Learn how to use the phrase "Do you speak English?"
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| Hallo, ich heiße 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 the most common forms of greetings in German. Do you remember them? |
| In this lesson we’re going to learn a very useful phrase: “Do you speak English?” |
| If you find yourself in a situation where you need assistance in English, this phrase can be a lifesaver. And because you’re asking it in German, you can be sure that everyone will understand what you’re saying, even if their answer is no. |
| Here's the informal way to say it. |
| Sprichst Du Englisch? |
| [slowly] Sprichst Du Englisch? |
| In German, verbs change depending on the pronoun that is used. Please notice the word “Du” in the middle of the sentence. Remember that this is the informal way to say “you?” The first word is the verb, sprichst, which means to speak. Because it is referring to “du,” it is conjugated to du sprichst. |
| If You ask a question in German, you change the the pronoun du and the verb sprichst from du sprichst to the interrogative form sprichst du. And you probably recognize “Englisch” to be “English.” |
| Sprichst du Englisch? |
| To learn how to properly conjugate verbs, like sprechen, please look at our Absolute Beginner series on GermanPod101.com. You can find very detailed grammar lessons and resources there! |
| We’re now going to make this sentence formal. First, we need to use the formal version of “you,” which is Sie. If we change the word for “you,” we will conjugate the verb differently. It becomes sprechen instead of sprichst like in the informal version. Everything else stays the same: |
| Sprechen Sie Englisch? |
| [slowly] Sprechen Sie Englisch? |
| Adding Entschuldigen Sie, "excuse-me", the sentence becomes even more polite: |
| Entschuldigen Sie, sprechen Sie Englisch? |
| [slowly] Entschuldigen Sie, sprechen Sie Englisch? |
| The responses you will receive could be one of these three: |
| Ja. "Yes." |
| [slowly] Ja. |
| Ein bischen. "A little." |
| [slowly] ein bischen. |
| Nein, ich spreche nicht Englisch. "No, I don’t speak English." |
| [slowly] Nein, ich spreche nicht Englisch. |
| Since this last one is a negative statement, we need to say nicht after the verb sprechen. Notice also that the verb, spreche is slightly different than sprechen. Remember, the verb changes depending on the pronoun used. We are now talking about ich, German for "I," Thus “I do not speak” is: |
| Ich spreche nicht. |
| Now it’s time for Laura’s Insights. |
| For those of you who are not only English speakers, you can obviously use this question with any language you need. German people study other European languages at school, so maybe you will get lucky! Just substitute Englisch with... |
| Italienisch for Italian. |
| Russisch for Russian. |
| Spanisch for Spanish. |
| Französisch for French. |
| In this lesson we mentioned the expression Entschuldigen Sie. But did you know that this could also be used as an apology? In the next lesson we will learn this and other ways to apologize in German. It’s never too late to show your good manners with German people! |
| I'll see you in our next Deutsch in 3 Minuten lesson. |
| Bis bald! |
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