Coffee Break German

LESSON NOTES
ES IST ZEIT DEIN DEUTSCH ZU TESTEN!
In addition to providing the answers for the personality quiz from
last lesson, this episode gives you the chance to put to the test what
you’ve learned in the past ten lessons.
REVIEW OF MYSTERY PERSONALITIES
In the previous lesson, five descriptions were given of famous people
and you had to work out who these people were from the clues given.
1. Michael Schumacher
Coffee Break German
Lesson 30
2. Kylie Minogue
Sie ist Australierin und ist am 28. Mai 1968 in Melbourne geboren.
Von Beruf ist sie Sängerin und Schauspielerin. Sie hat eine Schwester
mit dem Namen Danii und ein Brüder namens Brendan. Ein
berühmtes Lied von ihr würde auf Deutsch „Ich Kann Dich Nicht Aus
Meinen Kopf Bekommen” heißen.
Study Notes
Coffee Break German: Lesson 30 - Notes
Er ist am 3. Januar 1969 in Deutschland geboren. Sein Bruder heißt
Ralf. Er ist Rennfahrer von Beruf und im Moment fährt er in der
Formel 1 für Merzedes. In der Vergangenheit ist er für Benneton und
Ferrari gefahren. Er hat 7 Mal die Weltmeisterschaft gewonnen.
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Coffee Break German: Lesson 30 - Notes
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3. Roger Federer
Conversation 1
Dieser Schweizer ist am 8. August 1981 geboren. Er spielt sehr gerne
Tennis und auch sehr gut. Er ist einer der besten Tennisspieler der
Welt. Er hat zwei Töchter, und zwar Zwillinge. Sie heißen Myle Rose
und Charlene Riva. Seine Frau ist auch Tennisspielerin.
A:
Was glaubst du, wie das Wetter morgen wird?
B:
Hier in London wird es regnen, aber in Schottland ist
es warm und sonnig.
A:
Das kann ich nicht glauben!
4. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Er kommt aus Österreich. Er ist am 27. Januar 1756 geboren und ist
am 5. Dezember 1791 gestorben. Er war Komponist und Musiker. Er
hat in Bologna studiert. Seine Eltern heißen Anna und Leopold. Eine
sehr berühmte Oper von ihm heißt „Die Zauberflöte”.
was glaubst du ... ?
what do you think ... ?
das Wetter
the weather
5. J.K. Rowling
Diese Person ist am 31. Juli 1965 geboren. Sie kommt aus England,
aber im Moment wohnt sie in Schottland. Sie liest sehr gerne Bücher
und schreibt auch Bücher. Heute ist sie von Beruf Schriftstellerin. Ihr
berühmtestes Werk hat sieben Bücher. Die Bücher gibt es auch als
Filme, allerdings sind es acht Filme für sieben Bücher. Sie hat drei
Kinder.
was glaubst du, wie das Wetter morgen wird?
what do you think the weather is going to be like tomorrow?
hier (in London) wird es regnen
it’s going to rain here (in London)
das kann ich nicht glauben
I don’t believe it!
TRANSLATION CHALLENGE PART 1
Conversation 2
Thomas tests Mark on his translation skills from German into
English by focusing on three short conversations based around topics
covered in recent lessons.
Coffee Break German: Lesson 30 - Notes
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A:
Guten Morgen. Wie geht es Ihnen heute?
B:
Ah, ich habe Kopfschmerzen und meine Rücken tut mir
auch Weh.
A:
Haben Sie sonst noch Schmerzen?
B:
Ja, ich habe eine Infektion im Ohr.
Coffee Break German: Lesson 30 - Notes
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immer
always
wie geht es Ihnen heute?
how are you (formal) today?
immer geradeaus
keep going straight on
meine Rücken tut mir auch Weh
my back is also sore
die Brieftasche
wallet
sonst
otherwise, “apart from that”
der Ausweis
passport
im Ohr < in dem Ohr
in the ear
Before the next part of the translation challenge, Kirsten returns for
her final input on Coffee Break German with a review of the grammar
points covered between lessons 21-30.
Conversation 3
GRAMMAR GURU
A:
Hilfe, wo ist die Polizeistation?
B:
Die zweite Straße links, und dann immer geradeaus.
Warum?
A:
Meine Brieftasche und mein Ausweis wurden gestohlen.
Hilfe!
help!
Well, grammar fans, it's time for a review of all
the grammar points we've learnt in this latest
section of the course. You sure have learnt a lot
by now, so I think it's a good idea that we go
over it all once more to help it sink in a little
easier.
