Learn how to use reflexive verbs
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Chuck: This is Beginner Series, Lesson 25. |
| Judith: Willkommen zuruck. |
| Chuck: Welcome back. |
| Judith: This is the 25th GermanPod101 Beginner lesson. |
| Chuck: Wait a minute, if you’ve already listened to 24 Beginner lessons, I don’t think you’re quite a beginner anymore. In the past lessons in this series, we’ve covered lots of German expressions, grammar, vocabulary, and culture. Right now, if you listen to all of it, you can hardly call yourself a beginner anymore. So you probably rather take what’s called the European Level A1 exam now, depending on, of course, on what you did to practice active language usage. But I’m sure you all, in your mean time, listen to German songs and watch German movies and went to the German club in your city… |
| Judith: Or talk to friends in German. |
| Chuck: Yeah. So I’d say even Level 8 too is easily within reach. You just learn some more vocabulary. |
| Judith: So the boss has said that 25 is a good number and the series is to end here before we teach you intermediate grammar. We will take a short break and Tuesday after next, we’re back with a new series. |
| Chuck: Cool. What will that have? |
| Judith: The new series will focus on situations that anybody coming to Germany will find them self in. It will be a non-linear series designed to help you improve your knowledge of German vocabulary and phrases. If you’ll prefer though, you can already jump to the intermediate lessons now and learn some more of advanced grammar. |
| Chuck: So I hope we will see you Tuesday after next in the new series. I’m not sure what it is yet, but I’m sure she’ll surprise us with something. So for now, let’s listen to today’s dialogue. |
| Judith: As you know, John convinced Michaela to go sight-seeing the next day. Well, guess what? It’s the morning of the next day and the two are going to go out. Or are they? |
| Chuck: Let’s find out. |
| DIALOGUE |
| John: Bist du fertig, Michaela? Ich möchte jetzt gehen. |
| Michaela: Noch nicht. Ich muss mich noch duschen. Und du? |
| John: Ich bin schon fertig. |
| … |
| John: Was ist, Michaela? Kommst du? |
| Michaela: Ich bin noch im Badezimmer, siehst du das nicht? |
| John: Ich frage ja nur. Was machst du so lange im Badezimmer? |
| Michaela: Chhh! Was macht man wohl im Badezimmer?! Ich wasche mir die Haare, trockne mir die Haare ab, ich kämme mich, ich putze mir die Zähne… |
| … |
| John: Und jetzt? Bist du jetzt fertig? Ich möchte endlich die Sehenswürdigkeiten sehen! |
| Michaela: Ich muss mich noch anziehen. |
| John: Okay, ich warte schon mal an der Tür. |
| … |
| Michaela: So, da bin ich! |
| John: Gut, gehen wir! |
| Michaela: Du willst so gehen?? |
| John: Ja, warum nicht? |
| Michaela: So nehme ich dich nicht mit. Du musst dich erst rasieren. Ich werde draußen auf dich warten. |
| Judith: Now read slowly. |
| John: Bist du fertig, Michaela? Ich möchte jetzt gehen. |
| Michaela: Noch nicht. Ich muss mich noch duschen. Und du? |
| John: Ich bin schon fertig. |
| … |
| John: Was ist, Michaela? Kommst du? |
| Michaela: Ich bin noch im Badezimmer, siehst du das nicht? |
| John: Ich frage ja nur. Was machst du so lange im Badezimmer? |
| Michaela: Chhh! Was macht man wohl im Badezimmer?! Ich wasche mir die Haare, trockne mir die Haare ab, ich kämme mich, ich putze mir die Zähne… |
| … |
| John: Und jetzt? Bist du jetzt fertig? Ich möchte endlich die Sehenswürdigkeiten sehen! |
| Michaela: Ich muss mich noch anziehen. |
| John: Okay, ich warte schon mal an der Tür. |
| … |
| Michaela: So, da bin ich! |
| John: Gut, gehen wir! |
| Michaela: Du willst so gehen?? |
| John: Ja, warum nicht? |
| Michaela: So nehme ich dich nicht mit. Du musst dich erst rasieren. Ich werde draußen auf dich warten. |
| Judith: Now with the translation. |
| Judith: Bist du fertig, Michaela? |
| Chuck: Are you ready, Michaela? |
| Judith: Ich möchte jetzt gehen. |
| Chuck: I’d like to go now. |
| Michaela: Noch nicht. |
| Chuck: Not yet. |
| Judith: Ich muss mich noch duschen. |
