Learn to master the German plural for nouns
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Chuck: This is Newbie Series Lesson 20. |
| Judith: [Willkommen zurück]. |
| Chuck: Welcome back, listeners. It’s already the 20th lesson of the GermanPod101 Newbie Series. Wow, we’ve gone a long way. As you know, the Newbie Series focuses on the essentials of German for anyone who wants to start learning. |
| Judith: We teach you how to express yourself in a lot of basic situations. |
| Chuck: And you’ve already learned quite a lot. Today Lena is calling a friend to talk about the picnic that she was invited to. |
| Judith: This is a great way to review what you know about calling in Germany too. |
| Chuck: And you’ll notice the dialogue is a bit longer than usual but that’s because you’ve learned a lot more words, so we can make it longer. So let’s listen to this girl talk. |
| DIALOGUE |
| Sarah Wolter: Sarah Wolter. |
| Lena Wagner: Hi, Lena hier. |
| Sarah Wolter: Ah, Lena, schön von dir zu hören. |
| Lena Wagner: Wie geht es dir? |
| Sarah Wolter: Gut, danke. |
| Lena Wagner: Du, kennst du einen Michael Schmidt? |
| Sarah Wolter: Nein. |
| Lena Wolter: Er veranstaltet ein Picknick am Mittwoch. |
| Sarah Wolter: Und? |
| Lena Wagner: Ich weiß noch nicht, was ich mitbringen werde. |
| Sarah Wolter: Hmm. Butterbrote? |
| Lena Wagner: Butterbrote sind langweilig. |
| Sarah Wolter: Sushi Häppchen? |
| Lena Wagner: Zu ungewöhnlich. Ich weiß nicht, ob sie Sushi mögen. |
| Sarah Wolter: Würstchen, Salat? |
| Lena Wagner: Hmm. |
| Sarah Wolter: Früchte? |
| Lena Wagner: Ah, ich weiß es. Ich werde einen Fruchtsalat machen. |
| Sarah Wolter: Wie viele Freunde kommen denn? |
| Lena Wagner: Ich weiß nicht. |
| Judith: Now slowly. |
| Sarah Wolter: Sarah Wolter. |
| Lena Wagner: Hi, Lena hier. |
| Sarah Wolter: Ah, Lena, schön von dir zu hören. |
| Lena Wagner: Wie geht es dir? |
| Sarah Wolter: Gut, danke. |
| Lena Wagner: Du, kennst du einen Michael Schmidt? |
| Sarah Wolter: Nein. |
| Lena Wolter: Er veranstaltet ein Picknick am Mittwoch. |
| Sarah Wolter: Und? |
| Lena Wagner: Ich weiß noch nicht, was ich mitbringen werde. |
| Sarah Wolter: Hmm. Butterbrote? |
| Lena Wagner: Butterbrote sind langweilig. |
| Sarah Wolter: Sushi Häppchen? |
| Lena Wagner: Zu ungewöhnlich. Ich weiß nicht, ob sie Sushi mögen. |
| Sarah Wolter: Würstchen, Salat? |
| Lena Wagner: Hmm. |
| Sarah Wolter: Früchte? |
| Lena Wagner: Ah, ich weiß es. Ich werde einen Fruchtsalat machen. |
| Sarah Wolter: Wie viele Freunde kommen denn? |
| Lena Wagner: Ich weiß nicht. |
| Judith: Now with the translation. |
| Judith: Sarah Wolter. |
| Chuck: Sarah Wolter. |
| Judith: Hi, Lena hier. |
| Chuck: Hi Lena here. |
| Judith: Ah, Lena, schön von dir zu hören. |
| Chuck: Ah Lena, nice to hear from you. |
| Judith: Wie geht es dir? |
| Chuck: How are you doing? |
| Judith: Gut danke. |
| Chuck: Good thanks. |
| Judith: Du, kennst du einen Michael Schmidt? |
| Chuck: You – do you know a Michael Schmidt? |
| Judith: Nein. |
| Chuck: No. |
| Judith: Er veranstaltet ein Picknick am Mittwoch. |
| Chuck: He is organizing a picnic on Wednesday. |
| Judith: Und? |
| Chuck: And? |
| Judith: Ich weiß noch nicht, was ich mitbringen werde. |
| Chuck: I still don’t know what I should bring with me. |
| Judith: Hmm. Butterbrote? |
| Chuck: Hmm. Sandwiches? |
| Judith: Butterbrote sind langweilig. |
| Chuck: Sandwiches are boring. |
| Judith: Sushi Häppchen? |
| Chuck: Bits of sushi? |
| Judith: Zu ungewöhnlich. |
| Chuck: Too unusual. |
| Judith: Ich weiß nicht, ob sie Sushi mögen. |
| Chuck: I don’t know if they like sushi. |
| Judith: Würstchen, Salat? |
| Chuck: Sausages, salad? |
| Judith: Hmm... |
| Chuck: Hmm… |
| Judith: Früchte? |
| Chuck: Fruit? |
| Judith: Ah, ich weiß es. |
| Chuck: Ah I know. |
| Judith: Ich werde einen Fruchtsalat machen. |
