Learn how to use the German dative case
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Chuck: Chuck here. Beginner series, Season 2, Lesson #24. I Am Proud To Be Making Progress in German. Hello and welcome back to germanpod101.com, the fastest, easiest and most fun way to learn German. I am joined in the studio by |
| Judith: Hello everyone. Judith here. |
| Chuck: So Judith, what’s this lesson about? |
| Judith: In this lesson, you will learn how to express pride in German. |
| Chuck: This conversation takes place in the office of the German company between a boss and an investor. The speakers are in a business relationship. Therefore they will be speaking formal German. Basic and premium members |
| Judith: If you have a 3G phone. |
| Chuck: You can see the lesson notes in your favorite browser on your phone. |
| Judith: Stop by germanpod101.com to find out more. |
| Chuck: Let’s listen to the conversation. |
| DIALOGUE |
| Boss: Der Firma geht es wirklich gut. Unser Produkt verkauft sich gut und die Mitarbeiter arbeiten schon an unserem neuen Projekt. |
| Investor: Ah ja, gibt es da etwas Neues? |
| Boss: Seit ein paar Tagen laufen Marktstudien. Ich denke, je eher wir die Daten haben, desto eher können wir uns auf den Markt vorbereiten. Gute Idee, oder? |
| Investor: Hmm, nicht wirklich. In unserem Feld brauchen wir ganz aktuelle Daten… |
| Judith: Now it’s slowly. |
| Boss: Der Firma geht es wirklich gut. Unser Produkt verkauft sich gut und die Mitarbeiter arbeiten schon an unserem neuen Projekt. |
| Investor: Ah ja, gibt es da etwas Neues? |
| Boss: Seit ein paar Tagen laufen Marktstudien. Ich denke, je eher wir die Daten haben, desto eher können wir uns auf den Markt vorbereiten. Gute Idee, oder? |
| Investor: Hmm, nicht wirklich. In unserem Feld brauchen wir ganz aktuelle Daten… |
| Judith: Now with the translation. |
| Boss: Der Firma geht es wirklich gut. Unser Produkt verkauft sich gut und die Mitarbeiter arbeiten schon an unserem neuen Projekt. |
| Boss: The company is doing really well. Our product is selling well and the employees are already working on our new project. |
| Investor: Ah ja, gibt es da etwas Neues? |
| Investor: Ah yes, are there any news about that? |
| Boss: Seit ein paar Tagen laufen Marktstudien. Ich denke, je eher wir die Daten haben, desto eher können wir uns auf den Markt vorbereiten. Gute Idee, oder? |
| Boss: Since a few days ago market studies are running. I think that the earlier we have the data, the earlier we can prepare for the market. Good idea, isn't it? |
| Investor: Hmm, nicht wirklich. In unserem Feld brauchen wir ganz aktuelle Daten… |
| Investor: Hmm, not really. In our field we need really up-to-date data… |
| CULTURAL SECTION |
| Judith: All right. So this dialogue was all about being proud. How about we talk about pride in Germany? |
| Chuck: Good idea. In fact, in Germany, people are not as overly modest as say the Chinese but they are also not as easy to praise themselves as, well, let’s just say, Americans. Judith, do you think you can give us a rough guide of how not to sound to fool of yourself. |
| Judith: Sure with your help. First thing I guess, we should talk about money. Money is a really sore subject you should lay low. Don’t tell people in any way that you are rich or poor because Germans don’t like to show that off and it won’t improve people’s opinion of you. Avoid putting a price on things that you bought. People will learn about your financial situation by other means. For example, by seeing your home or the clothes you wear. |
| Chuck: Also when it comes to country, you will make a lot more friends if you don’t express pride well exactly about the country. You just see it as part of history. You will be hard pressed to find a German who is proud of his country and those who are likely for the wrong reasons. This is reinforced by education to the point that some Germans find it excessively strange to be proud of any country. After all, they think being born in this country or that is just a matter of chance. It’s not a personal achievement. |
