This transcript is currently in development.

Tracks have been transcribed by online volunteers​ and contain many errors.

Formatting key:

Bold​ - German word

Italic​ - English word/phrase being discussed/for translation
// - Used when referring to sounds. Eg. “Ich is pronounced /ik/ in Berlin”

Track 1 
Hello and welcome to complete German, a course we're very excited about 
releasing. If you are not familiar with the language transfer courses this will surely 
be a new way of learning and at the same time an extremely natural way that will 
hopefully make you question how you've been learning until now and the 
relationship we were made to have with learning in most of our industrialized 
education systems. During the course we will learn a great amount of German and 
a great amount about language generally. We will become our own teachers and 
analytical linguists that enjoy language in a different way in everyday life. The 
course will be recorded with various volunteer students. The recordings represent 
then a real-life learning experience which has been edited for your use. During the 
course I'll explain something about German and how it works and then I'll 
ask you to build the sentence from what I've explained. It's extremely important 
that you pause, relax, take your time to think through your answer and to say it 
out loud. You may feel a voice inside, an impulse pushing you to spit your answer 
out quickly and this is probably left over from school. Quiet that voice, ignore it, 
take control of your learning process. Think slowly in your own time enjoy the 
thinking process. Don’t guess. The process of thinking out that sentence and not 
the sentence itself is the most important element of what we will do it together. It 
will be the thinking process that will install German in your mind. In short with 
thinking method we will think slowly to learn quickly. Once you say your answer 
out loud you can unpause and listen to what the volunteer student has said. Don't 
try to actively memorized any of the information or any of the answers sentences. 
Of course you need to remember what we learned but not through memorization. 
Memorization is the most inefficient way of remembering. Just relax, listen and 
make sure you understand the explanations that I'm giving about the language and 
that's all you need to worry about. 
Don't worry if you forget some words. Some you will forget and that's normal. Many 
tips are built in throughout the course on how to find what you think you may have 
forgotten. Take these paths in your own mind at your own pace never rushing 
yourself always giving yourself the time you need to think things through at your 
own comfortable pace. Don't write anything. I know this is tempting but the 
structure we create is not very easy to reproduce on paper. You will find it very 
unhelpful in this learning journey if you write. Now that doesn't mean you shouldn't 
be reading or writing German elsewhere. It just means doing our learning time 
together we only want to use our thinking processes. Without external tools. We 
want to do the mental work to carry German around with us in our minds. Not on a 
piece of paper. It's important that the course isn't something that you have there 
in the background and it’s something that you actively engage with that you do it 
at the time were you have energy for concentration and the calmness to engage in 
the course relaxed at your own pace. Do as much as you feel excited about doing 
then take a break. Don't force yourself. Don't push yourself. The tired mind makes 
many careless mistakes and shortcuts. If you feel yourself drifting away that's ok, 
take a break and come back later. The most important thing I can tell you is not to 
just listen and follow the audio. If you do that you will feel like you're learning 
because you will be understanding what's happening but you will not be having 
your own learning experience you will only be witnessing somebody else's learning 
experience. It's extremely important that you pause, take your time to think your 
answer through, say that loud and then resume the audio. In this way you are sure 
to be having your own learning experience. If it's been a while since you engaged 
in active learning you will notice your concentration span increase very rapidly. 
Don't worry if you can't handle so much at the beginning. Just 10 minutes a day or 
every couple of days is a great way to start. It's much better to do 10 or 20 minutes 
a day than three hours on a Saturday for example. You don't even have to worry 
about memorizing this advice because it will be revisited constantly during our 
learning experience together. The course presumed no previous knowledge of 
German so it's perfect for beginners and will surely be very useful as when to more 
advanced students of German that want a different way of looking at and 
understanding the language. Whenever I speak about the language transfer project 
I say we even though there is no organization behind language transfer or not fixed 
team. Language transfer is more like a personal activist project but through which 
a spontaneous and fluid forever changing organization has arisen from the body of 
users allowing language transfer to do and become so much more than what was 
first envisioned. This course is completely free not because you shouldn't be 
spending your money on language learning but in case you can't. I don't want to 
restrict access to these courses with money. That being said language transfer runs 
entirely on the collaboration of users both with occasional volunteer work such as 
course proofing and with donations which allow me to work on the project. This 
gives me time to decipher new languages, create course material in those 
languages, test them in open public workshops and when I feel that the course has 
been perfected, record it with a volunteer student, coordinate the efforts of the 
collaborators such as the native speakers that prove the audios, edit and then 
disseminate to course. Your donations buy me time to do this and to sustain the 
website and other costs of the project. You can support language transfer whilst 
voting for the next course to be created with the thinking method. Please check 
out the patreon crowdfunding campaign. That's patreon p-a-t-r-e-o-n-dot-com 
https://www.patreon.com/languagetransfer​ there you can check out the different 
milestones for the campaign and the work that can get done with those milestones 
and also options to donate on the web site WWW dot language transfer dot org 
http://www.languagetransfer.org/ A very exciting detail about the new campaigns 
is that users vote for the next language to be dissected with the thinking method 
what this means is that we've entered a new phase of the project where I'm 
creating courses in languages that I don't necessarily speak. Maybe one of the most 
interesting details about the project. This opens the panorama of possibilities for 
language transfer. It's a very exciting time. Language transfer is also so exciting 
not least because it is unsponsored, independent and the product of the 
collaboration and involvement and passion of its users. Thank you for joining us 
and let's begin complete German 
 
