Learn how to understand colloquial German
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Gina: Welcome back to GermanPod101.com, everyone! I’m Gina, and this is Absolute Beginner, Season 3, Lesson 20 - Have You Had One Too Many German Beers? |
| Frank: Frank here! Hi everyone! |
| Gina: In this lesson, you’ll learn how to understand colloquial German. |
| Frank: This conversation takes place at the pub in Berlin. |
| Gina: The conversation is between Jens and Kate. |
| Frank: The speakers are friends so they’ll be using informal German. |
| DIALOGUE |
| Jens: Ahh, da kommt die Kellnerin wieder. |
| Kellnerin: Zwei Weißbier bitte. |
| Jens: Danke… Prost! |
| Kate: Prost! |
| Jens: Mhmm, lecker! Ich liebe deutsches Bier. |
| Kate: Ja, ich mag's auch sehr gern. |
| Jens: 'Tschuldigung! Noch 'n Bier bitte! |
| Kellnerin: Kommt sofort. |
| Kate: Für mich lieber kein Bier mehr. Ich nehm' 'ne Cola. |
| Jens: Warum? |
| Kate: Ich fühl' mich nich' so gut. |
| Jens: Oh. |
| Kate: Und morgen früh hab' ich Unterricht. |
| Jens: Ich ja auch. Von zwei Bier werd' ich nich' blau. |
| Kate: Egal. |
| Gina: Let's hear the conversation one time slowly. |
| Jens: Ahh, da kommt die Kellnerin wieder. |
| Kellnerin: Zwei Weißbier bitte. |
| Jens: Danke… Prost! |
| Kate: Prost! |
| Jens: Mhmm, lecker! Ich liebe deutsches Bier. |
| Kate: Ja, ich mag's auch sehr gern. |
| Jens: 'Tschuldigung! Noch 'n Bier bitte! |
| Kellnerin: Kommt sofort. |
| Kate: Für mich lieber kein Bier mehr. Ich nehm' 'ne Cola. |
| Jens: Warum? |
| Kate: Ich fühl' mich nich' so gut. |
| Jens: Oh. |
| Kate: Und morgen früh hab' ich Unterricht. |
| Jens: Ich ja auch. Von zwei Bier werd' ich nich' blau. |
| Kate: Egal. |
| Gina: Now, let's hear it with English translation. |
| Jens: Ahh, da kommt die Kellnerin wieder. |
| Gina: Ahh, the waitress is coming again. |
| Kellnerin: Zwei Weißbier bitte. |
| Gina: Two wheat beers, please. |
| Jens: Danke… Prost! |
| Gina: Thanks...cheers! |
| Kate: Prost! |
| Gina: Cheers! |
| Jens: Mhmm, lecker! Ich liebe deutsches Bier. |
| Gina: Hmm, delicious! I love German beer. |
| Kate: Ja, ich mag's auch sehr gern. |
| Gina: Yes, I love it too. |
| Jens: 'Tschuldigung! Noch 'n Bier bitte! |
| Gina: Excuse me! Another beer please! |
| Kellnerin: Kommt sofort. |
| Gina: Coming up right away. |
| Kate: Für mich lieber kein Bier mehr. Ich nehm' 'ne Cola. |
| Gina: No more beer for me. I’ll have a cola. |
| Jens: Warum? |
| Gina: Why? |
| Kate: Ich fühl' mich nich' so gut. |
| Gina: I don’t feel too good. |
| Jens: Oh. |
| Gina: Oh. |
| Kate: Und morgen früh hab' ich Unterricht. |
| Gina: And I have lessons early tomorrow morning. |
| Jens: Ich ja auch. Von zwei Bier werd' ich nich' blau. |
| Gina: Me too. I won’t get drunk on two beers. |
| Kate: Egal. |
| Gina: Doesn’t matter. |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Frank: Germans love the great range of beers, and it’s something that Germans miss abroad, obviously. It’s the best!! |
| Gina: Yes, there are lots of brands of beer in Germany, and there are different types like pilsner, alt, lager, export, dark beer, and strong beer. |
| Frank: There are also mixes. For example, radler is beer with lemonade. And beware of what they call Berliner Weisse. Normally, Weisse is a Bavarian style wheat beer, but Berliner Weisse usually comes in syrup. |
| Gina: German beer is typically five percent alcohol. You’ll note that’s weaker than Belgium beer. |
| Frank: And it goes well with hearty foods and snacks too. |
| Gina: Beer is drunk in high quantities! Some people drink six or seven beers in the course of an evening, and the per capita yearly consumption is among the highest in the world. |
| Frank: Oh, one thing you’ll notice is that when you order beer in a restaurant or a bar, you’ll actually get the proper glass for that type of beer. |
| Gina: Like from the same company? |
| Frank: Yes of course! And Bavaria is the heartland of beer consumption. |
| Gina: So check it out, listeners! Ok, now let’s take a look at the vocabulary for this lesson. |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Gina: The first word we shall see is... |
| Frank: wieder [natural native speed] |
| Gina: again |
| Frank: wieder [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Frank: wieder [natural native speed] |
| Frank: Prost [natural native speed] |
| Gina: cheers |
| Frank : Prost [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Frank: Prost [natural native speed] |
| Frank: lecker [natural native speed] |
| Gina: yummy, delicious |
| Frank: lecker [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Frank: lecker [natural native speed] |
| Frank: lieben [natural native speed] |
| Gina: to love |
| Frank: lieben [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Frank: lieben [natural native speed] |
| Frank: sofort [natural native speed] |
| Gina: immediately |
| Frank: sofort [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Frank: sofort [natural native speed] |
| Frank: mehr [natural native speed] |
| Gina: more |