Your first grammar lesson in this section was
in lesson 23 when we talked about
demonstrative adjectives – you know, those words which mean
“this” and “these” and indeed “that” and “those.
die Polizeistation
the police station
Let’s have a look at these now: you’ll find the full table below:
dann
then
Coffee Break German: Lesson 30 - Notes
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Coffee Break German: Lesson 30 - Notes
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NOM
ACC
DAT
depending on the gender and case. A table based on mein can be
found below, and here are three sentences showing each case:
MASC
FEM
NEUT
PLURAL
dieser
diese
dieses
diese
das ist mein Mann
that is my husband
diese
ich besuche meinen Freund
I’m visiting my friend
diesen
diesem
diese
dieser
dieses
diesem
diesen
Next up, in lesson 24, we talked about the dative forms of personal
pronouns. These were used, for example, when talking about
things that hurt, or when asking how someone is, for example,
mein Fuß tut mir Weh and Wie geht's dir? These sentences
are really describing what is happening to someone, so “my foot is
hurting me” and “how is it going to you?” and to do that in
German, we need to put the personal pronoun in the dative case.
Let's go through each pronoun now. For the singular pronouns
ich changes to mir, du to dir, er to ihm, sie to ihr. Then, in the
plural, wir changes to uns, ihr to euch, and sie, whether it's the
third person plural or second person singular and plural, changes
to ihnen.
Skipping ahead to lesson 28, we also heard these dative forms
coming after the verb gefallen. That was because this particular
verb describes the way in which something pleases someone, as in
“my work pleases me”: mir gefällt meine Arbeit. Of course,
we’d still translate this as “I like my work”.
Another grammar point which we’ve covered in this season of
lessons is the patterns used by both indefinite articles and
possessive adjectives in each case. So whether you're talking about
ein – being the indefinite article, or mein, dein or sein and so on
– being the possessive adjectives, “my, your, his” “her, and so on” the endings you add on to the end will be the same for each one,
Coffee Break German: Lesson 30 - Notes
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ich bin hier mit meiner Frau und meinem Sohn
I’m here with my wife and my son
MASC
FEM
NEUT
PLURAL
NOM
mein
meine
mein
meine
ACC
meinen
meine
mein
meine
DAT
meinem
meiner
meinem
meinen
And then there were those frustrating prepositions! We learned a
group of prepositions that takes the accusative, and another group
that takes the dative, and there was also that lovely group of
prepositions which can take either! I’m not going to go back
through them all now because it’ll probably take too long! But
there are full lists for each of these groups in the notes for the
previous lessons.
I hope this little recap has consolidated all this grammar that you
have learnt over the last few lessons. And I know that you’ll be
starting to feel much more confident with German grammar.
Coffee Break German: Lesson 30 - Notes
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That’s it from me for this lesson, and in fact this is where I’m going
to be bidding you auf Wiedersehen und viel Glück. In the final
ten lessons of this season of Coffee Break German you’ll be
listening to real German in use in the conversations Mark and
Thomas have recorded on the streets of Austria. You’ll be able to
pick out lots of the points we’ve covered, and best of all you’ll be
hearing them in authentic contexts, rather than repeating tables of
verbs or noun declensions with me! I hope you’ve enjoyed these
Grammar Guru segments and I’ve certainly enjoyed bringing you
them. I’d like to wish you all the best of luck with your continued
German studies and I’ll hand you back to Thomas and Mark in the
studio.
Ich habe drei Kinder, zwei Söhne und eine Tochter.
Die Söhne heißen Daniel und Max, und meine
Tochter heißt Julia.
I have three children: two sons and a daughter. The sons are called
Daniel and Max, and my daughter is called Julia.
Ich bin hier in Deutschland mit meiner Familie und
wir machen Urlaub.
I’m here in Germany with my family and we’re on holiday.
mit meiner Familie
with my family (note the dative feminine form of meiner)
Urlaub machen
to be on holiday
TRANSLATION CHALLENGE PART 2
Es ist halb 6 und ich habe Hunger!
Thomas now challenges Mark to translate various sentences from
English into German. The sentences and notes are listed below.
It’s half past five and I’m hungry!
Hunger haben
Der Koffer ist groß und schwarz. Ich habe den
Koffer im Bahnhof verloren.
to be hungry
The suitcase is large and black. I’ve lost the suitcase in the station.
es ist halb 6
it’s half past five (half way to six)
Note im Bahnhof as the shortened form of in dem Bahnhof.
An alternative version of this phrase could be ich haben ihn im
Bahnhof verloren: “I have lost it in the station”.
Coffee Break German: Lesson 30 - Notes
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Mein Sohn ist am 11.8.2005 geboren, also ist er
sieben Jahre alt.
