Season1 chptr1-5

Coffee Break German
Lesson 01
Study Notes
Coffee Break German: Lesson 01 - Notes page 1 of 12

LESSON NOTES
HALLO, WIE GEHT’S?

Welcome to this first lesson of Coffee Break German. In this lesson
we’ll learn how to say “hello” and “goodbye”, and we’ll also learn how
to ask “how are you?”, and answer this question.
INTRODUCING OUR PRESENTERS, THOMAS

AND MARK
“My name is Thomas. I’m from Bavaria in the

south of Germany. I’m currently studying for
a Masters in Geography and Natural Hazards
in Innsbruck, Austria. I’m a native speaker of
German - I speak German every day - and I’m
delighted to be working with Radio Lingua on
Coffee Break German. In each lesson I’ll be
helping you build your vocabulary and master
the basics of the German language.”
“I’m Mark and as the presenter of Coffee

Break Spanish and Coffee Break French, my
role until now has been teaching languages.
However, for Coffee Break German I’m
excited to take on the role of learner and I’m
looking forward to learning along with our

listeners. I’ve been a teacher for many years and I’m fascinated by
languages. In particular I like using my knowledge of one
language to help me learn another and comparing vocabulary and
grammar across the languages. I’ll be asking lots of questions
about German and I hope that these questions help our listeners
learn too!”
READY TO BEGIN?
Thomas begins by asking the question:
bist du fertig?
Are you ready?
Like all languages, German has regional differences in pronunciation.

Where Thomas pronounces fertig with a hard -g ending, in other
parts of the German-speaking world, this final -g sounds more like
‘ch’ in the Scottish word “loch”. Don’t worry about these nuances of
pronunciation just yet! No matter how you pronounce fertig you’ll
be understood by any native speaker!
In answer to this question, we can say “yes”, or “no”:
ja
yes
nein
no
To say “yes, I am ready”, you can say, ja, ich bin fertig. We’ll cover
this in more detail in the future.

SAYING “HELLO” AND “GOODBYE”
Let’s learn some greetings.
hallo
hello
auf Wiedersehen
goodbye
You may be wondering why Wiedersehen has a capital letter. This

is because it is a noun, meaning something like “the next seeing”. It
can also mean “reunion”. All nouns in German must be written with
an initial capital letter.
There is another way to say “goodbye” which is used informally:
tschüss
goodbye, bye
Don’t worry about the initial combination of letters ‘tsch’ in this

word. It may look daunting, but you can pronounce it simply as a
strong ‘ch’ sound (as in English “church”).
If you are going to be seeing someone the next day you can say;
bis morgen
until tomorrow, see you tomorrow
The word morgen means tomorrow, as in bis morgen. However

when written with a capital letter in the noun form it means
“morning”:

guten Morgen
good morning
We’ll learn more greetings for different times of the day in the next
lesson.
ASKING “HOW ARE YOU?” AND REPLYING

To ask the question “how are you?” you can say:
wie geht’s?
how are you?
This literally means “how is it going?”
Let’s look at some possible answers for the question wie geht’s?
gut
good, well
To be more polite, you can add the word for “thank you”:
danke
thank you
Here is a sample conversation:
Mark: Wie geht’s?

Thomas: Gut, danke.
If you want to use the more developed answer, “I am (feeling) well”,

you can use the following construction:

mir geht’s gut
I’m well
Please note that this is not a literal word-for-word translation of “I

am well”. Mir geht’s gut literally means “to me it is going well”,
answering the question, “how is it going?”
Here are some further possible answers for the question wie geht’s?
mir geht’s sehr gut

I’m (feeling) very well
mir geht’s schlecht

I’m feeling bad
mir geht’s nicht so gut

I’m not (feeling) so good
mir geht’s wunderbar

I’m feeling great
mir geht’s ausgezeichnet

I’m feeling fantastic, extraordinary
INTRODUCING JULIA, OUR “CULTURAL

CORRESPONDENT”
“I’m really excited to be involved in Coffee Break German and I’m

sure it’s going to be a huge success. Learning a language is not just
about learning the language itself: so much of a language is
influenced by the cultures which surround it, and that’s why I’m

here as your Cultural Correspondent. In
each episode of Coffee Break German, I’m
going to be bringing you some cultural
information, a little report on a particular
aspect of culture associated with a part of
the German-speaking world. I really hope
that you enjoy these little cultural tidbits
each week.
Like Thomas I’m a native German speaker,
but from quite a different part of the country. I come from
Potsdam in the eastern part of the country, just southwest of
Berlin. I studied in Leipzig and now I live and work in the
wonderful city of Berlin. I’ll be telling you more about Berlin in
future episodes, and indeed about many other parts of Germany,
Austria and Switzerland, and other places where German is
spoken as well.
Ich bin sehr froh - I’m really pleased - to be working on Coffee
Break German now. That’s all from me this week, just a little
introduction. Through my weekly reports you’ll get to know me a
bit better, but more importantly, you’ll get to know the cultures of
the German-speaking areas better too. Danke, und bis bald!”
ich bin sehr froh

I’m very happy
bis bald
see you soon, (literally “until soon”)
INTRODUCING KIRSTEN, OUR “GRAMMAR

GURU”
“My name is Kirsten and I’m going to be your German Grammar

Guru for the course. I love grammar! I’m a bit of a grammar geek

to be honest, and as the Grammar Guru, it’s
my job to help you understand the patterns
of the language, just as Mark and Thomas
have explained. By learning the patterns
you’ll begin to understand how the language
works and you’ll have a really strong
foundation to build upon as you move
forward with the course.
Like Mark, I come from Scotland, but I’ve
been studying German for many years. I
have an honours degree in German and I’ve spent a lot of time
living and working in Germany. In my working life I use German
every single day, and I have many friends from various parts of
the German-speaking world.
I love all things German: the music, the literature, the beautiful
villages, towns and cities I’ve travelled to, from the Baltic coast to
the Alps, and of course the people. They’re so friendly and
welcoming!
I’m not a native speaker of German, but as someone who has
learned German from scratch, I understand the difficulties for
learners, and so I hope I can help you overcome these difficulties,
just as my own teachers did for me when I first started.
I’m delighted to be part of the Coffee Break German team and I’m
looking forward to bringing you my weekly Grammar Guru
segments.”
PUTTING IT ALL TOGETHER

Let’s put eveything we’ve learned together in a conversation. You
should try practising this conversation and substituting the other
words you’ve learned in today’s lesson.

