Learn how to tell the time
Now Playing: Lesson Audio
Get a breakdown of the dialogue and translations instantly with the Premium line-by-line Audio. Sign up for your Free Lifetime Account Now and get 7 Days of Premium Access including this feature.
Get this lesson’s key vocab, their translations and pronunciations. Sign up for your Free Lifetime Account Now and get 7 Days of Premium Access including this feature.
Unlock Lesson Notes and Transcripts for every single lesson. Sign Up for a Free Lifetime Account and Get 7 Days of Premium Access.
| INTRODUCTION |
| Chuck: This is Newbie Series Lesson 9. |
| Judith: [Willkomen zurück]. |
| Chuck: Welcome back. |
| Judith: Guess what? |
| Chuck: What? |
| Judith: It’s Tuesday. |
| Chuck: Ok and… |
| Judith: Time for another Newbie lesson. |
| Chuck: Ah. But wait, it’s really nice here. I think I want to go outside and sit down at a café. |
| Judith: I'm afraid that will have to wait, but if you’re lucky you can convince Lena to join you for a later lesson in the café. Then you could go there during work hours even. |
| Chuck: Alright, that sounds like something worth waiting for. So let me try to convince her. If I remember correctly, she didn’t want to go to the cinema but she didn’t seem opposed to the [Café Antabli]. |
| Judith: Let’s hear that again. |
| Michael Schmidt: Hmm. Wieso hast du keine Lust auf Kino? |
| Lena Wagner: Es ist zu teuer und draußen ist es so schön. |
| Michael Schmidt: Dann lass uns in ein Café gehen. Kennst du das Café Antabli? |
| Lena Wagner: Nein. Das kenne ich noch nicht. |
| Michael Schmidt: Es ist cool. Die Cocktails dort sind sehr lecker und nicht teuer. |
| Judith: Now onto the new dialogue. |
| DIALOGUE |
| Michael Schmidt: Gehst du mit mir morgen ins Café Antabli? |
| Lena Wagner: Okay. |
| Michael Schmidt: Wann hast du Zeit? Ist vier Uhr gut? |
| Lena Wagner: 16 Uhr ist zu früh. Dann arbeite ich noch. |
| Michael Schmidt: Wie spät möchtest du dich treffen? |
| Lena Wagner: 18 Uhr ist besser. |
| Judith: Now read slowly. |
| Michael Schmidt: Gehst du mit mir morgen ins Café Antabli? |
| Lena Wagner: Okay. |
| Michael Schmidt: Wann hast du Zeit? Ist vier Uhr gut? |
| Lena Wagner: 16 Uhr ist zu früh. Dann arbeite ich noch. |
| Michael Schmidt: Wie spät möchtest du dich treffen? |
| Lena Wagner: 18 Uhr ist besser. |
| Judith: Now with the translation. |
| Judith: Gehst du morgen mit mir ins Café Antabli? |
| Chuck: “Are you going with me tomorrow to Café Antabli?” |
| Judith: Okay. |
| Chuck: “Okay.” |
| Judith: Wann hast du Zeit? |
| Chuck: “When do you have time?” |
| Judith: Ist 4 Uhr gut? |
| Chuck: “Is 4 o’clock good?” |
| Judith: 16 Uhr ist zu früh. |
| Chuck: “4 p.m. is too early.” |
| Judith: Dann arbeite ich noch. |
| Chuck: “Then I’m still working.” |
| Judith: Wie spät möchtest du dich treffen? |
| Chuck: “How late would you like to meet?” |
| Judith: 18 Uhr ist besser. |
| Chuck: “6 PM is better.” |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Chuck: Wow, today’s dialogue actually sounds really useful. So we’re going to learn how to set up a date with a hot German girl? |
| Judith: That’s right. Though these phrases will come in just as handy if you’re setting up an important appointment with a business partner and a doctor, or a group of friends, or anybody really. |
| Chuck: I like where this series is going. How about we go with the vocabulary now? |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Judith: Ok. First word is mit. |
