INTRODUCTION |
Chuck: This is Beginner Series, Lesson 7. |
Judith: Willkommen zurรผck. |
Chuck: Welcome back, listeners. This is already the seventh Beginner lesson brought to you by GermanPod101.com. |
Judith: Really? Weโre really up to seven lesson in this series alone? |
Chuck: Itโs starting to get hard and I keep track as Iโm missing that but Iโve subscribed to the news feed so I always know when one of lessons go live. |
Judith: Speaking of lessons going live, soon we will start a whole new series for intermediate students. |
Chuck: Itโs not about some romantic story with a guy and a girl, isnโt it? |
Judith: No. Actually, the new series will be non-linear, so thereโs no story line to follow and you can jump in anytime. |
Chuck: Really? So whatโs it going to be about them? |
Judith: It will be about German music. Youโre going to learn German folk songs. |
Chuck: Cool. So youโd to learn all the latest Rammstein songs? |
Judith: Well, not just Rammstein. I want to introduce you to other great German bands as well. |
Chuck: Thereโs other ones? |
Judith: Of course! Thereโs really a lot of good music here that never gets played in the American radio stations. |
Chuck: Well, I guess not because the Americans wouldnโt understand the lyrics. |
Judith: But you are going to understand the lyrics. Weโll go through them together and learn a lot of German from them. |
Chuck: All right. You might convince me to listen to these series. |
Judith: Now listeners, if you have any favorite German song that you would like to see featured in this series, mention it on the forum and you might just get your wish, but for now letโs get back to the lesson at hand. |
Chuck: So, what are we going to learn today? |
Judith: You are going to learn German. |
Chuck: Really? Thatโs surprising to me. So what exactly are we going to learn then? |
Judith: Oh. Youโre going to learn a lot of useful vocabulary related to breakfast. |
Chuck: Cool! I like food. So letโs see what youโre going to teach us. So are we going to start with the last lesson left off? |
Judith: Yes. Itโs the first morning in Germany for John and John just asked Michaela whatโs her breakfast. |
Lesson conversation
|
John: Was gibt es zum Frรผhstรผck? |
Michaela: Es gibt Brรถtchen, Butter, Marmelade... |
John: Gibt es keine Eier? Oder Pfannkuchen? |
Michaela: Pfannkuchen zum Frรผhstรผck??? |
John: Oder Wรผrstchen? In Deutschland isst man viele Wรผrstchen, oder? |
Michaela: Ich mache Ihnen ein Ei und Wรผrstchen. |
Judith: Now read slowly. |
John: Was gibt es zum Frรผhstรผck? |
Michaela: Es gibt Brรถtchen, Butter, Marmelade... |
John: Gibt es keine Eier? Oder Pfannkuchen? |
Michaela: Pfannkuchen zum Frรผhstรผck??? |
John: Oder Wรผrstchen? In Deutschland isst man viele Wรผrstchen, oder? |
Michaela: Ich mache Ihnen ein Ei und Wรผrstchen. |
Judith: Now, I will read the whole and Chuck will translate. |
Judith: Was gibt es zum Frรผhstรผck? |
Chuck: Whatโs for breakfast? |
Judith: Es gibt Brรถtchen, Butter, Marmelade... |
Chuck: There are rolls, butter, jamโฆ |
Judith: Gibt es keine Eier? |
Chuck: Arenโt there any eggs? |
Judith: Oder Pfannkuchen? |
Chuck: Or pancakes? |
Judith: Pfannkuchen zum Frรผhstรผck??? |
Chuck: Pancakes for breakfast??? |
Judith: Oder Wรผrstchen? |
Chuck: Or sausages? |
Judith: In Deutschland isst man viele Wรผrstchen, oder? |
Chuck: In Germany you eat a lot of sausages, donโt you? |
Judith: Ich mache Ihnen ein Ei und Wรผrstchen. |
Chuck: Iโll make you an egg and sausage. |
VOCAB LIST |
Chuck: Wow! That alone include a lot of useful new words. How would we go through them? |
Judith: Okay. The first new word is essen [natural native speed]. |
Chuck: โTo eatโ |
Judith: Essen. |
Chuck: โTo eat.โ |
