Learn how to ask what a word is in German
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| Let's take a closer look at the conversation. |
| Do you remember how Ben says, |
| "How do you say 'book' in German?" |
| Wie sagt man "book" auf Deutsch? |
| The standard way to ask for the meaning of a word in German follows a simple pattern. |
| First is wie, "how." Wie. Wie. |
| Next is sagt man, "One says." Sagt man. |
| First is sagt, "says." Sagt. Sagt. |
| Sagt is from the verb sagen, "to say." Sagen. |
| Next is man, roughly translating as "one," as in "one says." Man. Man. |
| Together, Wie sagt man, literally "How says one," but translates as, "how [does] one say." Wie sagt man. |
| After this is the English word, "book." |
| Last is the phrase, auf Deutsch, meaning "in German." Auf Deutsch. |
| First is, auf, meaning "in," in this context. Auf. Auf. |
| After this is Deutsch, "German," as in the language. Deutsch. Deutsch. |
| All together, Wie sagt man "book" auf Deutsch? literally means something like, "How says one 'book' in German?" but translates as, "How [does] one say 'book' in German?" and in more natural English, "How do you say 'book' in German?" |
| Note the rising intonation of the sentence to mark that it's a question. |
| Wie sagt man "book" auf Deutsch? |
| Let's take a closer look at the response. |
| Do you remember how Karla says, |
| “You say ‘book.’” |
| Man sagt "Buch." |
| First is the phrase, man sagt, "one says," but translates here as "you say." Man sagt. |
| After this is the answer to the question, Buch, "Book." Buch. Buch. |
| All together Man sagt "Buch," literaly means something like, "One says "book," but it translates as "You say ‘book'.” |
| Man sagt "Buch." |
| The pattern is |
| Wie sagt man "ENGLISH WORD" auf Deutsch? |
| "How do you say 'ENGLISH WORD' in German?" |
| Wie sagt man "ENGLISH WORD" auf Deutsch? |
| To use this pattern, simply replace the ENGLISH WORD placeholder with the word you want to know. |
| Imagine you want to know the German word for "pen." |
| Ask |
| "How do you say 'pen' in German?" |
| Ready? |
| Wie sagt man "pen" auf Deutsch? |
| "How do you say 'pen' in German?" |
| Wie sagt man "pen" auf Deutsch? |
| This lesson introduces a grammatically complex, but commonly used, pattern: the impersonal form with man. The man-construction is used to express what people do in general, rather than point to a specific person. |
| The pattern is man plus a verb in the third person. The example used in the lesson was man sagt, “one says.” Let’s quickly look at a few more examples. |
| Man liest, "one reads," as in "one reads a 'book.'" |
| Man isst, "one eats," as in "one eats a lot at Christmas." |
| Man schläft, "one sleeps," as in "one sleeps late on Saturday." |
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