| Chuck: With. |
| Judith: mit. |
| Chuck: With. |
| Judith: mit mir. |
| Chuck: With me. |
| Judith: mit mir. |
| Chuck: With me. |
| Judith: This is an extremely important word if you want to get somebody to do something with you. Next word is besser. |
| Chuck: Better. |
| Judith: besser. |
| Chuck: Better. |
| Judith: besser. |
| Chuck: Better. |
| Judith: Next, wann. |
| Chuck: When. |
| Judith: wann. |
| Chuck: When. |
| Judith: And another question word, wie. |
| Chuck: How. |
| Judith: wie. |
| Chuck: How. |
| Judith: wie. |
| Chuck: How. |
| Judith: Next, spät. |
| Chuck: Late. |
| Judith: spät. |
| Chuck: Late. |
| Judith: This combines with wie to make wie spät. |
| Chuck: “How late?” |
| Judith: Wie spät? |
| Chuck: “How late?” |
| Judith: Which is another way of saying “when.” The opposite of spät is früh. |
| Chuck: “Early.” |
| Judith: Früh |
| Chuck: Early |
| Judith: And finally, Uhr. |
| Chuck: “Clock,” or “o’clock.” |
| Judith: Uhr. |
| Chuck: “Clock” or “o’clock”. |
Lesson focus |
|---|
| Chuck: And this puts us right at the center of the lesson, talking about time in German, at least enough to make an appointment. We’re all going to need the numbers we learned in Newbie lesson 6 and then some. If right now you can’t count to nine in German, you probably need to redo some of the exercises from Newbie lesson 6. |
| Judith: Now, you are missing three really essential numbers to even start talking about the times. |
| Chuck: 10, 11 and 12. |
| Judith: That is, zehn, elf and zwölf in German. Zehn. |
| Chuck: 10. |
| Judith: Zehn. |
| Chuck: 10. |
| Judith: Elf |
| Chuck: 11. |
| Judith: Elf |
| Chuck: 11. |
| Judith: Zwölf |
| Chuck: 12. |
| Judith: Zwölf |
| Chuck: 12. So you notice that after 10, an elf comes along to help you. |
| Judith: Really, the numbers are very, very close to the English. You can see that German is from the same language family as English. Now let’s count all the way to 12 in German, of course. Eins. |
| Chuck: Zwei. |
| Judith: Drei. |
| Chuck: Vier. |
| Judith: Fünf. |
| Chuck: Sechs. |
| Judith: Sieben. |
| Chuck: Acht. |
| Judith: Neun. |
| Chuck: Zehn. |
| Judith: Elf. |
| Chuck: Zwölf. |
| Judith: Alright. Now, the new word Uhr is used to indicate a full hour. For example, acht Uhr. |
| Chuck: “8 o’clock” |
| Judith: zwölf Uhr |
| Chuck: “12 o’clock” |
| Judith: sechs Uhr |
| Chuck: “6 o’clock” |
| Judith: The German equivalent of 9.30 is halb zehn. And yes, you heard correctly, the word zehn... |
| Chuck: 10. |
| Judith: Is in there. In German you always say the hour that comes afterwards. So to say “half past ten”, you actually say “half to ten”, but it’s a half hour before 10. Halb zehn. “Half ten,” meaning “half past nine.” Let’s have a couple of examples to practice this. Halb acht. |
| Chuck: 7.30 |
| Judith: Halb zwölf. |
| Chuck: 11.30 |
| Judith: Halb fünf |
| Chuck: 4.30 |
| Judith: Halb elf |
| Chuck: 10.30 |
| Judith: Halb sieben |
| Chuck: 6.30 |
| Judith: Alright. |
| Chuck: Also note that you can say “quarter past”. |
| Judith: Viertel nach |
| Chuck: Or “a quarter to” |
| Judith: Viertel vor. This is the exact equivalent of the English. “Quarter” meaning Viertel and “past” is nach. Okay, a couple of examples with that. Viertel nach neun. |
| Chuck: “A quarter past nine” |
| Judith: Viertel vor zehn. |
| Chuck: “A quarter to ten” |
| Judith: Viertel nach sieben. |
| Chuck: “A quarter past seven” |
| Judith: Viertel nach vier. |
| Chuck: “A quarter past four” |