Judith: Note that this verb changes its vowel just like sprechen, that is the E changes to I, for the second and third person singular, that is the du and the er, sie, es form. |
Chuck: Could you conjugate that? I was a bit confused to that. |
Judith: Okay. It is โich esseโ, โdu isstโ , note the change, โdu isstโ; then โer, sie, es isstโ, โwir essenโ back to normal; โihr esst, sie essenโ. You think you got that? |
Chuck: I think so. |
Judith: Okay. Now, the next word is brรถtchen [natural native speed], das brรถtchen. |
Chuck: โRollโ. |
Judith: Brรถtchen [natural native speed]. |
Chuck: โRollโ. |
Judith: Literally, this means โlittle bread.โ Whenever you add โchenโ to the end of a word, it means โlittleโ. Now the next word is die butter [natural native speed]. |
Chuck: โButterโ. |
Judith: Butter [natural native speed] |
Chuck: โButterโ. |
Judith: This word is actually spelled the same in German and in English, except for the capitalization. As you know, in German, all nouns have to be capitalized. Next word is Marmelade [natural native speed], die Marmelade. |
Chuck: Jam. |
Judith: Iโll break it down for you. Mar-me-la-de. Marmelade. |
Chuck: โJamโ. |
Judith: Now, in English, I believe thereโs a word marmalade which would mean a jar made of oranges or lemons or something like that, at least in British English. Note that Marmelade in German can be made of any fruit. The next word is Ei [natural native speed]. |
Chuck: โEgg.โ |
Judith: Das Ei. |
Chuck: โThe eggโ. |
Judith: Next, oder [natural native speed]. |
Chuck: โOrโ. |
Judith: Oder. |
Chuck: โOrโ. |
Judith: Using the word oder, you can ask somebody, for example, โSpreche ich mit Chuck oder mit Judith?โ โDo I speak with Chuck or with Judith?โ |
Chuck: So you would wonder is that โja or neinโ? |
Judith: No. Youโd have to answer with a complete sentence. But itโs useful when youโre talking on the phone. Now, the next word is Pfannkuchen [natural native speed]. |
Chuck: โPancakeโ. |
Judith: Der Pfannkuchen. |
Chuck: โThe pancakeโ. |
Judith: Pfannkuchen. Pfannkuchen. Another long word, wรผrstchen [natural native speed]. |
Chuck: โSausageโ. |
Judith: Wรผrstchen [natural native speed]. |
Chuck: โSausageโ. |
Judith: Next word, dir [natural native speed]. |
Chuck: โTo youโ. |
Judith: Dir. |
Chuck: โTo youโ. |
Judith: And finally, one really important word, man [natural native speed]. |
Chuck: That means โoneโ or like you would say โyouโ. โMan isst viel Eierโ means โone eats a lot of eggsโ. |
Judith: Yeah. Or โpeople eat a lot of eggsโ. It refers to people in general. |
Chuck: Or โYou eat a lot of eggsโ. |
Judith: Itโs the equivalent of the French "O" |
Chuck: Donโt confuse our listeners now for those who havenโt learned French, but you can also mention this, the Esperanto word Oni. Also note that this has only N at the end, where as mann as in โa manโ has two Nโs. |
Judith: And also, since this is not a noun, it is not capitalized. Now letโs talk about breakfast some more. Chuck, what do you know when you have a breakfast? For example, do you drink coffee? |
Chuck: Well, yeah. I drink coffee or juice or milk. |
Judith: How about tea? Do you like tea? |
Chuck: I personally do, but when I live in the States, I didnโt really drink it that much. |
Judith: Well, here in Germany, most people also drink coffee, regular coffee though the Italian coffee has become more and more popular. A lot of people order cafรฉ latte now or cappuccino or even espresso in the morning. The German coffee, I mean regular coffee, is just so very, very common and the kids, of course, donโt drink coffee. They drink milk instead of cocoa. |
Chuck: But you also drink juice for breakfast? |
Judith: Really rarely. I havenโt seen it much. Maybe other families regularly drink juice but normally itโs coffee or milk or the like. As for food, what kind of food do you have for breakfast in the USA normally? |
