Wikibooks German Language Course

Wikibooks
German
Language Course
From Wikibooks,
the open-content textbooks collection
First Edition
Published:
May 01, 2006
The current version of this book can be found at
http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/German
PDF created by Hagindaz

Contents
• Introduction
• Lessons
• Level one lessons (Introductory lessons)
• Level two lessons (Grundlegende lektionen)
• Level three lessons (Zwischenlektionen)
• Level four lessons (Erweitertelektionen)
• Level five lessons (Review lessons)
• Grammar
• Appendices (Anhänge)
• Contributors
• GFDL
Introduction
Vorwort
How to Study German Using This Textbook
A Textbook on Five Levels

The question arose early in the development of this textbook as to precisely who would be the target
audience. Although intended to be a "beginning" textbook on German, many felt that the early lessons
were too difficult for younger students with very limited or no experience with German and, perhaps
more importantly, limited skills in English grammar. For this reason a textbook on three levels was
conceived. Beginning German (Level I) puts more emphasis on building vocabulary around subject
matter interesting and useful to young students. Basic German (Level II) emphasises grammar, and
assumes a greater knowledge of English grammar more typical of an older high school or a college
student. If you are just beginning to learn German or attempting to teach yourself, you may wish to try
both approaches and see which works better for you, since some people require a strong structural
approach to learning a new language while others find this "structure" only impedes progress by adding
another layer of complexity. Intermediate German (Level III), which requires even more knowledge of
English, is for college students, preferably for sophomores or juniors. With even more complex lessons,
grammar and vocabulary comes Advanced German (Level IV), which with the most complex and
difficult parts of the German language, is for late college students (Seniors) and college graduates. The
last level, which is a review level, but also has cultural facts and the history of the German language, is
Reviewed German. (Level V). An existing, separate text, German Grammar, may eventually be
merged into the lesson modules or developed into useful appendices as a grammar reference. At
present, however, German Grammar is an expanding, significant contribution to the textbook; it
provides an important reference on German language grammar rules useful to the student working
through any of the three levels.
The German Language

German (Deutsch) is a member of the western group of the Germanic languages. It is spoken primarily
in Germany, Austria, the major part of Switzerland, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, the Südtirol (South
Tyrol) region of Italy, the Opole Voivodship of Poland, parts of Belgium, parts of Romania, the Alsace
(Elsass) region of France and parts of Denmark. Additionally, several former colonial possessions of
these countries, such as Namibia in Africa, have sizable German-speaking populations. There are
German-speaking minorities in several eastern European countries including Russia, and in the United
States as well as countries in South America like Argentina. Over 120 million people speak German as
their native language. German is the third most popular foreign language taught worldwide, and the
second most popular in Europe. Continue reading about the German language.
German and English
If you are an English speaker unfamiliar with German, you may be surprised to learn that English and
German are closely related languages and share many words that are very similar. This is particularly
true for everyday words in English that are Anglo-Saxon (that is, Germanic) in origin. Consider the
following list of English words followed by their German counterparts:
arm ~ der Arm
book ~ das Buch
cat ~ die Katze
father ~ der Vater
finger ~ der Finger

wagon ~ der Wagen
house ~ das Haus
hand ~ die Hand

June ~ der Juni
man ~ der Mann
mother ~ die Mutter

mouse ~ die Maus
name ~ der Name
son ~ der Sohn

garden ~ der Garten
lamp ~ die Lampe

bush ~ der Busch
baker ~ der Bäcker
net ~ das Netz
storm ~ der Sturm
hat ~ der Hut
fire ~ das Feuer
grass ~ das Gras
fish ~ der Fisch
kindergarden ~ der Kindergarten
• Audio: OGG (114KB) ~ Hear these words

Of course, even words whose spelling is no different in English and German may be pronounced quite
differently. But in reading German, you will see the connections between these languages, even in
many of the "small" words (the above examples are all nouns). For example:
This week, my father is with my brother in the city
Diese Woche ist mein Vater mit meinem Bruder in der Stadt.
• Audio: OGG (114KB) ~ Hear these sentences

Note also the general similarity of sentence structure with English. The only real difference in the
German is that the verb is moved forward in the sentence. However, there are many German sentences
in which a verb form is the last word in the sentence.
Unfortunately, while German is perhaps the easiest "foreign" language for an English speaker to learn,
meanings of words that are spelled similarly are not always identical. These "false friends" can be
confusing for the beginner. Further, German is a more structured language than English, with a more
complex grammar, and it will become apparent as you learn German that you will also learn more
about English language structure than you might ever recall from your high school English classes. For
a quick listing of similarities and differences between English and German, read the Introduction to
Level I.
Vocabulary and Grammar

In learning to read or speak any language with which you have minimal acquaintance (that is, are not a
native speaker of), the two aspects to be mastered are vocabulary and grammar. Acquiring vocabulary
is a "simple" matter of memorization. For the language(s) we learn as children, this process is so
transparent that we have trouble conceiving of the importance of having a large vocabulary. By the age
of conscious recognition of our communicating with others through speech, we have already learned
the meaning of thousands of words. Even words we have trouble defining, we readily understand their
use in conversation. This process can be "reactivated," as it were, by immersion in a second language: a
method of learning a new language by moving to a place where that language is spoken and having to
get around and live without use of one's native tongue.
Absent the opportunity of residing in a German-speaking area, the student of German must put forth
substantial effort to learn words, including what they mean, how to pronounce them, and how they are
used in sentences. Be sure to "learn"—commit to memory—all of the vocabulary words in each lesson
as they are presented. Early lessons have simple sentences because it is assumed that the student's
vocabulary is limited. But throughout the text, more complex discourses (often as photo captions) are
included to introduce the student to regular German in use. It may be helpful to translate these using a
German-English dictionary (access to one is a must; see Appendix 5 for on-line options). Other sources
of German, such as newspapers, magazines, web sites, etc., can also be useful in building vocabulary
and developing a sense of how German words are put together. The German Wikipedia provides an
ever expanding source of German language articles that can be used for this purpose. Further, a
German version of the Wikibooks project—a library of textbooks in German—is available at German
Wikibooks.
German grammar is more complex than, but sufficiently similar to, English that "reading" German is
possible with minimal vocabulary in the sense that the student should generally recognize the parts of a
sentence. With a good dictionary, an English speaker can usually translate a German sentence close to
correctly. However, to accurately speak and understand German, you must learn how each word
functions in a sentence. There are eight basic grammatical functions: case, gender, number, tense,
person, mood, voice, and comparison. How words "signal" these functions is an important aspect of
learning a new language. English speakers should know all of these functions and the signals used in
English, but it is often the situation that you know perfectly well how to speak English, without
understanding much about word-functions and signals. For this reason, this textbook incorporates
considerable detail on grammar, including both English and German grammar. The reference book
English at Wikibooks may be consulted for additional help. When we say German is more complex
than English, what we really mean is that the signals used in German are different from and more
numerous than those used by English.
Pronunciation
A guide to pronunciation of German is provided as Appendix 1. You should become familiar with this
page early on, and refer to it often. Nothing can replace learning a language from a native speaker, but
the text is liberally sprinkled with audio files providing the student with valuable input from hearing
spoken German. Analyze the spoken words carefully. The pronunciation guide in Appendix 1 can only
closely, not exactly, convey how German words should be pronounced. And of course, German (like
English) has a number of dialects distinguished by differences in pronunciation.
Help in the pronunciation of individual words can be found by accessing the sound files of either of the
online dictionaries, links to which are given in the German websites appendix.
Layout of Lessons
This textbook is intended as a beginning course in the German language for English speakers. Early
lessons emphasize conversational subjects and gradually introduce German grammatical concepts and
rules. In addition, sound files accompany appropriate parts of each lesson. Although the basic lessons
(Grundlegende Lektionen) are presented at about the (US) high school level. Beginners (including
those attempting to learn German outside of a course structure) are expected to work through several
basic lessons up to an indicated point, when review is suggested along with additional study. The basic
way lessons go to other lessons is very simple and direct:
• Lesson 1 > 2 > 3 > 4 > and on to the end of the text.
Layout within Lessons

The following subheadings or categories are offered within the lessons (Level II and above):
1. One or more conversation (Gespräch) or story (Geschichte) pieces in German alone to illustrate
the language in use.
2. Study material (Lernen) in English and German to present lists of conceptually related words.
3. One or more grammar (Grammatik) lessons covering elements of German grammar, with
illustrations drawn from the conversation, story, or study materials.
4. A list of words (Vokabeln) and phrases introduced in the lesson, above that point, usually in the
conversation, story, or study presentations. Words and phrases are arranged alphabetically
within groups, and the groups are presented in the following order: 1) nouns, 2) phrases, 3)
verbs, and 4) all other words. A guide to pronunciation of the words presented is consolidated
within Appendix 1. However, in each Vokabeln, nouns stressed on other than the first syllable
(the general rule in German) are indicated by bolding of the stressed syllable (e.g., Biologie).
Note that the English translation of all German words in a Vokabeln is the best equivalent for
the lesson example. The lesson Vokabeln is not a dictionary, but a quick reference for
translation purposes. For this reason, verbs are not translated into a typical English infinitive
form with a preceeding particle, "to".
5. A list of additional, related words or phrases (Andere Wörter; advanced lessons only) that relate
to, but are not included in, the vocabulary presented in the basic and advanced lessons.
6. English sentences and other material to be translated by the student into German (Übersetzung).
These are numbered and a matching answer sheet is linked to this category. The student should
write out the German using material from the lesson (and previous lessons) before checking
their work against the answer list.
The Student and the Lesson

Each level of the text is designed to constitute a course of study in the German language. For any level
selected, each lesson should be read thoroughly and mastered before moving on. Substantial text in
German is included and the student should read all of it, not once, but multiple times. At Levels II and
III, complete translations into English are included only in selected places. Most of this text must be
translated by the student using his or her acquired vocabulary and the vocabulary presented at the
bottom of each lesson. As the German text is read (preferably out loud), the student must succeed in
gaining an understanding of the meaning of each sentence, and of the role each word plays in
establishing that meaning. To the beginner, there will seem to be many words in a German sentence
that are out of place or even redundant or unnecessary. These add subtleties to the language that will
make sense eventually. But it is important to experience these subtleties from the very beginning.
LESSONS
German Level One Lessons
Introductory
A Beginner's Course in German
Level One Contents
• 1.00 • Introduction
Section 1.01 ~ Starting Point
• Lesson 1.01 • Wie heißt du? ~ Hellos/Goodbyes, alphabet, nominative case pronouns and
articles, names, "Wie geht's?" and questions.
• Lesson 1.02 • Freizeit ~ Sports and activities, preferences, telling time, and times, dates and
seasons.
• Lesson 1.03 • Essen ~ Introduction to food, food-related verbs, intro to modals & möchten,
kein-words, polite/formal conversation language, and "Schmeckt's?".
• Review 1.01 • Review of Lessons 1-3
Section 1.02 ~ Berlin, Germany

• Lesson 1.04 • Kleidung ~ Articles of clothing, shopping, describing clothes, colors,
introduction to separable verbs.
• Lesson 1.05 • Volk und Familie ~ Family members, possessives, describing people, and
expressing favorites.
• Lesson 1.06 • Schule ~ School subjects, a description of German schools, basic vocabulary in
school classes (math, geography, etc.), and school supplies.
Section 1.03 ~ Vienna, Austria

• Lesson 1.07 • Das Fest ~ Dative case articles and pronouns, giving gifts, invitations to parties,
snack food, and es gibt.
• Lesson 1.08 • Privileg und Verantwortung ~ Making plans, places to go, tasks and jobs, more
modals, commands, and weil & denn.
• Lesson 1.09 • Wetter ~ Weather, methods of transportation, how to get places, how to give and
get directions, and using wo like weil.
Section 1.04 ~ Berne, Switzerland

• Lesson 1.10 : Zu Hause Essen ~ Food one would find in a supermarket, making meals, meals
of the day in Germany.
• Lesson 1.11 • Filme ~ Movies, types of movies, "Was für...?", using mögen to express
preference.
• Lesson 1.12 • Das Haus ~ Furniture, Describing stuff II, different materials used in furniture,
position (acc./dat.) prepositions.
Lesson 1.00 • Introduction
Welcome to Level I German!

Level I is aimed at junior high and high school students. However, it can be used by others just
beginning to learn to speak or read German.
The goal of Level I German is not to overwhelm or confuse the student, but rather to teach the student
in an orderly fashion. Learning German is meant to be fun, not subjective. Thus, the vocabulary is
formatted for translating from English (which the students know) into German.
German and English

German and English are very close to each other. Here are some major similarities:
• Both languages use the Latin alphabet.
• Normally, sentences follow Subject-Verb order.
• Questions have Verb-Subject order or Adverb-Verb-Subject order.
• Both languages have prepositions, conjunctions, adverbs, nouns, verbs, interjections, pronouns,
and adjectives.
• The indirect object usually comes before the direct object.
• There are contractions in both German and English.
• Many words share the same roots, such as word and Wort, or house and Haus.
• Many words, such as Football and Sandwich are the same in English and German.
As you can see, German is very much like English. There are, however, differences:
• German has genders; every noun is either masculine, feminine, or neuter.
• German has three different words for "you", while English has only one. There are even four if
you count the impersonal "man".
• German has more verb forms than English.
• German has more letters than and different pronunciations from English (see Lesson 1).
• German is the only known written language where all nouns are capitalized, regardless of
whether or not it is a proper noun.
• Sometimes in German the verb will be the last word of a sentence.
• There are no helping verbs in German.
• Adjectives will have different endings based on the noun they are modifying in German.
• German is more 'guttural'. In German, you talk in the back of your mouth.
• "I" (ich) is only capitalized if it is the first word of the sentence.
• In German, there are four cases; in English, there are three.
However, next to Dutch, German is one of the easiest languages for English speakers to learn. The
differences will be tackled over the course of the lessons.
How to use this level of the German textbook

The lessons are meant to be taken in order. At the reviews, after every third lesson, you go back to look
at the previous lessons.
You will need a notebook and a pencil to take notes and do problems for this course.
Layout of Each Lesson
When completed,
1. Every lesson will have a title at the top, centered.
2. The lesson will introduce several topics, more and more as the lessons progress.
3. After each section, there will be a link to the problems page (at German:Beginner Lesson #P),
where you will write down the problems and the answers on your own sheet of paper.*
4. When done with the problems for that section, you will go to the answers page (at
German:Beginner Lesson #A), where you check your answers. Keep track of your scores (put
them on the back page of your notebook, with the Lesson # and section title) for later use.
5. The answers page will take you back to the lesson. Continue in the same fashion.
6. At the end of the page there will be a link to the test (at German:Beginner Lesson #T). Before
you go to it, review any sections that you are unclear on, or any that you missed problems on.
When you are ready, take the test. There will be a link to the test answers page (at
German:Beginner Lesson #TA) for when you are done.
Note: * The link is the only indication of the end of the section. The title is the indication that these are
in place. If it is there, and there is no link to the problems, continue on until you get to a link.
Lesson 1.01 • Wie heißt du?
Dialogue
German Dialogue • audio: One • Two (131 + 142 kb • help)
What's your name? Wie heißt du?
Franz Hallo, ich bin Franz. Wie heißt du?
Greta Hallo, Franz. Ich heiße Greta. Wie geht's?
Franz Es geht mir gut. Kennst du den Lehrer?
Greta Ja, er heißt Herr Weiß.
Franz Oh, danke, Greta. Bis dann!
Greta Wiedersehen!
Next Dialogue
Franz Guten Morgen. Sind Sie Herr Weiß?
Herr Schwarz Nein, ich bin Herr Schwarz. Wie heißt du?
Franz Ich heiße Franz. Danke Herr Schwarz. Ich bin spät dran.
Herr Schwarz Bitte, Franz. Ich bin auch spät dran. Bis später!
Franz Auf Wiedersehen!
Hellos and Goodbyes in German

German Vocabulary • audio (info • 144 kb • help)
Greetings Grüße
Hello! Hallo!*
Moin Moin! (used in northern Germany)
Grüß Gott! (used in southern Germany, Austria and South Tyrol)
Good morning! Guten Morgen!*
Good day! Guten Tag!*
Good evening! Guten Abend!*
Goodbye! Auf Wiedersehen!*
Bye! Tschüss!*
Later! Bis später!*, Bis dann!*
Good night! Gute Nacht!*
Many different German-speaking regions have their own ways of saying hello and goodbye. You will
not be required to know any of those for any problems or tests. You will need to know all of the
expression with a "*" after it though. The others, of course, would be useful to know if you are
traveling to the regions where they are used.
Formal and Informal Greetings in German
Germans respect higher authority with their choice of certain phrases. The more formal phrases above
are Guten Morgen, Guten Tag, and Auf Wiedersehen (as well as Grüß Gott). The less formal ones are
Tschüss. The other are neutral in the formal - informal chain.
Note: In Germany nowadays, "Tschüss" is also used with people who are not on first name terms.
Here are some examples:
• Claudia: Guten Morgen, Herr Wagner!
• Herr Wagner: Hallo, Claudia!
• Brigit: Tschau, Susi!
• Susi: Bis später, Brigit!
German Vocabulary
Mr. & Mrs. Herr und Frau
Mr. Herr
Mrs. Frau
Ms. Fraulein
Section Problems>>
The German Alphabet

German Grammar • audio (info • 690 kb • help)
The Alphabet Das Alphabet
Characters Aa Ää Bb Cc Dd Ee Ff Gg Hh Ii
Pronunciation ah äh bay tsay day ay ef gay hah ee
Characters Jj Kk Ll Mm Nn Oo Öö Pp Qq Rr
Pronunciation yot kah el em en oh öh pay coo air
Characters Ss ß Tt Uu Üü Vv Ww Xx Yy Zz
Pronunciation ess eszett tay oo diaresis fow vay iks ypsilon tset
The 26 letters in both German and English are shown above. One other letter, ß (the eszett 'ess-tset') is
used for (voiceless) 's'. It is used in case two s's (ss) or when a single s can't be used: between vowels or
in the end of words when the preceding vowel is long. Example: "der Fluss" (short u, English river),
but "der Fuß" (long u, English foot). Note that the eszett is not used in Switzerland. You always write
double s instead, even after long vowels. Therefore you write "Fluss" and "Fuss".
Another difference between German and English is the umlaut. The vowels a, o, and u can take an
umlaut (double dots above), becoming ä, ö, and ü. The umlaut changes the sound of the vowel. For
pronunciations of all the letters, go to the Pronunciation Guide in Appendix 1.
Notes:
• The umlauts are even used when spelling. Common words used to clarify a given letter are
Ärger (anger), Ökonom (economist) and Übermut (high spirits). To say "umlaut" after the letter
is an English custom used when spelling German words in English.
• In writing, the umlauts are sometimes substituted with the vowel plus e, i.e ae, oe and ue. You
find this in names as Goethe or in crosswords, but you don't use it in normal texts (Goethe is an
exception to the rules governing umlauts, always written with "oe"). However, if you have no
way to type umlauts you must use vowel-plus-e.
• In most search engines and online dictionaries, a vowel with umlaut can be entered as either the
simple vowel or in vowel-plus-e form. For example, if you wish to find "Ärger" you may enter
any of the following three search strings: "ärger", "aerger", "arger" (the last is incorrect writing,
and actually means something different! ("arg"=very bad/grim, "arger"= "grimmer").
To create the special umlaut and esszet characters on an english keyboard, you can use your numeric
keypad with the Alt key.
German Etc.
Alt keys for German characters
ß alt + 0223
ü alt + 0252
Ü alt + 0220
ö alt + 0246
Ö alt + 0214
ä alt + 0228
Ä alt + 0196
If you use Mac OS X these will work only if you choose "Unicode" keyboard layout, but you can add
umlauts with option-u and the ß with option-S.
Section Problems>>
Bitte buchstabieren Sie
Look at this short phone conversation. Try to read it aloud. The translation of words and phrases is
given below the text.
German Dialogue • audio (info • 405 kb • help)
Directory Assistance Fernsprechauskunft
Man A Auskunft, Guten Tag.
Man B Guten Tag. Ich hätte gern die Telefonnummer von Frau Claudia Bolliger aus Bern.
Man A Wie schreibt man das? Bitte buchstabieren Sie.
Natürlich. Claudia: C wie Cäsar, L wie Ludwig, A wie Anton, U wie Ursula, D wie Dora, I
Man B
wie Ida, A
wie Anton. Bolliger: B wie Berta, O wie Otto, zweimal L wie Ludwig, I wie Ida, G wie
Gustav, E wie
Emil und R wie Richard.
Man A Danke. Die Nummer lautet ...
Vocabulary and Phrases (from above)
German Vocabulary
Vocabulary Wortschatz
English German
Information Desk die Auskunft (no plural)
I would like to have Ich hätte gern(e)
Phone Number die Telefonnummer
from Berne aus Bern
How do you spell this? Wie schreibt man das?
Please Bitte
Spell Buchstabieren
Of course Natürlich
"A" as in Anton A wie Anton
Twice Zweimal
The number is die Nummer lautet
Nominative Case
Cases describe what a noun or pronoun does in a sentence. When a noun or pronoun is the subject of a
sentence, it is considered to be in the nominative case. For example, in the sentence "I ate an apple", I
is the subject and the apple is the direct object. You will learn more about cases as the course
continues.
German Grammar • audio (info • 87 kb • help)
Subject Pronouns Vorbehaltliche Pronomina
singular ich I
1st person
plural wir we
singular du, *Sie you
2nd person
plural ihr, *Sie you
singular er, sie, es he, she, it
3rd person
plural sie they
* - Sie is the formal (polite) version of du and ihr. In all conjugations, it acts exactly like sie (plural)
Section Problems>>
Names
German Grammar
Names Namen
English German
My name is... Ich heiße...
His/Her/Its name is... Er/Sie/Es heißt...
Their names are... Sie heißen...
Our names are... Wir heißen...
Your name is... Du heißt...
Your names are... Ihr heißt...
What is your name? Wie heißt du?
What are your names? Wie heißt ihr?
• To ask someone else's name, ask "Wie heißt..."

• For more than one person, "Wie heißen..."
Note: There are possessive pronouns in German, they just don't apply here.
Section Problems>>
Verbs
You have already learned one verb: heißen, to be called.
German Verb
heißen to be called
Singular Plural
first person ich heiße wir heißen
second person du heißt ihr heißt
er heißt
sie heißen
third person sie heißt
es heißt
Two more extremely common verbs are the German translations for 'to be' and 'to have': sein and
haben. They are conjugated like this:
German Verb
sein to be
Singular Plural
first person ich bin I am wir sind we are
second person du bist you are ihr sind you are
er ist he is
sie sind they are
third person sie ist she is
es ist it is
German Verb
haben to have
Singular Plural
first person ich habe wir haben
second person du hast ihr habt
er hat
sie haben
third person sie hat
es hat
Section Problems>>
[edit]
Wie geht's?
German Vocabulary
How are you? Wie geht's?
English German
How are you? Wie geht's?
Responses for Good
Great Prima
Good Gut
Very good Sehr gut
Responses for Bad
Miserable Miserabel
Bad Schlecht
Not good Nicht gut
Responses for Okay
Okay Ganz gut
Alright Es geht so
Section Problems>>
Articles
German, like many other languages, gives each noun a gender: Masculine, Feminine, and Neuter.
Plural is easy; the definite nominative Article is always die. And as in English there is no indefinite
article in plural. Nouns in plural form require different verbforms than nouns in singular.
In English, there are two different types of articles: definite (the) and indefinite (a and an). German is
the same, except that there are five different articles of each type. The nominitive case articles are as
follows:
Definite Articles
German Grammar
The Definite Article of the Nominative Case Der definitive Artikel des Nominativi
masculine der der Junge the boy
singular feminine die die Frau the woman
neuter das das Mädchen the girl
plural die die Jungen the boys
die Frauen the women
die Mädchen the girls
Indefinite Articles
German Grammar
The Indefinite Article of the Nominative Case Der unbestimmte Artikel des Nominativ
masculine ein ein Mann a man
singular feminine eine eine Frau a woman
neuter ein ein Mädchen a girl
Section Problems>>
Forming Questions
The common word order in a German sentence is the same as in English: Subject verb Objects. (SvO)
• Der Junge spielt Fußball.
The boy plays soccer.
This sentence is in the indicative mood, the mood that states a fact. The interrogative mood asks a
question. To change the English sentence "The boy throws the ball" to the interrogative mood, we
insert the helper verb "does" before "boy," ending with,"?". "Does the boy throw the ball?"
The process is very similar in German. However, since German verbs express both the simple and
progressive aspects, we switch the whole verb with the subject, ending up with,
• "Spielt der Junge Fußball?"
Does the boy play soccer
You have learned two questions so far: "Wie heißt...?" and "Wie geht's?". In German, there are two
basic ways to form a question. The first is the method described above. In addition to this, you can put
an interrogative adverb...
German Vocabulary
Questions Fragen
English German
Who? Wer?
What? Was?
Where? Wo?
When? Wann?
Why? Warum?
How? Wie?
The question "Wie heißt...?", directly translated, means "How is ... called?". That is why it does not
contain Was. These words come first in the sentence; the word order is: Interr. Adverb Verb Subject
Object. For example:
• Warum spielt der Junge Fußball?
Why does the boy play soccer?
You should note at this point that in German, the verb always comes second in the sentence, except
in the case of a question as described above. The subject is always next to the verb, if not in front of
it then following it. For example:
• Der Junge spielte am Montag Fußball.
The boy played soccer on Monday.
• Am Montag spielte der Junge Fußball.

On Monday, the boy played soccer.
At this point, you should know the words for "yes", ja and "no", nein respectively.
Section Problems>>
What's On the Test

To go straight to the lesson test, go here.
The test will have four parts to it: Grammar (18 points), Translating (34 points), Reading
Comprehension (28 points), and Vocabulary (20 points), in that order. The Grammar section will test
your ability to conjugate verbs given the infinitive and the subject. You will also have to know the
articles of certain nouns.
The Translating section is worth the most points, and it too has two sections. You must know the
translations for sentences and phrases going from English to German, and be able to take a German
dialogue and translate it back into English.
The third section, Reading Comprehension, is all Fill-in-the-Blank. You will get two dialogues and be
asked to fill in the blanks for these. Some of the hardest parts deal with the greetings, so make sure you
know these.
The last section is a vocabulary section. You get 28 English words on the left and 28 German words on
the right, and be asked to match them. To study for that, check out the 71 flashcards related to this
lesson at FlashcardExchange.com. That is the whole test. Take it!
Lesson 1.02 • Freizeit
Dialogue
Franz: Hallo, Greta! Wie spät ist es?
Greta: Es ist viertel vor drei.
Franz: Wirklich? Ich spiele Fußball um drei. Machst du Sport, Greta?
Greta: Nein, ich bin faul. Ich gehe jetzt nach Hause.
Franz: Fußball macht aber Spaß!
Greta: Bis dann.
Franz: Wiedersehen!
Sports and Activities

English German
sport(s) Sport
interests Hobbys
soccer Fußball
American football Football
volleyball Volleyball
basketball Basketball
tennis Tennis
baseball Baseball
9-pin bowling Kegeln
chess Schach
board game das Brettspiel
game das Spiel
homework Hausaufgaben
television Fernsehen
movie der Film
Section Problems>>
Spielen, Machen and Other Verbs

All three verbs that you were introduced to in Lesson 1 are irregular in some way. Most verbs,
however, follow the "Best Ten Ten" endings:
-en
ich -e wir -en
du -st ihr -t
er/sie/es -t sie -en
For example, the verbs spielen and machen.
spielen - to play
ich spiele wir spielen
du spielst ihr spielt
er/sie/es spielt sie spielen
machen - to do/make
ich mache wir machen
du machst ihr macht
er/sie/es macht sie machen
Applications
What are you doing? - Was machst du?