| Chuck: I will make a fruit salad. |
| Judith: Wie viele Freunde kommen denn? |
| Chuck: How many friends are coming then? |
| Judith: Ich weiß es nicht. |
| Chuck: I don’t know. |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Chuck: It was a dialogue, long, just like I promised. But there were a lot of great chances to review your old vocabulary because it’s the summer and we know you’re probably forgetting some of them, but also a lot of new words, of course. |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Judith: The first new word is mitbringen. |
| Chuck: To bring along. |
| Judith: mitbringen. |
| Chuck: Literally, “with to bring”. |
| Judith: mitbringen. |
| Chuck: To take a long. |
| Judith: Yeah, “bring along” or “take along” because in German the word [Bringen] is not always used the same way as the English “bring”. |
| Chuck: Next word is Häppchen. |
| Chuck: “Bit” or an “appetizer”. |
| Judith: Häppchen. Häppchen. |
| Chuck: “Bit” or “appetizer”. |
| Judith: Note that this is neutral, just like anything ending in [Chen]. The next word is ungewöhnlich. |
| Chuck: “Unusual” or “unusually”. |
| Judith: ungewöhnlich. ungewöhnlich. |
| Chuck: “Unusual” or “unusually”. |
| Judith: [Ungewöhnlich] means “unusual” and [Gewöhnlich] means “usual”. In that sense, German works just like English. Next word is ob. |
| Chuck: Whether. |
| Judith: ob. |
| Chuck: Whether. |
| Judith: This also starts a sub clause, which we have learned before. The sub clauses involve the verb going to the very end of it. The next word is Würstchen. |
| Chuck: Sausages. |
| Judith: Or “sausage”. This can be singular or plural because it ends in [Chen] and there’s no difference. And it’s neutral. |
| Chuck: That’s why you have to put the article in front of it, isn’t it? |
| Judith: Yeah, so das Würstchen. |
| Chuck: The sausage. |
| Judith: das Würstchen. |
| Chuck: The sausages. |
| Judith: The next word is Salat. |
| Chuck: Salad. |
| Judith: Salat. |
| Chuck: Salad. |
| Judith: Next, Frucht. |
| Chuck: Fruit. |
| Judith: Frucht. |
| Chuck: Fruit. |
| Judith: And in German you can easily combine nouns to make a compound. For example, [Fruchtsalat]. |
| Chuck: “Fruit salad”. And notice that’s one word. |
| Judith: The next word is a question word. Wie viele? |
| Chuck: How many. |
| Judith: wie viele? |
| Chuck: How many. |
| Judith: You may also note that [Wie viel] is… |
| Chuck: How much. |
| Judith: [Wie viel] |
| Chuck: How much. |
| Judith: [Wie viele?] |
| Chuck: “How many”. She’s trying to keep me on my toes today. |
| Judith: The next word is denn. |
| Chuck: “Because” or “actually. |
| Judith: denn. |
| Chuck: “Because” or “actually”. |
| Judith: When this starts a sub clause, it means “because”. And when it’s used somewhere in a sentence like an adverb, then it means “actually”. |
| Chuck: That’s why I was never used right. |
| Judith: Ok, let’s have some examples. It’s used in the sense of “actually” in today’s dialogue. [Wie viele Freunde kommen denn?] “Well, actually how many friends are coming?” And one example of [Denn] as the beginning of a sub clause would be [Ich werde keinen Sushi machen, denn Sie mögen Sushi nicht]. |
| Chuck: Ah. |
| Judith: I will not make sushi because they don’t like sushi. |
| Chuck: And I always misunderstood that too as being “then”. Good thing I'm hearing these GermanPod101 lessons and good thing you’re listening too or you might have been confused like me all those times. |
| Judith: Next word, and the last word for today, is Butterbrot. |
| Chuck: Sandwich. |
| Judith: Butterbrot. |
| Chuck: Sandwich. |
| Judith: It’s neuter because [Brot] is neuter. [Brot] means “bread” and [Brot] literally means “butter bread” because that’s the essence of it in Germany. And, that’s right, our cultural point because in Germany we know how to make sandwiches. |
