Rocket German 6 Day Course
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Hello and welcome back to Day 2 of the Rocket German 6 Day Course. This is the second lesson in the Mini Course, and it is designed to help you make sense of the grammar and vocabulary you learned in the previous audio lesson.
You can revisit the first lesson by using the link at the very bottom of this page!
The complete Rocket German package includes a variety of materials to supplement each audio lesson, including MegaVocab, MegaAudio, MegaVerbs and lots more. However, for now, this part of the course will fill in the gaps between the audio lessons.
Here’s the conversation that you learned in the last lesson.
| Nik: | Hallo, Paul! |
| Paul: | Hallo, Nik! Wie geht’s dir? |
| Nik: | Gut, und dir? |
| Paul: | Sehr gut. |
| Paul: | Mir geht’s sehr gut. |
This is such a basic conversation that you’ll have it over and over again! So it’s worth the time to study. Here is the conversation a second time, except in English.
| Nik: | Hallo, Paul! |
| Paul: | Hello, Nik! How are you ? |
| Nik: | Good! And you? |
| Paul: | Very good. |
| Paul: | I’m very good. |
Greetings… casual or formal?
When you are greeting someone you already know Hallo is a perfectly acceptable greeting. However, if you are meeting someone that you don’t know, use the more formal, “Guten Tag.”
| Guten Morgen. | Good morning. | |
| Guten Tag. | Good afternoon or Good day | |
| Guten Abend. | Good evening. |
It’s very common in Germany to shake hands when meeting or saying good bye to someone. If you get offered a hand, don’t be shy. Take it, shake it and say Guten Tag the German way!
How are You?
It’s only polite to ask how people are doing. In German, the most common way that this is done is by saying,
| Wie geht’s? | How are you? |
Let’s look at this question part by part. The word wie means how. The word geht’s actually consists of two words geht and es. They are simply joined together to make it easier to pronounce. Just like you abbreviate we will to we’ll in English. Geht es or geht’s literally means it goes, but translating word for word is never a good idea. We’ll sometimes give you literal translations, but that’s so that you can see how the word order changes and how German works. It’s not a good idea to do that when creating your own sentences though. Sometimes one word in English will require two words or more in German, or vice versa. That’s why it’s important that you don’t get caught up in making literal, or word-by-word, translations. (This is also why online translators, even those that claim to translate sentences, often return incorrect answers!) I’ll give you an example. In English greetings for the New Year is a sentence with five words. In German it’s just one single word Neujahrsgrüße.
Neu |
Jahrs |
Grüße |
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New |
Years |
Greetings |
You or you?
One of the other strange things about German is that you have a choice about whether you are going to address another person respectfully or familiarly (e.g. informally). Here are all the different words for “you” used in German! Let’s have a look at them
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du casual, (you) used when addressing someone familiar, like a friend or family member, children and anyone who has offered you the du | ||
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ihr casual,(e.g., “you guys”) used when addressing more than one person in a casual way | ||
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Sie formal, (you or “you all”) used when addressing someone older, superior or someone you don’t know. Can be used when addressing just one single person or a whole bunch of people. |
Here is the last one “Ihnen”. The question, “How are you?” changes according to which “you” you wish to use. If you’re asking someone how he or she is, you’ll choose between one of the following.
Wie geht’s? How are you? Informal, used among friends
Wie geht es Ihnen? How are you? Formal, used with elders, superiors, or people you don’t know. You can use this question when addressing a single person as well as a whole group. Now, that’s not too hard, is it?!
The first question is the one used in the conversation above between Nik and Il. Since we’re friends, we use the informal mode of address. If, however, I was addressing someone I’d never met before or someone older than me, I would have said,
| Wie geht es Ihnen? |
It means exactly the same thing, except that this way it imparts much greater respectfulness and politeness. Don’t worry about which word to use for you. I’ll tell you.
Now, HOW are you?
If someone asks you, “Wie geht’s?” you have a variety of responses you can use. Here are some of the most common.
| Mir geht’s gut. | I am well. | |
| Mir geht’s sehr gut. | I am very well. | |
| Mir geht’s super. | I feel super. | |
| Mir geht’s nicht gut. | I am not well. | |
| Mir geht’s gar nicht gut. | I am not well at all. | |
| Mir geht’s schlecht. | I feel sick / I feel bad |
Das war’s!
Well, that’s it for today’s lesson. In your next email, you’ll receive the next audio lesson. You’ll learn how to introduce yourself to someone in German, how to say where you’re from, and how to explain just how much German you know.
Until next time!
Paul Weber
www.rocketlanguages.com/german
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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 |
P.P.S. If you’d like to review the previous audio lesson again (which I highly recommend), then access it by clicking the link below...
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