Rocket German Newsletter Series
Guten Tag! Welcome to the Rocket German Newsletter Series!
In the last newsletter you learned formal and casual greetings.
After you greet someone, you’ll want to ask how they are or how’s it going.
Here are some common questions that follow a greeting.
» Audio 1 Click Play To Hear Audio
For friends or family :
| How are you? | Wie geht es dir? |
| How are you? | Wie geht’s? |
For strangers or more senior persons:
| How are you? | Wie geht es Ihnen? |
What do you say if someone asks you one of these questions?
» Audio 2 Click Play To Hear Audio
| Well, thanks. | Gut, danke. |
| Very well. | Sehr gut. |
| As always. | Wie immer. |
| A little tired. | Ein bisschen müde. |
| I’m sick. | Ich bin krank. |
| So-so. | So la-la. |
| Not bad. | Nicht schlecht. |
| Bad. | Schlecht . |
| All good. | Alles in Ordnung. |
| Quite good. | Ganz gut. |
A common follow-up question is , “ And you ?”, “Und Ihnen ?” or more informal “ Und dir?”
» Audio 3 Click Play To Hear Audio
| And you? (formal) | Und Ihnen? |
| And you? | Und dir? |
If someone tells you that he or she is not feeling well you could say the following…
» Audio 4 Click Play To Hear Audio
| I’m sorry. | Das tut mir leid. |
If someone is feeling great you might want to say the following…
» Audio 5 Click Play To Hear Audio
| Nice to hear. | Das freut mich. |
The above words are extremely important. From experience, I know that the most important phrase in any language is how to say you’re sorry!
Others disagree. They say that there are THREE important phrases that you absolutely must know in any language. They are:
» Audio 6 Click Play To Hear Audio
| I’m sorry | Das tut mir leid |
| I love you | Ich liebe dich |
| I need help | Ich brauche Hilfe |
Hmm, I can’t think of a situation in which I’d need to use all three, but I’ll leave it to your imagination! That’s it for today’s lesson.
Bis bald!
Paul Weber
Rocket German
P.S. If you’d like to improve your learning, practice makes perfect!
Exercise 1. Pretend that you are meeting a friend of yours named Sandra. Write in your response in German to the questions below. (There’s not just one single right answer.)
| Sandra: Hallo! |
| You: _________________________________________________ |
| Sandra: Wie geht’s dir? |
| You: _________________________________________________ |
| Sandra: Sehr gut, danke. !! |
| You: _________________________________________________ |
Exercise 2. Read the following conversation and translate it into English below.
| Nik: Hallo Paul, wie geht’s? |
| Paul : Nicht schlecht, und dir? |
| Nik: Ich bin ein bisschen müde. |
| Paul : Das tut mir leid |
| Nik: _________________________________________________ |
| Paul: _______________________________________________ |
| Nik: _________________________________________________ |
| Paul: _______________________________________________ |
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P.S. Don't forget to check out my special bonus offer only available for
6 Day Course subscribers: http://www.rocketlanguages.com/german/6day_special.php |