I play basketball. - Ich spiele Basketball.
Do you play soccer? - Spielst du Fußball?
I do homework. - Ich mache Hausaufgaben.
He does homework. - Er macht Hausaufgaben.
Do you play sports? - Machst du Sport?
Note the last sentence. In English one plays a sport, while in German one does a sport. You can also
use the w-words from Lesson 1 to make some more combinations.
Why do you play baseball? - Warum spielst du Baseball?
Who has homework? - Wer hat Hausaufgaben?
To say "not", use "nicht". "Nicht" goes after the verb but before the sport.
Who doesn't play soccer? - Wer spielt nicht Fußball?
We don't play tennis. - Wir spielen nicht Tennis.
Compound Sentences
Both German and English have compound sentences, using conjunctions. You may remember (maybe
from Conjunction Junction) that there are three common conjunctions, and, but and or. The German
translations for these are und (the d sounds a bit like a t), aber (ah-bare) and oder (oh-dare). You
already learned 'und' in Lesson 1.
The applications of these are enormous. They can be used in lists, but also in compound sentences. For
example, "I play basketball, and he also plays basketball." ("Ich spiele Basketball, und er spielt auch
Basketball.")
auch - also, too (used right after the verb)
Section Problems>>
Other Verbs and Their Conjugations
Here are some more verbs having to do with activities:

lesen - to read
schauen - to watch
sehen - to see
arbeiten - to work
schreiben - to write
schwimmen - to swim
Schauen, schreiben and schwimmen have normal conjugations. To figure a conjugation out, take off
the 'en' and put the appropriate ending on. For example, ich schwimme, du schwimmst, er schwimmt.
Arbeiten has a simple change. Whenever the ending starts with a consonant, an 'e' is added before it. In
other words, du arbeitest and er/sie/es/ihr arbeitet.
Lesen is an irregular verb. First, when forming the du-form, you do not add an extra 's'. The only other
change occurs in the du- and er/sie/es-forms. In both of these, the first 'e' becomes 'ie'. In other words,
du/er/sie/es liest and everything else is the same.
Sehen experiences only the second of those two changes. Du siehst und Er/sie/es sieht. Note that this
causes the er/sie/es- and ihr- forms to be different in both verbs.
Section Problems>>
Two More Verb Forms
There are two more verb forms in English that you will learn this lesson: the present progressive ("I am
playing, he is making"), and the affirmative "I do play, he does not play", which includes a form of 'to
do'.
It might be tempting to make the present progressive sentence, "I am playing." into "Ich bin spielen.".
After all, 'spielen' sounds a lot like 'play-ing', but that is not the definition. 'Spielen' means 'to play',
which makes "Ich bin spielen." into "I am to play.", not at all what you are trying to say. So it is not
"Ich bin spielen."
The second phrase, "I do play", is another tricky one. This one may seem like, "Ich mache spielen." But
don't forget, there are no helping verbs in German. "Ich mache spielen." just doesn't work.
Both of the phrases above are simplified in German. Instead of "I am playing." and "I do play.",
German makes them both simply "I play." When using 'not', instead of "does not play", you get "plays
not". This may sound like old English, and there you see where English came from, and why it is called
a "Germanic" language.
Section Problems>>
Expressing likes and dislikes
In German, there are several ways to express likes and dislikes. One casual way is to use the
combination of the verb haben and gern. For example, "Ich habe ____ gern." means "I like ____.".
"Ich spiele gern ____." means "I like to play ____." Note: gern means something like "gladly" in
comparison with English.
For example, "Ich spiele gern Football." or "Was machst du gern?".
To express preference (comparative), use lieber instead of gern. For example, "Wir spielen lieber
Fußball."
To express favorites (superlative), you use am liebsten, meaning "most of all", in the same context as
lieber. For example, "Ich spiele am liebsten Schach.".
To express dislikes, use nicht gern instead of gern.
For example: "Wir spielen nicht gern Football."
Section Problems>>
Numbers
The first big unit in this Level 1 is time. German time is very much like English time. However, we
must begin with German numbers.
Deutsch English Deutsch English
eins one dreizehn thirteen
zwei two vierzehn fourteen
drei three fünfzehn fifteen
vier four -zehn -teen
fünf five
sechs six zwanzig twenty
sieben seven dreißig thirty
acht eight vierzig forty
neun nine -zig -ty
zehn ten
elf eleven siebzehn seventeen
zwölf twelve siebzig seventy
This table shows the basic numbers in German. To say, twenty-one, say "Einundzwanzig" - all one
word. 'Eins' drops its 's' whenever it is in that position. Therefore, that means "One and twenty", in
German.
One more change happens at 16 and 60: Instead of creating a word with 'sz' (sechszig, sechszehn), the
's' is dropped, creating sechzig (60) and sechzehn (16), pronounced as in "ich".
Watch out for 'Dreißig'. It is not formed with -zig at the end like all other decades ("zwanzig, vierzig,
fünfzig, ...")!
To say numbers higher than 99:
hundred - Hundert
thousand - Tausend
For example, 2984 is said, "Zweitausendneunhundertvierundachtzig." (Zwei tausend neun hundert vier
und achtzig) (2 × 1000) + (9 × 100) + 4 & 80
Section Problems>>
Time
Asking the Time
In German, there are two common ways to ask the time. You can say, "Wie viel Uhr ist es?", which
means literally, "What time is it?". However, it is seldom used anymore. The more common way is to
say, "Wie spät ist es?", even though this only means, "How late is it?".
Specific times can be expressed in two ways: exact form ("Four thirty-seven"), or before/after form
("Twenty-three to five").
Exact form
This form is the same as English. To say, "It is 10:15 a.m.", say "Es ist Zehn Uhr Fünfzehn." Notice the
Uhr. This means "o'clock", but is used in all exact times.
Germans use a 24-hour clock, like other countries in Europe and American military time. To convert to
American time, if it is above 12, subtract 12. So Achtzehn Uhr is the equivalent of (18 - 12 =) 6 p.m. in
American time. To convert to German time, add 12 if it is p.m. (Except for 12 p.m., see below.) 4 p.m.
is therefore Sechzehn Uhr.
If given an hour below 12, it is a.m.
The counting of hours starts from zero. So, in German, the time between midnight and 1 a.m. is 0:__.
11 p.m. would be 23:00. Note that noon (12 p.m.) is Zwölf Uhr and midnight (12 a.m.) is Null Uhr. In
rare occasions, 24:00 might be used, which implies that you mean 'that particular' day (ignoring that in
fact a new weekday has started at midnight) So, if someone says "Montag, 24:00", assume its at the end
of the day of monday (Tuesday 12 a.m. midnight). "Montag, 0:00" would be Monday 12 a.m. midnight.
Hours greater than 24 are never used.
"Noon" is said as "Mittag", and "Midnight" is "Mitternacht"
In Germany, it is also not uncommon in everyday contexts to use the 12-hour clock. In that case,
"vormittags" (literally 'before noon') corresponds to a.m., while "nachmittags" (after noon) means p.m.
"Abends" (in the evening) is commonly used in place of "nachmittags" for times later than 5 p.m. (6
Uhr abends = 6 p.m.) Also, as in English, you can omit "vormittags" and "nachmittags" if it's obvious
from the context. However, since this is nothing new (in comparison to English), you will not be tested
on it.
Section Problems>>
Before/After the Hour
After - nach
Till - vor
Use the same form as in English. For example, 10:57 can be said as, "drei vor Elf." Likewise, 4:10
would be "zehn nach Vier." Typically, use the smaller number with 'nach' or 'vor'. Don't say,
"siebenundfünfzig nach Zehn."
Note: This is only used with informal time telling. You don't use 'Uhr', and you forget all about the 24
hour clock. See above for more information.
There are also a couple more words for :15, :45, and :30...
quarter - Viertel
half before - Halb
quarter before - Dreiviertel (used mostly in eastern Germany, in most other regions you won't be
understood)
Use these words just as you use others, except that you don't need a vor when using halb. For example,
11:30 can be said as, "Halb zwölf" and 5:15 can be said as "Viertel nach Fünf", 5:45 would be "Viertel
vor Sechs" or "Dreiviertel Sechs".
Section Problems>>
Saying When You Do Something
Wann spielst du Football? (Football means American Football. The much more popular soccer would
be "Fußball", which lit. means Football)
To say you play a sport at a certain time in English, you would answer, "I play football at 3:30." This is
all the same in German, with the translation of 'at' being um. That makes the above response "Ich spiele
Football um halb Vier." or "Ich spiele Football um fünfzehn Uhr dreißig.".
Section Problems>>
Other Time
Times of Day
In German and English, many times one would want to approximate, such as "tomorrow afternoon".
Here are the German translations:
English Deutsch
the day der Tag
today heute
tomorrow morgen
the day after tomorrow übermorgen
yesterday gestern
the day before yesterday vorgestern
(early) morning Morgen*
morning Vormittag
afternoon Nachmittag
evening Abend
night Nacht
*In German, except the capitalization, the words for "morning" and "tomorrow" are the same: morgen. If you want to say
tomorrow morning use morgen früh (meaning: early on the next day) instead of Morgen morgen.
The words above can be combined into phrases like "heute Nachmittag" or "gestern Abend". Note that
the time of day stays capitalized (it is a noun) and the day stays lowercase (it is an adverb).
Section Problems>>
Days and Months
German days and months are very similar to English months:

English Deutsch
Monday Montag
Tuesday Dienstag
Wednesday Mittwoch
Thursday Donnerstag
Friday Freitag
Saturday Samstag (or Sonnabend)
Sunday Sonntag
January Januar (or Jänner in Austria)

February Februar(or very rarely Feber)
March März
April April
May Mai
June Juni (or rarely Juno*)
July Juli (or rarely Julei*)
August August
September September
October Oktober
November November
December Dezember
* Juni and Juli sounds very similar. Sometimes Juno and Julei are used to separate the months, but only in spoken words.
Note the order of the days of the week. The German week begins on Monday.
To say "on Monday", say "am Montag" or whatever applies. To say "in January", say "im Januar" or
whatever applies. This is the same for all of the days and months.
You can also combine the times of day from earlier with the days of the week. But they're both nouns.
To do this, therefore, we must combine the two words into one, as in "Dienstagnacht" (Tuesday night).
Section Problems>>
Dates
English Deutsch
first of (month) erster
second of (month) zweiter
third of (month) dritter
fourth of (month) vierter
seventh of
siebter
(month)
eighth of (month) achter
-th of (below 20) -ter
tenth of zehnter
twentieth of zwanzigster
thirty-first of einunddreißigster
-th of (20 to 31) -ster
on (the) am (see below!)
If you want to say, for example "on the 25th of December", simply say "am fünfundzwanzigsten
Dezember.", in other cases you say "fünfundzwanzigster Dezember" or "der fünfundzwanzigste
Dezember".
In Germany, dates are written out in the logical order Day . Month . Year, instead of the American
Month / Day / Year. For example, vierzehnter August is written as 14.8. Please note that German uses a
dot instead of a slash. Do not use the slash in dates, as it is unusual and confusing because you cannot
tell if "4/6" means 4th of June (4.6.) or 6th of April (6.4.)
Section Problems>>
Birthdays
Birthday - Geburtstag
To say, "My birthday is on July 20th", say, "Ich habe am zwanzigsten Juli Geburtstag." Note the order;
it translates back literally as "I have on the 20th of July birthday." This kind of thing is common in
German.
To celebrate someone's birthday in German, there are two common phrases. Simply "Happy Birthday"
is "Alles Gute zum Geburtstag!" (lit. Everything good to the birthday) and "Best wishes on your
birthday!" is "Herzlichen Glückwunsch zum Geburtstag!" (hearty congratulation to the birthday.) If
you were sending a card, you would most likely use the second one.
Section Problems>>
Seasons
Spring - Frühling
Summer - Sommer
Autumn/Fall - Herbst
Winter - Winter
in (the) - im
For example, to say "in Summer", say "im Sommer". To say "I play baseball in summer.", say "Ich
spiele Baseball im Sommer.".
Section Problems>>
Periods of Time
If you want to express a certain period of time, but it doesn't have a specific name, like Nachmittag,
you can do it like this:
von (starting time) bis (ending time).
This is the same as from ... till ... in English.
This can also apply with dates. For example, "Wir haben Schule (school) von Montag bis Freitag".
Exceptions: "Wir haben frei vom fünfundzwanzigsten Dezember bis zum zweiten Januar".
Section Problems>>
How often?
Wie oft?
There are many ways to answer this question. Two are "once/twice/three times in a ...", or
"always/often/never.".
A Number or Times
To say, "once a month", or "four times a week", add "mal" to the end of the number and say "in the ...".
Here are the translations for "in the ...":
Day - am Tag
Week - in der Woche or die Woche
Month - im Monat
Year - im Jahr
Weekend - am Wochenende
Morning - am Morgen or morgens
Evening - am Abend or abends
Afternoon - am Nachmittag or nachmittags
Night - in der Nacht or nachts
For example, "We bowl twice a week." is "Wir kegeln zweimal in der Woche."
Section Problems>>
Often Adverbs
always - immer
most of the time - meistens
often - oft
sometimes - manchmal
seldom - selten
never - nie
only - nur
To apply these words, put them in the sentence, after the verb and subject, but before the
sport/activity. You can also use 'nur' to say things like, "Sie spielt nur manchmal Tennis." Note that if
this is translated word-for-word, it becomes, "She plays only sometimes tennis.", not "She only
sometimes plays tennis." or "She only plays tennis sometimes." That's just the way German is.
Section Problems>>
Time-Related Words
Time - die Zeit

Free time - die Freizeit
To say you have time, ignore the 'die'. To say when, insert other phrases you have learned this lesson.
For example, "Ich habe am Samstagabend Zeit." Note that the word order is the same as that of
birthdays. You can use Freizeit in the same way.
*Note that while "die Zeit" means "the time", the phrase "Hast du die Zeit?" ("Do you have the time?") is not used to
inquire about what time it is. You can, however, use the phrase to inquire as to whether or not someone has time to do
something.
Section Problems>>
What's On the Test

To go straight to the lesson test, go here.
The test will have four parts to it: Grammar (79 points), Translating (95 points), Reading
Comprehension (20 points), Vocabulary (20 points), and Previous Topics (10 points) in that order. The
Grammar section will test your ability to know the verbs from this lesson and it's various visions, to
know articles - the genders of them and the correct usage of them, and correct word order.
The Translating section is worth the most points, and it too has three sections. You must know the
translations for sentences and phrases going from English to German, and be able to take a German
dialogue and translate it back into English. Also you must know the translation from Numbers to
German.
The third section, Reading Comprehension, is Comprehension Questions you must know how to read
the conversion and after reading you will be asked question on the previous conversion.
The fourth section is a vocabulary section. You get 20 English words on the left and 20 German words
on the right, and be asked to match them. To study for that, check out the 401 flashcards related to this
lesson at FlashcardExchange.com Part I and FlashcardExchange.com Part II.
The last section, Previous Topics, is a quick review on Lesson 1 to get ready for this section, just look
at some past notes or go to Lesson 1 and study. That is the whole test. Take it!
Lesson 1.03 • Essen
Dialogue
Franz: Hallo, Greta! Wie geht's?
Greta: Sehr gut. Ich habe Hunger.
Franz: Ich auch. Möchtest du etwas essen?
Greta: Ja!
(In der Gaststätte)
Greta: Ich möchte Salat, Brot und Wasser.

Franz: Hast du jetzt keinen Hunger?
Greta: Nein, ich habe großen Hunger. Was bekommst du?
Franz: Ich bekomme ein Stück Apfelstrudel und einen Eisbecher.
Greta: Warum das? Du sollst eine Bratwurst nehmen.
Franz: Nein, ich bin zufrieden. Ich habe keinen großen Hunger.
Greta: Ach so, dann ist das genug.
(Nach zwanzig Minuten.)
Greta: Diese Gaststätte ist schrecklich! Ich möchte etwas zu essen!

Franz: Wir gehen!
Food!
Here are some things you might order at a restaurant, fast food or sit-down:
Appetizers (die Vorspeise, Vorspeisen)
Salad - der Salat
Bread - das Brot
Breadstick - die Scheibe Brot
Main Dishes (das Hauptgericht, Hauptgerichte)

Sausage - die Wurst
Sausages - die Würste
Bratwurst - die Bratwurst
Hot Dog - das (or der) Hot Dog
Pizza - die Pizza
Pizzas - die Pizzen (or die Pizzas)
Hamburger - der Hamburger (pronounced either like the City of Hamburg, or like in
English)
Hamburgers - die Hamburger
with - mit (ignore article)
without - ohne (ignore article)
Tomatoes - Tomaten
Lettuce - der Salat
Cheese - der Käse
Pickles - die Gurken OR die Gewürzgurken (more precise)
Onions - die Zwiebeln
Ketchup - der (or das) Ketchup
Mustard - der Senf
Chicken - das Hähnchen
Chickens - die Hähnchen
Seafood - die Meeresfrüchte (plural)
Fish - (der) Fisch
Sides (die Beilage (singular), die Beilagen (plural))

Soup - die Suppe
Soups - die Suppen
Noodle Soup - die Nudelsuppe
French Fries - die Pommes frites (plural)
This word is pronounced French, so it sounds like "pomm fritt".
Fries - die Pommes or die Fritten (both informal and plural)
This time it's not pronounced French; rather you say 'pommis'.
Pasta - die Pasta or die Nudeln
Potato - die Kartoffel
Potato - (in Austria) Erdapfel (earth apple)
Potatoes - die Kartoffeln
Potatoes - (Austria) Erdäpfel
Mashed Potatoes - der Kartoffelbrei
Fried Potatoes - die Bratkartoffeln (plural)
Corn - Mais
Corn on the Cob - Maiskolben
Bean - die Bohne (not green beans)
Beans - die Bohnen
Desserts (die Nachspeise, Nachspeisen or der Nachtisch)

Gâteau - Die (Sahne-)Torte
Strudel - der Strudel
Apple strudel - Apfelstrudel
Cherry strudel - Kirschstrudel
Poppy seed strudel - Mohnstrudel
Cake - der Kuchen
Piece of Cake - das Stück Kuchen
Pie - die Pastete
Piece of Pie - das Stück Pastete
Apple Pie - die Apfelpastete
Ice Cream - das Eis
Bowl of Ice Cream - der Eisbecher
Pudding - der Pudding
Cookie - der Keks
Cookies - die Kekse
Fruit - das Obst
The Meal - das Essen

Lunch - Mittagessen (noon meal)
Dinner - Abendessen (evening meal)
This list of foods (die Speise, Speisen) is very useful. Print it out and keep it. Of course it is
recommended that you memorize all of the translations and genders of these foods, but the lesson
problems and test will only require the bolded ones to be memorized.
Accusative Case
As you know from the Intro, in German, there are four cases. Three are used often. The first,
Nominative Case, you learned in Lesson 1. It covers the subject, and the predicate noun (in "He is
(noun).", (noun) is the predicate noun). The second, the Accusative Case, you will learn now. It covers
the direct object and the object of several prepositions. The third, the Dative Case will be taught later
on. It covers the indirect object and the object of many other prepositions.
Note: The Accusative Case and Dative Case are identical in English; that's where the extra case comes
from.
Articles
Masculine Feminine Neuter Plural

Definite Article den die das die
Indefinite Article einen eine ein -eine*
* The indefinite article for plurals is non-existant. However related words, such as possessives and the kein- words
that you will learn later this lesson, will end in eine for plurals.
In the articles, the memory hook for accusative case is "Der goes to den (pronounced "dain") and the
rest stay the same.". The masculine indefinite article goes to einen, and everything else stays the same
there. Therefore above, der Hamburger goes to den Hamburger and ein Hamburger goes to einen
Hamburger when the hamburger is the direct object, such as in "Er hat einen Hamburger." ("He has a
hamburger.")
If you are getting confused, it's fine. This topic is one of the hardest for English speakers to grasp. Here
are some solutions:
To find out the case of something, first find the verb. The verb rules the sentence. Everything revolves
around it. Next you find the subject of the sentence. The subject is the thing/person that is doing the
verb. The subject is always in the Nominative Case, so it takes on the der, die, das, die, or ein,
eine, ein.
Now you look back at the verb. If it is a being verb (am, are, is, etc.), the next noun after the verb is the
predicate noun. An easy way to figure this out is to write an equation. If the verb can be replaced with
an equals sign (=), then the following noun is a predicate noun. If it can't be replaced by an equals sign,
refer to the next paragraph. The predicate noun is also always in the Nominative Case, so the same
rules apply to it.
Ich bin ein Junge.
Sie ist eine Frau.
If the verb of the sentence is an action verb (playing, throwing, making, eating), find what the subject is
doing the verb to. For example, if the verb is "makes" (macht), you look for what is being made. That is
the direct object. The direct object is always in the Accusative Case, so it takes on the den, die, das,
die, or einen, eine, ein.
Sie haben den Cheeseburger.
Habt ihr einen Salat?
The indefinite articles, when you just look at their endings, go -, e, -, e for nominative case, and en, e, -,
e for accusative. This can be memorized as "Blankie, Blankie, Any Blankie."
Remember, between nominative and accusative, the only third-person change is in the masculine form.
Pronouns
The pronouns experience a much bigger change than the articles. This is also true in English, as the
articles (a, an, the) do not change ever, but I goes to me, we goes to us, etc.
Not everything is the same, though. While me is mich and us is uns, the second and third persons
undergo different changes. In third person, as in the articles, the only change is in masculine singular.
Following the "der goes to den" rule, er goes to ihn when in the accusative case.
The second person in English never changes. In German, du goes to dich and ihr goes to euch. Sie, the
formal version of either, stays the same. Remember, Sie (2nd person formal) and sie (3rd person plural)
only differ in their meanings and the fact that the former is capitalized and the latter is not. This stays
true throughout German grammar.
Here is a tabular representation of the above.
Person Singular Plural
English German English German
1st me mich us uns
2nd you dich you (y'all) euch
him, her,
3rd ihn, sie, es them sie
it
Antecedents
Note: This is just a quick lesson in English grammar applied into German. If you already know all
about antecedents in English, skip the first paragraph.
When using a pronoun, you have to know what it is for it to work. There are some rare exceptions, such
as in mysteries or drama, but otherwise this is always true. Sometimes in dialogue this is taken care of
by pointing or making some other gesture, but most of the time, the pronoun modifies something
already mentioned. The object/person mentioned earlier that turns into a pronoun later is called
the antecedent.
In German this is very useful. You can't simply say 'it' anymore. Many food words are masculine and
feminine, and when you turn them into pronouns, they turn into 'he', 'she', 'him', and 'her', not always
'it'. For example, the sentence "The cheeseburger tastes good. It's very crunchy." turns into "The
cheeseburger tastes good. He's very crunchy." Note: You will learn how to say this in German later in
this lesson.
Why is it "he"? This is where the antecedent comes in. Because there are foods that are masculine and
feminine in German, you can't assume the 'es'. You have to look back at the previous sentence, at the
antecedent, der Cheeseburger. "Der Cheeseburger" is replaced by er (since it is the subject, and
therefore in Nominative Case). Therefore, all you need to know are these connections: der/den-er/ihn,
die-sie, das-es, die-sie.
Food-Related Verbs
• essen (I) - to eat, to be eating, to do eat
• trinken - to drink, to be drinking, to do drink
• bekommen - to get/receive, to be getting/receiving, to do get/receive
• möchten (M) - would like
• wollen (M) - to want, to be wanting, to do want
Of these five verbs, only trinken and bekommen are regular. Essen is irregular (that's what the "I"
means). Do you remember from the last lesson 'lesen' and 'sehen'? In both of them, the first 'e' changed
to 'ie' in the du- and er/sie/es-forms. Well essen experiences the same change, except that it changes to
'i', not 'ie'. Also, it acts the same as 'lesen' in the du-form: You don't have three s's in a row.
Therefore, du/er/sie/es isst and everything else is the same.
Isst sounds and looks a lot like ist. The minute difference happens to be in the way you pronounce the
s. When you mean eats it is sometimes an overstressed hissing (i.e. extremely sharp) sound. In normal
life Germans, too, can only tell which verb is meant from knowing the context.
Just like in last lesson, where you could say, "Ich spiele gerne Fußball.", you can also extend it to food.
"I like to eat cheeseburgers." is translated as "Ich esse gerne Cheeseburger."
The last two verbs (marked (M)) are modals. They will be discussed in the next section.
[edit]
Modals
In the introduction, you learned that German has no helping verbs. Instead, they have modals, words
that basically do the same thing.
Modals are conjugated very differently from normal verbs. The ich- and er/sie/es-forms are always the
same, while the du-form adds an 'st'. Most modals experience a vowel change from singular to plural,
and the rest is the same.
Möchten
Möchten isn't technically a modal, but it acts exactly the same. There is no vowel change, and the ich-
and er/sie/es forms are "möchte". Here is the complete conjugation:
1st ich möchte wir möchten
2nd du möchtest ihr möchtet
3rd er/sie/es möchte sie möchten
Möchten means "would like" and can be applied to food (i.e. Ich möchte einen Cheeseburger.).
Möchten can be translated even more literally as "would like to", and is traditionally used with an
infinitive verb at the end of the sentence (i.e. "Ich möchte jetz gehen"/"I would like to go now").
However, this infinitive is not neccesary if it's completely obvious what you're talking about (If you say
"Ich möchte einen Cheeseburger", everyone will assume that you would like a cheeseburger to eat.)
(Note: Technically, "möchten" is not a word. The above cited conjugation is actually the "Konjunktiv"
of "mögen", which has become so popular as a phrase, that even many Germans today aren't aware of it
anymore, so you don't need to worry about it. "Etwas mögen" means "to like sth", and "I would like" is
the closest translation of "ich möchte")
Wollen
Wollen is a true modal; it even changes vowels. Ich/er/sie/es will and du willst. Here is the complete
conjugation:
1st ich will wir wollen
2nd du willst ihr wollt
3rd er/sie/es will sie wollen
Wollen can also be applied to food, but may be considered impolite and demanding ("Ich will einen
Cheeseburger!" roughly means "I demand a cheeseburger!" Möchten should be used instead: "Ich
möchte einen Chesseburger!" = "I want a chesseburger!").
Wollen should not be confused with the future tense, despite the presence of the English word 'will' in
the conjugations. However, will can also mean an intent or a document showing what one wants to
happen. So it is not so different from 'to want' as possibly originally presumed.
Modals with other verbs
When you need to use another verb with a modal (Such as expressing you would like or want to
preform an action) the sentence's word order is somewhat different than it would be in English. In
English you would state the subject pronoun (such as "I"), an English equivalent to the modal verb
(such as "want"), the action you want to preform (such as "to eat") and than what the action will be
preformed on (such as "hamburger"), making the sentence "I want to eat a hamburger." In German you
must put the action at the end of the sentence, making the sentence "I want a hamburger to eat." ("Ich
will einen Hamburger essen.")
Hunger and Thirst

In German, instead of saying, "I'm hungry.", you say "I have hunger." The same applies to thirst. Here
are the German translations:
Hunger - der Hunger (hoon-gare) OR (hoong-er)<-Perhaps a dialect.
Thirst - der Durst
Like in English, these two words do not have a plural form. When using them, you don't need to worry
about the 'der'; you can just say, "Ich habe Hunger." to say "I am hungry".
Formal Conversations
In Lesson 1, you learned how to talk formally, using phrases like "Guten Morgen!" and "Wie heißen
Sie?". There are, however, a few words that are 'survival words' in Germany, specifically
Danke - Thank you, Thanks
Bitte - Please and You're welcome.
To make this even more formal, you can tack on the word 'schön' to the end of "Thank you" and
"You're welcome" to make 'dankeschön' and 'bitteschön' (both one word) in response. Schön literally
means 'pretty' (you'll relearn this next lesson), so it turns those everyday phrases into compliments
("Thanks, pretty.").
Some other ways to say "thank you":
• Dankeschön - Thank you very much
• Danke sehr - Thanks a lot
• Herzlichen Dank ("herzlichen" means sincere or from the heart; you may remember it from
"Herzlichen Glückwunsch zum Geburtstag!" last lesson)
• Vielen Dank - Thanks a lot
• Tausend Dank* - Thanks a million (literally means a thousand, but no one ever says "Thanks a
thousand.")
• Aufrichtigen Dank* - would be "thank you sincerely" (very formal)
* - You will not be tested on these phrases.
Some other ways to say "You are welcome":
• Bitteschön!
• Bitte sehr!
• Gern geschehen! (Don't mention it)
• Gerne!
• Kein Problem! (No problem)
• Dafür nicht!* - (Do) not (thank me) for this (only used in Northern Germany)
* - You will not be tested on this phrase.
Kein-words
Twice you have been taught that the ending of the indefinite article for plurals would be eine (for
Nominative and Accusative cases), if there was an indefinite article for plurals. Now that lesson
applies. The kein-words have the same endings as the ein-words, and they mean the opposite: no, not
any, none. For example, "kein Cheeseburger" means "no cheeseburger". "Keine Cheeseburger" (in this
case Cheeseburger is plural) means "No cheeseburgers". Notice the 'e' at the end of 'keine'. That's the
ending for plurals and feminine nouns and can be likened to the "der, die, das -> die" relationship,
where the feminine article serves for the plural as well.
Ordering at a Restaurant in Germany
Restaurant - das Restaur'ant' (pronounciated French)
at (the) - beim
There are many restaurants you might find in Germany. Much like in English-speaking countries, you
would more likely use the name of the restaurant than name what kind of restaurant. If you want to
adress the wish to eat a certain food, there are two ways:
example: "wanting to eat chinese food"
1. "Ich möchte gerne zum Chinesen." - literally: "I want to go to the Chinese (restaurant)." 2. "Ich
möchte gerne chinesisch essen (gehen)." - literally: "I want to (go) eat Chinese (style)."
Here are some more restaurants you can find in Germany:
• Chinese food: "zum Chinesen" / "chinesisch essen"
• Japanese food: "zum Japaner" / "japanisch essen"
• American food: "zum Amerikaner" / "amerikanisch essen"
• Mexican food: "zum Mexikaner" / "mexikanisch essen"
• Arabic food: "zum Araber" / "arabisch essen"
• Italian food: "zum Italiener" / "italienisch essen"
• Indian food: "zum Inder" / "indisch essen"
• French food: "zum Franzosen" / "französich essen"
• Greek food: "zum Griechen" / "griechisch essen"
• Turkish food: "zum Türken" / "türkisch essen"
Accusative case prepositions

You read at the beginning of this lesson that the Accusative Case covers the direct object and the
objects of some prepositions. Here are those prepositions that always fall under Accusative Case
Durch - through
Für - for
Gegen - against
Ohne - without
Um - at, around
These prepositions can be memorized easily using a common tune. "It's a Small World After All" and
"Mary Had a Little Lamb" both work well for this.
You learned um last lesson, and ohne earlier this lesson. Durch and gegen will be taught in depth later,
and für will be taught now.
Up until this point, you have only worried about the Accusative Case in third person. Für, meaning
'for', can and should be used in the first and second persons, too. Here's an example:
"The cheeseburger is for me." - "Der Cheeseburger ist für mich."
As you can see, 'me' is put into accusative case because the preposition is für.
Saying How Food Tastes
In German (as in English) there are several ways of telling how food tastes. You can do this with 'gut'
and 'schlecht' from Lesson 1 to say:
Der Cheeseburger schmeckt gut - The meal tastes good
Der Cheeseburger schmeckt schlecht - The meal tastes bad
But this is vague. Why do you think it tastes good? You can use the following words to more acutely
describe how the cheeseburger tastes:
• delicious - lecker
• delicious - delikat* (a lot more formal than lecker)
• tasty - schmackhaft
• juicy - saftig*
• crunchy - knackig
• crispy - knusprig*
• spicy - würzig, pikant
• stale, tasteless - fade* (Austria: fad)
• salty - salzig
• oversalted - versalzen*
• sweet - süß
• bitter - bitter
• sour - sauer
• creamy - cremig*
• hot (in the sense of "very spicy") - scharf
• hot (in the sense of "very warm") - heiß
• burnt - angebrannt*
• cold - kalt
• disgusting - schrecklich
* - You will not be tested on these descriptors.
Schmecken is a regular verb. Here is it's conjugation:
1st ich schmecke wir schmecken
2nd du schmeckst ihr schmeckt
3rd er/sie/es schmeckt sie schmecken
The first and second persons really shouldn't be used. No one is going to say, "You guys taste salty" or
"I taste creamy" (at least hopefully). So the only forms you need to know are er/sie/es schmeckt and sie
(plural) schmecken.
You can use 'schmeckt' and 'schmecken' or 'ist' and 'sind' to state how the food tastes. Just use
whichever one you would use in English and it'll be correct.
Although the English meaning of schmecken is simply to taste, "Schmeckt der Cheeseburger?" can be
taken in a positive way to mean "Do you like the cheeseburger?". In other words, schmecken alone can
mean to taste good.
Dieser-forms
"The cheeseburger tastes good." does not sound that specific as to which cheeseburger you are talking
about. You could be talking about some other cheeseburger than the one in front of you. It just isn't
clear. Now, if you said, "This cheeseburger tastes good.", it would be obvious that you're talking about
the cheeseburger you're eating. 'Dieser' is the German translation for 'this': "Dieser Cheeseburger
schmeckt gut."
Dieser
Dieser is a special adjective. It changes forms in different situations: different genders and different
cases. It can also mean 'these' when modifying a plural. Here are its forms:
Nominative Case dieser diese dieses diese
Accusative Case diesen diese dieses diese
As you can see, dieser is only appropriate for modifying masculine nouns in nominative case. But
'Cheeseburger', which is masculine, is the subject of the sentence, "Dieser Cheeseburger schmeckt gut."
So it is correct in that circumstance.
You may be wondering why 'dieser' is how it is presented as a whole. After all, it only applies to
masculine nouns in the nominative case, while 'diese' applies for both feminine and plural nouns,
nominative and accusative case. But to be gender-less, you could use 'dieses' instead. It's the fact that
you could use any of those in the nominative case to summarize the word. Dieser's location in the upper
left hand corner makes it stand out and get chosen.
Jeder
Jeder means 'every'. It acts exactly like 'dieser' in its endings, so it should be easy to remember. Here
are the different forms:
Masculine Feminine Neuter
Nominative Case jeder jede jedes
Accusative Case jeden jede jedes
Notice the absence of the plural form. When you think about this, it's the same in English: no one says
'every books'.
Welcher
'Welcher' is the third of this threesome of adjectives. 'Welcher' means 'which', the seventh w-word so
far (wer, was, wann, wo, warum, wie, and welcher). Its forms have the same endings as 'dieser'.
Nominative Case welcher welche welches welche
Accusative Case welchen welche welches welche
Connection with Time
You might want to say 'every day', 'this week', 'every morning', or 'which Tuesday night?'. But to do
this, not only do you need to know the jeder-forms, but also the genders of the times and the cases. The
second one is easy: Whenever you do something at a certain time, that time is put into Accusative
Case. Last lesson, you learned the gender of one time: der Tag. So now you know everything to say
'diesen Tag', 'jeden Tag', and 'welchen Tag?' (this day, every day, and which day?). Here are the cases
of all the times in Lesson 2:
Masculine Feminine Neuter
• Tag • Woche • Jahr
• Monat • Nacht • Wochenende
• Morgen
• Abend
• Nachmittag
When extending to 'which Tuesday night?', remember that the night stays feminine on Tuesday, so it
stays "Welche Dienstagnacht?". Likewise, you can say 'every June' the same as 'every month': 'jeden
Juni'.
This and That
Ich möchte einen Cheeseburger. Der schmeckt sehr gut.

