RADIO LINGUA
i :
Coffee Break
Lesson 06
Study Notes
Coffee Break German: Lesson 06 - Notes pages of 14LESSON NOTES
WIE VIEL KOSTET DAS?
In this episode of Coffee Break German we'll start by learning the
numbers from zero to ten and then learn to deal with transactional
situations involving paying for things in cafés and shops.
INTRODUCTION
Mark asked the following question in the introduction:
Mark: Also, Thomas, was lernen wir heute?
Thomas: Wir lernen die Zahlen.
die Zahlen
the numbers
Note the word order in the following sentence:
heute lernen wir die Zahlen
today we're learning the numbers
Since this sentence starts with the word heute, the verb and the
subject pronoun need to change places.
REVIEW
In the review section for this lesson, Thomas challenged Mark to
translate some sentences from German into English:
Coffee Break German: Lesson 06 - Notes page 2 of 4meine Mutter heift Susanne
my mother is called Susanne
mein Vater heiBt Stefan
my father is called Stefan
meine Schwester heift Anna
my sister is called Anna
If you wish to ask the question, “what is your’ sister called?” then you
can change meine Schwester to deine Schwester:
deine Schwester
your sister
deine Schwester heift Anna
your sister is called Anna
wie heiBt deine Schwester?
what is your sister called? / what is your sister’s name?
This pattern of M > D for “me” to “you” (informal) is repeated with a
number of words:
mich > dich
mir > dir
meine > deine
Take care, however, with meine > deine as this needs to change
depending on the gender of the noun:
Coffee Break German: Lesson 06 - Notes page 3 of 14wie heifBt dein Bruder?
what is your brother called?
So, just as mein Bruder changed to meine Schwester, so does
mein Bruder change to dein Bruder.
This was put into practice with a conversation:
Mark:
Thomas:
Mark:
Thomas:
Mark:
Thomas:
Mark:
Thomas:
Mark:
Thomas, wie heift deine Schwester?
Meine Schwester heift Sylvia.
Und wie heift dein Vater?
Mein Vater heift Stefan.
Und wie heift deine Mutter?
Meine Mutter heift Inge.
Und wie heift dein Bruder?
Mein Bruder heift Johannes. Und Mark, wie heipt
deine Tochter?
Meine Tochter heift Katherine.
COUNTING FROM 0-10
The words for each number from zero to ten are listed below:
null
zero,
eins
one
zwei
two
Coffee Break German: Lesson 06 - Notes page 4 of 14drei
three
vier
four
five
sechs
six
sieben
seven,
acht
eight
neun
nine
zehn
ten
We will look at larger numbers in future lessons, but learning these
numbers will allow you to “spell out” larger numbers for the time
being: for example if a shopkeeper were to say to you:
das kostet zweihundertneununddreifig Euro
that costs two hundred and thirty nine Euros
then you would be able to understand this number if it were given as
zwei - drei - neun.
Coffee Break German: Lesson 06 - Notes pages ofi4PAYING FOR THINGS
To ask how much something costs, you use the following phrase:
wie viel kostet das?
how much does that cost?
To answer this question, use the following construction:
das kostet fiinf Euro
that costs five Euros
You may also hear:
es kostet fiinf Euro
it costs five Euros
If you don’t understand a complex price like es kostet
zweihundertneununddreifig Euro then you can ask the
following question:
kénnen Sie das bitte aufschreiben?
can you write it down please?
If you want to ask for the bill in a café or restaurant, you can ask for
die Rechnung:
die Rechnung, bite
the bill, please
Coffee Break German: Lesson 06 - Notes page 6 of 14kénnen Sie mir die Rechnung bringen?
can you please bring me the bill?
Read and listen to the following conversation which uses a variety of
shopping vocabulary, including these phrases:
kann ich Ihnen helfen?
can I help you?
ich schaue nur, danke
I'm just looking, thanks
Mark: Hallo, guten Tag.
Thomas: Griifi Gott. Kann ich Ihnen helfen?
Mark: Ich schaue nur, danke.
Thomas: OK.
Mark: Wie viel kostet das?
Thomas: Das kostet einhundertvierundzwanzig Euro.
Mark: Kénnen Sie das bitte aufschreiben?
Thomas: Natiirlich. Eins - zwei - vier (124).
Mark: Eins - zwei - vier. Danke.
Thomas: Gern geschehen.
Mark: Auf Wiedersehen.
Thomas: Tschiiss.
Note the expression gern geschehen or gerne which means
something along the lines of “you’re welcome”.
Another phrase which may come in useful in a shopping scenario is
where you're trying to capture the attention of the shop assistant or
waiter / waitress:
Coffee Break German: Lesson 06 - Notes page 7 of 14entschuldigung
excuse me
GRAMMAR GURU
Hallo, and welcome once again to my
Grammar Guru segment. As ever, it’s my job
to help simplify things for you, when it
comes to German grammar.
Today’s segment is not so much about what
we've been looking at in the main lesson;
instead I'm going to mention something that OO
will come in useful in future lessons - and it’s worth getting a head
start on this.
So far we've looked at nouns and adjectives, but we've not really
spoken about verbs. Now, what is a verb? Some people describe
verbs as “doing words”. You can think of it in this way if you like.