Mark: Hallo, Thomas.
Thomas: Hallo, Mark. Wie geht’s?
Mark: Mir geht’s gut, danke. Wie geht’s?
Thomas: Mir geht’s ausgezeichnet!
Mark: Tschüss.
Thomas: Auf Wiedersehen.
Translation:
Mark: Hello, Thomas.

Thomas: Hello, Mark. How are you?
Mark: I’m well, thanks. How are you?
Thomas: I’m feeling fantastic!
Mark: Bye.
Thomas: Goodbye.
Ready for more? Turn the page to continue with the

bonus materials for this lesson.

BONUS MATERIALS
In each edition of Coffee Break German we cover the basic language
you need to communicate. As part of the study pack we provide some
additional vocabulary to help you increase your range of expression.
This section of bonus materials provides additional content to help
you master the words and phrases contained in the lesson.
✤ Start with the Bonus audio lesson, our “review podcast”
✤ Review the Core Vocabulary and learn the Bonus Vocabulary
CORE VOCABULARY
bist du fertig?
are you ready?
ja
yes
nein
no
hallo
hello
bis morgen
until tomorrow, see you tomorrow
guten Morgen
good morning

wie geht’s?
how are you? / how is it going?
gut
good, well
danke
thank you
mir geht’s gut

I am well (literally “to me it’s going well”)
mir geht’s sehr gut

I am very well
mir geht’s schlecht

I am feeling bad, I’m not feeling well
mir geht’s nicht so gut

I am not feeling so good
mir geht’s wunderbar

I am feeling great
mir geht’s ausgezeichnet

I am feeling fantastic
BONUS VOCABULARY
wie läuft’s?
how’s it going? (informal)

super
great
großartig
wonderful, tremendous
Note the letter ‘ß’ which called Eszett (sz) or scharfes S (sharp s).
The letter is pronounced as an ‘s’ and sounds exactly the same as ‘ss’
in tschüss. Note that in Switzerland and in Liechtenstein, ‘ß’ is
always written as ‘ss’.
es geht so
it’s going so-so - neither good nor bad
mir geht’s schrecklich

I’m feeling awful, dreadful
alles klar
everything’s good
alles klar?
is everything good?
Alles klar literally means “all clear”.

Coffee Break German
Lesson 02
Study Notes

LESSON NOTES
GUTEN TAG, WIE HEISSEN SIE?

In this second lesson of our course we’ll learn to greet people at
different times of the day. We will also learn how to ask the question
“What is your name?” and give suitable answers.
INTRODUCTION
Thomas and Mark began the lesson with a short conversation which
used some of the phrases covered in the last lesson:
Thomas: Hallo Mark. Wie geht’s dir heute?

Mark: Mir geht’s gut, danke. Wie geht’s?
Thomas: Mir geht’s auch gut, danke.
There are a few points we can pick up from this conversation.
heute
today
When Thomas asks Mark wie geht’s dir heute? he is asking, “how
are you today?”

auch
also, too, as well
Thomas said, mir geht’s auch gut, meaning “I’m also feeling well”.
If you wanted to say “I’m also feeling bad” you could say mir geht’s
auch schlecht.
LASS UNS ANFANGEN!

This is the phrase Thomas uses at the beginning of the lesson which
means, “let’s go”, or “let’s get started”.
anfangen
to start, to begin
lass uns...
let us...
REVIEW CONVERSATION
To help consolidate the words and phrases covered in the previous
lesson, Mark and Thomas begin with a conversation. The
conversation contains a few new elements of vocabulary. Study the
conversation below and review the accompanying vocabulary.
Thomas: Guten Morgen, Mark.

Mark: Guten Morgen, Thomas. Wie geht’s?
Thomas: Sehr gut, danke. Wie geht es dir?
Mark: Mir geht’s schlecht.

Thomas: Das ist schade.
Mark: Auf Wiedersehen.
Thomas: Tschüss.
wie geht es dir?

how are you? This is the full version of this phrase: in wie geht’s,
the two words geht es are shortened to geht’s. Note also the use of
the word dir which literally means “to you”. Compare mir geht’s
gut, meaning “to me it goes well”. Mir means “to me”, and dir
means “to you” (informal). So wie geht es dir? literally means
“how is it going to you?”
das ist schade

that is a shame
Thomas explained that wie geht’s dir is an informal way of asking

“how are you?” Just as in French, Spanish and many other languages,
there is an informal and formal form of “you”. Where French has “tu”
and “vous” and Spanish has “tú” and “usted”, German has “du” and
“Sie”. We’ll learn more about these forms in the next lesson. For now,
focus on the formal version of wie geht es dir?:
wie geht es Ihnen?

how are you? (formal)
Remember, this literally means “how is it going to you (formal)?” So

the word Ihnen means “to you (formal)”.
GREETINGS FOR DIFFERENT TIMES OF THE

DAY
We’ve already learned the phrase for “good morning”, guten

Morgen. Some other greetings are presented below:
guten Tag
good day / good afternoon
Guten Tag literally means “good day”, but it’s generally used for the
time between Morgen and Abend (“evening” - see below).
guten Abend
good evening
gute Nacht
good night
You will notice that guten Morgen, guten Tag, and guten Abend
all use the word guten to mean “good”, but gute Nacht has a
different form of the word for “good”. This is explained further by
Kirsten, our Grammar Guru.
GRAMMAR GURU
Grammar is what holds the words and

phrases of a language together. While
Thomas teaches you the words and phrases in
German, I’ll be here to explain why all the
words and phrases have been put together
that way, breaking it down and giving you
little hints and tips along the way so that you
can start making your own sentences in
German.
We’ve seen four greetings, one for each time of day: guten
Morgen, guten Tag, guten Abend and gute Nacht. You will

