BLL German/A1/Lesson 1

German in bite-sized chunks - Level A1 - Lesson 1

Goal

In this lesson you will learn how to introduce yourself in German. You need not have any previous knowledge of German or English grammar terms, however you should have consulted the page on pronunciation and memorised basic greetings from there.

Text

"Guten Tag! Ich heiße Lisa Müller. Ich wohne in Bern, aber ich komme aus Deutschland. Ich arbeite als Fremdenführerin."
"Guten Tag! Ich heiße John Smith. Ich komme aus Manchester, aber ich arbeite in Bern."

New words

German	English	Comment(s)
ich	I	Not capitalised, unless at the beginning of a sentence
heißen	to be called	This is one verb, not a direct equivalent of "to be called". It's simpler in the same way as "to receive" is simpler than "to be given"
wohnen	to live	In the sense of "to inhabit", not "to be alive"
in	in
aber	but	Used much more often than in English
kommen	to come
aus	from
Deutschland	Germany	The -land suffix means the same as in English. "Deutsch" alone means German (language)
arbeiten	to work
als	as
Fremdenführerin	(female) tourist guide	The male form is "Fremdenführer". It's very common to form the female variety of any profession by adding -in.

Explanations

You probably already noticed that there's an entry for e.g. "heißen" in the vocabulary list but not for "heiße". That is because "heiße" is a conjugated form, like "am called", whereas "heißen" is the infinitive "be called". You wouldn't say "I be called" either, would you? That's what "ich heißen" would sound like to a German. So take off the -n from all the verbs listed in the vocabulary or a dictionary in order to get the 1st person singular form (the one to be used with "I").
Why is Fremdenführer just one (admittedly long) word? Germans don't like to put spaces in between nouns that obviously belong together, so in such cases you will often find them glued together while English uses two words to convey the same meaning. The words glued together here are: "Fremden"(strangers) and "Führer"(guide, leader). In your pronunciation you should always reflect that these are separate parts and pronounce it "Fremden-führer". If you pronounce it "Frem-denführer", people might have difficulties understanding you.
Why is Fremdenführer spelled with a capital letter? This is not a typo. In German, you actually have to spell every noun with a capital letter. This may look strange to you at first, but it is very useful, because it makes the language less ambiguous, at least in writing.

Exercises

Use the words you have learned in this lesson as often as you can in the next few days. If you don't know any Germans or German-learning friends on whom you could try them out, at least call them up in your memory whenever you have a few minutes to spare and imagine how you would introduce yourself to somebody in Germany.

Choose the correct answer:

- Which of the following German phrases is not said when greeting somebody?

A. Hallo!

B. Guten Tag!

C. Guten Abend!

D. Gute Nacht!

- Which words require a capital letter in German?

A. The word at the beginning of a sentence, the word "Ich" and proper words like "Deutschland".

B. The word at the beginning of a sentence and all nouns, for example also words for professions.

C. Only the word at the beginning of a sentence.

D. The first word and then every third word following it.

- Which of the following sentences contains a mistake?

A. Ich kommen aus London.

B. Ich heiße Lisa.

C. Ich arbeite als Putzfrau.

D. Ich wohne in Berlin.

- Which of the following sentences contains a mistake?

A. Ich wohne in Deutschland.

B. Ich komme aus New York.

C. Ich heiße Thomas.

D. Ich arbeite als Fremden Führer.

Answer to this exercise

1D, 2B, 3A, 4D

Fill in the blanks with the following verbs: arbeiten, heißen, kommen, lernen (= to learn), lieben (= to love), sprechen (= to speak)

Hallo! Ich ___ Max Schmidt. Ich ___ als Kaufmann in Amerika, aber ich ___ aus Hamburg. Ich ___ Deutsch und Englisch. Ich ___ Spanisch. Ich ___ Spanisch.

Answer to this exercise

heiße, arbeite, komme, spreche, lerne, liebe

How do you say...
- that your name is Michael?
- that you come from America?
- that you live in Hamburg, not necessarily meaning that you were born there?

Answer to this exercise

Ich heiße Michael. Ich komme aus Amerika. Ich wohne in Hamburg.

Extension

If you'd like to learn more words that you can use without having to study another lesson, use this section in order to find them. Feel free to learn selectively, picking out words you consider useful for your situation or interesting. If you don't have the time, you can just skip this section. You will not be required to know any of these words in the next lessons.

Additional expressions: "Ich spreche Englisch und Französisch. Ich lerne Deutsch." New words: sprechen (to speak), und (and), lernen (to learn) and language names from the list.

Countries
German	Pronunciation	English
Amerika	OGG	America
Australien	OGG	Australia
Brasilien	OGG	Brazil
Deutschland	OGG	Germany
England	OGG	England; also often incorrectly used to refer to all of Britain
Frankreich	OGG	France
Großbritannien	OGG	Great Britain
Indien	OGG	India
Irland	OGG	Ireland
Italien	OGG	Italy
Kanada	OGG	Canada
Mexiko		Mexico
Neuseeland	OGG	New Zealand
Polen	OGG	Poland
Russland	OGG	Russia
Schweiz	OGG	Switzerland
Spanien	OGG	Spain
Syrien		Syria
Südafrika		South Africa
Österreich	OGG	Austria

(a more complete list can be found here, but country names on that list that consist of more than one word might not fit seamlessly into the pattern "Ich komme aus ...")

Cultural information: Bern

Bern is the capital of Switzerland. Despite that, it's a comparatively small city with a population of about 130,000. It sits on a peninsula formed by the meandering turns of the river Aare. Bern's beautiful old town is part of the UNESCO World Heritage List and there are a lot of fascinating places to go, particularly if you are interested in history or art. Read more about Bern on Wikipedia.