18811967 complete german the basics by living language excerpt
TRANSCRIPT
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C O M P L E T E
GERMANT H E B A S I C S
Written by
Helga Schier
Edited by
Suzanne McQuade
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Copyright 2008 by Living Language, an imprint of Random House, Inc.
Living Language is a member of the Random House Information Group
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All rights reserved.
Published in the United States by Living Language, an imprint of Random House, Inc.
www.livinglanguage.com
Editor: Suzanne McQuade
Production Editor: Carolyn Roth
Production Manager: Tom Marshall
Interior Design: Sophie Chin
First Edition
ISBN: 978-1-4000-2411-7
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data available upon request.
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iv Complete German: The Basics
C O U R S E O U T L I N E
How to use this course . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xi
Language learning tips . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xv
German spelling and pronunciation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xxvi
UNIT 1: Talking about yourself and making introductions . . . . . . 1
Lesson 1 (words) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
Gender . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2The definite article . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
Lesson 2 (phrases) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
Personal pronouns in the singular . . . . . . . 6The verb sein (to be) in the singular . . . . . . 8
Lesson 3 (sentences) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
Numbers 010 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10Numbers 1120 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
Lesson 4 (conversations) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
Personal pronouns in the plural . . . . . . . 15The verb sein (to be) in the plural . . . . . . 17
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Course outline v
UNIT 2: Talking about family . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
Lesson 5 (words) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
The verb haben (to have) . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22Regular verbs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
Lesson 6 (phrases) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
Indefinite articles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28Possessive adjectives . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
Lesson 7 (sentences) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
Negation with nicht(not) . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33Negation with kein (no) . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
Lesson 8 (conversations) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
Asking questions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37Numbers 20100 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .41
UNIT 3: Everyday life . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47
Lesson 9 (words) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47
Telling time . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48Numbers above 100 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51
Lesson 10 (phrases) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52
The months and seasons . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53Expressing likes and dislikes with
gern + verb . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55
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vi Complete German: The Basics
Lesson 11 (sentences) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57
The plural of nouns 1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57The plural of nouns 2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59
Lesson 12 (conversations) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61
Descriptive words 1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62Descriptive words 2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66
UNIT 4: Health and the human body . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71
Lesson 13 (words) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71
The present tense of regular verbs . . . . . . 72The present tense of stem-changingverbs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74
Lesson 14 (phrases) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76
Separable verbs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77Reflexive verbs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79
Lesson 15 (sentences) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82
The accusative case of nouns 1 . . . . . . . . 82The accusative case of nouns 2 . . . . . . . . 85
Lesson 16 (conversations) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86
The accusative ofkein . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88The accusative of possessivepronouns . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91
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Course outline vii
UNIT 5: Using the telephone and making appointments . . . . . . 97
Lesson 17 (words) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97
The accusative case of personalpronouns . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 98N-nouns . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100
Lesson 18 (phrases) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103
The accusative case of adjectives 1 . . . . 103The accusative case of adjectives 2 . . . . 105
Lesson 19 (sentences) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107
Modal verbs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 108Talking about the future using thepresent tense . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 111
Lesson 20 (conversations) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113
The future tense . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115The future tense with modal verbs . . . . 118
UNIT 6: Getting around town . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 123
Lesson 21 (words) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 123
The dative case of nouns . . . . . . . . . . . . 123The dative case ofein-words . . . . . . . . . 127
Lesson 22 (phrases) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 130
The dative case of adjectives 1 . . . . . . . 130The dative case of adjectives 2 . . . . . . . 133
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viii Complete German: The Basics
Lesson 23 (sentences) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 135