Ich esse jeden Tag Cheeseburger. Die habe ich gern.
Look at the second sentence of each of these German dialogues. What's missing? That's right, instead
of "Der Cheeseburger schmeckt sehr gut." and "Die Cheeseburger habe ich gern.", both of the
'Cheeseburger's, so to speak, are dropped. We're left with just the articles, only in this case, they aren't
articles. They're demonstrative pronouns.
Demonstrative pronouns aren't scary. They're just the same as the normal pronouns, only they give
more oomph to the sentence. They can be translated as either 'this' or 'that' ("I'd like a cheeseburger.
That tastes very good."), or 'these' or 'those' for plurals ("I eat cheeseburgers every day. These I like.").
Demonstrative pronouns are exactly the same as the definite articles (well, there is one change in
dative, but that will be covered in Lesson 7). If you are not sure of the gender (meaning in context, the
speaker doesn't know, not that you've forgotten that it's 'der Cheeseburger'), use 'das', like in "Was ist
das?" (What is that?).
Money and Paying
1 Euro Coin
Germany, Austria, Luxemburg, Belgium and Südtirol – in other words: all German speaking regions
except Switzerland and Liechtenstein– have given up their former currencies and adopted the Euro as
of 1999. One Euro is worth 100 Cents. Because they are not members of the European Union,
Switzerland and Liechtenstein have kept the Swiss Francs (Franken = 100 Rappen).
'Euro' normally does not change in the plural in German, so you would still say "Ich habe 500 Euro."
Nevertheless, there is an exception: Euro coins. If you say "Ich habe vier Euros.", you actually are
saying that you have four 1-Euro coins. Because the backsides of euro coins look different in each
country, many people in Europe have started collecting foreign euro coins. In this case you can say "Ich
habe irische Euros." (I have Irish euro coins.) for example.
There is not yet a rule whether or not the word "Cent" has a different plural form. The majority of
Germans are using the word "Cent" as a plural form, but when they don't it is simply "Cents".
In German "euro" is pronounced [‘oi-ro], not [you-ro]. For "Cent" there are two pronunciations: you
can either pronounce it as in English or you say "tzent". The latter version seams to be preferred by
older people.
When at a restaurant, you will want to pay at the end. You can use this vocabulary to help you.
to pay - zahlen
the bill - die Rechnung
the waiter - der Ober
"How much is that?" - "Was macht das?" ("What does that make?")
To ask for the bill you can say, "Bitte zahlen!", or make it a complete sentence: "Ich möchte zahlen!",
or "Wir möchten/wollen zahlen!". You can also say, "(Herr Ober), die Rechnung bitte!"
Review 1.01
Vocabulary
I Ich
We Wir
You Du
Sie (formal)
You All Ihr
Sie (formal)
He Er
She Sie
It Es
They Sie
Have Habe (1st Person, Singular)

Hast (2nd Person, Singular)
Haben (1st & 3rd Person, Plural)
Habt (2nd Person, Plural)
Has Hat
Am Bin
Are Bist (1st Person, Singular)
Sind (1st & 3rd Person, Plural)
Seid (2nd Person, Plural)
Is Ist
Hello! Hallo!
Servus! (used in Bavaria and Austria)
Moin! or Moin Moin! (used in northern Germany)
Grüezi! (used in Switzerland)
Good morning! Guten Morgen! or Morgen!
Good day! Guten Tag! or Tag!
Good evening! Guten Abend! or N'Abend!
Grüß Gott! (used in southern Germany, Austria and South Tyrol)
Goodbye! Auf Wiedersehen! or Wiedersehen
Bye! Tschüss! or Tschau!
Servus! (used in Bavaria, Austria)
Later! Bis später! or Bis dann!
Good night! Gute Nacht!
Good Gut
Super! Spitze!
Great! Prima!
Very good! Sehr gut!
Bad Schlecht
Miserable Miserabel
Who Wer
What Was
Where Wo
When Wann
Why Warum
How Wie
Boy Der Junge

Girl Das Mädchen
Man Der Herr
Woman Die Frau
Boys Die Jungen
Girls Die Mädchen
Men Die Männer
Women Die Frauen
Sport(s) Sport
Interests Hobbys
Soccer Fußball
USA Football Football
Volleyball Volleyball
Basketball Basketball
Tennis Tennis
Baseball Baseball
9-pin Bowling Kegeln
Chess Schach
Board Game Das Brettspiel
Game Das Spiel
Homework Hausaufgaben
Television Fernsehen
Movie Der Film, Filme
And Und
But Aber
Or Oder
To Have Haben
To Be Sein
To Be Called Heißen
To Play Spielen
To Do/Make Machen
To Read Lesen
To Watch Schauen
To See Sehen
To Work Arbeiten
To Write Schreiben
To Swim Schwimmen
One Eins
Two Zwei
Three Drei
Four Vier
Five Fünf
Six Sechs
Seven Sieben
Eight Acht
Nine Neun
Ten Zehn
Eleven Elf
Twelve Zwölf
Thirteen Dreizehn
Fourteen Vierzehn
Fifteen Fünfzehn
Sixteen Sechzehn
Seventeen Siebzehn
Eighteen Achtzehn
Nineteen Neunzehn
Twenty Zwanzig
Thirty Dreißig
Forty Vierzig
Fifty Fünfzig
Sixty Sechzig
Seventy Siebzig
Eighty Achtzig
Ninety Neunzig
Hundred Hundert
Thousand Tausend
Noon Mittag
Midnight Mitternacht
After Nach
Till Vor
Quarter Viertel
Half Before Halb
Quarter Before Dreiviertel (used in eastern Germany)
Day Tag
Today Heute
Tomorrow Morgen
Yesterday Gestern
Early Morning Morgen (use morgen früh for tommorrow morning)
Morning Vormittag
Afternoon Nachmittag
Evening Abend
Night Nacht
Monday Montag
Tuesday Dienstag
Wednesday Mittwoch
Thursday Donnerstag
Friday Freitag
Saturday Samstag or Sonnabend
Sunday Sonntag
January Januar
Jänner (used in Austria)
February Februar
March März
April April
May Mai
June Juni
Juno (in spoken word only)
July Juli
Julei (in spoken word only)
August August
September September
October Oktober
November November
December Dezember
Spring Frühling
Summer Sommer
Autumn Herbst
Winter Winter
Time Die Zeit

Free Time Die Freizeit
Always Immer
Often Oft
Sometimes Manchmal
Seldom Selten
Never Nie
Only Nur
Me Mich
Us Uns
You Dich
You All Euch
Him Ihn
Her Sie
It Es
Them Sie
Appetizers Vorspeisen
Salad Der Salat
Bread Das Brot
Breadstick Die Scheibe Brot
Main Dishes Hauptgerichte
Sausage Die Wurst
Sausages Die Würste
Bratwurst Die Bratwurst
Hot Dog Das Hot Dog
Pizza Die Pizza
Pizzas Die Pizzen
Hamburger Der Hamburger
Hamburgers Die Hamburger
With Mit (ignore article)
Without Ohne (ignore article)
Tomatoes Tomaten
Lettuce Der Salat
Cheese Der Käse
Pickles Die Gewürzgurken
Onions Die Zwiebeln
Ketchup Der Ketchup
Mustard Der Senf
Chicken Das Hähnchen
Chickens Die Hähnchen
Seafood Die Meeresfrüchte (plural)
Fish Der Fisch
Sides Die Beilage (singular), die Beilagen (plural)
Soup Die Suppe
Soups Die Suppen
Noodle Soup Die Nudelsuppe
French Fries Die Pommes frites (plural)
Fries Die Fritten (Informal and plural)
Pasta Die Pasta or Die Nudeln
Potato Die Kartoffel
Potatoes Die Kartoffeln
Corn Mais
Bean Die Bohne
Beans Die Bohnen
Desserts Nachspeisen
Gâteau Die (Sahne-)Torte
Strudel Der Strudel
Apple strudel Apfelstrudel
Cake Der Kuchen
Piece of Cake Das Stück Kuchen
Pie Die Pastete
Piece of Pie Das Stück Pastete
Apple Pie Die Apfelpastete
Ice Cream Das Eis
Pudding Der Pudding
Cookie Der Keks
Cookies Die Kekse
Fruit Das Obst
The Meal Das Essen
Lunch Mittagessen
Dinner Abendessen
Hunger Der Hunger
Thirst Der Durst
To Eat Essen
To Drink Trinken
To Receive Bekommen
To Want Wollen
Would Like Möchten
Danke Thank you

Bitte Please & You're Welcome
Dankeschön Thank you very much
Danke sehr Thanks a lot
Kein Problem! No problem
Chinese Food Chinesisch Essen

Japanese Food Japanisch Essen
American Food Amerikanisch Essen
Mexican Food Mexikanisch Essen
Arabic Food Arabisch Essen
Italian Food Italienisch Essen
Indian Food Indisch Essen
French Food Französich Essen
Greek Food Griechisch Essen
Durch Through
Für For
Gegen Against
Ohne Without
Um At, Around
Delicious Lecker
Tasty Schmackhaft
Juicy Saftig
Crunchy Knackig
Crispy Knusprig
Spicy Würzig
Stale Fade
Fad (used in Austria)
Salty Salzig
Sweet Süß
Bitter Bitter
Sour Sauer
Creamy Cremig
Hot Heiß
Burnt Angebrannt
Cold Kalt
Disgusting Schrecklich
To Pay Zahlen
The Bill Die Rechnung
Waiter Der Ober
Wie Heißt Du?
Hello and Goodbyes
Wir haben Hallos und Wiedersehens. Können Sie sich erinnern?

Bericht!
Nominative Case
Wir haben auch den Nominativ. Können Sie sich an ihn erinnern?
Bericht!
Names
Wir haben das Verb heißen. Erinnern Sie sich?

Bericht!
Verbs
Wir haben zwei anderen Verben konjugiert. Können Sie sich an sie erinnern?
Bericht!
Articles
Wir haben die Artikel für Nominativ gehabt. Können Sie sich an sie erinnern?
Bericht!
Freizeit
Regulars Verbs
Wir haben die regelmäßigen Verbenden. Können Sie sich an sie erinnern?
Bericht!
Likes & Dislikes
Wir haben Gefallen auszudrücken gehabt. Können Sie sich daran erinnern?
Bericht!
Numbers
Wir haben die Zahlen gelernen. Können Sie sich an sie erinnern?
Bericht!
Time
Wir haben schon Zeit-Wörter gelernt. Können Sie sich an diese erinnern?
Bericht!
Essen
Accusative Case
Wir hatten schon den Akkusativ-Fall. Können Sie sich an ihn erinnern?
Bericht!
Modal Verbs
Wir haben die modalen Verben. Können Sie sich an sie erinnern?
Bericht!
Kein-Words
Wir haben ,,Kein gehabt. Können Sie sich daran erinnern?

Bericht!
This, Everyone, and Which
Wir haben, Dieser, Jeder, und, Welcher gehabt.. Können Sie sich erinnern?
Bericht!
Lesson 1.04 • Kleidung
Hello from Berlin!

In every Lesson from 4 - 12 there is going to be a featured German-Speaking city, which be the theme
of the lesson. For 4 - 6 it is Berlin. There will be famous locations in Berlin, like for this lession it's
Kurfürstendamm and KaDeWe, the shopping area of Berlin. Also in each lesson there will be facts, so
if you ever travel to a German-Speaking country it'll be like you are a native!
Facts
It's Time to Change Time
Local time is 6 hours ahead of E.S.T. If it's 2:00pm in New York City, it's 8:00pm locally. Please note
that Germany changes to and from daylight-saving time a few weeks before the U.S., so time
differences still vary in March and October.
Tip, Tip, and More Tip
Tipping. A service charge is always included on restaurant checks, but it is usual and polite to round up
the amount. For a cup of coffee costing about 2.00 EUR, you would round up to 2.50 EUR. At a
restaurant, you should give a tip of at least five percent. Giving no tip at all is considered extremely
rude. Tip when paying, don't leave money on the table. Tip the hat check or coat check attendant. Add
about 2 Euros to taxi fares. Tipping is very important.
Shopping Locations
There are two major shopping locations. The Kurfürstendamm in the old west is lined with boutiques
and department stores. It continues eastwards for about three hundred yards where you can visit
KaDeWe, the biggest department store in Europe. On the newly-developed Friedrichstraße in the old
east, the famous French store Galleries Lafayette is to be found together with a maze of underground
shopping malls. Shops are generally open 9am-8:30pm Monday through Friday and 9am-4pm on
Saturdays
Dialoge
German Dialogue
Going Shopping Gehendes Einkaufen
Helga Guten Morgen, Maria.
Maria Morgen. Wie geht's?
Mir geht's gut. Ich gehe zum Kurfürstendamm, möchten Sie mit mir
Helga
kommen?
Maria Ja, gerne. Ich hole vorher noch Geld.
Helga Ich sehe Sie dann am Kurfürstendamm.
am Kurfürstendamm
Helga Hallo Maria!
Maria Hallo!
Helga Wohin gehen wir als erstes?
Maria Lassen Sie uns zu dieser Boutique gehen.
Helga O.K.
in der Boutique
Angestellter Thomas Hallo meine Damen!
Maria und Hegla Hallo, guten Tag.
Angestellter Thomas Benötigt ihr Hilfe?
Maria Ja, Können Sie mir helfen, diesen Rock in meiner Größe zu finden?
Angestellter Thomas Natürlich.
Angestellter Thomas Hier ist der Rock in Ihrer Größe.
Maria Danke. Wo ist die Umkleidekabine?
Angestellter Thomas Dort.
Shopping
Shopping
Their is a lot to shopping, places to shop, money, items to buy. In this lesson we will cover most of it.
There are two big shopping locations in Berlin they are Kurfürstendamm and KaDeWe.
German Vocabulary
Shopping Einkaufen
English German
Babywear Die Babyartikel (plural)
Children's Wear Die Kinderbekleidung
Clearance Sale Der Räumungsverkauf
Closed Geschlossen
Clothing Die Kleidung
Computer Section Der Computershop
Cosmetics Die Kosmetik
Customer Der Kunde
Customer Service Der Kundendienst
Electrical Appliance Das Elektrogerät
Escalator Die Rolltreppe
Fashion Die Mode
Furniture Das Möbel (no plural)
Gift Der Geschenkartikel
Good Value (Adj.) Preiswert
Groceries Die Lebensmittel (plural)
Jewelery Damenschuhe (plural)
Leather Goods Die Lederwaren (plural)
Open Geöffnet
Opening Hours Die Öffnungszeiten (plural)
Present Das Geschenk
Reduced Reduziert
Sales Receipt Der Kassenbon
Souvenir Das Andenken
Special Offer Das Sonderangebot
Sports Goods Sportartikel (plural)
Stationery Schreibwaren (plural)
Summer Sale Der Sommerschlussverkauf (abbr. SSV)
Video Store Die Videothek
Winter Sale Der Winterschlussverkauf (abbr. WSV)
Kurfürstendamm
• Kurfürstendamm
Tauentzienstraße
Fasanenstraße
Two Kurfürstendamm has many boutiques, department stores, ect. Which are in Tauentzienstraße and
Fasanenstraße, two streets in Kurfürstendamm. Tauentzienstraße has a lot of the department stores,
including KaDeWe, which we will get into greater detail later. and Fasanenstraße has a lot of the
boutiques.
German Vocabulary
Ku'damm Kurfürstendamm
English German
Department Store Warenhaus
Retail Store Einzelhandelsgeschäft
The Mall Einkaufszentrum
Boutique Boutique
Store Geschäft
And some of the thing to might say or ask while in a Clothing store...
• Können Sie mir helfen, meine Größe zu finden (für dieses ____)?
Can you help me find my size (for this ____)?
• Wo ist die Umkleidekabine?

Where is the dressing room?
German Vocabulary
Ku'damm Kurfürstendamm
English German
Manager Manager
Employee Angestellter
Sales Clerk Verkäufer
Cashier Kassierer
Dressing Room Umkleidekabine
Men's Section Männerabteilung
Women's Section Frauenabteilung
Section Problems>>
KaDeWe
And another shopping location is KaDeWe, a upscale department store in Germany. It has six floors,
and Is also called "The department store of the west" (Kaufhaus des Westens) because it is the largest
and most magnificent department store on continental Europe.
German Vocabulary
KaDeWe Kaufhaus des Westens
English German
First Floor Erstes Stockwerk
Menswear Männerkleidung
Second Floor Zweiter Stock
Womenswear Frauenkleidung
Third Floor Dritte Stock
Kids Section Kinderabteilung
Fourth Floor Vierter Stock
Electronics Elektronik
Kitchenware Küchenbedarf
Fifth Floor Fünfter Stock
Lighting Beleuchtung
Bedding Bettwäsche
Toys Spielwaren
Six Floor Sechster Stock
Food Lebensmittel
Since are have most of the general shopping phases and vocaulary down, we are going to get more
detail.
Section Problems>>
Electronics
First is electronics, it might seem a little bare, but electronics and many other stuff will be featured in
Lesson 12.
German Vocabulary
English German
Digital Camera Digitalkamera
Telephone Telefon
Cell phone Mobiltelefon, Handy
Computer Computer, Rechner
Speakers Lautsprecher
DVDs DVD
CDs CD
DVD Player DVD-Player
CD Player CD-Player
Notice that computer is a abbreviation of Personal Computer. And some phrases you can ask the
employee.
Spielt der DVD-Player auch CD?
Does the DVD player also play CDs?
Hat das Mobiltelefon eine Digitalkamera?

Does the cell phone have a digital camera?
If you look at the word order of this sentence, you will see you've already learned everything it those to
sentence, and you, yourself can customize these sentences if you want.
Section Problems>>
Bedding
And yes bedding will also be quite bare as well, but that is because bedding isn't that big, but beds we
will discuss in Lesson 12.
German Vocabulary
English German
Bedding Bettwäsche
Blankets Decken
Pillow Kopfkissen
Pillow Case Kopfkissenbezüge
Sheets Blätter
Bed Skirt Bett-Rock
And like always here are some of the things you might say that are related to bedding.
• Passen die Kopfkissenbezüge auf das Kopfkissen?
Does the pillow case fit the pillow?
And with that question there are other variations of it you can ask, like...
• Passt die Decke auf das Bett?
Does the blanket fit the bed?
Section Problems>>
Money
Germany, Austria, Luxemburg, Belgium and Südtirol – in other words: all German speaking regions
except Switzerland and Liechtenstein– have given up their former currencies and adopted the Euro as
of 1999. Because they are not members of the European Union, Switzerland and Liechtenstein have
kept the Swiss Francs. Currently 1 EUR is 0.82 USD, so the Euro is stronger.
Now if you were at a shopping center in German like Kurfürstendamm, and you were shopping at a
boutique here is some vocabulary you might want to know.
• Wieviel kostet es?
How much does it cost?
• Der Hemd kostet 120 Euro.

The shirt cost 120 euros.
• Das kostet 690 Euro.

The total is 690 euros.
German Vocabulary
Money Geld
English German
Price Preis
Note Der Schein
Coin Die Münze
1 Euro Coin Das Eurostück
2 Euro Coin Das Zweieurostück
5 Euro Note Der Fünfeuroschein
10 Euro Coin Der Zehneuroschein
100 Euro Coin Der Hunderteuroschein
Note: The word coin (Münze) turns to Stück when a word or number is put together with it.
Even though in the vocabulary we list the 1, 2, 5, 10, 100 Euro there are more Euro Notes. The twenty,
fifty, and two hundred Euro Notes are the ones we didn't list, also there are cent coins.
German Vocabulary
Money Geld
English German
1 Cent Coin Das Centstück
2 Cent Coin Das Zweicentstück
5 Cent Coin Das Fünfcentstück
10 Cent Coin Das Zehncentstück
20 Cent Coin Das Zwanzigcentstück
German Math
In written German, a comma is used in prices where we would put a decimal point in English. Thus €
5,49 (or 5,49 €) means five euros and fourty-nine cents. In shops and supermarkets however, prices can
either be displayed by a comma or a decimal point. When a price ends in a round number of euros, it is
most commonly written as € 5,- etc. The reverse is also true. Where as English uses a comma to split
up large numbers, German uses a decimal point. So "€ 6.945" means six thousand nine hundred and
forty-five euros - not six point nine four five euros.
Clothing
Here some articles of clothing...

Skirt "Der Rock"
Pullover "Der Pullover"
Scarf "Das Tuch"
Coat "Der Mantel"
Shirt "Das Hemd"
Sweater "Der Pullover"
Necktie "Der Schlips"
Jacket "Die Jacke"
Trousers/pants "Die Hose"
Hat "Der Hut"
Shoe "Der Schuh"
Sock "Die Socke"
Glove "Der Handschuh"
Blouse "Die Bluse"
and some of the words that go with clothes...

Size "Die Größe"
Color "Die Farbe"
Cotton "Die Baumwolle"
Leather "Das Leder"
Rayon "Die Kuntseide"
Now the sizes.

Small Klein
Medium Mittel
Large Groß
Extra-Large Extragroß
Note: If the shirt you bought was size medium it would be a Grösse Mittelhemd.
Section Answers>>
Describing Clothes
Here are some of the words you can use when your describing them...
Cheap Billig
Expensive Teuer
Pretty Schön
Ugly Hässlich
Soft Weich
New Neu
Broad Breit
Wide Weit
Tight Eng
Comfortable Bequem
To say If like something or not, for clothing, it's...

I like it!
Er/Sie/Es gefällt mir!
I don't like it!
Er/Sie/Es gefällt mir nicht!
Now if you try something on you or your looking for a soft shirt with a tight fit, you find it, feel, try it
on, but it's fairly expensive you might say this...
In English: The shirt looks great! The shirt feels soft, fits tight. The shirt is very comfortable. How
much does it cost? Oh no! The shirt is expensive! Wow, 55 euros that's a little too much.
In German: Das Hemd sieht prima aus! Das Hemd fühlt sich weich an, es sitzt eng. Das Hemd ist sehr
bequem. Wieviel kostet es? Mist! Das Hemd ist zu teuer! 55 Euro ist zuviel.
The phases to describe the shirt were...
The shirt looks great.
Das Hemd sieht prima aus.
The shirt feels soft.
Das Hemd fühlt sich weich.
The shirt fits tight.
Der Hemd sitzt eng.
Now, the bold words are verbs that are one part in describing how the shirt is. The other half of
describing it is the adjectives like soft, tight, great, ect. And as you can see the verb looks is separable,
but we will get into that later.
Clothing-Related Verbs
And now getting into verbs here are some of the verbs, an also some of these are Separable-Prefix
Verbs, like aussehen, anprobieren, and anhaben. But we will study those in more detail later. Also we
will be learning about tragen.
To look "Aussehen"
He looks "Er sieht aus"
To try on "Anprobieren"
He tries on "Er probiert an"
To put on "Anziehen"
He puts on "Er zieht an"
To take "Nehmen"
To buy "Kaufen"
To have on/wear "Anhaben" or "tragen"
He has on/wears "Er hat an"
Separable Prefix Verbs

Many German verbs change their meaning by adding prefixs, which are often preposition such as ab-,
an-, auf-, aus-, bei-, ein-, mit-, vor-, or zu-.The verbs anhaben (to wear) and aussehen (to look) are
both verbs with separable (trennbar) prefixes. That is, when used next to the subject pronoun, the
prefix is separated from the verb and put at the end of the sentence or clause. Or, better put, In the
present tense and imperative, the prefix is separated from the infinitive stem.
Examples:
"Ich habe einen Mantel an." ("I'm wearing a coat." Or, more literally translated, "I have a coat on.")
"Was hast du an?" ("What are you wearing?" or "What do you have on?")
However, when the separable-prefix verb is put at the end of the sentence, such as when used with a
modal verb, the verb in question and its prefix are not separated.
Examples:
"Du willst einen Mantel anhaben." ("You want to wear a coat.")
"Willst du eine Bluse anhaben?" ("Do you want to wear a blouse?")
Section Problems>>
Tragen
Instead of "anhaben" the verb "tragen" is often used. The sentences from above would then be:
"Ich trage einen Mantel." ("I'm wearing a coat." )
"Was trägst du?" ("What are you wearing?")
"Du willst einen Mantel tragen." ("You want to wear a coat.")
"Willst du eine Bluse tragen?" ("Do you want to wear a blouse?")
The verb "tragen" has two meanings: "to wear" and "to carry". So if someone says "Ich trage Schuhe"
only the context will tell you whether the person is carrying the shoes in his hands or actually wearing
them. Tragen is a different kind of verb, an irregular verb, not only does it change in the ending, but it
changes in the beginning this also happens in the same way to fahren, graben, schaffen, and waschen.
But, heres the thing at the beginning only the a change into ä, and like this only happens to some verbs.
Here is the table for tragen:

1st ich trage wir tragen
2nd du trägst ihr tragt
3rd er/sie/es trägt sie tragen
Colors
Color are also another great way to describe clothes like Das rote Hemd passt gut.which means The red
shirt fits well.
Read the following paragraph, try to find the words described to have a color.
Wir fahren in den Schwarzwald. Ich habe ein grünes Hemd getragen. Die Reise war lang. Es begann
kälter zu werden und abzukühlen. Ich hörte Musik auf meinem braunen iPod. Ich bin schließlich
eingeschlafen. Als ich aufwachte, sah ich den blauen Himmel und den weißen Schnee.
If you found 5 words you are right.
Schwarz which means black (the Schwarzwald (Black Forest) is a wooded mountain range)
Grünes Hemd which is a green shirt.
Brauner iPod which is a brown iPod.
Blauer Himmel which is blue sky.
And weißer Schnee which is white snow.
And now for the actual colors...
Red "Rot"
Blue "Blau"
Green "Grün"
Orange "Orange"
Violet "Veilchen"
Yellow "Gelb"
Brown "Braun"
Indigo "Indigo"
Gray "Grau"
Black "Schwarz"
White "Weiß"
Section Problems>>
Lesson 1.05 • Volk und Familie
Facts
Banks and Money
Germany's main banks are Deutsche Bank, Dresdner Bank and Commerzbank. The Deutsche Bank is
the bank of issue and has its headquarters in Frankfurt. There are many banks of all kinds throughout
the country. Banks are open Mon-Fri 9am-12pm or 2:30-4pm. On Thursdays, they are open until 5:30
or 6pm. Changing money is best done at a bank because their rates will be better than exchange
services located at Bureau de Change. Major post office branches and travel agents also offer currency
exchange. Germany is one of 12 European countries that have replaced their national currencies with
the Euro, which is much stronger to the U.S. Dollar, but weaker than the British Pound.
Dialog
Vater, Mutter und die Geschwister bekommen Besuch von Oma und Opa.
Vater Karl: Hallo Mutter und Vater! Wie geht es euch?
Opa Rudolf: Danke, mein Sohn. Es geht uns gut.
Oma Lieschen: Na mein Enkel, du bist ja richtig groß geworden!
Sohn Thomas: Ja, Oma Lieschen, ich weiß.
Tochter Marie: Oma! Hast du uns etwas mitgebracht?
Mutter Bettina: Nun sei nicht so aufgeregt Marie, lass Oma und Opa erst einmal
hereinkommen.
(kurze Zeit später, die Geschenke wurden schon ausgepackt...)
Tochter Marie: Mutti! Thomas nimmt mir immer meine Puppe weg.
Mutter Bettina: Thomas! Du sollst deiner Schwester ihre Puppe nicht wegnehmen.
Sohn Thomas: Nein, das ist meine Puppe.
Mutter Bettina: Nein. Die Puppe gehört deiner Schwester.
Sohn Thomas: Ja OK, hier hast du die Puppe...
Mutter Bettina: Und bedanke dich bei deinen Großeltern, Marie.
People
The Family
Home is where the heart is, they say. And what is in the home? Family! of course, so this is a very
important section of the lesson. It'll give all vocabulary for the family, and later in a different section,
you'll learn how to describe your brothers and sisters or any person! And now to get started lets do
some vocabulary...
Sohn Son
Tochter Daughter
Vater Father
Mutter Mother
Großvater Grandfather
Großmutter Grandmother
Opa Grandpa
Oma Grandma
Schwester Sister
Bruder Brother
Geschwister Brothers & Sisters
Enkel Grandson
Enkelin Granddaughter
Frau Wife
Mann Husband
Schwiegervater Father-in-Law
Schwiegertochter Daugther-in-Law
Schwager Brother-in-law
Schwägerin Sister-in-law
Schwiegermutter Mother-in-law
Schwiegersohn Son-in-law
Onkel Uncle
Tante Aunt
Mutti *Mutter
Mama *Mutter
Papa *Vater
* = Informal verison of the word

Now even though many of these are common phrases you and me would say in everyday live, some of
these are rather used when you are on a visit to grandmother's, or things your mother would say. Maybe
you notice some of these in the dialogue. Now you might be asking "How am I going to speak fluent
German, if I just learn phrases?" Like I said, these are basically from the dialogue, and you can study
these to look at the word order. Also certain things are just differnt in German, like "Wie heißt du?"
which translates literally to "How are you called?" when we use "What is your name?". Okay let get
started on these common phrases...
Du bist ja richtig groß geworden
You have grown up so much (usual sentence used by Opa und Oma)
Hast du uns etwas mitgebracht?
Have you brought something for us?
Nun sei nicht so aufgeregt.

Now don't be so excited.
Jemanden hereinkommen lassen.

Let somebody come in.
(Sie) Wurden schon ausgepackt.

(They) Have already been opened.
(Sich) Bedanken für etwas.

To thank for something.
Using Formal and Informal Pronouns in the Family
• Some very conservative families might still use Sie with grandparents or even parents! This is
sometimes practiced in families of nobility or exterritorial cultural islands in which older
German customs have survived. However, using "Sie" feels very outdated to the vast majority
of people. In practically every family all members use du with each other.
Describing People
I can't describe in words how important this section of the lesson is. Even though you have already
learned to describe to some degree, here we will introduce a new aspect of describing, and we will
review. But how could we describe if we didn't have vocabulary? Here it is...
Nice Nett
Mean Unfreundlich
Pretty Schön
Ugly Häßlich
Intelligent Intelligent, Denkfähig
Unintelligent Unintelligent, Dumm
Interesting Interessant
Boring Langweilig
Active Rührig
Lazy Faul
Funny Komisch
Serious Ernsthaft
Strong Kräftig
Weak Schwach
Odd Eigenartig
Talented Begabt
Untalented Unbegabt
Bossy Rechthaberisch
Passive Untätig
Old Alt
Young Jung
Fat Fett
Skinny Dünn
Tall Groß
Short Klein
The verb used most often for describing is "to be" which we learned in the first lesson. Some examples
are: He is wet, She is stupid, I am lazy. But you do use other verbs like feel, looks, ect. This lesson we
will be sticking mostly with the verbs we've learned in the past. We will, however, learn one new verb.
All sentences we will create will be in the nomitive case. Okay, let's get started!
In term of beauty, you can say four basic things. These aren't all, but these are the easiest and simplest
ones.
She is beautiful.
Sie ist schön.
He is ugly.
Er ist häßlich.
These two use the verb to be, and the next one will use the verb to look which would need something
else in order to make sense.
She looks beautiful, but that shirt is ugly.
Sie sieht schön aus, aber dieses Hemd ist häßlich.
He looks ugly, but he looked handsome yesterday.

Er sieht häßlich aus, aber gestern hat er schön ausgesehen.
And in the last sentence it says "ausgesehen." Don't worry about that--it wouldn't be taught until Level
3. So since you get the idea of describing, let's learn a new verb! And the new verb is klingen which is
to sound. As in "He sounds weird.", "She sounds boring." Since we know how to describe, we really
don't have to cover it. It's works just like other verbs.
He sounds nice.
Er klingt nett.
They sound funny.

Sie klingen komisch.
Remember that when describing it's S+V+A, or subject, verb, then adjective. Exactly like in English.
For right now, that's all for describing things. We are going to have some small describing lessons with
some parts of this lesson.
Related Verbs
Okay we just went over the verb in the previous section. This will basically be a list that will help you
memorize them better, and there is not a lot. Other then "klingen" and "fühlen" you should know all of
these. The the "Er sieht aus" is to show you it is a separable-prefix verb.
Sein To Be
Aussehen To Look
Er sieht aus He Looks
Fühlen To Feel
Klingen To Sound
Nationality
This also a large section of this lesson, nationality, it is very important. You can use it as a stereotype,
or for your heritage. There are many nationalities, too many to go over in this lesson, you will more
nationality as this level, and book goes on. Right now we are just going to have a vague little list, and
as this section goes there will be more, like Swede and Swedish or Frenchman, Frenchwoman, and
French. And so for the list...
Major Nationalities
This is the small list, make sure you memorize this list and the next one.
Deutscher
Amerikaner
Spanier
Italiener
Franzose
Frenchman
Describing People with Nationality
It is no surprise you can describe people with nationality, most times, it's stereotypical, like norwegians
are blonde, tall, ect. or germans wear lederhosen, drink beer, and play polka all day long, but that is just
not true. However you can just use it for what it is, a nationality. If you do describe people by
nationality this will help. Okay, you should already know how to describe, right?
This part we will get more in to detail later, but right is is an important part of describing people with
nationality, even though in English we most times don't do this, in German they do. The difference
between nationality and language, like in English, French and french. But in german it is französisch
and Franzose, Französin. This also is how it works for nationality describion by noun or adjective,
which we are going to learn right now.
Noun or Adjective Nationality
There are two ways to describe someone. With a noun-based nationality word or an adjective-based
nationality word. Most times in English, the adjective-based nationality and the language of that
country as the same word, but, most of the time, not in German. You can see the difference with this
exmaple.
Example: Ich bin schwedisch (I am Swedish) and Ich spreche Swedish (I speak Swedish)
Although, sometimes they are the same, see the example below for that, but most times it like the
example above.
Example: Ich bin französisch (I am French) and Ich spreche französisch (I speak French)
[edit]
More Nationalities
[edit]
Age
Now we are all familiar with the word "alt'", which means old. And in English, to find out somebody's
age we ask "How old are you?". In German it is exactly the same. And you were taught, in latter
lessons about verbs and questions. You might think it would be something like "Wie alt du?" or "Wie
bist du alt?". That would be incorrect because the first question doesn't have a verb, and the second one
is incorrect because when asking a question it is okay to have a adjective after the verb or interrogative
adverb. This all might sound confusing, but it's really not.
Now to ask the question with 1st person it is...

