Learn the past perfect tense of German verbs
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Chuck: Chuck here, intermediate series season three lesson nine. Hadn't you gone to the German dry cleaners only yesterday? Hello and welcome to germanpod101.com, the fastest easiest and most fun way to learn German. |
| Judith: I'm Judith and thanks again for being here with us for this intermediate series season three lesson. |
| Chuck: In this lesson, you'll learn various phrases related to dirty clothes. |
| Judith: This conversation takes place first at a German office and soon afterwards at the dry cleaners. |
| Chuck: The conversation is between Mr. Jones and Mrs. Bayer at first and then between Mr. Jones and a dry cleaner. |
| Judith: The speakers are in a formal relationship, therefore they will be speaking formal German. |
| Chuck: Let's listen to the conversation. |
| DIALOGUE |
| Jones: Guten Morgen Frau Bayer. |
| Bayer: Morgen. |
| Bayer: Ähm, Herr Jones, Sie haben da einen Fleck auf Ihrem Jackenärmel. |
| Jones: Ja, ich weiß. Aber ich war schon in den Bus eingestiegen, als ich das gesehen habe. Ich musste gestern schon die Hose waschen, nachdem ich mir Kaffee darauf geschüttet hatte! Und nun noch die Jacke! |
| Bayer: Na, gehen Sie doch in der Mittagspause zur Reinigung an der Ecke. Die säubern Ihre Jacke bestimmt in ein paar Minuten. |
| Jones: Das ist eine gute Idee. |
| ... |
| Frau: Hallo, wie kann ich Ihnen helfen? |
| Jones: Hallo. Meine Jacke hat hier einen Fleck. Können Sie den entfernen? |
| Frau: Natürlich, kein Problem. Hier bitte, mit dieser Marke können Sie Ihre Jacke heute Abend wieder abholen. |
| Jones: Oh, ich hatte gehofft, sie können das vielleicht jetzt schnell machen. |
| Frau: Hmm, nein tut mir leid. So schnell geht das nicht. |
| Jones: Okay, dann komme ich heute Abend wieder. |
| ... |
| Jones: Hallo. Ich hatte heute Mittag meine Jacke bei Ihnen abgegeben. |
| Frau: Okay. Kann ich bitte Ihre Marke sehen? |
| Jones: Die Marke? Ähm, die Jacke ist von einer amerikanischen Firma. |
| Frau: Nein, ich hatte Ihnen doch eine Marke gegeben mit einer Nummer darauf. |
| Jones: Ach so. Ja, einen Moment. ... Hier bitte. |
| Frau: Danke. ... Und hier ist Ihre Jacke. |
| Jones: Good morning, Mrs Bayer. |
| Bayer: Morning. |
| Bayer: Ehm, Mr Jones, you have a stain on the sleeve of your jacket. |
| Jones: Yes, I know. But I had already entered the bus when I saw that. Already I had to wash the pants yesterday, after I had poured coffee onto it! And now the jacket, too! |
| Bayer: Well, just go to the dry-cleaner's at the corner during lunch break. They will probably clean your jacket within a few minutes. |
| Jones: That's a good idea. |
| ... |
| Woman: Hello, how can I help you? |
| Jones: Hello. My jacket has a stain here. Can you remove it? |
| Woman: Of course, no problem. Here you go, with this tag you can pick up your jacket tonight. |
| Jones: Oh, I had hoped that you could do that now quickly. |
| Woman: Hmm, no, sorry. It's not possible that quickly. |
| Jones: Okay, then I'll come back tonight. |
| ... |
| Jones: Hello. I had handed in my jacket to you this noon. |
| Woman: Okay. Can I please see your brand/tag? |
| Jones: The brand? Ehm, the jacket is by an American company. |
| Woman: No, I had given you a tag with a number on it. |
| Jones: Oh. Yes, one moment. ... Here you are. |
| Woman: Thanks. ... And here's your jacket. |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Judith: All right, this dialogue sounds like it's made to be talking about washing clothes in Germany. |
| Chuck: One thing you'll notice is that Laundromats are much less common. Pretty much everybody has their own washing machine. |
| Judith: Of course, why would you pay for that? |
| Chuck: I remember in ______ (0:01:05) I had to take a bus to get my clothes cleaned. |
| Judith: Or inconvenience a neighbor. |
| Chuck: Yeah. |
| Judith: The washing machines here are also more energy efficient and they take longer to wash. It's partly probably because Germans pretty much don't wash anything cold, depending on how fine the material is, the washing machine temperature is set to thirty degrees Celsius. |
| Chuck: Eighty six degrees Fahrenheit. |
| Judith: Or sixty degrees Celsius. |
| Chuck: One hundred forty degrees Fahrenheit. |
| Judith: And the finest clothes you can't put in a washing machine at all, you have to wash them by hand or give them to a drycleaners. |
