Coffee Break German

Lesson 22
Study Notes

Coffee Break German: Lesson 22 - Notes page 1 of 16

LESSON NOTES

WO TUT ES IHNEN WEH?

When travelling on vacation or business sometimes things don’t go
according to plan and you need to visit a doctor or pharmacy. In this
lesson you’ll learn to talk about various parts of the body and to
describe your symptoms.

INTRODUCTION
In this episode, Thomas and Mark begin by talking about their roles
in the series:

Mark: Herzlich Willkommen zu Coffee Break German. Ich

heiße Mark, und ich bin der Student.
Thomas: Oder der Schüler.
Mark: OK, ich bin der Schüler.
Thomas: Mein Name ist Thomas und ich bin der Lehrer.

der Student
student (normally used for university students and senior
secondary school pupils)

der Schüler
pupil (generic word)

Coffee Break German: Lesson 22 - Notes page 2 of 16

der Lehrer
teacher

Since the topic of this episode is health and wellbeing Mark and
Thomas continue their conversation:

Mark: Wie geht’s dir heute?

Thomas: Ah, Mark. Mir geht’s nicht so gut. Ich habe
Kopfschmerzen, mein Bauch tut Weh, und ein bisschen
Halsweh habe ich auch.

As we work through this lesson, you will learn all the language you
need to understand Thomas’s complaints.

REVIEW
Before proceeding with the main content of the lesson, Thomas
challenges Mark to some translations from English into German
based on the content of the last lesson. The following sentences are
used:

Heute ist das Wetter gut. Es ist warm und sonnig.

Today the weather is good. It is warm and sunny.

Im Moment regnet es und es ist kalt in Deutschland.

At the moment it’s raining and it’s cold in Germany.

Heute Nachmittag wird es schneien.

This afternoon it’s going to snow.

Coffee Break German: Lesson 22 - Notes page 3 of 16

Morgen Abend wird es außergewöhnlich heiß.
Tomorrow afternoon it will be extraordinarily hot.

Wie viel Uhr ist es? / Wie spät ist es?

What is the time?

Es ist zehn vor vier.

It’s ten to four.

Es ist zwanzig nach acht.

It is twenty past eight.

Es ist viertel nach zwölf.

It is a quarter past twelve.

Es ist halb fünf.

It is half past four.

TALKING ABOUT HOW YOU ARE FEELING

We have already covered a number of phrases which can be used to
talk about how you are feeling. You will be familiar with the
folllowing:

alles in Ordnung
everything is in order, everything’s OK

alles klar
everything is fine

mir geht’s gut

I’m well

Coffee Break German: Lesson 22 - Notes page 4 of 16

mir geht’s ausgezeichnet
I’m great

mir geht’s außergewöhnlich gut

I’m extraordinarily well

mir geht’s nicht so gut

I’m feeling not so good

mir geht’s schlecht

I’m feeling bad

It makes sense to follow up an answer like mir geht’s schlecht with

the question, “why?”:

warum?
why?

Warum geht’s dir nicht so gut?

Why are you not feeling so good?

We are going to be learning a number of phrases to talk about

particular parts of your body which are causing you pain. There are
two main constructions for this and the first of these translates as “I
have ... ache”.

The word for “ache” or “pains” is Schmerzen. We can combine this

with the part of the body. We will now learn various parts of the body
and how they can be used in this construction.

der Kopf
head

Coffee Break German: Lesson 22 - Notes page 5 of 16

ich habe Kopfschmerzen
I have a headache, I have a sore head

der Bauch
stomach

ich habe Bauchschmerzen

I have stomachache, I have a sore stomach

der Rücken
back

ich habe Rückenschmerzen

I have backache, I have a sore back

der Hals
throat

ich habe Halsschmerzen

I have a sore throat

das Ohr
ear

die Ohren
ears

ich habe Ohrenschmerzen

I have eachache, I have sore ears

der Zahn
tooth

Coffee Break German: Lesson 22 - Notes page 6 of 16

ich habe Zahnschmerzen
I have toothache, I have a sore tooth

Just as as English, there are some parts of the body for which you use
a different construction. For example, we would not say “I have
handache”. In German, you say “my hand hurts”, or more literally
“my hand does to me pain”:

die Hand
hand

meine Hand tut mir Weh

my hand hurts

Note that Hand is feminine and the word for “my” is therefore
meine, just like meine Schwester and meine Mutter. For
masculine and neuter words, you would use mein:

mein Kopf tut mir Weh

my head hurts

So, it is possible to use both constructions with some parts of the

body: mein Kopf tut mir Weh and ich habe Kopfschmerzen
both mean that you have a sore head, or your head hurts.

der Arm
arm

mein Arm tut mir Weh

my arm hurts

der Fuß
foot

Coffee Break German: Lesson 22 - Notes page 7 of 16

mein Fuß tut mir Weh
my foot hurts

das Bein
leg

mein Bein tut mir Weh

my leg hurts

die Nase
nose

meine Nase tut mir Weh

my nose hurts

das Auge
eye

mein Auge tut mir Weh

my eye hurts

meine Augen tun mir Weh

my eyes hurt

Note here that Augen is plural: die Augen are “the eyes”. This
means that the word for “my” needs to be plural: meine, and the
verb also needs to be plural: tun.

meine Beine tun mir Weh

my legs are sore

You may also hear the question:

Coffee Break German: Lesson 22 - Notes page 8 of 16

Wo tut es Ihnen Weh?
where does it hurt (to you)?