| Chuck: I still have to shower. |
| Judith: Und du? |
| Chuck: And you? |
| Judith: Ich bin schon fertig. |
| Chuck: I’m already ready. |
| … |
| Judith: Was ist, Michaela? |
| Chuck: What’s up, Michaela? |
| Judith: Kommst du? |
| Chuck: Are you coming? |
| Judith: Ich bin noch im Badezimmer, siehst du das nicht? |
| Chuck: I’m still in the bathroom, don’t you see that? |
| Judith: Ich frage ja nur. |
| Chuck: I’m just asking. |
| Judith: Was machst du so lange im Badezimmer? |
| Chuck: What are you doing so in the bathroom? |
| Judith: Chhh! Was macht man wohl im Badezimmer?! |
| Chuck: Chhh! What do people do in the bathroom?! |
| Judith: Ich wasche mir die Haare, |
| Chuck: I am washing my hair… |
| Judith: Trockne mir die Haare ab. |
| Chuck: Drying my hair. |
| Judith: ich kämme mich… |
| Chuck: I’m combing my hair. |
| Judith: Ich putze mir die Zähne… |
| Chuck: I’m brushing my teeth… |
| … |
| Judith: Und jetzt? |
| Chuck: And now? |
| Judith: Bist du jetzt fertig? |
| Chuck: Are you now ready? |
| Judith: Ich möchte endlich die Sehenswürdigkeiten sehen! |
| Chuck: I’d like to finally see the sights! |
| Judith: Ich muss mich noch anziehen. |
| Chuck: I still have to put on clothes. |
| John: Okay, ich warte schon mal an der Tür. |
| Chuck: Okay, I’m going to wait already at the door. |
| … |
| Judith: So, da bin ich! |
| Chuck: So, here I am! |
| John: Gut, gehen wir! |
| Chuck: Alright, let’s go! |
| Judith: Du willst so gehen? |
| Chuck: You want to go like that? |
| John: Ja, warum nicht? |
| Chuck: Yes, why not? |
| Judith: So nehme ich dich nicht mit. |
| Chuck: Like that? I’m not taking you with me. |
| Judith: Du musst dich erst rasieren. |
| Chuck: You first need to shave. |
| Judith: Ich werde draußen auf dich warten. |
| Chuck: I’ll wait for you outside. |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Chuck: So do we have to keep waiting for you to go over the vocabulary? |
| Judith: No. I can do it. It’s okay. |
| Chuck: I’ll be waiting outside. |
| Judith: No. You’ll be waiting here and translating. |
| Chuck: Okay. |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Judith: The first word is fertig [natural native speed]. |
| Chuck: “Completed or ready”. |
| Judith: Fertig [natural native speed]. |
| Chuck: “Ready”. |
| Judith: Next, Duschen [natural native speed]. |
| Chuck: “To shower”. |
| Judith: Duschen [slowly - broken down by syllable]. Duschen [natural native speed]. |
| Chuck: “To shower”. Note that you wouldn’t just say “Ich dusche” but you would say “Ich dusche mich”. |
| Judith: More about that in the grammar section. Next, Badezimmer [natural native speed] |
| Chuck: “Bathroom”. |
| Judith: Badezimmer [slowly - broken down by syllable]. Badezimmer [natural native speed]. |
| Chuck: “Bathroom”. |
| Judith: This is neuter, das Badezimmer, and the plural is the same. Next word is Waschen [natural native speed]. |
| Chuck: “To wash”. |
| Judith: Waschen [natural native speed]. |
| Chuck: “To wash”. |
| Judith: This is a vowel-changing verb, as you’ve encountered many before. The vowel changes from A to E. Next, Abtrocknen [natural native speed]. |
| Chuck: “To dry”. |
| Judith: Abtrocknen [slowly - broken down by syllable]. |
| Chuck: “To dry”. |
| Judith: The Ab part splits off when you use it. For example, “Ich trockne mich ab.” |
| Chuck: “I dry myself off”. So it’s sort of like off in English with this particular word. |
| Judith: Yes. Next, Haar [natural native speed]. |
| Chuck: “Hair”. |
| Judith: Haar [natural native speed]. |
| Chuck: “Hair”. |
| Judith: This word is neuter, das Haar, and the plural is Haare. |
| Chuck: “Hairs”. |
| Judith: As in English, the distribution is kind of weird, whether you say Haar or Haare, hair or hairs. But I would say that the plural Haare is much common when you’re talking about the whole. For example, “Ich wasche mir die Haare.” |
| Chuck: “I wash my hair” or actually literally, “I wash my hairs”. |
| Judith: So I would say that the plural Haare is always more common when you’re meaning the whole thing. Next, Kämmen [natural native speed] |
