Learn how to make plurals with -er and with nothing
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Frank: Hello, everyone. I’m Frank and welcome back to GermanPod101.com. |
| Gina: Gina here! This is Absolute Beginner, Season 3, Lesson 22 - An Outing With German Plurals. In this lesson, you’ll learn how to make plurals with -er and with nothing. |
| Frank: This conversation takes place at the Kirsche family home. |
| Gina: It’s between Mrs. Kirsche and Kate Andrews |
| Frank: The speakers are adults. So they’ll be using formal German. |
| DIALOGUE |
| Frau Kirsche: Guten Tag, Frau Andrews! |
| Kate: Guten Tag! |
| Frau Kirsche: Wie war der Unterricht? |
| Kate: Gut. Wir lernen wirklich viel! |
| Frau Kirsche: Toll. Möchten Sie jetzt in die Stadt fahren, oder erst etwas essen? |
| Kate: Wie spät ist es? |
| Frau Kirsche: Es ist zwölf Uhr fünfundzwanzig. |
| Kate: Und wie lange dauert die Fahrt? |
| Frau Kirscher: Die Fahrt dauert nicht lange, nur etwa eine Viertelstunde. |
| Kate: Ich habe noch keinen Hunger. Lassen Sie uns in der Stadt etwas essen. |
| Frau Kirsche: Okay, das machen wir. Was genau suchen Sie in der Stadt? |
| Kate: Ich möchte schöne Gebäude sehen, Denkmäler und so. Außerdem möchte ich Bücher kaufen. |
| Frau Kirsche: Was für Bücher? |
| Kate: Egal. Einfach Bücher auf Deutsch. Ich möchte versuchen, etwas auf Deutsch zu lesen. |
| Frau Kirsche: Ah, ich kenne einen guten Buchladen. Da finden Sie auch einfache Bücher. |
| Kate: Klingt gut. Gehen wir! |
| Gina: Let's hear the conversation one time slowly. |
| Frau Kirsche: Guten Tag, Frau Andrews! |
| Kate: Guten Tag! |
| Frau Kirsche: Wie war der Unterricht? |
| Kate: Gut. Wir lernen wirklich viel! |
| Frau Kirsche: Toll. Möchten Sie jetzt in die Stadt fahren, oder erst etwas essen? |
| Kate: Wie spät ist es? |
| Frau Kirsche: Es ist zwölf Uhr fünfundzwanzig. |
| Kate: Und wie lange dauert die Fahrt? |
| Frau Kirscher: Die Fahrt dauert nicht lange, nur etwa eine Viertelstunde. |
| Kate: Ich habe noch keinen Hunger. Lassen Sie uns in der Stadt etwas essen. |
| Frau Kirsche: Okay, das machen wir. Was genau suchen Sie in der Stadt? |
| Kate: Ich möchte schöne Gebäude sehen, Denkmäler und so. Außerdem möchte ich Bücher kaufen. |
| Frau Kirsche: Was für Bücher? |
| Kate: Egal. Einfach Bücher auf Deutsch. Ich möchte versuchen, etwas auf Deutsch zu lesen. |
| Frau Kirsche: Ah, ich kenne einen guten Buchladen. Da finden Sie auch einfache Bücher. |
| Kate: Klingt gut. Gehen wir! |
| Gina: Now, let's hear it with English translation. |
| Frau Kirsche: Guten Tag, Frau Andrews! |
| Gina: Good day, Miss Andrews! |
| Kate: Guten Tag! |
| Gina: Good day! |
| Frau Kirsche: Wie war der Unterricht? |
| Gina: How was the lesson? |
| Kate: Gut. Wir lernen wirklich viel! |
| Gina: Good. We're really learning a lot! |
| Frau Kirsche: Toll. Möchten Sie jetzt in die Stadt fahren, oder erst etwas essen? |
| Gina: Excellent. Would you like to go into town now or eat something first? |
| Kate: Wie spät ist es? |
| Gina: What time is it? |
| Frau Kirsche: Es ist zwölf Uhr fünfundzwanzig. |
| Gina: It's twelve twenty-five. |
| Kate: Und wie lange dauert die Fahrt? |
| Gina: And how long does the journey take? |
| Frau Kirscher: Die Fahrt dauert nicht lange, nur etwa eine Viertelstunde. |
| Gina: The journey doesn't take long-just a quarter of an hour. |
| Kate: Ich habe noch keinen Hunger. Lassen Sie uns in der Stadt etwas essen. |
| Gina: I'm not hungry yet. Let's eat something in town. |
| Frau Kirsche: Okay, das machen wir. Was genau suchen Sie in der Stadt? |
| Gina: Okay, we'll do that. What exactly are you looking for in town? |
| Kate: Ich möchte schöne Gebäude sehen, Denkmäler und so. Außerdem möchte ich Bücher kaufen. |
| Gina: I'd like to see beautiful buildings, memorials, and such. Besides that, I'd also like to buy books. |
| Frau Kirsche: Was für Bücher? |
| Gina: What kind of books? |
| Kate: Egal. Einfach Bücher auf Deutsch. Ich möchte versuchen, etwas auf Deutsch zu lesen. |
| Gina: It doesn't matter. Simply books in German. I'd like to try to read something in German. |
