Explaining Symptoms in German

Dialogue

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Vocabulary

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Lesson Transcript

M: Hello and welcome to German Survival Phrases brought to you by germanpod101.com, this course is designed to equip you with the language skills and knowledge to enable you to get the most out of your visit to Germany. You will be surprised at how far a little German will go. Now before we jump in, remember to stop by germanpod101.com and there you will find the accompanying PDF and additional info in the post. If you stop by, be sure to leave us a comment.

F: German Survival Phrases. Lesson 50, Explaining Symptoms in German.

M: In the last lesson, we’ve talked about medical assistance and asked where to find a pharmacy. We’ve also covered the question every pharmacist will ask you [Haben Sie ein Rezept] Do you have a medical prescription? There are times when you need to see the doctor before going to the pharmacy but if you are not seriously sick, you might just go to the pharmacy and grab some known prescription medicine. Either way, once you are on the doctor’s office or in the pharmacy, you will need to explain how you feel in order to let the doctor prescribe or the pharmacist give you the right medicines. In today’s lesson, we will work on explaining symptoms so you can get the proper treatment and any medicine you may need. Let’s try to see how to explain your symptoms to the doctor or the pharmacist. In German, I have a headache is [Ich habe Kopfschmerzen] Let’s break it down by syllable [Ich habe Kopfschmerzen] Now let’s hear it once again [Ich habe Kopfschmerzen] The first word [I] means I. Let’s hear it one more time [Ich] This is followed by [habe] have which is the first singular person form of the verb [haben] to have. Let’s take a look at the last word [Kopfschmerzen] which means headache. Let’s break this one down by syllable and hear it once more [Kopfschmerzen] So altogether we have [Ich habe Kopfschmerzen] Literally this means I have headache because [Kopfschmerzen] headache in German is a plural noun. The article A in front of the noun disappears. In some South German dialects, you still may find people adding the female article [die] to the phrase [Ich habe die Kopfschmerzen] literally meaning I have the headaches. Normally the structure [Ich habe] I have is used to name variety of symptoms. So for example, I have a stomachache in German is [Ich habe Bauchschmerzen] Let’s break it down by syllable and hear it one more time [Ich habe Bauchschmerzen] So as you can see, the only thing that changes is the word [Bauch] stomach in place of [Kopf] head. Let’s break down this word [Bauchschmerzen] and now let’s see the entire sentence again [Ich habe Bauchschmerzen] If you feel nauseous, you have to tell the doctor this [Mir ist übel] I am nauseous. Let’s break down this phrase by syllable and hear it once again [Mir ist übel] The first word [Mir] means me, reflexive pronoun for a singular person. Let’s hear it one more time [Mir] This is followed by [ist] is, third singular person of the verb [sein] to be. Finally we have [*] nauseous. Altogether we have [Mir ist übel] Literally this means me is nauseous but in this case, it is I am nauseous. Another important word is the verb [weh tun] to hurt. The phrase, my leg hurts in German is [Mein Bein tut weh] Let’s break down this phrase and hear it once more [Mein Bein tut weh] The first word of this phrase is [Mein] my, possessive pronoun for a singular person [Mein] This is followed by [Bein] which in English is leg. Let’s break down this word by syllable and hear it once more [Bein] Finally we have [wehtun] hurts. The third person singular form of the verb [weh tun] to hurt. Let’s break down this word and listen to it one more time [tut weh] So altogether we have [Mein Bein tut weh] which literally means my leg hurts while [weh tun] is a rather informal word, you can also use the more formal verb [schmerzen] to hurt. Then this phrase will be [Mein Bein schmerzt] My leg hurts. We just replaced the conjugated verb from [tut weh] with [schmerzt] Now let’s hear the phrase once more [Mein Bein schmerzt] Okay that’s all for today. In the next lesson, you will learn how to ask for specific medicines in a pharmacy, stay tuned.

Okay to close our today’s lesson, we would like you to practice what you’ve just learned. I will provide you with the English equivalent of the phrase and you are responsible for shouting it out aloud. You have a few seconds before I give you the answer. So [Viel Glück] which means good luck in German.

I have a headache [Ich habe Kopfschmerzen] I have a stomachache [Ich habe Bauchschmerzen] I am nauseous [Mir ist übel] my leg hurts, informal [Mein Bein tut weh] my leg hurts, formal [Mein Bein schmerzt]

That’s going to do it for today.

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