| CULTURAL INSIGHTS |
| Chuck: We know how to make them too. |
| Judith: Not quite. You have a different idea what a sandwich is. |
| Chuck: Yeah, we actually put stuff on it instead of just, like, eating the bread and putting a little piece of cheese or something on it. |
| Judith: We don’t just eat plain bread. Of course there’s many different types of bread and rolls in Germany, like all kinds of bread, like multigrain bread with sunflower seed, with pumpkin seed, raisin bread, raisin rolls, lots and lots of types. And in every bakery you can have several types, if not dozens of them. |
| Chuck: Yeah, I would say in Germany it’s pretty much that the essence of the sandwich is the bread, whereas in the States the essence is what’s between the slices of bread. |
| Judith: Bread is definitely important in Germany. Also, there’s [Knäckebrot], which is almost like crackers. One type of bread that we don’t have though is bagels, they’re quite uncommon, like a specialty item. |
| Chuck: Unless you’re in a big city, like Berlin. |
| Judith: Well, of course you can get import bread then. |
| Chuck: It’s like getting Chinese or Vietnamese food here, I guess. |
| Judith: Yeah. |
| Chuck: Yeah, but one thing I know for example is that a lot of Germans that go and live in the states really miss their black bread. |
| Judith: Yes, black bread is a particularly healthy kind of bread with lots of grains. It’s so full of grains that it’s almost black, well, that’s also part of the making that makes the bread black. |
| Chuck: Yeah, [that is hardly edible]. |
| Judith: Very black. Very much to chew on, yes. It’s edible, it’s very yummy. Actually my region is famous for its type of black bread, it’s called [Pumpernickel]. And that’s from the [Niederrhein], it’s a very famous delicacy. |
| Chuck: Who are you going to believe, me or her? |
| Judith: Hey, stop it. We’re learning about German culture. He doesn’t know about German culture. |
| Chuck: Yeah, yeah, yeah. |
| Judith: Now, German sandwiches are first topped with butter, that’s where the [Butterbrot] comes from. And then you have a choice of, for example, cheese or meat cut, or jam, honey, Nutella. You know, Nutella is a chocolate hazelnut spread which is starting to spread to America even. You can get it at [Aldi], it’s very yummy, children love it. And peanut butter, however, it’s not as common but it’s available. And some regions in Germany also have sugar bead syrup to put on bread. |
| Chuck: And one thing that you’ll miss in German sandwiches is the second slice of bread. |
| Judith: Oh you can have a sandwich with a double slice of bread. It’s not a problem. |
| Chuck: I don’t see it very often. |
| Judith: Well, maybe because then the bread tastes too much, you have too much of the bread taste in the sandwich. |
| Chuck: Yeah, cause usually when… I guess when Germans talk about sandwiches they mean more, like, one slice of bread and then, like, stuff on it. |
| Judith: Well, you can put a second slice on it. It’s particularly common if you want to take it along so that whatever you put on there doesn’t get mixed with whatever else. Like, if you’re carrying it in a case, for school, you put Nutella on it, then you certainly want a second slice of bread to back it up. |
| Chuck: Yeah. And then you take it apart to eat it, right? |
| Judith: Not necessarily, no. I would advise against it. |
| Chuck: Ok. |
| Judith: But I think it tastes better with just one slice of bread because German slices of bread are quite thick and they have a very good distinct taste. |
| Chuck: Yes. Something you might also find in the sandwiches are tomatoes, cucumbers or pickles, and that would be on top of the cheese or meat. And also note that the sandwiches are typically eaten for dinner. |
| Judith: Yeah, for breakfast and dinner to be precise. |
