CBG 1:02 | Saying your name

You know that feeling when too many things fall through the cracks? Monday.com was built for that gap. The AI work platform where people and agents work side-by-side to deliver more together. Create your first Monday agent today at Monday.com. Coffee Breaks German Lesson 2. Welcome to Coffee Break German. My name is Mark and I'm here with Thomas. Hello Thomas. Hello Mark. Wie geht's dir heute? Mir geht's gut, danke. Wie geht's? Mir geht's auch gut, danke. Okay, there's already a word in there that I'm going to ask you about, but let's leave that for just now. This is the second lesson in our course which will hopefully help you learn German with me as I learn with Thomas, our teacher, our native speaker, who will be helping us throughout this course. I hope you enjoyed the first lesson and we have lots more phrases and words today for you to learn. At the end of the lesson, I'll give you all the details to help you get access to all the additional materials that accompany this course. You can find everything at coffeebreakjerman.com, but in the meantime, let's get on with today's lesson. Okay Mark, bist du fertig? Ja, dann lass uns anfangen. Now Thomas, there are already some words and phrases that I need explained to me. You know what I'm like, I like to know what every single word means. So you said "mier geht's auch gut", I think. Ja, "we auch" means "I'm fine as well". So " auch" means "as well" or "also presumably". Also "as well too". Okay, so "mier geht's auch gut". Yeah, so let's practice that. "Mier geht's auch gut". "Mier geht's auch gut", "mier geht's auch gut". Okay, so we have "auch" on its own "auch", "auch", "auch", "auch". And that means "also" or "as well" or "too". Okay, "mier geht's auch gut", "I'm also feeling well". Okay, and if I were also feeling bad, I could say "mier geht's auch schlecht". Very good, correct? "Mier geht's auch schlecht". You mentioned the second word, you wanted me to explain to you. Yes, when you say "best du fertig", are you ready? And I said "yes", you followed it up with something. You said "I assume" means something like "let's go". Then "lass uns anfangen". Yes, it means "let's get started". Okay, can you sit slowly please? "Lass uns anfangen". So, let's split that up into separate words. "Lass uns anfangen". "Anfangen". Yes, very good. "Lass uns anfangen". "Lass uns anfangen". "Let's get started". "Let's get started". So "anfangen" does not mean "to start", "to start" begin. Okay, so "lass uns" is that "let us". Yes, literally "lass" is "let" and "uns". "Lass uns anfangen". "Lass uns anfangen". Okay, my challenge then for next time is I'm going to say that when you ask me "best du fertig". Okay, only to remember that. Okay Mark, we already heard a few words from the last lesson. Let's review a few others and see how much you can remember it. Okay, so will we just go through a list of the words and phrases? No, I think it's the best if we have a proper German conversation and practice a few words we learn so far. Okay, "Lass uns anfangen". Yes, good morning Mark. Good morning Thomas. Wie geht's? Sehr gut. Danke. Wie geht es dir? Wir geht's schlecht. Das ist schade. I pretend I know what that means. Auf Wiedersehen. Tschüss. Okay, so you know what's coming Thomas. There were two things in there. I need some explanation. First of all, the phrase that you said in response to missing "mie geht's schlecht", which means I'm not very well. I'm feeling bad today. You said a phrase, what was the phrase you said? Das ist schade. Das ist schade. Schade means like that's a shame. Okay, das ist schade. Das ist schade. Okay, so that's a shame. And you also said another word when you were asking me, "How are you?" You said, "Wie geht's dir?" Okay, and what does that mean? It means last lesson we learned. Wie geht's? You can also say wie geht's dir. That just means how is it going to you? Ah, of course, because when I say "mie geht's gut", literally means to me it goes well or it goes good. So wie geht's dir? How is it going to you? It's just adds to you to the sentence. Instead of how are you? Wie geht's dir? Okay, so I can say wie geht's or wie geht's dir? Yes, it means the same. In French, you have the "tu" and "vu" forms. So the "tu" form being the informal "u" and the "vu" being the formal "u". And in Spanish, you've got two and those there. And in Italian, it's similar. Are there two forms of you in German? Yes, it's the same in German. We also have two forms in formal one and then informal one. So which one is wie geht's dir? So far, we learned the informal one. That's informal. So this is the way you and I speak together because we know each other. So wie geht's dir? Yes, that's the informal way. If you want to address somebody formal, it would say wie geht's inen. Wie geht's inen. Wie geht's inen. OK, I think we'll leave that just now. We can learn a little more about the informal and formal forms in future lessons. I think what I'd like to do now is learn a few more greetings for different times of the day. We've already learned "gutten Morgan". "gutten Morgan", which of course means "good morning". What about "good afternoon"? In Germany, you would say "good day" for most of the time of the day. There's not really a good afternoon. We just say "gutten Tag". "Gutten Tag". "Gutten Tag". OK, so "gutten Tag" can