A little bit in English o(de)r ein bisschen Deutsch with exercises for beginning German language learners

A little bit in English o(de)r ein bisschen Deutsch

with exercises for beginning German language learners

By / von

Kristi Winters & Carolin Abelein

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Copyright © 2013 by Kristi Winters and Carolin Abelein

Smashwords Edition

Discover other titles by Kristi Winters and Carolin Abelein at

germanenglishebooks.wordpress.com

Cover art: Heidelberg Castle, Heidelberg.

Photo by Kristi Winters. Used with permission.

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ISBN: 9781301988341

Notes:

This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of the authors.

Dieses E-Book ist nur für ihren persönlichen Gebrauch lizenziert. Es darf nicht weiterverkauft oder an andere weitergegeben werden. Falls Sie dieses E-Book zusammen mit einer anderen Person nutzen möchten, bitten wir Sie für jeden Nutzer eine zusätzliche Kopie zu erwerben. Wenn Sie das Buch nicht gekauft haben und dennoch lesen, oder falls Sie es nicht nur für Ihren Eigengebrauch erworben haben, bitten wir Sie unter Smashwords.com ihre eigene Kopie des Buches zu kaufen. Vielen Dank für ihr Verständnis.

Table of Contents / Inhaltsverzeichnis

Preface: How to read this book / Vorwort: Aufbau und Nutzungsmöglichkeiten des Buches

Simple stories (paragraph by paragraph)

Chapter 1 The new apartment - Die neue Wohnung

Chapter 2 Many questions - Viele Fragen

Chapter 3: Dear Diary - Liebes Tagebuch

Chapter 4: The shopping list - Die Einkaufsliste

Chapter 5: Hide and seek - Verstecken spielen

Chapter 6: Bella’s walk - Bellas Spaziergang

Simple Stories (full version)

Chapter 7a: The new apartment

Chapter 7b: Die neue Wohnung

Chapter 8a: Many questions

Chapter 8b: Viele Fragen

Chapter 9a: Dear Diary

Chapter 9b: Liebes Tagebuch

Chapter 10a: The shopping list

Chapter 10b: Die Einkaufsliste

Chapter 11a: Hide and seek

Chapter 11b: Verstecken spielen

Chapter 12a: Bella’s walk

Chapter 12b: Bellas Spaziergang

Notes / Anmerkungen

Simple stories (Practice and Answers)

Chapter 13: Die neue Wohnung - Übungen und Antworten

Chapter 14: Viele Fragen - Übungen und Antworten

Chapter 15: Liebes Tagebuch - Übungen und Antworten

Chapter 16: Die Einkaufsliste - Übungen und Antworten

Chapter 17: Verstecken spielen - Übungen und Antworten

Chapter 18: Bella Spaziergang - Übungen und Antworten

Preface: How to read this bilingual e-book

Learning a foreign language demands lots of time, ambition and patience. However in everyday life it is often difficult to balance these requirements with one´s job, family or studies. Learners of English and German (such as you) therefore need stories that fit into daily life and that are easy to access. Especially in the beginning of the learning process, it is difficult to find texts that match one´s limited grammar and vocabulary, texts that contain many words you know and others that you can infer from context.

The following e-book tries to fulfill these requirements as it offers simple and realistic stories that can easily be integrated in everyday routines. When reading the stories you will extend your vocabulary and at the same time broaden your grammatical awareness of the foreign language.

These stories were written with a certain purpose. These contain vocabulary for someone who is starting to learn German or English. They were also written with specific elements of grammar in mind. For this reason, many stories contain similar phrases but with different words. In our view this repetition of sentence structure reinforces learning by demonstrating the variety of sentences the reader could construct simply by changing a few words.

Designing a bilingual ebook, in contrast to a printed bilingual book, was a challenge. Many such books contain English on one page and German on the other. This was not possible with an ebook. Instead we have provided two versions of the same stories, two books in one. Section 1 presents the stories in alternating paragraphs of English and German. If you are just starting to learn the language or do not have much confidence in your ability you should start with this section and become familiar with the words.

If you are more confident with your language ability, or when you have read through the paragraph by paragraph versions a few times, you can skip to Section 2 where the stories are presented in their entirety. The reader should aim to read the entire story in the language of your choice and know each and every word.

In this book you can test how well you know your new language. We removed different parts of speech that you should fill in. You may do this in your head; however we recommend you spell the words out to get the most benefit. In addition, you should identify any rules of grammar that are relevant (gender, case, singular or plural). For instance why is the word einen and not ein? Finally, we recommend you read these sentences out loud to yourself. After a bit of repetition you should know that Frage is feminine in German, so one must use eine, as in: ‘ich habe eine Frage.’ If you ever err or hear someone else say ‘ich habe ein Frage’ and it sounds wrong, you know you are making real progress.

We hope you enjoy practicing your new language and that you find this book useful.

Kristi Winters

Carolin Abelein

Simple stories

paragraph by paragraph

Chapter 1 The new apartment - Die neue Wohnung

Dear Mom,

Liebe Mama,

How are you? I hope everything is good at home. I hope you had a nice weekend.

Wie geht es Dir? Ich hoffe zuhause ist alles in Ordnung. Ich hoffe du hattest ein schönes Wochenende.

I write from my new apartment in Hamburg. Next Monday I start my new job. You asked me about the apartment. The apartment is very nice. The kitchen is very large. There is: an oven, a stove, a refrigerator, a freezer, and a sink. Also there is a dishwasher, a clothes washer, a dryer, and a microwave. The walls are yellow. I do not like the color very much.

Ich schreibe Dir aus meiner neuen Wohnung in Hamburg. Nächsten Montag werde ich mit meiner neuen Arbeit beginnen. Du hattest mich nach meiner Wohnung gefragt. Die Wohnung ist sehr schön. Die Küche ist sehr groß. In der Küche gibt es einen Backofen, einen Herd, einen Kühlschrank, einen Gefrierschrank und ein Spülbecken. Außerdem gibt es eine Spülmaschine, eine Waschmaschine, einen Wäschetrockner und eine Mikrowelle. Die Wände sind gelb. Die Farbe gefällt mir nicht so gut.

The living room is very homey and comfortable. There is a large couch which is dark red. The walls are white and the floors are made of wood. There is