| Chuck: “To comb”. |
| Judith: Kämmen [slowly - broken down by syllable]. |
| Chuck: “To comb”. |
| Judith: Or if you have a lot of hair, you might say “bürsten”. |
| Chuck: “Brush. To brush”. |
| Judith: “bürsten” |
| Chuck: “To brush”. |
| Judith: Next, Die Zähne putzen [natural native speed]. |
| Chuck: “To brush teeth”. |
| Judith: Die Zähne putzen [slowly - broken down by syllable]. |
| Chuck: “To brush teeth”. Literally, to clean or polish teeth. |
| Judith: Yeah. Every country has its own expression. I don’t see with what you mean with brushing. Anyway, the next word is Anziehen [natural native speed]. |
| Chuck: “To wear or put on”. |
| Judith: Anziehen [slowly - broken down by syllable]. Anziehen [natural native speed]. |
| Chuck: “To wear or put on”. |
| Judith: The “An” part splits off. “Ich ziehe an, Ich ziehe mich an” actually. |
| Chuck: I put on clothes. |
| Judith: The clothes is understood in German. Next, Tür [natural native speed]. |
| Chuck: “Door”. |
| Judith: Tür [natural native speed]. |
| Chuck: “Door”. |
| Judith: This word is feminine, die Tür. |
| Chuck: “The door”. |
| Judith: And plural is Türen. |
| Chuck: “Doors”. |
| Judith: Next, Warum [natural native speed]. |
| Chuck: “Why”. |
| Judith: Warum [slowly - broken down by syllable]. Warum [natural native speed]. |
| Chuck: “Why”. |
| Judith: It’s the same as “wieso”, which you already learned. Next, Rasieren [natural native speed] |
| Chuck: “To shave”. |
| Judith: Rasieren [slowly - broken down by syllable]. Rasieren [natural native speed]. |
| Chuck: “To shave”. |
| Judith: “Hast du dich heute rasiert?” |
| Chuck: Yeah. |
| Judith: “Sieht man nicht” |
| Chuck: Yeah. |
| Judith: Well, from across here, it doesn’t show. |
| Chuck: Because I’m hidden behind the microphone. |
| Judith: I’ll just have to take your word for it. |
| Chuck: That sounds good. |
| CULTURAL INSIGHTS |
| Judith: So in this lesson, we learned a lot of vocabulary related to morning routine, cleaning and brushing, and taking a shower in the German bathrooms. |
| Chuck: So you’re probably wondering what’s different about a German bathroom than, say, an American bathroom? |
| Judith: Yeah. Is there anything in Particular that you noticed? |
| Chuck: I know some few things. Like, for one thing, I thought it was quite strange at first that pretty much everyone, men included, shower with liquid shower gel instead of using bar soap. |
| Judith: Why would you use soap? Soap is for washing hands. For washing the whole body, there’s a special shower gel. That’s not just soap, it’s also a moisturizer usually. |
| Chuck: But I thought you use liquid to wash your hands. |
| Judith: No. Well, some people do. But nobody that I knew of uses a bar soap for showering. |
| Chuck: I’ve heard it’s quite harder for a few Americans that come overseas, and because of the new security laws at the airports, they had to give away their soap. Then when they got over here, they found they couldn’t buy bar soap to shower with. |
| Judith: Well, get something that says shower gel. It even says it in English. |
| Chuck: Yeah. It’s just different, if you’re not used to it. Also one thing, if you come over here with a soap box and you lose it for some reason, you’ll have a very hard time finding another soap box. |
| Judith: Why? I’ve seen soap boxes. We use them for the soap that we use for washing hands. |
| Chuck: You can always find them when you’re not looking for them. |
| Judith: I agree too. |
| Chuck: Because I remember when I lose my soap box a few years ago, I couldn’t find it anymore, so I just started using shower gel like the Germans do. |
| Judith: What I like here is that very often, you are able to hold the shower head and move it around as you want to. |
| Chuck: Yeah. It really depends on the American home if they have a shower that you can take off or not. But here in Germany, pretty much every shower head, you can pull and aim it wherever you want. |
| Judith: Anything else about showering? |
