Language Geekout, Nayela Style

[nayela]

Originally, it was lordofthewheel who gave me this idea. I told him I’d compile a small German phrasebook for him so he won’t be totally clueless when he arrives here next week. Since I’m a horrible showoff, and some of you guys on my flist have mentioned you’d like to learn some German (insomniac_od, yannarra, I’m lookin’ at you), I shall embarrass myself by posting it here.

Everybody reading this is warmly invited to join the language geekery, as I plan on adding to and updating this post as we go along. It’s is a slapdash collection of words and phrases that might come in handy, and some notes on usage and pronunciation. If there is anything specific you want to know, by all means ask.

To quote the charming Mad Professor whose translation class I survived last semester: “Think you know English? Think again. If you know the rules of English, you know fuckall, because English is all exceptions and things that make no sense.” German, once you take a closer look, is very similar to English, but there are fewer exceptions and a great deal more rules.

Let's start with some basics. Work in progress under the cut.

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Greetings:

German	English	Explanatory notes
Hallo/Hi/Hey	Hello/Hi/Hey	Basically, same deal as in English. These are rather casual, used in all sorts of situations, but you really shouldn’t say ‘na du’ when greeting your boss.
Na du	Hey you
Wie geht’s?	How goes?/How’re you?	Standard question. Contrary to popular belief, it doesn’t always mean you have to give the standard ‘I’m fine’ answer. It all depends on who you’re with.
Guten Morgen	Good morning	These are the actual ‘formal’ greetings, but they’re also used in a casual way.
Guten Tag	Good day
Guten Abend	Good evening
Gute Nacht	Good night

 

 

Taking your leave

Tschüss	Bye	Most frequently used. No idea where it came from; I think it’s a mutilation of ‘ciao’ which everyone was using to be chic a few years back.
Mach’s gut	Take care
Bis dann	So long/’till then
Auf Wiedersehen	Goodbye	Again, formal expression. No one uses this in casual company.

Pleasantries

Danke	Thanks	Variants of ‘thank you’ one might encounter.
Dankeschön	Literally: ‘thanks beautifully’
Vielen Dank	Thank you very much
Bitte	Please	Not only for polite requests, but also a standard response to ‘Danke’ and the like; equivalent to ‘you’re welcome’ in that case.

Introducing yourself

Mein Name ist…	My name is…
Ich heiße..	I’m called…
Ich bin..	I am…
Ich komme aus…	I’m from…
Ich bin X (Jahre alt).	I’m X (years old).

 

Before we pitch into vocabulary at full speed, a few general notes. It will make sense once we get through the grammar.

Formal address

German, like French, has an extra way to address someone formally. It’s the third person plural, aka the ‘Sie’-form. It’s used for basically everyone you’re not on first-name terms with: adults outside your family, strangers, teachers, your boss, the list goes on. It does not apply to children, whether you know them or not. (Teachers start ‘Sie’-ing their students around 11^th grade, when the first of them are turning eighteen.) Family, friends, co-workers, students and kids use ‘du’ among each other, which is the actual second person singular pronoun.
 

Pronouns

Ich	I
Du	You
Er/Sie/Es	He/she/it	Note that ‘sie’ is also the third person singular female pronoun. Homonym with the plural.
Wir	We
Ihr	You
Sie	They

Examples of usage:

Ich bin	I am	The verb, in this case, is ‘to be’. The German infinitive is ‘sein’. Note the variety of personal forms. Many of our verbs are like that; happy memorizing.
Du bist	You are
Er/sie/es ist	He/she/it is
Wir sind	We are
Ihr seid	You are
Sie sind	They are

Right, then. Words, words, words.

Traps and Pitfalls For the Unwary Traveller

Flughafen	Airport	I don’t expect a native speaker of English to have any problems around these places; everything’s bilingual. Going gets tricky only once you step out into the real world, as always.
Gepäck	Baggage
Gepäckausgabe	Baggage claim
Zoll	Customs
Schalter	Counter
Bahnhof	Station
Gleis/Bahnsteig	Platform	These are interchangeable.
Zug/Bahn	Train	Ditto.
Bushaltestelle	Bus stop
Straßenbahn	Tram

Potentially Useful Stuff

Wo?	Where?
Wann?	When?
Wie lange?	How long?
Wie weit?	How far?
Wo ist (bitte)…	Where’s the…, (please?)
Entschuldigung	Excuse me	Can be used: a) as an apology, b) when tapping strangers on the shoulder to ask them for directions. In that case, looking cute and harmless also helps.