Learn using the accusative case
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Chuck: This is Beginner Series, Lesson 8. |
| Judith: Willkommen zurück. |
| Chuck: Welcome back, listeners, for another Beginner lesson brought to by GermanPod101.com. |
| Judith: Do you remember what happened in the last one? |
| Chuck: In the last lesson, John sat down for breakfast with Michaela. It’s his first morning in Germany so he was in for a surprise about the breakfast food. |
| Judith: But Michaela was ready to make eggs and sausages for him, so he got something he liked anyway. |
| Chuck: So now, John and Michaela are actually having their meal. Let’s sit down and hear what they’re going to say. |
Lesson conversation |
|---|
| Michaela: John, trinken Sie Kaffee zum Frühstück? Oder lieber Tee? |
| John: Kaffee ist gut. |
| Michaela: Hier ist Ihr Kaffee. |
| John: Danke. |
| Michaela: John, geben Sie mir bitte den Honig. |
| John: Bitte. |
| Michaela: Danke. |
| John: Ich nehme mir noch zwei Würstchen, okay? |
| Michaela: Okay. |
| Judith: Now read slowly. |
| Michaela: John, trinken Sie Kaffee zum Frühstück? Oder lieber Tee? |
| John: Kaffee ist gut. |
| Michaela: Hier ist Ihr Kaffee. |
| John: Danke. |
| Michaela: John, geben Sie mir bitte den Honig. |
| John: Bitte. |
| Michaela: Danke. |
| John: Ich nehme mir noch zwei Würstchen, okay? |
| Michaela: Okay. |
| Judith: Now with the translation. |
| Judith: John, trinken Sie Kaffee zum Frühstück? |
| Chuck: John, do you drink coffee for breakfast? |
| Judith: Oder lieber Tee? |
| Chuck: Or [would you] rather [have] tea? |
| Judith: Kaffee ist gut. |
| Chuck: Coffee is good. |
| Judith: Hier ist Ihr Kaffee. |
| Chuck: Here’s your coffee. |
| Judith: Danke. |
| Chuck: Thanks. |
| Judith: John, geben Sie mir bitte den Honig. |
| Chuck: John, please give me the honey. |
| Judith: Bitte. |
| Chuck: Here you go. |
| Judith: Danke. |
| Chuck: Thanks. |
| Judith: Ich nehme mir noch zwei Würstchen, ist das okay? |
| Chuck: I’m taking two more sausages, okay? |
| Judith: Okay. |
| Chuck: Okay. |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Chuck: Well, there was nothing really revolutionary in this dialogue. |
| Judith: What do you expect? Should Napoleon show up and steal their food? |
| Chuck: Yeah, actually, because that’s what happens to me every morning when I start to eat breakfast. |
| Judith: Are you sure? We want to stay realistic, please. |
| Chuck: That’s no fun. |
| Judith: This podcast is all about giving you an authentic insight into how people live in Germany today and what you might expect as a visitor. |
| Chuck: I guess that would be more useful actually for our audience. So if you’ll visit the Germany or any other German-speaking countries, you’ll definitely need a bigger vocabulary. Let’s work on that right now, okay? |
Lesson focus |
| Judith: Also, don’t forget to practice your vocabulary later using the learning center. Now, the first word is trinken [natural native speed]. |
| Chuck: “To drink”. |
| Judith: Trinken [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Chuck: “To drink”. |
| Judith: Next, Tee [natural native speed]. |
| Chuck: “Tea”. |
| Judith: Der Tee [slowly - broken down by syllable]. |
| Chuck: “Tea”. |
| Judith: Ich trinke Tee. |
| Chuck: “I drink tea”. |
| Judith: Next, Lieber [natural native speed]. |
| Chuck: “Rather” or “preferably”. |
| Judith: Lieber [slowly - broken down by syllable]. |
| Chuck: “Rather” or “preferably”. |
| Judith: Ich trenke lieber Tee. |
| Chuck: “I’d rather drink tea”. |
| Judith: Ich trenke lieber Tee als Kaffee. |
| Chuck: “I’d rather drink tea than coffee”. |
| Judith: Next, dein [natural native speed]. |
| Chuck: “Your” (informal). |
| Judith: Dein [natural native speed]. |
| Chuck: “Your” (informal). |
| Judith: This is the possessive pronoun version of du, so it’s informal. |
| Chuck: “Ich trinke lieber dein Bier.” |
| Judith: “He preferred to drink my beer”? That’s weird because I don’t drink beer. |
| Chuck: That’s why I would drink it, because you’re not going to drink it. |
| Judith: You forget that I also wouldn’t order it. Next word is Geben [natural native speed]. |
| Chuck: “To give”. |
| Judith: Geben [natural native speed]. |
| Chuck: “To give”. |
| Judith: This word changes its vowel just like sprechen. |
| Chuck: What do you mean by that? |