| Chuck: Yeah. |
| Judith: And lunch is the big meal where you must not have sandwiches. |
| Chuck: So you can imagine, in America, it takes a while to get used to it since you’re used to eating sandwiches for lunch, and only for lunch. |
| Judith: That’s unhealthy to have a big meal with warm meat and potatoes or whatever for dinner cause then you have so much in your stomach before you’re going to sleep and your stomach is trying to process it all and… Much better idea to have it for lunch, if you have the chance, of course. Oh, and one thing we forgot to mention is that there can also be green salad underneath the cheese or whatever, particularly if you get it ready-made, it will usually have some fancy stuff like salad underneath the meat, or cheese, or tomato on top and some extra mayonnaise. But if you get it home-made, then people usually wouldn’t put mayonnaise or anything like that. |
| Chuck: And you wouldn’t typically have mustard in a sandwich, would you? |
| Judith: Nope. |
| Chuck: Cause mustard’s pretty much only for sausages. |
| Judith: Yeah. |
| Chuck: And you would also never put mustard on a pretzel here. |
| Judith: No. I don't know what you call pretzels over there. It’s not even the shape of the pretzel what you pretzels, it’s like sticks. |
| Chuck: No, not those, not the pretzel sticks. The really soft pretzels. |
| Judith: How can you call them pretzel sticks? Nothing like pretzel. The essence of the pretzel is the shape. |
| Chuck: No, the essence of the pretzel is what’s in it. |
| Judith: No, because the pretzels can be made of just about anything. It can be made of this [Lauge], I'm not sure, it’s a special kind of bread, it can be made of regular bread, it can be made of raisin bread. |
| Chuck: And one thing you’ll notice besides people looking at you funny when you try to put mustard on a pretzel is that it doesn’t quite taste right because the mustard is typically a lot spicier here than what you’d find in the States. |
| Judith: Or you can get various types of mustard. Now what I find really disgusting about American sandwiches is these kind of combinations that Chuck told me about. Like peanut butter and jelly or other two sweet toppings mixed like that. |
| Chuck: It’s normal. |
| Judith: The only combination that can be seen here is meat and cheese. One strange combination that I grew up with that’s very particular to my region is sugar beet syrup and cheese on preferably black bread or raisin bread. |
| Chuck: Yeah, and she says peanut butter and jelly is unusual. |
| Judith: It’s strange where you can get used to it, it’s quite yummy actually. But you normally have it for tea, that’s also weird about it. |
| Chuck: Yeah, what I thought was amazing about the breakfast is that, well, you know, you can put sausage on your bread and they had sausage there, in her area, that tastes just like [Lebanon bologna], which is like a very local sausage in Pennsylvania. |
| Judith: Well, I imagine it’s Germans who brought that to Pennsylvania. |
| Chuck: Yeah, I imagine so too. |
| Judith: So what’s your favorite sandwich, Chuck? |
| Chuck: I don't know, I like cheese sandwiches and I also occasionally like peanut butter sandwiches. But peanut butter sandwiches with extra chunky peanut butter. |
| Judith: Yeah, you have a hard time finding that in Germany. |
| Chuck: Yeah. Well, we did find it at the… we went to a place called [Der KDW, Kaufhaus des Westens], so I guess you could say “the shopping mall of the west”, where they specialize in all kinds of foods from all around the world. |
| Judith: Yeah, not just foods, also all kinds of imports, like fashion too and everything. It’s like a big store. I think it has eight stories or something and it’s just large. You can get lost on every single floor. |
