Learn the German alphabet
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Chuck: Absolute Beginners Season 2 Lesson 4, Spelling German Names, Ouch! |
| Judith: Hi. My name is Judith and I’m joined here by Chuck. |
| Chuck: Hello everyone and welcome back to GermanPod101.com. |
| Judith: What are we learning today? |
| Chuck: In this lesson, you’ll learn how to spell your name in German. |
| Judith: This conversation takes place at the reception of the Goethe School in Berlin. |
| Chuck: The conversation is between Paul and two women working at the reception. |
| Judith: The speakers are in a business relationship therefore they’re only speaking formal German. |
| Chuck: Let’s listen to the conversation. |
| DIALOGUES |
| Chuck: Guten Tag! Ist das hier die Anmeldung? |
| Judith: Nein, hier ist nicht die Anmeldung. Die Anmeldung ist da links. |
| Chuck: Ah, danke. |
| Judith: Hrmm. |
| Chuck: Guten Tag! Ist das hier die Anmeldung? |
| Judith: Ja. Wie heißen Sie? |
| Chuck: Paul Martens |
| Judith: Hmm, P – O – H -... |
| Chuck: Nein, P – A – U – L. Paul. Paul auf Deutsch. |
| Judith: Aha! Und der Nachname? |
| Chuck: M – A – R – T – E – N – S. |
| Judith: Danke. |
| Judith: Now slowly. |
| Chuck: Guten Tag! Ist das hier die Anmeldung? |
| Judith: Nein, hier ist nicht die Anmeldung. Die Anmeldung ist da links. |
| Chuck: Ah, danke. |
| Judith: Hrmm. |
| Chuck: Ah, danke. |
| Judith: Hrmm. |
| Chuck: Paul Martens |
| Judith: Hmm, P – O – H -... |
| Chuck: Nein, P – A – U – L. Paul. Paul auf Deutsch. |
| Judith: Aha! Und der Nachname? |
| Chuck: M – A – R – T – E – N – S. |
| Judith: Danke. |
| Judith: Now with the translation. |
| Judith: Guten Tag! Ist das hier die Anmeldung? |
| Chuck: Good day. Is this registration? |
| Judith: Nein, hier ist nicht die Anmeldung. |
| Chuck: No. Here is not the registration. |
| Judith: Die Anmeldung ist da links. |
| Chuck: The registration is there on the left. |
| Judith: Ah, danke. |
| Chuck: Ah, thanks. |
| Judith: Hrmm. |
| Chuck: Hrmm. |
| Judith: Guten Tag! Ist das hier die Anmeldung? |
| Chuck: Good day. Is this registration? |
| Judith: Ja. Wie heißen Sie? |
| Chuck: Yes, what’s your name? |
| Judith: Paul Martens. |
| Chuck: Paul Martens. |
| Judith: Hmm, P – O – H -... |
| Chuck: Hmm, P-O-H? |
| Judith: Nein, P – A – U – L. Paul. Paul auf Deutsch. |
| Chuck: No, P-A-U-L, Paul in German. |
| Judith: Aha! Und der Nachname? |
| Chuck: Aha. And your last name? |
| Judith: M – A – R – T – E – N – S. |
| Chuck: M-A-R-T-E-N-S. |
| Judith: Danke. |
| Chuck: Thanks. |
| Judith: Okay. |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Chuck: Let’s talk about spelling. |
| Judith: Not spelling yet. I was just going to say that if you want to spell something really important like maybe if you’re giving your email address to someone interesting then you might use names instead of letters. The first letter of the name is the letter that you were meaning to spell. It’s a great we to get used to German pronunciation and to some traditional German names. So how about we have a look at these? |
| Chuck: All right. |
| Judith: Of course some of the names are rather traditional but we’ll see. For A there is Anton and then it continues Beata. So Anton, Beata, Ceasar. |
| Chuck: Hey, is that a name? |
| Judith: No, no, it’s not a name. It just means Ceasar. It’s a German pronunciation Ceasar. Then there is Dora and Emil and then some names that you should probably recognize from German history, Fitlisch, Gustav, Heinrich, Ida, Julius then Kaufman. |
| Chuck: Wait, that could have another meaning, couldn’t it? |
| Judith: Yeah. It’s a last name. It means merchant. |
| Chuck: Okay. |
| Judith: Nordpol. |
| Chuck: Wait a minute. I don’t know anyone named Nordpol. |
| Judith: That’s right. It means North Pole. It’s not a name. They couldn’t find anything suitable. I don’t know. |
| Chuck: I think you’re just trying to trick me. |
| Judith: And then continuing for O, Otto, Paula, Quelle. |
