Summary

The gh -> ch consonant shift

Examples

  • neighbour -> nachbarn
    • Interestingly, or not interestingly as we’ve already discussed this in lesson 25, the plural for this word just adds the -n and not the -en, since nachbar is phonetically nakhbaa (ends with a vowel sound)
  • night -> nacht
  • light -> licht
  • Daughter -> Tochter

Nouns ending with -en!

In this lesson, we also learned that some verbs can have the same spelling as their nouns. For eg. to drink is trinken, but the noun drink is also trinken!

In spoken German, this ambiguity will be cleared when we look at the context of the sentence. In written German, nouns are always capitalized and that is how we can know whether the word employed is a noun or a verb.

Examples

  • drink
    • (as verb) did he drink today? -> (expressed as) has he drank today? -> hat er heute getrinket?
    • (as noun) I brought him a drink -> (expressed as) I have brought him a drink -> ich habe ihn Trinken gebracht
  • dance -> tanzen
    • (as verb) We are dancing today -> wir sind tanzen Heute
    • (as noun) The dance is good -> Der Tanz ist gut

Giving Directions

In English, the word to, regardless of the context, stays the same. German, however, changes the spelling of this word depending on the context. When talking in a directional sense, it uses the word nach. Examples:

  • I’m going to Berlin -> ich fahre nach Berlin
    • tip: fahren is the more appropriate verb for “to go/travel” instead of gehen because gehen is mostly used for movement on foot whereas fahren is used when the moving happens via any other method (vehile, plane, bicycle, etc.)
  • She’s driving the car -> Sie fährt das Auto

On the -heit ending

The -heit ending adds -hood to a lot of nouns in German. We’ve already seen that with childhood (kindheit). The more important thing to note about this ending is that it is a feminine ending, so we always know the appropriate form of the pronoun. Examples:

  • The childhood -> die Kindheit
    • The child is das Kind
  • The opportunity -> die Gelegenheit

Asking for something in German

The verb bitten in German means “to bid”. It is most commonly used when we’re requesting or asking for something. When you say something like “please do this”, you’re essentially expressing the idea “I bid you to do this”. Examples:

  • I’m asking you -> ich bitte dich

  • I’m asking you to stay -> ich bitte dich zu bleiben

  • I’m asked her to go there -> (expressed as) I have asked her to go there -> ich habe gehen sie dorthin gebeten

  • Are you asking me to go? -> bittest du mich zu gehen?

    Doubt: Why did we use zu here when gehen already means to go? Explanation: This sentence has 2 verbs (bitten and gehen). Bitten is not a modal verb and when the secondary verb is not paired with a modal verb, its infinitive form must be paired with zu

Miscellaneous

New vocabulary in this lesson

  • loud -> Laut
  • daughter -> Tochter
  • good -> Gut

Breaking down Nachbar

The word for neighbor is nachbar, and it is a good example of a word that has it’s meaning built inside of it. Let’s break it down:

nach means close or near bar comes from Bauer, which in old german meant farmer, but means dweller or inhabitant.

So, a neighbor is someone who is dwelling close to you!