Learn how to spell words out using a formal conversation as an example
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Gabriella: Hi everyone! Welcome back to GermanPod101.com. You’re listening to Absolute Beginner Season 3 Lesson 4, How Do You Spell That Name in German? I’m Gabriella. |
| Frank: Hi. My name is Frank. What are we learning in this lesson, Gabriella? |
| Gabriella: In this lesson, you’ll learn how to spell your name in German. |
| Frank: This conversation takes place at the reception of a language school in Hamburg. |
| Gabriella: The conversation is between Kate and two people working at the reception. |
| Frank: The speakers are in a business relationship, so they’re using formal German. |
| DIALOGUE |
| Kate: Guten Tag! Ist das hier die Anmeldung? |
| Frau 1 (genervt): Nein, hier ist nicht die Anmeldung. Die Anmeldung ist da links. |
| Kate: Ah, danke. |
| Frau 1: Hmm. |
| Kate: Guten Tag! Ist das hier die Anmeldung? |
| Frau 2: Ja. Wie heißen Sie? |
| Kate: Kate Andrews. |
| Frau 2: Wie buchstabiert man das? |
| Kate: Nachname, A- N - D - R - E - W - S, Vorname, K-A-T-E . |
| Gina: Let's hear the conversation one time slowly. |
| Kate: Guten Tag! Ist das hier die Anmeldung? |
| Frau 1 (genervt): Nein, hier ist nicht die Anmeldung. Die Anmeldung ist da links. |
| Kate: Ah, danke. |
| Frau 1: Hmm. |
| Kate: Guten Tag! Ist das hier die Anmeldung? |
| Frau 2: Ja. Wie heißen Sie? |
| Kate: Kate Andrews. |
| Frau 2: Wie buchstabiert man das? |
| Kate: Nachname, A- N - D - R - E - W - S, Vorname, K-A-T-E . |
| Gina: Now, let's hear it with English translation. |
| Kate: Guten Tag! Ist das hier die Anmeldung? |
| Gabriella: Good day! Is this registration? |
| Frau 1 (genervt): Nein, hier ist nicht die Anmeldung. Die Anmeldung ist da links. |
| Gabriella: No, this isn't registration. Registration is there on the left. |
| Kate: Ah, danke. |
| Gabriella: Ah, thank you. |
| Frau 1: Hmm. |
| Gabriella: Hmm. |
| Kate: Guten Tag! Ist das hier die Anmeldung? |
| Gabriella: Good day! Is this registration? |
| Frau 2: Ja. Wie heißen Sie? |
| Gabriella: Yes. What's your name? |
| Kate: Kate Andrews. |
| Gabriella: Kate Andrews. |
| Frau 2: Wie buchstabiert man das? |
| Gabriella: How do you spell that? |
| Kate: Nachname, A- N - D - R - E - W - S, Vorname, K-A-T-E . |
| Gabriella: Last name, A-N-D-R-E-W-S, first name, K-A-T-E. |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Gabriella: Okay, Frank, let’s talk about spelling things in German! |
| Frank: Well, German speakers like to give specific words, usually names, beginning with each letter you spell, especially in official situations. |
| Gabriella: Ah, I see. It makes sense, as it helps both speakers to avoid confusion, which can easily occur when you’re on the phone. |
| Frank: Genau! Exactly. It’s a great way to get used to German pronunciation and some traditional German names. So how about we have a look at some of these? |
| Gabriella: Alright - sounds like a good idea, Frank! |
| Frank: For A there is Anton and then for B, Berta, and it continues with Cäsar… |
| Gabriella: Hey, is that a name? |
| Frank: No, no, it’s not a name. It just means “Caesar”. Then there is Dora and Emil, Friedrich and Gustav, and so on until we get to Zacharias. |
| Gabriella: For the whole list, please check the lesson notes. |
| Frank: Right. |
| Gabriella: Ok, let’s move on to the vocab! Let’s take a look at the vocabulary for this lesson. |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Gabriella: The first word we shall look at is… |
| Frank: Anmeldung [natural native speed] |
| Gabriella: registration, application |
| Frank: Anmeldung [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Frank: Anmeldung [natural native speed] |
| Frank: hier [natural native speed] |
| Gabriella: here |
| Frank: hier [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Frank: hier [natural native speed] |
| Frank: danke [natural native speed] |
| Gabriella: thank you |
| Frank: danke [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Frank: danke [natural native speed] |
| Frank: wie [natural native speed] |
| Gabriella: how |
| Frank: wie [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Frank: wie [natural native speed] |
| Frank: Vorname [natural native speed] |
| Gabriella: given name, first name |
| Frank: Vorname [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Frank : Vorname [natural native speed] |
| Frank: Nachname [natural native speed] |
| Gabriella: surname, last name, family name |
