LESSON NOTES WIE VIEL KOSTET DAS? In this episode of Coffee Break German we ll start by learning the numbers from zero to ten and then learn to deal with transactional situations involving paying for things in cafés and shops. INTRODUCTION Mark asked the following question in the introduction: Also, Thomas, was lernen wir heute? Thomas: Wir lernen die Zahlen. die Zahlen the numbers Coffee Break German Lesson 06 Study Notes Note the word order in the following sentence: heute lernen wir die Zahlen today we re learning the numbers Since this sentence starts with the word heute, the verb and the subject pronoun need to change places. REVIEW In the review section for this lesson, Thomas challenged Mark to translate some sentences from German into English: Coffee Break German: Lesson 06 - Notes page 1 of 14 Coffee Break German: Lesson 06 - Notes page 2 of 14
meine Mutter heißt Susanne my mother is called Susanne mein Vater heißt Stefan my father is called Stefan meine Schwester heißt Anna my sister is called Anna If you wish to ask the question, what is your sister called? then you can change meine Schwester to deine Schwester: deine Schwester your sister deine Schwester heißt Anna your sister is called Anna wie heißt deine Schwester? what is your sister called? / what is your sister s name? This pattern of M > D for me to you (informal) is repeated with a number of words: mich > dich mir > dir meine > deine Take care, however, with meine > deine as this needs to change depending on the gender of the noun: wie heißt dein Bruder? what is your brother called? So, just as mein Bruder changed to meine Schwester, so does mein Bruder change to dein Bruder. This was put into practice with a conversation: Thomas, wie heißt deine Schwester? Thomas: Meine Schwester heißt Sylvia. Und wie heißt dein Vater? Thomas: Mein Vater heißt Stefan. Und wie heißt deine Mutter? Thomas: Meine Mutter heißt Inge. Und wie heißt dein Bruder? Thomas: Mein Bruder heißt Johannes. Und Mark, wie heißt deine Tochter? Meine Tochter heißt Katherine. COUNTING FROM 0-10 The words for each number from zero to ten are listed below: null zero eins one zwei two Coffee Break German: Lesson 06 - Notes page 3 of 14 Coffee Break German: Lesson 06 - Notes page 4 of 14
drei three vier four fünf five sechs six sieben seven acht eight neun nine zehn ten We will look at larger numbers in future lessons, but learning these numbers will allow you to spell out larger numbers for the time being: for example if a shopkeeper were to say to you: das kostet zweihundertneununddreißig Euro that costs two hundred and thirty nine Euros PAYING FOR THINGS To ask how much something costs, you use the following phrase: wie viel kostet das? how much does that cost? To answer this question, use the following construction: das kostet fünf Euro that costs five Euros You may also hear: es kostet fünf Euro it costs five Euros If you don t understand a complex price like es kostet zweihundertneununddreißig Euro then you can ask the following question: können Sie das bitte aufschreiben? can you write it down please? If you want to ask for the bill in a café or restaurant, you can ask for die Rechnung: die Rechnung, bite the bill, please then you would be able to understand this number if it were given as zwei - drei - neun. Coffee Break German: Lesson 06 - Notes page 5 of 14 Coffee Break German: Lesson 06 - Notes page 6 of 14
können Sie mir die Rechnung bringen? can you please bring me the bill? Read and listen to the following conversation which uses a variety of shopping vocabulary, including these phrases: kann ich Ihnen helfen? can I help you? ich schaue nur, danke I m just looking, thanks Hallo, guten Tag. Thomas: Grüß Gott. Kann ich Ihnen helfen? Thomas: OK. Ich schaue nur, danke. Wie viel kostet das? Thomas: Das kostet einhundertvierundzwanzig Euro. Können Sie das bitte aufschreiben? Thomas: Natürlich. Eins - zwei - vier (124). Eins - zwei - vier. Danke. Thomas: Gern geschehen. Thomas: Tschüss. Auf Wiedersehen. Note the expression gern geschehen or gerne which means something along the lines of you re welcome. Another phrase which may come in useful in a shopping scenario is where you re trying to capture the attention of the shop assistant or waiter / waitress: entschuldigung excuse me GRAMMAR GURU Hallo, and welcome once again to my Grammar Guru segment. As ever, it s my job to help simplify things for you, when it comes to German grammar. Today s segment is not so much about what we ve been looking at in the main lesson; instead I m going to mention something that will come in useful in future lessons - and it s worth getting a head start on this. So far we ve looked at nouns and adjectives, but we ve not really spoken about verbs. Now, what is a verb? Some people describe verbs as doing words. You can think of it in this way if you like. A verb is the action or state in a sentence, so if we think about following sentence, the cat ran along the roof then ran is the action - the verb. In the sentence, sat is the verb. the cat sat on the mat, Verbs sometimes change form, depending on who is doing the action, or when the action is being done. Think of the cat sits... ; the cat is sitting ; the cat will be sitting. In each case we re talking about sitting in some way or another. Equally, the car ran, the cat is running, and the cat will run are all referring to running in some way. Just as verbs change form in English, they also change form in German. Coffee Break German: Lesson 06 - Notes page 7 of 14 Coffee Break German: Lesson 06 - Notes page 8 of 14