| Chuck: It’s huge, really. It’s American-size, you could say. And they had about… let’s see, they had three shelve racks of American food and stuff. You could find everything from American jam to extra crunchy [JIF] peanut butter and Reeses peanut butter cups and root beer, everything that Americans typically miss in Germany. |
| Judith: Yeah, so we can recommend this [KDW] as a great place for homesick Americans in berlin. |
| Chuck: Yeah. There’s also English-shop.de for… it’s based in Cologne and… |
| Judith: They deliver. |
| Chuck: They deliver, yeah. So if you’re stuck somewhere like [Heilbronn] and you really need your American stuff, you can get them to ship you some stuff. |
| Judith: Yeah, but that’s only the last solution. You should really try some German stuff. |
| Chuck: Yeah. And you can also find peanut butter in supermarkets with American flags on the labels. |
| Judith: Yeah, but that would be the non-crunchy kind most likely. You can also get maple syrup quite easily in the supermarkets now. It’s still a specialty item, but it’s not too hard to find. |
| Chuck: Yeah, it’s quite… I think most supermarkets they have maple syrup now. |
| Judith: It didn’t used to be that way. I know a friend of mine who just loves maple syrup after being to Quebec, and she always had a care package being sent to her, but then a couple years back they started adding it to the supermarkets. |
| Chuck: Yeah. I'm always shocked that going to the supermarket and I see these things like hamburgers, and every American item has to have an American flag on its label. |
| Judith: Well, that makes it easier to find the items that are supposedly American. |
| Chuck: Yeah, I guess so. Like you’d also find marshmallows quite often. |
| Judith: Yeah, well… there are some items that we accept more readily here and some that we don’t. I think it about time that you start introducing German items in American supermarkets. I know [Aldi] is starting to, but I mean the other supermarkets. |
| Chuck: They have them. |
| Judith: I would so love to find some German bread. You know we had to go all over Montreal to find a single store that had German bread? |
| Chuck: That’s because you’re asking for weird stuff. |
| Judith: It’s not weird, it’s just healthy bread. |
| Chuck: Well, I think most of the package stuff you get in Germany you can also get in the States, like the gummy bears and stuff like that. |
| Judith: Yeah, but not as many kinds of liquorish, for example. |
| Chuck: Yeah, but it’s the same here that you don’t have as many types of soda [as you do] in the States, but if you want beer, there’s lots of beer and it’s much cheaper. |
| Judith: Ok, enough talk talk. Let’s just cover some grammar.. |
| Chuck: No, not grammar… |
| Judith: … before we’re done with our time here. |
| Chuck: Do we have to? |
| Judith: Yes. Grammar. |
| Chuck: Alright. |
Lesson focus |
|---|
| Judith: Today’s topic is how German nouns form their plural. |
| Chuck: Oh, not that. |
| Judith: It’s not as easy as in English but different groups form their plural different ways, so depending on the group you can predict what the plural will be. |
| Chuck: If you’re lucky. |
| Judith: Oh, there’s some real rules that you just have to remember. |
| Chuck: Are these all regular or is it mostly? |
| Judith: All regular but then you sometimes can’t tell what group a noun belongs to so you have to learn it. |
| Chuck: That’s why I recommend when you get a dictionary. It’s a good thing to check to see if it had plural forms as well. |
| Judith: Yeah, definitely. And of course the gender, but a lot of dictionaries do that. |
| Chuck: Yeah, I think every dictionary has the gender. |
| Judith: Now, the easiest German nouns are the ones that end in ER, EN or EL because they don’t change at all. You can only tell that they’re plural because they use the die article. For example, das Häppchen turns into die Häppchen. “The bit” or “the bits”. It’s also a word for “appetizer”. Another example, das Würstchen. |