Wie alt bin ich?
How old am I?
And response you might get is...

Ich bin __ Jahre alt.
I am __ years old.
Du bist __ Jahre alt.

You are __ years old.
And now the plural version of the 1st person...

Wie alt sind wir?
How old are we?
The responses you will get is...

Wir sind __ Jahre alt.
We are __ years old.
Ihr seid __ Jahre alt.

You all are __ years old.
To ask this important question in the 2nd person. First, we will learn the biggest question here, "How
old are you?" which is...
Wie alt bist du?
How old are you?
And there is only one response to this it is...

Ich bin __ Jahre alt.
I am __ years old.
For the equally important plural 2nd person...

Wie alt seid ihr?
How old are you all?
Which the response is...

Wir sind __ Jahre alt.
We are __ years old.
And formal question, for both singular and plural is...

Wie alt sind Sie?
How old are you?
How old are you all?
You should all ready get the pattern for this, but we are going to keep on doing this doing this list, if
you aren't sure of something or you are confused. So for the 3rd person...
Wie alt ist er/sie?
How old is he/she?
The responses to this are...
Er ist __ Jahre alt.
He is __ years old.
Sie ist __ Jahre alt.

She is __ years old.
And now the plural 3rd person of question and response...

Wie alt sind sie?
How old are they?
And of course the response...

Sie sind __ Jahre alt.
They __ years old.
Now with some people you might be able to guess their age, and you could ask them directly about it.
This is usually pretty of rude, but it illustrates nicely how the phrase has to be changed if you ask a yes-
no-question, so let's get started, anyway!
Bist du __ Jahre alt?

Are you __ years old?
Ist er/sie __ Jahre alt?

Is he/she __ years old?
Sind sie __ Jahre alt?

Are they __ years old?
Note the inversed order between "Wie alt bist du?" und "Bist du __ Jahre alt?" This is exactly the same
as in English!
Possessives
English German English German
1st my mein our unser
2nd your dein, Ihr your euer, Ihr
3rd his, she, its sein, ihr, sein their ihr
Note: 'Euer' is irregular. When 'euer' has to have a different ending the e before r is dropped, so it turns
into 'eur-'.
Gender, Case, and Endings
Expressing Favorites
Lesson 1.06 • Schule
School in Germany
• School is not regulated nationwide, but by each Land

• German "Kindergarten" is optional - it translates rather to "play school", "Vorschule" being
roughly the equivalent to "Kindergarten"
• From the age of six on, all Germans attend a "Grundschule" (elementary school) for four or six
years, depending on the Land.
• After that, they go to either
• the "Hauptschule" which is industrially oriented,
• the "Realschule", which is ... oriented,
• the "Gymnasium", which is academically oriented,
• or the "Gesamtschule", or comprehensive school.
• Schooling is obligatory until the age of 16, but the Gymnasium diploma "Abitur" can only be
obtained after 12 or 13 years, i.e. at age 18 or 19.
• Latin and sometimes even ancient Greek are regularly taught at the Gymnasium. For the
"Abitur", at least two foreign languages as well as some calculus and analysis classes have to be
taken.
• School days often are from 8-13h. In most 'Länder', only the older students have additional
classes between about 14-15.30h (thats 8 a.m. - 1 p.m. and 2 p.m. - 3.30 p.m. ;-)
• In most schools, Extracurricular Activities are offered, such as Drama Club or School Choir, but
they are less common than in the U.S. Though many students feel some sort of identification
with their school, most are just happy when they can go home ;-)
• Generally speaking, many schools still are more formal than US or Canadian schools.
• The marking system uses
• 1 (very good, 87,5%),
• 2 (good 75%), **
• 3 (satisfactory, 62,5%),
• 4 (sufficient 50%).
• 5 (faulty) is failed.
• 6 (not sufficient) is only used when the student literally hands in a blank sheet.
• These marks can be modified with a "+" or a "-" to indicate a tendency, so e.g. 2+ is a fairly
good mark that corresponds to about 80%.
Dialoge
Silke: Jetzt haben wir Mathe.
Torsten: Oje, ich habe überhaupt keine Lust...
Silke: Hast du die Aufgaben gemacht?
Torsten: Ja, vorhin im Bus.
Silke: Super! Kann ich noch schnell von dir abschreiben?
Lehrer (Betritt den Raum): Guten Morgen!

Klasse: Guten Morgen!
Lehrer: Setzt euch.
Lehrer: Wer möchte die Aufgaben an der Tafel rechnen? Florian?

Florian geht zur Tafel, schreibt an und liest vor:
"5 plus 8 ist gleich 13"
"8 minus 5 ist gleich 3"
"3 mal 8 ist gleich 24"
"24 geteilt durch 12 ist gleich 2"
Lehrer: Sehr gut, Florian!
Die Glocke läutet. Es ist Fünfminutenpause.

Silke: Schnell, wir müssen in den Musikraum!
Torsten: Au ja, darauf freue ich mich schon!
Silke: Weißt du denn, was wir heute machen?
Torsten: Wir wollten doch heute ein Lied von Grönemeyer singen!
Silke: Ach ja? Welches denn?
Torsten: "Alkohol", glaube ich...
Nach dem Musikunterricht:

Torsten: Schau noch mal auf den Stundenplan!
Silke: Jetzt haben wir nur noch Geschichte...
Torsten: Komm, wir schwänzen und gehen ins Bistro.
Silke: Schon wieder!
Und Satz für Satz ...

Jetzt haben wir Mathe.
Now have we maths.
Note that the reason for the inverted "have we" is that in German, it is often possible to change the
order of a phrase to emphasize. But because "Jetzt" is in the beginning, "wir haben" has to be inverted.
Oje, ich habe überhaupt keine Lust (dazu)...
"Oje" is a common exclamation, and corresponds to "oh no". "Lust (zu etwas) haben" means "feeling
like (it)". "Ich habe keine Lust (dazu)" is "I don't feel like (it)". "Ich habe überhaupt keine Lust"
emphasizes it, meaning "I don't feel like it at all."
Hast du die Aufgaben gemacht?
Have you the tasks done?
"Did you do your homework?"

Ja, vorhin im Bus.
Yes, before in the bus
This is a common practice of students everywhere in the world, I guess... "Vorhin" is a common word
to designate something that lies not far in the past - a couple of minutes ago for example.
Notice the contraction of "im", which is derived from "in dem", "in the".
Super! Kann ich noch schnell von dir abschreiben?
Super! Can I just quickly from you copy?
"Super", "Cool", "Toll", are common exclamations ... "Noch schnell" is here meant as "while there is
still time"
Lehrer (Betritt den Raum): Guten Morgen!

Teacher (enters the room): Good Morning!
Klasse: Guten Morgen!

Class: Good Morning!
Lehrer: Setzt euch.

Teacher: Sit down.
Yes, there are still schools, where it is common for the students to stand up when the teacher enters the
room. This is not a military tradition, but is supposed to focus the students and have them interrupt
whatever they were doing, so the new class can begin. This custom is becoming less popular, though...
Wer möchte die Aufgaben an der Tafel rechnen? Florian?
Who would like the tasks on the blackboard (to) calculate?
"Who would like to do these questions on the blackboard?" Note that "Tafel" is related to "table",
meaning a flat surface, and indeed German "Tafel" can also designate a table prepared for a feast.
Don't let the weird order of the words disturb you, even if the phrase seems totally incomprehensible at
first. I'll try to construct this bit by bit:
This is the basic question and answer pair:
"Wer rechnet?" - "Ich rechne."
"Who calculates?" - "I calculate."
To ask, if you want to do something, you use a construction similar to English:

"Wer will rechnen" - "Ich will rechnen."
"Who wants to calculate" - "I want to calculate."
Note that the "to" is already included in the German word "rechnen". "Rechnen" is clearly already an
infinitive, and doesn't need a "zu" to prove it. This is one of the main reasons why complicated
conjugations can survive, they contain information that doesn't have to be expressed otherwise then...
To be a little more polite (or at least seem like it, since our teacher probably wouldn't take a no for an
answer ;-)
"Wer möchte rechnen?" - "Ich möchte rechnen!"
"Who would like to calculate?" - "I would like to calculate"
This is another example for brevity by conjugation. The word "möchte" contains the "would", as it is a
"Konjunktiv"-form of the word "mögen" which translates to "like". Don't be discouraged, many
Germans don't realize this, and many don't use the Konjunktiv correctly, if ever. However, "ich
möchte"-phrases are extremely popular, so just use them, even if you didn't understand yet a word of
the explanation above ;-)
Let's introduce objects in our phrase:
"Wer rechnet die Aufgabe?" - "Ich rechne die Aufgabe"
"Who calculates the task?" - "I calculate the task", meaning "Who answers the
question"
This is a direct object, "Aufgabe" is in the accusative case. Because this is a feminine noun, this is not
so obvious, but the structure is the same as in:
"Wer sieht den Mann?" - "Ich sehe den Mann."
"Who sees the man?" - "I see the man."
Now, we also have an adverbial expression of the place. This is an expression that defines the verb,
thus ad-verbial.
"Wer rechnet an der Tafel?" - "Ich rechne an der Tafel"
"Who calculates on the blackboard?" - "I calculate on the blackboard"
Now let's put all this together:

"Wer rechnet die Aufgabe an der Tafel?" - "Ich rechne die Aufgabe an der Tafel."
"Who calculates the task on the blackboard?" - "I calculate the task on the
blackboard"
Note that the order of the object an the adverbial expression is interchangeable. You can emphasize
something by putting it closer to the end of the phrase.
And now for the whole phrase in all its glory:
"Wer | möchte | die Aufgabe | an der Tafel | rechnen?" - "Ich | möchte | die
Aufgabe | an der Tafel | rechnen."
"Who | would like | the task | on the blackboard | (to) calculate?" - "I | would
like | the task | on the blackboard | (to) calculate."
It wasn't THAT bad, was it?
Florian geht zur Tafel, schreibt an und liest vor:

Florian goes to the blackboard, writes on and reads before:
"Florian goes to the blackboard, writes down and reads out aloud"
"zur" is another contraction, this time of "zu" and "der". Note that after "zu" follows the dative case, so
"der" is not the masculine but the feminine article ;-)
"anschreiben" splits to "schreibt an", and means litterally "writing on". It is often used when writing
legibly on a large, visible surface such as blackboard or a flipchart.
"vorlesen" splits to "liest vor", and originates in "read before (an audience)". It translates to "read
aloud".
"5 plus 8 ist gleich 13"
"8 minus 5 ist gleich 3"
"3 mal 8 ist gleich 24"
"24 geteilt durch 12 ist gleich 2"
So, as you might have guessed, plus and minus are the same as in English - they are just pronounced
German. The verbs "addieren" and "subtrahieren" are probably not difficult either... "Ist gleich" or short
"gleich" corresponds obviously to "is equal to" or "equals".
"mal" means "times". This is also used in every day phrases, such as "100mal habe ich dir gesagt ..." "I
told you a 100 times ..." The corresponding verb is "malnehmen" or "multiplizieren"
"geteilt durch" is literally "divided by", and the verb is "teilen" or "dividieren".
Lehrer: Sehr gut, Florian! Very good, Florian!
Now, that was easy!
Die Glocke läutet. Es ist Fünfminutenpause.

The bell rings. It is five-minute-break
Between classes, there is usually a break of five minutes to allow teachers and students to go from one
classroom to another. In most schools, classes such as German, English, History, Philosophy are taught
in the classroom. Classes that use special equipment, such as all sciences, music and arts and of course
computers and sport are being taught in a specialized lab classes.
Schnell, wir müssen zu Musik!
Quick, we must to music!
This sentence sounds strange. This is, because in everyday German, sometimes the verb gehen can be
left out, if it is clear what is meant. In this case, the complete phrase would have to be "Wir müssen zu
Musik gehen". But since Torsten will not think Silke is going to fly there, there will be no
misunderstanding. Additionnally, the word "class", or "course" is missing, which is the usual way of
students to talk about their subjects.
Note: In English, the phrase would might be "We have to go to the music room" instead of must. The
German translation "Wir haben in den Musikraum zu gehen" would be understood, but is quite formal.
Additionally, there is a connotation that the speaker distances himself from the order he is being given.
Au ja, darauf freue ich mich schon!
Oh yes, on this look forward I myself already!
Whew, what was that?

Let's start at the beginning. "Au ja" ist an exclamation meaning "cool", "that's great". It has nothing to
do with the German equivalent of "ouch!", which is "au(a)!" ;-)
"Sich freuen" means "being happy". It is reflexive such as in "I help myself", because the subject and
the object are the same. Some phrases simply are constructed like this, even if there seems to be no real
reason to this, and many languages know this phenomenon. The "sich" here is technically the
accusative of "he, she, it" and is being changed depending on the person:
ich freue mich I am happy
du freust dich (thou art happy)
er, sie, es freut sich he, she, it is happy
wir freuen uns we are happy
ihr freut euch you are happy
Sie/sie freuen sich they are happy
Note that "to be happy" actually would be rather translated by "glücklich sein", but it is the closest
English equivalent to "sich freuen".
"Sich über etwas freuen" means "to be happy about something". This is kind of self-explanatory. But
"sich auf etwas freuen", literally "to be happy on something" means "to look forward to". This is a
common phrase that uses the on in the same wide sense as in "on drugs", or "living on something" -
there is no spatial relation here...
In "darauf" you recognize the "auf". The "da" is a demonstrative prounoun such as in "that place".
"Darauf" actually is another contraction which developped a long time ago from "da-herauf". The
"darauf" is referencing the word "Musik" from Silke's sentence.
So "Au ja, darauf freue ich mich schon" or "on-this look-forward I myself already" just means "Great,
I'm already looking forward to that"
Maybe it comforts you a little that the English phrase in a word-by-word translation to German would
be just as inintelligeable...
Weißt du denn, was wir heute machen?

Know you then what we today make?
"Then do you know what we (are going to) do today?" Note again, that "machen" often does not
translate to "make", but to "do"!
Wir wollten doch heute ein Lied von Grönemeyer singen!
We wanted (but) today a song of Grönemeyer sing!
"But we wanted to sing a song by Grönemeyer today!"

The "doch" doesn't literally mean "but", but is a very common phrase to reinforce and emphasize. Its
most common use is probably in "Ja! - Nein! - DOCH!" - "Yes! - No" - SO!" It is a stronger yes, in
spite of the "no", and especially little kids like the word ;-)
Ach ja? Welches denn?
Oh yes? Which then?
"Alkohol", glaube ich...

"Alcohol", believe I...
Note that adding a "glaube ich" is another common phrase, exacly as "I think" or "I believe" can be
added to an English phrase. Never mind the word order, this is because technically the subordinate
clause of the sentence is put to the beginning... "Ich glaube, dass "Alkohol" das Lied ist" <-> "Dass
"Alkohol" das Lied ist, glaube ich" "I believe that "Alcohol" is the song" <-> "That "Alcohol" is the
song, I believe"
Herbert Grönemeyer is a very popular German rock singer from the Ruhr region. His most famous
songs include "Männer", "Bochum" (a city in the Ruhr region), "Mensch" and also "Alkohol".
"Lache, wenn es nicht zum Weinen reicht!" - song title on the album "Mensch", 2002
Nach dem Musikunterricht:
After the music class:
"Unterricht" comes from "unterrichten" "to teach", and means simply "class". Better not think about
"under" and "right" here, which you might have correctly recognized as the word's components ;-)
"richten" literally means "to correct".
Schau noch mal auf den Stundenplan!
Look still once on the hour-plan!
"Have a look at the schedule once again!"
"noch einmal" or short "noch mal" - "(once) again" - both words you have met before. "mal" is the
same as in "drei mal" - "three times", and since "one time" in English is replaced by "once" this is only
logical ;-) "noch" is more difficult, but with the literal translation of "noch einmal" - "still once" you
can maybe get the idea ...
Jetzt haben wir nur noch Geschichte...
Now have we only still history...
"Now we have only history left" - Again a "noch"!

Komm, wir schwänzen und gehen ins Bistro.
Come, we skip and go in the bistro.
"Come on, let's skip class and go to the bistro instead". As in English, "Komm" can be used to motivate
others.
There is yet another contraction here "ins" is derived from "in das", meaning "in the". "das" is the
neutral article in accusative case here.
Schon wieder!
Already again!
Aufgabe
• Some of the words in the dialogues above are "fillers", that are commonly used to make spoken
language flow. They are not carrying any necessary information, strictly speaking, but they help
make the phrases sound "real". You certainly know such words in English, such as "well",
"like", "kinda", "y'know"... Try to spot those words and reduce the phrases. Then try to spot all
the words that give additional information. You should end up with phrases that contain only
Subject and Verb and maybe an Object.
• Make a list of all the contractions used in this chapter. Can you determine the full tables?
School
Vocabulary
School-Related Verbs
Lesen To Read
Schreiben To Write
Studieren To Study
Lernen To Study
Zeichnen To Paint
School Classes
Deutsch German
Englisch English
Russisch Russian
Französisch French
Latein Latin
Mathematik Mathematics
Sport PE or Gym
Kunst or Zeichnen Arts
Musik Music
Geschichte History
Biologie Biology
Geografie Geography
Religion RE or Religion
Chemie Chemistry
Physik Physics
Informatik Computer Science
Elektronische Datenverarbeitung Computer Science
School Supplies and Ect.
der Radiergummi Eraser/Rubber

der Bleistift Pencil
der Kuli/Kugelschreiber Pen
das Fach Subject
die Klasse Class
der Lehrer Teacher (male)
die Lehrerin Teacher (female)
die Schule School
der Schüler Student (High/Secondary
School and Lower)
der Student Student (College/University)
die Stunde/Schulstunde Lesson
die Pause Break
die Schultasche Backpack
Review 1.02
Vocabulary
Babywear Die Babyartikel (plural)
Children's Wear Die Kinderbekleidung
Clearance Sale Der Räumungsverkauf
Closed Geschlossen
Clothing Die Kleidung
Computer Section Der Computershop
Cosmetics Die Kosmetik
Customer Der Kunde
Customer Service Der Kundendienst
Electrical Appliance Das Elektrogerät
Escalator Die Rolltreppe
Fashion Die Mode
Furniture Das Möbel (no plural)
Gift Der Geschenkartikel
Good Value (Adj.) Preiswert
Groceries Die Lebensmittel (plural)
Jewelery Damenschuhe (plural)
Leather Goods Die Lederwaren (plural)
Open Geöffnet
Opening Hours Die Öffnungszeiten (plural)
Present Das Geschenk
Reduced Reduziert
Sales Receipt Der Kassenbon
Souvenir Das Andenken
Special Offer Das Sonderangebot
Sports Goods Sportartikel (plural)
Stationery Schreibwaren (plural)
Summer Sale Der Sommerschlussverkauf (abbr. SSV)
Video Store Die Videothek
Winter Sale Der Winterschlussverkauf (abbr. WSV)
Department Store Warenhaus

Retail Store Einzelhandelsgeschäft
The Mall Einkaufszentrum
Boutique Boutique
Store Geschäft
Manager Manager
Employee Angestellter
Sales Clerk Verkäufer
Cashier Kassierer
Dressing Room Umkleidekabine
Men's Section Männerabteilung
Women's Section Frauenabteilung
First Floor Erstes Stockwerk
Menswear Männerkleidung
Second Floor Zweiter Stock
Womenswear Frauenkleidung
Third Floor Dritte Stock
Kids Section Kinderabteilung
Fourth Floor Vierter Stock
Kitchenware Küchenbedarf
Fifth Floor Fünfter Stock
Lighting Beleuchtung
Bedding Bettwäsche
Toys Spielwaren
Six Floor Sechster Stock
Food Lebensmittel
Digital Camera Digitalkamera
Telephone Telefon
Cell phone Mobiltelefon, Handy
Computer Computer, Rechner
Speakers Lautsprecher
DVDs DVD
CDs CD
DVD Player DVD-Player
CD Player CD-Player
Bedding Bettwäsche
Blankets Decken
Pillow Kopfkissen
Pillow Case Kopfkissenbezug
Sheets Blätter
Bed Skirt Bett-Rock
Price Preis
Note Der Schein
Coin Die Münze
1 Euro Coin Das Eurostück
2 Euro Coin Das Zweieurostück
5 Euro Note Der Fünfeuroschein
10 Euro Note Der Zehneuroschein
100 Euro Note Der Hunderteuroschein
1 Cent Coin Das Centstück
2 Cent Coin Das Zweicentstück
10 Cent Coin Das Zehncentstück
20 Cent Coin Das Zwanzigcentstück
50 Cent Coin Das Fünfzigcentstück
Skirt Der Rock

Pullover Der Pullover
Scarf Das Tuch
Coat Der Mantel
Shirt Das Hemd
Sweater Der Pullover
Necktie Der Schlips
Jacket Die Jacke
Pants Die Hose
Hat Der Hut
Shoe Der Schuh
Sock Die Socke
Glove Der Handschuh
Blouse Die Bluse
Size Die Größe

Color Die Farbe
Cotton Die Baumwolle
Leather Das Leder
Rayon Die Kuntseide
Small Klein
Medium Mittel
Large Groß
Extra-Large Extragroß
Cheap Billig
Expensive Teuer
Pretty Schön
Ugly Hässlich
Soft Weich
New Neu
Broad Breit
Wide Weit
Tight Eng
Comfortable Bequem
Red Rot
Blue Blau
Green Grün
Orange Orange
Violet Veilchen
Yellow Gelb
Brown Braun
Indigo Indigo
Gray Grau
Black Schwarz
White Weiß
To Look Aussehen
To Try On Anprobieren
To Put On Anziehen
To Take Nehmen
To Buy Kaufen
To Have On/Wear Anhaben
Tragen
Sohn Son
Tochter Daughter
Vater Father
Mutter Mother
Großvater Grandfather
Großmutter Grandmother
Opa Grandpa
Oma Grandma
Schwester Sister
Bruder Brother
Geschwister Brothers & Sisters
Enkel Grandson
Enkelin Granddaughter
Frau Wife
Mann Husband
Schwiegervater Father-in-Law
Schwiegertochter Daugther-in-Law
Schwager Brother-in-Law
Schwägerin Sister-in-Law
Schwiegermutter Mother-in-Law
Schwiegersohn Son-in-Law
Onkel Uncle
Tante Aunt
Geschenk Present
Nimmt To Take Away

Lesen To Read
Schreiben To Write
Studieren To Study
Lernen To Study
Zeichnen To Paint
Deutsch German
Englisch English
Russisch Russian
Französisch French
Latein Latin
Mathematik Mathematics
Sport PE or Gym
Kunst or Zeichnen Arts
Musik Music
Geschichte History
Biologie Biology
Geografie Geography
Religion RE or Religion
Chemie Chemistry
Physik Physics
Informatik Computer Science
der Radiergummi Eraser/Rubber

der Bleistift Pencil
der Kuli/Kugelschreiber Pen
das Fach Subject
die Klasse Class
der Lehrer Teacher (male)
die Lehrerin Teacher (female)
die Schule School
der Schüler Student (High/Secondary School and Lower)
der Student Student (College/University)
die Stunde/Schulstunde Lesson
die Pause Break
die Schultasche Backpack
Lesson 1.07 • Das Fest
Gifts
Vocabulary
das Spiel Game
das Videospiel Video Game
Parties
Vocabulary
der Spaß Fun

die Feier Party*
die Party Party
die Musik Music
die Torte Cake
das Fass Keg
das Bier Beer
der Schnaps Hard Liquor
der Wein listen Wine
der Weißwein White Wine
der Rotwein Red Wine
Feiern To Party
Trinken Drinking
Saufen To Get Drunk
Erbrechen / sich
To Throw Up
Übergeben
Kotzen To Puke (slang)
Tanzen To Dance
* = A Formal Dinner Party
Different Celebrations
der Geburtstag Birthday
Weihnachten Christmas
Ostern Easter
das Jubiläum Anniversary
Snack Foods
Vocabulary
das Wasser Water
Lesson 1.08 • Privileg und Verantwortung
Jobs and Tasks
Vocabulary
Careers
Work Arbeit
Doctor Arzt
Buniness Man Geschäftsmann
Buniness Woman Geschäftsfrau
Teacher Lehrer
Police Officer Polizeibeamte
Fireman Feuerwehrmann
Actor Schauspieler
Artist Künstler
Author Schriftsteller
Bank Clerk Bankangestellter
Car Mechanic Automechaniker
Chemist Chemiker
Civil Servant Beamter
Engineer Ingenieur
Farmer Landwirt
Hairdresser Friseur
Journalist Journalist
Lawyer Rechtsanwalt
Lecturer Dozent
Nurse Krankenpfleger
Pensioner Rentner
Photographer Fotograf
Politician Politiker
Postman Briefträger
Professor Professor
Salesperson Verkäufer
Secretary Sekretär
Student Student
Taxi Driver Taxifahrer
Waiter Kellner
Tasks
Cleaning Reinigung
Cooking Kochen
Homework Hausaufgaben
Tasks Aufgaben
Plans
Common Phases
Ich habe Pläne...

I have plans...
Ich habe Pläne mit...
I have plans with...
Places To Go
Vocabulary
Germany Deutschland
Humburg Hamburg
Berlin Berlin
Frankfurt Frankfurt
Colonge Köln
Munich München
Common Phases
Ich muss gehen...

I have to go to...
Lesson 1.09 • Wetter
Dialoge
Wolfgang calls his friend Monica after he sees the weather forecast.
Wolfgang: Mist!
Monica: Was?
Wolfgang: Es wird regnen.
Monica: Du hattest Pläne, richtig?
Wolfgang: Ja, Ich wollte einige Weihnachtengeschenke kaufen.
Monica: Ich habe mehr schlechte Nachrichten.
Wolfgang: Nein! Was ist es?
Monica: Es wird regnen und dann später in einen starken Schneesturm überwechseln.
Wolfgang: Nein! Die Straße wird mit Eis bedeckt sein.
Monica: Ich weiß. Ich muss zur Klasse gehen. Auf Wiedersehen mein Freund.
Wolfgang: Bis Dann!
Weather
Vocabulary
Weather Wetter
Rain Regen
Snow Schnee
Snow Showers Schneeschauer, Schneefall
Showers Schauer
Thunder Donner
Storm Sturm
Thunderstorm Gewitter
Cloudy Bewölkt
Overcast Bedeckt
Hail Hagel
Drizzle Nieseln
Thaw Tauen
Frost Frost
Common Phases
Wie ist das Wetter?
How's the weather?
Wie ist das wetter ...?

What is the weather for ...?
Können Sie mir sagen wie das Wetter heute ist?

Can you tell me today's weather?
Ist es...?
Is it...?
Transportation
Vocabulary
Car Auto
Train Zug
Trainstation Bahnhof
Airplane Flugzeug
Boat Boot
Highway Landstraße
Road Straße
Review 1.03
Vocabulary
das Spiel Game
das Videospiel Video Game
der Spaß Fun
die Feier Party*
die Party Party
die Musik Music
die Torte Cake
das Fass Keg
das Bier Beer
der Schnaps Hard Liquor
der Wein Wine
der Weißwein White Wine
der Rotwein Red Wine
Feiern To Party
Trinken Drinking
Saufen To Get Drunk
Erbrechen / sich Übergeben To Throw Up
Kotzen To Puke (slang)
Tanzen To Dance
der Geburtstag Birthday
Weihnachten Christmas
Ostern Easter
das Jubiläum Anniversary
das Wasser Water
Work Arbeit
Doctor Arzt
Buniness Man Geschäftsmann
Buniness Woman Geschäftsfrau
Teacher Lehrer
Police Officer Polizeibeamte
Fireman Feuerwehrmann
Actor Schauspieler
Artist Künstler
Author Schriftsteller
Bank Clerk Bankangestellter
Car Mechanic Automechaniker
Chemist Chemiker
Civil Servant Beamter
Engineer Ingenieur
Farmer Landwirt
Hairdresser Friseur
Journalist Journalist
Lawyer Rechtsanwalt
Lecturer Dozent
Nurse Krankenpfleger
Pensioner Rentner
Photographer Fotograf
Politician Politiker
Postman Briefträger
Professor Professor
Salesperson Verkäufer
Secretary Sekretär
Student Student
Taxi Driver Taxifahrer
Waiter Kellner
Germany Deutschland
Humburg Hamburg
Berlin Berlin
Frankfurt Frankfurt
Colonge Köln
Munich München
Weather Wetter
Rain Regen
Snow Schnee
Snow Showers Schneesch
Showers Schauer
Thunder Donner
Storm Sturm
Thunderstorm Gewitter
Cloudy Bewölkt
Overcast Bedeckt
Hail Hagel
Drizzle Nieseln
Thaw Tauen
Frost Frost
Car Auto
Train Zug
Trainstation Bahnhof
Airplane Flugzeug
Boat Boot
Highway Landstraße
Road Straße
Lesson 1.10 : Zu Hause Essen
undeveloped
Lesson 1.11 • Filme
undeveloped
Lesson 1.12 • Das Haus
undeveloped
Review 1.03
undeveloped
German Level Two Lessons
Grundlegende Lektionen
A Basic Course in German
Level Two Contents
Section 2.01 ~ Salzburg, Austria

• Lesson 2.01 • Einfache Gespräche unter Freunden ~ German grammar (introduction),
familiar conversations, word order in questions, pronouns (introduction).
• Lesson 2.02 • Fremde und Freunde ~ Verbs (introduction), pronouns in nominative case,
formal conversations, pronoun gender.
• Lesson 2.03 • Die Zahlen ~ Counting (theme), numbers 1 to 12, telling time, nouns
(introduction), definite articles & noun gender, indefinite articles.
• Lesson 2.04 • Eine Geschichte über Zürich ~ Adjectives (introduction), nouns and pronouns
in the accusative and dative, interrogatives.
Section 2.02 ~ Zürich, Switzerland

• Lesson 2.05 • Die Wohnung ~ Conjugating verbs (present tense), commands.
• Lesson 2.06 • Mathematik ~ Simple math, numbers 13-100, telling time: minutes & seconds,
days of the week, months, and seasons
• Lesson 2.07 • Mein, Dein, und Sein ~ School subjects, a description of German schools, basic
vocabulary in school classes (math, geography, etc.), and school supplies.
• Lesson 2.08 • Einkaufen gehen ~ Articles of clothing, separable verbs, colors.
Section 2.03 ~ Hannover, Germany

• Lesson 2.09 • Verbtempus und Wortstellung ~ Inverted word order, past and future tense
verbs.
• Lesson 2.10 • Undeveloped ~ Undeveloped
Lesson 2.01 • Einfache Gespräche unter

Freunden
Grammatik 1-1 ~ Introduction to German grammar

Knowing the parts of speech (how words function in a sentence) is important for anyone attempting to
learn a second language. English speakers will find many strong parallels between their language and
German. However, as noted in the introduction, German grammar signals—how words indicate their
function in a sentence—are more complex than English, and identifying the meaning of words in a
German sentence is difficult without understanding these clues or signals to word function that come
from the grammatical rules. The basic lessons (Level II) of this textbook are set up to first introduce the
parts of speech, and then bring in the rules that govern these. Pay particular attention to both word
endings and sentence word order as you progress in learning the German language.
Following is a short conversation piece (Gespräch). Play the audio file first, then attempt to repeat what
you hear, reading the spoken parts of the conversation. Go back and forth (listening and then speaking)
until the German flows easily from your lips. This may take considerable practice. Refer to the
vocabulary (Vokabeln) below to understand the meaning of the German sentences you are hearing and
speaking.
Gespräch 1-1 ~ Die Freunde