| Chuck: One thing that you may notice if you can hear someone showering is that in the middle, you’ll always hear the water turn off for environmental reasons. It’s pretty much every German stops the water in the middle when they’re bathing, which is what Americans should do too. |
| Judith: Not bathing. For bathing, you first draw the water… |
| Chuck: I think bathing for showering. |
| Judith: Oh. Is that possible even? In German, it’s not. If you say “baden”, it’s not the same as “duschen”. I think not everybody does it but it’s definitely better for environmental reasons. You don’t waste so much water. |
| Chuck: I mention the environmentalist listeners do it too in the States. That really is a good idea to conserve on water. |
| Judith: Another way that people may converse water in Germany is when they are flushing the toilet, they have the ability to stop the flushing. |
| Chuck: Yeah. I think it’s really nice. Some toilets, you may find that you can push twice on the flush, like there’s a button in the wall or you have a sort of like a switch where you just switch it back in a way. It’s kind of hard to explain, I guess. |
| Judith: I’m sure you’ll figure it out when you come here. |
| Chuck: Another thing that… I remember on my first trip to German, I was quite surprised that I looked at the toilet, I didn’t even know how to flush. I was just looking at it and I was like, “How do I flush it?” There’s a rope that was coming up from the top of it. You have to pull down the rope. |
| Judith: It sounds kind of ancient to me, but imagine some homes still have it. |
| Chuck: Yeah. Another great home is going to have the most ancient bathroom. One thing you might also know is when you want to go to the bathroom in the middle of the night, that light switch is usually on the outside of the room. |
| Judith: I haven’t counted how often it’s outside or inside but yeah, it’s quite possible. |
| Chuck: On the States, it’s always inside the room. |
| Judith: Okay. |
| Chuck: I don’t know of any exception to that. I think it’s because you don’t to make the hallways look bad putting the light switch on the outside. |
| Judith: But it’s nice. It helps you see where you’re going because the light switch is often illuminated. Like an apartment houses outside the apartments, the light switches on the wall are illuminated so you see where you have to push to get light. |
| Chuck: Yeah. And also, it’s interesting because sometimes you can tell that someone’s in the room by seeing that the light is on. Oh, another interesting thing… |
| Judith: The light is off then. The light switch would be off then. |
| Chuck: Okay. |
| Judith: Because normally, the light switch is illuminated to help you find it in case you need to go in the night. |
| Chuck: Okay. |
| Judith: Then it’s not illuminated if someone is in because then you don’t want to… |
| Chuck: We can cut that one. One other thing that you’ll notice in German homes after you use the bathroom, pretty much everyone shuts the door, because I know at least in our family, when you leave the bathroom, you left it open a little bit to show that you weren’t there anymore. |
| Judith: In Germany, most bathrooms are lockable, so you don’t need to have this kind of signal. |
| Chuck: Well, they’re lockable in the States too but it’s just nice not to hear someone trying to come in on you. |
| Judith: When my mom has guests, she would definitely have all the bathroom doors shut. I think something is weird in America, at least from the TV shows is that you have some many laundry mats that it’s like a community place to meet you. |
| Chuck: Yeah. Well, it’s because everyone doesn’t want to have to have their own washing machine. |
| Judith: Here, I’d say everybody has… maybe not the bachelors but the thing is we don’t have that many laundry mats. If you don’t have your own washing machine, then you’re probably using a friend’s one or… |
| Chuck: Yea. I guess in college housing, you’d also find laundry mat, right? Like in the basement? |
| Judith: Yes. But in the city itself, it’s like… |
| Chuck: Especially when you’re outside the city. |
