Hello Listeners! Have you ever been in Germany?

Hi Steve,

Thank you again for a very interesting comment.

You are right: I am not sure why they make that first statement about "der"

and then not support it with an example. I am also not sure whether "der"

is used that much more than some other demonstratives.

I will forward your comment to our team to reconsider that first sentence.

As to your comment "Surely, the dialogue should relate to the focus of the lesson...":

I believe it does, except for the above issue.

Thanks again. Please do get in touch with us when you notice inconsistencies.

We are not infallible.😉

Kind regards,

Reinhard

Team GermanPod101.com

Under Lesson Notes it says "The Focus of this Lesson Is Demonstratives..............................Der is the most frequently used demonstrative in spoken German".

Despite the above the word "Der" was not used once in the dialogue! Surely, the dialogue should relate to the focus of the lesson and/or the lesson notes?

Hi Elizabeth,

It would be better to say "Der da ist mein Mann."

But be careful with that sentence. It's very casual and usually goes

in connection with pointing at the person, either on a photo or even

in real life.

In a formal setting you would say something like "Das ist mein Mann + name".

Thank you.

If you have any further questions, please let us know.

Kind regards,

Reinhard

Team GermanPod101.com

Ja, ich wohne hier in Deutschland. 😮

I'm trying to see if I can use a demonstrative:

Der ist mein Mann da. (Do I use "der" because "Mann" is masculine? Sometimes I think I see "das" used a lot in sentences.)

Das ist unser Buch hier.

Hi Peter,

Thank you for posting!

Yes, you are right. The mentioned contractions only exist for singular nouns. If you combine "zu" with a plural noun you keep the article separated, e.g. zu den Automaten, zu den Banken, zu den Häusern.

Sincerely,

Anne

Team GermanPod101.com

Hi,

From googling: The contractions for zu + the definite dative article only exist for singular nouns. The zu + the definite dative article for plural nouns is always uncontracted, so zun + plural noun is never correct. The only contracted forms are zur for singular feminine nouns and zum for singular masculine and neuter nouns. For plural nouns it's always zu den, with the plural noun taken into the dative by zu always ending in n.

Peter :)

Hi,

I've a question about the zu + dative case definite article contraction (= to the) when dealing with a plural noun situation. I know that zum is used for masculine and neuter singular nouns and zur is used for feminine singular nouns. What's the situation with zu? for dative plurals? I was expecting it to be zun, e.g. zun Automaten = to the [cash dispensing] machines. Wikitonary says that zun is obsolete, so do you just use zum for masculine and neuter plural nouns and zur for feminine plural nouns? Does this affect the addition of an 'n' at the end of dative plural nouns, and are there any other dative contractions that also don't use den for plural nouns?

Thanks

Peter :)

Hallo Gloria,

Thank you for posting.

Let us know if you have any questions.

Danke,

Patricia

Team GermanPod101.com

Hello Albert,

Ja, ich mochte Deutschland. Vielen Dank für die Korrektur.

Hello Gloria,

Thank you very much for commenting! ?

It is nice to hear that you have been in Germany before. We hope you liked it over there.

Please let me correct one little mistake. It should be "Ich war einmal in Deutschland" instead of "Ich war in Deutschland einmal".

I hope this helps!

Kind regards,

Albert

Team GermanPod101.com

Ja, ich war in Deutschland einmal.

Hello Ringo,

Thank you very much for your feedback. ??

Please let me correct one little mistake. "nien" should be "nein".

We hope you will find the time to visit Germany someday! ?

Please let us know if you have any questions.

Sincerely.

Albert

Team GermanPod101.com

nien