |
| Gabriella: Next |
| Frank: nicht [natural native speed] |
| Gabriella: not |
| Frank: nicht [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Frank: nicht [natural native speed] |
| Gabriella: And last, |
| Frank: wir [natural native speed] |
| Gabriella: we |
| Frank: wir [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Frank: wir [natural native speed] |
| KEY VOCAB AND PHRASES |
| Gabriella: Let’s have a closer look at the usage for some of the words and phrases from this lesson. |
| Frank: The first word we shall look at is the all-important word, nicht. |
| Gabriella: Yes! nicht is a negative particle in German. When negating a verb, it’s placed before the verb it's negating. |
| Frank: For example, Ich gehe nicht schwimmen, which means “I’m not going swimming.” The same is true when negating an adverb. For example, Er ist nicht da, meaning “He's not there.” Next up is the word aber, which is the conjunction "but." You'll soon see that Germans abuse the word aber. |
| Gabriella: They use it much more often than an English speaker would. Watch out for this, and adopt your own usage of the word when speaking German. |
| Frank: Next is the German word for “building”, which is Gebäude. The passerby in our conversation used it when he was pointing at the Goethe-Schule. |
| Gebäude is the first neutral word we learn. So keep in mind that it’s das Gebäude but die Schule. |
| Gabriella: And the noun Schule is feminine, isn’t it Frank? |
| Frank: That’s right, Gabriella, so feminine nouns use the determiner die for “the” in their standard form. As sentences get more complex, these determiners can change, but we’ll tell you more about that at a later stage. |
| Gabriella: Ok, now, let's move on to the grammar. |
Lesson focus |
|---|
| Gabriella: In this lesson, you’ll learn how to conjugate regular verbs in the present tense, and negate sentences. |
| Frank: In this lesson, we’ve looked at some of the endings that regular German verbs take in the present tense. Here’s an overview. Let’s take lernen as an example. lernen |
| Gabriella: “to learn” |
| Frank: ich lern-e |
| Gabriella: “I learn” |
| Frank: du lern-st |
| Gabriella: “you learn,” informal |
| Frank: er lern-t |
| Gabriella: “he learns” |
| Frank: sie lern-t |
| Gabriella: “she learns” |
| Frank: es lern-t |
| Gabriella: “it learns” |
| Frank: wir lern-en |
| Gabriella: “we learn” |
| Frank: ihr lern-t |
| Gabriella: “you learn”, addressing more than one person. |
| Frank: sie lern-en |
| Gabriella: “they learn” or “you learn,” formal. When using it formally, capitalize the “S” in “Sie”. |
| Frank: With the verbs suchen and trinken this is slightly more difficult than the English present tense. However, the German is easier than the English in that there's no difference between “I drink” and “I'm drinking”; both are ich trinke. |
| Gabriella: And the same goes for “he learns” and “he's learning”. There's only one translation; Ich lerne. “You search” and “you're searching” are both Ich suche. There’s a big difference in English but no difference in German. |
| Frank: Another thing that’s easier in German is negation. To make a sentence negative, just add nicht as we touched upon earlier. For example, Ich suche nicht. |
| Gabriella: “I’m not searching” or “I don’t search”. |
| Frank: Ich lerne nicht. |
| Gabriella: “I’m not studying” or “I don’t study”. |
| Frank: Ich trinke nicht. |
| Gabriella: “I’m not drinking” or “I don’t drink”. |
Outro |
| Gabriella: Listeners, ever have any German language or lesson-related questions? |
| Frank: Or maybe you have some feedback for us... |
| Gabriella: Leave us a comment or ask a question on the lessons page! |
| Frank: It's super simple. Go to GermanPod101.com... |
| Gabriella: ...click on comments, |
| Frank: ...enter your comment and name, |
| Gabriella: ...and that's it! |
| Frank: Commenting is a a great way to practice writing and reading in German. |
| Gabriella: It helps you learn faster. |
| Frank: And it helps us get better through your feedback. |
| Gabriella: So no excuses, listeners. |
| Frank: Go to GermanPod101.com, and comment now. |
| Gabriella: Okay! That’s all for this lesson. We hope you had fun, listeners! |
| Frank: By the way, Spass is the word for “fun”. |
| Gabriella: Remember you can check the lesson notes to reinforce what you’ve learned in this lesson, and leave us a post at GermanPod101.com if you have any questions or comments. |
| Frank: Thanks for listening, and we’ll see you next time! |
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