Learn about German reflexive verbs and the differences in German bathrooms
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Chuck: Chuck here, Upper-Beginner Season 2, Lesson 9 - Coming late to the German party. |
| Judith: Hi, my name is Judith and I am joined here by Chuck. |
| Chuck: Hello everyone and welcome back to GermanPod101.com. |
| Judith: What are we learning today? |
| Chuck: In this lesson, you’ll learn to talk about hygiene and things you do every day. |
| Judith: This conversation takes place at the Schneider family home. |
| Chuck: The conversation is between Mrs. Schneider and Paul Martens. |
| Judith: The speakers are adults, therefore they’ll be speaking formal German. |
| Chuck: Let’s listen to the conversation. |
| DIALOGUE |
| Paul Martens: Ich muss um drei Uhr zu Chucks Geburtstagsfeier. Sie ist in Friedrichshain. Können Sie mich dorthin bringen, oder soll ich mit dem Bus fahren? |
| Frau Schneider: Kein Problem, ich bringe Sie dorthin. Geben Sie einfach Bescheid, wenn Sie bereit sind. |
| Paul Martens: Vielen Dank! Ich muss mich noch duschen, danach können wir fahren. |
| ... |
| Frau Schneider: Herr Martens? Sind Sie gleich fertig? |
| Paul Martens: Ich wasche mir gerade die Haare. |
| Frau Schneider: Beeilen Sie sich. |
| ... |
| Frau Schneider: Herr Martens? Wenn wir pünktlich da sein sollen, müssen wir unbedingt jetzt fahren. |
| Paul Martens: Einen Moment, ich rasiere mich gerade. Und ich muss mir noch die Zähne putzen und mich anziehen. Wenn wir zu spät kommen, dann kommen wir zu spät. |
| Judith: Now it’s slowly. |
| Paul Martens: Ich muss um drei Uhr zu Chucks Geburtstagsfeier. Sie ist in Friedrichshain. Können Sie mich dorthin bringen, oder soll ich mit dem Bus fahren? |
| Frau Schneider: Kein Problem, ich bringe Sie dorthin. Geben Sie einfach Bescheid, wenn Sie bereit sind. |
| Paul Martens: Vielen Dank! Ich muss mich noch duschen, danach können wir fahren. |
| ... |
| Frau Schneider: Herr Martens? Sind Sie gleich fertig? |
| Paul Martens: Ich wasche mir gerade die Haare. |
| Frau Schneider: Beeilen Sie sich. |
| ... |
| Frau Schneider: Herr Martens? Wenn wir pünktlich da sein sollen, müssen wir unbedingt jetzt fahren. |
| Paul Martens: Einen Moment, ich rasiere mich gerade. Und ich muss mir noch die Zähne putzen und mich anziehen. Wenn wir zu spät kommen, dann kommen wir zu spät. |
| Judith: Now with the translation. |
| Paul Martens: Ich muss um drei Uhr zu Chucks Geburtstagsfeier. Sie ist in Friedrichshain. Können Sie mich dorthin bringen, oder soll ich mit dem Bus fahren? |
| Paul Martens: I have to go to Chuck's birthday party at 3 o'clock. Can you take me there, or should I take the bus? |
| Frau Schneider: Kein Problem, ich bringe Sie dorthin. Geben Sie einfach Bescheid, wenn Sie bereit sind. |
| Mrs. Schneider: No problem, I'll take you there. Just let me know when you're ready. |
| Paul Martens: Vielen Dank! Ich muss mich noch duschen, danach können wir fahren. |
| Paul Martens: Thanks very much! I still have to shower, and then we can go. |
| ... |
| Frau Schneider: Herr Martens? Sind Sie gleich fertig? |
| Mrs. Schneider: Mr. Martens? Are you almost done? |
| Paul Martens: Ich wasche mir gerade die Haare. |
| Paul Martens: I'm just washing my hair. |
| Frau Schneider: Beeilen Sie sich. |
| Mrs. Schneider: Hurry up. |
| ... |
| Frau Schneider: Herr Martens? Wenn wir pünktlich da sein sollen, müssen wir unbedingt jetzt fahren. |
| Mrs. Schneider: Mr. Martens? If we want to be there on time, then we absolutely have to go now. |
| Paul Martens: Einen Moment, ich rasiere mich gerade. Und ich muss mir noch die Zähne putzen und mich anziehen. Wenn wir zu spät kommen, dann kommen wir zu spät. |
