Learn how to make comparisons
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Chuck: Chuck here. Intermediate Series Season 2, Lesson 11. Making comparisons – Tomorrow it will be colder in East Germany. Hello and welcome to GermanPod101.com, the fastest, easiest and craziest way to learn German. |
| Judith: Welcome. I'm Judith and thanks again for being here with us for this Intermediate Series Season 2 Lesson. |
| Chuck: In this lesson you’ll learn how to understand weather forecasts. |
| Judith: This conversation takes place at a German home and it is between Mike and his German friend. |
| Chuck: The speakers are friend, therefore they’ll be speaking informal German. |
| Judith: However, at the end of this dialogue you will also hear a weather forecast and that features formal German. |
| Chuck: 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 |
| D: So, was möchtest du heute machen, Mike? |
| A: Ich werde hier bleiben, vielleicht kommt ja eine Antwort auf meine Bewerbung. |
| D: Deswegen willst du hier bleiben?? Die antworten auch nicht schneller, nur weil du zuhause sitzt. Lass uns mal die Wettervorhersage für heute anhören. |
| W: Heute bleibt es im Süden und Westen Deutschlands sonnig mit Temperaturen um die 20 Grad. Im Norden und Osten Deutschlands wird es jedoch schon kälter mit teils starkem Regen. Morgen wird es dann im ganzen Land wolkig und kalt. |
| Judith: Now read slowly. |
| D: So, was möchtest du heute machen, Mike? |
| A: Ich werde hier bleiben, vielleicht kommt ja eine Antwort auf meine Bewerbung. |
| D: Deswegen willst du hier bleiben?? Die antworten auch nicht schneller, nur weil du zuhause sitzt. Lass uns mal die Wettervorhersage für heute anhören. |
| W: Heute bleibt es im Süden und Westen Deutschlands sonnig mit Temperaturen um die 20 Grad. Im Norden und Osten Deutschlands wird es jedoch schon kälter mit teils starkem Regen. Morgen wird es dann im ganzen Land wolkig und kalt. |
| Judith: Now with the translation. |
| D: So, was möchtest du heute machen, Mike? |
| D: So, what would you like to do today, Mike? |
| A: Ich werde hier bleiben, vielleicht kommt ja eine Antwort auf meine Bewerbung. |
| A: I will stay here, maybe an answer to my application arrives today. |
| D: Deswegen willst du hier bleiben?? Die antworten auch nicht schneller, nur weil du zuhause sitzt. Lass uns mal die Wettervorhersage für heute anhören. |
| D: You want to stay here because of that?? They don't answer more quickly just because you're sitting at home. Let's listen to the weather forecast for today. |
| W: Heute bleibt es im Süden und Westen Deutschlands sonnig mit Temperaturen um die 20 Grad. Im Norden und Osten Deutschlands wird es jedoch schon kälter mit teils starkem Regen. Morgen wird es dann im ganzen Land wolkig und kalt. |
| W: Today it remains sunny in the South and West of Germany with temperatures around 20 degrees Celsius. In the North and East of Germany it will however get colder already partly with strong rain. Tomorrow it will be cloudy and cold in the entire country. |
| CULTURAL INSIGHTS |
| Judith: In Germany, the weather changes a lot for the seasons. In winter, which is approximately from December to February, we tend to get temperatures between, say, +10 to -5. |
| Chuck: Wow, that’s really cold. |
| Judith: I mean Celsius. |
| Chuck: Oh. |
| Judith: It’s not really cold. It’s just decent cold. |
| Chuck: So, wait, that’s like 23 to 50 degrees Fahrenheit? |
| Judith: Could be. I'm not familiar with Fahrenheit. |
| Chuck: Just a lucky guess off the top of my head. |
| Judith: It’s not really cold, but typically winters in Germany are quite humid and the humidity makes everything feel much worse so that you actually feel the cold down to your bones. |
| Chuck: I actually find that the climate here is pretty similar to what I experience in Pennsylvania. |
| Judith: Yeah, the two regions have similar climate but Pennsylvania still does have continental climate which makes it more colder in winter and hotter in summer. |
| Chuck: It’s true. For example, you don’t see many air conditioners here, in Germany. |
| Judith: No, you don’t. I mean people are so used to the warmth but in the cars… cars heat up a lot in the sun so we have air conditioning there, but the houses, the houses are well-isolated and they don’t typically need air conditioning. |
| Chuck: So how hot does it get in the summer? |
| Judith: In summer temperatures may be between 20 and 35 degrees. |
| Chuck: So, let’s see, that’s like 68 to 95 degrees Fahrenheit. |
| Judith: Yes. Do you still need Fahrenheit? |
| Chuck: I don’t but I think some of our listeners might. |
| Judith: Ok. |
| Chuck: Actually, I’ve just gotten used to Celsius this year so I can now understand the cold temperatures, but I don’t understand the hot ones yet. |
