Notes

How to greet people in German? Among the greetings the word you will often hear to say Hi or Hello to someone is Hallo. It is clearly similar to the English greeting, and just like hello it is always used to greet peers, such as classmates, or people you know very well, like relatives and friends. In other words, this is an informal greeting. Formal greetings are instead more indicated when you are saying hello to a person you meet for the first time, as well as older people or someone in authority, for example a doctor, a teacher, a police officer.

So, you say:
– Guten Morgen until about noon; then, until 5 pm, the correct form is Guten Tag (both expressions correspond to Good morning).
– In the evening you use Guten Abend for Good evening.
– At night you finally say Gute Nacht. In general, if you want to say goodbye to someone, you can use Tschüss, which is more informal, or Auf Wiedersehen, which is its formal equivalent. Auf Wiedersehen literally means “see you again”.

To sum up, here is a short recap of how to greet people in German.
YOU ARE GREETING…
A FRIEND: Hallo (Hi, Hello) – Tschüss (Bye) – Gute Nacht (Good night)
A STRANGER: Guten Morgen (until 12 am) – Guten Tag (until 5 pm) – Guten Abend (Good evening) – Auf Wiedersehen (See you) – Gute Nacht (Good night)

TALKING ON THE PHONE
When you answer the phone, you can greet people using the expressions above. While, if you want to end a conversation on the phone, you say Auf Wiederhören, which literally means “hear you again”. Some other useful expressions to say goodbye to your interlocutor are: – Bis dann! or Bis später! or Bis nachher! – See you later! – Bis bald! – See you soon! – Bis morgen! – See you tomorrow! German language, like many other languages, has different forms for addressing people you are close to and people with whom you don’t have an informal relationship, or whom you get to know in a more formal context, like at work. Therefore, when asking How are you? in German, it’s essential to consider who is your interlocutor. – Wie geht es dir?, which is usually shortened in Wie geht’s? is used with friends, relatives and peers – Wie geht es Ihnen? is used with strangers, older people, authorities. On the contrary, if you are asked Wie geht es dir? or Wie geht es Ihnen? the answer can be:

In German means…
Mir geht es gut I am fine. You can obviously say just Gut.
Mir geht es ganz gut I feel quite good
Mir geht es sehr gut I feel very good
Mir geht es schlecht orMir geht es sehr schlecht I’m not very wellI feel bad
Es geht so So-so, if you’re feeling neither good nor bad
Here are two short dialogues to resume the previous expressions.

A: Hallo, wie geht es dir? – Hello, how are you?
B: Mir geht es gut, und dir? – I’m fine and you?
A: Mir geht es auch gut, danke! – I‘m fine too, thank you! This is the informal version.

The formal one would be:
A: Guten Tag, wie geht es Ihnen? – Good morning, how are you?
B: Mir geht es gut, und Ihnen? – I am fine and you?
A: Danke, mir geht es auch gut! – I am fine too, thanks.
Berlin

Berlin is the capital of Germany and of course Germany’s largest city. It went through a rather difficult historical period, indeed, after the Second World War, in 1949 Germany was divided into East and West Germany. The Western part was governed by the UK, the USA and France under the name of the Federal Republic of Germany, while the Eastern part was controlled by the Soviet Union and it was called the German Democratic Republic.
Some years later, in 1961 a wall was built in the centre of Berlin, in order to stop emigration from East to West, dividing thus this wonderful city into two parts – East and West Berlin.
At last, in 1989 the Berlin Wall was torn down and thousands of people celebrated the city reunion dancing in the streets. Nowadays, you can still visit some remains of the Berlin Wall and the Checkpoint Charlie.
Today Berlin is best known for its artists, museums and flair. Some of the most important places of interest are Berlin’s Parliament, the Reichstag, the main square, the Alexanderplatz, and the Jewish Museum.

Introducing yourself

After asking someone how he/she is, you generally want to know something more about him/her, for example where he/she comes from.