| Frank: Nachname [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Frank: Nachname [natural native speed] |
| KEY VOCAB AND PHRASES |
| Gabriella: Let’s have a closer look at the usage for some of the words and phrases from this lesson. |
| Frank: The first word we’re going to talk about is Anmeldung. |
| Gabriella: Ah, yes, Anmeldung! This is a really important word in Germany, and it's even more important to memorize its many different meanings, because it has so many different uses, doesn’t it Frank? |
| Fwrank: Yes, this feminine noun can mean “announcement”, “application”, “declaration”, “front desk”, “registration” or “notification.” |
| Gabriella: That’s a lot of meanings! |
| Frank: In the context of this lesson’s dialogue, it means “registration” and refers to a registration desk. |
| Gabriella: It’s also related to the verb anmelden, meaning “to register” and this is usually reflexive to show that the person is registering him or herself - the whole infinitive verb is sich anmelden. |
| Frank: Genau! Exactly - sich anmelden. |
| Gabriella: Next up are the terms for “name”; Name, Vorname and Nachname. Name is obviously “name”, but the broken down versions of “first name” and “last name” go like this… |
| Frank: Vorname |
| Gabriella: “first name” |
| Frank: Nachname |
| Gabriella: “last name” |
| Frank: Vor means "before". |
| Gabriella: And Nach means “after”. |
| Frank: So your "before name" is your first or given name - Vorname. |
| Gabriella: And your “after name” is your last name, or your family name - Nachname. OK, now let's move on to the grammar. |
Lesson focus |
|---|
| Frank: In this lesson, you’ll learn about the German alphabet, which consists of the same letters as the English one but with four additions, so it totals 30 letters. Let’s go through the obvious letters first! |
| Gabriella: Note the different names of the letters you have. You need to know these, so that you can spell out your name or your email address. |
| Frank: Ah is “A”. Ah. And when you’re pronouncing it, you should also be careful to make this sound clearly. This applies to all vowels in fact. |
| Gabriella: That’s right, listeners, pay particular attention to the vowels. |
| Frank: [Following should be spoken in the German way] A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H, which is {English way}H, I, J, K, L, M, N, O, P, Q, R, S, T, U, V that’s {English way}“V”, W that’s {English way} “W”, X , Y, that’s {English way} “Y”, and Z. |
| Gabriella: The last one you heard is “Zed” in british English. The American English for this is “Zee”. |
| Frank: Now let’s move on to the four letters unique to German. |
| Gabriella: Okay - what are they Frank? |
| Frank: They are äh, öh, üh, and es-zett. |
| Gabriella: I see! Tell us more! |
| Frank: äh is an “A” with two dots on top. This is called an umlaut and you may hear this term used in German spelling. |
| Gabriella: Got that listeners? If you've wondered about those two dots over some letters, now you know it's called an umlaut. |
| Frank: öh is an “O” with an umlaut, üh is a “U” with an umlaut, and finally there’s the character that looks like a curvy “B”, (ß) pronounced like es-zett. It’s called scharfes S which means “sharp S”, like the sound a snake might make. It sounds like, “ss”. |
| Gabriella: And it looks a bit like the Greek beta or a capital letter “B”, but please don’t write it as a capital “B” as that’s a totally different letter. |
| Frank: Yeah, if you’re really struggling to write this letter, just write a double “S”, which is the standard latin alphabet equivalent used for es-zett. |
| Gabriella: This is also useful to remember when you’re using a non-German keyboard or don’t have access to the es-zett. |
| Frank: Nützlich! “Useful!” |
| Gabriella: Well, that just about does it for this lesson! |
Outro |
| Gabriella: Listeners, looking for a cheat sheet to memorizing German vocabulary? |
| Frank: have you checked out our Video Vocab series? |
| Gabriella: These themed video lessons combine visual cues with the voices of native speakers. |
| Frank: Just another effective method of learning and retaining thousands of vocabulary words. |
| Gabriella: Go to GermanPod101.com... |
| Frank: ...click on the Video Lessons tab... |
| Gabriella: ...and hit play! |
| Frank: It's that easy. |
| Gabriella: But don't take our word for it. |
| Frank: Try it for yourself at GermanPod101.com |
| Gabriella: Okay. Thank you for tuning in, everyone! |
| Frank: And we’ll see you next time, tschüss! |
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