German:Beginner Lesson 2 -
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Sports and Activities

Sport(s) - Sport
Interests - Hobbies

Soccer - Fußball
American Football - Football
Volleyball - Volleyball
Basketball - Basketball
Tennis - Tennis
Baseball - Baseball
9-pin bowling - Kegeln

Chess - Schach
Board Game - Brettspiel
Game - Spiel

Homework - Hausaufgaben
Television - Fernsehen
Movie - der Film, Filme

Section Problems>>

Spielen, Machen, and Other Verbs

All three verbs that you were introduced to in Lesson 1 are irregular in some way. Most verbs, however, follow the "Best Ten Ten" endings:

-en
ich -e wir -en
du -st ihr -t
er/sie/es -t sie -en

For example, the verbs spielen and machen.

spielen - to play
ich spiele wir spielen
du spielst ihr spielt
er/sie/es spielt sie spielen


machen - to do/make
ich mache wir machen
du machst ihr macht
er/sie/es macht sie machen

Applications

What are you doing? - Was machst du?
I play basketball. - Ich spiele Basketball.
Do you play soccer? - Spielst du Fußball?
I do homework. - Ich mache Hausaufgaben.
He does homework. - Er macht Hausaufgaben.
Do you play sports? - Machst du Sport?

Note the last sentence. In English one plays a sport, while in German one does a sport. You can also use the w-words from Lesson 1 to make some more combinations.

Why do you play baseball? - Warum spielst du Baseball?
Who has homework? - Wer hat Hausaufgaben?

To say "not", use "nicht". "Nicht" goes after the verb but before the sport.

Who doesn't play soccer? - Wer spielt nicht Fußball?
We don't play tennis. - Wir spielen nicht Tennis.

Compound Sentences

Both German and English have compound sentences, using conjunctions. You may remember (maybe from Conjunction Junction) that there are three common conjunctions, and, but and or. The German translations for these are und (the d sounds a bit like a t), aber (ah-bare) and oder (oh-dare). You already learned 'und' in Lesson 1.

The applications of these are enormous. They can be used in lists, but also in compound sentences. For example, "I play basketball, and he also plays basketball." ("Ich spiele Basketball, und er spielt auch Basketball.")

auch - also, too (used right after the verb)

Section Problems>>

Other Verbs and Their Conjugations

Here are some more verbs having to do with activities:

lesen - to read
schauen - to watch
sehen - to see
arbeiten - to work
schreiben - to write
schwimmen - to swim

Schauen, schreiben and schwimmen have normal conjugations. To figure a conjugation out, take off the 'en' and put the appropriate ending on. For example, ich schwimme.

Arbeiten has a simple change. Whenever the ending starts with a consonant, an 'e' is added before it. In other words, du arbeitest and er/sie/es/ihr arbeitet.

Lesen is an irregular verb. First, when forming the du-form, you do not add an extra 's'. The only other change occurs in the du- and er/sie/es-forms. In both of these, the first 'e' becomes 'ie'. In other words, du/er/sie/es liest and everything else is the same.

Sehen experiences only the second of those two changes. Du siehst und Er/sie/es sieht. Note that this causes the er/sie/es- and ihr- forms to be different in both verbs.

Section Problems>>

Two More Verb Forms

There are two more verb forms in English that you will learn this lesson: the present perfect ("I am playing, he is making"), and the affirmative "I do play, he does not play", which includes a form of 'to do'.

It might be tempting to make the present perfect sentence, "I am playing." into "Ich bin spielen.". After all, 'spielen' sounds a lot like 'play-ing', but that is not the definition. 'Spielen' means 'to play', which makes "Ich bin spielen." into "I am to play.", not at all what you are trying to say. So it is not "Ich bin spielen."

The second phrase, "I do play", is another tricky one. This one may seem like, "Ich mache spielen." But don't forget, there are no helping verbs in German. "Ich mache spielen." just doesn't work.

Both of the phrases above are simplified in German. Instead of "I am playing." and "I do play.", German makes them both simply "I play." When using 'not', instead of "does not play", you get "plays not". This may sound like old English, and there you see where English came from, and why it is called a "Germanic" language.

Section Problems>>

Expressing likes and dislikes

In German, there are several ways to express likes and dislikes. One casual way is to use the combination of the verb haben and gern. For example, "Ich habe ____ gern." means "I like ____.". "Ich spiele gern ____." means "I like to play ____." Note: gern means something like "gladly" in comparison with English.