How are you? is translated by Wie geht es dir? when talking to a friend or peer, and by Wie geht es Ihnen? if your interlocutor is a stranger or an authority. (see lesson 1)

The same distinction is made when you ask Where are you from?
Woher kommst du? or Wo kommst du her? are used in informal contexts
Woher kommen Sie? or Wo kommen Sie her? are used in formal contexts

A possible answer to this question would be:
Ich komme aus München – I come from Munich.
You could also answer:
Ich wohne in München or Ich lebe in München – I live in Munich.
So…

?QUESTION? !ANSWER!

Woher kommst du? / Wo kommst du her? Ich komme aus…

Woher kommen Sie? / Wo kommen Sie her? Ich wohne / lebe in…

It’s interesting to know where somebody is from, but it’s even more important to ask for his/her name and to introduce yourself.
To ask for someone’s name in German you say: Wie heißt du? This is the informal expression, while the formal one is Wie heißen Sie?
The answer to both questions is the same:
Ich heiße … – My name is …
You could also say
Ich bin … – I am …
As an alternative, you can ask:
Wie ist dein Name? (informal) or Wie ist Ihr Name? (formal)
These are the literal translations of What’s your name? to which you will answer:
Mein Name ist ... – My name is …

To sum up:

Informal question Formal question Answer
Where are you from? Woher kommst du?Wo kommst du her? Woher kommen Sie?Wo kommen Sie her? Ich komme aus…Ich wohne in…Ich lebe in… I come from…I live in…
What’s your name? Wie heißt du? Wie heißen Sie? Ich heiße…Ich bin… My name is…I am…
Wie ist dein Name? Wie ist Ihr Name? Mein Name ist…




The whole conversation could be like this:

A: Guten Tag, wie geht es dir? – Good morning, how are you?
B: Es geht so, und dir? – So-so and you?
A: Mir geht es gut. – I’m fine
B: Wie heißt du? – What’s your name?
A: Ich heiße Sandra, und du? – I’m Sandra and you?
B: Mein Name ist Frauke – My name is Frauke
A: Woher kommst du? – Where are you from?
B: Ich komme aus Frankfurt und du? – I come from Frankfurt and you?
A: Ich komme aus Berlin – I come from Berlin
B: Tschüss – Bye
A: Tschüss – Bye

This is obviously an example of an informal conversation with a person you have just met in an informal context. It could be a dialogue between children, teens or young adults. From a certain age on you won’t use the informal register with people you have just met.
The German alphabet is composed of 26 letters. There are 4 additional letters used when writing in German but they are not included in our alphabet. These letters are:

Ä which is pronounced like “head”. An example of a German word with this letter is Gäste – guests

Ö which is pronounced like “blur”. An example: Hören – hear

Ü – its sound doesn’t exist in English. An example: Tür – door

ß it sounds like a sharp s as in “list”. An example: groß – big



The letters of our alphabet are the same as in English, only the pronunciation changes. I will first say the letter and afterwards give an example of a word starting with it. Let’s go!



DAS ALPHABET

A – Affe

B – Bär

C – Chamäleon

D – Dose

E – Engel

F – Fuß

G – Glocke

H – Hund

I – Insel

J – Jäger

K – Kind

L – Loewe

M – Maus

N – Nuss

O – Osterhase

P – pinsel

Q – Qualle

R – Rose

S – Sonne

T – Topf

U – Uhr

V – Vase

W – Waage

X – Xylophon

Y – Yoga

Z – Zebra
German Beer

There’s only one thing in which the Irish beat the German: beer consumption. Indeed, the German are only number two in the world (with 115 litres per year per person), even though Germany produces more than 5000 brands of beer in about 1280 breweries. Moreover, the quality of German beer is ensured by the German Beer Purity Law. So, in order to find the best brand, it’s necessary to visit a lot of different bars, since none of them can obviously stock every single brand.