already have noticed that gute Nacht is the odd one out here,
because it’s the only one where we say gute and not guten.
The word gut is an adjective,
and adjectives in German, Morgen
just like in French, Spanish,
and many other languages, guten Tag
change their ending,
Abend
depending on the word they
are describing. You’re
gute Nacht
probably thinking that the
word Nacht is somehow
different from Morgen, Tag, and Abend - and you’d be right!
These four words are nouns, and nouns in German, again, just like
in French and Spanish, have grammatical gender. Nacht has a
different gender from the other three, and that is why we have
guten Morgen, guten Tag and guten Abend, but gute Nacht.
We will explain this in more detail in a future lesson, but you may
be interested to know that Morgen, Tag and Abend are all
masculine nouns, and Nacht is feminine.
You may well have lots of questions, and that’s a good thing! By
asking questions when learning a language, you understand the
language in more depth. However we’ll 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 I’ve helped solve one little
mystery about these greetings.
INTRODUCING YOURSELF AND ASKING OTHER

PEOPLE “WHAT IS YOUR NAME?”
To ask someone “what is your name” in the formal form, use:

wie heißen Sie?
what is your name? (formal)
You will recognise wie from the question wie geht’s? It literally
means “how”, so the question wie heißen Sie literally means “how
are you called?” Note also the ß in the word heißen. This was
explained in the bonus vocabulary section of lesson 1.
To answer the question wie heißen Sie, you can used the following
expression:
ich heiße ...

I am called ...
An alternative way to give your name is by using the literal

translation of “my name is...”:
mein Name ist ...

my name is...
Note that since Name is a noun (just like Morgen, Abend, Nacht,
etc.) it begins with a capital letter.
CULTURAL CORRESPONDENT
In today’s report I’m going to be looking at

where German is actually spoken. Do have
a look at the map overleaf to help you
understand where I’m talking about!
German is of course the official language of

Germany, Switzerland and Austria, but it’s also an official
language in Belgium, along with French and Flemish; 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, as a German
learner, 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
German-speaking countries in Europe. Shown in red (clockwise):

Germany, Austria, Switzerland. Arrows from north to south point to
Belgium, Luxembourg and Liechtenstein.

that there over five million speakers of German living in the US?
There are also huge communities of German-speakers in Brazil
and Argentina.
German is 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 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.
We’ve already heard examples of this in our lessons.
UNTIL THE NEXT TIME...

The final phrase introduced in this lesson was “until the next time”:
bis zum nächsten Mal

until the next time / see you next time
We will see further examples of the word bis in the bonus vocabulary
section.
ONE MORE THING...

Did you happen to notice the title of this lesson? On the first page we
listed the title as:
GUTEN TAG, WIE HEISSEN SIE?

Good day. What is your name?

The key point to notice here is that the graphic design of these lesson
notes uses capitals for headings. However, we have seen in the
content of the lesson that the word heißen is written with the Eszett,
ß. It is important to know that when writing in upper case it is
normal to use “SS” for “ß”. Indeed, in Switzerland, “ss” is always used
instead of ß.
Well done if you spotted this use of “ss” in the title!


BONUS MATERIALS
CORE VOCABULARY
lass uns anfangen
let’s get started, let’s begin
wie geht es dir?

how are you? (informal)
wie geht es Ihnen?

how are you (formal)
heute
today
guten Morgen
good morning
guten Tag
good day; good afternoon

guten Abend
good evening
gute Nacht
good night
wie heißen Sie?

what is your name?
ich heiße ...

I’m called ...
mein Name ist ...

my name is ...
bis zum nächsten Mal

until the next time
BONUS VOCABULARY
einen schönen Abend
(have) a nice evening
bis nächste Woche

until next week / see you next week
bis später
until later / see you later
bis bald
see you soon

schlaf gut
sleep well.
Note that schlaf gut is the informal version which you would use to
a family member, for example.

Coffee Break German
Lesson 03
Study Notes

LESSON NOTES
ICH KOMME AUS DEUTSCHLAND. UND SIE?

In this lesson of Coffee Break German we will learn to talk about
where we come from, and ask other people where they come from.
We’ll cover the names for a number of countries, and learn greetings
used in different parts of the German-speaking world.
INTRODUCTION
Following a brief review of the question wie heißen Sie? Thomas
and Mark began the lesson with a short conversation:
Mark: Bist du fertig?

Thomas: Ja...
Mark: Dann lass uns anfangen!
We have encountered the phrases bist du fertig? (are you ready?)

and lass uns anfangen (let’s begin) before. The additional word to
consider here is dann:
dann
then, so

dann lass uns anfangen
then let’s begin / so let’s begin
SIE AND DU
In lesson 2 we learned the question wie heißen Sie? meaning “what
is your name?” This is the formal version of this sentence: as we
learned last time there are two forms for “you” in German, just as
there are in many other languages. Our Grammar Guru Kirsten will
tell us more about this later in the lesson.
For now, let’s consider the informal way of asking the question, “what
is your name?”:
wie heißt du?

what is your name? (informal)
Note that heißen becomes heißt when using the informal form. We
will study this pattern later.
WHAT ABOUT YOU?

If you are asked a question in German, you can direct the same
question back to the person who asked you the question by using the
phrase:
und Sie?
and you? (formal)
Here is an example of this phrase in a conversation:

Mark: Wie heißen Sie?
Thomas: Ich heiße Thomas. Und Sie?
Mark: Ich heiße Mark.
Of course, if you are using the informal form, you can replace the Sie
with du:
und du?
and you? (informal)
Mark: Wie heißt du?

Thomas: Ich heiße Thomas. Und du?
Mark: Ich heiße Mark.
TALKING ABOUT WHERE YOU’RE FROM

Using the formal form, to ask someone “where do you come from?” or
“where are you from?” you use the following phrase:
woher kommen Sie?

where do you come from?
The word wo means “where”, and woher means “where from” or

“from where”, so the sentence literally means “where from come
you?”
To answer the question, Thomas says:

ich komme aus Deutschland
I come from Germany
Since Mark is from Scotland, he has to say:
ich komme aus Schottland

I come from Scotland
Thomas and Mark have a role-play conversation in which they meet

each other in a business context and introduce themselves. This
conversation uses a number of phrases we have covered so far in our
lessons.
Mark: Guten Tag.