| Judith: We had it before. In every lesson we had so far, there was a vowel-changing verb. So for this one, it would be “ich gebe, du gibst, er gibt, wir geben,ihr gebt, sie geben”. Just as normal, the “E” changes to “I” and only for the second and third person singular. Now the next word is Mir [natural native speed]. |
| Chuck: “To me”. |
| Judith: Mir [natural native speed]. |
| Chuck: “To me”. |
| Judith: This is the “dativ” of “ich”. |
| Chuck: Actually, that sounds quite a bit like “dir”. |
| Judith: Yes. “dir” iis “to you” and “mir” is “to me”. |
| Chuck: That sounds pretty logical, actually. |
| Judith: Sometimes, German is logical. Next word is Honig [natural native speed]. Der Honig. |
| Chuck: “Honey”. |
| Judith: Honig [natural native speed] |
| Chuck: “Honey”. Could you also use that as a nickname for a girlfriend? |
| Judith: No. Definitely not. Honig is not a name. Now, the next word is nehmen [natural native speed]. |
| Chuck: “To take”. |
| Judith: Nehmen [natural native speed]. |
| Chuck: “To take”. |
| Judith: Again, this verb changes its vowel, “E” to “I”. You know the deal. Next word, noch [natural native speed]. |
| Chuck: “Still”. |
| Judith: Noch [natural native speed]. |
| Chuck: “Still”. It could also be “yet” or “another”. |
| Judith: And finally, the last word for today is Zwei [natural native speed]. |
| Chuck: The number two. |
| Judith: Zwei [natural native speed]. |
| Chuck: “Two”. |
| Judith: If you would like to learn more numbers already, please have a look at the newbie lesson number 6. |
| Chuck: Judith, could you make up sample sentence with some of those words? |
| Judith: For example, Ich nehme mir noch zwei Würstchen. I believe we heard this in the dialogue. That means “I’ll take another two sausages or two more sausages.” |
| Chuck: Okay. It’s making me hungry, though. |
| Judith: Of course. You always eat a lot. So let’s discuss meals in Germany a bit. |
| Chuck: So the tradition of having meals together as a family is still very popular here. |
| Judith: Definitely yes. Family or like with friends. You will hardly find somebody, like, in a restaurant sitting alone. |
| Chuck: I really see that Germans respect the meal time much more often, like you’ll never see a TV on the side or people are really just sitting there at the table and eating their meal. |
| Judith: That’s right. And most families at least. |
| Chuck: And of course, you don’t just start eating like in the States. You wait for everyone to get their meal and then say “guten appétit”. |
| Judith: “Guten appétit” is a very typical German expression that doesn’t exist in English. It exists in French, though. It’s “bon appétit”, and it basically means that you are wishing somebody a good appetite. |
| Chuck: Yeah. And most European countries, you’ll find that there’s a greeting before meal like this. So you have to be polite and wait for the greeting. |
| Judith: And then you should respond. I think you’ll say the say, “guten appétit”, or you could say “Danke, gleichfalls”. That means “thanks, and same to you”. Once that’s said, everybody can start eating. Well, some families also pray before the meal. If you’re with a big party, like a birthday party or somebody may want to make a speech before people start eating, the best is if you just wait and see what the others do. |
| Chuck: Yeah. Once the other people start eating, you’re pretty safe to go ahead. |
| Judith: And just assume it’s going to be like this, because in some families it might be different, but then people will tell you. This way, you should not offend anybody. |
| Chuck: And don’t get up immediately when you’re done, because Germans really don’t want to be rushed. |
| Judith: Definitely. People like sitting there after meal and waiting till everybody has finished their meal and their drink and maybe still discuss some. |
| Chuck: Yeah. Because what’s really interesting, when Americans sit at restaurants in Germany, they’ll get upset because they don’t bring the bill immediately because they want to go, whereas Germans, if they visit the States, they’re upset because they feel like they’re being rushed when they get the bill immediately. |
| Judith: Well, you don’t get the bill until you’ve requested it anyway. |
| Chuck: Right. |