For example, "Ich spiele gern Fußball." or "Was machst du gern?".

To express preference (comparitive), use lieber instead of gern. For example, "Wir spielen lieber Fußball."

To express favorites (superlative), you use am liebsten, meaning "most of all", in the same context as lieber. For example, "Ich spiele Schach am liebsten.".

To express dislikes, use nicht gern instead of gern.

For example: "Wir spielen nicht gern Fußball."

Section Problems>>

Numbers

The first big unit in this Level 1 is time. German time is very much like English time. However, we must begin with German numbers.

Deutsch English Deutsch English
eins one dreizehn thirteen
zwei two vierzehn fourteen
drei three fünfzehn fifteen
vier four -zehn -teen
fünf five
sechs six zwanzig twenty
sieben seven dreißig thirty
acht eight vierzig forty
neun nine -zig -ty
zehn ten
elf eleven siebzehn seventeen
zwölf twelve siebzig seventy

This table shows the basic numbers in German. To say, twenty-one, say "Einundzwanzig" - all one word. 'Eins' drops its 's' whenever it is in that position. Therefore, that means "One and twenty", in German.

One more change happens at 16 and 60: Instead of creating a word with 'sz' (sechszig, sechszehn), the 's' is dropped, creating sechzig (60) and sechzehn (16).

Watch out for 'Dreißig'. It is not formed with -zig at the end like all other decades ("zwanzig, vierzig, fünfzig, ...")!

To say numbers higher than 99:
hundred - Hundert
thousand - Tausend

For example, 2984 is said, "Zweitausendneunhundertvierundachtzig." (Zwei tausend neun hundert vier und achtzig)

Section Problems>>

Time

Asking the Time

In German, there are two common ways to ask the time. You can say, "Wie viel Uhr ist es?", which means literally, "What time is it?". However, it is seldom used anymore. The more common way is to say, "Wie spät ist es?", even though this only means, "How late is it?".


Specific times can be expressed in two ways: exact form ("Four thirty-seven"), or before/after form ("Twenty-three to five").

Exact form

This form is the same as English. To say, "It is 10:15 a.m.", say "Es ist Zehn Uhr Fünfzehn." Notice the Uhr. This means "o'clock", but is used in all exact times.

Germans use a 24-hour clock, like other countries in Europe. To convert to American time, if it is above 12, subtract 12. So Achtzehn Uhr is the equivalent of (18 - 12 =) 6 p.m. in American time. To convert to German time, add 12 if it is p.m. 4 p.m. is therefore Sechzehn Uhr.

If given an hour below 12, assume it is a.m.

Since Germans use a 24-hour clock, the time between midnight and 1 a.m. is 24:__.

"Noon" is said as "Mittag", and "Midnight" is "Mitternacht"


Section Problems>>

Before/After the Hour

After - nach
Til - vor

Use the same form as in English. For example, 10:57 can be said as, "drei vor Elf." Likewise, 4:10 would be "zehn nach Vier." Typically, use the smaller number with 'nach' or 'vor'. Don't say, "siebenundfünfzig nach Zehn."

Note: This is only used with informal time telling. You don't use 'Uhr', and you forget all about the 24 hour clock. So 5 p.m. is said the same as 5 a.m.

There are also a couple more words for :15, :45: and :30...

quarter - Viertel

half before - Halb

quarter before - Dreiviertel (used mostly in eastern Germany)

Use these words just as you use others, except that you don't need a vor when using halb. For example, 11:30 can be said as, "Halb zwölf" and 5:15 can be said as "Viertel nach Fünf", 5:45 would be "Viertel vor Sechs" or "Dreiviertel Sechs".

Section Problems>>

Saying When You Do Something

Wann spielst du Fußball?

To say you play a sport at a certain time in English, you would answer, "I play Fußball at 3:30." This is all the same in German, with the translation of 'at' being um. That makes the above response "Ich spiele Fußball um halb Vier." or "Ich spiele Fußball um fünfzehn Uhr dreißig.".