This is the formal version: Ihnen means “to you” in the formal form.
The informal form is as follows:

Wo tut es dir Weh?

where does it hurt? (informal)

Wo hast du Schmerzen?
where does it hurt? / where do you have pains? (informal)

Wo haben Sie Schmerzen?

where does it hurt? / where do you have pains? (formal)

CULTURAL CORRESPONDENT
Following on from the previous lesson, Julia tells us more about how
Germans spend the summer.

Hallo alle zusammen! As promised, today

I’m bringing you the second part of my little
summer special.

Despite our relatively cold winters, summers

can get very hot in Germany. Here in Berlin
there are days when we have about 35 or even
40 degrees Celsius in July and August. So you
really need to get out of the house and there
are many different options for doing that.

When you visit a German town you’ll see that almost every house
has balconies. Germans love their balconies and decorate them
with flower pots and sometimes even grow their own herbs and

Coffee Break German: Lesson 22 - Notes page 9 of 16

 vegetables on them. German towns tend to be very green generally
and you can find several parks which aren’t closed or locked at
night but open to the public where you can have barbecues, picnics
and parties on the lawn whenever you want. So don’t be confused
when seeing a group of people walking through a Berlin street
carrying a barbecue, a box of drinks and several bags of food
around. They are sure to be headed to one of the parks nearby.

Of course for many people this is not enough. They enjoy spending
time in their own little Schrebergarten, which is the equivalent
of the British concept of “allotment”. These Schrebergärten can
be found throughout Germany, Austria and Switzerland

Traditionally Schrebergärten were only used for non-

commercial gardening (people growing their own fruit and
vegetable) but today you also often just find lawns in them
sometimes decorated with the famous (but somewhat cheesy!)
garden gnomes or Gartenzwerge as we would say. Usually
people have a little hut in their Schrebergarten which they can
use just as a tool shed. However in some cases this hut can be a bit
more elaborate – more like a bungalow including a kitchen,

Coffee Break German: Lesson 22 - Notes page 10 of 16

 bathroom and bedroom so that they can stay in their garden for
whole weekends.

For another group of people this is still not enough: these people
long to get away from the city for months at a time, renting a
space at a camping site where they live in their caravan or trailer
for several months throughout the summer. We call these people
Dauercamper (permanent campers).

I hope you get the chance to come here during the summer months,
maybe not do some Dauercamping but to explore the beautiful
landscapes and happy atmosphere at this time of year.

Und nun zurück zu Thomas und Mark ins Studio! Tschüß

und bis zum nächsten Mal!

der Schrebergarten
allotment

der Zwerg
dwarf

der Gartenzwerg
garden gnome

DAS REICHT FÜR HEUTE

Ready for more? Turn the page to continue with the

bonus materials for this lesson.

Coffee Break German: Lesson 22 - Notes page 11 of 16

CORE VOCABULARY
warum?
why?

Warum geht’s dir nicht so gut?

Why are you not feeling so good?

der Kopf
head

ich habe Kopfschmerzen

I have a headache, I have a sore head

der Bauch
stomach

ich habe Bauchschmerzen

I have stomachache, I have a sore stomach

der Rücken
back

ich habe Rückenschmerzen

I have backache, I have a sore back

der Hals
throat

ich habe Halsschmerzen

I have a sore throat

Coffee Break German: Lesson 22 - Notes page 12 of 16

das Ohr
ear

die Ohren
ears

ich habe Ohrenschmerzen

I have eachache, I have sore ears

der Zahn
tooth

ich habe Zahnschmerzen

I have toothache, I have a sore tooth

die Hand
hand

meine Hand tut mir Weh

my hand hurts

mein Kopf tut mir Weh

my head hurts

der Arm
arm

mein Arm tut mir Weh

my arm hurts

der Fuß
foot

Coffee Break German: Lesson 22 - Notes page 13 of 16

mein Fuß tut mir Weh
my foot hurts

das Bein
leg

mein Bein tut mir Weh

my leg hurts

die Nase
nose

meine Nase tut mir Weh

my nose hurts

das Auge
eye

mein Auge tut mir Weh

my eye hurts

meine Augen tun mir Weh

my eyes hurt

meine Beine tun mir Weh

my legs are sore

Wo tut es Ihnen Weh?

where does it hurt (to you)?

Wo tut es dir Weh?

where does it hurt? (informal)

Coffee Break German: Lesson 22 - Notes page 14 of 16

Wo hast du Schmerzen?
where does it hurt? / where do you have pains? (informal)

Wo haben Sie Schmerzen?

where does it hurt? / where do you have pains? (formal)

der Schrebergarten
allotment

der Zwerg
dwarf

der Gartenzwerg
garden gnome

BONUS VOCABULARY
brennen
to burn

jucken
to itch

geschwollen sein
to be swollen

gebrochen sein
to be broken

Coffee Break German: Lesson 22 - Notes page 15 of 16

der Finger
finger

mein Finger tut mir Weh

my finger hurts

das Knie
knee

der Knöchel
ankle

der Ellenbogen
elbow

die Schulter
shoulder

Coffee Break German: Lesson 22 - Notes page 16 of 16