Learn about German numbers
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Chuck: This is Newbie Series Lesson 6. |
| Judith: [Willkommen zurück]! |
| Chuck: Welcome back! |
| Judith: It’s great to have you back for another Newbie lesson. |
| Chuck: I hope you like the lessons so far. It’s very important to us that you, our listeners, are happy with the podcasts. |
| Judith: If you have any suggestions on how we can improve, please post them in the forum. That’s also where you can discuss German and Germany with your fellow listeners, and you can request lessons on particular topics. |
| Chuck: Just click on the Forum button underneath the big GermanPod101 logo. And you don’t need to create a user account, just login with your regular GermanPod101 username and password. |
| Judith: I’d love to see you there. My username on the forum is [Sprachprofi], that means “language pro” in German. |
| Chuck: You’ll find me there as Chuck. I guess GermanPod’s the only place I could have registered that username, eh? |
| Judith: Yeah, I think Chuck Smith might also be hard to register like Yahoo or something. |
| Chuck: We’re talking about Chuck Smith. All of my fans can come follow me on Twitter. Twitter.com/ChuckSmith |
| Judith: I don’t think you should be promoting your private Twitter there. Aren’t you supposed to be promoting GermanPod? |
| Chuck: I guess… Do you want to tell them the address then? |
| Judith: Yeah, GermanPod’s Twitter is Twitter.com/GermanPod101 |
| Chuck: Right. And there you can always see the links to the new podcasts. So what are we going to learn today? |
| Judith: Today we’re going to learn German numbers. Just the basic ones right now, from 0 to 9, enough to get somebody’s phone number. |
| Chuck: That sounds useful. Means I could get the phone numbers of some cute girls that listen to this podcast. |
| Judith: I'm not sure if you could get the phone numbers, but if they happen to tell your theirs, then you can at least understand them. |
| Chuck: That sounds reasonable. So let’s get started with the dialogue. I’ll be Michael and Judith will be Lena. |
| Judith: Remember from the last lesson, Lena has to leave for her appointment, but Michael was so far unable to set up a next date. |
| Chuck: And well I never have that problem. |
| Judith: Do you now? I don’t believe that. |
| DIALOGUE |
| Michael Schmidt: Lena, hast du ein Handy? |
| Lena Wagner: Ja. |
| Michael Schmidt: Lass uns Telefonnummern austauschen. |
| Lena Wagner: Na gut. Meine Telefonnummer ist 0123 746859. |
| Michael Schmidt: Danke. Meine Telefonnummer ist 0145 298477. |
| Lena Wagner: Gut. Tschüß. |
| Michael Schmidt: Bis dann. |
| Judith: Now read slowly. |
| Michael Schmidt: Lena, hast du ein Handy? |
| Lena Wagner: Ja. |
| Michael Schmidt: Lass uns Telefonnummern austauschen. |
| Lena Wagner: Na gut. Meine Telefonnummer ist 0123 746859. |
| Michael Schmidt: Danke. Meine Telefonnummer ist 0145 298477. |
| Lena Wagner: Gut. Tschüß. |
| Michael Schmidt: Bis dann. |
| Judith: Now I will read the complete dialogue and Chuck will translate. |
| Judith: Lena, hast du ein Handy? |
| Chuck: “Lena, do you have a cell phone?” |
| Judith: Ja. |
| Chuck: “Yes.” |
| Judith: Lass uns Telefonnummern austauschen. |
| Chuck: “Let’s exchange telephone numbers.” |
| Judith: Na gut. |
| Chuck: “Umm...Okay.” |
| Judith: Meine Telefonnummer ist. |
| Chuck: “My telephone number is” |
| Judith: 0123 |
| Chuck: “0, 1, 2, 3,” |
| Judith: 746859 |
| Chuck: “7, 4, 6, 8, 5, 9.” |
| Judith: Danke. |
| Chuck: “Thanks.” |
| Judith: Meine Telefonnummer ist |
| Chuck: “My phone number is” |
| Judith: 0145 |
| Chuck: “0, 1, 4, 5,” |
| Judith: 298477 |
| Chuck: “2, 9, 8, 4, 7, 7.” |
| Judith: Gut. Tschüß. |
| Chuck: “Good. Bye!” |
| Judith: Bis dann. |
| Chuck: “Until then.” |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Chuck: That was a weird phone number she gave me. Are you sure it’s not bogus? |
| Judith: Of course the phone numbers we used are bogus. Don’t try calling them. However, they look like normal German phone number. |
| Chuck: But they don’t look like normal American phone numbers. |
| Judith: Well, for Germany they’re definitely normal. German phone numbers typically consist of four or five digits as an area code, and then if you write them you put a slash or a dash or something, and the actual phone number can be any length depending on the population of the area. |
| Chuck: If you’re calling someone from the same area, you don’t need to dial the area code. |
| Judith: So if you live in [Kamp Lintfort] for example, that’s my hometown with approximately 60,000 people, you just dial a phone number that’s between three and seven digits without an area code, but the actual length, whether it’s three or seven or anything between, just depends on whose phone number it is. I think the people who’ve got their phone first have the really short ones. |
