Learn about the accusative case
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Chuck: Chuck here. Upper Beginner Season 1, Lesson #12. How Could You Miss This in German? Hello and welcome to germanpod101.com, the fastest, easiest and most fun way to learn German. |
| Judith: I am Judith and thanks again for being here with us for this Upper Beginner season 1 lesson. |
| Chuck: In this lesson, you will learn about the accusative. |
| Judith: This conversation takes place in front of the city hall in Munich. |
| Chuck: The conversation is between Joe and a German passerby. |
| Judith: The speakers don’t know each other. Therefore they will be speaking formal German. |
| Chuck: Let’s listen to the conversation. |
| DIALOGUE |
| Joe: Entschuldigen Sie…. |
| Frau: Ja? |
| Joe: Können Sie mir sagen, wo das Rathaus ist? |
| Frau: Äh, Sie stehen genau davor. |
| Joe: Wirklich? |
| Frau: Ja, das große Haus dort ist das Rathaus…. |
| Joe: Ooooh….Das ist aber groß…. |
| Frau: Ja, es hat 400 Zimmer und ist 85 Meter hoch und 100 Meter lang… |
| Joe: Wow….Durch den Turm sieht es sehr hoch aus! |
| Frau: Das stimmt. Ohne den Turm ist es auch nicht ganz so hoch… Oh, Sie müssen unbedingt auf das Glockenspiel im Turm warten! Es fängt in 10 Minuten an. |
| Joe: Welches Glockenspiel? |
| Frau: Das Rathaus ist berühmt für das Glockenspiel. |
| Joe: Ach ja, stimmt. Das gucke ich natürlich an! Sagen Sie, wieso wissen Sie so viel über das Rathaus? |
| Frau: Ich arbeite als Stadtführerin! |
| Joe: Haha, das ist ja toll. Ich gehe später in den Olympiapark. Können Sie mir sagen, was ich dort unbedingt sehen muss? |
| Frau: Sie müssen unbedingt auf den Olympiaturm gehen. Dort haben Sie eine tolle Aussicht auf München. Sie können dort viele Sehenswürdigkeiten sehen. Das ist wirklich toll. |
| Joe: Oh, gut. Dann mache ich das. |
| Frau: Ah, schauen Sie, das Glockenspiel fängt an! |
| Joe: Excuse me... |
| Woman: Yes? |
| Joe: Could you tell me where the city hall is? |
| Woman: Oh, you're standing right in front of it. |
| Joe: Really? |
| Woman: Yes, that big building there is the city hall. |
| Joe: Ohhhh...it's actually pretty big... |
| Woman: Yes, it has 400 rooms, is 85 meters high and 100 meters long. |
| Joe: Wow...the tower makes it look really tall! |
| Woman: That's right. Without the tower it's not so tall...Oh, you really have to wait for the tower bell to ring. It'll start in 10 minutes. |
| Joe: Which tower bell? |
| Woman: The city hall is famous for the tower bell. |
| Joe: Oh, that's right. Of course I'll take a look. So, why do you know so much about the city hall? |
| Woman: I work as a city tour guide! |
| Joe: Haha, that's great. I'm going to the Olympic Park later. Could you tell me what I really should see while I'm there? |
| Woman: You should definitely go to the Olympic Tower. There they have a great view of Munich. You can see lots of important sights from there. It's quite nice. |
| Joe: Oh, good. I'll do that. |
| Woman: Ah, take a look. The tower bell is starting! |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Judith: Okay so let’s talk about Munich sites. |
| Chuck: All right. |
| Judith: Apart from the Rathaus of course. |
| Chuck: Well Munich is best known for being the city that Berliners like to make fun of. |
| Judith: No I think it’s best known for the Oktoberfest. |
| Chuck: Okay. |
| Judith: But that’s only part of the year. It starts in September actually. If you happen to be in Munich at a different time of the year, you probably still want to try some of the excellent beer. Visit a brewery, have them explain the process of making beer to you and then have some of their fresh beer. |
| Chuck: And you know if Judith is recommending this, you better do it and I’d have to agree that fresh beer is the best. Beer only gets worse when you transport it. That’s why a lot of German cities have their own breweries and while most beer in pubs is local beer rather than any big brands. |
| Judith: Apart from breweries and the city hall which is also worth a visit, you might like to explore Munich’s many museums. For example, the Pinakotheken, three really impressive art museums. |
| Chuck: Or the National Bavarian Museum which has a lot of historic artifacts. There are also number of palaces in and around Munich. |
| Judith: Then if you want to relax after sightseeing, try the English garden. |
| Chuck: And have another beer. The more beer you drink, the more you will feel like someone from Munich. |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Chuck: Let’s take a look at the vocabulary for this lesson. The first word is |
| Judith: Meter. |
| Chuck: Meter or Meters. |
| Judith: Meter. Meter. Der Meter and there is no plural. |
| Chuck: Next |
| Judith: Hoch. |
| Chuck: High. |
| Judith: Hoch. Hoch. |
| Chuck: Next |
| Judith: Lang. |
