Learn how to use native forms of the conditional
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Chuck: This is Beginner Series, Lesson 24. |
| Judith: Willkommen zurück. |
| Chuck: Welcome back! |
| Judith: Have you already been to Germany? |
| Chuck: What? You haven’t? That’s good, because today we’re featuring six essential tips for sight-seeing in Germany. |
| Judith: A lot of these tips apply to other German-speaking countries and areas, too. |
| Chuck: I’d say it even apply if you’ve already visited Germany. Well, today is GermanPod101 at its best. Be sure to check out the summary of these tips in today’s PDF too. There you will find a full summary of grammar and vocabulary and the full transcript of the dialogue with translation. So before you’re about to head out to a German-speaking country, review it again. |
| Judith: Better yet, in the learning center, you can also listen to the dialogue line-by-line. |
| Chuck: So what’s today’s dialogue about anyway? |
| Judith: Today’s dialogue is between John and Michaela. John has just returned home from meeting his friend. |
| Chuck: So, is Michaela going to give him tips for sight-seeing? |
| Judith: No. We do that in the cultural section. |
| Chuck: All right. Well, let’s just get on with it. |
| DIALOGUE |
| Michaela: Willkommen zurück, John! Wie war das Treffen mit deinem Freund? |
| John: Es war schön, danke. |
| Michaela: Was hast du morgen vor? |
| John: Ich habe noch nichts vor, aber ich möchte endlich die Sehenswürdigkeiten sehen. Könnten wir in die Stadt fahren? |
| Michaela: Ja, sicher. Bis jetzt warst du ja beschäftigt |
| John: Aber ich war doch nicht jeden Tag beschäftigt! |
| Michaela: Doch… |
| John: Gestern warst du den ganzen Tag beschäftigt! |
| Michaela: Das ist nicht wahr! |
| John: Es ist okay. Ich möchte nur morgen die Sehenswürdigkeiten sehen, wenn es geht. |
| Judith: Now read slowly. |
| Michaela: Willkommen zurück, John! Wie war das Treffen mit deinem Freund? |
| John: Es war schön, danke. |
| Michaela: Was hast du morgen vor? |
| John: Ich habe noch nichts vor, aber ich möchte endlich die Sehenswürdigkeiten sehen. Könnten wir in die Stadt fahren? |
| Michaela: Ja, sicher. Bis jetzt warst du ja beschäftigt |
| John: Aber ich war doch nicht jeden Tag beschäftigt! |
| Michaela: Doch… |
| John: Gestern warst du den ganzen Tag beschäftigt! |
| Michaela: Das ist nicht wahr! |
| John: Es ist okay. Ich möchte nur morgen die Sehenswürdigkeiten sehen, wenn es geht. |
| Judith: Now, with the translation. |
| Judith: Willkommen zurück, John! |
| Chuck: Welcome back, John! |
| Judith: Wie war das Treffen mit deinem Freund? |
| Chuck: How was the meeting with your friend? |
| John: Es war schön, danke. |
| Chuck: It was nice, thanks. |
| Michaela: Was hast du morgen vor? |
| Chuck: What are your plans for tomorrow? |
| John: Ich habe noch nichts vor, aber ich möchte endlich die Sehenswürdigkeiten sehen. |
| Chuck: I don’t have anything yet planned, but I would like to finally see the sights. |
| Judith: Könnten wir in die Stadt fahren? |
| Chuck: Could we go into the city? |
| Judith: Ja, sicher. |
| Chuck: Yes, sure. |
| Judith: Bis jetzt warst du ja beschäftigt |
| Chuck: Until now you are always busy. |
| Judith: “Freunde treffen, Postkarte schreiben, essen, schlafen” |
| Chuck: Meeting friends, writing post cards, eating, sleeping. |
| Judith: Aber ich war doch nicht jeden Tag beschäftigt! |
| Chuck: But I really wasn’t busy every day! |
| Michaela: Doch… |
| Chuck: Yes… |
| John: Gestern warst du den ganzen Tag beschäftigt! |
| Chuck: Yesterday you were busy the whole day! |
| Michaela: Das ist nicht wahr! |
| Chuck: That isn’t true! |
| Judith: Es ist okay. |
| Chuck: It’s okay. |
| Judith: Ich möchte nur morgen die Sehenswürdigkeiten sehen, wenn es geht. |
| Chuck: I just like to see the sights tomorrow, if it’s possible. |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Judith: So what about those Berlin sights? What can you claim for not having seen them all yet? You’ve been in Berlin how long now? At least four months, five months? |
| Chuck: I think someone has been keeping me in a studio too long. |
