Learn math words in German
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| Hey! What’s up, everybody? I’m glad you’re here. I’m Henrik. Welcome to the new episode of GermanPod101.com. Today, our topic will be math. I will teach you must know math words. And with math, I don’t mean the Mars planet, I mean math, the subject in school, only that we German sometimes struggle with “TH” so don’t get confused here all right? Let’s get started. Number one… |
| 1. Mathematik “math” |
| Mein Lieblingsfach in der Schule ist Mathematik. “My favorite subject in school is math.” |
| Yeah, well for me, actually, that counts because I kind of like math. It was logic, it was numbers, it was right or wrong. It couldn’t be like German, for instance, where one could say, oh yeah, this is kind of right, but it’s also kind of, could be seen differently. No, math is cool, math is direct, math is like yes, it’s one or zero, right or wrong. |
| Number two... |
| 2. Zahl “number” |
| Die Zahlen 11 und 17 sind beide Primzahlen. “The numbers 11 and 17 are both prime numbers.” |
| Yeah, it took me a long time really to understand what are prime numbers when I was a kid. Hard to imagine that I like math right? But yeah, at least I got it, all those numbers which are not divisible except for by itself and by one. So as we’re here in my study room, you can see in the background, there’s also my keyboard so when I was studying, it became a little bit boring for me, I went back there, played a little to distract me from overstudies. So I tried to make it not too boring, not too dry for you guys even though math is a heavy topic for those who are not so loving with all numbers. But let’s just go on, let’s move on, let’s proceed. |
| Nummer drei “Number three”.... |
| 3. ein halb “a half” |
| Ich trinke meinen Tee mit eineinhalb Teelöffeln Zucker. “I drink my tea with one and a half teaspoons of sugar.” |
| In Germany, I don’t know if you’ve heard about that, it’s quite common to drink tea or coffee also without sugar, without any sugar. Of course there are people who puts sugar in their teas, but I for example, I like tea or coffee whatever even without sugar and one and a half is a lot of sugar. So if I would put sugar, I maybe will just put “a half” ein halb. |
| Nummer vier.... |
| 4. Prozent “percent” |
| Fünfzig Prozent von zwölf ist sechs. “Fifty percent of twelve is six.” |
| Mathematically correct, German correct, English correct, easy sentence for you guys right? Percent also sounds very similar to Prozent in German, Prozent “percent”, very similar. Easy one, let’s move on. |
| Nummer fünf “Number five”... |
| 5. Gerade “even” |
| Die Zahl 8 ist ein Beispiel für eine gerade Zahl. “The number 8 is an example for an even number.” |
| Yeah, as you probably know, even numbers are all the ones 2, 4, 6, 8, 10 which are just even. I don’t know a better way to describe it. I personally believe even numbers are more beautiful than uneven numbers, but it’s up to you. |
| Nummer sechs “number six”.... |
| 6. Ungerade “odd” |
| Die Zahl 11 ist ein Beispiel für eine ungerade Zahl. “The number 11 is an example for an uneven number.” |
| Even numbers, now we have odd numbers. In German, it’s a little bit easier. It’s just gerade and ungerade. So in many things, if it’s the opposite in German, you just put “un-” in front of it. For example, if you measure something really exactly, you say genau and if it’s really incredibly unspecific, not exactly always, ungenau, so just put “un-” in front of a word making the meaning the opposite or making it not the actual meaning. So gerade “even”, ungerade “uneven” or in terms of numbers, “odd”. German logic in words is good. |
| Nummer sieben... |
| 7. Berechnen “to calculate” |
| Können Sie die Kosten für die Lebensmittel berechnen? “Can you calculate the cost of the groceries?” |
| Yeah, my grocery costs are not too big. My fridge is always empty. There’s not too much to calculate about it. I could maybe eat a little more then I would also have to calculate more cost for my groceries. |
| Nummer acht “number eight”... |
| 8. Plus “plus” |
| Eins plus eins ist zwei. “One plus one makes two.” |
| Super easy one, just like “plus” is almost plus, plus “plus”. You probably will not get too much confusion with this word, calculating in German. It’s probably as simple as it is in English for you guys. |
| Number nine, probably, you guessed it already… |
| 9. minus “minus” |
| Acht minus eins ist sieben. “Eight minus one is seven.” |
| Is that so simple for you guys? So let’s put eight minus five, that’s harder. “Eight minus five is three.” Acht minus fünf ist drei. Yeah, you can go on. I mean, I’m probably not the right one to teach you plus and minus, I’m here to teach you the words. And you see, “minus” minus, almost as simple as “plus” and plus, calculating in German, you got it. |
| “Number ten” Nummer zehn... |
| 10. mal “times” |
| Drei mal drei ist neun. “Three times three is nine.” |
| Yeah, there is this...do you know Pippi Langstrumpf, not cartoon, but a child story character? And there’s a song, I don’t even know how it’s in English but in German, they sing, ‘Drei mal drei macht neun, widdewiddewitt…’ going on and so it’s like “three times three makes nine, dah, la, la, la, la…” It’s probably the easiest way to remember what is three times three in case you’re not so good with numbers. There’s a math rule in German, Punkt vor Strich which means “points before stripes” like plus and minus is kind of like stripes. Whereas, mal and geteilt, they have dots. Calculating a series or chain of numbers, you always first calculate dots, times and divided by before you calculate plus and minus. Why I’m telling you this, just to show we did it the other way, we had plus/minus, now we have mal. |
| That’s already it for our lesson today. If you have any more questions about German or about math, I might be helpful or not, depending on how much you believe in my math knowledge after this lesson. I’d be happy to see some comments of you. Subscribe to the channel at GermanPod101.com. Visit the page, GermanPod101.com, you will find more videos, maybe even some more spicier than just math numbers if you’re not such a big fan of it. I hope to see you again. I had fun. Bye-bye! Auf Wiedersehen. |
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