Heinrich trifft Karl auf der Straße. Heinrich und Karl sind Freunde.
• Heinrich: Guten Tag, Karl. Wie geht es dir?
• Karl: Guten Tag. Danke, es geht mir gut. Und dir?
• Heinrich: Danke, es geht mir gut. Auf Wiedersehen.
• Karl: Auf Wiedersehen!
• Audio: OGG (97KB)

In this conversation we learn several simple greetings exchanged between friends meeting very briefly
on the street.
Vokabeln 1-1
This first vocabulary (Vokabeln) may seem a bit long considering you have been presented with only
the brief conversation piece above, but it also contains all of the German words you have encountered
up to this point in the Level II textbook, including words in photo captions and lesson section headers.
The layout of the Vokabeln is explained in the Lesson Layout Guide in the German~English textbook
introduction, but the four parts of the Vokabeln are labeled in this first lesson to reenforce the concept.
Note that column 3 may contain (in parentheses) additional notes about a word in column 1. Also, you
can find the greeting phrases that appear in the simple conversations above (and many others) in
Anhang 2, a German-English phrase book.
NOUNS
der Anhang, die Anhänge appendix, appendices (singular and plural)

die Brücke bridge
der Freund, die Freunde friend, friends (singular and plural)
das Gespräch, die Gespräche conversation, conversations
die Grammatik grammar (note irregular stress)
die Lektion lesson (note irregular stress)
die Straße street
das Tor gateway
die Vokabeln word list, vocabulary
das Vorwort foreword, preface (introduction to a book)
SHORT PHRASES
auf der Straße on the street

Auf Wiedersehen Good bye
Es geht mir gut I am fine (lit: 'It goes with me
good')
Guten Tag! Good day (greeting)
Und dir? And you? (implied: 'And how are
you?')
unter Freunden between friends
Wie geht es dir? How are you (lit: 'How goes it with
you?')
Wie geht's? How are you? (casual, but more commonly
used)
VERBS
gehen go (geht is "goes")

treffen meet, come upon (trifft is "meets")
OTHER "SMALL" WORDS (adjectives, adverbs, prepositions, etc.)
danke thank you; thanks

dir (with or for) you
einfach simple
es it
gut good
mir (with or to) me
und and
wie? how?
<< Lesson Layout Guide
Pronunciation Guide >>

Gespräch 1-2 ~ Die Studenten
Markus ist Student. Er studiert Biologie. Er begegnet Katrin. Sie studiert
Mathematik. Markus und Katrin sind Freunde.
• Markus: Hallo, Katrin! Wohin gehst du?
• Katrin: Ich gehe einkaufen. Der Kühlschrank ist fast leer. Ich brauche Wurst
und Käse. Und du? Wohin gehst du?
• Markus: Zur Uni. Ich habe viel zu tun.
• Katrin: Gut! Dann bis bald. Tschüss.
• Markus: Tschüss, Katrin.
Here again, two friends (college students) meet casually and discuss briefly what each is doing.
Grammatik 1-2 ~ Word Order in Questions

Basic or normal word order in simple German sentences is the same as in English—subject then verb
then verb object:
Ich habe Käse ~ I (subject) have (verb) cheese (verb object = what you "have")
Also, as with English sentence structure, a question sentence in German is formed by reversing subject
and verb:
Hast du Käse? ~ Have (verb) you (subject) cheese?
This is called inverted word order. Examples are provided in Gespräch 1-1 and Gespräch 1-2. As
another example, consider the statement: Er studiert Biologie ('He studies biology'). A question
statement might be: Was studiert er? ('What studies he?'; although in English, we would usually say:
"What is he studying?"). The normal word order of subject (er or "he") then verb (studiert or "study")
is reversed and, in this case, an interrogative (was or "what") added onto the front replacing the
unknown (to the speaker) object (here, "biology"). Additional examples of questions formed from basic
statements illustrate inverted word order:
Wie geht es dir? from Es geht mir gut. ('It goes well with me.')
Wohin geht sie? from Sie geht einkaufen. ('She goes shopping.')
Was ist fast leer? from Der Kühlschrank ist fast leer. ('The fridge is almost empty.')
Was brauche ich? from Ich brauche Wurst und Käse. ('I need sausage and cheese.')
Versteht sie mich? from Sie versteht mich. ('She understands me.')
Grammatik 1-3 ~ Introduction to pronouns

A pronoun (Pronomen) is a short word that takes the place of a noun previously mentioned in the
sentence, paragraph, or conversation. A pronoun substitutes for a noun or noun phrase and designates
persons or things asked for, previously specified, or understood from context. A specific pronoun in
English as well as German has person, number, and case. You will be encountering all of the common
German pronouns in the next several lessons, so we will track these as they appear. The following
familiar personal pronouns are introduced in this lesson (Lektion 1):
ich – I (1st person, singular, nominative case)
mich – me (1st person, singular, accusative case)
mir – me (1st person singular, dative case)
du – you (2nd person, singular, nominative case)

dir – you (2nd person singular, dative case)
er – he (3rd person singular, nominative case)

sie – she (3rd person singular, nominative case)
es – it (3rd person singular, nominative case)
Pronoun person describes the relationship of the word to the speaker (that is, 1st person is the speaker;
2nd person is spoken to; and 3rd person is spoken about). Pronoun number refers to whether the word
represents one (singular) or more than one (plural) person or object. Finally, case indicates how the
pronoun is used in a sentence, as will be explained over the next several lessons. For now, note in the
examples you have already encountered, the three cases of 1st person singular pronouns in German:
ich, mich, and mir. In English these are: 'I', 'me', and (to or with) 'me' — in essence, there are really just
two cases in English: subjective ('I') and objective ('me'). You will shortly see that there are similarities,
yet distinct differences, in the cases as used by the English and German languages.
Vokabeln 1-2
NOUNS
die Antwort, die Antworten answer(s) (singular and plural)

die Biologie biology (note irregular stress)
die Freundin, die Freunde (female) friend, friends (compare der Freund)
der Käse cheese
der Kühlschrank refrigerator
die Mathematik mathematics (note irregular stress)
das Pronomen pronoun (note irregular stress)
der Student, die Studentin student, (female) student
die Uni university (a short form of die
Universität)
die Übersetzung translation (lit. "over-setting")
die Universität university (note irregular stress)
die Wurst sausage, banger
SHORT PHRASES
Dann bis bald! then until (we) soon (meet again) ("until then")
zu tun to do
VERBS
begegnen meet
brauchen need, want, require
einkaufen gehen go shopping
haben have
studieren study
verstehen understand
OTHER "SMALL" WORDS
an to (towards)
bald soon
bis until
dann then
du you
er he
fast almost
hallo hello
ich I
leer empty, vacant
mich me
schön beautiful (in this case, 'nice' or
'fine')
sehr very
sie she
tschüss so long (good bye)
viel much
was? what?
wohin? where?
<< Lesson Layout Guide
Übersetzung 1-1
By referring back to lesson examples, you should be able to write out the following sentences in
German. On a piece of paper, first number and write each English sentence. Then review the lesson
above and produce a German sentence that says the same thing as each English sentence. After all
seven lines are translated, follow the Antworten (answers) link to compare your work with the correct
ones. Do not be too concerned at this point if your spelling of the German verbs do not match the
answers. You will learn all about German verb forms in later lessons.
1. Good day, Mark! How are you?
2. Thanks, I am well. And you?
3. Good bye, Henry!
4. Catherine needs cheese.
5. She understands the lesson well.
6. So long, Mark! Until we meet again.
7. Where is he going?
Antworten >
Lesson 2.02 • Fremde und Freunde
Grammatik 2-1 ~ Introduction to Verbs

A verb is that part of speech that describes an action. Verbs come in an almost bewildering array of
tenses, aspects, and types. For now, we will limit our discussion to verbs used in the present tense —
i.e., describing an action occuring in the present. You should start to recognize that the form a verb
takes is related to the subject of that verb: the verb form must match the person of the subject. This
requirement is sometimes evident in English, but always so in German. Consider the following English
and German sentences (the verb is studieren in every case):
I study biology. Ich studiere Biologie.
She studies
Sie studiert Mathematik.
mathematics.
Heute studieren wir
Today we study German. (Note a subject verb reversal)
Deutsch.
(Notice subject verb reversal in question
What are you studying? Was studierst du?
sentence)
Several things are illustrated by these sentence pairs. First, all verbs in German follow the rule just
stated that a verb form must agree with its subject. Starting in Lektion 6 we will learn the verb forms
associated with each person in German. Second, this rule in English applies mostly to the verb 'to be'
(e.g., I am, you are, he is, etc.). In some English verbs, the 3rd person singular form is unique, often
taking an 's' or 'es' ending: "I give at the office", but "He gives at the office" (and "She studies..."
above). Finally, some German verbs are best translated with an English 'to be' verb form added. This is
called the progressive form in English ('What are you studying?'), but it does not exist in German.
Thus, a verb like nennen can best be translated as "to name" or "to call". The following example may
make this clearer. In the present tense, the following statements in English:
'They are calling the corporation, "Trans-Global"'
'They name the corporation, "Trans-Global"'
'They call the corporation, "Trans-Global"'
'They do call the corporation, "Trans-Global"'
are all expressed in German in only one way: Sie nennen die Firma, "Trans-Global". And the question
statement: 'Do they call the corporation, "Trans-Global"?' becomes, in German: Nennen sie die Firma,
"Trans-Global"?
Grammatik 2-2 ~ Pronouns in the Nominative Case
Most of the personal pronouns introduced in Lektion 1 are used as subjects of their verbs. These
represent the nominative case in German (as in English). We will shortly learn three other cases in
German: the accusative for direct objects, the dative for indirect objects, and the genitive for
expressing possession. For now, remember that the singular personal pronouns in English (nominative
case) are "I", "you", and "he/she/it" (1st, 2nd, and 3rd persons) and the nominative case is used as the
subject of a verb. In German, these pronouns are rendered as ich, du, and er/sie/es. In these example
sentences, the subject of the verb is underlined:
Ich gehe einkaufen. I go shopping.
Er studiert Biologie. He studies biology.
Es geht mir gut. It goes well with me. ( = I am fine).
Where are you (Notice subject verb reversal in question
Wohin gehst du?
going? sentence)
There are, of course, plural personal pronouns in the English nominative case: "we", "you", and "they";
and in German, these nominative case pronouns are wir, ihr, and sie. These appear in the following
examples (again, subject underlined):
Wir gehen einkaufen. We go shopping.
You all understand the
Ihr versteht die Frage.
question.
Ihr habt die Anleitungen. You (all) have the instructions.
Sie verstehen die Arbeit. They understand the work.
In both English and German, the 3rd person singular also has gender. As you will next learn, the 2nd
person (person being addressed) in German has both familiar and polite (formal) forms. Further, it is
worth repeating here — although introduced in Grammatik 2-1 above and to be covered in detail in
future lessons — that the verb form changes when the subject changes. That is, in German the verb
form must match the subject of a sentence. Here are some examples; compare with the previous three
example sentences above and note how the verb form changed to match the sentence subject (subject
and verb underlined):
Ich verstehe die Arbeit. I understand the work.
Du gehst einkaufen. You go shopping.
Ich habe alle Antworten. I have all the answers.
Er hat die Anleitungen. He has the instructions.
In the last example, the English verb form ('have') also changed based upon the subject of the sentence.
Gespräch 2-1 ~ Die Geschäftsleute

Herr Schmidt trifft Frau Baumann. Sie sind Geschäftsleute und sie arbeiten an dem
Hauptsitz.
• Herr Schmidt: Guten Tag, Frau Baumann!
• Frau Baumann: Guten Tag, Herr Schmidt!
• Herr Schmidt: Wie geht es Ihnen?
• Frau Baumann: Sehr gut, danke. Und Ihnen?
• Herr Schmidt: Auch gut.
• Frau Baumann: Schön. Haben Sie Herrn Standish schon getroffen?
• Herr Schmidt: Aus England? Nein. Ist er zu Besuch?
• Frau Baumann: Ja. Das ist richtig! Auf Wiedersehen, Herr Schmidt!
• Herr Schmidt: Auf Wiedersehen, Frau Baumann!
In this conversation, although the subject matter is basically casual, a more formal form of German is
being used intoning respect between coworkers in an office setting. The polite form is expressed by the
pronouns as explained below (Grammatik 2-3).
Vokabeln 2-1
die Anleitungen instructions
das Deutsch German (language) (more common is die deutsche
Sprache)
der Fremde foreigner, stranger
die Firma company, firm, business concern
die Frage question
die Geschäftsleute business people (die Leute = people)
der Hauptsitz head office (das Haupt = head or chief)
der Tag day, daytime
aus England from England

Das ist richtig! That is right!
Frau Baumann Ms. Baumann
Herr Schmidt Mr. Schmidt
zu Besuch visiting
arbeiten work
getroffen (have) met (past participle of treffen)
nennen name, call
alle all
an at
Ihnen (with or to) you (polite form)
heute today
ihr you (plural), you all
ja yes
nein no
richtig correct
sie they (note: also "she")
Sie you (polite form)
wir we

Grammatik 2-3 ~ Familiar and Polite Pronoun Forms
Many pronouns were introduced in Lesson 1. In Grammatik 2-1 and Gespräch 2-1 we have been
presented with the following additional pronouns:
Ihnen – (to) you (2nd person singular, dative case)
ihr – you (2nd person, plural, nominative case)
sie – they (3rd person, plural, nominative case)
Sie – you (2nd person, singular, nominative case)
wir – we (1st person, plural, nominative case)
In the conversations between friends presented in Gespräche 1-1 and 1-2 (Lektion 1) the familiar form
of the personal pronouns (e.g., du, dir) was used. However, German also has a polite or formal form of
some of these personal pronouns. The polite form is used in conversations between strangers and more
formal situations, as illustrated in the Gespräch 2-1: greetings between business associates.
The polite form is always first-letter capitalized in German, which can be helpful in differentiating Sie
(you) from sie (she and they); Ihnen (you) from ihnen (them). However, you will soon learn that the
form of the verb (see Grammatik 2-3 below) is most telling, as shown by these example pairs using the
verb, haben (have):
Haben Sie eine Zigarette? Do you have a cigarette? (polite form of you)
She has no sausage and no
Sie hat keine Wurst und keinen Käse.
cheese.
Sie haben viel Arbeit. They have much work (to do).
Haben sie zu viel Arbeit? Do they have too much work?
Because the first letter in a sentence is always capitalized, we cannot determine (without the verb form)
whether the second and third examples begin with sie ('she' or 'they') or with Sie (polite 'you'); a
problem that would also exist in conversation. The fourth example, where subject and verb are reversed
in a question, demonstrates the pronoun 'they'; compare it with the polite 'you' in the first example.
It is relatively easy for an English speaker to appreciate how context, especially in conversation,
overcomes confusion considering that English has fewer forms for these pronouns than German.
However, this fact does present some difficulty when learning German, since improper use of a
pronoun may just create confusion in speaking or writing German.
Gespräch 2-2 ~ Die Geschäftsmänner

Herr Schmidt und Herr Standish begegnen sich am Hauptsitz:
Vereinigtes Königreich
von Großbritannien und Nordirland
Bundesrepublik
Deutschland
• Herr Schmidt: Guten Morgen, Herr Standish! Wie geht es Ihnen?

• Herr Standish: Danke sehr, es geht mir gut. Und Ihnen?
• Herr Schmidt: Nicht so gut. Ich bin müde.
• Herr Standish: Wie bitte? Müde? Warum?
• Herr Schmidt: Ich habe so viel Arbeit.
• Herr Standish: Das kann ich verstehen. Zu viel ist zu viel.
• Herr Schmidt: Das ist richtig. Auf Wiedersehen, Herr Standish!
• Herr Standish: Auf Wiedersehen, bis morgen.
Vokabeln 2-2
die Bundesrepublik Deutschland Federal Republic of Germany
die Geschäftsmänner businessmen (die Geschäftsleute is
preferred)
Großbritannien Great Britain (technically Vereinigtes
Königreich
von Großbritannien und
Nordirland)
der Morgen morning
die Übersetzung translation
bis morgen until tomorrow

Guten Morgen! Good morning (greeting)
nicht so gut not so well
so viel so much
Wie bitte? How is that?
zu viel too much
bis until
kein no (in the sense on "none")
müde tired
nicht not
sich each other
warum ? why ?
Grammatik 2-4 ~ Personal pronoun gender

In both English and German the 3rd person personal pronouns have gender (Grammatik 1-3). However,
in English, the pronoun "it" is used for most inanimate or non-living things. There are a few
exceptions: a ship might be referred to as "she". However, in German, the 3rd person personal pronoun
reflects the gender of the noun (antecedent) refered to by the pronoun. For examples:
Der Kühlschrank ist fast leer. Er ist fast leer. It (masculine) is almost empty.
Ich brauche die Wurst. Ich brauche sie. I need it (feminine).
Das Gespräch ist schwer. Es ist schwer. It (neuter) is difficult.
The following table summarizes these gender relationships:
3rd person pronouns
masculine er he
feminine sie she
neuter es it
Übersetzung 2-1
You may, at this point, try the flash cards developed for Level I German. This set has a few words and
concepts not yet presented in Level II, but for the most part can be very helpful in enhancing your
vocabulary. Go to FlashcardExchange.com.
Translate the following sentences into German. Pay attention to whether familiar or polite form of the
pronoun is requested:
1. Good day, Ms. Neumann. How are you? [in polite conversational form]
2. I am well, thank you. And you? [in polite form]
3. I am well, thank you. And you? [in familiar form]
4. Katrin is studying math.
5. They meet each other at the head office.
6. I do understand the instructions.
7. Is she visiting from England?
8. How is that? You have too much work? [in polite form]
9. Good bye, Mr. Smith. Until tomorrow morning?
Antworten >
Lesson 2.03 • Die Zahlen
Lektion 3 ~ Zählen von 1 bis 12

Counting in any language is a valuable skill best learned early on. In German as in English, there are
both cardinal (counting) and ordinal (place or order) numbers, and number formation is similar in that
the first twelve numbers are unique. Above twelve, numbers are formed by combination. For example,
13 is dreizehn and 14 is vierzehn. Higher numbers will be the subject of later lessons.
Note in the table how ordinals are formed from the cardinals in German by adding te. 'Ten' becomes
'tenth' in English; zehn become zehnte in German. As in English, there are several nonconforming
variants: erste, dritte, and siebte.
cardinal numbers ordinal numbers
one eins 1st erste
two zwei 2nd zweite
three drei 3rd dritte
four vier 4th vierte
five fünf 5th fünfte
six sechs 6th sechste
seven sieben 7th siebte
eight acht 8th achte
nine neun 9th neunte
ten zehn 10th zehnte
eleven elf 11th elfte
twelve zwölf 12th zwölfte

Audio: OGG (385KB)
Aussprache
Learning the German words for the numbers provides an excellent opportunity to practice German
pronunciations. Following are some helpful hints for English speakers attempting to count in German.
A "dental sound" is made by moving the tongue into the back of the upper teeth—almost as if the word
started with a 't'. A "gutteral sound" comes from deep in the throat. Also, remember, in words of more
than one syllable, the emphasis is on the first syllable. final consonants are cut off quickly in German,
not drawn out as in many English words. English speakers might call this being curt or brusque with
each word.
eins say 'eyen-zah' but drop the 'ah'; 'z' is between an 's' and 'z'
zwei sounds like 'zveye'; the 'w' is between a 'v' and a 'w'
drei sounds like "dry", but with dental 'd' and roll the 'r'
vier sound is between "fear" and 'fee-yahr'
fünf say 'foon-fah' without the 'ah'; very slight 'r' after the 'ü'
sechs sounds like "sex", but with a more dental leading 's'
sieben sounds like "see Ben" (use dental 's')
acht sounds like 'ahkt'; the 'ch' is gutteral
neun sounds like "loin" with an 'n'
zehn sounds like the name, "Zane", but the 'z' is more dental
elf sounds pretty much like "elf" (the German 'e' is a little higher)
zwölf sounds like 'zwolf', but the 'o' is closer to
Grammatik 3-1 ~ Telling time (hours)

Knowing the numbers from 1 to 12, you can now begin asking and telling time in German.
Der Uhrturm von Graz

Gespräch 3-1
Zwei Jungen, Heinrich und Karl, sind Freunde. Sie begegnen sich eines
Nachmittags.
• Heinrich: Karl. Wie geht's?
• Karl: Hallo!
• Heinrich: Willst du spielen? Ich habe einen Ball.
• Karl: Wie spät ist es?
• Heinrich: Es ist ein Uhr.
• Karl: Dann kann ich bis zwei Uhr spielen.
• Heinrich: Das ist gut. Wir spielen eine Stunde lang!
Asking for the time is accomplished by the sentence: Wie spät ist es? ("How late is it?"). The answer
places the hour in the line Es ist ____ Uhr ("It is __ o'clock"), substituting the correct cardinal value
(except ein is used instead of eins). One could also ask: Wieviel Uhr ist es? (not used very often
anymore) or respond Es ist eins or Es ist drei, etc.—which may be imprecise, unless the time is close to
the hour. The following sentences also relate to telling time:
Er fragt nach der Uhrzeit. He asks the time.
Sie begegnen sich eines Nachmittags. They meet each other one afternoon.
Es ist halb vier. It is half past three (3:30).
Es ist Viertel nach zwölf. It is a quarter after twelve (12:15).
Es ist Viertel vor elf. It is a quarter to eleven (10:45).
Es ist drei Viertel elf.* It is a quarter to eleven (10:45).
Es ist fünf vor neun. It is five minutes to (until) nine (08:55).
Es ist fünf Minuten vor neun. It is five minutes to (until) nine (08:55).
Es ist zehn nach elf. It is ten minutes after eleven (11:10).
Es ist zehn Minuten nach elf. It is ten minutes after eleven (11:10).
Es ist acht nach. It is eight minutes after the last full hour (??:08).
It is ten minutes to (until) the next full hour
Es ist zehn vor.
(??:50).
Es ist drei durch.* It is between three and four (03:??).
Es ist elf Uhr drei It is three minutes after eleven (11:03).
Es ist elf Uhr und drei minuten It is three minutes after eleven (11:03).
* this is only regional - many Germans may not understand
Knowing how to express the quarter, half, and three quarter hours will allow you to give the time more
precisely. We will, of course, revisit this subject. Once you know how to count beyond twelve, the
hour's division into 60 minutes can be expressed. Also, Germans (like most Europeans) utilize what is
known in America as "military time" or a 24-hour clock.
Vokabeln 3-1
Also included in the vocabulary for Lesson 3 are the ordinal and cardinal numbers 1 through 12 from
Lektion 3 above.
der Ball ball
der Junge, die Jungen boy, boys
das Lernen learning, study
der Nachmittag afternoon
die Stunde hour
die Uhr watch (timepiece); also "o'clock"
der Uhrturm clock tower
die Uhrzeit time, time of day
das Viertel quarter
die Zahl, die Zahlen number, numbers
bis zwei Uhr until two o'clock

das ist gut very well (lit.: "that is good")
eines Nachmittags one (unspecified) afternoon
ich kann... spielen I can play
es ist it is
willst du ...? do you want ...? (familiar form)
fragen ask (a question)

spielen play
zählen count
dann then
halb half, halfway to
nach about, after
spät late
vor before, until
zu to
Grammatik 3-2 ~ Introduction to Nouns

A noun is a fundamental part of speech, occurring in sentences in two different ways: as subjects
(performers of action), or objects (recipients of action). As a generality, a noun is the name of a
"person, place, or thing". Nouns are classified into proper nouns (e.g. "Janet"), common nouns (e.g.
"girl"), and pronouns (e.g. "she" and "which"). A proper noun (also called proper name) is a noun
which denotes a unique entity. The meaning of a proper noun, outside of what it references, is
frequently arbitrary or irrelevant (for example, someone might be named Tiger Smith despite being
neither a tiger nor a smith). Because of this, they are often not translated between languages, although
they may be transliterated — for example, the German surname "Knödel" becomes "Knoedel" in
English, as opposed to "Dumpling". Proper nouns are capitalized in English and all other languages
that use the Latin alphabet; this is one way to recognize them. However, in German both proper and
common nouns are capitalized (as are certain formal pronouns; see Grammatik 2-3).
Grammatik 3-3 ~ Gender of Nouns
We have seen evidence of word gender in the pronouns we have been enountering; notably 'he', 'she',
and 'it' in English and er, sie, and es in German. Just like many other languages (but not English),
German has genders for nouns as well. Noun gender is indicated by the definite article, which should
always be learned as part of the noun. For this reason, nouns presented in each lesson's Vokabeln
include the gender appropriate definite article.
Definite Articles
The definite article (bestimmter Artikel) is equivalent to an English 'the', and the three basic gender
forms of definite articles in German are as follows:
masculine
der
die feminine
das neuter
To say 'the book' in German, you would say das Buch, because Buch is a neuter noun. To say 'the man'
in German, you would say der Mann, because Mann is a masculine noun. To say 'the woman' in
German, you would say die Frau, because Frau is a feminine noun.
Noun gender does not always derive from actual gender where gender might be applicable. For
example, 'the boy' is der Junge (masculine); but 'the girl' is das Mädchen (neuter). Also, nouns that
have no inherent gender are not necessarily neuter. From this lesson: 'the watch or time piece' is die
Uhr ('feminine').
Because German is generally more structured than English, it is important when learning German
nouns to always learn them with their gender correct definite article; and in the Vokabeln nouns are
always given with their associated definite article. That is, you must memorize the word for 'book' in
German as das Buch, not simply Buch. Not just definite articles, but indefinite articles and adjectives
have endings that must match the gender of the noun they preceed. Using the wrong gender can alter
the meaning of a German sentence, so in forming a proper sentence with Buch, you will need to known
that it is a neuter noun.
Indefinite Articles
in addition to the definite articles—"the" in English and der-words in German—discussed above, both
languages have indefinite articles (unbestimmter Artikel). Indefinite articles preceed nouns in the same
way that definite articles do, but convey a general or indefinite sense. These are "a" or "an" in English.
Thus, 'the book' or das Buch refers to a definite or specific book, whereas 'a book' or ein Buch is
indefinite about which book is referred to. Indefinite articles also have gender as shown here:
masculine
ein der
eine die feminine

das neuter
ein
Here are some examples of indefinite articles (underlined) used in German sentences:
Ich habe einen Ball. I have a ball.
Heute lesen wir ein Buch. Today we read a book.
Markus trifft einen Studenten auf der Straße. Mark meets a student on the street.
Die Geschäftsleute haben eine Antwort. The business people have an answer.
Ein Freund spielt Ball mit ihm. A friend plays ball with him.
Why, you ask, are there words like einen in some sentences above—a spelling that does not appear in
the gender table? The tables for both the definite and indefinite articles above are simplified at this
stage, giving only articles in the nominative case (applied to words that are subjects of verbs). In the
very next lesson you will start to address all the other cases in German. However, the nominative case
is the one used to signify the gender of a noun, as in our Vokabeln.
Vokabeln 3-2
das Buch book
die Frau woman
der Knödel dumpling
das Mädchen (young) girl
der Mann man
lesen read
Übersetzung 3-1
Translate the following sentences into German:
1. I am reading until ten o'clock.
2. It is nine thirty.
3. It is a quarter to ten.
4. Cathy is a student at the university.
5. She meets Mark on the street.
6. Henry has a ball.
7. The girl is a friend.
8. Mr. Smith has a question.
Antworten >
Lesson 2.04 • Eine Geschichte über Zürich
Lesestück 4-1 ~ Eine Geschichte über Zürich

Zürich ist die größte Stadt der Schweiz. Sie liegt am Ausfluss des Zürichsees und
ist die Hauptstadt des gleichnamigen Kantons, des Kantons Zürich. Zürich ist
ausgesprochen schön gelegen, am nördlichen Ende des Zürichsees—bei klarem
Wetter hat man eine gute Sicht auf die Glarner Alpen.
Zürich ist das Zentrum der schweizer Bankenwirtschaft. Neben den beiden
Grossbanken ('Credit Suisse' und 'UBS') haben auch etliche kleinere Bankinstitute
ihren Sitz in der Stadt.
Although this short story contains quite a number of impressive German nouns and adjectives, with the
aid of Vokabeln 4-1 following you should have no trouble reading and understanding it. The passage
makes considerable use of the German genitive case (English possessive case), which you have not yet
learned. However, a clue applicable here: translate des as "of the" or "of" and note there are other der-
words that also mean "of the".
Vokabeln 4-1
die Alpen Alps
der Ausfluss outlet, effluence (of a lake)
die Bankinstitute banking institutes
die Bankenwirtschaft banking business
das Ende end
die Grossbanken major banks
die Hauptstadt capital city
das Haus house
der Kanton canton (Swiss state)
das Lesestück reading passage
die Schweiz Switzerland
die Sicht view
der Sitz office
das Wetter weather
das Zentrum center (centre)
das Zürich Zurich (city and canton in
Switzerland)
der Zürichsee Lake Zurich
d.h. (das heißt) i.e. ("that is" in Latin)

Glarner Alpen Glarner Alps
man hat... one has...
nach Hause (toward) home (compare: zu Hause = "at
home")
anrufen call, telephone

geben (gab, gegeben) give
kommen (kam, gekommen) come
liegen (lag, gelegen) lie (lay, lain)
am (an dem) at the

ausgesprochen markedly
bei in
beiden two
etliche a number of, quite a few, several
gleichnamig same named
größte largest
klar clear
klein small
neben besides
nördlich northern
schweizer of or pertaining to Swiss
Grammatik 4-1 ~ Introduction to adjectives

