The first word or phrase we will look at is [Dran sein]
Chuck: As you may know, I love board games. So it’s one of the first expressions
I learned in German. The phrase [Du bist dran] is used to say it’s your
turn. This can be quite important if you are an impatient board game
player like me.
Judith: [Du bist dran]
Chuck: Literally that means you are at it.
Judith: You could also say [Ich bin dran] for it’s my turn and so on but there is
another way of using [Dran sein] and it also appeared in today’s
dialogue. They said [Ich bin spät dran]
Chuck: That means I am late.
Judith: [Dran sein] only has this meaning when you combine it with [Spät]
Chuck: Late
Judith: Or [Früh]
Okay the other word we want to
have a closer look at today is
[Gleich]
Chuck: That means shortly.
Judith: For example, you would use it in [Ich komme
gleich]
Chuck: I will be there shortly
Judith: Or [Bis gleich]
Chuck: See you in a bit.
Judith: Be careful not to confuse [Gleich, später] and
[Bald]
Chuck: [Später] is later and [Bald] is soon.
Judith: So if you say [Bis bald]
Chuck: That means see you soon as in a couple of days
from now or maybe longer.
Judith: Whereas if you say [Bis später] or [Bis gleich]
Chuck: You are implying that you will see the person a
little later on the same day
The first word we will look at is
[Mal]
Chuck: When you are talking to a German, this word will
come out so often in conversation but it’s hard to
translate.
Judith: I can’t think of a good translation myself.
Chuck: I think it could be roughly translated as sometime.
When you add it to a sentence, you reply that
there is no hurry.
Judith: Or that something is done in a leisurely way.
Chuck: Judith, could you give us some example
sentences?
Judith: Of course. For example, [Komm mal bitte]
Chuck: Please come when you can.
Judith: [Bitte guck mal wer an der Tür ist]
Chuck: Please have a look who is at the door.
Judith: Or in the sentence, that’s not a request. [Ich bin
mal in New York gewesen]
Chuck: I have been to New York some time.
Judith: The first phrase we will look at is [Wie wäre es
mit]
Chuck: Literally how would it be with.
Judith: In German, it’s used to politely make a
suggestion. For example, [Wie wäre es mit einem
Bier?]
Chuck: How would you like a beer?
Judith: Or [Wie wäre es mit Kino heute Abend?]
Chuck: Would you like to go to the movies tonight?
Judith: So [Mit] is used whenever an English phrase
or verb uses along and also in a lot of cases
when English uses another word. If you
understand [Mit] as a prefix, you can improve your
German vocabulary quickly. Let’s have a look at
some of those verbs. If there is [Mitkommen], we
also have [Mitgehen]
Chuck: To go along.
Judith: [Mitschreiben]
Judith: That would be to take notes. And [Mitmachen]
Chuck: So that would be like to participate?
Judith: Right. [Mitessen]
Judith: That’s to join for meal. And [Mitdenken]
Judith: That is to follow somebody’s train of thought and
to think ahead.
Judith: Today we will look at two types of words but before that, please
note that the German definite article is always Die for plural nouns.
No more worrying about [Der, die or das] for plural.
Chuck: Though the first are actually easy. There is no [New] ending. All nouns
ending in er, en or el do not add any ending.
Judith: This really easy group includes some very common types of words such
as nationalities or professions. Almost all of them end in er. For example
[Amerikaner]
Chuck: American.
Judith: [Designer]
Chuck: The designer
Judith: [Programmierer]
Chuck: Programmer.
Judith: Another big part of these groups are diminutives like [Bierchen]
Chuck: Little beer.
Judith: Or [Büchchen]
Chuck: Little book.
Judith: Anything with [Chen] but just because these words don’t add any ending
doesn’t mean that they remain entirely unchanged. So some of them add
an [Umlaut] to the stem vowel. For example, [Apfel] forms [Äpfel]
Judith: [Der Apfel]
Chuck: The apple.
Judith: [Die Äpfel]
Chuck: The apples.
Judith: The second type of nouns that we look at today adds n or en for plural
and most feminine nouns are in this group actually like [Flasche]
Chuck: Bottle.
Judith: [Sache]
Chuck: Thing.
Judith: [Suppe]
Chuck: Soup.
Judith: And there are also a lot of foreign words in this group like [Nationalität]
Chuck: Nationality.
Judith: This would be [Nationalitäten] in plural.
Chuck: Nationalities.
Judith: Another part of this group are masculine nouns ending in E or if they
describe the living being. For example, [Der Deutsche]
Chuck: The German.
Judith: [Die Deutschen]
