Learn how to show a friend around town
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Frank: Hallo! I’m Frank. Herzlich wilkommen! |
| Gina: And I’m Gina! Welcome back to GermanPod101.com. This is Absolute Beginner, Season 3, Lesson 23 - A Spot of Sightseeing in Germany. In this lesson, you’ll learn about demonstratives in German. |
| Frank: This conversation takes place in Berlin’s most famous street. |
| Frank: It’s between Mrs. Kirsche and Kate Andrews who are doing some sightseeing. |
| Frank: The speakers will be using formal German. |
| DIALOGUE |
| Frau Kirsche: So, wilkommen in Berlin! Diese Straße heißt "Unter den Linden." Das ist eine sehr berühmte Straße und es gibt viele schöne alte und neue Gebäude hier. |
| Kate: Aha. Wunderschön! |
| Frau Kirsche: Hier sehen Sie viele Botschaften. Das hier sind die Botschaften von Ungarn und Venezuela. |
| Kate: Und was ist das Gebäude da hinten? |
| Frau Kirsche: Das da ist die Botschaft von Großbritannien. Komm, wir gehen weiter. |
| Gina: Let's hear the conversation one time slowly. |
| Frau Kirsche: So, wilkommen in Berlin! Diese Straße heißt "Unter den Linden." Das ist eine sehr berühmte Straße und es gibt viele schöne alte und neue Gebäude hier. |
| Kate: Aha. Wunderschön! |
| Frau Kirsche: Hier sehen Sie viele Botschaften. Das hier sind die Botschaften von Ungarn und Venezuela. |
| Kate: Und was ist das Gebäude da hinten? |
| Frau Kirsche: Das da ist die Botschaft von Großbritannien. Komm, wir gehen weiter. |
| Gina: Now, let's hear it with English translation. |
| Frau Kirsche: So, wilkommen in Berlin! Diese Straße heißt "Unter den Linden." Das ist eine sehr berühmte Straße und es gibt viele schöne alte und neue Gebäude hier. |
| Gina: So, welcome to Berlin! This street is called Unter den Linden. This is a very famous street, and there are many beautiful old and new buildings here. |
| Kate: Aha. Wunderschön! |
| Gina: Aha. Beautiful! |
| Frau Kirsche: Hier sehen Sie viele Botschaften. Das hier sind die Botschaften von Ungarn und Venezuela. |
| Gina: Here you see many embassies. These here are the embassies of Hungary and Venezuela. |
| Kate: Und was ist das Gebäude da hinten? |
| Gina: And what's that building behind there? |
| Frau Kirsche: Das da ist die Botschaft von Großbritannien. Komm, wir gehen weiter. |
| Gina: That one there is the embassy of Great Britain. Come, let's go further. |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Frank: In Germany, you should always plan enough time for sightseeing. Despite being a small country area-wise, Germany is full of great sights, and every region is different from the next! |
| Gina: Plus, planning is an essential part of being in Germany. You should get used to it. Also, you could spend a lifetime in Germany and still discover things you haven’t seen. |
| Frank: If you come here for a week, you’ll have to select the best things to do and see, to maximize your trip! |
| Gina: That’s true. Germany has a wealth of culture and experiences to offer. |
| Frank: You’ll never get bored! Something else to try is the local food. German meals are pretty well balanced. Also, you can try German bakery goods like bread, cake, and pastries. |
| Gina: Yes. And bring your camera. There are some amazing photo opportunities. If you’re interested in the German lifestyle and decor, you’ll get plenty of stunning photos. |
| Frank: Yeah, houses in Germany are pretty interesting - you never know when you’ll run into a castle too! |
| Gina: So try to learn a bit about the country’s history if you can before you go. |
| Frank: Germany is home to some of the world’s most beautiful churches and cathedrals too. And ruins dating back to Roman times. |
| Gina: Okay, one last tip, and that is to give public transport a try. The city centers of most Big German cities were laid out long before cars were around. |
| Frank: So it’s difficult to find parking spaces. Use the subway, bus, tram, or train to get around instead. |
| Gina: It’s particularly true of Cologne, where the main train station will drop you off right next to the big cathedral, which is Cologne’s main tourist attraction. |
| Frank: Plus, it’s in the center of the pedestrian shopping streets. |
| Gina: Those are some good tips. Now, let’s take a look at the vocabulary for this lesson. |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Gina: The first word we shall see is... |
| Frank: weiter [natural native speed] |
| Gina: continue to, some more, further |
| Frank: weiter [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Frank: weiter [natural native speed] |
| Frank: Botschaft [natural native speed] |
| Gina: message, announcement, embassy |
| Frank: Botschaft [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Frank: Botschaft [natural native speed] |
| Frank: Ungarn [natural native speed] |
| Gina: Hungary |
| Frank: Ungarn [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Frank: Ungarn [natural native speed] |
| Frank: weit [natural native speed] |
| Gina: wide, large, far, broad |
| Frank: weit [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Frank: weit [natural native speed] |
| Frank: Großbritannien [natural native speed] |
| Gina: Great Britain |
| Frank: Großbritannien [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Frank: Großbritannien [natural native speed] |
| Frank: wunderschön [natural native speed] |
| Gina: gorgeous |
| Frank: wunderschön [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Frank: wunderschön [natural native speed] |
| Frank: hinter [natural native speed] |
| Gina: behind |
| Frank: hinter [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Frank: hinter [natural native speed] |
| Frank: Straße [natural native speed] |
| Gina: street |
| Frank: Straße [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Frank: Straße [natural native speed] |
