Learn about how to tell the time
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Gina: Hi! I’m Gina. Welcome back to GermanPod101.com. This is Absolute Beginner, Season 3, Lesson 17. Do You Have the Time in Germany? |
| Frank: Hi everyone, Frank here! |
| Gina: In this lesson, you'll learn how to say the time in German. |
| Frank: This conversation takes place on the phone. |
| Gina: It’s between Jens and Kate. They’re talking after school to set up their meeting tonight. |
| Frank: The speakers are classmates, so they’ll be using informal German. |
| DIALOGUE |
| Kate: Hallo! |
| Jens: Ähm... spreche ich mit Kate? |
| Kate: Ja. Wer ist da? |
| Jens: Ich bin's, Jens. |
| Kate: Ach, hallo Jens! Wie geht's? |
| Jens: Gut, danke. Also... wegen heute Abend... |
| kate: Ja? |
| Jens: Wann sollen wir uns treffen? |
| Kate: Also, mein Freund spielt um halb elf, aber ich werde schon früher da sein. |
| Jens: Wie früh? |
| Kate: Vielleicht komme ich um Viertel nach zehn, oder um zehn Uhr. |
| Jens: Mit dem Bus bin ich entweder um fünf vor zehn oder um zehn Uhr zwölf da. |
| Kate: Dann nimm den Bus, der um zehn Uhr zwölf ankommt, dann bin ich auf jeden Fall da. |
| Jens: Okay, dann sehen wir uns heute Abend um Viertel nach zehn im International Pub! |
| Kate: Okay, bis dann! |
| Gina: Let's hear the conversation one time slowly. |
| Kate: Hallo! |
| Jens: Ähm... spreche ich mit Kate? |
| Kate: Ja. Wer ist da? |
| Jens: Ich bin's, Jens. |
| Kate: Ach, hallo Jens! Wie geht's? |
| Jens: Gut, danke. Also... wegen heute Abend... |
| kate: Ja? |
| Jens: Wann sollen wir uns treffen? |
| Kate: Also, mein Freund spielt um halb elf, aber ich werde schon früher da sein. |
| Jens: Wie früh? |
| Kate: Vielleicht komme ich um Viertel nach zehn, oder um zehn Uhr. |
| Jens: Mit dem Bus bin ich entweder um fünf vor zehn oder um zehn Uhr zwölf da. |
| Kate: Dann nimm den Bus, der um zehn Uhr zwölf ankommt, dann bin ich auf jeden Fall da. |
| Jens: Okay, dann sehen wir uns heute Abend um Viertel nach zehn im International Pub! |
| Kate: Okay, bis dann! |
| Gina: Now, let's hear it with English translation. |
| Kate: Hallo! |
| Gina: Hello! |
| Jens: Ähm... spreche ich mit Kate? |
| Gina: Umm...am I speaking to Kate? |
| Kate: Ja. Wer ist da? |
| Gina: Yes. Who's there? |
| Jens: Ich bin's, Jens. |
| Gina: It's me, Jens. |
| Kate: Ach, hallo Jens! Wie geht's? |
| Gina: Ah, hello Jens! How are you? |
| Jens: Gut, danke. Also... wegen heute Abend... |
| Gina: Good, thanks. So...about tonight... |
| kate: Ja? |
| Gina: Yes? |
| Jens: Wann sollen wir uns treffen? |
| Gina: When shall we meet? |
| Kate: Also, mein Freund spielt um halb elf, aber ich werde schon früher da sein. |
| Gina: Well, my friend is playing from ten thirty, but I'll already be there earlier. |
| Jens: Wie früh? |
| Gina: How early? |
| Kate: Vielleicht komme ich um Viertel nach zehn, oder um zehn Uhr. |
| Gina: Maybe I'll go at a quarter to ten or at ten. |
| Jens: Mit dem Bus bin ich entweder um fünf vor zehn oder um zehn Uhr zwölf da. |
| Gina: With the bus, I'll either be there at five to ten or at ten twelve. |
| Kate: Dann nimm den Bus, der um zehn Uhr zwölf ankommt, dann bin ich auf jeden Fall da. |
| Gina: Then take the bus arriving at ten twelve-then I'll be there in any case. |
| Jens: Okay, dann sehen wir uns heute Abend um Viertel nach zehn im International Pub! |
| Gina: Okay, I'll see you tonight at a quarter past ten in the International Pub! |
| Kate: Okay, bis dann! |
| Gina: Okay, see you then! |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Gina: So, do you have a mobile phone, Frank? |
| Frank: Ja! Of course I have Ein Handy! |
| Gina: OK, let’s talk about calling people in Germany. |
| Frank: Klingt gut! Sounds good. There's one thing that's really interesting. When you're calling a home phone in Germany, most people will say their name immediately after picking up the receiver. This is to let you know that you've reached the right person. |
| Gina: And that they expect the same from you when you call. If they say their name, then you should definitely say your name when you answer. |
| Frank: Yes. Your answer can be just your name or it can be your name with a greeting. But if you fail to say who you are, then quite a few people will get annoyed at you or maybe they'll even hang up. |
| Gina: It's just common courtesy. It also distinguishes you from people who have no business calling, like telemarketers or lottery game companies. |
| Frank: Yeah. If you want to talk to someone else in the household, you should still say your name before asking for the phone to be passed over. And if you want to be really polite, you should also have a brief conversation with whoever answered the phone, especially if you're already acquainted with that person. |
| Gina: Of course, these rules may be a bit relaxed when you're calling someone's mobile phone. |
| Frank: Which is Handy, in German. |
| Gina: That’s right. Now, let’s take a look at the vocabulary for this lesson. |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Gina: The first word we shall see is... |
| Frank: wer [natural native speed] |
| Gina: who |
| Frank: wer [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Frank: wer [natural native speed] |
| Frank: wegen [natural native speed] |
| Gina: because of |
| Frank: wegen [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Frank : wegen [natural native speed] |