| Judith: Viertel vor elf. |
| Chuck: “A quarter to eleven” |
| Judith: Not that hard, is it? You can also simply say a number and nach. That would be, for example, fünf nach neun, 9.05. And same with vor, fünf vor neun, 8.55. Let’s have an exercise with that as well. Acht nach zehn. |
| Chuck: 10.08 |
| Judith: Fünf vor zwölf |
| Chuck: 11.55 |
| Judith: Sechs nach sieben. |
| Chuck: 7.06 |
| Judith: Zehn vor vier |
| Chuck: 3.50 |
| Judith: Fünf nach halb neun. That’s a hard one, isn’t it? |
| Chuck: Yeah. |
| Judith: It’s literally means “five half past nine” which means five past 8.30, 8.35. |
| Chuck: Those Germans and their crazy engineering minds. |
| Judith: It’s the only occasion where you’ll see it. It’s five past a half hour. |
| Chuck: At least it’s not as bad as French numbers. |
| Judith: Definitely. |
| Chuck: So if I'm setting up a date, for example, with this girl and we say we’re going to meet at 8, it’s pretty important to know if we’re going to meet 8 AM or 8 PM. So one thing you can do when you’re setting a date is you can say morgens or nachmittags, for the “morning” or “afternoon,” or you can say abends or nachts for the “evening” or the “night.” A lot of Germans just simplify things and refer to the 24-hour clock. Just pretty standard here. You need to know more numbers than just up to 12. This is also very important when you’re taking the train or flying, for example, because all their numbers are with the 24-hour clock. |
| Judith: Okay. So, let’s do it with the numbers between thirteen and nineteen. For these, it’s really easy. You just take the normal number and add zehn. |
| Chuck: The equivalent of the English “teen.” |
| Judith: So, that would be dreizehn. |
| Chuck: “Thirteen” |
| Judith: Vierzehn |
| Chuck: “Fourteen” |
| Judith: Fünfzehn |
| Chuck: “Fifteen” |
| Judith: Sechzehn |
| Chuck: “Sixteen” |
| Judith: Siebzehn |
| Chuck: “Seventeen” |
| Judith: Achtzehn |
| Chuck: “Eighteen” |
| Judith: Neunzehn |
| Chuck: “Nineteen” |
| Judith: Then comes Zwanzig. |
| Chuck: “Twenty” |
| Judith: And past twenty, everything is completely regular. You always say the number and add und zwanzig. |
| Chuck: But they have to reverse the numbers just to confuse us. |
| Judith: It’s not confusing because you used to do it the same in English. For example, I remember reading in Jane Austen, I think it was Elizabeth who said, “I am not 1 and 20”. |
| Chuck: That’s why they changed it, to make it better. |
| Judith: I don’t think so. Anyway, you can see that it’s a relic of the old language that has survived in German and hasn’t survived in English. So you have to say 1 and 20, 2 and 20, 3 and 20 in German, Einundzwanzig, zweiundzwanzig, dreiundzwanzig and so on. |
| Chuck: And be very careful, so when you take someone’s telephone number that they’re not switching digits on you. |
| Judith: Yes. That’s why I prefer to give my telephone number using single digits only. Anyway, all numbers from then on follow this pattern. You should really practice these numbers and practice converting 12-hour to 24-hour clock. Your date may depend on it. |
| Chuck: Yeah. Once I even had a friend. She booked a flight for 6 o’clock and she didn’t notice that that was 6 in the morning, so this can be pretty important. But now that we’re talking about times, what German greetings should be used when? |
| Judith: Well, in the morning you obviously use Guten Morgen. |
| Chuck: Good morning. |
| Judith: About zehn. |
| Chuck: 10. |
| Judith: Or elf Uhr. |
