Learn to make small talk about the weather
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| Let's take a closer look at the conversation. |
| Do you remember how Karen says, |
| "It's hot, isn't it?" |
| Es ist heiß, oder? |
| First is es, "it." Es. Es. |
| After this is ist, "is." Ist. Ist. |
| Ist is from the verb sein, "to be." Sein. |
| Next is heiß, "hot." Heiß. Heiß. |
| All together, Es ist heiß, literally, "it is hot," or, "It’s hot." |
| After this is oder, literally "or," but here meaning something like "or is it?" Here it translates as "isn’t it?" Oder. Oder. |
| All together, it’s Es ist heiß, oder? literally "It is hot, or," but it translates as "It's hot, isn't it?" |
| Es ist heiß, oder? |
| Let's take a closer look at the response. |
| Do you remember how the neighbor says, |
| "Yes, it's hot." |
| Ja, es ist heiß. |
| First is ja, meaning "yes." Ja. Ja. |
| Jessica uses Ja to show agreement with the speaker. |
| Next is es, "it." Es. |
| After this is ist, "is." Ist. |
| Ist is from the verb sein, "to be." Sein. |
| Last is heiß, "hot." Heiß. |
| All together, Ja, es ist heiß. Literally "Yes, it is hot," or "Yes, it's hot." |
| Ja, es ist heiß. |
| The pattern is |
| Es ist WEATHER CONDITION. |
| "It’s WEATHER CONDITION.” |
| Es ist WEATHER CONDITION. |
| To use this pattern, simply replace the WEATHER CONDITION placeholder with the current weather condition. |
| Note: This pattern requires an adjective. |
| Imagine it’s cold, kalt. "Cold." Kalt. Kalt. |
| Say |
| "It's cold, isn’t it?" |
| Ready? |
| Es ist kalt, oder? |
| "It’s cold today, isn’t it?" |
| Es ist kalt, oder? |
| Using this verbal exclamation to talk about the weather is meant to elicit a response from the listener or listeners. It’s a way to start a conversation with a German speaker. Finding and creating speaking opportunities is an important skill, and probably more important than sharing practical observations about the weather. |
| One way of achieving this is simply attaching the word oder, literally "or," to the end of an affirmative sentence. |
| It’s like a tag question in English. |
| For example, |
| Es ist einfach, oder? |
| "It's easy, isn't it?" |
| Note, oder is more common in colloquial language. For formal situations, oder is usually replaced by nicht wahr? Literally "not true,” but it acts like a tag question. |
| For example, |
| Es ist heiß, nicht wahr? |
| It’s hot, isn’t it? |
| You should be aware of nicht wahr. |
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