Thomas: Guten Tag. Wie heißen Sie?
Mark: Ich heiße Mark. Und Sie?
Thomas: Mein Name ist Thomas. Woher kommen Sie?
Mark: Ich komme aus Schottland. Woher kommen Sie?
Thomas: Ich komme aus Deutschland.
Mark: Sehr gut. Auf Wiedersehen.
Thomas: Danke, tschüss.
Another phrase which could be useful in this context is the German

for “it’s nice to meet you” or “pleased to meet you”:
es freut mich
it’s nice to meet you
Note that you can shorten this expression to freut mich. It literally
means “it’s a joy to me”. Es freut mich is already a shortened form
of this longer phrase:

es freut mich Sie kennenzulernen
it’s a pleasure to get to know you
We can add this phrase to another sample conversation:
Thomas: Guten Morgen.

Mark: Guten Morgen. Wie geht’s?
Thomas: Gut, danke. Wie geht’s Ihnen?
Mark: Mir geht’s ausgezeichnet. Woher kommen Sie?
Thomas: Ich komme aus Deutschland. Und Sie?
Mark: Ich komme aus Schottland. Ich heiße Mark. Wie heißen
Sie?
Thomas: Ich heiße Thomas.
Mark: Es freut mich.
Thomas: Es freut mich auch.
Note the word auch used by Thomas in this conversation:
es freut mich auch

I’m also pleased to meet you
The word auch can be used with a subject pronoun (e.g. ich, du,
Sie, etc.):
ich auch
me too
du auch
you too (informal)
Sie auch
you too (formal)

Note in particular with ich auch, the literal translation is “I too”,
rather than “me too”. It’s important to note little nuances of this to
avoid mistranslating in the future.
Note also the word order in this sentence:
ich komme auch aus Schottland

I also come from Scotland
mir geht’s auch gut

I’m also well / things are also good for me
ICH KOMME AUS ...

Listed below are some other countries within the context of the
phrase “I come from...”:
ich komme aus England

I come from England
ich komme aus Irland

I come from Ireland
ich komme aus Wales

I come from Wales
ich komme aus Amerika

I come from “America”
ich komme aus den U.S.A.

I come from the U.S.A.

Note that since you’re talking about “the United States” you need the
definite article den here. We’ll explain more about definite articles in
future lessons. The actual translation of “the United States” is die
Vereinigte Staaten. It’s probably easier to stick to ich komme
aus den U.S.A. for now!
ich komme aus Kanada

I come from Canada
ich komme aus Autralien

I come from Australia
ich komme aus Österreich

I come from Austria
ich komme aus der Schweiz

I come from Switzerland
“Hello from me, Julia, your Cultural

Correspondent. Last time I told you about the
different parts of the world where German is
spoken. It’s also important to know that even
within Germany itself there are different
cultures. There are some things which are
associated with the country as a whole, but
you’ll find that there are other aspects,
whether that be food or architecture, or traditions which are very
different from one place to another.
Historically Germany was like a patchwork of different kingdoms,

so if I explain to you that, for example, we have sixteen different

school systems in the different federal states of our country, I think
you’ll understand what I mean!
The other big difference is the accent and dialects used. I’m sure
you know by now that Thomas is from the south and he
pronounces some words a bit differently from me. That’s ok, I
understand him perfectly, but I thought it would be nice to teach
you some greetings you’ll come across in the different parts of the
German-speaking world.
Let’s start in the north: near the North Sea and Baltic Sea coasts,
you’ll hear moin or moin, moin, meaning Morgen, or “good
morning”, but you can use this at other times of the day too.
In the south of Germany and throughout Austria you’ll often hear

servus, a greeting both for saying “hello” and “goodbye”.
Greetings in different parts of the German-speaking world: Moin in

the north, Servus or Grüß Gott in the south and in Austria, and
Grüezi in Switzerland.
Another southern German and Austria expression for “hello” is

Grüß Gott. This literally means, “greet God”, which might sound
a bit strange, but these areas are traditionally Catholic, so it

makes sense. In fact, I guarantee that you’ll hear Grüß Gott when
you walk into a shop anywhere in Austria!
One last greeting, this time from Switzerland, is Grüezi, and like
Grüß Gott, it’s only used when you meet someone, not when
you’re saying your goodbyes.
So you’re now fully equipped to greet native German speakers

anywhere you go.”
GRAMMAR GURU
“Today we’ve introduced you to the two

forms of the word “you” in German. As
Thomas explained, du is the informal
form, and it’s used for talking to someone
you know. Sie is the formal form, and
that’s used for talking to someone you
don’t know. If you’re a school pupil, for
example, you’d use this when talking to your teacher. If you’ve
ever studied French, it’s the same idea as “tu” and “vous”, and it’s
like “tú” and “usted” in Spanish.
Although we only use one form of “you” in English nowadays, we
actually used to have two: we used “thou” for informal situations,
and “you” for formal ones. In fact this usage still exists in parts of
the English-speaking world today.
Anyway, two forms for “you”: du and Sie. So far, so good! But
we’ve also learned that these different forms cause changes to the
verbs which follow them. We learned du heißt, but Sie heißen,
so you can see that the verb has a different ending after each one.
We can see the same endings if we use those formal and informal
forms with the other verb you’ve learned today, kommen, which
means “to come”. We had the formal question woher kommen

Sie? and then the informal version of that sentence would be
woher kommst du? Does that make sense?
So that you can see these changes more clearly, let’s consider these
verbs side by side: informal first, followed by formal.
INFORMAL FORMAL
du heißt Sie heißen
du kommst Sie kommen
I’ll be explaining exactly how to make these changes later in the

course. For now, try to focus on the pattern of the formal Sie
heißen changing to du heißt for the informal form; and Sie
kommen becoming du kommst.
Hopefully this makes sense, and you’ll learn more about verbs in
future lessons.”


