Learn how to pronounce German words more naturally
Now Playing: Lesson Audio
Get a breakdown of the dialogue and translations instantly with the Premium line-by-line Audio. Sign up for your Free Lifetime Account Now and get 7 Days of Premium Access including this feature.
Get this lesson’s key vocab, their translations and pronunciations. Sign up for your Free Lifetime Account Now and get 7 Days of Premium Access including this feature.
Unlock Lesson Notes and Transcripts for every single lesson. Sign Up for a Free Lifetime Account and Get 7 Days of Premium Access.
| INTRODUCTION |
| Chuck: Chuck here. Intermediate Series Season 2, Lesson 19. Easy tips to help your German sound more natural. |
| 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 also provide you with cultural insights. |
| Chuck: And tips you won’t find in a textbook. In this lesson, you’ll learn how to speak more colloquially in German. |
| Judith: Something that traditional textbooks never explain well enough. |
| Chuck: This conversation takes place at a German home between Mike and his German friend. The speakers are friends, therefore they will be speaking informal German. Now, before we listen to the conversation… |
| Judith: We want to ask… |
| Chuck: Do you read the lesson notes while you listen? |
| Judith: We received an email about this study tip. |
| Chuck: So we’re wondering if you tried it, and if so… |
| Judith: What do you think of it? |
| Chuck: You can leave us feedback in the comment section of this lesson. Ok, let’s listen to this conversation. |
| DIALOGUE |
| D: Hey, guck mal was heute im Briefkasten lag! Ein Brief vom Institute of English für dich! |
| A: Oh, das ist bestimmt die Antwort auf meine Bewerbung! |
| D: Ja, das denk' ich auch. Mach doch auf! |
| A: Hier... Sie laden mich zum Bewerbungsgespräch ein! Ich bin in der engeren Auswahl! |
| D: Super! Wann ist das Gespräch? |
| A: Am Montag in einer Woche! Hmm... |
| D: Was ist? |
| A: Ich weiß nicht ob ich's schaffe, die Adresse zu finden. |
| D: Das Bewerbungsgespräch findet nicht in Berlin-Mitte statt? |
| A: Nein, irgendwo außerhalb. Ich hab' noch nie von dem Stadtteil gehört. |
| D: Ach, keine Sorge, mit den S-Bahnen und Bussen kommst du überall hin! Und sonst nimmst du dir ein Taxi! |
| Judith: Now read slowly. |
| D: Hey, guck mal was heute im Briefkasten lag! Ein Brief vom Institute of English für dich! |
| A: Oh, das ist bestimmt die Antwort auf meine Bewerbung! |
| D: Ja, das denk' ich auch. Mach doch auf! |
| A: Hier... Sie laden mich zum Bewerbungsgespräch ein! Ich bin in der engeren Auswahl! |
| D: Super! Wann ist das Gespräch? |
| A: Am Montag in einer Woche! Hmm... |
| D: Was ist? |
| A: Ich weiß nicht ob ich's schaffe, die Adresse zu finden. |
| D: Das Bewerbungsgespräch findet nicht in Berlin-Mitte statt? |
| A: Nein, irgendwo außerhalb. Ich hab' noch nie von dem Stadtteil gehört. |
| D: Ach, keine Sorge, mit den S-Bahnen und Bussen kommst du überall hin! Und sonst nimmst du dir ein Taxi! |
| Judith: Now with the translation. Jetzt mit Übersetzung. |
| D: Hey, guck mal was heute im Briefkasten lag! Ein Brief vom Institute of English für dich! |
| D: Hey, have a look what was lying in the mailbox today! A letter from the Institute of English for you! |
| A: Oh, das ist bestimmt die Antwort auf meine Bewerbung! |
| A: Oh, that's probably the answer to my application! |
| D: Ja, das denk' ich auch. Mach doch auf! |
| D: Yes, I think so, too. Open it! |
| A: Hier... Sie laden mich zum Bewerbungsgespräch ein! Ich bin in der engeren Auswahl! |
| A: There... They are inviting me to an interview! I am on the shortlist! |
| D: Super! Wann ist das Gespräch? |
| D: Great! When is the interview? |
| A: Am Montag in einer Woche! Hmm... |
| A: Monday a week from now! Hmm… |
| D: Was ist? |
| D: What's up? |
| A: Ich weiß nicht ob ich's schaffe, die Adresse zu finden. |
| A: I don't know if I will manage to find the address. |
| D: Das Bewerbungsgespräch findet nicht in Berlin-Mitte statt? |
| D: The interview does not take place in Berlin-Mitte? |
| A: Nein, irgendwo außerhalb. Ich hab' noch nie von dem Stadtteil gehört. |
| A: No, somewhere outside. I have never heard of the borough. |
| D: Ach, keine Sorge, mit den S-Bahnen und Bussen kommst du überall hin! Und sonst nimmst du dir ein Taxi! |
| D: Ah, don't worry, you can get anywhere with the trams and busses! And otherwise you take a taxi! |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Judith: Alright. I'm very happy for Mike. |
| Chuck: Looks like he’s going to get a job. |
| Judith: Or at least an interview. |
| Chuck: Yeah, it’s always the first step. |
| CULTURAL INSIGHTS |
| Judith: I thought we could talk a bit about how to prepare for an interview. |
| Chuck: Alright, sounds good. |
| Judith: First step is, of course, to learn about the company. You want to figure out if the job is for you actually, if it’s a good company. |
| Chuck: And think about your answers to questions that might come up. For example, the popular question about your weaknesses. |
| Judith: Also, it’s a good idea to prepare some questions of your own to show them that you’ve really given it some thought. |
