Learn about shortened subclauses, relative clauses, and being early to your appointments
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Chuck: Chuck here. Intermediate Season 4, Lesson 16 – “It Doesn’t Do to be Late in Germany”. Hello and welcome back to GermanPod101.com, the fastest, easiest and most fun way to learn German. I’m joined in the studio by? |
| Judith: Hello everyone, [Judith] here. |
| Chuck: Hello and welcome back to GermanPod101.com. |
| Judith: You have completed more than half of Intermediate Series Season 4, [Chuck] |
| Chuck: Yes, congratulations! Do you feel your German is improving? |
| Judith: It will keep getting better! |
| Chuck: If you find yourself demotivated sometimes, just download the dialogue of an earlier lesson, see how easy it is to understand now and remember how difficult it used to be. |
| Judith: You’re learning more with every lesson. |
| Chuck: In this lesson you’ll learn how to give a recommendation in German. |
| Judith: This conversation takes place at the conference, the day after Joe lost his iPhone. |
| Chuck: The conversation is between Joe and Christina again. |
| Judith: The speakers have come to know each other therefore they’ll be speaking informal German. |
| Chuck: Let’s listen to the conversation. |
| DIALOGUE |
| Joe: Hallo Christina! |
| Christina: Hallo Joe! Schön, dich wieder zu sehen! Hast du dein iPhone wiedergefunden? |
| Joe: Nein, leider nicht. Ich möchte heute Morgen noch einmal hier nachsehen, ob jemand es vielleicht beim Aufräumen gefunden hat. Heute Nachmittag gehe ich dann zum Fundbüro. |
| Christina: Ich denke, dass es unwahrscheinlich ist, dass jemand das iPhone hier bei der Konferenz findet und dann im Fundbüro abgibt. Finde ich etwas auf einer Konferenz, frage ich erst einmal die anderen Teilnehmer, ob sie das verloren haben. |
| Joe: Ja, das denke ich auch. |
| ... |
| Christina: Weißt du schon, welchen Vortrag du dir als nächstes anhörst? |
| Joe: Nein, ich habe noch nicht ins Programm für heute geschaut. |
| Christina: Ich gehe auf jeden Fall zu dem Vortrag, der gleich hier in dem Raum stattfindet. |
| Joe: Wovon handelt der? |
| Christina: Das ist ein Vortrag über neue Software für Übersetzer. Der Sprecher ist ein sehr erfahrener Übersetzer, den alle Konferenzteilnehmer zu schätzen scheinen. Zumindest haben mich mehrere Leute, die ich kenne, auf diesen Vortrag hingewiesen. |
| Joe: Na, dann muss ich mir diesen Vortrag auch anhören! Und kommst du später zu dem Vortrag, den ich halte? |
| Christina: Wann ist der? |
| Joe: Um zwei Uhr, in dem Raum, der genau ein Stockwerk über diesem liegt. |
| Christina: Okay, das werde ich mir merken. Komm, lass uns jetzt einen Platz suchen, sonst müssen wir stehen! |
| Joe: Ich finde es schrecklich, in Deutschland muss man immer ganz früh zu Veranstaltungen erscheinen, um einen Sitzplatz zu finden. |
| Joe: Hello Christina! |
| Christina: Hello Joe! Great to see you again! Have you found your iPhone? |
| Joe: No, unfortunately not. This morning I'd like to check once more whether someone perhaps found it while cleaning up. This afternoon I'll go to the lost-and-found office. |
| Christina: I think that it's unlikely that someone would find the iPhone here at the conference and then handed it in at the lost-and-found office. If I found something at a conference, I'd first ask the other participants if they lost something. |
| Joe: Yes, that's what I think too. |
| ... |
| Christina: Do you know which lecture you're going to listen to next? |
| Joe: No, I haven't looked at the program for today yet. |
| Christina: In any case, I'm going to the lecture that's happening right here in this room. |
| Joe: What's it about? |
| Christina: It's a lecture about new software for translators. The speaker is a very experienced translator that all the conference participants seem to hold in high regard. At least several people that I know have suggested this lecture to me. |