My son was born on 11th August 2005, so he is seven years old.
Coffee Break German: Lesson 30 - Notes
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CULTURAL CORRESPONDENT
In this lesson Julia introduces us to three more well-known German
speakers. Note that one of these personalities was included in the
bonus episode for this episode.
It’s time to return to our famous Germanspeakers and today I’m going to tell about a
of famous Austrians and a famous Swiss
author – someone whose book you’ll know,
even if you don’t know the author’s name!
A few episodes back I told you about Vienna.
When walking through Madame Tussaud’s,
right next to the Riesenrad (Ferris wheel) in
Vienna’s Prater you will find two very famous Austrians there.
First of all, a man who’s known worldwide on the one hand for
being an American politician, but maybe even more for being an
action film icon. Yes, of course I’m talking about Arnold
Schwarzenegger. He was born in Thal, near the city of Graz in
1947. After years of weight training, Schwarzenegger’s career
began at the age of 20 when he won the Mr. Universe title. He
emigrated to the US in 1968 and gained a fortune working as a
real estate agent in the 1970s, around the same time when he
decided to become an actor. His most famous films are Terminator
or Total Recall. He became a US citizen in 1983. Schwarzenegger
has heard many different nicknames ranging from the "Austrian
Oak" when working as a body builder and “Arnie” during his
acting career, to "The Governator" referring to his appointment as
the 38th Governor of California from 2003 until 2011.
From a very different field, the second influential Austrian man I’d
like to introduce to you today is Gustav Klimt, an Austrian
symbolist painter and one of the most famous members of the
Viennese Art Nouveau Style also called Wiener Secession around
the turn of the century. Klimt was born in 1862 near Vienna where
he spend most of his life. He became famous for his individual style
Coffee Break German: Lesson 30 - Notes
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that contradicted academic traditions depicting mostly female
bodies with a very symbolistic form of language. He found his
personal expression using floral ornaments, flowing lines, mosaic
patterns and intensive colours as well as gold and silver. You’ll be
familiar with his most famous painting, Der Kuss – the Kiss.
Klimt died in Vienna in 1918.
Finally let’s come to a Swiss author whose name might not be very
familiar to you but the children’s book that Johanna Spyri wrote
in 1880 is known the world over. I’m talking about Heidi, a story
about the life and adventures of a young girl who is given into her
grandfather’s care in the Swiss Alps after her parents have died.
The work of fiction published in two parts is among the bestselling books ever written. The charm comes not only from the
heart-warming story about little Heidi but also from the romantic
depiction of the Swiss Alps. Heidi has been translated into more
than 50 languages and Spyri who lived from 1827 to 1901 married
Bernhard Spyri who was a close friend of Richard Wagner, the
famous German composer. After moving to Zürich, she started
writing stories about the countryside for both children and adults.
Heidi, which was written in only 4 weeks, was her biggest success.
I hope you’ve enjoyed this account of famous Austrians and Swiss
people. Now it’s back to Thomas and Mark in the studio! Bis bald!
In the final section of the lesson, Thomas asks Mark the following
question:
bist du zufrieden mit dem was du gelernt hast?
are you happy with what you’ve learned?
Mark answers:
ich bin sehr zufrieden
I’m very happy
Coffee Break German: Lesson 30 - Notes
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DAS REICHT FÜR HEUTE
BONUS EPISODE
Ready for more? Turn the page to continue with the
bonus materials for this lesson.
TRANSLATION CHALLENGE BONUS
The review episode includes five further translation challenges where
Mark has to translate from English into German. The sentences and
notes are provided below:
Herr Maier ist im Moment nicht verfügbar. Können
Sie bitte später nochmal anrufen?
Mr Maier is not available at the moment. Can you please call again
later?
Mir gefällt meine Arbeit als Arzt.
I enjoy my job as a doctor.
Note that if the speaker were female, the word Ärztin would be
required.
Ich gehe gern ins Kino oder lese ein Buch.
I enjoying going to the cinema or reading a book.
In this sentence the word gern applies to both going to the cinema
and reading a book: you don’t have to repeat it.
Nehmen Sie diese Tabletten drei Mal pro Tag und
vor dem Essen.
Take these tablets three times a daily before eating.
Coffee Break German: Lesson 30 - Notes
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Coffee Break German: Lesson 30 - Notes
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Ich bin in Marburg mit meinem Bruder und wir
besuchen meinen Freund.
I’m in Marburg with my brother and we are visiting my friend.
Note the dative form mit meinem Bruder and the accusative wir
besuchen meinen Freund.
Coffee Break German: Lesson 30 - Notes
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