| Judith: Restaurants, in particular, are a place where people like to sit some more and talk after they’re done eating. Some restaurants also slow the delivery of the meal, at least I think so, so that you have more time to just talk to the people you’re with. |
| Chuck: I think it’s called bad service actually. |
| Judith: No. I think some restaurants do it on purpose, like the high class. |
| Chuck: Maybe then. |
| Judith: Anyway, you will notice that in Germany, people like to drink wine with fancy dishes, but if it’s something like a popular dish, a simple people’s kind of dish, then people will have beer with it; but you don’t need to drink anything alcoholic, especially for lunch. Water or Apfelsaftschorle is very common. |
| Chuck: Yeah. One thing that seems unique to Germany to me is this drink called Apfelsaftschorle, which is basically just apple juice mixed with carbonated mineral water. It’s very refreshing and quite healthy. I find that also that when Americans leave Germany, they miss it although it’s quite easy actually. You just get some apple juice and carbonated water and then you just mix them together, 50/50. |
| Judith: Sometimes, you also see it mixed differently. It depends how refreshing you want it. It’s very good, especially in summer. I like it! Note that some households will not have any soda, lemonade, or non-carbonated water. |
| Chuck: Yeah. One thing I really don’t like in Germany is it’s really hard to find American lemonade. |
| Judith: If you say lemonade in Germany, the equivalent is limonade, then people will think of Fanta, like orange-flavored soda. |
| Chuck: I mean, I even once asked for a lemonade and they just give me Sprite. |
| Judith: Yeah. Well, that. It’s the concept of lemonade is only known to the ones that have been to America. |
| Chuck: And one thing that could really frustrate me is that a lot of homes don’t even have non-carbonated water, and restaurants, too! |
| Judith: Yes. Well, people generally like carbonated more. I mean, the average German likes it more. Of course, there are a couple of people that don’t like carbonated water but non-carbonated is really, really common. I think the restaurants may not have a non-carbonated water because…I don’t know. |
| Chuck: I think Germans typically see that water should be free, so why should they be paying for something that they could just get right out the tap? |
| Judith: Especially since the tap water quality is really good here. It meets the standards on drinking water. It’s what you use for showering. |
| Chuck: Yeah. But of course, the German restaurants don’t want to be able to just give out free water, so they want you to have to buy something. |
| Judith: So they’ll give you this carbonated water that’s packaged in bottles. |
| Chuck: And if you just want some water because you had a bit too much to drink, I guess you could say, then you’re just expected to go to the bathroom and drink it on the sink. |
| Judith: I don’t think it’s expected. I think they expect you to drink carbonated water. |
| Chuck: That’s what some German friends told me. I wouldn’t have any experience with that. |
| Judith: Wouldn’t you? Note also that the selection of soda at restaurants is not to what you might expect because it’s just the European over here, the drink that they sell are a bit different. For example, we still have Fanta, which I believe is no longer available in America. |
| Chuck: Especially for, like, Sunkist in the States. |
| Judith: Yeah. Yeah. Something like that, except it’s sold by Cola-cola. |
| Chuck: Yeah But it isn’t like when you to Burger King in the States and you see that they give a selection of about 12 different soft drinks you can choose from. It’s pretty much just cola, Coke, Sprite, or Fanta. That’s pretty much all your options for soft drinks, or you can get beer, of course. |
| Judith: Or Apfelsaftschorle. |
| Chuck: Oh, yes. That, of course, too. And some place will have iced tea, but don’t count on it. One thing that can also frustrate me quite a lot here is if I just want something that’s not carbonated, I just can’t get anything. Everything is carbonated. |
| Judith: Well then, you should get juice. Yeah, it’s hard sometimes. |
| Chuck: I guess I could get wine, too. |
| Judith: Don’t. Don’t think drink wine like that. |
| Chuck: Why? |
| Judith: People like their wine. |
| Chuck: There’s some traditional places in the south of Germany, at least, where you can go and you can have wine just to drink with friends. This is a more sophisticated way of going out and going to a bar. |