mean "good day". When would you start using "gutten Tag"? You'll probably start at about 12 o'clock before you say "gutten Morgan". What we already learned. And then in the evening, you would say "gutten Abend". "Gutten Abend", "gutten Abend". "Gutten Abend", so we've got "gutten Morgan". "Gutten Morgan". "Gutten Tag", "gutten Tag". And "gutten Abend", "gutten Abend" for "good morning", "good day" and "good evening". And how would you say "good night"? "Gutten Nacht", it's the last one. So we've got "gutten Nacht", "gutten Nacht". Now, you know what's coming here. There are three different versions, which use "gutten", "gutten Morgan". "Gutten Tag", "gutten Abend". But now, when it comes to "night", you don't say "gutten". You say "gutte", yeah. "Gutte", so "gutten Nacht", "gutten Nacht". And I'm sure there's a reason for that. Yes, there is the word "gut", "gut", is an adjective and adjectives can change depending what they describe. Okay, so in that sense, it's just like French and Spanish where the adjective changes its form when it's describing, for example, in Spanish a masculine word or a feminine word. I take it's the same in German. Yes, it's the same. But for that question and all of the other tricky grammar questions, we're going to introduce a new member of a coffee-break German team. We are indeed. Now, coffee-break German, like our other coffee-break courses, is not just about learning a series of phrases and being able to use these phrases when you need to. It's about understanding how the language works so that you can create the language that you want when you need to. In order to do that, we need to learn a little bit about the patterns of the language, the grammar that holds everything together. And we've brought along our grammar guru to help you understand how German works over to you. Hello, everyone. It's Kirsten here again. And it's my job to help you make a little bit more sense of the German language. Now, as Mark said, grammar is what holds the words and phrases of a language together. It's a bit like glue, I suppose. So while Thomas teaches you and Mark how to say things in German, I'll be here to explain why all those words and phrases have been put together that way, breaking it down, [BLANK_AUDIO] your little hints and tips along the way so that you can start making your own sentences in German. So today Thomas has been teaching you some greetings and he's given you four greetings one for each time of day. We've had good morning, good morning, good and tag, good afternoon, good nabbit, good evening and good to nacht was good night. Now Mark you've already noticed that good to nacht is the odd one out here because it's the only one where we say good to and not good to n. As Thomas has already said good is an adjective and adjectives in German just like in French and Spanish and many other languages change their endings depending on the word that they are describing. So you're probably thinking that the word nacht is somehow different from morgan, tag and abent and you'd be right. These four words are nouns and nouns in German again just like in French or Spanish have grammatical gender. The difference between them then is that nacht has a different gender from the other three and that is why we have good and wagon, good and tag and good and abent but good to nacht. We will explain this in more detail in another lesson but you may be interested to know that morgan, tag and abent are all masculine nouns while nacht is feminine. Now this probably leaves you with lots of questions and that's a good thing. By asking questions when you're learning a language you get to understand the language in more depth. However we're going to be coming back to the topic of grammatical gender and indeed adjectives later in the series so we'll leave things there for just now. Lots of little steps will eventually take you far. I hope at least that have helped to solve one little mystery about good and morgan, good and tag, good and abent and good to nacht. For now though it's back to mark and Thomas in the studio. So hopefully that makes a lot more sense now. We've got good and morgan, good and morgan, good and tag, good and abent and good nacht, good nacht. Now coming up after the break we're going to be changing things slightly and looking at a different topic. Here at Coffee Break German we want to help you turn your downtime into due time. Join us on Facebook three times a week and put your German to work with our language challenges and cultural insights. As they say, practice makes perfect. Or off-Dutch, Übung macht den Meister. Head over to facebook.com/coffeebreakjermen. We'll see you in uns hoffentlich bald. The meeting ends and the plan already exists. Action items, owners, deadlines, go to Monday.com, the AI workspace platform. Finding the right size rug can be hard. Enter Ernesta, designer quality, custom sized rugs, cut to the exact size of your room and deliver it in as little as two weeks. Not sure if the size or the material? Start with five samples for just ten dollars today to see them in your own light and match to your decor. Plus, get 50 dollars toward any rug of your choice. Visit Ernesta.com today. That's e-r-n-e-s-t-a-dot-com. Okay, I think another important element that we should really cover in this second lesson of Coffee Break German is how