Personal pronouns

German language is characterised by many personal pronouns because, unlike English grammar, it has four different cases. This lesson is about the personal pronouns of the first case, which are the simplest and the most important.

The pronouns are:

Ich – I Wir – we
Du – you Ihr – you
Er, Sie, Es – he/she/it Sie – they
The plural pronoun Sie is used both as the equivalent of the English they and the formal way to address a stranger or an authority.

Simple present of to be

After memorizing personal pronouns, you can now have a look at the conjugation of the simple present of sein – to be

Ich bin – I am Wir sind – we are
Du bist – you are Ihr seid – you are
Er/Sie/Es ist – he/she/it is Sie sind – they are
As the English to be, sein is an irregular verb. It is used in several fixed expressions, so here is a list of some of them:

– Ich bin Eva – I’m Eva (see lesson 1)
– Wer bist du? – Who are you?
– Sie ist groß – She is tall
– Wir sind here – We are here
– Ihr seid stark – You are strong
– Sie sind laut – They are noisy
Simple present of the verb to have – Haben

In German, the verb sein – to be is used in several constructions (see lesson 4), such as:
– Ich bin groß – I am tall
– Du bist Florian – you are Florian
– Er ist laut – he is noisy
– Wir sind stark – we are strong
– Wer seid ihr? – who are you?
– Sie sind hier – they are here

The verb Haben is an irregular verb. The conjugation of the simple present is:

Ich habe – I have
Du hast – you have
Er / Sie / Es hat – he / she / it has
Wir haben – we have
Ihr habt – you have
Sie haben – they have

In German, even haben – to have is used to form particular constructions, for example:
– Ich habe Hunger – I’m hungry
– Du hast Durst – you are thirsty
As you can notice, in English you use the verb to be to say that you are hungry and thirsty, while in German you use the verb haben to say that “you have hunger and thirst”.
But to express these concepts you can also use the verb sein and say that ich bin hungrig and ich bin durstig, which are the literal translations of I’m hungry and I’m thirsty.

Here are some other expressions with haben; as in English, this verb is particularly used to form the present perfect:
– Er hat Zeit – he has time
– Wir haben genug – we have enough
– Ihr habt getanzt – you have danced
– Sie haben gelacht – they have laughed

Colours FarbenRot – red
Blau – blue
Gelb – yellow
Grün – green
Orange – orange
Lila – purple
Braun – brown
Weiß – white
Schwarz – black
Grau – grayThe adjectives dunkel – dark and hell – light are used before colours to express colour shades. Unlike English, they form a single word with the colour they precede.
Compare:
– Das auto ist dunkelgrün – the car is dark green
– Der pullover ist hellrot – the pullover is light redMoreover, to ask for the colour of an object, in German you use the verb haben.
– Welche Farbe hat das Auto? – What colour is the car?
On the contrary, the answer is formed with the verb sein:
– Das auto ist rot – the car is red
Here are other examples:
– Welche Farbe hat der Ball? – what colour is the ball?
Der Ball ist blau – the ball is blue

– Welche Farbe hat das Gras? – what colour is the grass?
Das Grass ist grün – the grass is green

– Welche Farben haben die Blumen? –what colour are the flowers?
Die Blumen sind gelb – the flowers are yellow

– Welche Farbe hat der Schnee? – what colour is the snow?
Der Schnee ist weiß – the snow is white

Dialogue:

A: Hallo Lena! – hello Lena!
B: Hallo Eva! Wie geht es dir? – hello Eva! How are you?
A: Mir geht es gut. Ich habe ein neues Auto – I’m fine. I have a new car.
B: Großartig! Welche Farbe hat es? – great! What colour is it?
A: Es ist grün. Und deins? – it’s green. And yours?
B: Mein Auto ist rot. – my car is red
Numbers: in this lesson you will learn the numbers in german from 0 until 20.

