Exploration of Words and Culture Flashcards
Guten Tag
ä ö ü ß
This is the German standard greeting, meaning “(I wish you a) good day.” This expression is sometimes abbreviated and slurred beyond recognition. There are many other greetings, but these will be dealt with later. You will also notice that the word gut has an -en attached to it. This will also be covered later. Just memorize it as a set phrase.
Auf Wiedersehen
This is the standard good-bye, literally meaning “(Here is) to seeing (each other) again.” This may often be abbreviated to Wiedersehen. There are other short forms of saying good-bye which you will learn later.
das
This word has several uses. If a noun follows, das means “the.” If no noun follows, das means “that” , as in Das ist Rudi Zögelmann = That is Rudi Zögelmann; Das ist mein Name= That is my name; Wie ist das? = How is that?; Wer ist das? = Who is that?, etc.
studieren
means “to study as one’s major subject.” The German university system is highly specialized (no distribution requirements). This means that people only study their major subjects. If you say “Ich studiere Deusch” , Germans will assume that German is your major (and they’ll wonder why your German isn’t better than it is). At this point you should say: “Ich lerne Deutsch.”
Die Uhr
as a noun means “clock” or “watch”. In German you can distinguish among various types of clocks and watches, e.g. by saying : die Armbanduhr [arm-band clock = wrist watch], die Taschenuhr [=pocket watch], die Wanduhr [=wall clock], die Stoppuhr [= stop watch].
man
“one” in the general sense of “people” or “you”. For the sentence “Wie schreibt man das?” you could say in English: “ How does one write/ spell it?” More commonly you say: “How do you spell it?” or “How is it spelled?”
gehen
The phrase “how goes it?” is understandable and known, but a bit stiff in English. The phrase Wie geht es? (usually slurred to Wie geht’s?) is best translated as “How are you?” Please note how the phrase is often not pronounced clearly. –Please note that Germans are likely to answer this question at length. Hanna is not behaving quite typically by not reacting to Ernst’s question. Atypical short answer to the question would be: “Danke, gut” (Thanks [for asking], I am fine).
der Student / die Studentin
Please note that these words only refer to university (college) students. Students in high school (die Schule) are called Schüler / Schülerin. A German Student will never refer to his Universität or Uni as ‘school.’ In fact, German Studenten tend to be offended when one confuses them with Schüler.
bitte
is the universal German word for politeness. Put it in wherever you can, if you want to make a good impression. It is used when asking for things or when offering things. It translates into English as
-“please” and -“you’re welcome”. Bitte also means something like -“go ahead, after you”. The combination Wie bitte? means -“I beg your pardon? / Excuse me?” (when you haven’t understood something).
The equivalent of “What?” = Was? is considered seriously impolite (more so than in English).
mal
belongs to a type of word which is very frequent in spoken German. These words are called “flavoring particles, modal particles, filler words”, etc. They do not change the basic message of a sentence and thus can be disregarded in listening and / or reading for now. They indicate a speaker’s attitude towards the conversation topic or conversation partner.
mal is typically used when you give a ‘command’ for the first time. The mal [literally: einmal= “once”] makes the invitation less ‘threatening.’ One would do the same thing in English by phrasing the invitation as a question: “Why don’t you come visit me for coffee some time?”
