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GERMAN

UNIT 1: Greetings

Albert Einstein

1879 - 1955

Part of Einstein’s charm was his disheveled look. In addition to his uncombed hair, one of Einstein’s peculiar habits was to never wear socks. To Einstein, socks were a pain because they often would get holes in them.

Einstein himself did not create the atomic bomb or even work on the Manhattan Project (he was denied the security clearance by the U.S. Army, which looked askance at his left-leaning politics). But both Einstein’s letters to then-U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt outlining the theory of a uranium fission bomb and his famous formula, E=mc², linking mass and energy, helped spur the development of nuclear weapons. Einstein later regretted his involvement, telling Newsweek that “had I known that the Germans would not succeed in developing an atomic bomb, I would have done nothing.”

 

See more facts here

English            

German:

Transcription:

 

Dialogue 1

Please meet Albert Einstein, a German-born physicist who developed the general theory of relativity, among other feats. He is considered the most influential physicist of the 20th century with his work having a major impact on the development of atomic energy.

 

 

He's looking right at you.

With sadness and pain.

Why?

Ok, I'll leave that between you two.  

 

 

I think he's trying to say something.

You definitely know each other.

Anyway, let's see how you can greet him back.

Good morning

Guten Morgen

[ɡuːten mɔʁɡən]

Good day

Guten Tag

[ɡuːten ˈtɒɡ] 

Good afternoon

Guten Nachmittag

[ɡuːten ˈnaːx.mɪˌtaːk] 

Now, you are ready

to answer to Mr. Einstein.

Ah, right. You don't know this expression yet.

"Wie geht es Ihnen" means "How are you"

  [vi: ˈɡeːt es ˈʔiːnən]     lit: how goes it to you?

 

Now, let's see how you can answer to this question.

Here are some examples:

Very good, thank you

Sehr gut, danke 

[zeːɐ̯ gut ˈdaŋkə]

English            

German:

Transcription:

 

Now you know what to answer.

Let's continue.

 

Good evening

Guten Abend

[ɡuːten abent]

It's doing well, thank you

Es geht mir gut, danke 

[es ge:t miːɐ̯ gut ˈdaŋkə]

Dialogue 2

Hello

Hallo 

[haˈloː] 

English            

German:

Transcription:

 

Good night
Gute Nacht

[ɡuːte naxt]

I'm Ok, thank you

Es geht, danke 

[es ge:t ˈdaŋkə]

Capitalization Rule

 

All nouns are capitalized in German, wherever they appear in a sentence. This is a nearly unique feature in a contemporary language, and it’s helpful in parsing sentences when there are words you don’t know.

English used to have the same capitalization rule some time ago, as you can see in old documents like the U.S. Constitution.

German:    - Guten Morgen, mein Freund!

                        [ɡuːten mɔʁɡən maɪ̯n fʁɔʏnt]

English:     - Goog morning, my friend!

                

 

Mr. Einstein:    - Guten Morgen, mein Freund!

You:                   - ................./e.g. Good Afternoon/.

Mr. Einstein:    - Wie geht es Ihnen?

You:                   - Pardon?

Mr. Einstein:    - Wie geht es Ihnen?

You:                   - ............../e.g. Very good, thank you/

Mr. Einstein:    - Ich langweile mich. Auf wiedersehen.

You:                   - Eh?

Ok, that was rude. 

Not you. Your reaction was totally appropriate.

Mr. Einstein said "I am bored"

"Ich langweile mich"

   [ɪç ˈlaŋvaɪlə mɪç]

and then said goodbye

Auf wiedersehen

 [aʊ̯f ˈviːdɐˌzeːn̩]

 

Before learning other ways to say goodbye, 

let's look at German personal pronouns:

Ponouns as Subject

 

Singular                            Plural

 

                    I  -  ich [ɪç]                      we   -  wir [viːɐ̯]

 

you (informal)  -  du [du:]                you  - ihr [iːɐ̯]

 

you (formal) - Sie [zi:]                      they -  sie [zi:]

 

                  he   -  er [eːɐ̯]

 

                 she  -  sie [zi:]

 

                     it  -  es [əs]

(big fat empty space)

Good, now let's learn how to say "goodbye".

Here are some examples:

English            

German:

Transcription:

 

Bye (informal)

Tschüs

[tʃyːs]

Bye (informal)

Ciao

[ˈtʃao]

See you soon

Bis bald 

[bis balt]

See you later

Bis später 

[bis ʃpɛːte]

© 2015 created by Anastasia Gubanova 

 

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