| Judith: Ok. |
| Chuck: Let’s take a look at the vocabulary for this lesson. |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Judith: First word, [Antworten]. |
| Chuck: “To answer” or “reply”. |
| Judith: [Antworten, antworten] Next, [Anrufen]. |
| Chuck: To call. |
| Judith: [Anrufen, anrufen] And in this word the [An] splits off. Next, [Deswegen]. |
| Chuck: “Because of that” or “therefore”. |
| Judith: [Deswegen, deswegen] Next, [Wettervorhersage]. |
| Chuck: Weather forecast. |
| Judith: [Wettervorhersage, Wettervorhersage] This word is feminine. [Die Vorhersage] means “the prediction”. Next, [Anhören]. |
| Chuck: To listen. |
| Judith: [Anhören, anhören] Again, the [An] splits off. Next, [Süden]. |
| Chuck: South. |
| Judith: [Süden, Süden] Next, [Westen]. |
| Chuck: West. |
| Judith: [Westen, Westen] Next. [Norden] |
| Chuck: North. |
| Judith: [Norden, Norden] Next, [Osten]. |
| Chuck: East. |
| Judith: [Osten, Osten] Next, [Sonnig]. |
| Chuck: Sunny. |
| Judith: [Sonnig, sonnig] Next, [Temperatur]. |
| Chuck: Temperature. |
| Judith: [Temperatur, Temperatur, die Temperatur ] this is feminine. And plural is [Temperaturen]. Next, [Grad]. |
| Chuck: Degrees. |
| Judith: [Grad, Grad] Next, [Jedoch]. |
| Chuck: However. |
| Judith: [Jedoch, jedoch] Next, [Teils]. |
| Chuck: “In part” or “partly”. |
| Judith: [Teils, teils] Next, [Stark]. |
| Chuck: “Strong” or “strongly”. |
| Judith: [Stark, stark] Next, [Regen]. |
| Chuck: Rain. |
| Judith: [Regen, Regen, der Regen] this is masculine. |
| 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: Today we will look at three of them. The first thing we’ll look at is a common way to form verbs in German by simply adding EN. For example, from the word [Antwort]. |
| Chuck: Answer. |
| Judith: You get [Antworten]. |
| Chuck: To answer. |
| Judith: Similarly, from the word [Anruf]. |
| Chuck: Call. |
| Judith: You get [Anrufen]. |
| Chuck: To call. |
| Judith: And this also goes for English words entering the German language. For example, the word “to call” in poker is [Callen]. |
| Chuck: It will also get other forms like [Gecallt] as well. |
| Judith: Next word, [Jedoch]. This is one of very many ways of expressing contrast in German. Nearest translation is “however” but you wouldn’t use “however” as often as we use [Jedoch]. And the biggest difference between [Aber] and [Jedoch] is that [Jedoch] can be used in the middle of a phrase. |
| Chuck: If [Jedoch] is used at the beginning of a phrase, it’s treated like an adverb and that the verb must follow immediately after. For [Aber], that’s not the case. |
| Judith: Ok, and the last word that I want to draw your attention to is the word [Die] in the line [Die antworten auch nicht schneller, nur weil du zuhause sitzt]. In this sentence, it’s the colloquial way of saying [Sie], like “they” or “she”. You can use [Der] instead of [Er] as well. Just remember it’s not polite to refer to somebody like this if he’s within earshot. Now how about some grammar? |
Lesson focus |
|---|
| Chuck: Alright, sounds good. |
| Judith: To say that something is nicer, bigger, better or the like in German, you add ER to any adjective. |
| Chuck: Can you use “more” like in English, let’s say [Mehr] or something? |
| Judith: No, that’s not possible. |
| Chuck: I'm thinking like how you say “more beautiful”? |
| Judith: No. in German you have to say the equivalent of “beautifuler”. In this dialogue we had [Schneller], that’s “faster”, and [Kälter], that’s “colder”. |
| Chuck: So you always just add ER? |
| Judith: Well, in [Kälter] you see that we also added an [Umlaut] on the vowel. And… |
| Chuck: Does this work for every word? |
| Judith: No, no. there’s also a couple very few irregular forms. For example, [Gut] changes to [Besser], just like in English, “good” to “better”. |
| Chuck: Yes, just like in English. |
| Judith: One last difference to English is that when you use these words as an adverb, like [Die antworten auch nicht schneller] or [Es wird schon kälter], then you don’t need any changes. But if you use as adjectives, you have to add all the usual adjective endings. For example, if you want to say “We expect colder days”, that would be [Wir erwarten kältere Tage]. So [Kältere], you see that it suddenly acquired an E at the ending, as any adjective would. |
| Chuck: That just about does it for today. Before we go we want to tell you about a way to drastically improve your pronunciation. |
Outro |
| 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 with the native speakers. |
| Judith: And adjust your pronunciation. |
| Chuck: This will help your pronunciation improve fast. See you next time! |
| Judith: Bis nächstes Mal! |
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