BONUS MATERIALS
CORE VOCABULARY
grüß Gott
greeting in the south of Germany and Austria, literally meaning
“greet God”
wie heißt du?

what is your name? (informal)
und Sie?
and you? what about you? (formal)
und du?
and you? what about you? (informal)
woher kommen Sie?

where do you come from? (formal)

woher kommst du?
where do you come from (informal)
ich komme aus...

I come from
Deutschland
Germany
Schottland
Scotland
England
England
Irland
Ireland
Wales
Wales
Amerika
America
ich komme aus den U.S.A.

I come from the USA
Australien
Australia
Österreich
Austria

der Schweiz
Switzerland
ich komme aus der Schweiz

I come from Switzerland
es freut mich
I’m pleased to meet you (shortened form)

I’m pleased to meet you (full phrase)
Sie auch?
you too? (formal)
du auch?
you too? (informal)
ich auch
me too
BONUS VOCABULARY
Japan
Japan
Südafrika
South Africa

China
China
Italien
Italy
Frankreich
France
Spanien
Spain
Niederlande
the Netherlands
Belgien
Belgium
Norwegen
Norway
Dänemark
Denmark
Indien
India
Schweden
Sweden

Coffee Break German
Lesson 04
Study Notes

LESSON NOTES
ICH KOMME AUS ÖSTERREICH ABER JETZT

WOHNE ICH IN MÜNCHEN
This lesson will help you take what you learned in the previous lesson
that bit further. You will learn to say where you live and you’ll also
learn to deal with word order changes in German when you introduce
a word like jetzt, meaning “now”. We will also cover the Karneval
traditions in the German-speaking area.
INTRODUCTION
The introductory conversation between Thomas and Mark used a new
word:
heute
today
Mark: Hallo, Thomas. Wie geht’s dir heute?

Thomas: Mir geht es sehr gut heute.
We then used this word in the question was lernen wir heute?
was lernen wir heute?

what are we learning today?

Thomas also introduced a new expression in response to “let’s begin”,
lass uns anfangen:
los geht’s
let’s go
REVIEW
The lesson began with some review of previously learned content:
woher kommen Sie?

where are you from? (formal)
mir geht’s auch gut

I am also well
ich heiße Thomas und ich komme aus Deutschland

my name is Thomas and I come from Germany
MAKING A SENTENCE NEGATIVE

So far we have studied the question woher kommen Sie? but it is
also possible to use kommen Sie with specific countries to form
another question:
kommen Sie aus Deutschland

do you come from Germany?
This question results in a “yes” or “no” answer:
ja, ich komme aus Deutschland

yes, I come from Germany

nein, ich komme nicht aus Deutschland
no, I don’t come from Germany
We have already seen the word nicht in the expression mir geht’s
nicht so gut. The word nicht comes after the verb to make the
sentence negative. Consider the following examples:
ich komme nicht aus der Schweiz

I don’t come from Switzerland
mein Name ist nicht Thomas

my name is not Thomas
Sie heißen nicht Jana

You are not called Jana
ASKING “WHERE ARE YOU FROM” IN THE

INFORMAL FORM
We know woher kommen Sie? (where are you from) using the
formal form. The informal version of this is:
woher kommst du?

where are you from? (informal)
We can also use kommst du... to ask a specific question:
kommst du aus Berlin?

do you come from Berlin? (informal)

ICH, DU AND SIE VERB FORMS
So far we have seen the verbs heißen and kommen in the ich (I),
du (you informal) and Sie (you formal) forms. Have a look at the
table below and note the patterns of the verbs as they change
depending on the “person” they are talking about:
ICH DU SIE
ich heiße du heißt Sie heißen
ich komme du kommst Sie kommen
Based on the table above, note that the ich form ends in -e, the du
form ends in an -st sound, and the Sie form ends in -en. It is also
important to note at this stage that this -en form is the form we find
in the dictionary - the “infinitive” form of the verb. When we
introduce verbs in this course we will always give this infinitive form,
for example in vocabulary lists. We will cover the infinitive in more
detail later.
The patterns above are predictable, so when we introduce a new verb,

wohnen, meaning “to live”, we can already guess what happens to
the verb for ich and du. The table below gives the three forms of
wohnen: “I live”, “you live (informal)” and “you live (formal)”:
ICH DU SIE
ich wohne du wohnst Sie wohnen
As we learn more verbs, you will find that these patterns are very

regular and you can easily predict how the words change, depending
on who they are referring to.
Thomas gives some examples of wohnen using different cities in

Germany, Austria and Switzerland. It is important to note that very
often cities have different pronunciations or completely different
names in the other language. The examples mentioned in the lesson
were Munich, which is München in German; Vienna, which is
Wien; and Geneva, which is Genf.
I COME FROM GERMANY, BUT NOW I LIVE IN

AUSTRIA
Consider the following sentence carefully:
ich komme aus Deutschland, aber jetzt wohne ich in

Österreich
I come from Germany, but now I live in Austria.
jetzt
now
aber
but
Did you notice something strange with the word order in the second
part of that sentence? After aber jetzt the subject pronoun ich (“I”)
and the verb wohne (“live”) change position. For more information
about why this happens, we turn to our Grammar Guru.

GRAMMAR GURU
Word order in German is not always the

same as it is in English. I’m going to try to
explain why that is, and give you a rule so
that you can make up your own sentences
with perfect German grammar.
Let’s split our example into two simple sentences:
Sentence 1: Ich komme aus Deutschland.
Sentence 2: Jetzt wohne ich in Österreich.
In the first sentence the word order is the same as in English: the
word komme (“come”) comes after the subject pronoun ich (“I”),
so “I come” is ich komme. In the second sentence, however, you’ll
notice that the verb and pronoun come in a different order:
wohne ich, literally “live I”. This is because in a simple sentence
in German the verb always comes in what we call “second
position”.
2ND POSITION
Ich komme aus Deutschland.
Jetzt wohne ich in Österreich.
So no matter what comes first, if it’s a pronoun like ich or an

adverb like jetzt, the verb will take the second position in the
sentence.
Now this does not necessarily mean that the verb is the second
word in the sentence. We could, for example, change the sentence
around and say aus Deutschland komme ich, stressing the fact
that it’s Germany you come from, as opposed to Austria or
Switzerland, etc.