| Frank: vor [natural native speed] |
| Gina: before, ago, in front of |
| Frank: vor [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Frank: vor [natural native speed] |
| Frank: Viertel [natural native speed] |
| Gina: quarter, borough |
| Frank: Viertel [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Frank: Viertel [natural native speed] |
| Frank: früh [natural native speed] |
| Gina: early |
| Frank: früh [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Frank: früh [natural native speed] |
| Frank: halb [natural native speed] |
| Gina: half |
| Frank: halb [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Frank: halb [natural native speed] |
| Frank: um [natural native speed] |
| Gina: around, at (point in time) |
| Frank: um [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Frank: um [natural native speed] |
| Frank: treffen [natural native speed] |
| Gina: to meet |
| Frank: treffen [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Frank: treffen [natural native speed] |
| Frank: wann [natural native speed] |
| Gina: when |
| Frank: wann [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Frank: wann [natural native speed] |
| Frank: uns [natural native speed] |
| Gina: us |
| Frank: uns [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Frank: uns [natural native speed] |
| KEY VOCAB AND PHRASES |
| Gina: Let’s take a closer look at the usage of some of the words and phrases from this lesson. The first phrase we'll look at is: |
| Frank: Wie geht’s? It's the shorter version of Wie geht es dir? , which means "How's it going?" |
| Gina: Yeah. Remember this is a very casual phrase. |
| Frank: That’s right! Then we should look at treffen |
| Gina: which is “to meet”. It is a funny verb in German because Germans literally say, "We meet us" or "We meet ourselves." |
| Frank: Hence, there’s the unexpected uns in wir treffen uns. You don't just say wir treffen, you have to say wir treffen uns. |
| Gina: Right, so make sure to say it correctly in German. |
| Frank: Okay, Next, we should talk about früh. |
| Gina: “early” |
| Frank: früh means “early”, so früher means… |
| Gina: “earlier” |
| Frank: Yes. In German, the comparative form of adjectives is always made by adding "ER". |
| Gina: We won’t bombard you with the details of comparatives in this lesson, but for now, it’s useful to remember this “-er” ending so you can start experimenting with comparative adjectives. |
| Frank: Yes! And you can start with früher. |
| Gina: Once again, this means “earlier”, and it’s spelt with that famous little accent mark above the letter “u”, which is called an |
| Frank: umlaut. |
| Gina: Could you say it one more time, Frank? |
| Frank: umlaut. Which is in the word früher. |
| Gina: You can check the lesson notes to see how it’s written. Okay, now onto the grammar. |
Lesson focus |
|---|
| Gina: In this lesson, you’ll learn how to talk about the time of the day. In German, there are different ways to tell time. The most common one is to name the nearest quarter to the hour. |
| Frank: So in this case, you would say something like Um, or “at” in English, plus the hour number. |
| Gina: That would be the full hour. |
| Frank: So, for example, um zwei Uhr. |
| Gina: “At two o’clock.” |
| Frank: Uhr means “o'clock”, basically. |
| Gina: As we saw in a previous lesson – it means “clock” or “hour”, so it lends itself to several meanings which are all related to time. |
| Frank: Yeah, and for “six fifteen”, you could say Viertel nach sechs. |
| Gina: A quarter past a certain hour—in this case, six. |
| Frank: (slow) Viertel nach sechs. Of course, there's also Viertel vor sechs. |
| Gina: A quarter of an hour before a full hour, in this case, “quarter to six”. |
| Frank: (slow) Viertel vor sechs. |
| Gina: The next one is tricky! |
| Frank: Yes, and that is Halb sieben. |
| Gina: Half an hour before the next hour. This does not however mean half seven. Have you noticed the difference in this meaning, listeners? |
| Frank: In English, you can give a time as half-past a certain hour. |
| Gina: Yes, that’s right, but in German it’s the other way around. So halb means “before the next hour”. Let’s try a few. |
| Frank: Halb acht…. |
| Gina: “half past seven”. It’s not eight, but it does mean half an hour to eight, if that makes sense! |
| Frank: Here’s another one! Halb sechs. |
| Gina: “Half past five” |
| Frank: You can also indicate any amount of minutes before or after the full hour by using vor. |
| Gina: Which means “before”. |
| Frank: And nach, which means “after”. |
| Gina: What are some examples of that? |
| Frank: Zehn nach sechs. |
| Gina: “Ten past six” |
| Frank: Zehn vor vier. |
| Gina: “Ten to four.” Or you can just give the time digitally by reading the numbers, like off a wristwatch. |
| Frank: Yes, Zwölf Uhr Vier. |
| Gina: “twelve-oh-four”. When using this approach, almost all Germans will use a twenty-four hour clock, so five o'clock in the evening is usually called- |
| Frank: Siebzehn Uhr |
| Gina: which is “seventeen o'clock”. This is really critical too when you look at trains or flight schedules within Europe. |
Outro |
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| Gina: Well, that's all for this lesson. Thanks for listening, and we’ll see you next time! |
| Frank: Das ist alles, bis zum nächsten Mal! |
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