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| Hi! |
| Welcome to Introduction to German. |
| My name is Alisha and I'm joined by... |
| Hi everyone! I'm Jenni. |
| In this lesson, we'll focus on teaching you the most useful German words and phrases for absolute beginners! |
| Make sure you're repeating the words out loud after I say the examples! |
| Are you ready? Let's get started! |
| Expressing Thanks and Forgiveness |
| The best phrase to learn when studying a new language is one that expresses gratitude and appreciation. If you had to learn only a single phrase, this would be it! |
| We taught you this phrase in the first lesson of this series. Do you remember what it was? |
| Dankeschön – it means “Thank you very much.“ |
| Keep repeating after Jenni until you get it! |
| Dankeschön! |
| Your turn! |
| Dankeschön! |
| Dankeschön! |
| Do you remember this character? We talked about it in our pronunciation episode! |
| ö |
| Listen to how I pronounce this vowel: |
| ö |
| ö |
| It sounds a little bit like the “i” in “girl.” |
| ö |
| Dankeschön! |
| One last time. |
| Dankeschön! |
| The next phrase we'll teach you, is perhaps the second most useful phrase of all. It's to apologize or to excuse yourself. |
| Entschuldigung |
| It means “excuse me” or “I’m sorry” |
| Entschuldigung |
| You can say this to grab a person’s attention and ask for directions, or to excuse yourself when you bump into a stranger. |
| Entschuldigung! |
| Your turn! |
| Entschuldigung! |
| Entschuldigung! |
| One last time. |
| Entschuldigung! |
| Now you can say “Thank you” and “Excuse me” or “I'm sorry” in German! |
| Let’s move on! |
| Where is...? |
| Asking where something is, is an incredibly important and useful phrase to learn. |
| You're going to need this when asking where the bathroom or train station is. |
| To ask where something is, simply say: |
| Wo ist ... ? |
| And then add the place or location. For example, if you want to ask "Where is the bathroom?" in German, you can say... |
| Wo ist |
| And then add the word for “bathroom.” |
| die Toilette |
| Altogether, it's... |
| Wo ist die Toilette? (“Where is the bathroom?”) |
| "Where is the bathroom?" |
| Wo ist die Toilette? |
| Now, you try. |
| Wo ist die Toilette? |
| One last time. |
| Wo ist die Toilette? |
| The “train station” is... |
| der Bahnhof? |
| Start with “Where is…” |
| Wo ist |
| and then add “train station.” |
| der Bahnhof |
| Altogether, it's... |
| Wo ist der Bahnhof? (“Where is the train station?”) |
| Try saying it yourself! |
| Wo ist der Bahnhof? (“Where is the train station?”) |
| One last time. |
| Wo ist der Bahnhof? (“Where is the train station?”) |
| Try asking where the hotel is. If “the hotel” in German is... |
| Das Hotel (“the hotel”) |
| What would, "Where is the hotel?" be in German? |
| The answer is... |
| Wo ist das Hotel? (“Where is the hotel?”) |
| You ask where anything is, simply by saying... |
| Wo ist... |
| And then adding the place or location. |
| Wo ist die Toilette? |
| Wo ist der Bahnof? |
| Wo ist das Hotel? |
| The words die, der, and das, roughly translate to "the" in English. Their usage changes based on the type of noun you're using. |
| Each noun in German is classified in three different ways: |
| As masculine, feminine, or neuter. |
| These classifications are specified in nearly all German dictionaries. |
| Toilette is inherently a feminine noun in German. For female nouns, we use die. |
| Bahnof is a masculine noun. We use der for masculine nouns. |
| And Hotel is considered a neuter noun. We use das for neuter nouns. |
| In this final episode you learned how to say: “Thank you very much,” “Excuse me,” “I'm sorry” and to ask where something is in German. |
| And In this series, we introduced you to the basics of German pronunciation, grammar, writing, and more. Let’s conclude with some parting advice from Jenni, and listen to some of her tips on how to learn German from a native German perspective. |
| Parting Advice - Insider Knowledge |
| The best way to begin learning German is to start with simple words and build up your vocabulary. From there, you can start learning simple phrases and creating basic sentences. Don't concern yourself too much with articles and complex grammar when first starting out. Focus on stringing together words. Your goal is to communicate, and you don't have to be grammatically correct to do that. |
| Learning basic word order and using the vocabulary that you know, can get you a very long way. Remember, you can move any words around in German, as long as the verb is the second element in the sentence. Focus on this aspect, and you'll be able to speak German in no time! |
| Lastly, learning German, like any language, requires you to immerse yourself in the language. Exposure to the language is key. One simple thing you can do to immerse yourself, is to watch contemporary German videos, like our videos here at GermanPod101.com. This will ensure that you're learning real, applicable German in the fastest way possible. |
| You've reached the end of this course 'Introduction to German', but it's only the beginning of your journey to German fluency! Where do you go from here? Start familiarizing yourself with the sounds of German by checking out our Ultimate German Pronunciation Guide. Or check out any of our other video series. We have many different categories for you to choose from. |
| Good luck as you continue learning German, and I'll see you in another video! |
| Bye! |
| Bye~! |
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