2ND POSITION
Aus Deutschland komme ich.
Here, position 1 is taken up by a phrase with two words which

means that the verb, although it’s still in second position, is
actually the third word in the sentence. That is why the second
position is also called the second idea or second concept.
This may all sound a bit complicated, but don’t worry about it!
We’ll hear lots of examples of this as we move through our German
lessons, and the more often you hear examples of these patterns,
the more firmly they’ll become stuck in your mind! Before you
know it, you’ll be rattling them off without even thinking about
them!
FURTHER PRACTICE
Mark and Thomas gave some further examples of this construction:
ich komme aus Irland, aber jetzt wohne ich in

London
I come from Ireland, but now I live in London
ich komme aus Österreich, aber jetzt wohne ich in

Frankfurt
I come from Austria, but now I live in Frankfurt
ich komme aus Kanada, aber jetzt wohne ich in

Frankreich
I come from Canada, but now I live in France

ich komme aus Spanien, aber jetzt wohne ich in
Schottland
I come from Spain, but now I live in Scotland
ich komme aus den U.S.A., aber jetzt wohne ich in

der Schweiz
I come from the USA, but now I live in Switzerland
This final example was quite difficult because we have to think about
aus den U.S.A. and aus der Schweiz.
das war schwer

that was difficult
“Hallo Mark, Servus, Thomas und Moin moin

to all our Coffee Break German listeners! It’s
Julia here, your Cultural Correspondent, and
today we’re going to be talking about a
festival which is celebrated by many German
speakers.
If you are by chance planning a trip to

Cologne in February, then don’t be shocked
by strange costumes, women taking scissors to men’s ties, and
children running around in the streets when they ought to be in
school! It’s Karneval time, celebrated in many parts of Germany,
Switzerland and Austria.
Of course, carnivals exist throughout the world: think of Mardi

Gras in New Orleans, or the Rio Carnival, but there are some
different traditions in this part of the world.

Maybe the most famous Karneval in Germany is the one in
Cologne, or Köln as we say in German. The Karneval lasts a
number of days and the high point is on Rosenmontag when
everyone parades through the streets in fancy dress, watching the
magnificent floats which often feature daring caricatures, poking
fun at political figures.
Last time we mentioned greetings in different parts of Germany.

There’s only one greeting you need to know which will put a smile
on any inhabitant of Cologne at this time. If you say - or shout -
Kölle Alaaf, meaning “long live Cologne”, then you are
guaranteed at the very least a smile.
If you’re at Karneval then you may well get to taste one of the
most traditional foods eaten at this time - the famous Berliner.
Yes, that’s the same one mentioned by Kennedy back in 1963!
The famous Berliner, available in many flavours - including Senf - at

Karneval time.

These doughnuts, traditionally filled with plum jam, are eaten all
year round. However, at Karneval time you get them with every
possible filling you can imagine. There’s even a little “in-joke”
among locals, so be careful you don’t end up with the doughnut
filled with Senf - mustard!
On that note, zurück zu Thomas und Mark ins Studio. Tschüss!
DAS REICHT FÜR HEUTE

In the final part of the lesson, Thomas explained how to say “that’s all
for today”:
das reicht für heute

that’s all for today


BONUS MATERIALS
CORE VOCABULARY
heute
today
was lernen wir heute?

what are we learning today?
los geht’s
let’s go
woher kommst du?

where do you come from? (informal)
wohnen
to live
ich wohne in ...

I live in ...

du wohnst
you live (informal)
Sie wohnen
you live (formal)
München
Munich
Wien
Vienna
Zürich
Zurich
Genf
Geneva
aber
but
jetzt
now
ich komme aus Österreich, aber jetzt wohne ich in

Deutschland
I come from Austria but now I live in Germany
Frankreich
France
Spanien
Spain

schwer
difficult, heavy
das war schwer

that was difficult
das reicht für heute

that’s all for today
BONUS VOCABULARY
hier
here
sind Sie von hier?

are you from here? (formal)
bist du von hier?

are you from here? (informal)
ich bin von hier

I am from here
ich bin nicht von hier

I am not from here
ich wohne in einem Dorf

I live in a village
ich wohne in einer Stadt

I live in a town
... namens X
... which is called X
ich wohne in einer Stadt, namens Schönstadt

I live in a town which is called Schönstadt.

Coffee Break German
Lesson 05
Study Notes

LESSON NOTES
DAS IST MEINE SCHWESTER. SIE HEISST JULIA.

By the end of this lesson you will be able to introduce members of
your family to your new-found German-speaking friends. You will
also understand gender in German and know the three definite
articles.
INTRODUCTION
In their introductory conversation, Thomas and Mark introduced a
new concept. Consider the following conversation:
Thomas: Also, Mark, wie geht’s dir heute?

Mark: Mir geht’s ausgezeichnet.
Mark continued this conversation by asking the question to Thomas,

using the expression “and you”: und dir? However, Thomas
explained that this is not correct.
Since the question wie geht’s dir? literally means “how is it going to
you?” it is necessary to respond by saying, “and to you?” rather than
just “and you?”:
und dir?
and (to) you? - in response to wie geht’s dir?
The correct conversation then followed:

Thomas: Wie geht’s dir, Mark?
Mark: Mir geht’s ausgezeichnet. Und dir?
Thomas: Mir geht’s auch gut, danke.
also
well, so
The word also is a “false friend”, a word which looks like an English
word but means something else. It was used in the opening to the
lesson:
Thomas: Bist du fertig?