| Judith: You could say that. |
| Chuck: But of course, if you’re a lower class, you might end up getting more, say, cases of beer. |
| Judith: Oh, you remind me. Speaking of cases, we should be talking about grammar and cases in German. |
| Chuck: No! Don’t go there, please. |
| Judith: Yes. It’s important. |
| Chuck: All right. |
| Judith: You already saw the nominative case. That’s the default case for which der, die, and das don’t change. In the sixth lesson, you also saw the dative case which turns the article into dem, der and dem. The dative case is usually used after prepositions or also for people when they are the object of a sentence. For example, we met der in the last lesson’s dialogue, and mia in this lesson’s dialogue, and they are the dative equivalent or du and ich. |
| Chuck: Now in today’s lesson, we’ll have a glance with another case, the accusative. I don’t know if you’re familiar with cases, but this case could be thought of as you accused me of something. So the “me” there is the accusative of “I”. However, the accusative is not limited to that sense, of course. |
| Judith: In German, the accusative is used whenever a thing is an object of a sentence or sometimes it’s even used for people as well. We’ll dive more into those irregularities later. For now, it’s enough if you remember that dominative is used for the subject of a sentence, for dictionary entries and the like; dative is used after most prepositions and this is also often used when people are the object of a sentence; and accusative is used when things or people are the object of a sentence. |
| Chuck: Just like the other cases, accusative doesn’t require any change to the noun; only the article changes. So instead of der, die, or das, you’ll get den, die, das. So actually, you’ll only need to pay attention to masculine nouns. |
| Judith: Masculine nouns change from der to den and the rest stays the same. |
| Chuck: So easy-peasy. |
| Judith: And for the plural, the article doesn’t change either; it’s still die. |
| Chuck: Be sure to consult the PDF for a nice little overview table of the forms you’ve encountered so far, and the grammar bank contains a complete list of forms, including the ones we haven’t mentioned yet; but wait, what kind of forms could it be? |
| Judith: I’ll give you some examples: ich esse Pfannkuchen zum Frühstück. |
| Chuck: “I ate this pancake for breakfast”. |
| Judith: Don’t confuse this with “Ich esse die Pfannkuchen zum Frühstück.” |
| Chuck: “I eat these pancakes for breakfast”. |
| Judith: “den Pfannkuchen, die Pfannkuchen”, singular and plural. Another example would be “Gibst du mir den Sirup?” |
| Chuck: “Will you give me the syrup?” It’d really be nice to have pancakes with maple syrup again. How come you haven’t made me any pancakes with maple syrup for breakfast yet? |
| Judith: I don’t know. How come you haven’t made any pancakes with maple syrup yet if you want them? |
| Chuck: Um… whatever. Okay, listeners, I really hope that when you stay in Germany for while, you’ll be able to find the American specialties you missed. Germany is a great country, but with all the great food, after a few years here, I do miss some things like Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups or root beer, for example; but on the bright side, I just find a lot of other American items just by searching harder. Sometimes, I can find them just by asking friends I know who’ve lived here for a while. Thanks to this lesson, you can ask Germans to give you whatever you need to. |
| Judith: Okay. Let’s listen to the dialogue again. |
| Michaela: John, trinken Sie Kaffee zum Frühstück? Oder lieber Tee? |
| John: Kaffee ist gut. |
| Michaela: Hier ist Ihr Kaffee. |
| John: Danke. |
| Michaela: John, geben Sie mir bitte den Honig. |
| John: Bitte. |
| Michaela: Danke. |
| John: Ich nehme mir noch zwei Würstchen, okay? |
| Michaela: Okay. |
Outro |
| Chuck: All right! We’re done with the lesson, and the weather is beautiful outside. |
| Judith: Let’s go out and enjoy. Berlin is an awesome city! |
| Chuck: You should come and visit Berlin, too! You’ll like it. |
| Judith: Thank you for listening. |
| Chuck: See you next week! |
| Judith: Bis bald. |
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