An adjective is a part of speech which can be thought of as a "describing word"—typically, an
adjective modifies a noun. In both English and German, adjectives come before the noun they describe
or modify. In many other languages (such as French) they usually come after the noun. Here are some
examples of adjectives (underlined) you have already encountered:
Ich habe viel Arbeit. I have much work.
Wir haben keinen Käse. We have no cheese.
In clear weather, one has a good
Bei klarem Wetter hat man eine gute Sicht.
view
Zürich ist die größte Stadt. Zurich is the largest city.
Because nouns are capitalized in German, it is fairly obvious in these sentences where the adjectives
occur: just before the nouns they modify. Note how the endings on German adjectives can change,
depending upon the noun (keinen Käse; klarem Wetter; gute Sicht)—specifically, the gender and case
of the noun they are modifying. Before explaining the basic rules governing adjective endings, you
need to have a better understanding of person, gender, and case in German nouns—concepts that will
be explored in the next few lessons.
Finally, realize that the ordinal numbers you learned in Lektion 3 are, in fact, adjectives—subject to
the same rules governing word endings for adjectives.
Wer ist das dritte Mädchen? Who is the third girl?
Wir verstehen nur die erste Lektion. We understand only the first lesson.
Gespräch 4-1 ~ Das neue Mädchen
Markus und Helena sind Freunde.
• Markus: Lena, wer ist das neue Mädchen? Die Brünette dort drüben.
• Helena: Ich glaube, sie heißt 'Karoline'.
• Markus: Sie ist sehr schön.
• Helena: Sie ist hübsch, wenn man kleine Mädchen mit langen dunklen Haaren
mag.
• Markus: Ja. Ihre Haare gefallen mir sehr.
• Helena: Markus, du bist ein Ferkel!
This short conversational passage contains more examples of adjectives.
Vokabeln 4-2
die Brünette brunette
die Haare hair(s)
das Mädchen girl
das Ferkel piglet
gefallen appeal to
glauben believe
heißen name, call
mag like, desire, wish
dort there
(dort) drüben over there
dunkel dark
ihr her
hübsch cute
klein short
lang long
neue new
wenn if
wer? who?
Grammatik 4-2 ~ Nouns and pronouns in the accusative and

dative
As was noted previously when the concept of case was introduced for pronouns (Grammatik 2-2), there
are four cases used in German. Recall that the nominative case in German corresponds to the
subjective case in English and applies to nouns and pronouns used in a sentence as the subject of a
verb. Nouns (and pronouns) that are used as objects of transitive (action) verbs are in the English
objective case. If these are direct objects (recipients of the action of a verb), then these nouns are in
the accusative case in German. If indirect objects, then these nouns are in the dative case in German.
Essentially, the English objective case is divided, in German, into an accusative case used for direct
objects and a dative case used for indirect objects.
Pronouns
For comparison with English, recall that the singular personal pronouns (nominative case) are "I",
"you", and "he/she/it" (1st, 2nd, and 3rd persons). The objective case, personal pronouns in English are
"me", "you", and "him/her/it"—and are used for both direct and indirect objects of verbs. For example:
He gives it [the Direct Object] to me [the Indirect Object].
The German accusative case, personal pronouns (singular) are: mich, dich, ihn/sie/es. The German
dative case, personal pronouns (singular) are: mir, dir, ihm/ihr/ihm. Thus, the above English example
sentence becomes, in German:
Er gibt es [the Direct Object] mir [the Indirect Object].
Because mir is a dative pronoun, there is no need in German to use a modifier as in English, where "to"
is used as a signal of an indirect object. The following table summarizes the German pronouns in three
cases for both singular and plural number:
Singular Plural
NOM. ACC. DAT. NOM. ACC. DAT.
1st person ich mich mir wir uns uns
2nd person du (Sie*) dich (Sie*) dir (Ihnen*) ihr (Sie*) euch (Sie*) euch (Ihnen*)
ihm, ihr,
3rd person er, sie, es ihn, sie, es sie sie ihnen
ihm
* Polite form
Recall from Gespräch 2-1 the "incomplete" sentence Und Ihnen? ('And you?'). Note that the pronoun
agrees in case (here, dative) with the implied sentence — Und wie geht es Ihnen? The same rule is
evident in Gespräch 1-1 (Und dir?). Such agreement is important to convey the correct meaning.
Tables giving the German personal pronouns in all cases can be found in an appendix: Pronoun Tables.
Nouns
Nouns do not change their form (spelling) relative to case in German; instead, a preceding article
indicates case. You have learned the nominative case definite and indefinite articles (Grammatik 3-3:
der, die, das and ein, eine. ein) for each of the three noun genders. Now we will learn the accusative
(used to signal a direct object) and dative (used to signal an indirect object) articles. First, the definite
articles:
Singular Plural
NOM. ACC. DAT. NOM. ACC. DAT.
Masculine der den dem die die den
Feminine die die der die die den
Neuter das das dem die die den
This table might seem a bit overwhelming (and there is yet one more case in German: the genitive!),
but some points to note can make memorizing much easier. First, as you can see from the table, gender
does not really exist for plural nouns. No matter what the noun gender in its singular number, its plural
always has the same set of definite articles: die, die, den for nominative, accusative, and dative cases.
The plural der-words are similar to the feminine singular der-words, differing only in the dative case.
Another point: the dative for both masculine and neuter nouns is the same: dem. Finally, for feminine,
neuter, and plural nouns, there is no change between nominative and accusative cases. Thus, only for
masculine nouns is there a definite article change in the accusative compared with the nominative.
The following examples demonstrate the use of the definite article in various parts of speech:
Du hast die Wurst und den Käse. You have the sausage and the cheese. (accusative case)
Die Geschäftsleute verstehen die The business associates understand (nominative and accusative
Arbeit the work. cases)
Zürich ist die größte Stadt. Zurich is the largest city. (nominative case)
In the last example, you need to know that in both English and German, the noun (or pronoun) that
follows the verb 'to be' is a predicate noun, for which the correct case is the nominative. That is why,
in English, 'It is I' is grammatically correct and 'It is me' is simply incorrect.
The indefinite articles are as follows:
Singular
NOM. ACC. DAT.
Masculine ein einen einem
Feminine eine eine einer
Neuter ein ein einem
Of course, there are no plural indefinite articles in German or English (ein means "a". "an", or "one"). It
is important to see that there is a pattern in the case endings added to ein related to the der-words in the
definite articles table above. For example, the dative definite article for masculine nouns is dem—the
indefinite article is formed by adding -em onto ein to get einem. The dative definite article for feminine
nouns is der—the indefinite is ein plus -er or einer. These ending changes will be covered in greater
detail in a future lesson. You will see that there are a number of words (adjectives, for example) whose
form relative changes by addition of these endings to signal the case of the noun they modify. Finally,
we can see a pattern relationship between these "endings" and the 3rd person pronouns as well:
NOM. ACC. DAT.

indef. article ein einen einem
Masculine
3rd pers. pronoun er ihn ihm
Feminine indef. article eine eine einer
3rd pers. pronoun sie sie ihr
indef. article ein ein einem
Neuter
3rd pers. pronoun es es ihm
We could construct a similar table to compare the definite articles to the 3rd person pronouns. And in
that case, we would also see how the plural definite articles (die, die, den) compare with the third
person plural pronouns (sie, sie, ihnen).
Grammatik 4-3 ~ Interrogatives

You have encountered nearly all of the interrogatives commonly used in German (review Grammatik
1-2):
wann when
warum why Warum sind Sie müde?
was what Was ist das?
wer who Wer ist das Mädchen?
wie how Wie geht es dir?
wieviel how much Wieviel Uhr ist es?
wo where Wo ist das Buch?
wohin where (to) Wohin gehst du?
In a question, interrogatives replace the unknown object and establish the class of answer expected.
Was haben Sie? What do you have? (Expected is a 'thing')
How much work is too
Wieviel Arbeit ist zu viel? (Expected is a 'quantity')
much?
Wann gehst du nach Hause? When do you go home? (Expected is a sense of 'time')
Wo ist der Zürichsee? Where is Lake Zurich? (Expected is a 'place')
Note that the English construction for some of the questions differs from the German in that the former
uses the progressive form of "do".
Übersetzung 4-1
1. They have a good view of the Alps.
2. Lake Zurich is very beautiful.
Antworten >
Review 2.01
Wiederholung
Lesson 5 is a review (Wiederholung) lesson to summarize the German language lessons presented in
Lessons 1 through 4. You should, then, return to Lektion 1 and review (that is, reread) each of the four
lessons back up to this point. For a more advanced course, you might now incorporate each of the
advanced lessons into this "review" process. That is: review Lesson 1, then do Lesson 1A, review
Lesson 2, then do Lesson 2A, etc.
Parts of Speech and Word Order

Sentences are composed of parts that perform specific functions. You have been introduced to most
(but not all) the major parts of speech: pronouns/nouns, verbs, and adjectives; and how these are
expressed in German compared with English. Consider the following:
Ich brauche Wurst und Käse
I (pronoun as subject) need (verb) sausage and cheese (nouns as direct objects)
Haben sie zu viel Arbeit?

Have (verb) they (pronoun subject) too much (adjectives) work (noun direct object)?
Word order in a simple sentence follows that used in English. Subject and verb are reversed to form a
question. In English, but not in German, the question sentence could also be stated (and, in fact, occurs
more often in the US) as 'Do they have too much work?'
Nouns
Nouns are words that typically occur in sentences as either subjects (performers of some action) or
objects (recipients of some action). Most nouns are the name of either a "person, place, or thing" and,
in German, are always capitalized. Every noun in German has an "assigned" gender (masculine,
feminine, neuter), and we learn each noun with its nominative case, definite article (der, die, das,
respectively) in order to also learn that gender. Thus, a Vokabeln section for nouns is presented thusly:
der Anhang, die Anhänge appendix, appendices (singular and plural)
die Brücke bridge
der Freund, die Freunde friend, friends (singular and plural)
das Gespräch, die Gespräche conversation, conversations
die Grammatik grammar (note irregular stress)
die Lektion lesson (note irregular stress)
die Straße street
Lesson 2.05 • Die Wohnung
Gespräch 6-1 ~ Ein Bruder besucht Markus

Markus studiert Biologie an der Universität. Er besucht die Vorlesungen und dann
geht er nach Hause. Er wohnt nicht bei seinen Eltern; er mietet sich eine kleine
Wohnung. Sie hat nur drei Zimmer. Gegen Abend zeigt er sie seinem Bruder.
• Markus: Karl. Herein!
• Karl: Tag, Markus! Mutti grüßt dich.
Karl sieht sich um.
• Karl: Mir gefällt deine Wohnung.
• Markus: Danke. Sie hat drei Zimmer. Es gibt eine Küche, ein Wohnzimmer,
und ein Schlafzimmer.
• Karl: Ich habe sie gern!
• Markus:
This incomplete story and conversation introduces terms for items around the house (or apartment).
Vokabeln 6-1
der Bruder brother
die Eltern parents
die Küche kitchen
das Schlafzimmer bedroom
die Vorlesung class, instruction (at a university)
die Wohnung apartment, flat
das Wohnzimmer living room
das Zimmer, die Zimmer room(s)
es gibt there is
gegen Abend towards evening
gern haben like (i.e., "to gladly have")
Herein! Come in!
sich umsehen look around
zeigen show
besuchen visit, attend (classes)
grüßen greet
mieten rent
sein his (a possesive adjective)

Grammatik 6.1 ~ Introduction to verb conjugations
In German, every grammatical person has, or potentially has, its own unique verb form. Describing the
various verb forms is called verb conjugation. This variation in verb form is certainly one of the things
that makes German grammar somewhat difficult for English speakers to learn. In English, only the 3rd
person singular might differ from the verb form used with all of the other persons (see Grammatik 1-3)
and that difference is made by adding an ending of 's' or 'es'. For example: I/you/we/they 'go', but
he/she/it 'goes'.
Let us have a closer look at German verbs. Usually, the infinitive form of a verb in German ends with
-en—for examples, consider these verbs you have already learned: gehen ('go'), haben ('have'), and
studieren ('study'). In order to "build" the different verb forms (that is, conjugate a verb), first cut off
the '-en' ending from the infinitive. Then append a new ending according to the grammatical person.
For regular verbs it works essentially as follows:
pronoun verb in English:
ich gehe I go
du gehst you go
er/sie/es geht he/she/it goes
wir gehen we go
ihr geht you (pl.) go
sie gehen they go
As you see in this example using the verb gehen, the singular 1st person ends with -e, the 2nd person
with -st and 3rd person (no matter what gender) ends with -t. As for the plural forms, note that 1st and
3rd person in plural number (see Grammatik 1-3) are built the same way as the infinitive. Again note
that, in English, only the verb form for the 3rd person singular is "unique". An easy way to remeber the
regular verb endings is the following mnemonic "Elephants standing together enjoy trumpeting
endlessly".
Seems simple enough. However, realize we are discussing here only the regular verb forms in the
present tense (Präsens). You will learn quite soon that, unfortunaly, there are many exceptions from
these simple rules. An important one is the irregular verb sein ('to be') which is irregular in English as
well (I am, you are, he is....).
ich bin I am
du bist you are
er/sie/es ist he/she/it is
wir sind we are
ihr seid you (plural) are
sie sind they are
At least 1st and 3rd person plural are the same. Another important verb is haben ('to have'):
ich habe I have
du hast you have
er/sie/es hat he/she/it has
wir haben we have
ihr habt you (plural) have
sie haben they have
You see, it's not too irregular—only the 2nd and 3rd person singular constitute a small exception since
the 'b' has vanished. English is somewhat curious in this respect as well: 'I have', but 'he has'. Future
lessons will introduce you to the many irregular verbs in German. But you should now recognize what
is happening to the verbs in German sentences. They are reflecting the person and number of their
nominative case subjects. Recall these sentences from past lessons (verbs underlined here):
Danke, es geht mir gut Thanks, it goes well with me (verb is
gehen)
Ich habe viel Arbeit I have much work (verb is haben)
Ist er zu Besuch? Is he visiting? (verb is sein)
Du bist ein Schwein! You are a pig! (verb is sein)
Wie heißen Sie? What are you called? (verb is heißen, and
pronoun is formal)
Wir spielen eine Stunde lang! We play for one hour! (verb is spielen)
Sie liegt am Ausfluss des Zürichsees. It lies at the outlet of Lake Zurich (verb
is liegen)
Grammatik 5.2 ~ Case in German nouns

Through our discussions on the personal pronouns, you have learned how pronouns have case. Nouns
also have case—and in German, noun case can be expressed by the definite article (der). Recall this
table from Lektion 3:
masculine
der
die feminine
das neuter
These der-words reflect noun gender in the nominative case—appropriate whenever a noun is used as
the subject of a sentence. For other cases, the der words change. Expanding the table to present
nominative (NOM.), accusative (ACC.), dative (DAT.), and genitive (GEN.) cases:
NOM. ACC. DAT. GEN.
masculine
der den dem des
die die der der feminine

das das dem des neuter
die die den der plural
Note, there are also der-word forms to be used for plural nouns. Fortunately, these are the same, no
matter what the gender of the singular noun. For future reference, you can find the der-words
summarized in Anhänge Drei.
The following examples demonstrate the use of the definitive article in various parts of speech:
Du hast die Wurst und den Käse. You have the sausage and the cheese.
(accusative case)
Die Geschäftsleute verstehen die Arbeit The business associates understand the
work.
(nominative and accusative cases)
Sie liegt am Ausfluss des Zürichsees. It lies at the outlet of (the) Lake
Zurich.
(genitive case)
Zürich ist die größte Stadt der Schweiz. Zurich is the largest city in (of the)
Switzerland.
(nominative and genitive cases)
In the last example, remember that in both English and German, the noun (or pronoun) that follows the
verb 'to be' is a predicate noun, for which the correct case is the nominative. That is why, in English, 'It
is I' is grammatically correct and 'It is me' is incorrect. So consider the following (and note that case of
each definite article is the same as in the last example above):
Zürich ist der Kanton der gleichnamigen Stadt. Zurich is the canton of the same
named city.
Grammatik 6.3 ~ Commands

Ruf sie an, bitte! Call her, please.
or Ruf sie bitte an!
Gehen Sie nach Hause! Go home (formal).
Kommt mit! Come with (plural)!
Gib es mir! Give me it!
Notice that in these sentences there are no subjects (except for #2). In German, as in English, there is a
commandative form, a way to demand something using an understood you. In English, there is only one
you-form and one command form. In German, since there are three you's, there are three ways to
command.
If the subject is singular (du), then the verb has no ending. If it is irregular, it takes the du-form, such as
in essen (Iss!) or lesen (Lies!). If there is a plural subject (ihr), then the verb takes the ihr-form.
Nothing else is changed. Most of the time, ihr-commands are used with children, but that is not always
the case. In both of these sentences, the du or ihr is omitted.
Formal is normal. The Sie stays (after the verb) and the verb is in its formal form. Although it is
worded like a question, in written or spoken form, it is easy to tell the difference.
Lesson 2.06 • Mathematik
Lernen 7 ~ Zählen von 13 bis 100

Once you have memorized the numbers from 1 to 12 (see Lernen 3), counting higher in German
becomes very much like counting in English. From 13 to 19, add -zehn (10; "-teen" in English) after the
cardinal number root:
13 – dreizehn (irregular in English: 'thirteen')
14 – vierzehn
15 – fünfzehn
16 – sechzehn (note that the 's' in sechs is dropped)
17 – siebzehn (note that the 'en' in sieben is dropped)
18 – achtzehn
19 – neunzehn
Above 19 the counting system is constant: add -zig ("-ty" in English) to the cardinal root. Thus, we get:
20 – zwanzig
21 – einundzwanzig (note: 'one-and-twenty')
22 – zweiundzwanzig (note: 'two-and-twenty')
And the same for 30, 40, 50....etc.
30 – dreißig (this is an exception to the -zig Rule)
40 – vierzig
50 – fünfzig
60 – sechzig
70 – siebzig
80 – achtzig
90 – neunzig
100 – hundert
So, combining these, we get:
34 – vierunddreißig (note: 'four-and-thirty')
143 – hundertdreiundvierzig (note: 'hundred-three-and-forty')
170 – hundertsiebzig
199 – hundertneunundneunzig
It would be excellent practice towards learning these numbers by counting (in German, of course) from
1 to 199—or counting along any continuous sequence that comes to mind. For example, start with your
age and count to 50 (count down if appropriate).
Grammatik 7-1 ~ Math Calculations
The following table presents the symbols used for basic mathematics.
+ plus
- minus
× mal
÷ geteilt/dividiert durch
= ist gleich
> ist größer als
< ist kleiner als
3² drei hoch zwei
We can use these symbols to ask and answer simple problems in mathematics. Some of the examples
that follow include first a question (Frage) and then the answer (Antwort):
Wieviel ist sechs und sieben? How much is 6 and 7?
Sechs und sieben ist dreizehn 6 and 7 is 13
Wieviel ist fünfzig plus achtzehn? How much is 50 + 18?
Fünfzig plus achtzehn ist gleich achtundsechzig 50 + 18 = 68
Wieviel ist siebzig minus zehn? How much is 70 - 10?
Siebzig minus zehn ist gleich sechzig 70 - 10 = 60
Wieviel ist neun durch drei? How much is 9 divided by 3?
Neun durch drei ist gleich drei 9 ÷ 3 = 3
Funf ist größer als zwei 5 > 2
Acht ist kleiner als siebzehn 8 < 17
Vokabeln 7-1
Counting to 199 is also included in the vocabulary for Lektion 7.
die Antwort answer
die Frage question
geteilt/dividiert durch over [math]

größer als greater than
kleiner als smaller than
geteilt/dividiert divided, forked, split

gleich equal, same, even
hoch tall, to the power of [math]
mal times [math]
minus minus
plus plus
wieviel? how much?
Lesson 2.07 • Mein, Dein, und Sein
Grammatik 8-1 ~ Colors

yellow: gelb
blue: blau
red: rot
black: schwarz
white: weiß
orange: orange
pink: pink
violet: lila
cyan: türkis
brown: braun
grey: grau
light-grey: hellgrau
dark-grey: dunkelgrau
Grammatik 8-2 ~ Possessive Adjectives, Pronouns, and the

Genitive Case
Recall the following from Gespräch 3-1:
Karl: Ja. Und danach bringst du mich auf deinem Motorrad zu meiner Wohnung.
Which translates:
Carl: 'Yes. And after that take me on your motorcycle to my apartment'.
The sentence demonstrates two of the possessive adjectives. These are (singular) 'my', 'your', and
'his/her/its' in English and mein, dein, and sein/ihr/sein in German. Note that because these are
adjectives, the word ending must reflect the case and gender of the noun being modified (see
Grammatik 4-1 above).
In German, the genitive case correspond to the English possessive case or to the objective case
proceeded by of to denote possession. If the possessive is not followed by a noun, it becomes a
possessive pronoun. In general, possessive pronouns are rather rarely used in German (see Pronoun
Tables).
NOM. ACC. DAT. POSS. ADJ.

I, me ich mich mir mein
you du dich dir dein
he, him er ihn ihm sein
she, her sie sie ihr ihr
it es es ihm sein
we, us wir uns uns unser
you (all) ihr euch euch eurer
they, them sie sie ihnen ihr
you (formal) Sie Sie Ihnen Ihr
The pattern in the case endings of the possessive adjectives is that seen in Lektion 4 for the word ein.
We can generalize these endings as in the following table, where we can express plural endings
because other so-called ein-words do have plurals:
Ein-group Endings
NOM. ACC. DAT.
Masculine -- --en --em
Feminine --e --e --er
Neuter -- -- --em
Plural --e --e --en
The small group of words that take these endings (in addition to ein) includes the possessive adjectives
and kein ("not any" or "no" in the sense of none).
Lesson 2.08 • Einkaufen gehen
Lernen 9 ~ Die Kleidungsstücke (articles of clothing)

German English German plural
die Bluse blouse die Blusen
der Gürtel belt die Gürtel
das Hemd shirt die Hemden
das Kleid dress die Kleider
die Hose pants die Hosen
der Hut hat die Hüte
die Kleidung clothes (casual) die Kleidungsstücke
die Jeans jeans die Jeans
die Mütze/Haube cap die Mützen
der Pullover pullover die Pullis, die Pullover
der Rock skirt die Röcke
der Schuh shoe die Schuhe
die Shorts shorts die Shorts
die Socke sock die Socken
der Stiefel boot die Stiefel
das T-Shirt T-shirt die T-Shirts
Gespräche 9-1 ~ Katrin macht Besorgungen

Katrin macht Besorgungen—besonders sucht sie neue Schuhe. Sie geht in das Einkaufszentrum.
• Katrin: Entschuldigen Sie. Ich brauche Schuhe. Wo sind sie?
• Verkäufer: Wir haben viele Schuhe. Welche Farbe möchten Sie?
• Katrin: Ein Paar Schuhe in Weiß, bitte.
• Verkäufer: Da drüben.
Katrin probiert ein Paar Schuhe an.
• Verkäufer: Passen sie?
• Katrin: Nein, sie sind zu klein.
• Verkäufer: Möchten Sie diese Schuhe? Sie sind größer.
• Katrin: Ja, danke.
Katrin probiert die Schuhe an. Sie passen prima.
• Verkäufer: Sie kosten neununddreißig Euro neunzehn.
• Katrin: Die Schuhe sind billig. Dann kaufe ich sie.
Vokabeln 9-1
Included in this vocabulary lesson are the German nouns for various articles of clothing (Lernen 9
above).
die Besorgungen errands
das Einkaufszentrum shopping mall
der Euro €uro
die Farbe color
die Klamotten gear, stuff (things)
das Paar pair, couple
der Preis price
der Verkäufer sales clerk, sales assistant
neununddreißig Euro neunzehn € 39.19
anprobieren try on
brauchen need
kaufen buy
kosten cost
mögen would like
passen fit [clothing]
suchen seek, look for
besonders especially
billig cheap
prima topnotch, super
welche which
2-2 Shopping-related Verbs
There are a lot of verbs that have to do with shopping for clothes. The most prominent are listed below.
anziehen - to put on (clothes)
aussehen - to appear
nehmen - to take
wollen - to want (somewhat impolite)
These verbs are used often, so it is necessary to learn them. Among them are separable verbs, irregular
verbs, and modals.
Separable Verbs
Anprobieren, aussehen and anziehen are separable verbs. It is easy to see this, as they each have a
prefix of 'aus' or 'an'. When using the verb as the main verb of a sentence, separate the prefix and put it
at the end of the sentence. When the verb is in infinitive form, leave it just as you see it.
Irregular Verbs
Ausehen and nehmen are the two irregular verbs on this list. Both experience a change in the first 'e' in
the du-form and er/sie/es-form. Du siehst ... aus und er/sie/es sieht ... aus. Du nimmst und er/sie/es
nimmt.
Modals
Möchten and wollen are the two modals introduced here. Modals are similar to the helping verbs in
English and cause the other verb to go to the end in the infinitive form. They also have a strange
conjugation. Möchten changes in er/sie/es form to möchte (the same as the ich-form). In fact all modals
have the same er/sie/es-form and ich-form.
Wollen is like most other modals: it has a different vowel in singular and plural, except when using
formal you. Ich will (not to be confused with future tense), du willst, er/sie/es will, wir wollen, ihr
wollt, und sie/Sie wollen.
All of this verb conjugation and more can be found in Reference Table II.
3 Accusative Case
You have already learned the pronouns and articles in the nominative case. Now it is time for the
accusative case.
3-1 Example Story 2
You now need more clothes. You drive to a mall and go to the clothing department store.
Du suchst zwei Jeans, drei Hemden und einen Gürtel. Du siehst die Jeans und nimmst zwei. Du kaufst
jetzt nur die Hemden und den Gürtel.
VERKÄUFERIN: Die Gürtel sind da.
DU: Haben Sie auch Gürtel in Braun?
VERKÄUFERIN: Ja, da hinten.
Du nimmst den Gürtel in Braun, aber er ist billig. Du kaufst zwei.
VERKÄUFERIN: Noch etwas?
DU: Ja, ich brauche drei Hemden.
VERKÄUFERIN: Hemden haben wir. Sie sind hier.
Du nimmst ein Hemd in Blau, und zwei in Rot. Du probierst die Hemden, die Jeans, und die Gürtel an.
Alles passt.
DU: Was kosten diese Klamotten?
VERKÄUFERIN: Zwei Jeans, drei Hemden, und zwei Gürtel kosten fünfundsechzig Euro.
You give the clerk the money and take the clothing home.
3-2 Accusative Case Articles
Remember that in the nominitive case, the articles are der, die, das, and die, listed in MFNP
(masculine, feminine, neuter, and plural) order. Well, in the accusative case, only the masculine form
changes to den. An easy memory hook is "Der goes to den and the rest stay the same."
The ein-forms undergo the same change. Masculine "ein" goes to "einen" and the rest stay the same.
Nom. Acc. Nom. Acc.
Masc. der den ein einen

Fem. die die eine eine
Neut. das das ein ein
Plur. die die does not exist does not exist
3-3 Prices
Two easy words describe prices.

billig - cheap
teuer - expensive
These adjectives are applied to the products you buy, never to the word "Preis". Anyway, you rather
say "Das ist billig/teuer." (meaning the product you buy) than "Der Preis ist niedrig/hoch."
3-4 A DDR Joke
In einem Kaufhaus in der DDR fragt ein Kunde: "Haben sie keine Unterhosen?".
Die Verkäuferin antwortet: "Nein, wir haben keine Badehosen. Im zweiten Stock haben wir keine
Unterhosen!"
fragen to ask
DDR Deutsche Demokratische Republik (German Democratic Republic, long
since reunited with the BRD)
Kaufhaus very big shop
Kunde client
Unterhosen underpants
Badehosen swimming trunks
Im zweiten Stock on the second floor
Review 2.02
Wiederholung
Lesson 10 is a review (Wiederholung) lesson to summarize the German language lessons presented in
Lessons 6 through 9. You should, as well, return to Lektion 6 and review (that is, completely reread)
each of the four lessons back up to this point. For a more advanced course, you should now incorporate
each of the advanced lessons into this "review" process. That is: review Lesson 6, then do Lesson 6A,
review Lesson 7, then do Lesson 7A, etc. If the advanced lessons have already been completed, then
now review lessons in the order 6 -> 6A -> 7 -> 7A -> 8, etc.
Verb Conjugation
You have learned that there is a relationship between the subject of a verb and the form that verb takes
in German. Some verbs follow a predictable regular pattern, while others are less predictable (irregular
verbs).
verb: können (can) gehen (go) sein (to be)
pronoun verb I (irreg.) verb II verb III (irregular)
Basicform können gehen sein
ich kann gehe bin
du kannst gehst bist
er/sie/es kann geht ist
wir können gehen sind
ihr könnt geht seid
sie können gehen sind
Sie (formal) können gehen sind
As you can see, any verb uses the same declination for wir, sie and Sie. Also, er/sie/es uses the same
declination for all three genders.
Lesson 2.09 • Verbtempus und Wortstellung
Ein Treffen in Hannover (WIP)

(Don't be too afraid, its lot's of text but little grammar!)
Katja hat sich mit einem Freund, Markus, verabredet, den sie im Chat kennengelernt hat. Sie hat ein
Foto von ihm gesehen, und vielleicht gefällt er ihr ja. Am "Kröpcke", der größten U-Bahnstation in
Hannover, steigt sie aus der U-Bahn. Täglich betreten Hunderte von Menschen diese Station, Schüler,
Studenten, Angestellte und Rentner. Sie ist 22, studiert seit 2 Jahren Tiermedizin in Hannover, und ist
im Moment ledig.
Sie geht auf die Rolltreppe, betritt die Stufen, und fährt zwei Stockwerke nach oben. Währenddessen
schaut sie nach unten. Ihre U-Bahn hat die Station verlassen. Eine andere U-Bahn hat bereits gehalten,
und die Fahrgäste sind aufgestanden und ausgestiegen. Sie kommt auf der zweiten Ebene an und geht
weiter, Richtung Sonnenlicht, in die Pasarelle. Die Pasarelle führt Richtung Hauptbahnhof, und links
und rechts locken die Schaufenster der Geschäfte. Nach einer Weile hat sie die Rolltreppe erreicht, die
zum Hauptbahnhof führt. Nun sieht sie in voller Breite den Hauptbahnhof von Hannover, und davor
einen Sockel mit einer Statue von einem Pferd mit Reiter. Dort hat Markus schon fünf Minuten
gewartet und begrüßt sie, bevor sie sich ins Eiscafe nebenan setzen.
Vokabeln
Katja Female first name
Markus Male first name
sich verabreden to make a date
Chat Internet Chat
kennenlernen to get to know someone
kennengelernt Partizip Perfekt von kennenlernen
das Foto Photographic Picture
sehen to see
gesehen Partizip Perfekt von "sehen"
vielleicht perhaps
gefallen to please someone (with dative)
er gefällt ihr She likes him (he pleases her, literally)
Kröpcke The name of Hanover's biggest subway station
U-Bahn subway
die größte greatest (feminine here)
die Station the station
aussteigen getting off (a train, investment etc)
täglich daily
betreten to enter
Hunderte hundreds
diese female form of "this"
der Schüler, die Schüler(pl) "pupil" (british engl.)
der Student student
der Angestellte Clerk
der Rentner, die Rentner(pl) pensioner
studieren to study
im Moment currently
ledig a person not having a partner
gehen to go
Rolltreppe escalator
die Stufe stair
fahren to drive (often specializing from engl. to travel
towards)
währenddessen "during this"
schauen look
ihre her (form for female posessions of a female person)
verlassen to leave
verlassen Partizip Perfekt von "verlassen"
eine andere another (feminine object)
bereits already
der Fahrgast passenger
die Fahrgäste passengers (pl)
aufstehen to stand up
aufgestanden Partizip Perfekt von "aufstehen"
ausgestiegen Partizip Perfekt von "aussteigen"
die Ebene level/plateau
weitergehen to go on
sie geht weiter she goes on
das Sonnenlicht sunlight
die Richtung direction
Richtung Sonnenlicht towards sunlight
die Passarelle passage way
führen lead
Hauptbahnhof central station (in most German cities this is in the
city centre)
Richtung Hauptbahnhof in direction of the central station
links left
rechts right
locken tempt (not to confuse with "die Locken" = locks,
curls!!)
das Schaufenster display window
die Schaufenster plural of "das Schaufenster"
das Geschäft the shop
die Geschäfte the shops
der Geschäfte of the shops
nach einer Weile After a while
erreichen reach
erreicht Partizip Perfekt von erreichen
die zum Hauptbahnhof führt that leads to the central station
Word Order
Inverted word order occurs under several circumstances, among which are:
• Interrogatives
• Time Expressions
• Subordinating Conjunctions
For interrogatives, a simple statement, "Du hast das Buch." becomes "Hast du das Buch?" when
converting it to a question. The method is simply switching the verb and subject of the sentence.
Time expressions, such as "Nach der Schule" prefacing a sentence cause inverted word order. The
formula is "Time Expression", "Verb", "Subject" and "Rest of sentence." Practically applied, "Every
day, I go to school" becomes "Jeden Tag gehe ich zur Schule."
Subordinating conjuctions connect a dependent clause to an independent clause. Some subordinating
conjuctions are: dass (that), obwohl (although), seit (since), weil (because), and wenn (if, when). The
formula for a dependent clause is "subordinating conjunction" "subject" "rest of clause" "verb" and is
offset from the independent clause by a comma. Here are some examples (the dependent clause is
underlined):
Ich kann das Buch nicht kaufen, weil ich kein Geld habe.
Ich kaufe das Buch für dich, da du kein Geld hast.
Wenn unsere Eltern uns besuchen, schenken sie uns Geschenke.
I can't buy the book because I have no money.