Mark: Ja. Also, los geht’s!
Thomas: Los geht’s!
REVIEW
The lesson began with some review of previously learned content.
Last time we covered two main verbs: wohnen (“to live”) and
kommen (“to come”).
ich komme aus Deutschland

I come from Germany
ich wohne in Schottland

I live in Scotland
We also reviewed the idea covered in the previous lesson of “I come

from Scotland, but now I live in Germany”. Remember that when a
sentence or phrase begins with jetzt (now), the verb and the subject
have to change places:

ich wohne in Deutschland
I live in Germany
jetzt wohne ich in Deutschland

Now I live in Germany. (“Now live I in Germany”)
The review sentences used were as follows:
ich komme aus Paris, aber jetzt wohne ich in Tokyo

I come from Paris but now I live in Tokyo
ich komme aus Schweden, aber jetzt wohne ich in

der Schweiz
I come from Sweden but now I live in Switzerland
hier
here
ich komme aus den U.S.A., aber jetzt wohne ich hier
in Schottland
I come from the USA but now I live here in Scotland
INTRODUCING MEMBERS OF YOUR FAMILY

Study this list of words for four common family members and use the
audio recording to make sure your pronunciation is correct. Pay
particular attention to -u- sounds! Note also the capital letters for
German nouns.
die Mutter (f)

the mother

die Schwester (f)
the sister
der Vater (m)

the father
der Bruder (m)

the brother
You will notice that there are different words for “the”, depending on
whether these words are masculine or feminine. Father and brother
are masculine (m) and mother and sister are feminine (f). We refer to
this concept as “gender”.
If we are to introduce members of our family, we need to know how

to say “my...”:
meine Mutter
my mother
meine Schwester
my sister
mein Vater
my father
mein Bruder
my brother
To introduce a member of your family to someone, you use the

expression das ist...:

das ist mein Bruder
this is my brother
das ist mein Vater

this is my father
das ist meine Mutter

this is my mother
das ist meine Schwester

this is my sister
Note that das ist... does not change, so it is used both to introduce
males and females.
Vater
mein
Bruder
das ist
Mutter
meine
Schwester
The table above may help you to see the construction of this sentence,
where mein is used for the masculine words, Vater and Bruder,
and meine is used for feminine words Mutter and Schwester.
SAYING WHAT SOMEONE ELSE IS CALLED

We have already learned the verb heißen, meaning “to be called”. So
far we have seen ich heiße, “I am called...”, du heißt, “you are
called” (informal), and Sie heißen, “you are called” (formal).

We can now add the following expressions to this:
er heißt ...
he is called...
sie heißt
she is called ...
Note the difference between the words sie meaning “she”, and Sie
(with an initial capital letter), meaning “you” (formal).
Equally you can use mein Vater or meine Mutter instead of er or

sie:
mein Vater heißt Hans

my father is called Hans
meine Mutter heißt Nicole

my mother is called Nicole
Mark gave the following example, introducing members of his family:
Meine Mutter heißt Nicole, mein Vater heißt Hans,

meine Schwester heißt Julia, und mein Bruder heißt
Thomas.
My mother is called Nicole, my father is called Hans, my sister is
called Julia and my brother is called Thomas.
TALKING ABOUT YOUR CHILDREN

The words for “son” and “daughter” fall into the same patterns as
those for “father” and “mother”, etc.

der Sohn (m)
the son
mein Sohn heißt Markus

my son is called Markus
die Tochter (f)

the daughter
meine Tochter heißt Janina

my daughter is called Janina
There is also a word for “child”:
das Kind (n)

the child
The word Kind falls into a category of nouns in German which are
neither feminine nor masculine: these words are “neuter”, and as you
can see, the word for “the” changes again: das Kind.
GRAMMAR GURU
Today’s grammar topic is the gender of

nouns in German. We briefly mentioned this
in lesson 2, and if you’ve learned any other
languages, like Spanish or French for
example, you may be familiar with the idea
of grammatical gender and how it causes
changes to words like articles and
adjectives. In German, like in French and

Spanish, we have masculine and feminine. However, German also
has a third gender, called “neuter”. We’ve already had some
examples of these:
der Sohn (m) - the son
die Tochter (f) - the daughter
das Kind (n) - the child
You can hear that the word for “the” changes, depending on the
gender of the noun. The technical term for the word for “the” is the
definite article. The masculine definite article therefore is der; die
is the feminine definite article and das is the neuter definite
article: der Sohn, die Tochter and das Kind.
However it’s not just people who have grammatical gender in
German: things do too! Unfortunately it’s not always as easy to
remember the gender for objects as it is for people, so we’d suggest
that every time you learn a noun in German, it’s best to learn the
definite article along with the word. As you work through the
course, you’ll begin to pick up tips for working out the gender of a
noun, but for now try to learn the gender of the word when you’re
learning it.
Let’s consider some more examples:
der Computer (m) - the computer
die Bank (f) - the bank
das Haus (n) - the house
You’ll notice from the recordings that these words sound very
similar to their English counterparts, but often words can be
written differently in German, like Haus - “house”. It’s also worth
remembering that nouns in German are always written with
capital letters.
To recap, here is a table listing the definite article in the three
genders:

GENDER DEFINITE ARTICLE EXAMPLES
der Sohn
masculine der
der Computer
die Schwester
feminine die
die Bank
das Kind
neuter das
das Haus
PLEASED TO MEET YOU...

Thomas reminded Mark about the phrase es freut mich, meaning
“pleased to meet you”. The full version of this phrase has a formal
and informal form:

I’m pleased to meet you (formal)
es freut mich dich kennenzulernen

I’m pleased to meet you (informal)
COMING UP NEXT TIME

In the final section of the lesson while talking about the next lesson,
Thomas asked Mark a question:
Mark, was lernen wir nächstes Mal?

Mark, what are we learning next time?
You will already be familiar with the phrase bis zum nächsten Mal.

