| Question | Answer |
|---|---|
| the adventure | das Abenteuer |
| the stress | der Stress Since our latest Spelling Reform, Stress cannot be spelled with ß |
| full | voll |
| full of | voller |
| full of stress | voller Stress |
| was past of to be | war |
| The day was full of stress. | Der Tag war voller Stress. |
| The work was full of stress. | Die Arbeit war voller Stress. |
| now | jetzt |
| the break | die Pause |
| the noon break; the lunch break | die Mittagspause words that end in -tag take an s if they are in first position of a combo. However the word Tag itself changes into Tages. die Mittagspause (the lunch break) das Sonntagsessen (the Sunday meal) die Tageszeit (the time of day) |
| But now he has a break. | Aber jetzt hat er eine Pause. |
| the time | die Zeit |
| the noon time | die Mittagszeit |
| lunch | das Mittagessen Here we hit an exception. For some obscure reason this word doesn't take an additional s.
Maybe this combo has been used so much, that it really melted into one word. Who knows.... |
| Now the little man has lunch break. | Jetzt hat der kleine Mann Mittagspause. |
| to drink | trinken |
| He goes to drink a coffee. | Er geht einen Kaffee trinken. |
| the coffee shop | das Café |
| a coffee shop | ein Café |
| He goes into a coffee shop. | Er geht in ein Café. |
| in order to | um zu + infinitive |
| in order to drink | um zu trinken |
| He goes into a coffee shop in order to drink a coffee. | Er geht in ein Café, um einen Kaffee zu trinken. |
| a small coffee shop | ein kleines Café the indefinite neutral adjective takes an s das kleine Café
das große Kind |
| It is a small coffee shop. | Es ist ein kleines Café. |
| a cup | eine Tasse |
| a small cup | eine kleine Tasse for feminine there is no change in the indefinite adjective.
die kleine Tasse die kleine Frau |
| a table | ein Tisch |
| a small table | ein kleiner Tisch the masculine undetermined adjective takes an r der kleine Tisch der kleine Mann |
| oneself | sich |
| to set; to put | setzen |
| to sit down | sich setzen important: this is a movement towards a direction (down) you are standing and moving into a sitting position. |
| on; to; at | an |
| He sits down at a little table. | Er setzt sich an einen kleinen Tisch. an (at) is a preposition that can work with both dative and accusative case. Accusative is the case of movement towards a direction. an einen kleinen Tisch is accusative He is moving into a sitting position at the table. Don't worry at this stage too much about the forms. We will tackle that later, but try to grasp the idea of when to use the accusative. |
| to be sitting/ to sit | sitzen This is a verb indicating a position. (not a movement). It can be followed by a preposition and a dative |
| He sits at a little table. | Er sitzt an einem kleinen Tisch. Now he finished the process of sitting down, he is situated at the table. We are no longer talking about the direction of a movement but about the location, where the man is at.
an einem kleinen Tisch is Dative When we want to describe a location, we use prepositions followed by a dative. in einem Café an einem Tisch |
| the corner | die Ecke |
| in the corner location > dative | in der Ecke |
| He sits down at a little table in the corner. | Er setzt sich an einen kleinen Tisch in der Ecke. He is sitting down. (direction >accusative)
The table is standing in the corner (location>dative)
It would be a different case if we said: He sits down in the corner. In this case we would have a movement into the corner. >Accusative Er setzt sich in die Ecke. |
| the neighbour | der Nachbar |
| the neighbour table | der Nachbartisch |
| at the masculine _ _ + _ _ _ = _ _ | an + dem = am |
| at the masculine, neuter | am |
| at the neighbour table | am Nachbartisch |
| A beautiful woman is sitting at the neighbour table. | Am Nachbartisch sitzt eine schöne Frau. |
| to order food etc. | bestellen |
| He orders a coffee. | Er bestellt einen Kaffee. accusative (direct object) |
| to see /look | sehen |
| times; once | mal |
| Have a look! | Sieh mal! |
| My my!/Look at that!/Didn't see that coming./Hear hear! | Sieh mal an! |
| here | hier |
| about; over; via | über |
| towards here | herüber her means towards here über means over The combination of both words describes a movement towards the speaker. The opposite of her is hin meaning towards there hinüber describes a movement away from the speaker. A way to remember this is the movement of the swing. It goes forth (away) and back, forth and back = hin und her, hin und her... |
| The woman looks at him. lit. The woman looks towards here | Die Frau sieht herüber. |
| Dative form of er | ihm |
| at him | zu ihm zu + Dative form of er |
| The woman looks at him. | Die Frau sieht zu ihm herüber. |
| to smile | lächeln |
| she smiles | sie lächelt |
| She smiles at him. | Sie lächelt zu ihm herüber. We are watching the story from the eyes of the little man. So the smile comes towards us: herüber |
| back | zurück |
| He smiles back. | Er lächelt zurück. We could have used our new word hinüber. here: Er lächelt zu ihr hinüber. |
| to come | kommen |
| The coffee arrives. | Der Kaffee kommt. |
| to say | sagen |
| The woman says: | Die Frau sagt: |
| Sit down! (formal) | Setzen Sie sich! |
| why don't you | doch |
| Why don't you sit down with me!?! | Setzen Sie sich doch zu mir! |
| The little man is happy. | Der kleine Mann ist glücklich. |
| He sits down with the woman. | Er setzt sich zu der Frau. we don't use 'with' (mit) here in German. It would mean that they both sit down together. Since the woman sits already, the man is sitting down 'to' the woman: zu. |
| a bit, a little | ein bisschen no ß! |
| shy, timid | schüchtern |
| He is a little shy. | Er ist ein bisschen schüchtern. |
| to like; to want | mögen |
| Accusative form of er | ihn |
| The woman likes him. | Die Frau mag ihn. |
| nevertheless, nonetheless | trotzdem |
| The woman likes him nonetheless. | Die Frau mag ihn trotzdem. |
| To be continued. | Fortsetzung folgt. |
