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| INTRODUCTION |
| Gina: Hello and welcome back to GermanPod101.com. I’m Gina, and this is Absolute Beginner Season 3, Lesson 10 - It’s Imperative You Learn to Ride a German Bus! |
| Frank: Hi everyone, I’m Frank. Thanks for being here with us again. |
| Gina: In this lesson, you’ll learn how to give commands in German. |
| Frank: This conversation takes place during breakfast at the Kirsch family home. |
| Gina: The conversation is between Kate and Frau Kirsch. |
| Frank: The speakers don’t know each other very well, so they’ll be using formal German. |
| DIALOGUE |
| Frau Kirsch: Guten Morgen! |
| Kate: Üaaahh... Guten Morgen! Entschuldigung, ich bin noch müde. |
| Frau Kirsch: Es gibt Frühstück. Möchten Sie Kaffee? Wir haben auch Tee. |
| Kate: Kaffee ist gut. |
| Frau Kirsch: Und essen Sie auch etwas! |
| Kate : Ich habe eine Frage - wie komme ich zur Goethe-Schule? |
| Frau Kirsch: Nehmen Sie den Bus Nummer 48. |
| Gina: Let's hear the conversation one time slowly. |
| Frau Kirsch: Guten Morgen! |
| Kate: Üaaahh... Guten Morgen! Entschuldigung, ich bin noch müde. |
| Frau Kirsch: Es gibt Frühstück. Möchten Sie Kaffee? Wir haben auch Tee. |
| Kate: Kaffee ist gut. |
| Frau Kirsch: Und essen Sie auch etwas! |
| Kate : Ich habe eine Frage - wie komme ich zur Goethe-Schule? |
| Frau Kirsch: Nehmen Sie den Bus Nummer 48. |
| Gina: Now, let's hear it with English translation. |
| Frau Kirsch: Guten Morgen! |
| Gina: Good morning! |
| Kate: Üaaahh... Guten Morgen! Entschuldigung, ich bin noch müde. |
| Gina: Wahhh...Good morning! Sorry, I'm still tired... |
| Frau Kirsch: Es gibt Frühstück. Möchten Sie Kaffee? Wir haben auch Tee. |
| Gina: There's breakfast. Would you like a coffee? We have tea, too. |
| Kate: Kaffee ist gut. |
| Gina: Coffee is good. |
| Frau Kirsch: Und essen Sie auch etwas! |
| Gina: And eat something, too! |
| Kate : Ich habe eine Frage - wie komme ich zur Goethe-Schule? |
| Gina: I have a question–how do I get to the Goethe School? |
| Frau Kirsch: Nehmen Sie den Bus Nummer 48. |
| Gina: Take bus number 48. |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Gina: Bus travel in Germany has a system of its own. |
| Frank: That’s right! First, you need to know the bus stops. You can identify bus stops in Germany by tall metal posts, or columns bearing a flag-like white sign. And this sign should have the letter H in green on a yellow background, inside a green rimmed circle. |
| Gina: Even though there are a lot of independent bus companies in Germany, they all use that sign. Does H stand for something? |
| Frank: It stands for Haltestelle, the German word for “bus stop”. |
| Gina: Okay. You’ll also notice at the bus stop one or more timetables that show departure times, buses, and routes. |
| Frank: Yes. Once the bus is there, get on through the front door and buy a ticket there. If you already have a ticket, give it to the bus driver, because some areas are very strict about that. |
| Gina: You can buy single pass tickets, which are available within a certain zone. You can also buy reduced fare tickets, multi-pass tickets, or day tickets. |
| Frank: Just hand the money directly to the bus driver and he'll give you change. But if you have some very large bills, he might not accept them. |
| Gina: Be alert and hit the button labeled “Halt” or “Stop” as the bus draws closer to your desired stop. The bus won’t automatically stop, so keep this in mind. |
| Frank: This can be tricky if you don’t know the area. Modern buses have an electronic display that shows what the next stop is. |
| Gina: Otherwise, you’ll have to ask a local. |
| Frank: And as the bus comes to a stop, go out the back door. If the driver doesn't open the door right away, look for another button near the door that will open it for you. |
| Gina: Those are some good tips. Now, let’s take a look at the vocabulary for this lesson. |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Gina: The first word we shall see is... |
| Frank: Morgen [natural native speed] |
| Gina: morning |
| Frank: Morgen [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Frank: Morgen [natural native speed] |
| Frank: Bus [natural native speed] |
| Gina: bus |
| Frank: Bus [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Frank: Bus [natural native speed] |
| Frank: nehmen [natural native speed] |
| Gina: to take |
| Frank: nehmen [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Frank: nehmen [natural native speed] |
| Frank: einfach [natural native speed] |
| Gina: easy, simply |
| Frank: einfach [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Frank: einfach [natural native speed] |
| Frank: Tee [natural native speed] |
| Gina: tea |
| Frank: Tee [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Frank: Tee [natural native speed] |
| Frank: Kaffee [natural native speed] |
| Gina: coffee |
| Frank: Kaffee [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Frank: Kaffee [natural native speed] |
| Frank: Frühstück [natural native speed] |
| Gina: breakfast |
| Frank: Frühstück [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Frank: Frühstück [natural native speed] |
| Frank: noch [natural native speed] |