For the time being don’t worry about why nächsten becomes
nächstes in this sentence, but we will explain this in a future lesson!
Mark explained that the next lesson will focus on numbers and
prices, and Thomas commented:
das klingt gut

that sounds good
In this lesson our Cultural Correspondent feature is included in the
bonus audio lesson. However, we’ve included the transcript in our
notes:
Hallo Mark, hallo Thomas, und hallo an alle

unsere Coffee Break German Zuhörer!
It’s Julia here, your Cultural Correspondent,

and since you’ve been learning to talk about
your family, I thought today that we would
talk about family life in Germany. You’ll
understand that it’s hard to say what a
‘typical’ German family looks like. Although
most people might have two children, every family is different and
it’s impossible to generalise.
One thing which I think you may find interesting is about the
options German parents have when their baby is born, as this
might be something that’s different from the situation in your
country.
Since 2007 we have had a new law in Germany which makes it

possible for both parents to get paid parental leave. The
government wants to encourage both parents to take the time to
bond with their child, so if only the mum stays at home she is paid

about 70% of her salary for twelve months maximum. If, on the
other hand, both parents decide to share the time with their baby,
they get fourteen months paid altogether. It’s up to them how they
divide the months between them. Mostly the mums stay at home
for twelve, and the dads stay at home for the other two months.
It’s called Elternzeit - that means something like “parent time”,
or parental leave. German parents can take Elternzeit for three
years altogether, but only the first twelve (or fourteen) months
will be paid. Still, this means that even though they are not paid
for the rest of the three years, their employers can’t fire them, and
have to keep their positions for them for when they return.
Once mum or dad decides to return to work, they enroll their child
either in a Kindergarten, or they take their child to a so-called
Tagesmutter which is a kind of nanny or child-minder who looks
after up to five children in their own home. Tagesmutter literally
means “day mother”. This is quite a common concept used by
many parents in Germany, because often there are not enough
spaces available at Kindergarten.
From the age of three, most children change to Kindergarten,

and they start school at the age of six. If they’re ready to begin
earlier they can start at the age of five.
hallo an alle unsere CBG Zuhörer

hello to all our CBG listeners
Elternzeit (f)
“parent time”, parental leave
Kindergarten (m)
nursery school, kindergarten

Tagesmutter (f)
child-minder, nanny
DAS REICHT FÜR HEUTE


CORE VOCABULARY
und dir?
and you? (in response to wie geht’s dir?)
hier
here
die Mutter (f)

the mother
die Schwester (f)

the sister
der Vater (m)

the father
der Bruder (m)

the brother
mein (m)
my (for masculine words)
meine (f)
my (for feminine words)
das ist mein Bruder

this is my brother
das ist meine Schwester

that is my sister

er heißt ...
he is called ...
sie heißt ...

she is called ...
mein Vater heißt ...

my father is called ...
meine Mutter heißt ...

my mother is called ...
der Sohn
the son
die Tochter
the daughter
das Kind
the child

it’s nice to meet you (formal)
es freut mich dich kennenzulernen

it’s nice to meet you (informal)
was lernen wir nächstes Mal?

what are we learning next time?
das klingt gut

that sounds good

BONUS VOCABULARY
der Onkel (m)
the uncle
die Tante (f)

the aunt
der Großvater (m)

the grandfather
der Opa (m)

the grandfather
die Großmutter (f)

the grandmother
die Oma (f)

the grandmother
der Cousin (m)

the (male) cousin
die Cousine (f)

the (female) cousin
der Freund (m)

the (male) friend
die Freundin (f)

the (female) friend

der Partner (m)
the (male) partner
die Partnerin (f)

the (female) partner
sie heißen ...

they are called ...

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What are some common greetings and farewells in German?

What are some common greetings and farewells in German?

How do you ask 'How are you?' in German and what are some common responses?

How do you ask 'How are you?' in German and what are some common responses?

Coffee Break German

Coffee Break German: Lesson 01 - Notes page 1 of 12

HALLO, WIE GEHT’S?

INTRODUCING OUR PRESENTERS, THOMAS

“My name is Thomas. I’m from Bavaria in the

“I’m Mark and as the presenter of Coffee

Coffee Break German: Lesson 01 - Notes page 2 of 12

Like all languages, German has regional differences in pronunciation.

In answer to this question, we can say “yes”, or “no”:

Coffee Break German: Lesson 01 - Notes page 3 of 12

You may be wondering why Wiedersehen has a capital letter. This

There is another way to say “goodbye” which is used informally:

Don’t worry about the initial combination of letters ‘tsch’ in this

The word morgen means tomorrow, as in bis morgen. However

Coffee Break German: Lesson 01 - Notes page 4 of 12

ASKING “HOW ARE YOU?” AND REPLYING

This literally means “how is it going?”

Here is a sample conversation:

Mark: Wie geht’s?

If you want to use the more developed answer, “I am (feeling) well”,

Coffee Break German: Lesson 01 - Notes page 5 of 12

Please note that this is not a literal word-for-word translation of “I

mir geht’s sehr gut

mir geht’s schlecht

mir geht’s nicht so gut

mir geht’s wunderbar

mir geht’s ausgezeichnet

INTRODUCING JULIA, OUR “CULTURAL

“I’m really excited to be involved in Coffee Break German and I’m

Coffee Break German: Lesson 01 - Notes page 6 of 12

ich bin sehr froh

INTRODUCING KIRSTEN, OUR “GRAMMAR

“My name is Kirsten and I’m going to be your German Grammar

Coffee Break German: Lesson 01 - Notes page 7 of 12

PUTTING IT ALL TOGETHER

Coffee Break German: Lesson 01 - Notes page 8 of 12

Mark: Hello, Thomas.

Ready for more? Turn the page to continue with the

Coffee Break German: Lesson 01 - Notes page 9 of 12

✤ Start with the Bonus audio lesson, our “review podcast”

✤ Review the Core Vocabulary and learn the Bonus Vocabulary

Coffee Break German: Lesson 01 - Notes page 10 of 12

mir geht’s gut

mir geht’s sehr gut

mir geht’s schlecht

mir geht’s nicht so gut

mir geht’s wunderbar

mir geht’s ausgezeichnet

Coffee Break German: Lesson 01 - Notes page 11 of 12

mir geht’s schrecklich

Alles klar literally means “all clear”.

Coffee Break German: Lesson 01 - Notes page 12 of 12

Coffee Break German: Lesson 03 - Notes page 1 of 13

GUTEN TAG, WIE HEISSEN SIE?