Learn how to say where you are from using an informal conversation as an example
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Gabriella: Hi everyone! I’m Gabriella! Welcome back to GermanPod101.com. You’re listening to Absolute Beginner Season 3, Lesson 5, Talking About Where You’re From in German. |
| Frank: Hello everyone, I’m Frank. What are we discussing in this lesson, Gabriella? |
| Gabriella: In this lesson, you'll learn how to say where you're from and ask others the same question, and the conjugation of the verb “to be” sein. |
| Frank: This lesson’s conversation takes place at the registration desk of a German Language School. |
| Gabriella: The conversation is between Kate and Jens. |
| Frank: The speakers are friends, so they'll be using informal German. |
| DIALOGUE |
| Kate: Jens, aus welcher Stadt kommst du? |
| Jens: Göttingen! Und du? |
| Kate: Ich komme aus England! |
| Jens: Ehrlich? |
| Kate: Ja! Ehrlich. Ich bin Engländerin. |
| Jens: Wo genau in England? |
| Kate: Aus der Hauptstadt, London! |
| Jens: Das ist ein schöner Ort! |
| Gina: Let's hear the conversation one time slowly. |
| Kate: Jens, aus welcher Stadt kommst du? |
| Jens: Göttingen! Und du? |
| Kate: Ich komme aus England! |
| Jens: Ehrlich? |
| Kate: Ja! Ehrlich. Ich bin Engländerin. |
| Jens: Wo genau in England? |
| Kate: Aus der Hauptstadt, London! |
| Jens: Das ist ein schöner Ort! |
| Gina: Now, let's hear it with English translation. |
| Kate: Jens, aus welcher Stadt kommst du? |
| Gabriella: Jens, which town are you from? |
| Jens: Göttingen! Und du? |
| Gabriella: Göttingen! How about you? |
| Kate: Ich komme aus England! |
| Gabriella: I'm from England! |
| Jens: Ehrlich? |
| Gabriella: Really? |
| Kate: Ja! Ehrlich. Ich bin Engländerin. |
| Gabriella: Yes! Really. I'm English. |
| Jens: Wo genau in England? |
| Gabriella: Where in England exactly? |
| Kate: Aus der Hauptstadt, London! |
| Gabriella: The capital, London! |
| Jens: Das ist ein schöner Ort! |
| Gabriella: That's a beautiful place! |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Frank: It sounds like Kate and Jens are getting to know each well, which is great! |
| Gabriella: Yes, and it’s important to talk about each other’s backgrounds, nationalities, hometowns, cultures, and opinions! Jens says that London is ein schöner Ort, "a beautiful place." |
| Frank: And if you ever go to Germany, listeners, you’ll see that it's a very multicultural place, particularly in big cities where you're sure to have these kinds of conversations with people from around the world visiting Germany. |
| Gabriella: As well as Germans themselves, of course. |
| Frank: Yes, that's right. We also heard the word Hauptstadt. |
| Gabriella: This means “capital city”. It's a compound noun, and German actually has some really long compound nouns made up of many nouns strung together. |
| Frank: Hey, Gabriella, do you know the longest word in the German language? |
| Gabriella: No! What is it? |
| Frank: Okay...are you ready? |
| Gabriella: Yep! |
| Frank: Rindfleischetikettierungsüberwachungsaufgabenübertragungsgesetz. |
| Gabriella: What? |
| Frank: Rindfleischetikettierungsüberwachungsaufgabenübertragungsgesetz. It means "the law concerning the delegation of duties for the supervision of cattle marking and the labelling of beef". |
| Gabriella: Well, listeners, you learn something new in every lesson! You’ve just heard the longest word in the German language! |
| Gabriella: Now, 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 see is... |
| Frank: sein [natural native speed] |
| Gabriella: to be |
| Frank: sein [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Frank: sein [natural native speed] |
| Frank: woher [natural native speed] |
| Gabriella: from where |
| Frank: woher [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Frank: woher [natural native speed] |
| Frank: aus [natural native speed] |
| Gabriella: from, out of |
| Frank: aus [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Frank: aus [natural native speed] |
| Frank: kommen [natural native speed] |
| Gabriella: to come |
| Frank: kommen [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Frank: kommen [natural native speed] |
| Frank: Stadt [natural native speed] |
| Gabriella: town, city |
| Frank: Stadt [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Frank: Stadt [natural native speed] |
| Frank: seit [natural native speed] |
| Gabriella: since |
| Frank: seit [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Frank: seit [natural native speed] |
| Frank: Hauptstadt [natural native speed] |
| Gabriella: capital city |
| Frank: Hauptstadt [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Frank: Hauptstadt [natural native speed] |
| Frank: schön [natural native speed] |
| Gabriella: beautiful |
| Frank: schön [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Frank: schön [natural native speed] |
| Frank: Engländer, Engländerin [natural native speed] |
| Gabriella: English male, English female |
| Frank: Engländer, Engländerin [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Frank: Engländer, Engländerin [natural native speed] |