Chuck: Like I might have scrambled eggs with sausage or maybe egg sandwich or pancakes. |
Judith: Thatโs what I find so amazing. Pancakes in Germany is definitely a lunch food. |
Chuck: Yeah. I remember the first time I went to a little waffle party in Germany and theyโre having waffles for lunch and Iโm like, โOkay, thatโs different. Theyโre deciding to be different and have it for lunch. Thatโs nice. |
Judith: Well, waffles are normally a lunch food. Waffles are for tea. |
Chuck: Plus, what I also found funny at that time we had waffles is we also had waffles with ham in them, which you would never find in the states. |
Judith: Well, sounds weird. Anyway, getting back to breakfast, for breakfast, in Germany itโs really like what Michaela said there, most people eat bread or rolls, of course. With that, they have butter, jam, Nutella. Do you know Nutella? Itโs a kind of a chocolate-hazelnut spread. |
Chuck: I hear sometimes kids would come with their families over to Germany and they have Nutella and they go home and friends, โSo what do you think of the food over there?โ And theyโre like, โItโs great! We get to eat chocolate for breakfast!โ |
Judith: Itโs not quite chocolate but it tastes really yummy. Maybe you can find it at your local Aldi even now that they expanded to America. |
Chuck: Well, in the States, youโll be able to find it. Youโll just have to look for it. It should be near the peanut butter. |
Judith: Yeah. Oh, which brings me to the next topic, peanut butter is not all that common here. |
Chuck: Yeah. You especially wonโt find it in combination with chocolate like you would in the States. So I really miss my Reeseโs Peanut Butter Cups for example. |
Judith: Now, Iโm not saying that during breakfast, it always has to be sweet. People could also eat like cheese or ham on their bread or they could go for yogurt or cereal or the like; but really, bread and rolls are the general stock of German breakfast food and theyโre also quite common for dinner. |
Now, Iโll only tell you a bit about German plurals. Normally, theyโre hard to predict, and weโll come back to the topic later, but today weโll deal with two categories that are not quite as hard. The first category is the one that end in โchen or maybe these nouns can also end in โer, -en, or โel, and they donโt change at all for plural. |
Chuck: But how do I know what the plural is then? |
Judith: You mean to tell the difference between somebody giving you one cookie or several? |
Chuck: Yeah. That could be quite important, actually. |
Judith: Well, you can tell by the article. You know that for singular, you have to decide itโs a der, die, or das Plรคtzchen. With words ending in โchen, itโs actually easy; theyโre always neuter. So itโs das Plรคtzchen for singular; and for plural, it will always be die. Die Plรคtzchen. Die is the only possible article for plural. |
Chuck: So finally something with article is easy in German. |
Judith: Yeah. Itโs really easy because this is true for any noun independent of the category. |
Chuck: Well, unless you have cases, that is. |
Judith: Well, even with that, itโs usually still a die. Weโll get to that later. Now Iโll give you some examples of how to form a plural for this first category of nouns that donโt change at all. For example, the word that we already learned was der Freiberufler. |
Chuck: โThe freelancer.โ |
Judith: The plural is die Freiberufler. |
Chuck: โThe freelancers.โ |
Judith: โDerโ changes to โdieโ and nothing else changes because this is the word that ends in โer. An example for a noun ending โen isโdas Brรถtchenโ. |
Chuck: โThe roleโ. Can you guess what that is? |
Judith: No. Itโs easy โdie Brรถtchenโ. |
Chuck: โThe rollsโ. |
