Beruflich Dokumente
Kultur Dokumente
Lesson 10
Study Notes
INTRODUCTION
This lesson begins with the following conversation. Mark explains
that he is müde, tired.
Note that in the sentence heute bin ich müde, the verb is in the
second position.
The notes below should help you understand the conversation fully.
You can replace Salzburg with any town or country in this phrase to
say where you were born.
We have already come across the word Mal in the phrase bis zum
nächsten Mal, meaning “until the next time”. To answer the
question you could say ich bin zum ersten Mal hier, “I am here
auf Englisch
in English
You will have noticed two different words used in the sentences above
to translate the English word “your”: Ihre Familie and (mit) Ihrer
Familie. Don’t worry too much about this just now: you will
probably have guessed already that this has something to do with
cases and we will learn why Ihre changes to Ihrer after mit in
future lessons.
ach schön!
oh how nice!
The grammar behind this phrase is complex. For the time being,
learn the phrase as an expression which is sure to impress and please
any native speakers you speak with.
zum Beispiel
for example
vielleicht
perhaps
Ober!
waiter!
This literally means something like “all the best on your birthday”.
frohe Weihnachten
happy Christmas
Note that this is informal, using the word dich for “you”. It is
assumed by this stage in a relationship you’re using the du form with
the person you love!
CULTURAL CORRESPONDENT
As this lesson is being published for the first time around Easter,
Julia takes the opportunity to tell us about Easter traditions in
German-speaking areas in this lesson’s Cultural Correspondent
section.
Next to looking for little gifts, there are some other traditions as
well. Obviously Easter is the most important Christian holiday,
which means that many people throughout Germany, Switzerland
and Austria attend Mass on Easter Sunday. The night before, on
Saturday, it is common to light the so-called Osterfeuer, Easter
fires, which are bonfires traditionally lit to drive away evil spirits.
The Easter weekend is a long one for German and Swiss people, as
they have both Karfreitag, Good Friday, and Ostermontag,
Easter Monday, off work, whereas Austrians only have Easter
Monday off.
2ND POSITION
Then we learned that after a modal verb like können, the main
verb goes to the end of the sentence, as in können Sie mir bitte
die Rechnung bringen?
In our last lesson we learned the conjugation patterns for the
singular forms of verbs. We took the -en off the infinitive and
replaced it with the singular verb endings: -e for ich, -st for du, -
en for Sie and -t for er, sie and es. This is shown the table below:
ENDINGS PLURAL
DU -st du kommst
er/sie/es
ER/SIE/ES -t
kommt
auf Englisch
in English
ach schön!
oh how nice!
zum Beispiel
for example
vielleicht
perhaps
frohe Weihnachten
happy Christmas