| Judith: No. Everybody has their washing machine typically in the bathroom or maybe in the basement if they have more space. Then if you’re in a big apartment building, there’s a shared space for hanging up clothes somewhere in the building. |
| Chuck: Yeah. You’ll notice that dryers aren’t used nearly as often here as there in the States. |
| Judith: I don’t see why you are using dryers so often in the States because it’s not good for the environment and the other thing is it’s not good for your clothes. |
| Chuck: Because it’s more convenient and fast. You know, things just have to be fast and convenient in the States. It’s all the matters. |
| Judith: I think it may have to do with European clothing too because here in Europe, there’s a lot of clothes that you just can’t put in the dryer that say they mustn’t be put there, fine clothes, you know. Not even that fine, just… |
| Chuck: Are you saying that all Americans wear t-shirts and jeans? What am I wearing now? No. |
| Judith: No. You’re wearing a shirt and jeans. |
| Chuck: It is polo shirt. |
| Judith: And white tennis shoes. That’s the easiest way of spotting an American. |
| Chuck: Yup. |
| Judith: Even easier if it’s white socks with that, too. |
| Chuck: And even easier is if they’re wearing a baseball cap. A typical American tourist, you can tell with a baseball cap, a white t-shirt, and the jeans, and the white sneakers with the white socks. You can say, “There’s the American.” |
| Judith: Okay. That was some insight. It’s kind of fun trying to spot people and trying to say where they’re from, you know touristy areas. |
| Chuck: Yeah. |
Lesson focus |
|---|
| Judith: But let’s do some grammar. Today’s grammar is the reflexive verbs. |
| Chuck: Reflexive verbs. What’s that? |
| Judith: Verbs that are reflexive, referring back. In this case, back to the subject. In English, you can easily spot them because they’re used with something ending in self or selves, like myself, yourself, ourselves, whatever. For example, in the sentence “I dry myself off.” In German, that would be “Ich trockne mich ab.”. Recognize the “mich”? |
| Chuck: Yeah. It means “me”. |
| Judith: Yes. It’s just the regular accusative personal pronoun. It doesn’t have anything self. It’s not mich self. It’s not special. This makes German easier than English when they speak back because the pronouns always just the regular accusative ones, except for the third person. We have a third person like he, she, it, or even they in a plural, then you say “sich” instead to rhyme with the “dich” and “dich”. |
| Chuck: Like, how would that be in a sentence. |
| Judith: Well, “Er wäscht sich.”. You know if it was accusative, you would say “Er wäscht ihn.”; that you have to say “Er wäscht sich.” because otherwise you’re implying he’s washing another male person or maybe washing an object that’s grammatically masculine. |
| Chuck: Yeah. You got to be careful when you’re washing something that’s grammatically masculine. |
| Judith: No. I just remember it’s “sich” referring back. |
| Chuck: Unless you are actually washing an object that’s grammatically masculine. |
| Judith: Or another male person. Many verbs can be reflexive or not, like this washing. You can wash yourself, which would be reflexive, or you can wash your car, which is not reflexive. There’s a special case though if you’re washing something that’s a part of you, for example, your face. Face in Germany is “das Gesicht”. So in this case, it is reflexive because it refers to yourself in a way but you still need an object to indicate what you’re washing. Then you wind up with two accusative objects because the pronoun is already accusative and the object is accusative too. In Germany, it’s just not possible to have two accusative objects in the same sentence. That’s the same rule in all other languages that have the accusative. The solution is that the pronoun becomes dative. So instead of “mich” you say “mir” and instead of “dich”, you say “dir”, and the whole set of pronouns just changes so that you wind up with your usual situation of having one dative and one accusative object. But it’s still “sich” for a third person. |