The dative case of personal pronouns . . 136German word order in sentences withtwo objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 138
Lesson 24 (conversations) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 139
Prepositions with the dative case . . . . . 141Prepositions with the accusative case . . 145
UNIT 7: Shopping . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 149
Lesson 25 (words) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 149
Two-way prepositions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 150Expressing more likes and dislikes . . . . . 155
Lesson 26 (phrases) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 158
The present perfect with haben . . . . . . 159The present perfect with sein . . . . . . . . 162
Lesson 27 (sentences) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 164
The present perfect of separable verbs . . 165The present perfect of modal verbs . . . . 167
Lesson 28 (conversations) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 169
The comparative of adjectives . . . . . . . . 171The superlative . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 176
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Course outline ix
UNIT 8: Lets eat! . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 183
Lesson 29 (words) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 183
Simple past ofsein, haben, andwerden . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 184Time expressions for the past . . . . . . . . 186
Lesson 30 (phrases) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 188
The simple past of regular (weak)verbs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 188
The simple past of irregular (strong)verbs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 190
Lesson 31 (sentences) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 193
The simple past of modal verbs . . . . . . 194The simple past of mixed verbs . . . . . . . 196
Lesson 32 (conversations) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 200
Expressing possession: The genitive . . . 202Prepositions with the genitive . . . . . . . . 206
UNIT 9: School and work . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 209
Lesson 33 (words) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 209
The passive voice 1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 210The passive voice 2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 212
Lesson 34 (phrases) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 215Alternatives to the passive voice . . . . . 216Compound nouns . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 218
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Lesson 35 (sentences) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 221
The imperative 1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 222The imperative 2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 225
Lesson 36 (conversations) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 227
Wenn-sentences . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 229Dass-sentences and ob-sentences . . . . . 231
UNIT 10: Sports and hobbies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 235
Lesson 37 (words) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 235
Relative clauses 1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 236Relative clauses 2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 238
Lesson 38 (phrases) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 240
Infinitives with zu . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 240Weil-sentences . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 242
Lesson 39 (sentences) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 244
Subordinate clauses with questionpronouns . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 244Polite speech: The wrde-form and
the subjunctive ofhaben and sein . . . . 246
Lesson 40 (conversations) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 249
The subjunctive of modal verbs . . . . . . 251Apologies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 255
German in action . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 261
Supplemental vocabulary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .271
Summary of German grammar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 297
Internet resources . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 395
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Lesson 1 1
Unit 1Talking about yourself and making introductions
Guten Tag! (Good day!) In Unit 1, youll learn how to introduceyourself and others, how to say Hallo! (Hello!), how to explain
where youre from and what you do, and how to ask otherpeo-
ple for basic information about themselves. Naturally, youll
learn greetings and other essential courtesy expressions,
along with important rules on how to put German sentences
together. But dont worry; German grammar is not that tough.Well lead you through it step-by-step, and before you know it,
youll be able to have simple conversations in German.
Lesson 1 (words)
WORD LI ST 1
Guten Tag! (fml.) Good day!
Hallo! (infml.) Hello!
Auf Wiedersehen! (fml.) Good-bye!
Tschss! (infml.) Bye!
Herr Schneider Mr. Schneider
Frau Schneider Ms./Mrs. Schneider
der Lehrer teacher (male)die Lehrerin teacher (female)
der Student student (male)
die Studentin student (female)
der Rechtsanwalt lawyer (male)
die Rechtsanwltin lawyer (female)
NoteThe following abbreviations will be used in this course: (m.) =masculine, (f.) = feminine, (sg.) = singular, (pl.) = plural, (fml.) =formal/polite, and (infml.) = informal.
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2 Unit 1: Talking about yourself and making introductions
NUTS & BOLTS 1
Gender
As you begin to acquire a vocabulary in German, youll notice thatall German words have gender. This applies to general vocabulary
words, as well as to words describing people. Lets start by lookingat some words that describe people. You may have noticed in theword list above that there is a male and a female version of the Ger-man word forlawyer: der Rechtsanwalt and die Rechtsanwltin.Most professions have two words, one for a man and one for awoman, and it is quite important to use the gender-appropriateform. Lets take a look at a few more professions showing gender.
der Chef boss (male)
die Chefin boss (female)
der Schauspieler actor
die Schauspielerin actress
The word that comes before each profession, der for a male anddie for a female, is called an article. Well learn about articles next.The female version of the profession often takes the ending -in.
