Learn how to form sentences in German using the passive voice
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Chuck: Chuck here. Intermediate Series Season 2, Lesson 15. The passive. I’ll improve my German while the application is being discussed. |
| Judith: Hello, everyone. I'm Judith and welcome to GermanPod101. |
| Chuck: With us, you’ll learn to speak German with fun and effective lessons. |
| Judith: We’ll also provide you with cultural insights. |
| Chuck: And tips you won’t find in a textbook. Today you’ll learn about the German passive voice. This conversation takes place at a German home. |
| Judith: As before, the conversation is between Mike and his German friend. |
| Chuck: The speakers are friends, therefore they will be speaking informal German. Attention, listeners. Comment… |
| Judith: Comment. |
| Chuck: And comment some more. |
| Judith: It’s easy. |
| Chuck: And asking questions really helps improve progress. Let’s listen to the conversation. |
| DIALOGUE |
| D: Also musst du noch warten. |
| A: Zumindest haben sie meine Bewerbung nicht sofort abgelehnt. |
| D: Es ist nicht einfach, zu dieser Zeit Arbeit zu finden. Sehr viele Firmen haben Schwierigkeiten und sehr viele Arbeitnehmer werden entlassen... |
| A: Aber Englischlehrer werden immer gesucht, genau wie Programmierer. |
| D: Ja, die Leute lernen immer mehr Sprachen. |
| A: Ich verbessere schon mal mein Deutsch, während meine Bewerbung noch diskutiert wird. |
| D: Das ist eine gute Idee! Wenn du sehr gut Deutsch sprichst, wirst du sie im Bewerbungsgespräch beeindrucken. |
| Judith: Und jetzt langsam. Now read slowly. |
| D: Also musst du noch warten. |
| A: Zumindest haben sie meine Bewerbung nicht sofort abgelehnt. |
| D: Es ist nicht einfach, zu dieser Zeit Arbeit zu finden. Sehr viele Firmen haben Schwierigkeiten und sehr viele Arbeitnehmer werden entlassen... |
| A: Aber Englischlehrer werden immer gesucht, genau wie Programmierer. |
| D: Ja, die Leute lernen immer mehr Sprachen. |
| A: Ich verbessere schon mal mein Deutsch, während meine Bewerbung noch diskutiert wird. |
| D: Das ist eine gute Idee! Wenn du sehr gut Deutsch sprichst, wirst du sie im Bewerbungsgespräch beeindrucken. |
| Judith: Now with the translation. |
| D: Also musst du noch warten. |
| D: So you have to wait some more. |
| A: Zumindest haben sie meine Bewerbung nicht sofort abgelehnt. |
| A: At least they didn't immediately reject my application. |
| D: Es ist nicht einfach, zu dieser Zeit Arbeit zu finden. Sehr viele Firmen haben Schwierigkeiten und sehr viele Arbeitnehmer werden entlassen... |
| D: It is not easy to find work at this time. Many companies are in trouble and many employees are being laid off… |
| A: Aber Englischlehrer werden immer gesucht, genau wie Programmierer. |
| A: But English teachers are always sought after, just like programmers. |
| D: Ja, die Leute lernen immer mehr Sprachen. |
| D: Yes, people learn more and more languages. |
| A: Ich verbessere schon mal mein Deutsch, während meine Bewerbung noch diskutiert wird. |
| A: I'll already improve my German, while my application is still being discussed. |
| D: Das ist eine gute Idee! Wenn du sehr gut Deutsch sprichst, wirst du sie im Bewerbungsgespräch beeindrucken. |
| D: That is a great idea! If you speak German very well, you will impress them in the job interview. |
| CULTURAL INSIGHTS |
| Judith: So let’s talk about this crisis, the economic crisis that’s going on. |
| Chuck: I’d say Germany is doing quite a lot better than the States at this point. |
| Judith: Yeah, I’d say so too. For one thing, people haven’t been living on debt so there’s just not as much to this crisis. |
| Chuck: Germany’s much more risk-averse than other countries so they haven’t been taken on crazy loans. |
| Judith: Yeah. And the media are more level headed. They don’t predict doom. Right now the economy has stabilized at a low level and German analysts take that to mean that it won’t be getting worse, but it may not be getting better for a while. |
| Chuck: Yeah, unemployment also hasn’t risen any much more than any other year. |
| Judith: Yeah. And the euro stays strong. |
| Chuck: Let’s look at the vocabulary for this lesson. |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Judith: First word, [Zumindest]. |
| Chuck: At least. |
| Judith: [Zumindest, zumindest] [Ablehnen] |
| Chuck: To reject. |
| Judith: [Ablehnen, ablehnen] The [Ab] splits off. [Firma] |
| Chuck: Company. |
| Judith: [Firma, Firma, die Firma] this is feminine. And the plural is [Firmen]. [Schwierigkeit] |
| Chuck: Difficult. |