| Frank: berühmt [natural native speed] |
| Gina: famous |
| Frank: berühmt [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Frank: berühmt [natural native speed] |
| Frank: Gebäude [natural native speed] |
| Gina: building |
| Frank: Gebäude [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Frank: Gebäude [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 is: |
| Frank: hinter, |
| Gina: which means “behind”. As a preposition, it is used to refer to a place and means “behind” or “beyond”. |
| Frank: It can also be used when talking about direction and motion, for example Er fuhr den Wagen hinter die Garage. |
| Gina: “He drove the car round the back of the garage.” |
| Frank: Prepositions in German require some grammatical changes in the sentences, because of a thing called case. |
| Gina: Case is probably one of the most challenging grammatical things to master in German, so we’ll cover this in another series. |
| Frank: For now, just bear in mind that prepositions in German make determiners and word endings behave differently. |
| Gina: Yes, their endings may change. What’s our next word? |
| Frank: Botschaft |
| Gina: This word has several meanings in German. Its principal meaning is “message” or “communication” and it’s the official term used for “embassy”. |
| Frank: For example, Botschaft von Japan in Deutschland. |
| Gina: “The Embassy of Japan in Germany”. Can we have another example? |
| Frank: Japanische Botschaft in Österreich. |
| Gina: “The Japanese Embassy in Austria”. |
| Frank: You can hear in these examples how they combine with the country the embassy is related to. |
| Gina: So remember this word, especially if you’re moving abroad to Germany, or even to Austria for that matter! |
| Frank: Yes, because you’re likely to go to the Botschaft. |
| Gina: One of the word derivations includes: |
| Frank: Ein Botschafter |
| Gina: which is an “Ambassador”. |
| Frank: That’s easy to remember once you've memorized Botschaft. |
| Gina: Definitely. |
| Frank: Okay, our next word is wunderschön |
| Gina: which means “stunning” or “beautiful”. Its meaning can go beyond the surface though. |
| Frank: That’s right, so it can also be used to refer to something nice. For example, if we were watching fireworks I might say Wunderschön! |
| Gina: meaning “lovely!” |
| Frank: The word has many positive connotations. For example Wunder, which is a neuter noun meaning “wonder”, and schön, meaning “beautiful”. It has a stronger meaning than just schön though, because of the wunder that’s added to it. |
| Gina: What’s an example, Frank? |
| Frank: Das war wunderschön! |
| Gina: Meaning ”That was beautiful”. |
| Frank: Okay, now let’s move onto the grammar. |
Lesson focus |
|---|
| Gina: In this lesson, you’ll learn how to use demonstratives. |
| Frank: Demonstratives are a type of determiner that’s used to demonstrate, or in other words, to point something out. |
| Gina: Words like “that”, “this”, “these”, or “those” in English. |
| Frank: In spoken German, der is the most frequently used demonstrative. This word can be used to point out something distant or something near at hand - it’s equivalent to “this” and “that”. |
| Gina: In terms of its formation, when der is used as a determiner, it’s used in exactly the same written forms as the definite article. |
| Frank: The only difference in demonstrative situations here is the shift in meaning from “the” to the meaning “that”. |
| Gina: It also follows the same declensions, depending on their grammatical function and position within the sentence. |
| Frank: Then we have dieser, which is used to demonstrate, or point to where a person or thing is, when the difference between near and something distant is not a crucial detail. |
| Gina: The closest English equivalent to this is “that”, but it may change depending on the situation. |
| Frank: For example, Warum hat er diesen Hut gekauft? |
| Gina: “Why did he buy that hat?” |
| Frank: And then, we have a rarer form of the demonstrative article in German. |
| Gina: This one is often used in printed literature and sometimes media. |
| Frank: That’s the word jener. Technically, dieser are for things that are close by and jener for things that are further away. But it’s pretty strange to hear jener used in spoken language. |
| Gina: So how do you say these concepts anyway? |
| Frank: Well, very often, we simply use a different article, der, die, das which can replace both dieser and jener, though it replaces jener more often. |
| Gina: When it’s necessary to make a distinction, you can add... |
| Frank: hier or da |
| Gina: ...after the word. This makes the differentiation between “this” and “that” in terms of distance. |
| Frank: Yeah, so you’d say das Gebäude hier. |
| Gina: “this building” |
| Frank: das Gebäude da |
| Gina: “that building” |
| Frank: diese Botschaften or die Botschaften hier |
| Gina: “these embassies” |
| Frank: die Botschaften da |
| Gina: “those embassies” |
Outro |
| Gina: Listeners, ever have any German language or lesson-related questions? |
| Frank: Or maybe you have some feedback for us... |
| Gina: Leave us a comment or ask a question on the lessons page! |
| Frank: It's super simple. Go to GermanPod101.com... |
| Gina: ...click on comments, |
| Frank: ...enter your comment and name, |
| Gina: ...and that's it! |
| Frank: Commenting is a a great way to practice writing and reading in German. |
| Gina: It helps you learn faster. |
| Frank: And it helps us get better through your feedback. |
| Gina: No excuses. |
| Frank: Go to GermanPod101.com, and comment now. |
| Gina: NOW! |
| Gina: Well, that’s all for this lesson. We hope you’ve enjoyed it listeners, and we’ll see you in the next lesson. |
| Frank: Also, bis zum nächsten Mal! |
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