| Joe: Well, then I'll have to listen to this lecture! And are you coming later, to the lecture that I'm giving? |
| Christina: When is it? |
| Joe: At two o'clock, in the room that's exactly one floor above this one. |
| Christina: Okay, I'll remember that. Come on, let's go find a place, otherwise we'll have to stand! |
| Joe: It's horrible how you have to show up so early to events in Germany in order to get a seat. |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Judith: Yeah, I think he said something right, right there. Germans would rather arrive half hour too early than ten minutes too late, especially if you’re coming to an event then you’re going to be there really early maybe before they open the doors even. |
| Chuck: Yeah, Germans are afraid of not finding space. That means at the beach they’re notorious for getting up in the morning to reserve chairs by putting towels on them. |
| Judith: Yes and at the airport German cue up for boarding long before boarding starts. What are some other German idiosyncrasies? |
| Chuck: Well, Germans tend to be really frank and Berliners are known in Germany is to be particularly frank or direct rude, if they don’t like something they’ll just say so. Size complaining is national’s past time. |
| Judith: Yeah, on the other side, Germans rarely pay compliments. If they do compliment you is because they really mean it. This also means that you don’t have to say thank you, you can accept compliments in a matter of fact way. |
| Chuck: Let’s take a look at the vocabulary for this lesson. |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Chuck: The first word we shall see is? |
| Judith: [aufräumen] |
| Chuck: “To tidy up”. |
| Judith: [aufräumen, aufräumen] the [auf] splits off. |
| Chuck: Next? |
| Judith: [wahrscheinlich] |
| Chuck: “Probably”. |
| Judith: [wahrscheinlich, wahrscheinlich] |
| Chuck: Next? |
| Judith: [abgeben] |
| Chuck: “To give away” or “hand in”. |
| Judith: [abgeben, abgeben] and the forms are [Er gibt ab, Er gab ab, Er hat abgegeben]. |
| Chuck: Next? |
| Judith: [verlieren] |
| Chuck: “To lose”. |
| Judith: [verlieren, verlieren] the forms are [Er verliert, Er verlor, Er hat verloren]. |
| Chuck: Next? |
| Judith: [Raum] |
| Chuck: “Room” or “space”. |
| Judith: [Raum, der Raum] and the plural is [Räume]. |
| Chuck: Next? |
| Judith: [stattfinden] |
| Chuck: “To take place”. |
| Judith: [stattfinden, stattfinden] the forms are [Es findet statt, Es fand statt, Es hat stattgefunden]. |
| Chuck: Next? |
| Judith: [schätzen] |
| Chuck: “To estimate” or “to esteem”. |
| Judith: [schätzen, schätzen] |
| Chuck: Next? |
| Judith: [Stockwerk] |
| Chuck: “Floor” or “story”. |
| Judith: [Stockwerk, Stockwerk] and the plural is [Stockwerke]. |
| Chuck: Next? |
| Judith: [liegen] |
| Chuck: “To lie”. |
| Judith: [liegen, liegen] the forms are [Er liegt, Er lag, Er hat gelegen]. |
| Chuck: Next? |
| Judith: [merken] |
| Chuck: “To notice”. |
| Judith: [merken, merken] |
| Chuck: Next? |
| Judith: [sich merken] |
| Chuck: “To memorize” or “keep in mind”. |
| Judith: [sich merken, sich merken] |
| Chuck: Next? |
| Judith: [Platz] |
| Chuck: “Place, space” or “town square”. |
| Judith: [Platz, der Platz] and the plural is [Plätze]. |
| Chuck: Next? |
| Judith: [Veranstaltung] |
| Chuck: “Event”. |
| Judith: [Veranstaltung, Veranstaltung] the plural is [Veranstaltungen] |
| Chuck: Next? |
| Judith: [erscheinen] |
| Chuck: “To appear”. |
| Judith: [erscheinen] the forms are [Er erscheint, Er erschien, Er ist erschienen]. |
| 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: First word we’ll look at is [unwahrscheinlich]. |
| Chuck: “Unlikely”. |
| Judith: It’s the opposite [wahrscheinlich] |
| Chuck: “Likely”. |