| Chuck: Groom carefully and dress nicely even if you think the culture of this company is relaxed. You can’t offend this way. I recommend dressing up a little more than you would normally at the job. |
| Judith: Yes. And in Germany it’s particularly important, I’d say. |
| Chuck: What else is important. |
| Judith: Oh, to be there early enough. Punctual, of course, but probably five minute early is best. And you should calculate your time extra carefully in case something unexpected happens on the way. |
| Chuck: Just like in the States, if you show up late for your interview, they’re just going to assume you’re always going to show up late for the job, so be sure to be there on time. Let’s take a look at the vocabulary for this lesson. |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Judith: Ok, first word is [Gucken]. |
| Chuck: To look. |
| Judith: [Gucken, gucken] Next, [Brief]. |
| Chuck: Letter. |
| Judith: [Brief, Brief, der Brief] and the plural is [Briefe]. Next [Kasten] |
| Chuck: “Box” or “chest”. |
| Judith: [Kasten, Kasten, der Kasten] and the plural is the same. Next, [Liegen]. |
| Chuck: To lie. |
| Judith: [Liegen, liegen] Next, [Aufmachen]. |
| Chuck: “To open”, colloquially. |
| Judith: [Aufmachen, aufmachen] the [Auf] splits off, as usual. Next, [Eng]. |
| Chuck: “Narrow”, “tight” or “cramped”. |
| Judith: [Eng, eng] Next, [Auswahl]. |
| Chuck: Selection. |
| Judith: [Auswahl, Auswahl, die Auswahl] Next, [Montag]. |
| Chuck: Monday. |
| Judith: [Montag, Montag] Next, [Ob]. |
| Chuck: “Whether” or “if”. |
| Judith: [Ob, ob] Next, [Adresse]. |
| Chuck: Address. |
| Judith: [Adresse, Adresse] this word is feminine, and the plural is [Adressen]. Next, [Stattfinden]. |
| Chuck: To take place. |
| Judith: [Stattfinden, stattfinden] Next, [Außerhalb]. |
| Chuck: “Outside of” or “beyond”. |
| Judith: [Außerhalb, außerhalb] Next, [Überall]. |
| Chuck: Everywhere. |
| Judith: [Überall, überall] |
| Chuck: Let’s have a closer look at the usage for some of the words and phrases from this lesson. |
| VOCAB AND PHRASE USAGE |
| Judith: The first word we’ll look at is [Gucken]. I had lots of trouble learning how to spell this word when I was in primary school because the pronunciation of the first letter is really [K like K, Kucken], but it’s spelled with a G. The next word is [Ob]. |
| Chuck: Whether. |
| Judith: An example is [Ich weiß nicht ob er kommt]. |
| Chuck: “I don’t know whether he’s coming” or “if he’s coming”. |
| Judith: Yeah, but be careful. This word only means “if” in these contexts where you can also use “whether”. |
| Chuck: Remember, it pretty much always going to be in the middle of a sentence. |
| Judith: Would be weird to say [Ob er kommt weiß ich nicht]. It doesn’t sound good so always in the middle. |
| Chuck: How about we do some grammar? |
Lesson focus |
|---|
| Chuck: The focus of this lesson is colloquial German after all. |
| Judith: Here’s an overview of the most basic differences between written German and spoken German. |
| Chuck: You’ll find the [Präteritum] for things that happened in the past, whereas in spoken German almost all verbs will use the [Perfekt]. However, that’s not the point we want to make today. Today we should look at pronunciations that don’t correspond to what is written, quite apart from any dialects and sociolects, there are some things that can be noticed across Germany and across all generations. |
| Judith: For example, the final [E] of verb forms is almost always dropped, if the verb stem is short, that is. People will say [Ich denk] and not [Ich denke], [Ich nehm] and not [Ich nehme], [Ich hab] and not [Ich habe] and so on. |
| Chuck: Would you ever use those in writing. |
| Judith: They may come up in song lyrics or if you’re transcribing speech, but this is not something that would be written. |
| Chuck: Oh right, when writing this form, like in song lyrics or speech, Germans typically indicate the missing [E] with an apostrophe in its place. |
| Judith: The apostrophe is also used when the [E] of S is missing in phrases like [Wie gehts?] or [Ich weiß nicht ob ichs schaffe]. The S is very often shortened. Another thing is the word for [Nicht]. In many parts of Germany, the final T is dropped. [Other] parts pronounce it [Nisch, Nich, Nech] or [Net] even. |
| Chuck: When staying in Germany, you should probably adopt whatever is most common in your area. |
| Judith: These are really the most conservative things one can say about colloquial German, so you should probably adopt them and start to sound more natural this way. |
Outro |
| Chuck: [Ich hab das geschafft]. That just about does it for today. Before we go, we want to tell you about a way to drastically improve your pronunciation. |
| Judith: The Voice Recording Tool. |
| Chuck: Yes, the Voice Recording Tool in the Premium Learning Center. |
| Judith: Record your voice with the click of a button. |
| Chuck: And then play it back just as easily. |
| Judith: So you record your voice and then you listen to it. |
| Chuck: Compare it to the native speakers. |
| Judith: And adjust your pronunciation. |
| Chuck: This will help you improve your pronunciation fast. Thanks for listening and see you next time! |
| Judith: Bis nächstes Mal! |
Comments
Hide