I am buying the book for you, as you have no money.
When our parents visit us, they give us presents.
Lesson 2.10 • Undeveloped
Undeveloped
Undeveloped
Undeveloped

Review 2.03
Undeveloped

German Level Three Lessons
Zwischenlektionen
An Intermediate Course in German
Level Three Contents
Section 3.01 ~ Bonn, Germany

• Lesson 3.01 • Markus studiert ~ A short story, personal pronouns, incomplete sentences.
• Lesson 3.02 • Gespräche unter Geschäftsmännern ~ Polite conversation, word roots,
personal pronouns in the nominative case, some German/English verb forms.
• Lesson 3.03 • Mach dir keine Sorgen! ~ Gender of ordinals, details of telling time.
Section 3.02 ~Innsbruck, Austria

• Lesson 3.04 • Die Geschäftsleute ~ Personal pronouns in the accusative case, personal
pronouns in the dative case.
• Lesson 3.05 • Der Engländer in Österreich ~ Personal pronouns in the genitive case.
• Lesson 3.06 • Undeveloped Title ~ Undeveloped
Section 3.03 ~ Bavaria, Germany

Lesson 3.01 • Markus studiert
Geschichte 1-3 ~ Markus studiert
Markus ist in der Universität. Er trinkt dort einen Kaffee und isst ein Brötchen.
Danach geht er in die Bibliothek. Er sucht ein Buch über Biochemie. Er holt das
Buch aus dem Regal und setzt sich an einen Tisch. Nach einer Stunde geht er in
den Hof und raucht eine Zigarette. Danach geht er an den Tisch zurück. Er denkt:
"Wenigstens eine Stunde..." und stellt das Buch wieder in das Regal.
This short story (Geschichte) is told in the 3rd person (see Grammatik 1-3). Note how this is apparent
from both the pronoun (Er or "he") and verb forms.
Vokabeln 1-3
die Bibliothek library
die Biochemie biochemistry
das Brötchen roll, biscuit
das Buch book
der Fortgeschrittene advancer
die Fortgeschrittenen advancers (pl.)
die Geschichte story
der Hof courtyard; also court
der Kaffee coffee
die Stunde hour
der Tisch table
das Regal shelf
die Zigarette cigarette
denken think (Er denkt = He thinks)

essen eat (Er isst = He eats)
holen fetch, get (Er holt = He gets/fetches)
rauchen smoke (a cigarette) (Er raucht = He smokes)
sich setzen sit (oneself) down (Er setzt sich = He sits)
stellen place (Er stellt = He places)
suchen seek, search for (Er sucht = He looks for)
trinken drink (Er trinkt = He drinks)
aus out
danach afterwards
dort there
in in
nach after
über about
wenigstens at least, at any rate
wieder again
Grammatik 1-3 ~ Personal Pronouns

As in English, personal pronouns exist in three grammatical persons, each with singular and plural
number. In Gespräch 1-1 and 1-2, you see only the singular versions. The table here gives also the
plural (nominative case only):
ich I – 1st person, singular
du you – 2nd person, singular
er he – 3rd person musculine, singular
sie she – 3rd person feminine, singular
es it – 3rd person neuter, singular
wir we – 1st person, plural
ihr you – 2nd person, plural
sie they – 3rd person, plural
you – 2nd person, plural and singular, always declined
Sie
(formal) plural
Grammatik 1-3 ~ Incomplete Sentences

What are we to make of short, incomplete sentences such as that in Gespräch 1-1: 'Und dir?'? This
translates as: 'And for you?'. In English and German it is not always necessary to express every part of
a sentence, especially in conversation where the words left out are easily understood by both or all
parties. Walk up to a stranger and say 'And you?' and a possible response is a hostile 'Out of my face,
fool'. But in the conversation between Heinrich and Karl, Heinrich knows that Karl is really meaning:
Und wie geht es dir?, with that part underlined left out of the conversational statement. Note especially
that the pronoun 'you' retains its case—its relation to the missing verb from the implied sentence—
distinctive in German (that is, dir instead of du) but not so in English (the form "you" covers both
cases).
Übersetzung 1-2
Although these sentences involve many grammatical concepts that have not been covered, each can be
written in German by referring to the example sentences and vocabularies in Lessons 1 and 1A. Using a
piece of paper and pencil, translate each of these sentences into German:
1. Hello Mark! Do you have a cigarette?
2. Are you studying German?
3. Catherine drinks coffee at a table.
4. The students study at the library.
5. He eats cheese and sausage in the courtyard.
6. She looks for a book about biology.
7. Mark goes back to the University.
8. Mark removes the book from the shelf and places it on the table.
Antworten >
Lesson 3.02 • Gespräche unter

Geschäftsmännern
Gespräch 2-3 ~ Katrin geht einkaufen
Katrin geht einkaufen. Sie braucht Wurst und Käse, aber sie findet viele leckere
Lebensmittel in dem Delikatessengeschäft.
• Katrin: Hallo. Ich brauche Käse.
• Verkäufer: Ich habe einen leckeren Schmelzkäse. Er heißt 'Brimsen'.
• Katrin: Nein. Ich suche Hartkäse. Haben Sie einen 'Jarlsberg'?
• Verkäufer: Nein. Aber ich habe einen guten Schweizerkäse. Sie schmecken
ähnlich.
• Katrin: OK. Verkaufen Sie die stückweise?
• Verkäufer: Ja. Ein Stück?
• Katrin: Bitte. Und haben Sie Wurst?
• Verkäufer: Ja gewiss. Wir haben viele Wurstsorten.
• Katrin: Ich suche Würstchen.
• Verkäufer: Ich habe 'Nürnberger Schweinswürste'.
• Katrin: Das ist gut.
Vokabeln 2-3
das Delikatessengeschäft Deli, Delicatessen (das Geschäft =
business)
der Hartkäse hard cheese
das Lebensmittel, die Lebensmittel food, foods
der Schmelzkäse soft cheese
die Schweinswurst pork sausage
der Schweizerkäse Emmenthaler cheese, Swiss cheese
das Stück piece
der Verkäufer sales clerk
das Würstchen small sausage
die Wurstsorten types of sausage
Bitte If you please

Nürnberger Schweinswürste a type of small, pork sausage (pl.)
finden find
heißen call, name
schmecken taste
suchen seek, look for
verkaufen sell (compare with
einkaufen & der Verkäufer)
ähnlich similar
ein a, an, any, one
lecker tasty, delicious
nicht not
stückweise piecemeal, by the piece (compare with das
Stück)
Grammatik 2-5 ~ Word Formation

As in any language, many words in German are constructed from other smaller words that provide
similar meaning, although the connections can sometimes be obscured by the passage of time.
Construction of new words from word combinations is especially prevalent with German nouns, and
understanding word roots can therefore be helpful in learning new words. As an example, consider the
phrase Auf Wiedersehen — the standard translation into English being 'Good bye', although it means
literally 'upon reunion' (in essence, "until we meet again"). The noun, das Wiedersehen, consists of
wieder, 'once again' (or 're-' as a prefix), and sehen or 'see'.
The noun die Geschäftsleute provides a direct example of a compounded noun: the first part of each
deriving from das Geschäft ('business') and the second part from die Leute ('people'). The gender of a
compound noun follows the base or last noun.
There are other examples in the this lesson, but these may not be immediately obvious unless you
already have a good command of German words. However, you should train yourself to view new
words in terms of the meanings of their component parts. Consider all of the various words used in this
lesson to describe types of cheeses: der Hartkäse, der Schmelzkäse, der Schweizerkäse; or nouns and
verbs related to buying and selling (Kaufen und Verkaufen).
Grammatik 2-6 ~ Personal Pronouns: nominative case

Here are the personal pronouns in the nominative case:
Singular Plural
1st person ich I wir we
2nd person du (Sie*) you ihr (Sie*) you
3rd person er, sie, es he, she, it sie (all genders) they
• Polite form.
The nominative case is that of the subject of a verb. The pronoun subject of these sentences is
underlined in the German and the English:
Es geht mir gut. It goes well (for) me.
Das kann ich verstehen. That I can understand.
Du bist ein Schwein! You are a pig!
And can you tell (to)
Und können Sie mir sagen...?
me...?
This last sentence is an example from Gespräch 2-3 using the polite form of 'you'. Whether singular or
plural must be established by context. This next sentence translates with sie as 'they':
And can they tell
Und können sie mir sagen...?
me...?
And this one, with sie as
'she':
Und kann sie mir sagen...? And can she tell me...?
as evidenced by the form taken by the verb 'can' (können). Other uses of the nominative case in German
will be explored in future lessons. Tables of the pronouns in all cases are summarized in the grammar
appendix: Pronoun Tables.
NOTE: An intransitive verb cannot be followed by an object in English or German. A pronoun
following an intransitive verb such as 'to be' is called a predicate pronoun and should be in the
nominative case. In English 'It is I' is correct; 'It is me' is incorrect.
Grammatik 2-7 ~ More on verb forms

Just as English sometimes adds the verb "to be", forming the progressive, note also in Grammatik 2-2
(in both question sentence examples) that English also may insert the verb 'to do' (called the emphatic
form), especially useful when forming a question. This is not done in German:
Haben Sie zu viel becomes in Do you have too much (Notice polite form of 'you'
Arbeit? English: . work? here)
becomes in
Hast du jede Wurst? Do you have any sausage?
English:
Hat Helena zehn becomes in Does Helena have ten
Finger? English: fingers?
Again, in the present tense, the English sentences:
'I write a letter.'
'I am writing a letter.'
'I do write a letter.'
are all, in German: Ich schreibe den Brief.
Vokabeln 2-4
der Brief letter
das Einkaufen shopping
der Finger, die Finger finger, fingers
das Kaufen buying (use of the verb form is
preferred)
das Schwein pig (compare with die Schweinswurst)
das Verkaufen selling
können can
schreiben write
jede any
zehn ten
Andere Wörter 2A
Using these additional vocabulary words, you should be able to restate Gespräch 2-2 above, altering
the meaning (or time of day) of the conversation.
der Abend evening
Guten Abend! Good Evening (greeting)

morgen früh tomorrow morning
zu wenig too little
abend evening
abends evenings
falsch false, wrong
morgen tomorrow
morgens in the morning
schlecht bad
Übersetzung 2-2
Write these sentences in German. Pay attention to the additional words presented in Andere Wörter 2A:
1. Good evening Catherine.Where are you going?
2. I'm looking for a good Swiss cheese.
3. That is wrong! Too little is too little.
Antworten >
Lesson 3.03 • Mach dir keine Sorgen!
Gespräch 3-3 ~ Mach dir keine Sorgen!
Beim Ballspielen macht Karl sich Sorgen um die Uhrzeit.

• Karl: Wie spät ist es jetzt?
• Heinrich: Es ist erst halb eins.
• Karl: Kannst du mir bitte sagen, wenn es Viertel vor zwei ist?
• Heinrich: Warum?
• Karl: Dann muss ich nach Hause gehen.
• Heinrich: Und jetzt ist es schon ein Uhr einundreißig.
• Karl: Du bist komisch! Hier, ich kicke dir den Ball zu.
• Heinrich: Ja. Dann kann ich ihn dir zurückkicken.
• Karl: Ja. Und danach bringst du mich auf deinem Motorrad zu meiner
Wohnung.
Vokabeln 3-3
das Ballspiel ball game
die Minute minute
das Motorrad motorcycle
die Sorge, die Sorgen problem(s), worry(-ies)
das Viertel quarter, one-fourth
die Woche week
die Wohnung apartment
mach dir keine Sorgen! do not worry!

nach Hause gehen go home
kicken kick
zurückkicken kick back, return kick
beim when, while (usually, "at the")

danach after that
dein your
erst only
halb half
jetzt now
komisch comical, funny
mein my
schon already
zurück back
warum why (interrogative)
Grammatik 3-5 ~ Numbers
Gender of Ordinals
Ordinal numbers are adjectives, and therefore have forms for each of the three genders in German. The
forms are derived from the feminine form (as introduced in the beginning of Lesson 3) by adding an 'r'
(masculine) or an 's' (neuter). Thus: erste (feminine), erster (masculine), and erstes (neuter). Examples:
~ erster Mann ('first man'); letzter Mann ('last man'); siebter Himmel (7th heaven)
~ zehnte Frau ('tenth woman'); zweite Woche ('second week')
~ drittes Mädchen ('third girl')
Grammatik 3-6 ~ Expressions of Time
Idioms used in Telling Time
As in English, there are a number of idiomatic phrases associated with giving or telling time. For
example, note that the half hour is given as approaching the next hour. The German preposition, um, is
used to mean "at" a given time.
Es ist halb elf. It is half past ten (10:30).
Er kommt um sieben Uhr. He is coming at seven o'clock.
She always comes around eight
Sie kommt immer ungefähr um acht Uhr.
o'clock.
Wir essen gegen sieben Uhr. We eat about seven o'clock.
Sie gehen nach Hause auf eine Stunde. They go home for an hour.
Es ist viertel zehn1 It is a quarter past nine
1Thisidiom (Es ist viertel zehn) is used especially in the eastern parts of Germany, but is
becoming popular among young Germans throughout the Country.
Periods of the Day
There are a number of adverbial phrases used in German to denote time periods during the day.
Common ones are listed here:
am Morgen in the morning; also as morgens2 or des Morgans
am Mittag at noon, midday; also as mittags or des Mittags2
in the afternoon; also as nachmittags or des
am Nachmittag
Nachmittags2
am Abend in the evening; also as abends or des Abends2
am Tage in the daytime
in der Nacht at night
gegen Abend towards evening
gegen Morgen towards morning
2 Forms like morgens and des Nachmittags would tend to be used to indicate customary or
habitual actions, as in this sense:
Morgens spiele ich. = In the morning I (usually) play.
However, these forms are not much used anymore.
Additional Notes
The first sentence in Gespräch 3-3 uses Beim Ballspielen in the sense of "during the ball game" or
"while playing ball". Beim is a contraction of bei dem or "at the". However, das Ballspiel is a noun that
represents an action ("playing with a ball"), so it is correct to use beim in the sense intended here. It is
not the most beautiful way of saying this—but is correct. With the infinitive of a verb you can use beim
too: Beim spielen means "while playing". This form is more common in modern German language.
Vokabeln 3-4
der Abend evening
der Himmel heaven
der Mittag noon, noontime
der Morgen, die Morgen morning(s)
der Nachmittag afternoon
die Nacht night
der Tag, die Tage day(s)
abreisen depart (from a trip)
auf for (duration), after

gegen towards, about, approximately
letzt(er) last
ungefähr (at) about, approximately
Note that morgen does not change in plural; thus, Die Morgen = "the mornings". It is uncommon to use
it in plural, unless as a measure of land Vier Morgen Land = "four 'morgens of land". For a plural use
of "mornings", it is better to substitute die Vormittage.
Andere Wörter 3A
Using these additional vocabulary words, you may be able to restate Gespräch 3-3 above, altering the
meaning (or time of day) of the conversation.
die Hälfte half
die Viertelstunde quarter of an hour

Übersetzung 3-2
1. I am always at home in the morning.
Antworten >
Lesson 3.04 • Die Geschäftsleute
Gespräch 4-2 ~ Die Geschäftsmänner
Herr Schmidt und Herr Standish, als sie sich am Hauptsitz endlich begegnen. Frau
Baumann ist auch da.
• Herr Schmidt: Guten Morgen, Herr Standish! Darf ich mich vorstellen: mein Name ist
Schmidt, Johann Schmidt.
• Herr Standish: Es freut mich sehr, Sie kennen zu lernen. Ich heiße Miles Standish.
• Herr Schmidt: Ich glaube, dass Sie Frau Baumann schon kennen.
• Herr Standish: Ja, gewiß. Wie geht es Ihnen, Frau Baumann?
• Frau Baumann: Danke, es geht mir gut.
• Herr Schmidt: Verstehe ich richtig, dass Sie gestern ankamen und morgen ins :Wiener
Büro reisen müssen?
• Herr Standish: Ja, am Montag fuhr ich mit dem Schnellzug durch den Ärmelkanaltunnel.
Wenn ich meine Arbeit abgeschlossen habe, werde ich am Donnerstag nach Zürich und
Wien reisen.
• Herr Schmidt: Sehr gut. Bitte sprechen Sie vor Ende der Woche noch mit Frau
Kaufmann.
• Frau Baumann: Sie arbeitet in der Geschäftsbibliothek.
• Herr Schmidt: Das ist richtig. Die Bibliothek.
• Herr Standish: Ich werde es sofort tun.
• Herr Schmidt: Alles klar.
• Frau Baumann: Später werden wir eine Versammlung in der Buchhaltung abhalten.
• Herr Standish: Sehr gut. Auf Wiedersehen Frau Baumann. Auf Wiedersehen Herr
Schmidt.
• Herr Schmidt: Auf Wiedersehen.
Vokabeln 4-3
der Ärmelkanaltunnel Chunnel (England-France channel tunnel)
die Arbeit work
die Bibliothek library
die Buchhaltung accounting office
das Büro office
der Donnerstag Thursday
die Geschäftsbibliothek company (business) library
der Montag Monday
der Name name
der Schnellzug express train
das Sehen vision
die Versammlung meeting
das Wien Vienna (Austria)
das Wiedersehen reunion
die Woche week
das Zürich Zurich
alles klar looking good

am Montag on Monday
dann wenn at such time when
Darf ich... ? May I... ?
Es freut mich sehr It gives me pleasure
Guten Morgen! Good morning! (greeting)
Ja, gewiß certainly, of course
vor Ende der Woche before the end of the week
Wiener Büro Vienna branch office
abhalten hold
abschließen complete
ankommen (kam an,
angekommen) arrive
fahren ride
geben give
kennen lernen meet, make acquaintance
müssen must (aux.)
reisen travel
sehen see, look
tun do, accomplish
sich vorstellen introduce
werden will
würde would
bitte please
da there
durch through, by means of
endlich finally
gestern yesterday
nach to, towards
natürlich of course
mich myself (reflexive)
mit with
schnell fast, quick, rapid
sofort directly, forthwith
wieder again, once again
Grammatik 4-4 ~ Personal Pronouns: Accusative Case

Here are the personal pronouns in the accusative case:
Singular Plural
1st person mich me uns us
2nd person dich (Sie*) you euch (Sie*) you
3rd person ihn, sie, es him, her, it sie (all genders) them
*Polite form.
The accusative case is that of the object of a verb. Only transitive verbs take direct objects. The
pronoun (and noun in two cases) object in each of these sentences is underlined in the German and the
English:
Können Sie mich verstehen? Can you understand me?
Ich kann Sie verstehen. I can understand you.
Ich kann sie verstehen I can understand (her or them).
Ich kann ihn dir zurück kicken! I can kick it back to you!
Note the order of the pronouns in this last sentence. If the direct object (here: ihn) is a personal
pronoun, it precedes the dative (dir); if it were a noun, the dative would precede it, as in these
sentences:
Hier, ich kicke dir den Ball zu. Here, I kick the ball to you.
Darf ich Ihnen meine Freundin vorstellen? May I introduce my friend to you?
Other uses of the accusative case in German will be explored in future lessons. Tables of the personal
pronouns in all cases are summarized in Pronoun Tables.
Grammatik 4-5 ~ Personal Pronouns in the Dative Case

Here are the personal pronouns in the dative case:
Singular Plural
1st person mir me uns us
2nd person dir (Ihnen*) you euch (Ihnen*) you
ihm, ihr,
3rd person him, her, it ihnen (all genders) them
ihm
*Polite form.
The dative case is that of the indirect object of a verb. The pronoun indirect object of these sentences
is underlined in the German and the English:
Es geht mir gut It goes (for) me well
Wie geht es dir? How goes it (for or with) you
Und können Sie mir sagen...? And can you tell me...?
Karl gibt ihm den Ball Karl gave him the ball.
Wie geht es Ihnen? How goes it (with) you? (How are you?)
This last sentence is an example from Gespräch 1-2 using the polite form of 'you'. Whether singular or
plural must be established by context. This next sentence translates with ihnen as 'them':
Wie geht es ihnen? How goes it with them? (How are they?)
The meaning of ihnen (or Ihnen) would have to come from context in a conversation.
Another use of the dative case in German is after these prepositions: aus, bei, mit, nach, seit, von, zu.
You will be introduced to the meanings of these prepositions over many future lessons rather than all at
once, because some have many meanings in English. Indeed, because each language associates specific
prepositions with many common sayings (and these often do not correspond in German and English),
these "little" words can be troublesome for students. Nonetheless, you should memorize now the list of
prepositions above to always remember their association with the dative case. Tables of the pronouns in
all cases are summarized in Appendix 2.
Word order in a German sentence with an indirect object depends upon whether that direct object is a
pronoun or a noun. If the direct object is a noun, the dative precedes the accusative; if the direct object
is a personal pronoun, the accusative precedes the dative:
Ich gebe dem Jungen den Ball. I give the boy the ball.
Ich gebe ihm den Ball. I give him the ball.
Ich gebe ihn ihm. I give it to him.
Ich gebe ihn dem Jungen. I give it to the boy.
English sentence structure is similar.
Lesson 3.05 • Der Engländer in Österreich
Gespräch 5-2 ~ Der Engländer in Österreich
Wenn er auf den Kontinent fährt, wandert Herr Standish gern. Heute früh fährt er in die Stadt St. Pölten
in Niederösterreich. Er spricht mit einer fremden Frau:
• Herr Standish: Entschuldigen Sie bitte. Wo ist hier ein Hotel?
• Die Frau: Gleich dort drüben. Das ist das Hotel "Zur Post".
• Herr Standish: Gibt es ein Restaurant darin?
• Die Frau: Ja gewiss! Ein Restaurant mit gutbürgerlicher Küche, besonders zum Abendessen.
Aber ich könnte Ihnen ein anderes Restaurant empfehlen. Es heißt 'Alt-Wien', und es gibt dort
das beste Frühstück. Das Restaurant ist links neben dem Hotel, um die Ecke.
• Herr Standish: Danke sehr. Und können Sie mir sagen, wo das Rathaus von St. Pölten ist?
• Die Frau: Wie bitte?
• Herr Standish: Wie komme ich zum Rathaus?
• Die Frau: Rechts um die Ecke und dann immer geradeaus – ungefähr ein Kilometer.
• Herr Standish: Danke sehr.
• Die Frau: Bitte sehr. Wiedersehen.
• Herr Standish: Auf Wiedersehen.
Vokabeln 5A
das Abendessen supper (evening meal)
[das] Österreich Austria
die Ecke corner
das Frühstück breakfast
das Hotel hotel
der Kilometer kilometre
die Küche cooking, cuisine
der Kontinent continent (Europe)
[das] Niederösterreich (federal state of) Lower Austria
das Rathaus city hall
das Restaurant restaurant
die Stadt city
Bitte sehr You're welcome

Entschuldigen Sie Pardon me, excuse me
Es gibt dort... There is there...
Gibt es...? Is there..?
gutbürgerliche Küche good, traditional food
Guten Tag good day (parting)
immer geradeaus straight on ahead
können Sie could you (polite form)
Wie bitte? Pardon me? (polite "come again?")
empfehlen recommend
fahren travel
kommen come, go, get
wandern wander
sagen say, tell
sprechen speak
anderer, andere, anderes other

besonders especially
bitte please
das that
dann then
darin therein
ein a (indefinite article)
eins one (cardinal number)
fremd unknown
gern gladly
gleich just, right (correct), right here, same
heute früh this morning
hier here (in this place)
ich I (personal pronoun)
links left (direction)
neben next to
rechts right (direction)
ungefähr approximately
von of (Rathaus von St. Pölten = St. Polten City Hall)
wie how (interrogative)
wo where (interrogative)
zu to (zum = contraction of zu dem)
Andere Wörter 4A
der Bahnhof train station
der Flughafen airport
die Polizeiwache police station
die Post post office
genau exact(ly)
heute today
Lesestück 5-1 ~ Eine Geschichte über St. Pölten
Karte: St. Pölten in Österreich

Niederösterreich ist sowohl flächenmäßig als auch nach Einwohnern das größte der neun
österreichischen Bundesländer. Sankt Pölten ist die Landeshauptstadt von Niederösterreich. Der Name
St. Pölten geht auf den heiligen Hippolytos zurück, nach dem die Stadt benannt wurde.
Die Altstadt befindet sich dort, wo vom 2. bis zum 4. Jahrhundert die Römerstadt Aelium Cetium stand.
799 wurde der Ort als "Treisma" erwähnt. Das Marktrecht erhielt St. Pölten um 1050, zur Stadt
erhoben wurde es 1159. Bis 1494 stand St. Pölten im Besitz des Bistums Passau, dann wurde es
landesfürstliches Eigentum. Bereits 771 findet sich ein Benediktinerkloster, ab 1081 gab es Augustiner-
Chorherren, 1784 wurde deren Kollegiatsstift aufgehoben, das Gebäude dient seit 1785 als
Bischofssitz. Zur Landeshauptstadt von Niederösterreich wurde St. Pölten mit Landtagsbeschluss vom
10. Juli 1986, seit 1997 ist es Sitz der Niederösterreichischen Landesregierung.
Luftbild von St. Pölten
Vokabeln 5B
Die Altstadt old town
Der Augustiner Augustinian
Der Besitz possession, holding
Das Bistum diocese
Der Bischofssitz bishop's see (a seat of a bishop's authority)
Die Bundesländer federal states
Die Chorherren men's choir
Das Eigentum proprietorship
Die Einwohner inhabitants
Das Gebäude premises
Die Geschichte history
Das Jahrhundert century
Das Kloster monastery, friary
Das Kollegiatsstift monastery college
Die Landeshauptstadt regional or state capital city
Die Landesregierung provincial (state) government
Der Landtagsbeschluss day of jurisdictional reorganization
Das Marktrecht right to hold markets
Der Name name
Der Ort place, spot, city
Die Römerstadt Roman town
Der Sitz official place
Bistum Passau a dioecian region in Bavaria

sowohl... als auch both... and
zurück auf goes back to
aufheben (hob auf, aufgehoben) merged in (or turned into?)

befinden sich situated, located
(befand sich, haben sich befunden)
finden sich* found (located)
benennen (benannte, benannt) call (as to label)
erhalten (erhielt, erhalten) receive
erheben (erhob, erhoben) arise, raise
erwähnen (erwähnte, erwähnt) mention
stehen (stand, gestanden) stand (stood, stood)
werden (wurde, [ist]geworden) become
ab from
auf up
bereits already
bis until, by, up to
flächenmäßig (no direct translation) ~ when measured in surface
heilig holy
landesfürstlich baronial or princely (holdings)
nach in terms of
um around
(* one short form of anfinden: findet sich (an); in colloquial language you can cut the "an"; but in THIS
special case it is the short form of "(be)findet sich (dort)")
Read more about St. Pölten at the German Wikipedia (source of article above).
Lesson 3.06 • Undeveloped Title
Lernen 7-2 ~ Tour de France
(aus Wikipedia, der freien Enzyklopädie)

Die Tour de France ist eines der berühmtesten und wichtigsten sportlichen Großereignisse überhaupt.
Seit 1903 wird die Tour alljährlich - mit Ausnahme der Zeit des Ersten und Zweiten Weltkriegs - drei
Wochen lang im Juli ausgetragen und führt dabei in wechselnder Streckenführung quer durch
Frankreich und das nahe Ausland.
Eine Tour de France der Frauen (grande boucle féminine) mit deutlich kürzeren Etappen wird seit 1984
gefahren. Sie steht medial völlig im Schatten ihres männlichen Pendants.
Vokabeln 7A
die Ausnahme exception
die Enzyklopädie encyclopedia
der Erste Weltkrieg WW I
das Großereignis major event
der Juli July
das Radrennen bicycle race
die Welt world
die Woche, die Wochen week, weeks
die Zeit time, period
der Zweite Weltkrieg WW II
(bei weitem) berühmteste among the most widely renowned, the most popular
alljährlich every year

bei among (one of)
berühmteste most celebrated, most renowned
frei, freien (Akkusativ) free
seit since
sportlich athletic
überhaupt altogether, generally
während during
drei Wochen lang three weeks lasting
weit broad, wide
wichtig important

Undeveloped
Undeveloped
Undeveloped
German Level Four Lessons
Erweitertelektionen
An Advance Course in German
Level Four Contents
Section 4.01 ~ Kiel, Germany
Undeveloped
Section 4.02 ~ Schaan, Liechtenstein
Undeveloped
Section 4.03 ~ Schaffhausen, Switzerland
Undeveloped
German Level Five Lessons
Review
The Final Course in German
Level Five Contents
Undeveloped
GRA MM
AR
This Wikibook module collection is designed for those who have, at the very least, a
basic knowledge of the German language and wish to expand their knowledge of the
Grammar or those who simply require reference. Please follow the lessons first if you
wish to begin learning German.
Nouns
• Gender
• Plurals
• Adjectival Nouns
• Weak Nouns
• Mixed Nouns
Articles
• Definite Articles
• Indefinite Articles
Adjectives and Adverbs

• Adjectival Endings
Cases
German has four cases. A case may determine the particular adjective, adjective ending, pronoun, and
noun ending to use. Start by Determining Case in German.
The nominative case is used in reference to the subject of a sentence.
The accusative case is used in reference to the direct object of a sentence.
The dative case is used in reference to the indirect object of a sentence.
The genitive case is used in reference to a possessed object of a sentence.
Pronouns
German pronouns in cases
Nominative Accusative Dative Genitive (Possessive)
He er ihn ihm seiner / seines (sein)
She sie sie ihr ihrer / ihres (ihr)
It es es ihm seiner / seines (sein)
They sie sie ihnen ihrer / ihres (ihr)
You (informal) du dich dir deiner / deines (dein)
You (formal) Sie Sie Ihnen Ihrer / Ihres (Ihr)
You (informal
ihr euch euch euer / eueres (euer)
plural)
I (me) ich mich mir meiner / meines (mein)
We (us) wir uns uns unser / unseres (unser)
Note: The possessive is not a case of the personal pronoun, rather it's a pronoun itself. This means the
table shows the nominative case only.
The genitive case is used to show possession or relationships. In English, the pronoun referring to the
genitive object is the equivalent of "of the" or "his" or "my" etc. For simple sentence structure, the
article of the direct object is changed appropriately, while the article of the genitive part is changed to
end with -er if it's a die word (feminine and plural) and to -es with der and das words. With der/das
words, the genitive noun must take the suffix -s, or -es if there is but one syllable in the word. There are
exceptions.
Examples: I want the teacher's book. --Rewrite as: I want the book "of the" teacher. -Ich will das Buch
des Lehrers (der Lehererin).
Without his friend's car, we cannot go home. -Ohne den Wagen seines Freundes können wir nicht nach
Hause gehen.
The wall of the building is old and brown. -Die Wand des Gebäudes ist alt und braun.
Note: all adjectives in the genitive case will end in -en.
Prepositions and Postpositions

German has dative, accusative, genitive and two-way prepositions and postpositions. Each preposition
causes the adverbial expression on which it acts to take the case of the preposition. Two-way
prepositions cause the adverbial expression to take the accusative case if the verb is transitive, and the
dative case if the verb is intransitive.
Several German prepositions
Accusative Dative Genitive two-way
durch aus während an
ohne außer trotz auf
um bei anstatt hinter
gegen mit wegen in
bis nach neben
für seit über
entlang von unter
wider zu vor
gegenüber zwischen
Notes:
Gegenüber is one of the rare postpositions, which typically follows the object it modifies.
Er stand mir gegenüber.
Mir gegenüber steht Außenminister Fischer.
Aber auch:
Gegenüber von Ihnen befindet sich das Stadtmuseum.
Nach is also sometimes used as a postposition, when its meaning is "according to". The two prases are
equivalent:
Nach dem Pfarrer sei Gott gut.
Dem Pfarrer nach sei Gott gut.
In spoken language, the genitive with während is nowadays normally replaced by the dative:
Written: Während des Essens wollen wir nicht gestört werden.
Spoken: Während dem Essen wollen wir nicht gestört werden.
Verbs
German verbs can be classified as weak or as strong. Weak verbs are very regular in their forms,
whereas strong verbs change the stem vowel.
Weak:
kaufen, kaufte, gekauft
Strong:
singen, sang, gesungen
With its anglo-saxon origin, this notion is also present in English.

flip, flipped, flipped
sing, sang, sung
Some German verbs have weak and strong forms. This may depend on meaning:
Der Botschafter wurde nach Berlin gesandt.
Der Süddeutsche Rundfunk sendete ein Konzert aus dem Gasteig.
Or on transitive vs. intransitive use:

Das Hemd hing auf der Wäscheleine.
Sie hängte das Hemd auf die Wäscheleine.
Classes of Verbs
• separable verbs
• reflexive verbs
• modals
Tenses
Present Tense
• Present Tense
Past Tenses
• Perfect Tense
• Imperfect - Preterite
Future Tenses
• Future Tense
Sentence Structure
Types of Clauses
• Main Clause
• Subordinate Clause
Connecting Clauses
Appendices
Contents
• A.01 • Das Alphabet ~ German alphabet and Pronunciation Guide