| Judith: Have I? Really? The studio recordings are too short that there’s plenty of time for you to see the sights. |
| Chuck: I haven’t exactly seen you going out to the sights either. |
| Judith: Have you not? |
| Chuck: Well, except when you… |
| Judith: Look closer. |
| Chuck: Except when we’re at piazza. Yes. |
| Judith: Yeah, meeting friends all the time. Have you? |
| Chuck: So wait, what is meeting in German, anyway? |
| Judith: To meet? |
| Chuck: Yeah. |
| Judith: That’s Treffen [natural native speed]. Treffen [slowly - broken down by syllable]. |
| Chuck: Should that be made into a noun too? |
| Judith: Yes, but we’ll cover that in the grammar section. |
| Chuck: Okay. So you want to keep me warm for the grammar section. I see. |
| Judith: Of course. |
| Chuck: All right. |
| Judith: It would be boring if it was just me talking. |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Chuck: So what’s the first word of the vocabulary anyway? |
| Judith: It’s Treffen. You already said it. |
| Chuck: You mean, “to meet”? |
| Judith: Yes. And then we have Vorhaben [natural native speed]. |
| Chuck: “To plan or intend”. |
| Judith: There are three parts, vor-ha-ben [slowly - broken down by syllable]. The vor actually splits of when you use it. “Ich habe vor, er hat vor”. |
| Chuck: Does planning also work? |
| Judith: Yeah. But Vorhaben is like have plans. If you use “planen”, you will have to say what your plans are. Vorhaben is like, “I have something to do today”. |
| Chuck: Okay. |
| Judith: “Hast du heute etwas vor?” |
| Chuck: “Ich muß auf der … für GermanPod machen.” |
| Judith: That works. “Hast du heute etwas vor?” functions just about the same way as “Hast du heute Zeit?”. “Do you have time today? Do you have anything planned?” It’s very general. |
| Chuck: Okay. |
| Judith: You can’t ask “Plannst du heute etwas?” to ask in a general way whether people have time for you. |
| Chuck: Okay. Interesting to know. |
| Judith: The next word is Morgen [natural native speed]. |
| Chuck: “Tomorrow”. |
| Judith: Morgen [natural native speed]. |
| Chuck: “Tomorrow”. There’s something I really like about German, is that you don’t have to say something like “the day after tomorrow”; you can say “Übermorgen”. |
| Judith: Yes. People will even say “Überübermorgen. That’s the day after the day after tomorrow. |
| Chuck: Will they also say “Überüberübermorgen.? |
| Judith: That would be hard to understand, but people have known to do it. |
| Chuck: All right. |
| Judith: The next work is Endlich [natural native speed]. |
| Chuck: “Finally”. |
| Judith: Endlich [slowly - broken down by syllable]. |
| Chuck: “Finally”. |
| Judith: Then we have Bis [natural native speed]. |
| Chuck: “Until”. |
| Judith: Bis [natural native speed]. |
| Chuck: “Until”. |
| Judith: Next, Beschäftigt [natural native speed] |
| Chuck: “Busy”. |
| Judith: Beschäftigt [natural native speed]. |
| Chuck: “Busy”. |
| Judith: I’ll break it down. Beschäftigt [slowly - broken down by syllable]. Beschäftigt [natural native speed]. |
| Chuck: “Busy”. |
| Judith: Next, Schlafen [natural native speed] |
| Chuck: “To sleep”. |
| Judith: Schlafen [slowly - broken down by syllable]. Schlafen [natural native speed]. |
| Chuck: “To sleep”. |
| Judith: This verb is a vowel-changing verb. So it’s “Ich schlafe” but “du schläfst”. The “a” changes to “ä”. Can you get the difference? |
| Chuck: Yeah. |
| Judith: That’s good. |
| Chuck: I’m just wondering why they didn’t stick that umlaut in there. I don’t know. |
| Judith: I don’t know. |
| Chuck: You always say you’re not response before the language; you just teach it. |
| Judith: Yes. Okay. Next word, Jeder [natural native speed]. |
| Chuck: “Every”. |
| Judith: Jeder [slowly - broken down by syllable]. |
| Chuck: “Every”. |
| Judith: Next, Tag [natural native speed] |
| Chuck: “Day”. |
| Judith: Tag [natural native speed]. |
| Chuck: “Day”. |
| Judith: This is one of the first German words you would learn because it’s used in the expression “Guten Tag”. |
| Chuck: “Good day”. |
| Judith: It’s masculine, and the plural is “Tage”. |
| Chuck: “Day”. |
| Judith: So you could say, “Ich schlafe jeden Tag bis zehn Uhr.. |
| Chuck: “I sleep every day to 10:00 o’clock”. Oh, you’re mentioning your sleeping habit, Judith. |