| Paul Martens: One moment, I'm shaving. And I still have to brush my teeth and get dressed. If we come too late, then we come too late. It's not the end of the world. |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Judith: Ok, maybe a few differences about bathrooms and, you know, how things are done here. One thing is that Germans like to turn off the water while shower. You know, whenever they soap up they don’t actually need to have the water running over themselves so they can switch off the water for that time. |
| Chuck Also when washing their teeth. |
| Judith: Yeah, of course. It’s good for the environment. |
| Chuck Also, with most toilets you can stop them from flushing in the middle. |
| Judith: If you don’t need to use that much water. You can hold the showerhead. This is something that I usually miss in North America, you can hold the showerhead and you move it whatever way you want. |
| Chuck Well, one thing I sometimes miss in Europe is that sometimes you don’t have a place to fix the showerhead and you have to hold it. One other thing is that pretty much everyone uses liquid shower gel, no one uses bar soap. |
| Judith: A few people use bar soap but usually not for showering, just for washing. |
| Chuck: It can be hard if you have your soap taken away at the security. It’s just hard to come across bar soap over here. |
| Judith: I wouldn’t say bar soap is unusual. Maybe. Anyway, one thing is certain is that laundromats are much less common so be prepared to wash your own clothes or maybe have a friend wash them. |
| Chuck And the sauna is more popular as well. |
| Judith: Yes, of course. It’s the one thing that everyone imports from [inaudible 00:03:03]. |
| Chuck Also you’ll notice that light switches are often outside the room. Especially I’ve noticed this for bathrooms. |
| Judith: Yes, and then they have this little LED or something to show you if the light is switched on or off. |
| Chuck: Let’s take a look at the vocabulary for this lesson. |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Chuck: The first word we shall see is. |
| Judith: Dorthin |
| Chuck There. |
| Judith: [Dorthin, dorthin] |
| Chuck Next. |
| Judith: [Bescheid] |
| Chuck “Legal notice” or “notification”. |
| Judith: [Bescheid, Bescheid, der Bescheid] and the plural is [Bescheide]. |
| Chuck Next. |
| Judith: [Bereit] |
| Chuck Ready. |
| Judith: [Bereit, bereit] |
| Chuck Next. |
| Judith: [Sich duschen] |
| Chuck To take a shower. |
| Judith: [Sich duschen, sich duschen] |
| Chuck Next. |
| Judith: [Fertig] |
| Chuck “Completed” or “ready”. |
| Judith: [Fertig, fertig] |
| Chuck Next. |
| Judith: [Haar] |
| Chuck Hair. |
| Judith: [Haar, Haar, das Haar] and the plural is [Haare]. |
| Chuck Next. |
| Judith: [Sich beeilen] |
| Chuck To hurry. |
| Judith: [Sich beeilen, sich beeilen] |
| Chuck Next. |
| Judith: [Pünktlich] |
| Chuck “Punctual” or “on time”. |
| Judith: [Pünktlich, pünktlich] |
| Chuck Next. |
| Judith: [Unbedingt] |
| Chuck “Absolutely” or “unconditionally”. |
| Judith: [Unbedingt, unbedingt] |
| Chuck: Next |
| Judith: [Sich rasieren] |
| Chuck: To shave oneself. |
| Judith: [Sich rasieren, sich rasieren] |
| Chuck: Next. |
| Judith: [Zahn] |
| Chuck Tooth. |
| Judith: [Zahn, Zahn, der Zahn] and the plural is [Zähne]. |
| Chuck Next. |
| Judith: [Putzen] |
| Chuck To brush. |
| Judith: [Putzen, putzen] |
| Chuck Next. |
| Judith: [Anziehen] |
| Chuck “To put on” as in a piece of clothing. Or with [Sich] it means “to get dressed”. |
| Judith: [Anziehen, anziehen] |
| 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 we'll look at is [Friedrichshain]. This is not a word, it’s just the name of a part of Berlin. It’s a part particularly popular with vegetarians and vegans. Also, there’s a phrase [Bescheid geben]. |
| Chuck To say when. |
| Judith: It literally means “to give notice”. [Bescheid], “notice”. Instead of [Bescheid geben], you could also say [Bescheid sagen] with exactly the same meaning. |
