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Learn German with GermanPod101.com! You finally arrive at your hotel in Germany - exhausted doesn’t even BEGIN to describe the ache you feel emanating from every muscle in your body. You just want to shower, brush your teeth, have a quick nightcap, and go to bed. First things first…ordering the nightcaps from room service. You dial room service and ask in German, “Can you please bring drinks to our room?” The helpful clerk answers in German, “We will bring it right up.” One down, two to go. You open your bag - no toothbrush! Great! Perfect end to a not-so-perfect day. Your friend tells you in German, “Relax, just ask the hotel clerk if they have extra toothbrushes.” Good idea! As if on cue, there is a knock at the door. You open it to find the hotel clerk standing there with a single drink in his hand. He chimes in German, “Room service, you ordered a drink?” Oh, this is not getting any easier. You explain in German, “I thought I ordered TWO drinks…you know, for each of us.” He politely replies in German, “I understand the mix-up, but you said ‘drink’ not ‘drinks.’ I will bring you another.” Almost too embarrassed to even ask, you quietly ask in German, “You wouldn’t have extra toothbrushes too would you?” Smiling politely, and earning a HUGE tip, he replies in German, “Yes, we do. I will bring you a couple.”

Learning German with GermanPod101.com is the most fun and effective way to learn German! This German Beginner lesson will save you a lot of time, trouble, and possibly embarrassment as we teach you how to form the plural of words in German. We will also talk about how to express pity in German. Finally, we will tell you about when you might be able to find the stores open in Germany so you can start your shopping! Visit us at GermanPod101 where you will find many more fantastic German lessons and learning materials! Leave us a message while you are there!

Grammar: | Function: | Topic: , | Politeness Level: ,


This entry was posted on Monday, December 7th, 2009 at 6:30 pm and is filed under Beginner Season 2 . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

11 Responses to “Beginner Lesson S2 #39 - Emotions: You Can’t Fathom Doing More Than a Single Thing in Germany without First Learning This!”

GermanPod101.com says:


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Judith says:

That’s the end of this season of beginner lessons. What did you think of it?

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Chuck says:

I think they were all great. I work 24 hour shifts as an EMT on an ambulance and listening to germanpod these past several months have really helped me make it thru alot of long nights ( plus my german has really improved lol! ). Thanks Guys!

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salivia_baker says:

sollte der gast im Hotel nicht sagen “Lassen Sie mich mal sehen” anstatt “Lasst mich mal sehen”?

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Nevena says:

:smile: Good point Salivia :)
One more thing: It’s written in pdf: “in einem deiner Koffer”. Why not “einem deinen Koffer….it’s a bit verwirrend…

Thanks :)
N.

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Salivia_Baker says:

Sorry Nevena, cases are not my strong suit.

deinen Koffer would be accusative while einem is dative. Don’t go and mix cases. article and such have to be all in the same case. You can have two cases after one another but that would go too far right now. In front of the noun (what belongs to it such as article, attributes etc.) has to be in one case and every word has to be put in it. A lot of effort for indicating only one thing, ey?
Anyway I sadly don’t have the rules at hand for changes according to the cases but maybe somebody else has.

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Nevena says:

Thanks Salivia :)

Yeah, you are right, too many words for a single thing ;) It was confusing for me, as deiner is dative for feminine and einem is dative for masculine :/
But I will stick to what you said. It does work for me at the moment… if there is any other comment about it, please post the link :)

Thanks a lot, again,
N.

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Salivia_Baker says:

Yes you are absolutely right. It doesn’t make sense.
I found the rules (with the endings) and now see how you got to the “in einem deinen Koffer”. But I guess having an article followed by a pronoun is as exception and you cannot simply put one after the other. You also use deiner when using neuter nouns: In einem deiner Häuser
For feminine it’s different: In einer deiner Flaschen. But only the article changed. The pronoun stayed the same.
Let’s go through all pronouns:
In einem meiner Koffer
In einem deiner Koffer
In einem seiner Koffer
In einem ihrer Koffer
In einem unserer Koffer
In einem eurer Koffer
they all take the form of the feminine pronoun.

Maybe always use the feminine pronoun after an article in the dative as a rule?
I looked again but still couldn’t find some rules on this to make sure.

I am so sorry that I cannot help you here.

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Judith says:

No, this is a different thing. Look at the English: “in one of your suitcases”. This means that “one” should be Dative (because it follows ‘in’) and “your” should be Genitive (because of the ‘of’). einem and deiner have nothing do with each other, they are different cases.

Here’s another example to make it more clear: “in einem Auto deiner Firma” (in one car of your company -> in one of your company’s cars).
einem Auto = Dative because of the ‘in’
deiner Firma = Genitive because it shows possession

When saying “in einem deiner Koffer”, the “einem” is really an abbreviation for “einem Koffer”. “in einem Koffer deiner Koffer” -> in one suitcase of your suitcases.

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Salivia_Baker says:

oops *hide in shame*

:-X

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Nevena says:

Oh mein Gott! I suppose this is flexible German grammar, that we should love so much :wink:
Thanks Judith for the explanation, thanks Salivia for a huge effort!

So this is Genitive + Dative combination (I got it), but I suppose this is not linked to two attributes that have to be put together. (Die Schlüssel findest du in meinem roten Koffer). Please, correct me if I’m wrong.

Thanks for everything,
N.

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