| Frank: Ort [natural native speed] |
| Gabriella: place, city, location |
| Frank: Ort [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Frank: Ort [natural native speed] |
| KEY VOCAB AND PHRASES |
| Gabriella: Let's take a closer look at the usage for some of the words and phrases from this lesson. |
| Frank: The first phrase we shall look at is Woher kommst du? |
| Gabriella: You'll hear this question a lot in Germany, as people will be curious about where you're from. Next is... |
| Frank: Ich komme aus… |
| Gabriella This literally means “I come out of…” and is referring to your country of origin or where you grew up. |
| Frank: So, Gabriella, woher kommst du? |
| Gabriella: Ich komme aus England. Ich bin Engländerin. |
| Frank: Notice how Gabriella said she's from England, therefore she's English. When she said Engländerin, she used -in as the suffix at the end because she's a woman. |
| Gabriella: Und du, Frank, woher kommst du? |
| Frank: Ich bin Deutscher. |
| Gabriella: This is the masculine form of “German”, as in the nationality. |
| Frank: Richtig! That’s right! In Ich bin Engländerin, you’re using the noun for the person, not the adjective, which would be Englisch. |
| Gabriella: I see. Did everyone pick up on that difference? The last words we shall discuss are… |
| Frank: Stadt und Hauptstadt |
| Gabriella: So Stadt means city whilst Hautpstadt means capital city |
| Frank: Richtig! |
| Gabriella: Now let's move on to the grammar. |
Lesson focus |
|---|
| Gabriella: In this lesson, you’ll learn the conjugation of sein. |
| Frank: In this lesson, we've seen a few forms of the verb “to be” which is irregular in German, like in most languages. |
| Gabriella: We’re going to give you a quick rundown of sein, which is the infinitive form and means “to be”. |
| Frank: Right, then we have ich bin. |
| Gabriella: “I am.” |
| Frank: du bist |
| Gabriella: “you are” - informal |
| Frank: er ist |
| Gabriella: “he is” |
| Frank: “sie ist” |
| Gabriella: “she is” |
| Frank: “es ist” |
| Gabriella: “it is” |
| Frank: wir sind |
| Gabriella: “we are.” |
| Frank: ihr seid |
| Gabriella: “you are”, the second person plural form. |
| Frank: (S/s)ie sind |
| Gabriella: “you are” formal or “they are” |
| Frank: There’s more information in the lesson notes including some information on how sein is used as an auxiliary verb to form the simple past tense. |
| Gabriella: Yes - it’s a bit of a preview so you can see how the verb sein can be used in many different ways. |
| Frank: And now that you’ve mastered the verb sein in the present tense, you can use it in many different kinds of situations. |
| Gabriella: That’s very true! |
| Frank: One situation might be when you’re registering for things like language schools in Germany… |
| Gabriella: Ah yes, we have some essential vocabulary for you that’s going to come in handy for any kind of registration in Germany. |
| Frank: This is actually a more advanced set of vocabulary, but the German government has determined that they should be taught in beginner courses anyway, because they're so important for filling in forms. The first one is Titel. |
| Gabriella: “title” |
| Frank: This title refers to doctors, professors, or people with a PhD. There’s also Anrede. |
| Gabriella: That'll be regular titles such as “Mr.”, “Mrs.”, “Ms.”, and so on. |
| Frank: Right. In German something like Herr or Frau. Then we have Name. |
| Gabriella: “name” |
| Frank: Which could also be split into Vorname... |
| Gabriella: “first name” or “given name”... |
| Frank: And Nachname... |
| Gabriella: “last name” or “family name”. |
| Frank: And then there's Geschlecht. |
| Gabriella: “gender”. And here you would put an M for man or a W for woman. |
| Frank: And the German words are männlich... |
| Gabriella: “male” |
| Frank: And weiblich |
| Gabriella: “female.” |
| Frank: Then we have Alter. |
| Gabriella: “age” |
| Frank: And then Nationalität. |
| Gabriella: “nationality” |
| Frank: That’s pretty easy to recognize! But sometimes they use the word Staatsangehörigkeit. |
| Gabriella: “citizenship” |
| Frank: Staatsangehörigkeit. It's a long word. You should look this up in a bilingual German dictionary to become familiar with the word. Then we have Stadt. |
| Gabriella: “city” |
| Frank: And Land. |
| Gabriella: “country” |
| Frank: Oh, and finally they might want to know your Beruf. |
| Gabriella: which means “profession” |
| Frank: And at the very end you should put your Unterschrift. |
| Gabriella: Which means “signature” |
| Frank: Unterschrift literally means “under writing”. |
| Gabriella: Okay, don’t be too overwhelmed with these words, listeners! But you should look them up in the lesson notes, so familiarize yourself with them, especially if you think that you'll need to fill out a form in German soon!! |
| Frank: You’ll be thankful you did! |
Outro |
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| Gabriella: Well, that’s all for now, listeners! |
| Frank: Thanks for listening, and we’ll see you next time. Tschüss! |
| Gabriella: Tschüss! |
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