| Judith: No! That’s not my sleeping habit. It’s just very common in Berlin or at least people have the reputation of sleeping very long here in Berlin. |
| Chuck: Sure it’s not your sleeping habit. |
| Judith: What would you know about that? Next word, Gestern [natural native speed]. |
| Chuck: “Yesterday”. |
| Judith: Gestern [slowly - broken down by syllable]. Gestern [natural native speed]. |
| Chuck: “Yesterday”. As in, “Yesterday, I called you at 9:30 and woke you up.” |
| Judith: Hey, stop it! That’s not fair. |
| Chuck: It’s true. |
| Judith: No, it’s not. Don’t believe a word of what he’s saying. Anyway, “Vorgestern habe Ich dich um neun Uhr angerufen und du warst noch im Bett.” |
| Chuck: But that’s not true because you weren’t awake at 9:00 o’clock the day before yesterday. |
| Judith: Stop it. Let’s not wash our dirty linen in public. Anyway, you will notice that “vorgestern” is the day before yesterday and you can even do “vorvorgestern” “day before, day before yesterday”. |
| Chuck: That’s true. |
| Judith: Yes. That’s the last word for today, Wahr [natural native speed]. |
| Chuck: “True”. |
| Judith: Wahr [natural native speed]. |
| Chuck: “True”. And note that there’s an H in there, W-A-H-R. |
| Judith: Yes. W-A-R, you already learned, is “was”. |
| CULTURAL INSIGHTS |
| Okay. So let’s get down to business now. Here are tips for sightseeing in Germany. |
| Chuck: So the first step is planning of time. Besides being able to easily cross the country in a day, Germany is still full of great sites; and every region is very different from the next. I mean you could even spend the whole lifetime in German and keep discovering things you’ve never seen. So if you’re coming for a week, don’t expect to get more than an overview of one German region; but come back later for the others. |
| Judith: Yes. I second that. |
| Chuck: I even think that you could spend, like, a lifetime in Berlin and not see everything. |
| Judith: Well, let’s say you can probably see everything that you want to see by that time. Okay, a tip from me is to try the local food; because German food is probably not famous overseas but it’s really delicious, and the meals are usually well-balanced. Also, you should try German bakery goods. For example, bread or cake or pastries or anything you can get in a typical German bakery. This is really good stuff, really yummy. It’s, in fact, when a German goes overseas, this part is usually what they miss most. |
| Chuck: Also, are you planning to rent a car when you’re in Germany? It’s not really necessary because public transportation works so well, especially if you’re in the big cities. You will notice that cities here are really planned and they’re built even before cars existed. So everything can be reached pretty well by foot, or if not by foot, at least by public transportation. Also, you’ll notice the parking spaces are quite hard to find and could be quite expensive. So you’ll save yourself a lot of time, stress, and money just by taking the subway, buses or trains to get around. |
| Judith: This is particularly true for Köln I’d say, I mean, Cologne because there, if you try to go anywhere near the center, you invariably went up in a traffic jam. But if you take the train, the main train station is right next to Cologne’s main attraction. |
| Chuck: You know, I heard a pretty funny story actually about Americans parking in Cologne. It should tell you why you should follow this advisory we’re giving you here. So they parked the car and then they went off to see something. Then a police officer came up and said, “Excuse me, can I help you find your car?” And they said, “Yeah. We parked at Einbahnstraße.” Well, Einbahnstraße means “one way street”. It took them quite a while to find their car again. |
| Judith: Yeah. Well, it’s hard because the streets are not numbered. So even if you know the street name, then you can still spend some time looking for it because it’s not obvious where they are placed. |
| Chuck: Yeah. But if you remember that your street name is Einbahnstraße, then you’ve got a problem. |