to introduce yourself and how to ask someone what is your name. We're going to stick again here to the formal version. Because the chances are the first person that you meet would be someone that you don't necessarily know. And if you're asking their name, then the chances are you'll be using the formal version. So Thomas, can you tell me how you would say what is your name in a formal way? V-hycensy. Okay, let's split that up again. V-hycensy. Okay, I'll repeat that. V-v-hycensy. V-hycensy. V-hycensy. V-hycensy. Now, is that V the same V as in V gets? Yes, it means how. So V-hycensy. What does that literally mean? It means how are you called? So the how is V-hycens is the part to be called and Z means U but in the formal way. Okay, so U-Z hycens is to be called and V-house. So how are you called? What are you called? What is your name V-hycensy? V-hycensy. How would I answer that question? How would I say my name is or I am called? You would say Ich heiße Thomas. Let's hear that again. Ich heiße Thomas. So I'm recognizing the heiße in there that's very like heißen. So the first word was Ich, Ich, meaning I. Okay, so Ich heiße and then your name. Yes, it's I am called Thomas. Ich heiße Mark. Yeah, sehr gut. So ask me the question again. Wie heißen Sie? Ich heiße Mark. Richtig. So if I ask you, I can say Wie heißen Sie? Ich heiße Thomas. Okay, now let's ask our listeners. Wie heißen Sie? And hopefully you answered Ich heiße and then your name. Excellent. No, that's I am called. Is there another way of saying my name is? I'm thinking in French you could say My name is literally and same in Spanish. So can you say My name is in German? Now that possibility also exists in German, you can say My Name ist. My Name ist. That means literally My Name ist. So My Name ist Mark. Ja. Und Wie heißen Sie? My Name ist Thomas. Okay, so we've got two possibilities to answer that one question. The question Wie heißen Sie and two possible answers. Ich heiße Thomas or My Name ist Thomas. Excellent. Now learning a language is not just about the language itself. It also involves learning about all the cultures associated with that language. And as you know, we have our cultural correspondent, Julia, who's going to be bringing us some tips each week about the cultural side of things today. Julia's going to be telling us a little bit about where German is spoken. Over to you, Julia. Hi Mark, hi Thomas and hi to all our coffee break German listeners. As I explained to you last week, I'm here to talk about the cultural side of the German speaking area. And in today's report, I'm going to be looking at where German is actually spoken. As I'm sure you know, German is the official language of Germany. Well, obviously Switzerland and Austria. But it's also an official language in Belgium, along with French and Flamish in Luxembourg, where it shares its official status with French and Luxembourgish. And in the tiny principality of Liechtenstein on the border between Austria and Switzerland. So you'll be glad to know that the language you're learning is spoken in many parts of Europe. But that's not all. Did you know that there are over 5 million speakers of German living in the US? And there are huge communities of German speakers in Brazil and Argentina. It's the third most taught language in the English speaking world after French and Spanish. And as a native English speaker, you're going to find that it's really quite easy to learn German because historically, English and German belong to the same language family. In fact, hundreds of years ago, people speaking older forms of German and English could probably understand each other. And many words between the two languages are similar. I know you've already heard examples of this from Thomas. Anyway, that's enough from me today. I hope you've enjoyed this little contribution from me, your cultural correspondent. I'll be back again next time with more tips for you, but for now, it's back to Thomas and Marc in the studio. Cheers! Thank you to Julia for her cultural correspondent segment. Okay, it's time now to review the language that we've learned in this episode. We've done some greetings for different times of the day and they were good morning, good morning and then good afternoon or more literally good day, good evening, good evening, good evening and good night, good night. We learned how to ask what is your name, the high-sensee and two ways to answer that question. First of all, my name is, my name is and secondly, I am called Ichheise. Okay, it's time now to say until the next time or in German, how would we say that? Is the next time? Okay, can you slow down a little bit for us, bis zum nächsten Mal. So the whole thing together? Bis zum nächsten Mal. Now as we are learning these words and phrases, you are hearing how the sound to find it, how they are written down and to get lots more information about the German that you're learning, you can use the premium version of this course. Find it more at coffeebreakjerman.com. We would also really like to know what you think of this course so far. So you can either leave a review on iTunes or write a comment on our website or indeed both if you really want to. Let us know what you think. Thank you very much for listening. Thank you and let's see if I remember. Auf Wiedersehen. Tschüss. Bis zum nächsten Mal.