0 null zero
1 eins one
2 zwei two
3 drei three
4 vier four
5 fünf five
6 sechs six
7 sieben seven
8 acht eight
9 neun nine
10 zehn ten
11 elf eleven
12 zwölf twelve
13 dreizehn thirteen
14 vierzehn fourteen
15 fünfzehn fifteen
16 sechzehn sixteen
17 siebzehn seventeen
18 achtzehn eighteen
19 neunzehn nineteen
20 zwanzig twenty

As you can notice, the numbers from 13 to 19 are formed by adding -zehn (10) to the numbers from 3 to 9. The only exceptions are 16 and 17, for phonetical reasons.
In English the only definite article is the, which is used for all nouns, singular and plural. On the contrary, in German nouns can be preceded by 4 different definite articles, according to gender – masculine, feminine or neuter – and number – singular or plural.

– The definite article for masculine singular nouns is der
– The definite article for feminine singular nouns is die
– The definite article for neuter singular nouns is das
– The only definite article for all plural nouns is die.
Ex: die Blume / die Blumen (the flowers); der Baum / die Bäume (the trees); das Kind / die Kinder (the children)

Generally speaking, a specific rule which allows to recognize the gender of a noun doesn’t exist. All you can do is memorize every new noun with its definite article. Nevertheless, there are some useful tips that help to guess nouns gender.

1) For example, it’s easy to assign the correct definite article to people’s common nouns.

Feminine* Masculine
Die Mutter – The mother Der Vater – the father
Die Tochter – The daughter Der Sohn – the son
Die Oma – the grandmother Der Opa – the grandfather
Die Frau – the woman Der Mann – the man
*An exception is: das Mädchen – the girl, because in German the suffix -chen is generally used to form diminutives which are always neuter.
Compare:
Der Mann – the man and das Männchen – the little man

2) The names of seasons, months and days are masculine

3) The points of the compass are masculine too:
Der Norden – the North
Der Süden – the South
Der Osten – the East
Der Westen – the West

4) Car brands are also masculine.
Ex: Der Mercedes, der Volkswagen

5) Numbers and plant names are instead feminine.

6) Letters, notes and units are neuter

N.B. In German not only proper nouns, but also common nouns start with a capital letter.
In German, the names of seasons, months and days of the week are masculine.

The seasons The days of the week Months of the year
Der Frühling – the spring
Der Sommer – the summer
Der Herbst – the autumn
Der Winter – the winter Der Montag – Monday
Der Dienstag – Tuesday
Der Mittwoch – Wednesday
Der Donnerstag – Thursday
Der Freitag – Friday
Der Samstag – Saturday
Der Sonntag – Sunday Der Januar – January
Der Februar – February
Der März – March
Der April – April
Der Mai – May
Der Juni – June
Der Juli – July
Der August – August
Der September – September
Der Oktober – October
Der November – November
Der Dezember – December
Dialogue

Eva: Hallo Lena, wie geht es dir? Hello Lena, how are you?
Lena: Schlecht. Es regnet. Bad. It’s raining.
Eva: Das ist der Herbst. Meine Lieblingsjahreszeit ist der Sommer. That’s autumn. My favourite season is summer.
Lena: Meine Lieblingsjahreszeit ist der Winter. Ich liebe den Schnee. My favourite season is winter. I love snow.
Indefinite articlesEven though the German nouns can be masculine, feminine or neuter, there are only two forms of indefinite articles:

– Ein is the indefinite article for masculine and neuter nouns
ex: der Baum – ein Baum (a tree); der Garten – ein Garten (a garden); der Onkel – ein Onkel (an uncle)
das Haus – ein Haus (a house); das Boot – ein Boot (a boat); das Kind – ein Kind (a child)– Eine is the indefinite article for feminine nouns
ex: die Blume – eine Blume (a flower); die Suppe – eine Suppe (a soup); die Tante – eine Tante(an aunt) The plural indefinite article doesn’t exist in German:
ex: der Baum (s) – Bäume (trees)
die Blume (s) – Blumen (flowers)
das Kind (s) – Kinder (children)