A verb is the action or state in a sentence, so if we think about
following sentence,
“the cat ran along the roof”
then “ran” is the action - the verb. In the sentence,
“the cat sat on the mat”,
“satis the verb.
Verbs sometimes change form, depending on who is doing the
action, or when the action is being done. Think of “the cat sits..
“the cat is sitting”; “the cat will be sitting”. In each case we're
talking about sitting in some way or another.
Equally, “the car ran”, “the cat is running”, and “the cat will run”
are all referring to running in some way. Just as verbs change
form in English, they also change form in German.
Coffee Break German: Lesson 06 - Notes page 8 of 14The starting point for all of this is the form you'd find in the
dictionary. If you look up “ran” or “running” in the dictionary,
you'd be probably directed to “run”. This dictionary form has a
special name: it’s called the infinitive. In German, most infinitives
end in -en, so when you look up a verb in the dictionary, you'll
find the infinitive form ending in -en, for example, “to run” -
laufen, and “to sit” will be sitzen.
The infinitive form is often translated as “to do something”, so
laufen, “to run” and sitzen, “to sit”.
That's really all I wanted to share with you today. This will come
in useful in future lessons as we develop our understanding of
verbs further.
CULTURAL CORRESPONDENT
In this lesson’s Cultural Correspondent feature, Julia talks about the
city where she lives: Berlin.
ei
Hallo Mark, hallo Thomas, und guten Tag an ems a
alle unsere Coffee Break German Zuhérer! ,
Ich bin’s, Julia, your Cultural Correspondent,
and today I’m going to take you on a trip. In
‘fact, Il take you to my home town, Berlin,
and I'll tell you what you really shouldn’t
miss while visiting this amazing town.
Berlin is a city of contrasts: it can be very -——__—
old, and young; it can be beautiful, and ugly; very modern and
also very historical; and it can also be very rich and poor; and
very traditional, as well as very international and multicultural.
All these contrasts make it a kind of magnet for people from all
over the world who enjoy living. and working, or just spending
their holidays here.
Coffee Break German: Lesson 06 - Notes page 9 of 4The appearance of the city has been very much affected by its
recent history. Berlin was divided into West and East Berlin by a
wall for more than 28 years. This Berliner Mauer, the Berlin
Wall, actually consisted of two different walls which were 155km
long, and the space between them about 70m wide. As a result,
when the wall came down in 1989, there suddenly was a lot of free
space in the middle of Berlin. Nowadays this space has been filled
with several buildings and parks. One of the parks is called
Mauerpark, “Wall Park”, where you will find a famous flea
market every weekend as well as concerts during the summertime.
Only a few parts of the original wall still exist. Very popular
among tourists is the so-called East Side Gallery, the longest and
most permanent open-air gallery world wide. It shows paintings
by international artists commenting on the political changes
around 1990.
When you walk through Berlin today you may come across a
double line of cobblestones running through the streets. This line
indicates the original route of the wall to the people nowadays. I
still find it very moving that I’m easily able to pass this line on my
walks through town. Life was not that simple for my parents’
generation.
In this episode I've focused on only one aspect of Berlin and there’s
lots more to see and do. However this aspect of our recent history
is so important for Berliners, as well as for visitors, I think it’s
important not to miss it out. I'll tell you more about Berlin another
time! Tschiiss und bis zum ndchsten Mal.
COMING UP NEXT TIME
In the final section of the lesson Mark asked the question:
Coffee Break German: Lesson 06 - Notes page10 of 14was lernen wir ndéchstes Mal?
what are we going to be learning about...
Thomas answered by explaining,
ndchstes Mal lernen wir etwas iiber die Stadt
next time we're learning about the town
Note the inversion of the subject pronoun wir and the verb lernen.
You can compare this to heute lernen wir ..., “today we're
learning...”
DAS REICHT FUR HEUTE
#¢ Ready for more? Turn the page to continue with the
bonus materials for this lesson.
Coffee Break German: Lesson 06 - Notes page 1 of 14CORE VOCABULARY
die Zahlen
the numbers
null
zero
eins
one
zwei
two
drei
three
vier
four
Sirf
five
sechs
six
sieben
seven
acht
eight
Coffee Break German: Lesson 06 - Notes
page 12 of 14neun
nine
zehn
ten
wie viel kostet das?
how much does that cost?
das kostet fiinf Euro
that costs five Euros
es kostet fiinf Euro
it costs five Euros
kénnen Sie das bitte aufschreiben?
can you write it down please?
die Rechnung, bitte
the bill, please
kénnen Sie mir die Rechnung bringen?
can you bring me the bill?
kann ich Ihnen helfen?
can I help you?
ich schaue nur, danke
Tm just looking, thanks
entschuldigung
excuse me
Coffee Break German: Lesson 06 - Notes page13 of 14BONUS VOCABULARY
es kostet zehn Franken
it costs ten (Swiss) franes
es kostet fiinf Dollar
it costs five dollars
es kostet acht Pfund
it costs eight pounds
das trinkgeld
tip
kann ich mit Karte zahlen?
can I pay by card?
die Kreditkarte
credit card
der Bankomat /der Geldautomat
ATM, cash machine
Coffee Break German: Lesson 06 - Notes page 14 of 14