| Chuck: What happens actually is the larger cities in Germany have shorter area codes but longer numbers because more people live there, whereas the small towns may have like a five-digit number for the area code but then only three digits if there is less than 1,000 people who live there, for example. |
| Judith: Yeah. Actually Berlin only has a three-digit area code. It’s 030, it’s actually a two-digit area code because the area code always starts with a zero to distinguish local calls from nationwide. |
| Chuck: And I believe one of my friends lived in such a small town that he had five digits in his area code. I don’t remember now if it’s four or five. |
| Judith: Probably five. Kamp Lintfort has five. |
| Chuck: Ok. But I remember the number was only three digits and I thought that was quite strange. |
| Judith: Well, that’s German phone numbers. So the zero in the area code tells the phone that you’re not dialing a local number and when you’re dialing international, you even have to dial two zeros before the country code. After the country code you can leave out the zero for the area code because it’s already clear that you’re not making a local call. |
| Chuck: It’s a bit confusing but you’ll pick it up. |
| Judith: German area codes are quite convenient because you can identify what part of the country and city somebody’s from. The first digit after the zero indicates the general region. For example, 02 is for Western Germany and 03 is for Eastern Germany, 04 is for Northern Germany and so on. |
| Chuck: It was also quite useful when I was staying with Judith at her place, with her family, because when they saw a number that started with a certain number, they knew that was people from my area, in the South. |
| Judith: Yes, it was 07 from [Baden-Württemberg]. |
| Chuck: Another thing that’s interesting to notice about Germany and Europe in general is that it costs more to call cellphones. So you notice if the number starts with 01, you’re calling a cellphone. However, on the other side, there’s no charge for receiving phone calls like in the states. |
| Judith: Unless you’re outside of Germany, the roaming tariff is really high. Now, there is a special so-called area code or number that you dial that you dial before the actual number. That is 0190. It’s not a cellphone, despite the 01, but it’s [Toll] calls, really expensive ones. There’s one number that you should definitely commit to memory before you come to Germany or even before you come to Austria or Switzerland because it’s the same there. That number is 112. Without an area code, this will connect you to the local emergency response. For example, fire fighters and the ambulance. In Germany there’s a special number for the police additionally, which is 110, not 112 but 110 if you want the police only. And in Austria and Switzerland 112 is good for both. |
| Chuck: You’ll notice that 112 was probably chosen because it was one of the quickest numbers to dial on a rotary phone. |
| Judith: So it’s equivalent of 911 in the States. You will notice that you can call 112 from just about any phone. I mean from the phones on the [Autobahn] if you have an emergency there, you have an accident or something on the side of the [Autobahn] you will see these phones where you can dial 112 free of charge. And you can also dial it from cellphones. Even locked cellphones, if somebody gives you a cellphone and you don’t know the pin, you can still dial. And even from cellphones you don’t need an area code. |
| Chuck: And I was wondering, did you notice that strange word for cellphone? |
| Judith: It’s [Handy]. That’s from English, no? |
| Chuck: We don’t say “handy” there, but I guess they are handy to have around. |
| Judith: Well every German is convinced that [Handy] must be an English word, cause it’s not German. |
| Chuck: Well, the other thing that I find interesting is the German word for [Fußball], that table soccer game. |
| Judith: [Fußball] simply means “soccer”. |
| Chuck: So if you want to refer to the table soccer game, it’s actually kicker. |
| Judith: It’s amazing the kind of words that we have here that we believe are English. I think we should get back to work, Chuck. Let’s look at the vocabulary. |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Judith: The first word, as you’ve already mentioned, is the word for cellphone, which is Handy, Handy. Give it a accented English version of the English pronunciation. |
| Chuck: But don’t call it Handy because people then think you’re funny. |
| Judith: The next phrase is Lass uns. |
| Chuck: Let’s. |
| Judith: Lass uns. |
| Chuck: Let’s. |