The starting point for all of this is the form you d find in the dictionary. If you look up ran or running in the dictionary, you d be probably directed to run. This dictionary form has a special name: it s called the infinitive. In German, most infinitives end in -en, so when you look up a verb in the dictionary, you ll find the infinitive form ending in -en, for example, to run laufen, and to sit will be sitzen. The infinitive form is often translated as to do something, so laufen, to run and sitzen, to sit. That s really all I wanted to share with you today. This will come in useful in future lessons as we develop our understanding of verbs further. CULTURAL CORRESPONDENT In this lesson s Cultural Correspondent feature, Julia talks about the city where she lives: Berlin. Hallo Mark, hallo Thomas, und guten Tag an alle unsere Coffee Break German Zuhörer! Ich bin s, Julia, your Cultural Correspondent, and today I m going to take you on a trip. In fact, I ll take you to my home town, Berlin, and I ll tell you what you really shouldn t miss while visiting this amazing town. Only a few parts of the original wall still exist. Very popular among tourists is the so-called East Side Gallery, the longest and most permanent open-air gallery world wide. It shows paintings by international artists commenting on the political changes around 1990. When you walk through Berlin today you may come across a double line of cobblestones running through the streets. This line indicates the original route of the wall to the people nowadays. I still find it very moving that I m easily able to pass this line on my walks through town. Life was not that simple for my parents generation. In this episode I ve focused on only one aspect of Berlin and there s lots more to see and do. However this aspect of our recent history is so important for Berliners, as well as for visitors, I think it s important not to miss it out. I ll tell you more about Berlin another time! Tschüss und bis zum nächsten Mal. Berlin is a city of contrasts: it can be very old, and young; it can be beautiful, and ugly; very modern and also very historical; and it can also be very rich and poor; and very traditional, as well as very international and multicultural. All these contrasts make it a kind of magnet for people from all over the world who enjoy living. and working, or just spending their holidays here. Coffee Break German: Lesson 06 - Notes The appearance of the city has been very much affected by its recent history. Berlin was divided into West and East Berlin by a wall for more than 28 years. This Berliner Mauer, the Berlin Wall, actually consisted of two different walls which were 155km long, and the space between them about 70m wide. As a result, when the wall came down in 1989, there suddenly was a lot of free space in the middle of Berlin. Nowadays this space has been filled with several buildings and parks. One of the parks is called Mauerpark, Wall Park, where you will find a famous flea market every weekend as well as concerts during the summertime. page 9 of 14 COMING UP NEXT TIME In the final section of the lesson Mark asked the question: Coffee Break German: Lesson 06 - Notes page 10 of 14
was lernen wir nächstes Mal? what are we going to be learning about... Thomas answered by explaining, nächstes Mal lernen wir etwas über die Stadt next time we re learning about the town Note the inversion of the subject pronoun wir and the verb lernen. You can compare this to heute lernen wir..., today we re learning... DAS REICHT FÜR HEUTE Ready for more? Turn the page to continue with the bonus materials for this lesson. CORE VOCABULARY die Zahlen the numbers null zero eins one zwei two drei three vier four fünf five sechs six sieben seven acht eight Coffee Break German: Lesson 06 - Notes page 11 of 14 Coffee Break German: Lesson 06 - Notes page 12 of 14
neun nine zehn ten wie viel kostet das? how much does that cost? das kostet fünf Euro that costs five Euros es kostet fünf Euro it costs five Euros können Sie das bitte aufschreiben? can you write it down please? die Rechnung, bitte the bill, please können Sie mir die Rechnung bringen? can you bring me the bill? kann ich Ihnen helfen? can I help you? BONUS VOCABULARY es kostet zehn Franken it costs ten (Swiss) francs es kostet fünf Dollar it costs five dollars es kostet acht Pfund it costs eight pounds das trinkgeld tip kann ich mit Karte zahlen? can I pay by card? die Kreditkarte credit card der Bankomat /der Geldautomat ATM, cash machine ich schaue nur, danke I m just looking, thanks entschuldigung excuse me Coffee Break German: Lesson 06 - Notes page 13 of 14 Coffee Break German: Lesson 06 - Notes page 14 of 14