There are a few words that have additional changes. The female
version may change a vowel to an umlauti.e., a becomes .
der Rechtsanwalt lawyer (male)
die Rechtsanwltin lawyer (female)
der Arzt doctor (male)
die rztin doctor (female)
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4 Unit 1: Talking about yourself and making introductions
teacher) are all masculine, while die Frau (woman) and dieLehrerin (female teacher) are feminine, and das Bro (office) anddas Haus (house) are neuter.
Masculine Feminine Neuter
der Mann die Frau das Kind
man woman child
der Lehrer die Lehrerin das Haus
teacher (male) teacher ( female) house
der Bus die Haltestelle das Auto
bus stop car
der Beruf die Uhr das Bro
profession watch, clock office
der Zufall die Welt das Jahr
coincidence world year
But not all nouns have a natural gender. Just look at die Welt
(world) order Bus (bus) ordas Kind (child). There is no naturalreason for the world to be considered feminine, the bus to beconsidered masculine, or the child to be considered neuter. Sothe best thing to do is simply to learn the definite articleder,die, or das (the equivalent of the English the)along with theword. The vocabulary lists will always list the article der, die, ordas as well. Lets look at the genders of some of the nouns youve
learned so far, along with some new nouns.You will also often see the article das used to mean that in Ger-man.
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Lesson 1 5
PRACTICE 2
Insert the correct definite articleder, die, ordas.
1. _____ Welt 4. _____ Bro
2. _____ Haus 5. _____ Zufall
3. _____ Rechtsanwalt 6. _____ Chefin
Tip!There are quite a few different ways to memorize new vocabulary,
so its a good idea to try a few out to see what works for you. Sim-
ply reading a word in a list isnt going to make you remember it.
Write down your new vocabulary in a notebook, and then try to
write it or say it out loud a few times so itll sink in. You can use the
recordings that go with this course for that, too. Make flash cards,
with the German on one side and the English on the other. Start
out translating from German into English, and once youve mas-
tered that, go from English into German. Label things in your home
or office with pieces of paper or sticky notes, so youll see the Ger-man word every time you come into contact with an object. Exper-
iment and explore, but whatever you do, pace yourself. Ideally
youll spend a little bit of time on your German every day
sometimes twenty minutes a day over the course of a week will go
much further than a two-hour sitting in one day. If you cant find
the time to practice some German every day, dont despair. Just
work regularly, and grab a free moment here or there to remindyourself of what youve learned.
ANSWERS
PRACTICE 1: 1. die Rechtsanwltin;2. der Student; 3. derLehrer; 4. die Schauspielerin; 5. die rztin
PRACTICE 2: 1. die;2. das; 3. der; 4. das; 5. der; 6. die
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6 Unit 1: Talking about yourself and making introductions
Lesson 2 (phrases)
Wie gehts? (How are you?) Are you ready to build on the wordsyouve learned so far?
PHRASE LIST 1
Wie gehts? (infml.) How are you?
Wie geht es Ihnen? (fml.) How are you?
Gut, danke. Good, thanks.
Ich bin Amerikaner. Im American. (male)
Ich bin Amerikanerin. Im American. (female)Ich bin Deutscher. Im German. (male)
Ich bin Deutsche. Im German. (female)
aus Dresden from Dresden
aus Chicago from Chicago
in Mnchen in Munich
in Deutschland in Germany
Ich bin Rechtsanwalt. Im a lawyer. (male)
Ich bin Rechtsanwltin. Im a lawyer. (female)
. . . , nicht wahr? . . . , right?