| Frau Kirsche: Ah, ich kenne einen guten Buchladen. Da finden Sie auch einfache Bücher. |
| Gina: Ah, I know a good book shop. You'll find some easy books there. |
| Kate: Klingt gut. Gehen wir! |
| Gina: Sounds good! Let's go! |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Gina: Okay, let’s talk about shopping in Germany! What can you tell us about this, Frank? |
| Frank: Well, shops in Germany are closed on Sundays! |
| Gina: Yes, it’s good to remember that in Germany, Sunday is very much the day of rest. So although restaurants will be open, museums and shops may be closed. |
| Frank: If you urgently need to buy something after hours or on Sundays, some regions have kiosks available. |
| Gina: Yes and they’re likely to stock things like sweets, cigarettes, and booze, and also a limited supply of emergency household items. |
| Frank: Restaurants are open on Sunday, but they'll often close on Monday or another day to make up for it. Also, many will be closed from 2 to 5 pm. Since most Germans typically stick to regular lunch hours, it’s pretty much only a problem for travellers and workaholics. |
| Gina: Okay! Any other tips? |
| Frank: It’s very rare to eat out for breakfast unless you’re meeting with a business partner—But if you do want to eat out for breakfast, a bakery or a cafe is your best bet. |
| Gina: Now, let’s take a look at the vocabulary for this lesson. |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Gina: The first word we shall see is... |
| Frank: toll [natural native speed] |
| Gina: great, excellent |
| Frank: toll [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Frank: toll [natural native speed] |
| Frank: dauern [natural native speed] |
| Gina: to last, to take (a certain amount of time) |
| Frank: dauern [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Frank: dauern [natural native speed] |
| Frank: etwa [natural native speed] |
| Gina: approximately, surely not (in questions) |
| Frank: etwa [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Frank: etwa [natural native speed] |
| Frank: Stunde [natural native speed] |
| Gina: hour |
| Frank: Stunde [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Frank: Stunde [natural native speed] |
| Frank: Denkmal [natural native speed] |
| Gina: monument |
| Frank: Denkmal [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Frank: Denkmal [natural native speed] |
| Frank: außerdem [natural native speed] |
| Gina: besides |
| Frank: außerdem [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Frank: außerdem [natural native speed] |
| Frank: kaufen [natural native speed] |
| Gina: to buy |
| Frank: kaufen [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Frank: kaufen [natural native speed] |
| Frank: lesen [natural native speed] |
| Gina: to read |
| Frank: lesen [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Frank : lesen [natural native speed] |
| Frank: Laden [natural native speed] |
| Gina: shop |
| Frank: Laden [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Frank: Laden [natural native speed] |
| Frank: versuchen [natural native speed] |
| Gina: to try |
| Frank: versuchen [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Frank: versuchen [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 spät ist es? |
| Gina: “How late is it?” |
| Frank: Wie spät ist es? is a standard phrase to ask for the time. And then there’s a eine Viertelstunde. |
| Gina: “A quarter of an hour” |
| Frank: Viertelstunde is a compound noun. It consists of Viertel... |
| Gina: “quarter” |
| Frank: and Stunde. |
| Gina: “hour”. It means a “quarter hour”. |
| Frank: Next up is the phrase Lassen Sie uns. |
| Gina: It’s the German equivalent of “let’s” for when you’re talking formally. |
| Frank: That’s right! Now, when you’re addressing someone informally, the expression is just Lass uns. This was the imperative of the verb lassen. Then the expression und so. |
| Gina: Basically, the German equivalent of “and the like”. |