• A.02 • Phrase Book ~ Common phrases in German
• A.03 • Resources ~ Online Resources for German Language Students
• A.04 • Names ~ Namen - a list of common, modern German names
• A.05 • History – German history
• A.06 • False Friends ~ All the German words that look like English words, but have different
meanings
A.01 • Alphabet
The German alphabet, like English, consists of 26 basic letters. However, there are also combined
letters and four umlauted forms (an umlaut is the pair of dots placed over certain vowels). The
following table includes a listing of all these letters and a guide to their pronunciation. As in English,
letter sounds can differ depending upon where within a word the letter occurs. The first pronunciation
given below (second column) is that in English of the letter (or combination) itself. Reading down this
column and pronouncing the "English" words will recite the alphabet auf Deutsch ("in German"). Note
that letter order is exactly the same as in English, but pronunciation is not for many of the letters. In the
list of pronunciation notes, no entry means essentially "pronounced as in English".
A (ah) Long 'a' as 'a' in 'father' (ah); short 'a' as 'o' in 'come'
B (bay) Pronounced like 'p' when at the end of a word
See combination letter forms;
C (tsay)
without a following 'h': before 'e', 'i', 'y', 'ä', 'ö' like the german letter 'z' else like 'k'
D (day) Pronounced like 't' when at the end of a word; slightly more "dental"
Long 'e' as 'a' in 'late' (ay); there is no movement in the sound as in the english
E (ay)
equivalent. Short 'e' as 'e' in 'pet'. In unstressed syllables like 'a' in 'about' or 'e' in 'garden'
F (ef)
Pronounced like 'g' in 'get'; pronounced like 'k' when at the end of a word;
G (gay)
pronounced like 'ich'-sound (see below) in the suffix '-ig' at the end of words
like 'h' in 'house' only at the beginning of words or a syllable
H (hah) before 'a', 'i', 'o', 'u', 'y', 'ä', 'ö', 'ü' (only if these vowels don't belong to a suffix), else
silent
I (ee) Long 'i' as 'e' in 'seen' (ee); short 'i' as 'i' in 'pit'
J (yot) Pronounced like 'y' in 'yard'
K (kah)
L (el) Slightly more "dental"
M (em)
Slightly more "dental"; in 'ng' like in 'singing'; like in 'finger'
N (en)
before 'a', 'i', 'o', 'u', 'y', 'ä', 'ö', 'ü' (only if these vowels don't belong to a suffix)
Long 'o' as 'o' in 'open' (oh), there is no movement in the sound as in the english
O (oh)
equivalent. Short 'o' as 'o' in 'pot'
P (pay)
Pronounced like 'k'; only occurs in the combination 'qu', which is pronounced like
Q (koo)
'kv' not like 'kw'
R (air) trilled (see below)

In Germany, pronounced like 'z'; pronounced like 's' in 'sound' when at the end of a
word, after consonants
S (ess) (except 'l', 'm', 'n', ng') and before consonants; in Austria, pronounced like 'z' only when
it appears between two vowels, pronounced like 's' otherwise. Pronounced like 'sh' in the
beginning of a word before 'p' or 't'
T (tay) Slightly more "dental"

U (oo) Long 'u' as 'oo' in 'moon' (oo); short 'u' as 'u' in 'put'
Pronounced like 'f' when at the end of a word and in a few but often used words
V (fow) (in most cases of germanic origin), in general at the beginning of German geographical
and family names. In all other cases like 'v'
W (vay) Pronounced like 'v'

X (iks) Pronounced like 'ks'
Pronounced like 'ü' (see below), except in words of English origin, where it is
(oopsilon
Y
) pronounced like in English
Z (tset) Pronounced like 'ts'

Unique German letters
umlaut letters
Note that umlauts were originally written as 'ae', 'oe', and 'ue'.
Long ä pronounced similar to long e
Ä (ah-umlaut)
(ay)
Äu (ah-umlaut-oo) Pronounced like 'oi' in 'oil'
No English equivalent sound (see
Ö (oh-umlaut)
below)
No English equivalent sound (see
Ü (oo-umlaut)
below)
the former ligature ß
Pronounced like 's' in 'set' or 'c' in 'nice'; see below for
ß (ess-tset or sharfes ess)
uses.
combined letters
ch (tsay-hah) Pronounced various ways (see Konsonanten sounds below)
ck (tsay-kah)
tz (tay-tset)
ie
ei
eu
au
dt
st
sp
sch (ess-tsay-hah)
tsch
dsch
Pronounced like 'ch' (only used in geographical and family
zsch, tzsch
names)
ph
pf
qu
...
• Audio: OGG (305KB) ~ Das Alphabet oder Das ABC

• Audio: OGG (114KB) ~ Die Umlaute
<< Beginning German | Basic German | Advanced German
Deutsche Aussprache ~ German Pronunciation Guide
Vokale ~ Vowels
German vowels are either long or short, but never drawled as in some English dialects. A simple
method of recognizing whether a vowel is likely to be long or short in a German word is called the
Rule of double consonants. If a vowel is followed by a single consonant — as in haben (have), dir
(you, dat.), Peter (Peter), and schon (already) — the vowel sound is usually long. If there are two or
more consonants following the vowel — as in falsch (false), elf (eleven), immer (always), and noch
(still) — the vowel sound is usually short. There are some German words that are exceptions to the
double consonant rule: bin, bis, das, es, hat, and was all have short vowel sounds. It is also the case that
the silent 'h' does not count as a consonant and the preceeding vowel is always long. Ihnen is an
example.
This "rule" is applied to the use of 'ss' vs. 'ß' (see below), in that 'ß' is treated as a single consonant.
Thus, the vowel before 'ß' in der Fuß (foot) is long, while that before 'ss' in das Fass (cask) is short.
• au – 'Ah-oo' is prononced like 'ow' in English 'cow'. German examples are blau (blue) and auch
(also see below under ach ~ unique German sounds).
• äu – 'Ah-umlaut-oo' is pronounced like the German eu (ay-oo; see next). In written and printed
German, 'ae' can be an acceptable subsitute for 'ä' if the latter is unavailable.
• eu – 'Ay-oo' is pronounced like 'oi' in English word 'oil'. German examples are neun (nine) and
heute (today).
• ie and ei – 'Ee-ay' has exactly the same sound as a German long 'i'; that is, like the 'ee' in 'seen'.
'Ay-ee' is pronounced like the 'ei' in 'height'. Note that this appears to be the opposite for these
two vowel combinations in English, where the rule is that the first vowel is long and the second
is silent. Consider this word: 'die' — in German it is pronounced 'dee', in English like 'dye'. The
word mein in German is the English 'mine'. In effect, 'ie' follows the same rule as in English,
with the first vowel long (ee in German) and the second vowel silent; 'ei' is the equivalent sound
in German to the English long 'i' as in 'mine'.
Konsonanten ~ Consonants
Most German consonants are pronounced similar to the way they are in English, with exceptions noted
in column 3 above. Details of certain consonant sounds and uses are discussed further here:
• ch – Pronounced like 'k' in many words of Greek origin like Christ or Charakter, but like 'sh' in
words of French origin, and 'tch' in words of English origin. The German sechs (six) is
pronounced very much similar to the English 'sex'. See also the discussion of "ich-sound"
below. The pronunciation of words with an initial 'ch' followed by a vowel, as in China or
Chemie varies: in High German the "ich-sound" is the standard pronunciation, but in South
German dialect and Austrian German 'k' is preferred.
• d, t, l, and n – These letters are pronounced similarly in English and German. However, in
pronouncing these letters, the German extends his tongue up to the back of the base of the teeth,
creating a more dental sound. As noted above, 'd' is a 'dental d' except at the end of a word,
where it becomes a 'dental t'.
• sch – in German 'Ess-tsay-hah' is pronounced like 'sh', not 'sk' as in English. German word
example: Schüler (student).
• sp and st – Where the combinations 'ess-pay' or 'ess-tay' appear at the beginning of a word, the
'ess' sound becomes an 'sh' sound. German examples are spielen (play) and spät (late). An
interesting "exception" is a word like Bleistift (pencil), where the inside 'sti' is pronounced 'shti'
— however, this is a compound word from Blei (lead) and Stift (pen). Some local dialects
however pronounce all occurances "sharp" (with an 'ess' sound -- typical for North German
dialects, especially near Hamburg) or "soft" (with an 'sh' sound -- typical for the Swabian
dialect).
• ß – The former ligature (of 'ss' or 'sz'), 'ess-tset' is widely used in German, but its use is
somewhat more restricted in very modern German (always pronounced like 's' in 'sound'). 'ß' is
used for the sound 's' in cases where 'ss' or 's' can't be used: this is especially after long vowels
and diphthongs (cf. the English usage of 'c' like in 'vice' or 'grocery'). Thus, the vowel before 'ß'
in der Fuß (foot) is long, while that before 'ss' in das Fass (cask) is short. 'ß' appears after
diphthongs ('au', 'ei', 'eu') because they are long. In written and printed German, 'ss' can be an
acceptable subsitute for 'ß' if the letter is unavailable. The greek letter, β, is not to be used as a
substitute for 'ß'. Note that in Switzerland, 'ß' is always written as 'ss'.
German Sounds not found in English
There are sounds in the German language that have no real equivalent in the English language. These
are discussed here.
• r – German language has two pronunciations for r: The more common is similiar to the French
r, a guttural sound resembling a fractionated g, as found in Arabic ‫ غ‬or some pronunciations of
modern Greek γ. The second pronounciation is a "rolled" r as in Spanish or Scots. Its use is
limited to Switzerland and parts of Southern Germany.
• ö (oh-umlaut) – The word "umlaut" means "change in sound" and an umlauted 'o' changes to a
sound with no equivalent in English. The 'long ö' is made by first sounding 'oo' as in moon, then
pursing the lips as if to whistle, and changing the sound to 'a' as in 'late'. An example word is
schön (beautiful). The 'short ö' sound is made by first sounding 'oo', pursing the lips, and
changing the sound to 'e' as in 'pet. A 'short ö' sounds actually very similar to the 'i' in 'sir'. An
example word is zwölf (twelve). If you have problems pronouncing ö, do not replace it by "o"
but by "e" (as in elf) like in many German dialects. In written and printed German, 'oe' can be
an acceptable subsitute for 'ö' if the latter is unavailable.
• ü (oo-umlaut) – As with 'ö', 'oo-umlaut' is a rounded vowel sound with no English equivalent.
The 'long ü' is made by first sounding 'oo' as in moon, then pursing the lips as if to whistle, and
changing the sound to 'ee' as in 'seen'. An example word is früh. The 'short ü' sound is made by
first sounding 'oo', pursing the lips, and changing the sound to 'i' as in 'pit. An example word is
fünf (five). If you have problems pronouncing ü, do not replace it by "u" but by "i" (as in fish)
like in many German dialects. In written and printed German, 'ue' can be an acceptable subsitute
for 'ü' if the latter is unavailable.
• ach – The letter combination 'ch' as in auch (also) is called the "ach-sound" and resembles a
throat-clearing (guttural) sound. It is used after 'a', 'o', 'u', and 'au'. It is pronounced somewhat
like "och" in Loch Ness (lock, not loke) in its original form. The Hebrew letter ‫ ח‬and the
Arabic letter ‫ خ‬as well as continental Spanish j are pronounced the same as the "ach-sound".
• ich – The "ich-sound" in German is also somewhat guttural, like a more forceful 'h' in English
"hue", "huge". Another approach is to say "sh" while (almost) touching the palpatine not with
the tip but with the middle of your tongue. In the word richtig ("correct") both the 'ich' and the
final 'ig' have this sound. It is used after 'e', 'i', 'y', 'ä', 'ö', 'ü', 'ei', 'eu', 'äu', after consonant-letters
and sometimes at the beginning of words (especially before 'e', 'i', 'y', 'ä', 'ö'). If you have
problems pronouncing ich, replace with the sound of 'hue' or by 'sh' but never by a hard 'k'
(never "ick")! In some parts of Germany "ich", as well as the final 'ig', is pronounced "ish". In
Austria and some local dialects of Germany the final 'ig' (as in "richtig") is simply pronounced
as in English "dig".
Audio: OGG (37KB) ~ ach, auch, ich, richtig
Syllable Stress
The general rule in German is that words are stressed on the first syllable. However, there are
exceptions. Almost all exceptions are of latin, french, or greek origin. Mostly these are words stressed
on the last syllable, as shown by the following:
Vo=`kal Kon=so=`nant Lek=ti=`on
These words (not stressed on the first syllable) appear in the (Level II and III) lesson vocabularies as
Vokal, Konsonant, Lektion (in some regions: Lektion), etc.
A.02 • Phrase book
German Phrases
Greetings
Hallo! Hello!
Guten Tag! Good day!
Tag! Good day!
Guten Morgen! Good morning!
Guten Abend! Good evening!
Gute Nacht! Good night!
Wie geht es Ihnen? How are you (formal)? How are you doing?
Wie geht's How are you (informal)
Es geht mir gut I'm doing fine, I'm well
Prima! Great!
Spitze! Super!
Gut! Good!
Sehr gut! Very good!
Toll! Terrific!
Ganz gut Pretty good
So lala OK
Es geht so Going ok
Nicht gut Not well
Schlecht Bad
Sehr schlecht Very bad
Miserabel Miserable
Und Ihnen? And you (formal)?
Auf Wiedersehen! Good bye!

1Wiedersehen! Bye!
Tschüss! See you!
Tschau! Ciao! (Italian for 'see you')
Bis später! Later! (until later)
Bis dann! Later! (until whenever)
Wiederhören (hear) again (used over the phone)
1 Note: Wiedersehen directly translates as "to see again".
Gespräche (conversations)
Danke (sehr)! Thanks, thank you
Danke schön! Thanks a lot!
Bitte? Please?
Bitte (sehr)! You're welcome! (comes after danke)
Entschuldigung! Excuse me!
Vielen Dank Much thanks
Gern geschehen You are welcome
Verstehen (understanding)
Bitte, sprechen Sie etwas langsamer. Please speak somewhat slower
Können Sie mich verstehen? Can you understand me?
Ich verstehe Sie nicht. I don't understand you.
Was haben Sie gesagt? What was that? What have you said?
Können Sie das bitte wiederholen? Can you say that again, please!
Ich spreche kein Deutsch. I don't speak German (literally: I speak no
German)
Ich spreche nur ein bisschen Deutsch. I speak only a little German
A.03 • Resources
Lists and directories to online resources
• www.deutschlern.net - E-learning platform for beginning, intermediate and advanced students

and teachers of German. Exercises based on authentic texts train reading comprehension,
vocabulary, and grammar. Monitor function for teachers. Free of charge, requires free login.
• Deutsch als Fremdsprache - Useful links for German language learners. Site in German.
• German Language and Culture Resources - Materials and resources for learning the German
language and about German-speaking culture.
• Free Online German Tutorial - at ielanguages.com
Über die deutsche Sprache - about German

• Ethnologue report for German
• Verein Deutsche Sprache
Online Wörterbücher - Dictionary
Deutsch-Englisch (German-English)
• Wiktionary - English
• Wiktionary - German
• dicologos really this is a multilanguage dictionary with ofer 7.000.000 lemmas in several
languages.
• Babylon Babylon Online Dictionary
• LEO - with audiofiles of most of the words and vocabulary trainer.
• Dict.cc
• Pons - Dictionary with vocabulary trainer.
Nur Deutsch - German only
• DWDS- Das digitale Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache - German only dictionary for advanced
learners.
• Deutsche Wörterbücher von Wahrig - Orthography and foreign words
• Redensartenindex - German idioms and proverbs with explanations
Slideshows with pictures and pronuciations
Language courses German at the time of insertion there is only one file about fruit - I will try to add
new ones every week-end.
Deutsche Grammatik und Rechtschreibung- German Grammar

and Spelling
• Canoo - extensive database about inflection and word formation
• Die neue Rechtschreibung ~ The new spelling
• Free online German course - new orthography, grammar, exercises, tests, example sentences,
jokes, learning tips
Aussprache - Pronunciation
• A Guide to german Pronunciation - Pronunciation course for beginners.
Blogs
• Deutschlernblog Tips for learning German. Site entirely in German.
• DaF-Blog On German language and how to learn it. Parts of the Site are in English, but most of
it in German.
• Deutsch-Happen small, bite-sized snaps of German language for the advancing learner
Podcasts
from learners
• Speaken Sie Deutsch?: Podcast from Canadian Hugh Gordon (Rss-Feed).
for learners
• Guter Umgang: German language learning blog about colloquial German (RSS-Feed).
• Let's speak German: Jokes, poems, tonguetwisters and more in German (RSS-Feed).
• Podcasts of Deutsche Welle: Nachrichten, Top-Thema, Stichwort, Sprachbar and
Alltagsdeutsch are specifically made for language learners. Most of the texts can be found on
the pages Deutsch im Fokus (Sprachbar, Stichwort and Alltagsdeutsch) and Didaktuelles
(Nachrichten and Top-Thema).
Tandem
Tandem by E-Mail
A.04 • Names
First Names
German names have undergone a drastic change in the last 60 years. Older, "typical" German names
like Hans, Fritz, Heinrich, Karl or Wilhelm are now uncommon in contemporary Germany. Today
many parents give their children names like (ten most popular names 2003):
Boys Girls
1. Maximilian 1. Marie
2. Alexander 2. Sophie
3. Leon 3. Maria
4. Paul 4. Anna, Anne
5. Lukas/Lucas 5. Lea(h)
6. Felix 6. Laura
7. Luca 7. Lena
8. David 8. Leonie
9. Tim 9. Julia
10.Jonas 10.Sara(h)
(Source: Gesellschaft für deutsche Sprache)
Boys' Names
• Maximilian
• Alexander
• Leon
• Paul
• Lukas/Lucas
• Felix
• Luca
• David
• Tim
• Gerhard, Gerd, Gert
• Ingo
• Jonas
• Peter
• Michael
• Thomas / Tomas
• Wolfgang
• Andreas
• Günter / Günther
• Claus / Klaus
• Adolph
• Jürgen
• Stefan / Stephan
• Werner
• Hans
• Fritz
• Heinrich
• Uwe
• Rudi
• Jens
Girls' Names
• Nina
• Ursula, Ulla
• Helga
• Karin
• Ingrid
• Renate
• Sabine
• Monica / Monika
• Giesela / Gisela
• Susanne
• Petra
• Birgit / Birgitt
• Marie
• Sophie
• Maria
• Anna, Anne
• Lea(h)
• Lara
• Laura
• Lena
• Leonie
• Lisa
• Julia
• Sara(h)
Last Names
• Ackermann
• Bachmann
• Bäcker, Becker
• Bauer
• Bayer, Baier, Beier
• Bergmann
• Brand, Brandt, Brant
• Fischer
• Fuchs
• Hartmann
• Hoffmann, Hofmann
• Janssen
• Jäger
• Jung
• Keiser, Kaiser
• Keller
• Konrad
• Kowalski
• Klein
• Koch
• Kurz
• Lange
• Lehmann
• Mayer, Maier, Meyer, Meier
• Möller
• Müller
• Neumann
• Reiter
• Richter
• Seiler
• Schmidt,Schmid, Schmitt
• Schnapp
• Schneider
• Schröder
• Schulze, Schultze
• Schuster
• Schüler
• Vogel, Vogl
• Wagner
• Zimmermann
A.05 • History
The history of the German language begins with the High German consonant shift during the Migration
period, separating South Germanic dialects from common West Germanic. The earliest testimonies of
Old High German are from scattered Elder Futhark inscriptions, especially in Alemannic, from the 6th
century, the earliest glosses (Abrogans) date to the 8th and the oldest coherent texts (the
Hildebrandslied, the Muspilli and the Merseburg Incantations) to the 9th century. Old Saxon at this
time belongs to the North Sea Germanic cultural sphere, and Low German should fall under German
rather than Anglo-Frisian influence during the Holy Roman Empire.
As Germany was divided into many different states, the only force working for a unification or
standardisation of German during a period of several hundred years was the general preference of
writers trying to write in a way that could be understood in the largest possible area.
When Martin Luther translated the Bible (the New Testament in 1522 and the Old Testament,
published in parts and completed in 1534) he based his translation mainly on this already developed
language, which was the most widely understood language at this time. This language was based on
Eastern Upper and Eastern Central German dialects and preserved much of the grammatical system of
Middle High German (unlike the spoken German dialects in Central and Upper Germany that already
at that time began to lose the genitive case and the preterit tense). In the beginning, copies of the Bible
had a long list for each region, which translated words unknown in the region into the regional dialect.
Roman Catholics rejected Luther's translation in the beginning and tried to create their own Catholic
standard (gemeines Deutsch) — which, however, only differed from 'Protestant German' in some minor
details. It took until the middle of the 18th century to create a standard that was widely accepted, thus
ending the period of Early New High German.
German used to be the language of commerce and government in the Habsburg Empire, which
encompassed a large area of Central and Eastern Europe. Until the mid-19th century it was essentially
the language of townspeople throughout most of the Empire. It indicated that the speaker was a
merchant, an urbanite, not their nationality. Some cities, such as Prague (German: Prag) and Budapest
(Buda, German: Ofen), were gradually Germanized in the years after their incorporation into the
Habsburg domain. Others, such as Bratislava (German: Pressburg), were originally settled during the
Habsburg period and were primarily German at that time. A few cities such as Milan (German:
Mailand) remained primarily non-German. However, most cities were primarily German during this
time, such as Prague, Budapest, Bratislava, Zagreb (German: Agram), and Ljubljana (German:
Laibach), though they were surrounded by territory that spoke other languages.
Until about 1800, standard German was almost only a written language. At this time, people in urban
northern Germany, who spoke dialects very different from Standard German, learnt it almost like a
foreign language and tried to pronounce it as close to the spelling as possible. Prescriptive
pronunciation guides used to consider northern German pronunciation to be the standard. However, the
actual pronunciation of standard German varies from region to region.
Media and written works are almost all produced in standard German (often called Hochdeutsch in
German) which is understood in all areas where German is spoken, except by pre-school children in
areas which speak only dialect, for example Switzerland. However, in this age of television, even they
now usually learn to understand Standard German before school age.
The first dictionary of the Brothers Grimm, the 16 parts of which were issued between 1852 and 1860,
remains the most comprehensive guide to the words of the German language. In 1860, grammatical and
orthographic rules first appeared in the Duden Handbook. In 1901, this was declared the standard
definition of the German language. Official revisions of some of these rules were not issued until 1998,
when the German spelling reform of 1996 was officially promulgated by governmental representatives
of all German-speaking countries. Since the reform, German spelling has been in an eight-year
transitional period where the reformed spelling is taught in most schools, while traditional and
reformed spelling co-exist in the media. See German spelling reform of 1996 for an overview of the
heated public debate concerning the reform with some major newspapers and magazines and several
known writers refusing to adopt it.
After the spelling reform of 1996 let to so much public controversy and some of its changed rules
introduced new ambiguities or were simply perceived as "ugly", the transitional period (initially
scheduled to end on Dec, 31. 2005) was extended until at least end 2006 and some parts of the reform
were changed again in March 2006. This new "reform of the reform" tries to remove the ambiguities
introduced in 1996. To date (April 2006), it is yet to be accepted by all german speaking countries.
A.06 • False Friends
There are some words which are spelled the same in English and in German, but have completely
different meanings. Even though the words are spelled the same, they are usually pronounced
completely differently. It can sometimes be dangerous to use these words (for both native English
speakers and native German speakers.) Think of that, next time someone wants to give you a " Gift" or
opens a door and says " After you!"
Note: This list contains some items of etymological interest. For example, the transformation of the
consonant 't' in German to 'd' in English in word pairs like Bart->Beard, Beet->Bed, Gut->Good, Hart-
>Hard, Rot->Red, and Not->Need.
German meaning (in English)

Word Englische Bedeutung (auf Deutsch)
Anus
After Später, Nachher
Fishing Rod
Angel Engel
Striking
Apart Abgesondert, Abseits
Poor
Arm Arm
Kind, sort, species

Art Kunst, Künstlichkeit
Ace
Ass Esel, Dumpfbacke, Knallkopf
Bath
Bad Schlecht, Schlimm
Excavator
Bagger Angesteller im Supermarkt der die Einkäufe in Tüten packt
Soon
Bald Unbehaart, Kahlköpfig
Afraid
Bang Knall, Krach, Schall
in Cash, Pure
Bar Stab (see also: Stab)
Beard
Bart Name eines Mannes
asked politely, requested

Bat Fledermaus
Flower bed
Beet Zuckerruebe, rote Ruebe
to ask politely, request

Bitten gebissen
Shiny, Shining
Blank Unbeschriftet, Unausgefüllt
Sheet metal
Blech Ausdruck des Ekels
to Twist, Form, Bend

Bog Sumpf, Torfmoor
Fire
Brand Markenprodukt
Diamond
Brilliant Blendend, Geistvoll
Front of a boat or plane

Bug Laus, Insekt, Störung
Sign
Kind
Child
Thanks
Dank Feucht
Thick
Dick Schnüffler, Schwanz, der steife Penis
Team, Eleven
Elf Elfe, Kobold
If, in case
Falls Wasserfälle
Catch
Fang Reißzahn
Unfortunate
Fatal Verhängnisvoll, Unheilvoll, Tödlich
Almost, Nearly
Fast Schnell
Fast
Fasten Befestigen
Fairy
Fee Preise, Gebühr
Coat (animal)
Fell fällen
Far away, Distant

Fern Farnkraut
Ridge
First Zuerst
Flew
Flog Peitschen, Auspeitschen
Away, Off, Gone

Fort Festung, Kastell
Radio
Funk Drückeberger, Musik von 1970's
Walk, Gait, Way

Gang Gruppe, Bande, Trupp
Poison
Gift Gabe, Geschenk
Grave
Grab Aufgreifen, Ergreifen
Degree (temperature)
Grad einen akademischen Grad erlangen
dug
Grub Futter
Good
Gut Darm (Schnecke und Kette)
Heal
Hack Heib, Kerbe, Zerhacken
Helped
Half Halb
Cell Phone
Handy Praktisch, Passend, Handlich
Slope, Inclination
Hang Hängen, Henken
Bit, Morsel
Happen Zufällig Geschehen, Vorkommen, Passieren
Hard
Hart Hirsch
Back of a boat or plane

Heck Was zum Teufel? (What the Heck?)
Hero
Held Gehalten
Bright
Hell Hölle
Cooker, Oven, Range

Herd Herde
Pants
Hose Schlauch
Throw, Lob, Swing (see also: Lob)

Hub Wickelkern, Nabe
Lobster
Hummer Jemand der summt
Hat
Hut Hütte
child
Art, Sorte
Kind
Laboratory
Labor Arbeit
Varnish
Lack Knappheit, Mangel
Lay
Lag zurueckbleiben, zoegern
Load, Burden, Weight

Last Zuletzt
Song
Lied Gelogen
Left
Links Verknüpfung, Verbindungen
Cunning
List Schlagseite
Praise
Lob Werf, Hub (see also: Hub)
Lied
Log Block, Klotz
Plumb (line)
Lot Pazille, die Menge, die Masse
To feel like doing something

Lust Sinnliche Begierde
Maggot
Made Hergestellt, Gemacht
Mouth (animal)
Maul der Schlegel, Beschädigen, Durchprügeln
Manure, Trash
Mist leichter Nebel
distress, need
Not Nicht
Grade (in school)

Note bemerken, aufschreiben, kleiner Brief
Well?
Nun die Schwester (im Kloster), Nonne
Plague
Pest Nervensäge
Rank
Rang Geklingelt, Geklungen
Wheel
Rad Ausdruck der Bewunderung (wie Geil)
Advice
Rat die Ratte
Shelves
Regal Majestätisch, Königlich, Hoheitsvoll
Beef, Cattle
Rind Schwarte, Schale
Skirt
Rock Stein, Fels
Novel
Roman der Römer
Red
Rot Verrotten, Verwesung
History, Myth
Sage Weise, Klug, Gescheit
Lake
See Siehe
Scythe
Sense Wahrnehmung, Bedeutung, Verstand, Sinn
New Years Eve

Silvester Name eines Mannes
Bacon
Speck Fleck
Spur (see also: Spur)

Spore Spore (Pilze)
Trace, Tracks, Lane

Spur Schiffsschnabel, Sporn, Ansporn (see also: Spore)
Rod, Pole, Baton, Bar (see also: Bar)

Stab Erstechen
Starlings
Stare anstarren
Strong
Stark Völlig, Gänzlich
Star
Stern Ernst, das Heck
Day
Tag Markierstelle, Kennzeichnung
Seaweed
Tang Amerikanisches Orangengetränk
Key (as in keyboard)

Taste Kostprobe, Geschmackssinn
Great! Super!
Toll Zollabgabe, Straßenbenutzungsgebühr
Death, Dead
Tod Name eines Mannes
Clay, a Sound
Ton die Tonne
Dead
Tot kleines Kind, kleiner Knirps
calf (of the leg)
Wade waten
Wall
Wand der Zauberstab
Was (see also: Was)

War Krieg
What?
Was wurde/war (see also: War)
World
Welt Quaddel, Beule
Weather
Wetter Nasser
Against, Contrary to
Wider Weiter, Breiter
Although not spelled identically in both languages, beginners are often confused by the similarity of the
German "bekommen" and English "to become".
bekommen => to receive, to get
werden => to become
Contributors
The German-English language textbook was started in October 2003. It was one of the first language
textbooks at the English version of Wikibooks, following close on the heels of (and borrowing some
layout ideas from) the Spanish language textbook then under development by Thomas Strohmann. Eric
Guinther designed the cover and contents pages, expanding on a cover layout used for the Spanish
textbook, and these ideas as introductions to language books have since been widely copied at
Wikibooks (see Dutch, French, Chinese, Norwegian, or Romanian for examples).
While Wikibooks offers somewhat clearer opportunities for "authorship" than Wikipedia, there remains
the fact that anything put here is really just a contribution, and everyone who furthers the effort is a
contributor. In this respect there really are no "authors".
Uncertain how to contribute? To learn how to edit or contribute material to this textbook, first read the
introduction at: How to Edit.
• SamE is developing the Level I lessons and contributed material to the Level II lessons before
Level I was created. He is currently taking German in school and using that experience to guide
his approach to teaching the beginning student.
• Boit is developing a German Grammar summarization.
• Thomas Strohmann, a German speaker, has contributed to this book, although he is mostly
involved in developing the Spanish textbook—along with Japanese the very first language
textbooks started at Wikibooks.
• Etothex was the original contributor to the German-English textbook, starting it on October 15,
2003.
• Floflei6 is a German student of English as a second language and a newbie at wiki.
• The Grammar King is currently a German student, and is very familiar with German culture. He
is also a newbie at Wiki, and plans on editing the page with cultural notes and other cultural
information, as well as more information to the Level I course.
• German Men92 is currently still studying German, but knows some many words and German
Grammer. He is progressing pages in the Level I course. And is also studying Germen Culture.
• Others (add your name and thoughts here if you are a serious contributor)
• Other anonymous Wikibook contributers (see individual page histories).
• Numerous other Wikibooks contributors, especially those from the German Wikibooks.
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Version 1.2, November 2002

Copyright (C) 2000,2001,2002 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
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External links
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• Official GNU FDL webpage

Wikibooks German Language Course

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May 01, 2006

The current version of this book can be found at

PDF created by Hagindaz

A Textbook on Five Levels

The German Language

finger ~ der Finger

hand ~ die Hand

mother ~ die Mutter

son ~ der Sohn

lamp ~ die Lampe

• Audio: OGG (114KB) ~ Hear these words

• Audio: OGG (114KB) ~ Hear these sentences

Vocabulary and Grammar

Layout within Lessons

The Student and the Lesson

Section 1.02 ~ Berlin, Germany

Section 1.03 ~ Vienna, Austria

Section 1.04 ~ Berne, Switzerland

Welcome to Level I German!

German and English

How to use this level of the German textbook

Layout of Each Lesson

Lesson 1.01 • Wie heißt du?

Hellos and Goodbyes in German

Formal and Informal Greetings in German

The German Alphabet

Bitte buchstabieren Sie

• To ask someone else's name, ask "Wie heißt..."

• Am Montag spielte der Junge Fußball.

What's On the Test

Lesson 1.02 • Freizeit

Sports and Activities

Spielen, Machen and Other Verbs

What are you doing? - Was machst du?

Other Verbs and Their Conjugations

Here are some more verbs having to do with activities:

Two More Verb Forms

Asking the Time

Before/After the Hour

Saying When You Do Something

Days and Months

German days and months are very similar to English months:

January Januar (or Jänner in Austria)

Time - die Zeit

What's On the Test

Lesson 1.03 • Essen

(In der Gaststätte)

Greta: Ich möchte Salat, Brot und Wasser.

(Nach zwanzig Minuten.)

Greta: Diese Gaststätte ist schrecklich! Ich möchte etwas zu essen!

Main Dishes (das Hauptgericht, Hauptgerichte)

Sides (die Beilage (singular), die Beilagen (plural))

Desserts (die Nachspeise, Nachspeisen or der Nachtisch)

The Meal - das Essen

Masculine Feminine Neuter Plural

Modals with other verbs

Hunger and Thirst

Accusative case prepositions

Connection with Time