Learn even more German past participles, focusing on vowel changes and irregularities
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Chuck: Chuck here, intermediate series season 3, lesson 3. Have you seen the clinging monkey in your German office yet? Hello and welcome back to German pod 101.com, the fastest, easiest and most fun way to learn German. I'm joined in the studio by. |
| Judith: Hello everyone, Judith here. |
| Chuck: In this lesson, you learn more German office talk. |
| Judith: This conversation takes place at a big German company. |
| Chuck: The conversation is between Frank Jones an American who just started to work here and Mrs. Bayer his German coworker. The speakers only met today therefore they will be speaking formal German, let's listen to the conversation. |
| DIALOGUE |
| Bayer: So, haben Sie alle Kundendaten eingegeben? |
| Jones: Ja, damit bin ich fertig. |
| Bayer: Hmm, welche Aufgabe gebe ich Ihnen als nächstes…Womit haben Sie denn Erfahrung? |
| Jones: Also, ich habe zuletzt in der Marketing-Abteilung in einem kleinen Verlag gearbeitet. Da habe ich mich vor allem um den Vertrieb unserer Zeitschriften gekümmert. |
| Bayer: Hmm. Haben Sie eigentlich schon einmal in unseren neuen Katalog geschaut? Am besten gucken Sie sich erst einmal unsere Produkte genau an. Wenn Sie sich dann informiert haben, gebe ich Ihnen eine neue Aufgabe. |
| Jones: Okay. |
| - |
| Jones: So, ich bin fertig. |
| Bayer: Ah, schön. Sind Sie gut mit den deutschen Beschreibungen zurechtgekommen? |
| Jones: Ja, sehr gut. Was soll ich nun tun? |
| Bayer: Sie können mir helfen, diese Briefe für unsere Kunden zusammenzustellen. In jeden Umschlag kommen ein Produktkatalog und diese Informationsblätter. Bitte heften Sie immer zwei Blätter mit dem Klammeraffen zusammen. |
| Jones: Äh, mit was für einem Affen? |
| Bayer: Oh… nein, kein richtiger Affe natürlich. Klammeraffe ist ein anderes Wort für Tacker. |
| Jones: (lacht) Ah, okay, dann her mit dem Affen! |
| Judith: Now read slowly. |
| Bayer: So, haben Sie alle Kundendaten eingegeben? |
| Jones: Ja, damit bin ich fertig. |
| Bayer: Hmm, welche Aufgabe gebe ich Ihnen als nächstes…Womit haben Sie denn Erfahrung? |
| Jones: Also, ich habe zuletzt in der Marketing-Abteilung in einem kleinen Verlag gearbeitet. Da habe ich mich vor allem um den Vertrieb unserer Zeitschriften gekümmert. |
| Bayer: Hmm. Haben Sie eigentlich schon einmal in unseren neuen Katalog geschaut? Am besten gucken Sie sich erst einmal unsere Produkte genau an. Wenn Sie sich dann informiert haben, gebe ich Ihnen eine neue Aufgabe. |
| Jones: Okay. |
| - |
| Jones: So, ich bin fertig. |
| Bayer: Ah, schön. Sind Sie gut mit den deutschen Beschreibungen zurechtgekommen? |
| Jones: Ja, sehr gut. Was soll ich nun tun? |
| Bayer: Sie können mir helfen, diese Briefe für unsere Kunden zusammenzustellen. In jeden Umschlag kommen ein Produktkatalog und diese Informationsblätter. Bitte heften Sie immer zwei Blätter mit dem Klammeraffen zusammen. |
| Jones: Äh, mit was für einem Affen? |
| Bayer: Oh… nein, kein richtiger Affe natürlich. Klammeraffe ist ein anderes Wort für Tacker. |
| Jones: (lacht) Ah, okay, dann her mit dem Affen! |
| Judith: Now with the translation. |
| Bayer: So, haben Sie alle Kundendaten eingegeben? |
| Bayer: So, have you entered all the customer data? |
| Jones: Ja, damit bin ich fertig. |
| Jones: Yes, I'm done with that. |
| Bayer: Hmm, welche Aufgabe gebe ich Ihnen als nächstes…Womit haben Sie denn Erfahrung? |
| Bayer: Hmm, what task shall I give you next... What is your experience? |
| Jones: Also, ich habe zuletzt in der Marketing-Abteilung in einem kleinen Verlag gearbeitet. Da habe ich mich vor allem um den Vertrieb unserer Zeitschriften gekümmert. |
| Jones: Well, lastly I worked in the marketing department of a small publishing-house. There I took care of the distribution of our magazines. |
| Bayer: Hmm. Haben Sie eigentlich schon einmal in unseren neuen Katalog geschaut? Am besten gucken Sie sich erst einmal unsere Produkte genau an. Wenn Sie sich dann informiert haben, gebe ich Ihnen eine neue Aufgabe. |
| Bayer: Hmm. Actually, have you had a look at our new catalog? It would be best if you have a thorough look at our products first. Once you've informed yourself, I shall give you a new task. |