| Judith: Yeah. That’s also a major problem in German cities, is that a lot of streets are one-way streets, and you can’t go back the way you came. Or if you went too far, you have to circle the whole city before you can go back in your direction again. |
| Chuck: Well, I was quite happy why Google Maps came out with walking directions. |
| Judith: Okay, here’s another tip. Avoid asking your host for numbers. If you’re starting with somebody, they probably don’t want to tell you what the biggest, tallest, fastest thing is in their area because German popular sights don’t generally fit in those categories and Germans don’t generally care to know the numbers. |
| Chuck: Are you speaking of me there? |
| Judith: Maybe. It’s very typical for American tourists, and you are one. |
| Chuck: So I might give generalizations like GermanPod101 is the best podcast for learning German online? |
| Judith: That would be kind of true from what I’ve seen online. What Germans care about in the sights is beauty. So, you will see a lot of nice architecture even if you’re not looking at something that’s a cultural heritage or something. Even the normal houses have very nice architecture or interior arrangement and arts. Here in Berlin, you can’t help yourself. You will notice them in the art galleries. There are plenty of things that you can take photos of. It doesn’t matter if a church is not the highest in the country, if it’s beautiful, nonetheless. |
| Chuck: So I guess you’re saying, by not asking for the biggest, fastest, and tallest, that people shouldn’t go the amusement parks over here. |
| Judith: Well, amusement parks are fine. They’re not just something that I would seek out because you can find amusement parks in America. It’s not a problem. |
| Chuck: Yeah. The better ones are few. |
| Judith: Hey! What you can find here particularly that you can’t find as much in America is the history; you know, building that go back to really old times, Medieval times: castles, cathedrals, old churches, ruins from Roman times even. These are really what you can find in Germany that you would have a hard time finding, say, in North America. So that’s what you should be looking for, in my opinion. |
| Chuck: And you know what I say about the difference between Americans and Europeans, right? |
| Judith: What? |
| Chuck: Europeans find a hundred a long way; Americans find a hundred years a long time. |
| Judith: Yeah. A hundred years is, like, nothing. If we have a house here that’s a hundred years old, it’s probably not even a monument. Anyway, you can appreciate these buildings much better if you know a little bit about German history or European history. Maybe learn a bit about that beforehand so you avoid making a fool out of yourself. |
| By the way, you should watch out for the new audio blogs that are coming out soon. Once we are finished with this batch, we will start talking about German history. |
| Chuck: By watch out, you mean try to avoid them? |
| Judith: No. I mean, go for them, especially if you’re planning a trip to Germany so that you can impress your German friends. |
| Chuck: A-ha. Well anyway, about all the stuff about the great buildings, definitely bring your camera to Germany. But I think you’re going to do that anyway. But you’ll really enjoy talking pictures of all the different architecture and you’ll even find that when you’re on the train going across the country, you’ll see beautiful landscapes of German houses and things that you just wouldn’t expect normally. This is really beautiful when you’re traveling by train, especially. |
| Judith: Well, making photos from the train, I don’t know; but yes, there’s lots of things to take a photo of. |
| Chuck: Okay. You can take photos from the plain, too. Now really, there’s a lot of great things to take pictures of. The German girls, too. |
Lesson focus |
|---|
| Judith: I figured that you would mention that. Let’s look at some grammar here before you extol on the… |
| Chuck: Someone is trying to change the topic. |
| Judith: ... of German girls. |
| Chuck: Someone’s trying to change the topic here. |
| Judith: Yes. I don’t think the world needs to hear what you think about German girls or any other kind of girls. |
| Chuck: All right. Just as long as we get that non-formal verbs, I’ll be happy, I guess. |