| Chuck: 11 o’clock. |
| Judith: Start using Guten Tag. This can be used for the rest of the day. And at about sieben. |
| Chuck: 7. |
| Judith: Or acht Uhr. |
| Chuck: 8 o’clock. |
| Judith: In the evening, it’s recommended to switch over to Guten Abend. |
| Chuck: Good evening. |
| Judith: These changes also reflect German eating habits. There has recently been a survey in magazine [Stern]. |
| Chuck: Which means “star”. |
| Judith: About the average German day. Typically Germans get up at [Halb sechs]. |
| Chuck: 5.30. |
| Judith: And they have breakfast typically [Vor acht Uhr]. |
| Chuck: Before 8 o’clock. |
| Judith: Then lunch comes at [Zwölf Uhr]. |
| Chuck: 12 o’clock. |
| Judith: And it’s an institution. Very few Germans eat considerably later. |
| Chuck: Yeah, one thing that really bugs me here is that when you go to some offices you find that you go there on your lunch break and you realize they’re also on their lunch break. A lot of shops close at 1 or 2 o’clock. |
| Judith: Well, [rotate] staff around lunch time. Most of the employees had their meal by [Dreizehn Uhr] or [Vierzehn Uhr]. |
| Chuck: 1 or 2 PM. |
| Judith: And there’s less staff in stores or they may even close down. So if stores don’t close down around lunch time, there will at least be less staff. But also there are less customers since everybody’s eating at around that time. The next meal is not really meal, it’s more like a snack. It’s [Kaffee]. |
| Chuck: Coffee or tea time. |
| Judith: It’s around [Sechzehn Uhr, also vier Uhr nachmittags]. |
| Chuck: So 4 in the afternoon. |
| Judith: And people just enjoy coffee and good German cake or they just talk. |
| Chuck: Or they might have tea. |
| Judith: Maybe. Coffee is more common though. And finally, the last German meal is supper. It’s not much later than [Achtzehn Uhr, also sechs Uhr abends]. |
| Chuck: 6 PM. |
| Judith: Now I believe that Michael and Lena was also planning to meet at exactly 6. Let’s listen to that again. |
| Michael Schmidt: Gehst du mit mir morgen ins Café Antabli? |
| Lena Wagner: Okay. |
| Michael Schmidt: Wann hast du Zeit? Ist vier Uhr gut? |
| Lena Wagner: 16 Uhr ist zu früh. Dann arbeite ich noch. |
| Michael Schmidt: Wie spät möchtest du dich treffen? |
| Lena Wagner: 18 Uhr ist besser. |
Outro |
| Chuck: So our lessons are always released at 18.30 server time, that means that Asians will get them in the evening, Europeans get them around noon and Americans will get them in the early morning. |
| Judith: If you’re in America and have insomnia, you could go to GermanPod101.com and look for the next lesson. |
| Chuck: Or as a European, you can do that while you’re at work. |
| Judith: Probably rather in your lunch break. Actually, quite a lot of our listeners indicate that they are listening to the lessons at work or on their home computer. I find it amazing. I would have thought that a lot more people put the lessons on their MP3 player and listen to them while walking somewhere or maybe while sitting outside. I'm definitely going to do that with the ArabicPod101 lessons in the summer. |
| Chuck: And know you’re not limited to an iPod. If you have a different MP3 player, you can also put podcasts on there too. With the right feed reader, you could even get the new lessons as soon as they’re out. |
| Judith: Whichever way you receive us, please remember to join us for the next Newbie lesson. |
| Chuck: See you next Tuesday. |
| Judith: [Bis nächsten Dienstag]. |
Comments
Hide