| Chuck: And you even have the same joke as in English when someone’s pouring something and says. “Say when? When!” [Sag Bescheid, Bescheid] |
| Judith: Now there are [Fertig] and [Bereit]. These are two words that English speakers tend to confuse. Both can be used in the sense of “ready”, however [Fertig] really means “done with something” or “finished”, whereas [Bereit] means “ready for something new”. So if you were not doing anything that needs to be finished, you can't use [Fertig], only [Bereit]. |
Lesson focus |
|---|
| Chuck: The focus of this lesson is reflexive verbs. Reflexive verbs are verbs that refer back to the subject. In English you can recognize such a verb because it is used with a pronoun ending in self or selves. For example. “I dry myself off”. |
| Judith: In German, that is [Ich trockne mich ab]. You probably recognized the [Mich] as the accusative of [Ich]. |
| Chuck: In German there are no special pronouns for these reflexive verbs. They just use the accusative personal pronouns, except for the third person singular and plural which is always [Sich]. |
| Judith: So it is [Er wäscht sich]. |
| Chuck: He washes himself. |
| Judith: Instead of [Er wäscht ihn], which would mean he washes some other male person. Or the [Ihn] could also reference an object that is grammatically masculine in German. |
| Chuck: A lot of verbs can be reflexive or not, as the above case demonstrates. You can wash yourself, which could be reflexive, but you can also wash your car, which would not be reflexive. |
| Judith: A special case would be when you’re washing something that is a part of you, for example your face. In German, [Das Gesicht]. Then the verb is still considered reflexive, but on the other hand you need an accusative object to indicate what you are washing. |
| Chuck: But wait, that’s the problem, isn’t it? Because German sentences must not have two accusative objects at the same time. So how does that work? |
| Judith: Well, normally we would have “you” to indicate it being reflexive and “your face”, and both have to be accusative. To say “I wash my face” you have to say [Ich wasche mir das Gesicht], “I wash myself the face”, because the reflexive pronoun will be dative instead, to prevent having two accusative objects. So [Ich wasche mir das Gesicht] and not [Ich wasche mich das Gesicht], which would be weird. |
| Chuck: This is the only quirky [inaudible 00:08:30] about reflexive German, sure you’ll get used to it quickly as you hear it more often. |
| Judith: In previous lessons, the reflexive verb [Sich treffen] has come up really often. This one literally means “to meet oneself”. In German we say [Sie treffen sich], “They meet themselves”. That is because there is no other word for “each other”. The only way to express “each other” is “sich”. |
| Chuck: There are lot of German verbs that are reflexive, when the english equivalents are not reflexive. |
Outro |
| Chuck: Well that just about does it for today. |
| Judith: Ever have any German language or lesson related questions? |
| Chuck: Or maybe have some feedback for us? Leave us a comment or ask questions on the lessons page. |
| Judith: It’s super simple. Go to GermanPod101.com. |
| Chuck: Click on comments. |
| Judith: Enter your comment and name. |
| Chuck: And that’s it. |
| Judith: Commenting is a great way to practice writing and reading in German. |
| Chuck: It helps you learn faster. |
| Judith: And it helps us get better through your feedback. |
| Chuck: No excuses. |
| Judith: Go to GermanPod101.com and comment now. |
| Chuck: Now. Ok, we’re looking forward to hearing from you. See you next week. |
| Judith: Wir freuen uns von euch zu hören. Bis nächste Woche. |
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