| Judith: [Schwierigkeit, Schwierigkeit] Like all words in [Keit], this one is feminine. [Arbeitnehmer] |
| Chuck: Employee. |
| Judith: [Arbeitnehmer, Arbeitnehmer] [Entlassen] |
| Chuck: “To lay off” or “dismiss”. |
| Judith: [Entlassen, entlassen] [Verbessern] |
| Chuck: To improve. |
| Judith: [Verbessern, verbessern] [Während] |
| Chuck: “While” or “during”. |
| Judith: [Während, während] [Diskutieren] |
| Chuck: To discuss. |
| Judith: [Diskutieren, diskutieren] |
| Chuck: Conversation. |
| Judith: [Gespräch, Gespräch, das Gespräch] this is neuter. And the plural is [Gespräche]. [Beeindrucken] |
| Chuck: To impress. |
| Judith: [Beeindrucken, beeindrucken] |
| Chuck: Let’s take a closer look at the usage for some of the words and phrases from this lesson. |
| VOCAB AND PHRASE USAGE |
| Judith: The first expression we’ll look at is [Genau wie]. |
| Chuck: Just like. |
| Judith: In this lesson’s dialogue, you’ve seen [Englischlehrer werden immer gesucht, genau wie Programmierer]. |
| Chuck: That is “English teachers are always sought after, just like programmers”. |
| Judith: Next expressions is [Immer mehr]. |
| Chuck: More and more. |
| Judith: When you use [Immer] with [Mehr, weniger, besser, schlechter, schöner] or the like, you imply that over a period of time things turn more and more in one direction. |
| Chuck: But can you still say [Mehr und mehr]? |
| Judith: No, that sounds funny. You have to say [Immer mehr]. Lastly, the word [Bewerbungsgespräch] means “job interview”. It consists of [Bewerbung]… |
| Chuck: Application. |
| Judith: And [Gespräch]. |
| Chuck: Conversation. |
| Judith: Put together… |
| Chuck: So it’s an “application conversation”. |
| Judith: The additional S in the middle is often seen in German compound nouns. It serves as glue to make the word flow more naturally. [Bewerbunggespräch] would be awkward to pronounce. |
Lesson focus |
|---|
| Chuck: The focus of this lesson is the passive voice. We will spend two lessons on this and this is the first part of the two lessons. |
| Judith: So, for our first part, what is the passive? |
| Chuck: The passive is a kind of verb form that is useful when you don’t know who did something, when it’s irrelevant who did it or when you don’t want to reveal it. |
| Judith: For example, “In the fourth chapter of this book, Maria is murdered” and this does not reveal who the murderer is and, as such, it is very good if you don’t want to give away the plot of the book. |
| Chuck: Any other examples? |
| Judith: Yeah, you will also hear a lot of passive sentences when sightseeing. |
| Chuck: Oh yeah, for example, “The Brandenburg gate was completed in 1791”. And you might want to use the passive a lot yourself when you show friends the sights in your city. And, well, you forgot the names of those architects. |
| Judith: In German, the passive is formed using the verb [Werden], which normally means “to become” and this verb is also used for the future tense. But for the future tense you have [Werden] combined with an infinitive, and for the passive voice it’s used with the past participle, which you already know from the perfect tense. So [Er wird sehen]. |
| Chuck: He will see. |
| Judith: But [Er wird gesehen] |
| Chuck: He is seen. |
| Judith: The difference is all between [Sehen] and [Gesehen]. And there’s also [Er wird gesehen werden]. |
| Chuck: He will be seen. |
| Judith: For now it’s enough if you can use the passive voice in the present tense. We will look at the other tenses in the next lesson. |
| Chuck: Well, that’s all well and good but could you maybe give us some examples from today’s dialogue, please? |
| Judith: Sure, how about [Sehr viele Arbeitnehmer werden entlassen]? |
| Chuck: Many employees are being laid off. |
| Judith: [Englischlehrer werden immer gesucht]. |
| Chuck: English teachers are always sought after. |
| Judith: And there’s one sentence about improving your German. [Während meine Bewerbung noch diskutiert wird]. |
| Chuck: “While my application is being discussed.” |
Outro |
| Chuck: That just about does it for today. Premium Members, use the Review Track to perfect your pronunciation. |
| Judith: The Review Track is available in the Premium Section of the website, the Learning Center, and also through iTunes via the Premium Feed. |
| Chuck: The Review Track gives you vocabulary and phrases followed by a short pause so that you can repeat the words aloud. |
| Judith: The best way to get good fast. |
| Chuck: Ok. Bis nächstes Mal! |
| Judith: See you next time! |
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