2 
 
Teacher: I want to begin by telling you a little bit about English, actually, before 
German. English is a language of many components: Greek, Arabic, Persian, but 
mostly English is constituted of German or Germanic, and Latin. The Latin side of 
English, most of which arrived to English through French, is generally reserved for 
the more academic or formal spheres, whereas the Germanic side is the more 
intimate language, it is the more everyday, familiar language. To look at the forms 
of these words, generally speaking, the longer, more elaborate words, are Latin. 
Elaborate, for example. The shorter, more punchy words tend to be of Germanic 
origin. So, we can focus on the Germanic side of English and learn to convert that 
over into German to begin speaking German straight away. We can begin just by 
picking some words straight out of English and making them sound German. So, for 
example ​learn​, ​to learn​ in German is ​lernen​.  

Student: ​Lernen. 

Lernen. ​So, to get ​to learn​ we just stuck EN on ​learn​. So we have ​to learn​ in 
English and ​lernen​ in German.  

Student: ​Lernen. 

Teacher: Good. ​To find,​ is? We’ll do the same with ​to find​. So, how might that 
sound in German?  

Student: ​Finden. 

Teacher: ​Finden, finden​. The I we’re pronouncing like E, ​finden​. 

Student: ​Finden 
Teacher:​ ​Good. So the EN gives us ​to,to learn​ - ​lernen​, ​to find​ - ​finden​. What is 
kommen​? What do you think that means? ​Kommen​. You can work backwards now, 
so we were putting the EN. 

Student: ​Come, to come​. 

Teacher: Bravo, ​to come.​   

Student: Yeah. 

Teacher: We were putting EN and now you can see that verb in German and take 
that N or EN away, ​come.​   

Ich will - ich will​, means ​I want​.  

Student: ​Ich will. 

Teacher:​ Ich will​. This ​will​ is connected to the word ​voluntary - voluntary​ in 
English. When you are a volunteer, you do something because of the wanting of it, 
and that is connected here with ​ich will​. We also have another word, interestingly, 
that we build in a similar way in English, ​amateur - amateur​, and you do it for the 
amor, you do it for the love. So you have ​amateur and voluntary​ being built in a 
similar way in English. Voluntary for wanting. ​Ich will​ – ​I want​, like ​voluntary​. How 
would you say, ​I want to come?​ What was ​I want​? 

Student: ​Ich will. 

Teacher: And ​to come​?  

Student: ​Kommen.  

Teacher: ​Ich will kommen​, good. ​I want to come​. ​I want to learn​?  

Student: ​Ich will lernen. 

Teacher: ​Ich will lernen​, good. So we have some words that we can just pull right 
from English and convert them into German. Another one would be ​ich kann​, what 
do you think that means? ​Ich kann​.  

Student: ​I can. 

Teacher: ​I can,​ of course. I should mention as well you might hear instead of ​ich​, 
/ik/ in Berlin, for example, the Berlin dialect. Or you might hear /ish/ in the south 
of Germany. How would you say ​I can come​? And ​I can come​ is ​I am able TO come - 
I am able TO come​ so we still use ​to come​ here.  

Student: ​Ich kann kommen.  

Teacher: ​Ich kann kommen.​ And the ​ich​ is soft, not like /ikh/ but you could hear 
/ik/ like I mentioned in Berlin dialect. But this harsh /kh/ is not the sound that we 
get here with ​ich​ so... 

Student: ​Ich. 

Teacher: ​To go,​ it changes a little bit but you will see the same principle ​gehen 

Student: ​Gehen. 

Teacher: ​Gehen​, this is spelled G E H E N and that H just stretches the vowel of 
gehen 

Student: ​Gehen. 