| Jones: Okay. |
| Jones: Okay. |
| - |
| Jones: So, ich bin fertig. |
| Jones: So, I'm done. |
| Bayer: Ah, schön. Sind Sie gut mit den deutschen Beschreibungen zurechtgekommen? |
| Bayer: Ah, nice. Did you manage with the German descriptions? |
| Jones: Ja, sehr gut. Was soll ich nun tun? |
| Jones: Yes, very well. What shall I do now? |
| Bayer: Sie können mir helfen, diese Briefe für unsere Kunden zusammenzustellen. In jeden Umschlag kommen ein Produktkatalog und diese Informationsblätter. Bitte heften Sie immer zwei Blätter mit dem Klammeraffen zusammen. |
| Bayer: You can help me assemble these letters to our customers. In each envelope there will be a product catalog and these information sheets. Please always staple two of these sheets together with the "clinging-monkey". |
| Jones: Äh, mit was für einem Affen? |
| Jones: Eh, with what kind of monkey? |
| Bayer: Oh… nein, kein richtiger Affe natürlich. Klammeraffe ist ein anderes Wort für Tacker. |
| Jones: (lacht) Ah, okay, dann her mit dem Affen! |
| Bayer: Oh... no, of course not a real monkey. "Clinging-monkey" is another word for a stapler. |
| Jones: (laughs) Ah, okay, then give me that monkey! |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Judith: Looks like they'll be doing some marketing. |
| Chuck: Yep, sounds that way. |
| Judith: Marketing in Germany is a bit more tricky than in the states. For one thing, you're not inundated with advertisements and billboards everywhere. |
| Chuck: Yes that's certainly true. |
| Judith: And Germans respond differently to it but also the mailing of letters like they're doing right now you have to be careful because in Germany there's more customer protection. |
| Chuck: There's also much stricter data privacy and Germans are much more sensitive to that. |
| Judith: Yes definitely, and cold calling for example is supposedly illegal. |
| Chuck: But wait, yesterday I had a cold call for a company. |
| Judith: Yeah, they will claim that you bought something from them or that you signed up for one of their partners deals and in practice it's hard to see but still if they're unlucky then they will get called on it and someone will sue them for cold calling. It's not actually allowed. |
| Chuck: Yeah, companies also often make it so that you have to opt in or accept terms and it's always another stroke of the pen so that people will notice it. |
| Judith: You can't just say by sending in this form you accept our terms, they always have to make a, what do you call it? |
| Chuck: A check box. |
| Judith: Yeah, they always have to sign an extra check box or something. One thing that is different from the states is that you can make contracts via phone and that is you agree to everything via phone and then the companies will send you the contracts that you agreed upon and it will become valid without a signature if you don't reject it within two weeks. |
| Chuck: Be especially aware of telecom companies this is a quite common tactic among them. I even got caught up in one's snare and had to hire a lawyer and everything and they even sent me another letter about a month ago which is about two years after the whole thing was settled. So yeah, don't do that it's annoying. |
| Judith: Just don't talk to these companies, if you're unlucky they will interpret anything you say as please send me a contract and then if you're not home for the next two weeks you're caught. |
| Chuck: Yes, so basically what happened with me is that I said I just want some information about the company and then they sent me a contract. I obviously must have agreed to something and then they just assumed that I wanted a contract then, oh well enough of that. Let's look at the vocabulary for this lesson. |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Judith: First word [Erfahrung] |
| Chuck: Experience. |
| Judith: [Erfahrung, Erfahrung, die Erfahrung] and the plural is [Erfahrungen] next [Zuletzt] |
| Chuck: Lastly, or towards the end. |
| Judith: [Zuletzt, zuletzt] next [Verlag] |
| Chuck: Publishing house. |
| Judith: [Verlag, Verlag, der Verlag] next [Vertrieb] |
| Chuck: Sales or distribution. |
| Judith: [Vertrieb, Vertrieb, der Vertrieb] next [Sich kümmern] |