| Frank: mehr [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Frank: mehr [natural native speed] |
| Frank: fühlen [natural native speed] |
| Gina: to feel |
| Frank: fühlen [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Frank: fühlen [natural native speed] |
| Frank: Unterricht [natural native speed] |
| Gina: instruction, class |
| Frank: Unterricht [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Frank: Unterricht [natural native speed] |
| Frank: blau [natural native speed] |
| Gina: blue |
| Frank: blau [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Frank: blau [natural native speed] |
| Frank: egal [natural native speed] |
| Gina: doesn't matter |
| Frank: egal [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Frank: egal [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 word we’ll look at is... |
| Frank: Deutsch. |
| Gina: “German”. The thing to remember here is that it’s not just the name of the language, it’s also an adjective. |
| Frank: As an adjective, it’s not capitalized as nouns are, and takes on typical adjective endings as in deutsches Bier. |
| Gina: “German beer” Okay, let’s have a look at another word. |
| Frank: Next is fühlen, which means ‘to feel.’ |
| Gina: It comes with an extra pronoun, as it is reflexive, so we literally say, “I feel me good” instead of “I feel good”. And how would you say that word for word in German? |
| Frank: Ich fühle mich gut. |
| Gina: “I’m feeling good.” |
| Frank: It works the same way as in Wir treffen uns. |
| Gina: “We are meeting”, but it literally means “We meet us” or “ourselves”. |
| Frank: Yes. Okay, and now the last word, blau. |
| Gina: Which means the color “blue”, but it can be used idiomatically. |
| Frank: Right, This is no ordinary adjective. |
| Gina: It is a special case. It’s also the slang term for “drunk”. |
| Frank: For example, blau werden meaning “to become blue”. |
| Gina: Yes. If you say “I’m blue” in German, that means, “I’m drunk”. It doesn’t mean “to be sad” as it would in English. It can also mean “I’m blue”, literally, but that’s going to be an unlikely scenario. |
| Frank: (laughs) Well, unless you’re an alien. Okay, now onto the grammar. |
Lesson focus |
|---|
| Gina: In this lesson, you’ll learn how to use colloquial German. |
| Frank: We’re going to look at the cases where spoken German and written German don’t match. Quite separate from any dialects or social groups, there are some things that can be noticed across Germany and in all generations. |
| Gina: For example, the final “E” of verb forms is almost always dropped if the verb stem is short. |
| Frank: People will say ich denk’ and not ich denke, ich nehm’ and not ich nehme, ich hab’ and not ich habe and so on. |
| Gina: When writing this down, for example, in song lyrics or transcriptions of speech, Germans typically indicate this missing “E” with an apostrophe in its place. The apostrophe is also used when the “E” or “S” is missing in phrases like: |
| Frank: Wie geht's? |
| Gina: ”How’s it going?” |
| Frank: Or Ich mag's auch. |
| Gina: ”I like it, too.” The “S” is very often shortened. |
| Frank: For ein, eine, einen and related forms, the “EI” at the beginning is dropped. This leaves 'n, 'ne and 'nen. Also Etwas is shortened to was. |
| Gina: Also, for the interrogative clauses, the final “T” in second-person singular forms of: |
| Frank: hast, willst, nimmst and so on, often change with the following du to haste, willste, nimmste. |
| Gina: Can you give us an example, Frank? |
| Frank: Haste das gesehen? |
| Gina: Which is translated as “You seen that?” Keep in mind that this form is extremely colloquial and you almost never see it in written language. |
| Frank: And then there’s the German word nicht which is pronounced differently in different regions. However, other areas pronounce it as nischt, nisch or nech. |
| Gina: When you’re staying in Germany, you should probably adopt whatever is most common in your area. |
| Frank: Yes that’s good advice. |
| Gina: These are really the most conservative things one can say about colloquial German. The rest depends on the dialect of the person you’re talking to, their age, and of course, well, how many beers they’ve had! |
Outro |
| Frank: Listeners, have you ever dreamed of starring in one of our lessons? |
| Gina: If your answer is yes, use the voice-recording-tool on the lessons page! |
| Frank: Record your voice with a click of a button, |
| Gina: ...and then play it back just as easily. |
| Frank: Then, compare it to the native speakers in the lesson... |
| Gina: ...and adjust your pronunciation! |
| Frank: After a few tries, you'll be speaking better German than Simone here! |
| Gina: Hey! |
| Frank: Go to GermanPod101.com, and rapidly improve your German pronunciation! |
| Gina: I think I’ll have to go grab a beer now, Frank, you coming? |
| Frank: Sicherlich! I’ll be right there! |
| Gina: Ok, that’s all for this lesson. Thanks for listening, and we’ll see you next time! Bye! |
| Frank: Tschüsschen! |
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