Learn how to ask "Why?"
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| Hallo, ich bin Laura. Hi everybody! I’m Laura. |
| Welcome to GermanPod101.com’s “Deutsch in 3 Minuten”. The fastest, easiest, and most fun way to learn German. |
| In the last lesson, we learned how to ask "Who" questions in German. |
| This time, we are going to ask questions with the interrogative word "Why?" |
| Imagine your boss is giving you a call because you are not at work today... He will certainly ask you Warum sind Sie heute nicht im Büro? |
| [slowly] Warum sind Sie heute nicht im Büro? |
| So let’s break down this question. |
| First we had- |
| Warum, which is the basic translation of "Why" in German. |
| Sind Sie is the 2nd person plural of the verb sein. |
| Heute means "today" and nicht is “not”, and makes the whole sentence negative. |
| And finally im Büro which is "at the office" |
| All together it is |
| Warum sind Sie heute nicht im Büro? |
| So in German, Warum is the exact translation of "Why", used to ask the reason for something. |
| So for example, if your boss is asking you "Why are you too late today?" he will say Warum sind Sie heute zu spät? |
| Here, he uses "Why" in order to get explanations and reasons. |
| Note that here, the form is formal as we used the 2nd person plural pronoun Sie, which is the polite form for "you". |
| Now it’s time for Laura’s Insights. |
| A famous expression in German is |
| Warum nicht? which means, like in English, "Why not?" |
| You can use it to accept a proposition if you agree but that you are not really keen to do it. Or, if it was not planned in advance. |
| For example if a friend asks you suddenly "How about we go to the cinema tonight?" |
| You can answer Warum nicht? "Why not?" |
| Before ending this lesson, Let’s review all the ways to translate "Why" in German: |
| - Warum is the basic translation of "Why," as in Warum sind Sie zu spät? "Why are you late?" and |
| - Für was? which is "What for?" |
| Finally, Warum nicht? is "Why not?" |
| This lesson is the last lesson of this Absolute Beginner’s video series. |
| But it’s hopefully not the last you learn about the German language! To take your language ability to the next level, check out GermanPod101.com, the fastest, easiest, and most fun way to learn German. |
| Bis bald!!! |
Comments
HideHi Ivarr,
On the contrary: Thank you! 👍❤️️
And with all the homework you do, you are moving towards achieving your goals
in giant steps . 😉
If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to contact us again.
Kind regards,
Reinhard
Team GermanPod101.com
Dankeshön Laura und Germanpod101.com. Keep up the good work! :)
Hello Masimba,
Thank you for your feedback.
Pleasure! 😉
If you ever have any questions, please don’t hesitate to contact us.
Kind regards,
Reinhard
Team GermanPod101.com
Danke Sehr
Hello Prince Abasa,
Thank you for your kind feedback 😄! Yes, you said it perfectly right.
Sincerely,
Anne
Team GermanPod101.com
Deutsch lernen ist einfach! Wegen dieser Website. ich liebe es. I hope i said it right.😄😄😄
complete the 25 lessons :flushed::grin::sweat_smile::sleeping::open_mouth:
Hallo Hossein,
Danke für den Kommentar und das nette Feedback! Wir freuen uns, das zu hören! (Thank you for the comment and nice feedback! We are happy to hear that!) :smile:
If you have any questions, please let us know!
Vielen Dank!
Clara
Team GermanPod101.com
hello laura
thanks allot for your teaching and leassons
i learned 19 lessons until now and it was wonderful.
Hallo Emad,
Thank you very much for your nice comment!
If you have any questions, please let us know!
Vielen Dank!
Clara
Team GermanPod101.com
hello dear laura
thank you so much for this wonderful lessons, i learned a lot from you.
wish you the best