Judith: And finally, I donโt think we encountered any noun ending in โel yet, but since itโs the same rule, Iโll just give you an example. โder Zettelโ. |
Chuck: โThe noteโ. |
Judith: And the plural is โdie Zettelโ. |
Chuck: โThe notesโ. |
Judith: Really easy so far, isnโt it? Now thereโs a lot of words in this category because โer is a very common ending for professions or nationalities or the like. Die englรคnder for example, โthe Englishmanโ, they always have an โer ending. Also, -chen is a very common ending, which puts more nouns into this category. Note that the word das Gebรคude, the building, which you already learned, is also part of this category despite not having any of the characteristic endings. Now, I was talking of two categories of nouns that weโre going to cover today. The first one was a real easy one that doesnโt change at all, and the other category are ones that end in some other consonant and they will add โer for plural. For example, das Lied. |
Chuck: โThe songโ. |
Judith: โdie Liederโ |
Chuck: โThe songsโ. |
Judith: โdas Eiโ |
Chuck: โThe eggโ. |
Judith: โdie Eierโ |
Chuck: โThe eggsโ. |
Judith: Iโm sure adding โer is not so bad. You can remember it, but thereโs an additional compilation, that is, this category of nouns likes to change their vowel whenever they are given the change. Basically, when thereโs only a single vowel in the word, that vowel turns into an umlaut. |
Chuck: Evil umlauts. |
Judith: Umlauts are those two dots on top of the vowel. |
Chuck: The ones that are almost impossible to pronounce. |
Judith: Theyโre easy enough to pronounce. Just practice a bit more, you know. If you really have trouble with them, go to the learning center and listen to the vocabulary pronounced a couple of times, and Iโm sure youโll get into it. Anyway, so examples of these nouns that add โer and change their vowel are โder Mannโโฆ |
Chuck: โThe manโ. |
Judith: โDie Mรคnnerโ |
Chuck: โThe menโ. |
Judith: โMann, Mรคnner.โ |
Chuck: Whatโs another example? |
Judith: โdas Buchโ |
Chuck: โThe bookโ. |
Judith: โdie Bรผcherโ |
Chuck: โThe booksโ. |
Judith: โBuch, Bรผcherโ |
Chuck: I figured you would use that as an example just because you love bookstores. |
Judith: Oh, I love them, yes. |
Chuck: So, from the dialogue, we saw that John expected Pfannkuchen, Eier, oder Wรผrstchen, and Michaela had a completely different idea of what breakfast should look like. |
Judith: Letโs listen to the dialogue again. |
John: Was gibt es zum Frรผhstรผck? |
Michaela: Es gibt Brรถtchen, Butter, Marmelade... |
John: Gibt es keine Eier? Oder Pfannkuchen? |
Michaela: Pfannkuchen zum Frรผhstรผck??? |
John: Oder Wรผrstchen? In Deutschland isst man viele Wรผrstchen, oder? |
Michaela: Ich mache Ihnen ein Ei und Wรผrstchen. |
Outro
|
Chuck: Oh, isnโt that sweet of her? |
Judith: If youโre staying in Germany, be sure to also try German food, though. You may even like it. |
Chuck: In the forum, thereโs currently a thread in good restaurants in Berlin, though I donโt think there are many recommendations with German restaurants yet. |
Judith: Itโs a crime to come to Germany and not try any of the local specialties. |
Chuck: But itโs definitely a crime to come to Germany and not try the German beer. Itโs so good. Have you listened to the audio blog on German beer yet? |
Judith: I think the language may be too difficult for you, but you can always just read the English translation of the text in the PDF accompanying the audio blog just like you can find the English translations of all our lesson dialogues in the PDFs. |
Chuck: But with the premium subscription, youโll find the paragraph-by-paragraph or line-by-line translation in the learning center. |
Judith: All right! Thanks for listening! |
Chuck: Hope to see you all next week! |
Judith: Bis bald! |
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