Section Problems>>

Other Time

Times of Day

In German and English, many times one would want to approximate, such as "tomorrow afternoon". Here are the German translations:

English Deutsch
the day der Tag
today heute
tomorrow morgen
the day after tomorrow übermorgen
yesterday gestern
the day before yesterday vorgestern
morning Morgen*
afternoon Nachmittag
evening Abend
night Nacht

*In German, except the capitalization, the words for "morning" and "tomorrow" are the same: morgen.

The words above can be combined into phrases like "heute Nachmittag" or "gestern Abend". Note that the time of day stays capitalized (it is a noun) and the day stays lowercase (it is an adverb).

Section Problems>>

Days and Months

German days and months are very similar to English months:

English Deutsch
Monday Montag
Tuesday Dienstag
Wednesday Mittwoch
Thursday Donnerstag
Friday Freitag
Saturday Samstag
Sunday Sonntag
January Januar
February Februar
March März
April April
May Mai
June Juni
July Juli
August August
September September
October Oktober
November November
December Dezember

Note the order of the days of the week. The German week begins on Monday.

To say "on Monday", say "am Montag" or whatever applies. To say "in January", say "im Januar" or whatever applies. This is the same for all of the days and months.

You can also combine the times of day from earlier with the days of the week. But they're both nouns. To do this, therefore, we must combine the two words into one, as in "Dienstagnacht" (Tuesday night).

Section Problems>>

Dates

English Deutsch
first of (month) ersten
second of (month) zweiten
third of (month) dritten
fourth of (month) vierten
seventh of (month) siebten
eighth of (month) achten
-th of (below 20) -ten
tenth of zehnten
twentieth of zwanzigsten
thirty-first of einunddreißigsten
-th of (20 to 31) -sten
on (the) am

For example, to say "on the 25th of December", say "am fünfundzwanzigsten Dezember".

In Germany, dates are written out in the logical order Day / Month / Year, instead of the American Month / Day / Year. For example, vierzehnten August is written as 14/8.

>>

Birthdays

Birthday - Geburtstag

To say, "My birthday is on July 20th", say, "Ich habe am zwanzigsten Juli Geburtstag." Note the order; it translates back literally as "I have on the 20th of July birthday." This kind of thing is common in German.

To celebrate someone's birthday in German, there are two common phrases. Simply "Happy Birthday" is "Alles Gute zum Geburtstag!" and "Best wishes on your birthday!" is "Herzlichen Glückwunsch zum Geburtstag!" If you were sending a card, you would most likely use the second one.

>>

Seasons

Spring - Frühling
Summer - Sommer
Autumn/Fall - Herbst
Winter - Winter

in (the) - im

For example, to say "in Summer", say "im Sommer". To say "I play baseball in summer.", say "Ich spiele Baseball im Sommer.".

Section Problems>>

Periods of Time

If you want to express a certain period of time, but it doesn't have a specific name, like Nachmittag, you can do it like this:

von (starting time) bis (ending time).

This is the same as from ... till ... in English.

This can also apply with dates. For example, "Wir haben Schule (school) von Montag bis Freitag".

Section Problems>>

How often?

Wie oft?

There are many ways to answer this question. Two are "once/twice/three times in a ...", or "always/often/never.".

A Number or Times

To say, "once a month", or "four times a week", add "mal" to the end of the number and say "in the ...". Here are the translations for "in the ...":

Day - am Tag
Week - in der Woche
Month - im Monat
Year - im Jahr
Weekend - am Wochenende
Morning - am Morgen
Evening - am Abend
Afternoon - am Nachmittag
Night - in der Nacht

For example, "We bowl twice a week." is "Wir spielen zweimal in der Woche Kegeln."

Section Problems>>

Often Adverbs

always - immer
most of the time - meistens
often - oft
sometimes - manchmal
seldom - selten
never - nie

only - nur

To apply these words, put them in the sentence, after the verb and subject, but before the sport/activity. You can also use 'nur' to say things like, "Sie spielt nur manchmal Tennis." Note that if this is translated word-for-word, it becomes, "She plays only sometimes tennis.", not "She only sometimes plays tennis." or "She only plays tennis sometimes." That's just the way German is.

Section Problems>>

Time-Related Words

Time - die Zeit
Free time - die Freizeit

To say you have time, ignore the 'die'. To say when, insert other phrases you have learned this lesson. For example, "Ich habe am Samstagabend Zeit." Note that the word order is the same as that of birthdays. You can use Freizeit in the same way.

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Copyright Laurent Camus (EFL teacher)

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