| Chuck: The sausage. |
| Judith: die Würstchen. |
| Chuck: The sausages. |
| Judith: Or der Programmierer. |
| Chuck: The programmer. |
| Judith: Die Programmierer. |
| Chuck: The programmers. |
| Judith: Der Zettel. |
| Chuck: The note. |
| Judith: Die Zettel. |
| Chuck: The notes. |
| Judith: This is easy, really. ER is a very common ending for professions or nationalities or the like, and -chen is the diminutive ending so they’re even a lot of nouns that you can use in this easy fashion. And then most masculine or neutral nouns that end in some other consonant will add E for plural. For example, der Freund. |
| Chuck: The friend. |
| Judith: Die Freunde. |
| Chuck: The friends. |
| Judith: Der Film. |
| Chuck: The movie. |
| Judith: Die Filme. |
| Chuck: The movies. |
| Judith: Der Termin. |
| Chuck: The appointment. |
| Judith: Die Termine. |
| Chuck: The appointments. |
| Judith: Das Butterbrot. |
| Chuck: The sandwich. |
| Judith: Die Butterbrote. |
| Chuck: The sandwiches. |
| Judith: So that looks easy enough too. But a special case in this category are words that will add an E but will also add two dots above the vowel. This is usually the case when there’s only a single vowel in the word. |
| Chuck: Could you give me a couple of examples of that? |
| Judith: Sure. For example, der Bart. |
| Chuck: The beard. |
| Judith: Die Bärte. |
| Chuck: The beards. |
| Judith: Die Frucht. |
| Chuck: The fruit. |
| Judith: Die Früchte. |
| Chuck: The fruits. |
| Judith: I believe that Lena will be making a fruit salad. So now let’s hear the dialogue once again, and then we’re almost done with the lesson. |
| Sarah Wolter: Sarah Wolter. |
| Lena Wagner: Hi, Lena hier. |
| Sarah Wolter: Ah, Lena, schön von dir zu hören. |
| Lena Wagner: Wie geht es dir? |
| Sarah Wolter: Gut, danke. |
| Lena Wagner: Du, kennst du einen Michael Schmidt? |
| Sarah Wolter: Nein. |
| Lena Wolter: Er veranstaltet ein Picknick am Mittwoch. |
| Sarah Wolter: Und? |
| Lena Wagner: Ich weiß noch nicht, was ich mitbringen werde. |
| Sarah Wolter: Hmm. Butterbrote? |
| Lena Wagner: Butterbrote sind langweilig. |
| Sarah Wolter: Sushi Häppchen? |
| Lena Wagner: Zu ungewöhnlich. Ich weiß nicht, ob sie Sushi mögen. |
| Sarah Wolter: Würstchen, Salat? |
| Lena Wagner: Hmm. |
| Sarah Wolter: Früchte? |
| Lena Wagner: Ah, ich weiß es. Ich werde einen Fruchtsalat machen. |
| Sarah Wolter: Wie viele Freunde kommen denn? |
| Lena Wagner: Ich weiß nicht. |
Outro |
| Chuck: I'm not sure how many people listened to this lesson, but I hope it will be even more than the last lesson. |
| Judith: So far, we’ve really rapidly gained members. Thanks so much for your amazing feedback in the iTunes store, on the site itself, by email… |
| Chuck: Always give is more feedback. |
| Judith: Yeah, and write more glowing reviews. And tell your friends about GermanPod101 if you like it. |
| Chuck: Yeah, it’s pretty cool to always have something to listen to when you’re walking to work or in the car. |
| Judith: Always practicing some German… |
| Chuck: Always getting ready for that trip to Germany. |
| Judith: That’s right. |
| Chuck: Or for that cute German exchange student that’s coming to your town. You never know when you’ll have a chance to impress someone with your German, cause the reaction will probably be like, “Wait, are you really American?” |
| Judith: If you listen closely enough and imitated the accent well, then yeah. |
| Chuck: Then you can answer, “Yes, I am but I listen to GermanPod101.” I'm sure you all already do that. |
| Judith: Alright. |
| Chuck: I hope you enjoyed it and we’ll see you next week. |
| Judith: [Bis nächste Woche]. |
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