Teacher: ​I can go - I am able to go​. 

Student: ​Ich kann gehen. 

Teacher: Very good, ​ich kann gehen​, very good. The word for ​not​ is ​nicht 

Student: ​Nicht. 

Teacher: ​Nicht.​ ​Ich​ is spelled I C H and ​nicht​ N I C H T. How is ​I can,​ again? 

Student: ​Ich kann. 

Teacher:​ Ich kann.​ And ​I can not​? 

Student: ​Ich kann nicht. 

Teacher: Good, ​ich kann nicht​. ​I can’t go - I am unable to go - I am not able to go​? 

Student: ​Ich kann nicht goen, gehen. 

Teacher: Good, ​ich kann nicht gehen.​ What is ​I want?​  

Student: ​Ich will. 

Teacher: ​Ich will​, good. ​I don’t want​ is ​I want not 

Student: ​Ich will nicht. 

Teacher: Very good, ​ich will nicht​. ​I want not to go - I don’t want to go?​  

Student: ​Ich will nicht gehen. 

Teacher: Very good. And rather than ​gehen​, it’s more like ​gehen​, the E a little bit 
further back. ​Ich will nicht gehen​. Very good. 

3 

Teacher: What was ​I can come​, or ​I am able to come?​  

Student: ​Ich kann kommen. 

Teacher: Good, ​ich kann kommen​. If you want to make a question, ​can I come?,​  
you do just as you do in English. So what did I do, to make ​I can​ ​come​ into a 
question, ​can I come? 

Student: ​Kann ich kommen? 

Teacher: Good. You’re just turning that ​ich​ and that ​kann​, you are inverting them, 
kann ich kommen?​ - ​Can I come?​ Very good. What was ​to go?​  

Student: ​Gehen. 

Teacher: ​Gehen ​good. ​I can go​? 

Student: ​Ich kann gehen. 

Teacher: Ich kann gehen. ​Can I go? 

Student: ​Kann ich gehen? 

Teacher: We don’t want to hear any friction on that ​ich 

Student: ​Kann ich gehen? 

Teacher: Good. ​Kann ich gehen? ​Can’t I go?​ Now to get something more short to 
work with, for German, it’s good to undo the contractions in English. So rather 
than ​can’t I go? - can I not go?​ breaking that contraction of ​can’t,​ the order 
changes in English. And that’s closer to German. ​Can I not go? 

Student: ​Kann ich nicht gehen? 

Teacher: ​Kann ich nicht gehen?​ Very good. So we can pull some verbs right over 
from English, as we’ve seen, just by sticking EN on them. No?? ​Learn​ – ​lernen​, ​find 
- ​finden​, ​come -​ ​kommen​, but also, and more interestingly, there are consonant 
shifts to look out for. What does this mean? In the history of movements of the 
Germanic dialects, and other languages as well in the world, certain consonant 
shifts happened. Some consonants just decided to start being other consonants. 
So, if you can identify these patterns, you can decipher a lot ofvocabulary that you 
see and hear around you, and also access Germanic vocabulary that you already 
have in English, but you don’t know you have. For example, you will find that 
many English P(s) become F(s) in German. ​To hope​ - ​to hope,​ is ​hoffen​. So you see 
the shift from P to F in English to German. How do you think you would say ​to 
help? 

Student: ​Helf 

Teacher: Good, and what do you do to make that ​to help? 

Student: ​Helfen. 

Teacher: ​Helfen​, good. Exactly, ​helfen.​ ​I want to help? 

Student: ​Ich will helfen. 

Teacher: ​Ich will helfen.​ ​I can help? 

Student: ​Ich kann helfen. 

Teacher: ​Ich kann helfen. ​Can I help? 

Student: ​Kann ich helfen? 

Teacher: ​Kann ich helfen? ​Very good. ​I can’t help? 

Student: ​Ich kann nicht helfen. 

Teacher: Good, but with less CH 

Student: ​Ich kann nicht helfen. 

Teacher: Very good, ​ich kann nicht helfen.​ So you can have a strong T on ​nicht​, 
because you will hear that T in German, you will pronounce it, but without the CH. 

Student: ​Nicht. 

Teacher: ​Nicht​, very good. ​Ich kann nicht helfen.​ ​Can’t I help? - Can I not help? 

Student: ​Kann ich nicht helfen? 

Teacher: Very good, ​Kann ich nicht helfen?​ Good. ​Schlafen​ is ​to sleep​ - ​schlafen 

Student: ​Schlafen. 