| Judith: Lass means “let” and uns means “us” so it’s the same as in English. Now another really important word is Telefonnummer. |
| Chuck: I bet you can never get this one. It’s “phone number”. |
| Judith: Except in German it’s one word, Telefonnummer. |
| Chuck: Yeah, cause they like long words in German. |
| Judith: I’ll break it down for you. [Telefonnummer], Telefonnummer, now the next word is austauschen. |
| Chuck: To exchange. |
| Judith: austauschen. austauschen. |
| Chuck: To exchange. |
| Judith: Again, I break it down. [Austauschen], austauschen Now the next important word is mein. |
| Chuck: My. |
| Judith: mein. mein. |
| Chuck: My. |
| Judith: This is a possessive pronoun for those of you who are into grammar, but if you’re not into grammar you can just forget that classification and just learn the word, [Mein]. |
| Chuck: My. |
| Judith: And finally we have Bis dann. |
| Chuck: See you then. |
| Judith: Bis dann. |
| Chuck: “See you then.” This literally means “Till then”. |
Lesson focus |
|---|
| Judith: Now, on this lesson about phone numbers you also need to know the numbers from zero to nine and you need to know them in your sleep. |
| Chuck: If you want to call people when you’re in Germany, it will be very useful to learn these. |
| Judith: So today, instead of studying a grammar point, we will be learning numbers. I’ll tell you the numbers first. |
| Judith: Null. |
| Chuck: 0 |
| Judith: Eins. |
| Chuck: 1 |
| Judith: Zwei. |
| Chuck: 2 |
| Judith: Zwei is also pronounced Zwo on the telephone to prevent confusion with Drei, which is the next number. |
| Chuck: You might also notice this if you’re at a train station, they tell you what track your train is on. |
| Judith: Next is Drei. |
| Chuck: 3 |
| Judith: Vier. |
| Chuck: 4 |
| Judith: Fünf. |
| Chuck: 5 |
| Judith: Sechs. |
| Chuck: 6 |
| Judith: Sieben. |
| Chuck: 7 |
| Judith: Acht. |
| Chuck: 8 |
| Judith: Neun. |
| Chuck: 9 |
| Judith: So now you really need to practice these numbers. How about we do some counting? We’ll start with zero just for learning purposes. Null Eins Zwei Drei Vier Fünf Sechs Sieben Acht Neun. |
| Chuck: Null Eins Zwei Drei Vier Fünf Sechs Sieben Acht Neun. |
| Judith: Now that sounds kind of boring like this, but we want you to participate so how would we spice it up a bit? Chuck, can you think of a nicer way to do these counting’s? |
| Chuck: I can think of one song I know where they say it more like [Eins, Zwei, Drei, Vier, Fünf, Sechs, Sieben, Acht, Neun]. |
| Judith: Could that be the song that’s at the beginning of every single lesson that’s part of our jingle? |
| Chuck: I think I might have heard that already today. |
| Judith: When I was in China, what really helped me pick up some Chinese numbers was my Tai-chi instructor. She always counted our moves in Chinese. And this really helped me so I can say them in my sleep, you know, like 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10 (in Chinese) It’s like the rhythm that just came with the Tai-chi. So let’s try that for German. Eins Zwei Drei Vier Fünf Sechs Sieben Acht. You will really need more practice with these numbers. So after the lesson, count in German when you’re doing sports exercises that require counting, for example dancing or gymnastics or Tai-Chi, why not? |
| Chuck: And when you’re walking down the street and you see numbers on different buildings you can think of what they are in German. |
| Judith: And read out all the phone numbers in your cellphone in German. You can also ask yourself easy math questions or you can go to the Learning Center and you can use the Review Track. In the Review Track we will ask you to translate the numbers in random order. You need to hear these numbers so often that you can remember them any time. But for now let’s just practice by listening to the dialogue once again. |
| Chuck: Pause the podcast and grab a pen and a piece of paper now if you can. Try to write down Michael and Lena’s numbers. Once you’re done, compare what you get to the actual numbers. |
| Judith: You can find them in the PDF or in this lesson’s comments. |
| Chuck: You can also listen to the dialogue track later and do it then. |
| Judith: Alright. Let’s start with the dialogue. |
| Michael Schmidt: Lena, hast du ein Handy? |
| Lena Wagner: Ja. |
| Michael Schmidt: Lass uns Telefonnummern austauschen. |
| Lena Wagner: Na gut. Meine Telefonnummer ist 0123 746859. |
| Michael Schmidt: Danke. Meine Telefonnummer ist 0145 298477. |
| Lena Wagner: Gut. Tschüß. |
| Michael Schmidt: Bis dann. |
Outro |
| Judith: I hope you got everything. |
| Chuck: Let us know in the lesson’s comments on GermanPod101.com. |
| Judith: Thanks for listening. |
| Chuck: Hope to see you again next time. |
| Judith: [Bis bald]. |
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