| Chuck: Wait a minute. |
| Judith: Again, it’s not a name. It means source. |
| Chuck: I thought you said it’s a list of names. |
| Judith: Well, can you think of a good name with Q? |
| Chuck: Quixote? |
| Judith: Not a German name. |
| Chuck: Oh. |
| Judith: So Quelle meaning source, then Richard, Samuel, Theodore, Ulrich, Viktor, Wilhelm Xanthippe |
| Chuck: What? |
| Judith: Not a German name. Not a German name but a Greek one. |
| Chuck: Uh-huh. |
| Judith: Epsilon which is actually just the name of a letter and Zacharias. |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Chuck: All right. Well, let’s take a look at the vocabulary for this lesson. The first word we shall look at is? |
| Judith: gut |
| Chuck: Good. |
| Judith: gut |
| Chuck: Next. |
| Judith: Tag |
| Chuck: Day. |
| Judith: Tag |
| Chuck: Next. |
| Judith: Anmeldung |
| Chuck: Registration or application. |
| Judith: Anmeldung |
| Chuck: Next. |
| Judith: hier |
| Chuck: Here. |
| Judith: hier |
| Chuck: Next. |
| Judith: danke |
| Chuck: Thanks. |
| Judith: danke |
| Chuck: Next. |
| Judith: wie |
| Chuck: How. |
| Judith: wie |
| Chuck: Next. |
| Judith: auf |
| Chuck: On or on to. |
| Judith: auf |
| Chuck: Next. |
| Judith: nach |
| Chuck: To or after. |
| Judith: nach |
| Chuck: Next. |
| Judith: Name |
| Chuck: Name. |
| Judith: Name masculine. |
| KEY VOCAB AND PHRASES |
| Chuck: Let’s have a closer look at the usage for some of the words and phrases from this lesson. |
| Judith: The first phrase we’ll look at is Guten Tag! |
| Chuck: Good day. |
| Judith: It’s a general greeting used throughout the day. In contrast „Guten Morgen!“ is only used in the mornings as it literally translates to good morning, „Guten Morgen!“. And there’s also a „Guten Abend!“, good evening. The other thing we should look at is „Guten Abend!“ |
| Chuck: Last name. |
| Judith: It comes Nach. |
| Chuck: After |
| Judith: And „Name“. |
| Chuck: Name. |
| Judith: So your after name is your last name, your family name Nachname. |
Lesson focus |
|---|
| Chuck: The focus of this lesson are the German ABCs. |
| Judith: The German alphabet consists of the same letters as the English one with four additions. First, the part that’s the same. |
| Chuck: Not the different names the letters have. You need to know these so that you can spell out your name or your email address. |
| Judith: ah this is A. It’s ah and when you’re pronouncing it you should also be careful to make this clear sound. This applies to all vowels. Pay particular attention to the vowels this time. A, B, C, D, E, F, G then H, this is H, H, I, J, that’s J, J, K, L, M, N, O, P, Q, R, S, T, U, V, that’s V, V, W that’s W, W, X , Y, that’s Y, Y, Z. |
| Chuck: That’s Z. |
| Judith: Z. |
| Chuck: Z. |
| Judith: It’s zett |
| Chuck: It’s Z. |
| Judith: Okay. Let’s not argue. They are the four ones that don’t exist in English. They are äh,öh, üh. es-zett is A with äh that is two dots on top. öh is O with two dots on top. üh is U with two dots on top and there’s the ß the es-zett pronounced like es-zett so we call it „scharfes S“ sharp S. Like a snake. And it looks kind of like a Greek beta or kind of like a capital B but please don’t write it capital B. If you can’t write this particular letter, put double S. |
| Chuck: Well, that just about does it for today. |
| Judith: Listeners, are you looking for a cheat sheet to memorize German vocabulary? Have you checked out our video vocab series? |
| Chuck: These themed video lessons combine visual cues with the voice of native speakers. |
| Judith: Just another effective method of learning and retaining thousands of vocabulary words. |
| Chuck: Go to GermanPod101.com |
| Judith: Click on the video lessons tab. |
| Chuck: And hit play. |
| Judith: It’s that easy. |
| Chuck: But don’t take our word for it. |
| Judith: Try it for yourself at GermanPod101.com. |
| Chuck: Okay. See you next week. |
| Judith: Also, Bis nächste Woche! |
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