| Judith: Well, you remember what we said about the native forms of the conditional, which do not use “würde”? And this lesson’s dialogue, you had encountered one more of these, and that is “könnte”. “Könnte” is derived from of “können", which we already had. It means “can” even if Chuck refuses to give you the translation. |
| Chuck: Yup. |
| Judith: So “könnte”. How would you translate that, Chuck? |
| Chuck: “Could”. |
| Judith: Yes. And of course, the personal endings are the same again as for “würde” and for “möchte”. “Könnte” is particularly useful when you want to make a polite request. For example, “Könnten Sie mir bitte helfen?” |
| Chuck: “Could you please help me?” |
| Judith: This is polite even if you leave out the bitte. You say “Könnten Sie mir helfen?”. |
| Chuck: “Could you help me?” |
| Judith: Anyway, it’s more polite than saying “Können Sie helfen?”. “Können Sie mir helfen?” Another quick tip for today is that you can turn any verb into a noun just by capitalizing it. So this way, you get the noun that describes the action. And this noun will always be neuter and have no plural so that makes it easy too. For example, we saw in the dialogue Treffen, das Treffen. |
| Chuck: “To meet or the meeting”. |
| Judith: Similarly, there’s essen and das Essen. |
| Chuck: “To eat or the eating”. So in this case, Essen could also mean “the food”. |
| Judith: Yes. And trinken, das Trinken. |
| Chuck: “To drink or the drinking”. |
| Judith: It does not mean “the drink” however. That would be “Getränke”. Normally, the verbs only referred to the action; the drinking, the eating, the meeting. |
| Chuck: So could you give me the example of das Trinken? I don’t even know if I’ve heard that before. |
| Judith: Well, they’re particularly popular in official German, like any kind of… if you allow something or forbid something. For example, you may say, “Das Trinken im Unterricht is nicht erlaubt.” |
| Chuck: “The drinking during class is not allowed”. |
| Judith: And that means you, Chuck. Put your beer away. |
| Chuck: That’s water. |
| Judith: Is it now? |
| Chuck: Yeah. |
| Judith: I’m not sure why you put it in a water bottle but it doesn’t look like water. |
| Chuck: Sure. I guess I’ll finish drinking my water after we read the dialogue again. |
| Judith: Okay. |
| Chuck: Ah, see! I told you it’s water. |
| Michaela: Willkommen zurück, John! Wie war das Treffen mit deinem Freund? |
| John: Es war schön, danke. |
| Michaela: Was hast du morgen vor? |
| John: Ich habe noch nichts vor, aber ich möchte endlich die Sehenswürdigkeiten sehen. Könnten wir in die Stadt fahren? |
| Michaela: Ja, sicher. Bis jetzt warst du ja beschäftigt |
| John: Aber ich war doch nicht jeden Tag beschäftigt! |
| Michaela: Doch… |
| John: Gestern warst du den ganzen Tag beschäftigt! |
| Michaela: Das ist nicht wahr! |
| John: Es ist okay. Ich möchte nur morgen die Sehenswürdigkeiten sehen, wenn es geht. |
| Judith: Okay. Tomorrow is for sight-seeing? |
| Chuck: We’ve been doing sight-seeing so much lately actually. |
| Judith: Come on, you can’t talk about German culture, not if you’ve seen all of them. |
| Chuck: I’m sure I’ve seen everything worth seeing. “Sehenwürdigkeiten” is worth seeing stuff, right? |
| Judith: Yeah, actually. “sehen” to see “würdig”, “sehenswürdig” is worthy of seeing and “keit” makes it a noun. |
| Chuck: Wait, we haven’t been to the oldest bar in Berlin yet, have we? |
| Judith: Come on, no superlatives. I’m not even sure there is an oldest bar… well, there has to be. One of them has to be the oldest, but… |
| Chuck: Maybe it’s the fastest or the tallest? |
| Judith: …it may not be advertising itself as the oldest bar even. |
| Chuck: I think we passed it once. |
| Judith: Have you? |
| Chuck: Yeah. |
Outro |
| Judith: I wouldn’t know. I don’t take notice of bars. Anyway, I just hope that you enjoy this lesson and that you’re going to check back on the site, GermanPod101.com to get the PDF and have a look at the learning center and maybe study some German or look at the number lesson. So I just hope I’ll see you next week. |
| Chuck: Bis nächste Woche. |
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