NUTS & BOLTS 1
Personal pronouns in the singular
The first words youll need to become familiar with in German arethe pronouns. Pronouns are used to talk about yourself and otherpeople without using their names: I, you, he, she, etc. In German,the singular pronouns (pronouns referring to one person) are:
ich I
du (infml.) you
Sie (fml.) you
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Lesson 2 7
er he
sie she
es it
Notice that there are two different words foryou. When speakingGerman, you have to distinguish between talking to strangers,business associates, people older than you, and anyone you wantto show respect to (formal), and talking to family, friends, chil-
dren, and people you know better and are very familiar with (in-formal). German has different forms of the pronounyou to showthis distinction: the formal form Sie, and the informal form du.
PRACTICE 1
Which German pronoun would you use in the following situa-tions?
1. talking to your best friend Andreas
2. asking directions from an older gentleman you see on the street
3. talking about your brother
4. talking about yourself
5. talking about your boss, Frau Berger
PHRASE LIST 2
Guten Morgen. Good morning.
Guten Abend. Good evening.
Gute Nacht. Good night.
Bis bald. See you soon.
Bis morgen. See you tomorrow.
beruflich hier here on business
von Beruf by profession
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8 Unit 1: Talking about yourself and making introductions
Arzt von Beruf doctor by profession
Lehrer von Beruf teacher by profession
Wie peinlich! How embarrassing!
Ganz und gar nicht. Not at all.
pnktlich punctual, on time
NUTS & BOLTS 2
The verb sein (TO BE) in the singular
Now lets look at one of the most important verbs in German,sein (to be). The form sein is called the infinitive, and it corre-sponds to the basic to-form in English, to be. When you change
the forms of a verb to match different subjects, as in the EnglishI speakbut she speaks, its called conjugation. Heres the singularconjugation ofsein (to be):
ich bin I am
du bist (infml.) you are
Sie sind (fml.) you are
er/sie/es ist he/she/it is
Ich bin Amerikaner.
Im American.
Er ist aus Dresden.
He is from Dresden.
Martina, du bist Rechtsanwltin, nicht wahr?
Martina, you are a lawyer, right?
Sind Sie aus Chicago?
Are you from Chicago?
Note in the last example that the first two words in the sen-tence are inverted to form a question, just as you would do in
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English. Well discuss question formation a bit more in a laterunit.
PRACTICE 2
Follow the instructions below.
1. Tell us that Klaus is from Munich.
2. Tell us that Susanne is from Dresden.
3. Talk to your best friend Horst and ask if he is a lawyer.
4. Ask your boss, Frau Schneider, if she is from Chicago.
5. Tell us which city you are from.
Language linkWhod have thought that you can surf the web and learn German
at the same time? Its important to keep in contact with the cul-
ture of the language youre learning, so why not check out a few
websites? For the official and independent portal to all things
German, visit www.deutschland.de. For information on Switzer-
land, visit www.schweiz.ch. You can learn more about Austria at
www.oesterreich.at, and www.dw-world.de offers news and gen-
eral information on all three countries in English.
ANSWERS
PRACTICE 1:
1. du;2. Sie; 3. er; 4. ich; 5. siePRACTICE 2: 1. Klaus ist aus Mnchen.2. Susanne ist ausDresden. 3. Horst, du bist Rechtsanwalt, nicht wahr? 4. FrauSchneider, Sie sind aus Chicago, nicht wahr? 5. Ich bin aus . . .
Lesson 3 (sentences)
You already began to learn a few sentences in German in the lastlesson; lets expand on those phrases you learned in Lesson 2with sentences such as Wie heien Sie? (Whats your name?)
Lesson 3 9
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10 Unit 1: Talking about yourself and making introductions
SENTENCE LIST 1
Wie heien Sie? (fml.) Whats your name?
Wie heit du? (infml.) Whats your name?
Ich heie . . . My name is . . .
Wie war Ihr Name? (fml.) What was your name again?
Wie war dein Name? (infml.) What was your name again?
Mein Name ist . . . My name is . . .
Woher kommen Sie? (fml.) Where are you from?
Woher kommst du? (infml.) Where are you from?
Ich bin aus Los Angeles. Im from Los Angeles.