| Judith: When it comes to your abilities and accomplishments, you should present them in an objective way. For example, in German, I would tell people that I speak English fluently. There is no need to understate it as I would when speaking Chinese but you also shouldn’t elaborate unless asked. That would be boasting. Now about compliments. When a German compliments you and you think what you said is true, then you can accept the compliment matter-of-factly or you can, you know, you can just keep on talking about the subject. There is no need to say thanks or to downplay the compliment. Germans don’t typically give out unwanted compliments any way except maybe with foreigners if they are aware of cultural differences. |
| Chuck: So let’s take a look at the vocabulary for this lesson. |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Judith: First word [Firma] |
| Chuck: Company. |
| Judith: [Firma, Firma] This word is feminine and the plural is [Firmen]. Next word [Produkt] |
| Chuck: Product. |
| Judith: [Produkt, Produkt] This word is neuter [das Produkt] and the plural is [Produkte]. Next word [Mitarbeiter] |
| Chuck: Employee, staff or a co-worker. |
| Judith: [Mitarbeiter, Mitarbeiter, der Mitarbeiter] This is masculine and the plural is the same. Next word [Neu] |
| Chuck: New. |
| Judith: [Neu, neu] Next word [Laufen] |
| Chuck: To jog, to function or to be underway. |
| Judith: [Laufen, laufen] Next word [Markt] |
| Chuck: Market |
| Judith: [Markt, Markt, der Markt] And the plural is [Märkte]. Next word [Studie] |
| Chuck: Study as in a research study. |
| Judith: [Studie, Studie] This word is feminine and the plural is [Studien]. Next word [Je, desto] |
| Chuck: The, [The] as in, the more the better. |
| Judith: [Je, desto; je desto] Next word [Eher] |
| Chuck: Earlier. |
| Judith: [Eher, eher] Next word [Idee] |
| Chuck: Idea. |
| Judith: [Idee, Idee ] Feminine and the plural is [Ideen]. Next word [Feld] |
| Chuck: Field. |
| Judith: [Feld, Feld] This word is neuter and the plural is [Felder]. Next word [Ganz] |
| Chuck: Whole, completely or absolutely. |
| Judith: [Ganz, ganz] Next word [Aktuell] |
| Chuck: Current or up-to-date. |
| Judith: [Aktuell, aktuell] |
| VOCAB AND PHRASE USAGE |
| Chuck: Let’s have a closer look at the usage for some of the words and phrases from this lesson. |
| Judith: The first phrase we look at is [Der Firma geht es wirklich gut.] |
| Chuck: The Company is doing really well. |
| Judith: See this as a variation of [Mir geht es wirklich gut] and just replace the [Mir] with any dative word of your choice. The other thing is [Es verkauft sich gut.] |
| Chuck: It’s selling well. |
| Judith: Normally [Verkaufen] is an active word describing the action of somebody selling something. In this context however, our focus is on the product, not on the person selling and [Verkaufen] acquires a more passive meaning. This is expressed in German by adding the [Sich]. |
Lesson focus |
|---|
| Chuck: The focus of this lesson is the dative. As we have already established, German noun phrases change slightly depending on what their function is in the sentence. German knows four cases. |
| Judith: First the nominative for the subject of the sentence. Then the genitive to express possession like my father’s car, third one is the dative for indirect objects and after many prepositions and fourth case is the accusative for direct objects and also after prepositions. |
| Chuck: We shall look at each case and the changes it involves in detail in later lessons. Today let’s look at the dative. The most obvious case for the dative is for the receiver of something. For example, I gave him the book. |
| Judith: The him in that sentence in German will be dative. The word dative even comes from the Latin for to give. |
| Chuck: In today’s lesson, we also saw that the dative is used after the German prepositions on [An, seid] and in when it’s specifying a location rather than a direction. |
| Judith: The most obvious indicator for dative is the M ending on articles and adjectives when they are used with masculine or neuter singular nouns. For example, [Dem Vater] |
| Chuck: To the father. |
| Judith: [In dem Geschäft] |
| Chuck: In the shop. |
| Judith: Or [An unserem Produkt.] |
| Chuck: On our product. |
| Judith: Even the personal pronouns, he and it change to [Ihm.] |
| Chuck: For feminine words and for plural things that are more complicated, I will suggest you learn the complete forms later or deepen the exposure to drill them in. That just about does it for today. |
Outro |
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| Judith: All right. |
| Chuck: So see you next week. |
| Judith: [Also, bis nächste Woche.] |
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