| Judith: Then, the expression [zu dem Vortrag] has to mean [zu diesem Vortrag] because if the [dem] was just your typical article, then the phrase would’ve been shortened to [zum Vortrag], so [zu dem] is always shortened as [zum] unless it means [zu diesem]. Finally, [wovon]. |
| Chuck: “Of what” or “about what”. |
| Judith: It’s a combination of [von] and [was]. We’ll cover these combinations in detail, soon. |
Lesson focus |
|---|
| Chuck: The focus of this lesson is shortened sub-clauses and relative clauses, part one. |
| Judith: Shortened sub-clauses are sub-clauses where you leave out the conjunction, that is the introductory word. |
| Chuck: In English you can shorten “I think that I must do more sport” to “I think I must do more sport”. So you’re leaving out the “that”. You can do exactly the same in German, but only if it’s spoken German. You mustn’t write like that. |
| Judith: The equivalent German sentences are [Ich denke, dass ich mehr Sport treiben muss] and [Ich denke, ich muss mehr Sport treiben]. |
| Chuck: Note that the word order for the second part of the sentence is just like the word order in a main-clause now. The verb does not go to the end of the sentence here. |
| Judith: Yes, it’s essentially like turning this into two separate sentences, the first one being [Ich denke] and the second one [Ich muss mehr Sport treiben]. |
| Chuck: In English you can also shorten relative clauses. For example, you can say “The man walking along the street” instead of “The man who is walking along the street”. You’re dropping the “who”. |
| Judith: This is not possible in German. However, one thing that you can do in German that you can’t do in English is to drop the [wenn], if you’re starting the sentence with [wenn]. |
| Chuck: Note that only in spoken German. |
| Judith: Yes. It’s what happens when you say [Findet jemand ein Iphone, dann gibt er es dem Fundbüro]. In normal German, that sentence would be [Wenn jemand ein Iphone findet] and so on. |
| Chuck: In the short version, the verb has to move to the front to draw more attention to the missing [wenn]. |
| Judith: Okay and one more thing about relative clauses. We already looked at the relative clauses at the beginner level, but those were easy sub-clauses then. In all examples we had then, the relative pronoun was always the same as the article, so [Der Mann, der/die Frau, die] and so on. |
| Chuck: In this dialogue however, we’ve seen that it doesn’t have to be that way. Specifically when English uses “whom”, the German relative pronoun will have to be dative or accusative. |
| Judith: In fact, the relative pronoun always takes the case that the noun would have in that sub-clause. Seen as combining two sentences, like [Der Mann ist Amerikaner, Ich sehe den Mann] so this becomes [Den Mann, den ich sehe, ist Amerikaner]. |
| Chuck: Does it work the other way around too? |
| Judith: Yeah, if you’re saying [Ich sehe den Mann, der Mann ist Amerikaner] then you say [Ich sehe den Mann, der Amerikaner ist]. |
Outro |
| Chuck: It’s the only way to avoid confusion, find all the examples of such relative clauses from today’s dialogue! That just about does it for today! Listeners, do you know the reason why flashcards are so popular? |
| Judith: It’s because they work. |
| Chuck: We’ve taken this time testing studying tool and modernized with “My Word Bank” flashcards. |
| Judith: Learn vocabulary using your eyes and ears. |
| Chuck: It’s simple and powerful. Save difficult interesting words to your personal vocabulary list called “My Word Bank”. |
| Judith: Master words in your “My Word Bank” by practicing the flashcards. |
| Chuck: Words in “My Word Bank” come with audio so you can learn proper pronunciation. |
| Judith: While you learn how to recognize word by site. |
| Chuck: Go to GermanPod101.com and try “My Word Bank” and flashcards today! So, see you next week! |
| Judith: [Also bis nächste Woche!] |
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