| Chuck: To take care of something or somebody. |
| Judith: [Sich kümmern, sich kümmern] a weak verb, next [Katalog] |
| Chuck: Catalog. |
| Judith: [Katalog, Katalog, der Katalog] and the plural is [Kataloge] next [Produkt] |
| Chuck: Product |
| Judith: [Produkt, Produkt, das Produkt] and the plural is [Produkte] next [Beschreibung] |
| Chuck: Description. |
| Judith: [Beschreibung, Beschreibung, die Beschreibung] and the plural is [Beschreibungen] next [Zurechtkommen] |
| Chuck: To get by or manage. |
| Judith: [Zurechtkommen, zurechtkommen, Er kommt zurecht, Er kam zurecht, Er ist zurechtgekommen] next [Zusammenstellen] |
| Chuck: To Assemble or put together. |
| Judith: [Zusammenstellen, zusammenstellen] the [Zusammen] splits off, next [Umschlag] |
| Chuck: Envelope. |
| Judith: [Umschlag, Umschlag, der Umschlag] and the plural is [Umschläge] next [Blatt] |
| Chuck: Piece of paper, sheet or leaf. |
| Judith: [Blatt, Blatt, das Blatt] and the plural is [Blätter] next [Zusammenheften] |
| Chuck: To staple together. |
| Judith: [Zusammenheften, zusammenheften] and the [Zusammen] splits off next [Affe] |
| Chuck: Monkey or ape. |
| Judith: [Affe, Affe, der Affe] and the plural is [Affen] next [Tacker]. |
| Chuck: Stapler. |
| Judith: [Tacker, Tacker, der Tacker] and the plural is the same. |
| 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: We will look at the word [Klammeraffe] |
| Chuck: Literally clingy monkey. |
| Judith: It's a type of monkey but it's not just that, it's also a German slang word for a variety of things. It can be a stapler, it can be the at character that we use in email addresses and it can be a particularly clingy person, quite an important word [Klammeraffe]. |
Lesson focus |
|---|
| Chuck: So the focus of this lesson grammar wise is the past participle part two. |
| Judith: In the last lesson we already learned that the German past participle is typically formed by adding GE before the third person singular present tense form of a verb. For example [Sagen] becomes [Gesagt]. |
| Chuck: However there is one large group of verbs for which this isn't true. The vowel changing verbs, whenever there will be a vowel change for this particular form, the participle is formed based on the infinitive instead. Judith (0:07:02) could you give us some examples? |
| Judith: Sure, for example [Sehen, er sieht] and you notice there's a vowel change so we don't say [Gesieht] but [Gesehen] |
| Chuck: [Seen] |
| Judith: Same with [Geben, Er gibt, gegeben]. |
| Chuck: Given. There are also some verbs in which their past participle is just plain irregular. Some more examples? |
| Judith: Yeah, like [Sein, gewesen] |
| Chuck: Been. |
| Judith: [Haben, gehabt] |
| Chuck: Had. |
| Judith: [Kommen, gekommen] |
| Chuck: Come. These issues of vowel change in irregularities are carried over when you have the same verb with an added prefix, then you just additionally have to remember the rules for prefixes which we discussed in the last lesson. Some more examples. |
| Judith: Of course, [Ansehen, Er sieht an, angesehen] . |
| Chuck: Looked at. |
| Judith: [Vergeben, Er vergibt, vergeben]. |
| Chuck: Forgiven. |
| Judith: [Ankommen, Er kommt an, angekommen] |
| Chuck: Arrived. |
| Judith: [Bekommen, Er bekommt, bekommen]. |
| Chuck: Received. Past participles are not just used on their own, they're also necessarily for various tenses. In today's dialogue we already saw them used with the auxiliary verb [Haben] to form the perfect tense. This is just like in English. |
| Judith: [Ich habe gearbeitet] |
| Chuck: I have worked. |
| Judith: [Haben Sie in den Katalog geschaut?] |
| Chuck: Have you looked at the catalog? |
| Judith: And so on. |
Outro |
| Chuck: Be sure to practice. That just about does it for today. |
| Judith: Will you test what you just learned? |
| Chuck: Make this lesson's vocabulary stick by using lesson specific flash cards in the learning center. |
| Judith: There is a reason everybody uses flash cards. |
| Chuck: They work. |
| Judith: They really do help memorization |
| Chuck: You can get the flash cards for this lesson at |
| Judith: Germanpod101.com |
| Chuck: Okay, see you next week. |
| Judith: [Bis nächste Woche]. |
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