Lesson Transcript

Do you remember how the character said,
"Aron, please drink a lot of tea and stay in bed today."
Aron, bitte trink viel Tee und bleib heute im Bett.
Aron, bitte trink viel Tee und bleib heute im Bett.
This sentence follows the pattern here:.
Bitte + verb (imperative form)
"Please + verb (imperative form)"
This structure is used when you want to ask or tell someone politely to do something.
In German, the imperative form of the verb gives the command, and adding bitte makes it polite.
Here's how the line from the dialogue uses the pattern.
Aron, bitte trink viel Tee und bleib heute im Bett.
"Aron, please drink a lot of tea and stay in bed today."
Let's break it down.
Aron is the name of the person being spoken to.
bitte trink means "please drink."
Here, trink is the imperative form of trinken, the verb "to drink."
viel Tee means "a lot of tea."
und bleib means "and stay."
Bleib is the imperative form of bleiben, the verb "to stay."
heute im Bett means "in bed today."
So altogether, Aron, bitte trink viel Tee und bleib heute im Bett means "Aron, please drink a lot of tea and stay in bed today."
In German, when you want to tell someone to do something, you use the imperative form of the verb.
This table shows the imperative for du, the informal "you."
That's the form you use when speaking to a friend, a child, or someone you know well.
For du, use the verb stem (infinitive minus -en): trink!, bleib!. The -e ending is possible: öffne!, arbeite!, but is often dropped in speech.
For example, the verb trinken means "to drink."
The imperative form is trink.
So if you want to say "Drink!" you just say trink.
The verb bleiben means "to stay." The imperative form is bleib — "Stay!"
Some verbs change a little more.
Helfen means "to help," and the imperative form is hilf.
Essen means "to eat," and the imperative form is iss.
Schlafen means "to sleep," and the imperative form is schlaf.
So when you use these forms with bitte, like bitte trink or bitte bleib, you can politely ask someone to do something.
Now let's look at some speaking examples.
Bitte öffne das Fenster.
"Please open the window."
Can you see how the pattern applies here?
Let's break it down.
Bitte means "please."
öffne is the imperative form of the verb öffnen, meaning "open."
das Fenster means "the window."
So altogether, Bitte öffne das Fenster means "Please open the window."
Here's another example
Bitte komm pünktlich zur Schule.
"Please come to school on time."
Bitte komm pünktlich zur Schule.
"Please come to school on time."
Let's try one more,
Bitte mach die Tür zu.
"Please close the door."
Bitte mach die Tür zu.
"Please close the door."
Another one.
Bitte hilf mir mit den Hausaufgaben.
"Please help me with the homework."
Bitte hilf mir mit den Hausaufgaben.
"Please help me with the homework."
One last example.
Bitte lies den Text laut.
"Please read the text aloud."
Bitte lies den Text laut.
"Please read the text aloud."

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