| Frank: Don’t confuse it with “and so on” because that’s und so weiter in German. Laden means “shop”. There are a lot of compound nouns used with the noun Laden. For example, Buchladen. |
| Gina: “book shop” |
| Frank: Teeladen |
| Gina: “tea shop” |
| Frank: Geschenkladen |
| Gina: “gift shop” |
| Frank: Uhrenladen |
| Gina: “A shop for watches and clocks” |
| Frank: Beware of Saftladen though. |
| Gina: Oh! Why’s that? |
| Frank: Although Saftladen literally means “juice shop”, in colloquial terms, or slang, it actually means “a dump” or an “unorganized place”. |
| Gina: Haha! Good to know, so be careful with that one, listeners! Okay, now onto the grammar. |
Lesson focus |
|---|
| Gina: In this lesson, you’ll learn more about plural nouns in German. |
| Frank: So far we’ve already talked about foreign nouns that add “S” for plurals. |
| Gina: Yes, they're the easiest ones to remember. |
| Frank: And then there were the masculine nouns that add “E” and feminine words that add “N” or “EN” to become plural. |
| Gina: That leaves neuter nouns. Neuter nouns often add “ER” to become plural and unfortunately, that usually also involves changing the vowel. Have you seen examples of this? |
| Frank: Yeah, a few. We’ve seen das Haus – die Häuser. |
| Gina: “house - houses” |
| Frank: das Buch – die Bücher |
| Gina: “book - books”. Now, there’s just one word group of plurals that is missing. There are some words that don’t change at all or only change their vowel. This usually happens if the word already ends with the typical plural endings. |
| Frank: For example, Gebäude doesn’t change, and Tochter becomes Töchter. |
| Gina: “daughters”. The only difference here is the letter “o” with an umlaut to change its pronunciation to show that it’s plural. |
| Frank: And Engländer stays entirely the same. |
| Gina: There’s even a rule for it—all words that end in “ER” in singular are masculine, and will not change when they become plural. It’s an incredibly useful rule because there are hundreds of these words. Almost all names for professions and nationalities follow this rule. |
| Frank: Okay. Additionally, there are words that end in “EL” that are always neuter and so these too never change. So far, we’ve only seen das Viertel. |
| Gina: “quarter” |
| Frank: And the last big group that doesn’t add anything to the ending are the words that end in “chen”. C-H-E-N, is the German diminutive which means it makes something smaller or cuter. |
| Gina: Yes, this is quite a nice feature of the German language, don’t you think, Frank? |
| Frank: Yes, I do! For example, “house” becomes Häus-chen. |
| Gina: “little house” |
| Frank: Tochter becomes Töchterchen. |
| Gina: “little daughter” |
| Frank: Karte becomes Kärtchen. |
| Gina: “little card” |
| Frank: And beer becomes Bierchen. |
| Gina: “little beer”. |
| Frank: We already mentioned that the article for plural nouns is always die. There’s no more worrying about der, die, das. Also, mein, dein, kein, unser and so on will almost always end in “E” in plural form while adjectives always end in “EN”. |
| Gina: All right, that just about does it for this lesson. |
| Frank: Make sure you check the lesson notes for more examples and grammar info. |
Outro |
| Frank: Listeners, do you know the powerful secret behind rapid progress? |
| Gina: Using the entire system. |
| Frank: Lesson notes are an important part of this system. |
| Gina: They include a transcript and translation of the conversation... |
| Frank: ...key lesson vocabulary... |
| Gina: and detailed grammar explanations. |
| Frank: Lesson notes accompany every audio or video lesson. |
| Gina: Use them on the site or mobile device or print them out. |
| Frank: Using the lesson notes with audio and video media, will rapidly increase your learning speed. |
| Gina: Go to GermanPod101.com, and download the lesson notes for this lesson right now. |
| Gina: Thanks for listening, and we’ll see you next time! |
| Frank: Yo, dankeschön! Also, bis zum nächsten Mal! |
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