| Chuck: Many nicer clothes items are not fit to be put in a dryer so Germans rely on clothes lines or drying racks a lot. Some don't even have a dryer. Let's take a look at the vocabulary for this lesson, the first word we shall see is.. |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Judith: [Fleck] |
| Chuck: Stain, spot or mark. |
| Judith: [Fleck, der] and the plural is [Flecken]. |
| Chuck: Next. |
| Judith: [Ärmel]. |
| Chuck: Sleeve. |
| Judith: [Ärmel, der] and the plural is the same. |
| Chuck: Next. |
| Judith: [als] |
| Chuck: When, for the past. |
| Judith: [als] |
| Chuck: Next. |
| Judith: [einsteigen]. |
| Chuck: To get in, get on or to board. |
| Judith: [einsteigen]. The forms are [Er steigt ein, Er stieg ein, Er ist eingestiegen]. |
| Chuck: Next. |
| Judith: [Hose]. |
| Chuck: Trousers or pants. |
| Judith: [Hose, die] and the plural is [Hosen]. |
| Chuck: Next. |
| Judith: [nachdem] |
| Chuck: After. |
| Judith: [nachdem] this one's is a subclause. |
| Chuck: Next. |
| Judith: [schütten] |
| Chuck: To pour. |
| Judith: [schütten] |
| Chuck: Next. |
| Judith: [Reinigung] |
| Chuck: Dry cleaners or purging. |
| Judith: [Reinigung, die] and the plural is [Reinigungen]. |
| Chuck: Next. |
| Judith: [säubern] |
| Chuck: To clean up, to cleanse. |
| Judith: [säubern] |
| Chuck: Next. |
| Judith: [entfernen] |
| Chuck: To remove. |
| Judith: [entfernen] |
| Chuck: Next. |
| Judith: [Marke] |
| Chuck: Brand, tag or badge. |
| Judith: [Marke, die] and the plural is [Marken] |
| Chuck: Next. |
| Judith: [abholen] |
| Chuck: To pick up or retrieve. |
| Judith: [abholen] the [ab] splits off. |
| Chuck: Next. |
| Judith: [abgeben] |
| Chuck: To give away, hand in. |
| Judith: [abgeben] the forms are [Er gibt ab, Er gab ab, Er hat abgegeben]. |
| Chuck: Next. |
| Judith: [Firma] |
| Chuck: Company. |
| Judith: [Firma, die] and the plural is [Firmen] |
| 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'll look at is [Jackenärmel]. |
| Chuck: Jacket sleeve. |
| Judith: It's a compound noun based on [Jacke] |
| Chuck: Jacket. |
| Judith: And [Ärmel] |
| Chuck: Sleeve |
| Judith: The extra n in the middle is just there to make it pronounceable otherwise I'd hate to see you try [Jackeärmel, Jackenärmel] and next we shall look at the phrase [In ein paar Minuten]. |
| Chuck: In or within a few minutes. |
| Judith: We're describing something that will happen while those minutes elapse. However in German you would use the exact same wording to describe something that will happen at the end of those minutes. For example [Der Bus kommt in ein paar Minuten]. |
| Chuck: The bus will arrive in a couple of minutes. |
| Judith: No, note that [ein paar] in German usually does not mean a couple or two, it means a few. Anything up to five. |
Lesson focus |
|---|
| Chuck: The grammar focus in this lesson is the pluperfect. |
| Judith: The pluperfect, Plusquamperfekt also called past perfect is used when you're talking about the past and then you have to bring in a circumstance that happened even further in the past. |
| Chuck: In German as in English, it is formed by taking the past tense form of having to have followed by the past participle which we've already used in the perfect tense. So past tense in perfect tense gives the past perfect. Easy isn't it? |
| Judith: There's only one extra rule to remember. Since the German perfect tense sometimes uses [sein] instead of [haben] so does the past perfect in German, the same verbs that use a form of [sein] for the perfect tense also use a form of [sein] for the past perfect. |
| Chuck: Could you give us some examples? |
| Judith: Of course [Ich sah einen Mann, der den letzten Bus verpasst hatte]. |
| Chuck: I saw a man who had missed the last bus. |
| Judith: So [verpasst hatte] had missed. That's the past perfect right there. And another example [Als ich ankam, war der Laden schon geschlossen]. |
| Chuck: When I arrived the shop was already closed. |
| Judith: [war geschlossen] had closed or had been closed. There are more examples in today's dialogue, can you find them? |
Outro |
| Chuck: That just about does it for today. Premium members use the review track to perfect the pronunciation. |
| Judith: Available in the premium section of the website. |
| Chuck: The learning center. |
| Judith: And through iTunes we are the premium feed. |
| Chuck: The review track gives you vocabulary and phrases followed by a short pause so you can repeat the words aloud. |
| Judith: The best way to get good fast. |
| Chuck: Okay, see you next week. |
| Judith: [Bis nächste Woche]. |
| c |
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