Ich bin aus Chicago. I am from Chicago.Ich bin Amerikaner. Im American. (male)
Ich bin Amerikanerin. Im American. ( female)
NUTS & BOLTS 1
Numbers 010
Lets look at the numbers 0 through 10 in German.
null zero
eins one
zwei two
drei threevier four
fnf five
sechs six
sieben seven
acht eight
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Klaus: Ich bin aus Dresden. Ich bin beruflich inMnchen. Ich arbeite bei InterCorp.
Sabine: Na so was! Ich auch.Klaus: Sie sind auch aus Dresden?
Sabine: Nein, ich arbeite auch bei InterCorp.Klaus: Das ist ja ein Zufall.Sabine: Ja, ich bin dort Rechtsanwltin. Ich heie
Sabine Schmidt.Now Klaus is a bit reluctant to continue the conversation.
Sabine: Wie war noch Ihr Name? Klaus . . . ?Klaus: . . . Huber. Ich bin auch . . .
Suddenly Sabine remembers.Sabine: Moment mal . . . Sie sind auch Rechtsanwalt,nicht wahr?
Klaus: Ja.Sabine: Dann bin ich ja . . .Klaus: . . . meine Chefin. Ja.
Klaus: Good evening. My name is Klaus Huber.Sabine: Good evening.Klaus: I am from Dresden. I am in Munich on business. I
work for InterCorp.Sabine: Really? Me, too.Klaus: You are from Dresden as well?Sabine: No, I also work for InterCorp.Klaus: What a coincidence.Sabine: Yes, I am a lawyer there. My name is Sabine Schmidt.Sabine: What was your name again? Klaus . . . ?Klaus: . . . Huber. I am . . .Sabine: Wait a minute . . . You are also a lawyer, right?Klaus: Yes.Sabine: Well, that means I am . . .Klaus: . . . my boss. Yes.
14 Unit 1: Talking about yourself and making introductions
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Lesson 4 15
Notes
Note that Klaus and Sabine are using the formal form Sie whenaddressing each other. From this we can gather that they are prob-ably over twenty years old and dont know each other, at least not
very well. Also note that they introduce themselves with theirfirst and last names. Generally, adults wont be on a first-namebasis until theyve known each other for a little while.
NUTS & BOLTS 1
Personal pronouns in the plural
Now lets look at the personal pronouns that refer to more than
one person.
wir we
ihr (infml.) you, you all
Sie (fml.) you, you all
sie they
Even in the plural, German distinguishes between the informalihr and the formal Sie. Please note that formal forms are alwayscapitalized.
PRACTICE 1
In this exercise, replace each of the following nouns with the cor-rect pronoun.
1. Heinz und Isabella (they)
2. die Chefin und ihr Mann (you)
3. ich, Peter, und Michael4. der Chef
5. Susanne und Claudia (you)
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16 Unit 1: Talking about yourself and making introductions
CONVERSATION 2
Remember Sabine and Klaus? In the brief conversation they hadwhile waiting for the bus, we discovered that Sabine is Klaussboss. Lets see what happens next.
Klaus: Wie peinlich!Sabine: Ganz und gar nicht. Die Welt ist klein. Wie
lange sind Sie schon bei InterCorp?Klaus: Seit vier Jahren. Und Sie?
Sabine: Auch seit vier Jahren.Klaus: Was fr ein Zufall.
Sabine: Ah, da ist der Bus. Die Nummer 13.Klaus: Noch ein Zufall. Das ist auch mein Bus.Sabine: Das ist meine Haltestelle.Klaus: Das ist unglaublich. Schon wieder ein Zufall.
Das ist auch meine Haltestelle.Sabine: Ja, das ist ja geradezu unheimlich. Dann bis
morgen, Herr Huber. Ich bin um acht Uhr imBro.
Klaus: Ja, bis morgen, Frau Schmidt. Pnktlich umacht Uhr. Auf Wiedersehen.
Sabine: Auf Wiedersehen.
Klaus: How embarrassing.Sabine: Not at all. Its a small world. (lit., The world is small.)
How long have you been with InterCorp?