| Chuck: So you would say something like “I wash to me the face”? |
| Judith: Yes. “Ich wasche mir das Gesicht.”. That’s how you have to say it. |
| Chuck: “Ich putze mir die Zahne.” |
| Judith: Yes. That’s even more common. “Ich putze mir die Zähne.”, I brush to me the teeth. It’s corky but it’s… |
| Chuck: That’s right. “Zahne” changes to “Zähne”, right? |
| Judith: “Zahn, Zähne” |
| Chuck: “Zahn, Zähne” |
| Judith: “Zahn” is singular and “Zähne” is plural. |
| Chuck: All right. So don’t mispronounce them like me. |
| Judith: So this rule was the dative or this whole formulation, I brush myself the teeth or I brush to me the teeth, it’s corky but it’s not really difficult when you get used to it very quickly. Just hear it often enough. |
| Chuck: All right. So these are pretty boring examples. Could you give something more interesting? I think I’m falling myself asleep here. |
| Judith: Well, a lot of the verbs that are reflexive are the ones that concern washing, or shaving, or showering, and brushing teeth and the like. Let’s think of some reflexive verbs that’s not from that category. For example, “Ich besaufe mich.”.That’s reflexive. |
| Chuck: That means “to drink like dog” right? |
| Judith: Yeah. To guzzle or drink a whole lot or to drink very sloppily, especially when you’re… |
| Chuck: Well, that would be interesting. |
| Judith: …referring to alcohol. |
| Chuck: Oh, like that. That’s what you mean. |
| Judith: “Besaufen” is definitely the right word for those German tourists on Mallorca, that Spanish island, because they have buckets of Sangria. It will definitely be animal-like and a lot in it. So remember that “besaufen” is reflexive. Okay. So I’m not to talk about alcohol too much in these lessons. I know Chuck already does. Let’s hear the dialogue one more time. |
| Chuck: You act like I drink all the time. |
| Judith: No. You just talk about drinking all the time. |
| Chuck: But I only drink on days that end in “y”. |
| Judith: Or Germans day that end in G, plus Wednesday. “Mittwoch”. |
| Chuck: Let’s get to the dialogue. |
| Judith: I’m glad you agree. |
| Chuck: Bist du fertig, Judith? Ich möchte jetzt gehen. |
| Judith: Hey, this is Michaela we’re talking about. |
| Chuck: Oh, of course! That dialogue. |
| Judith: I would never take that long in the bathroom. |
| Chuck: Oh, that seems you’re ready to go. Ich möchte jetzt gehen. All right. |
| Judith: Read your part. |
| Chuck: Let’s get to the dialogue now. |
| DIALOGUE |
| John: Bist du fertig, Michaela? Ich möchte jetzt gehen. |
| Michaela: Noch nicht. Ich muss mich noch duschen. Und du? |
| John: Ich bin schon fertig. |
| … |
| John: Was ist, Michaela? Kommst du? |
| Michaela: Ich bin noch im Badezimmer, siehst du das nicht? |
| John: Ich frage ja nur. Was machst du so lange im Badezimmer? |
| Michaela: Chhh! Was macht man wohl im Badezimmer?! Ich wasche mir die Haare, trockne mir die Haare ab, ich kämme mich, ich putze mir die Zähne… |
| … |
| John: Und jetzt? Bist du jetzt fertig? Ich möchte endlich die Sehenswürdigkeiten sehen! |
| Michaela: Ich muss mich noch anziehen. |
| John: Okay, ich warte schon mal an der Tür. |
| … |
| Michaela: So, da bin ich! |
| John: Gut, gehen wir! |
| Michaela: Du willst so gehen?? |
| John: Ja, warum nicht? |
| Michaela: So nehme ich dich nicht mit. Du musst dich erst rasieren. Ich werde draußen auf dich warten. |
Outro |
| Chuck: That’s pretty funny, isn’t it? |
| Judith: What? |
| Chuck: That he waits so long for her and then she’s waiting for him. |
| Judith: Yeah. I’m sure it has happened. |
| Chuck: So are you ready to go? I think I’m going to go wait for you at the door. |
| Judith: Okay, I’m coming. I guess we’re done for this lesson. And of course, remember to check out the new Beginner Series starting Tuesday after next. |
| Chuck: Yeah. It should be pretty cool. See you next week! |
| Judith: Bis nächste Woche. |
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