| Gina: still, yet, another |
| Frank: noch [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Frank: noch [natural native speed] |
| KEY VOCAB AND PHRASES |
| Gina: Let’s take a closer look at the usage of some of the words and phrases from this lesson. |
| Frank: The first word we'll take a look at is einfach |
| Gina: It means “easy” or “simple”, and it also means “simply” or “just”. In German, adjectives and adverbs always look the same. |
| Frank: That’s why gut can mean “good” or “well” and müde can mean “tired” or “in a tired way” as in the adverb formation. |
| Gina: What’s next? |
| Frank: Next we have Frühstück . |
| Gina: Meaning “breakfast”. The word class can also be changed to a verb that literally means “to breakfast”, in other words “to have breakfast”. |
| Frank: So the verb is frühstücken. |
| Gina: It follows the typical rule of the -en ending at the end of an infinitive form. Let’s hear an example. |
| Frank: Wann frühstücken wir? |
| Gina: “When are we having breakfast?” |
| Frank: Also, the breakdown of the noun Frühstück is quite interesting too, because früh means “early”, while Stück means “piece”. |
| Gina: The logic behind this is to have an early piece of food, and that means breakfast! |
| Frank: Right! The last word is Noch, which means “still”, “yet”, or “else”. |
| Gina: The position of this word in the sentence is quite flexible. Can you give us an example? |
| Frank: sure! Hast du noch Zeit? |
| Gina: “Do you still have time?” |
| Frank: Or Gibt es noch Milch? |
| Gina: “Is there still milk?” Okay, now onto the grammar. |
Lesson focus |
|---|
| Gina: In this lesson, you’ll learn how to use the imperative. |
| Frank: The imperative is used to give commands and also to make polite requests if you add bitte. There's a formal imperative for people that you address as Sie, and there’s an informal imperative for family, friends, and kids. |
| Gina: In German, the formal imperative is just the same as the formal present tense, except the verb comes first and Sie comes second. |
| Frank: So for example, Gehen Sie! |
| Gina: “Go!” |
| Frank: Kommen Sie! |
| Gina: “Come!” |
| Frank: Nehmen Sie den Bus! |
| Gina: “Take the bus!” |
| Frank: If it wasn’t imperative, it would be Sie nehmen den Bus. |
| Gina: “You’re taking the bus.” |
| Frank: The informal imperative is more interesting. The conjugation matches the second person informal pronoun du. |
| Gina: For this formation, the verb conjugates without any ending and no pronoun, so we just have the verb. |
| Frank: Yeah! like Geh! instead of Komm! or “come”. You would also use this one with people you’re insulting. |
| Gina: Finally, if you want to make a suggestion and include yourself, as in the English “Let’s go,” you can use another type of imperative in German for the first person plural. |
| Frank: For this, just place wir after, rather than before, the first person plural form. For example, Gehen wir! |
| Gina: “Let’s go!” |
| Frank: Lernen wir Deutsch!. |
| Gina: “Let’s learn German!” |
| Frank: This is also a nice, friendly way of using the imperative. |
| Gina: Frank, let’s go through the most essential forms of the imperative in German. |
| Frank: Great! First, the imperative for the verb haben |
| Gina: “to have” |
| Frank: Hab! This is part of the du hab construction, only the du is omitted. Hab! |
| Gina: How about with the plural second person, “you”? |
| Frank: This one has a -t at the end. Habt, deriving from ihr habt! |
| Gina: Next is... |
| Frank: haben Sie.... |
| Gina: which is the imperative “you” form of “have”. And finally, the “let’s have” imperative version of “we.” |
| Frank: haben wir |
| Gina: Okay, great! That’s the verb “to have” covered. |
| Frank: Now, let’s cover another important verb, sein, meaning “to be” |
| Gina: For the informal second person form meaning “you be”, it's sei. |
| Frank: For example, Sei positiv! |
| Gina: “Be positive!” How about the plural form of “you”? |
| Frank: ihr seid! Or just seid. |
| Gina: How about the polite form? |
| Frank: Seien Sie! |
| Gina: And then “let’s be” would be? |
| Frank: Seien wir. |
| Gina: The good news is that the imperative forms of sein are close to the infinitive, so they should be quite easy to remember! |
| Frank: Right! We have sei, seid, and seien, which all sound very close to sein! |
| Gina: We’ve included a lot more in the lesson notes so you can master these formations. |
| Frank: And use them with confidence! |
| Gina: So be sure to check them out! |
Outro |
| Gina: Attention perfectionists! You're about to learn how to perfect your pronunciation. |
| Frank: Lesson Review Audio Tracks. |
| Gina: Increase fluency and vocabulary fast with these short, effective audio tracks. |
| Frank: Super simple to use. Listen to the German word or phrase... |
| Gina: then repeat it out loud in a loud clear voice. |
| Frank: You'll speak with confidence knowing that you're speaking German like the locals. |
| Gina: Go to GermanPod101.com, and download the Review Audio Tracks right on the lessons page today! |
| Gina: Ok, that’s all for this lesson. Thanks for listening, and see you next time! |
| Frank: Also, bis nächstes Mal! |
| Gina: Bye! |
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