| Chuck: Long or long time. |
| Judith: Lang. Lang. |
| Chuck: Next |
| Judith: Durch. |
| Chuck: Through or because of |
| Judith: Durch. Durch. |
| Chuck: Next |
| Judith: Aussehen. |
| Chuck: To look or have the appearance. |
| Judith: Aussehen. Aussehen. And this is a vowel changing verb and a verb with a separable prefix. So the form is Er sieht aus. |
| Chuck: Next |
| Judith: Ohne. |
| Chuck: Without |
| Judith: Ohne. Ohne. |
| Chuck: Next |
| Judith: Unbedingt. |
| Chuck: Absolute, unconditional or absolutely. |
| Judith: Unbedingt. Unbedingt. |
| Chuck: Next |
| Judith: Berühmt. |
| Chuck: Famous. |
| Judith: Berühmt. Berühmt. |
| Chuck: Next |
| Judith: Angucken. |
| Chuck: To watch or look at. |
| Judith: Angucken. Angucken. The an splits off. |
| Chuck: Next |
| Judith: Wieso. |
| Chuck: Why. |
| Judith: Wieso. Wieso. |
| Chuck: Next |
| Judith: Führer or Führerin. |
| Chuck: Leader or guide. |
| Judith: Führerin. Führer. Führerin. |
| Chuck: Next |
| Judith: Aussicht. |
| Chuck: View. |
| Judith: Aussicht. Aussicht. Die Aussicht and the plural is Aussichten. |
| 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: The first word I want to have a look at is davor. |
| Chuck: In front of that. |
| Judith: Vor is in front of and davor works just like dafür or davon, which we’ve already looked at. The da means that. So davor in front of that and the other thing is Stadtführerin. |
| Chuck: It could be translated as city leader but you need the second meaning here city guide. |
| Judith: Yes Führer can also be a guide. |
| Chuck: Stadtführerin means city guide and the in ending tells us it’s a woman. Lot of words for professions or nationalities can be made feminine by adding in. |
Lesson focus |
|---|
| Judith: Okay time for some grammar. Since we looked at dative prepositions in the last lesson, let’s have a look at some accusative prepositions in this one. |
| Chuck: First you need to know the accusative articles. This is easy. For feminine and neuter words, the article remains exactly the same. |
| Judith: So the accusative of die Frau is still die Frau and the accusative of das Kind is still das Kind. Same in plural, die Frauen and die Kinder don’t change. |
| Chuck: So how do you know that something after a preposition is accusative and not nominative? |
| Judith: Well it has to be accusative because there are no prepositions that take the nominative, that is the base form of a noun. If you see something after a preposition that looks like nominative, it has to be accusative. |
| Chuck: Since feminine and neuter words don’t change, this really simplifies things because we only have to worry about masculine words. |
| Judith: For masculine words, the accusative case is den. Den has an N at the end unlike the dative dem which has a M ending. |
| Chuck: Actually people tend to slur these endings a lot. So if you confuse dative and accusative, it may not even be noticed. |
| Judith: Anyway the accusative article is den with an N and in the plural, it’s still den. |
| Chuck: Could you give us some examples like maybe from the dialogue. |
| Judith: Of course. We saw ohne den Turm. |
| Chuck: Without the tower. |
| Judith: Über das Rathaus. |
| Chuck: About city hall or above city hall. |
| Judith: Durch den Turm. |
| Chuck: Through the tower or because of the tower. |
| Judith: Auf den Olympiaturm. |
| Chuck: On to the Olympic tower. |
| Judith: In den Olympiapark. |
| Chuck: Into the Olympic park. Think about this last example some more. Here we translated in as into. Why was that? |
| Judith: It’s because it’s followed by an accusative. |
| Chuck: Of course. |
| Judith: Some prepositions can take either dative or accusative and then they use accusative when talking about a direction rather than a location. For example, we had Im Olympiapark. |
| Chuck: In the Olympic park. |
| Judith: And now In den Olympiapark. |
| Chuck: Into the Olympic park. |
| Judith: Yeah in im you noticed the M for dative. So it’s the location in the Olympic park and In den Olympiapark, you noticed the den for accusative, into the Olympic park. The accusative is for direction and similarly it works for auf, auf is on or on to. Auf dem Olympiaturm. |
| Chuck: On the Olympic tower. |
| Judith: And Auf den Olympiaturm. |
| Chuck: Onto the Olympic tower. |
Outro |
| Chuck: That just about does it for today. Remember, you can leave us a comment on this lesson. |
| Judith: So if you have a question or some feedback, please leave us a comment. |
| Chuck: It’s very easy to do. Just stop by germanpod101 |
| Judith: Click on comments |
| Chuck: Enter your name and comment |
| Judith: And that’s it. |
| Chuck: No excuses. We are looking forward to hearing from you. So see you next week. |
| Judith: Also, bis nächste Woche! |
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