Klaus: Four years. And you?Sabine: Four years as well.Klaus: What a coincidence.Sabine: Ah, theres the bus. Number 13.Klaus: Yet another coincidence. That is my bus, too.Sabine: That is my stop.Klaus: This is unbelievable. Another coincidence. This is my
stop, too.Sabine: Yes, this is uncanny. See you tomorrow, Herr Huber. Illbe in the office at eightA.M.
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Lesson 4 17
Klaus: Yes, see you tomorrow, Frau Schmidt. At eightA.M.sharp. Good-bye.
Sabine: Good-bye.
NotesIn most countries in Europe, parking is difficult in the city, sopeople tend to take public transportation rather than a personalcar to get around town. And because people depend on publictransportation that much, buses, trains, and streetcars adhere totheir schedules and run on time. So make sure you are pnktlich(punctual)!
NUTS & BOLTS 2
The verb sein (TO BE) in the plural
Now lets look at the plural conjugation ofsein (to be).
wir sind we are
ihr seid (infml.) you (all) are
Sie sind (fml.) you (all) are
sie sind they are
Wir sind aus Chicago.
Were from Chicago.
Sie sind Lehrer von Beruf.
They are teachers by profession.
Herr und Frau Schneider, Sie sind beruflich hier, nicht wahr?
Mr. and Mrs. Schneider, you are here on business, right?
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18 Unit 1: Talking about yourself and making introductions
PRACTICE 2
Answer the questions based on the cue in parentheses.
1. Where are you and your friend from? (New York)
2. What is Horst by profession? (doctor)
3. Who is here on business?(Herr und Frau Rosen)
4. Which greeting would you use in the evening?
5. What is your profession? (Please answer truthfully. Check yourGermanEnglish dictionary to find the German word for yourprofession.)
Language linkTrain travel is one of the most preferred forms of public transporta-
tion, particularly in Europe. Who wouldnt want to take a trip on the
fast ICE (Inter City Express), connecting major cities in Germany
and the rest of continental Europe, or the convenient Regional-
express (regional express train), allowing passengers to travel be-
tween smaller cities around a particular metropolitan area? Check
out www.bahn.de to get timetables for the Deutsche Bundesbahn
(German Railway), purchase tickets, and make travel arrangements
including hotel reservations and car rentals. www.oebb.at offers
the same service for the Austrian railway, and www.rail.ch for the
Swiss railroad.
ANSWERS
PRACTICE 1: 1. sie;2. Sie; 3. wir; 4. er; 5. ihr
PRACTICE 2: 1. Wir sind aus New York.2. Er ist Arzt vonBeruf. 3. Herr und Frau Rosen sind beruflich hier. 4. GutenAbend. 5. Ich bin . . . von Beruf.
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Lesson 4 19
UNIT 1 ESSENTIALS
The following phrases have been introduced in Unit 1. This isnta list of every sentence you learned in the first unit, but it coversthe most essential phrases. Be sure to practice these phrases as
much as possible until they become natural to you.
Guten Tag! (fml.) Good day!
Guten Morgen. Good morning.
Guten Abend. Good evening.
Gute Nacht. Good night.
Hallo! (infml.) Hello!
Wie gehts? (infml.) How are you?
Wie geht es Ihnen? (fml.) How are you?
Gut, danke. Good, thanks.
Auf Wiedersehen! (fml.) Good-bye!
Tschss! (infml.) Bye!
Bis bald. See you soon.
Bis morgen. See you tomorrow.Wie heien Sie? (fml.) Whats your name?
Wie heit du? (infml.) Whats your name?
Ich heie . . . My name is . . .
Wie war Ihr Name? ( fml.) What was your name again?
Wie war dein Name? (infml.) What was your name again?
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20 Unit 1: Talking about yourself and making introductions
Mein Name ist . . . My name is . . .
Woher kommen Sie? ( fml.) Where are you from?
Woher kommst du? (infml.) Where are you from?Ich bin aus . . . Im from . . .
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