Teacher: Good. Now, the vowel changes are also common and they might appear 
quite random, we see we get ​sleep​ and then ​schlafen​, but if you hear these in 
context and you know the P to F shift, you won’t have a hard time working out 
what’s going on and learning the word when you hear ​schlafen​, even though it 
sounds more different to ​sleep.​ How would you say ​I want to sleep? 

Student: ​Ich will schlafen. 

Teacher: ​Ich will schlafen​, so you have SCH and L together, ​schlafen 

Student: ​Schlafen. 

Teacher: Good, enjoy it! Putting all those sounds together. German gives you quite 
a lot of these opportunities. 

Student: ​Schlafen. 

Teacher: ​Schlafen,​ ​I don’t want to sleep? 

Student: ​Ich will nicht schlafen. 

Teacher: ​Ich will nicht schlafen,​ ​I can’t sleep? 

Student: ​Ich kann nicht slaften, schlafen. 

Teacher: So don’t rush it, take your time. 

Student: ​Ich kann nicht schlafen. 

Teacher: Even slower. Because of the languages that we speak already, there are 
certain sound combinations that sit comfortable with us or sound more common to 
us and others that don’t. This can make some sounds more difficult to pronounce, 
like the SCHL in ​schlafen​, or it can even make you put in extra sounds, like, eh, 
schlaften​, you were saying. So, the only way you can control this is just by slowing 
down. 

Student: ​Ich kann nicht schlafen. 

Teacher: Good. You see what I mean? 

Student: I do. 

Teacher: You know many words in German that you don’t expect to know and if 
you are looking out for them, you will find them. For example ​to ripen - to ripen​, 
when a fruit ripens. 

Student: ​Rifen. 

Student: ​Reifen. 

Teacher: ​Reifen - reifen​, Good. Other words you might not expect to know in 
German, ​ape,​ for example? 

Student: ​Afe. 

Student: ​Affe. 

Teacher: ​Affe. 

Teacher: ​Ship? 

Student: ​Schiff. 

Teacher: ​Schiff! ​Exactly. So what was ​to sleep? 

Student: ​Schlafen. 

Teacher: Perfect, ​schlafen.​ ​Einschlafen​ is ​to fall asleep,​ ​to in-sleep.​ That ​ein​ is 
in - einschlafen​, ​to fall asleep. 

Student: ​Einschlafen. 
Teacher: ​I can’t fall asleep? 

Student: ​Ein-nicht-schlafen - schlafen. 

Teacher: Slowly... ​I can’t​ is the first bit. 

Student: ​Ich kann nicht schlafen, einschlafen, schlafen. 

Teacher: Good, you’re pushing yourself just a little bit faster than you’re 
comfortable at, no? Take your time and enjoy putting the sentence together. Don’t 
add that stress of rushing yourself. First bit ​I can’t - I can not. 

Student: ​Ich kann nicht schlafen. 

Teacher: The first bit I want you to think about. If you’re only thinking about the 
first bit you don’t jump over things, other problems you might have already got 
over if you go a little bit slower, no? So let’s do just the ​I can’t. 

Student: ​Ich kann nicht. 

Teacher: Good, and the pronunciation was better this time, no? Less CH because 
you could think just about that bit ​Ich kann nicht​. Now think about ​to fall asleep​, 
so what was ​to fall asleep​ in German? How would you say it in German? 

Student: ​Ins schlafen. 

Teacher: To ​in sleep,​ good. ​Einschlafen.​ So altogether, ​I can’t fall asleep.  

Student: ​Ich kann nicht einschlafen. 

Teacher: ​I don’t want to fall asleep? 

Student: ​Ich will nicht einschlafen. 

Teacher: ​Ich will nicht einschlafen​, good. 

4 

Teacher: What was ​to come? 

Student: ​Kommen. 

Teacher: So, ​kommen​ is ​to come.​ If you say ​ich komme - ich komme​ it’s ​I come​ or 
I’m coming. 

Student: Ich komme. 

Teacher: Ich komme. So, we remove the N, we take that N away of the to form 
kommen​ which is ​to come​ and we get ​ich komme​ - ​I come​. So, how is ​I learn​ or ​I 
am learning? 

Student: ​Ich lerne. 

Teacher: ​Ich lerne​, good. From ​lernen - ich lerne​. ​I am hoping - I hope 

Student: ​Ich hoff. 

Teacher: We take the N off, so you have ​hoffen? 

Student: Yes. ​Ich hoffe. 

Teacher: Good, ​ich hoffe​. Not ich hoff, there you are going directly from ​hope,​  
no? But what you want to do is go (???) ​to hope​ - ​hoffen​. 

Student: ​Hoffe. 

Teacher: Bravo. And then work with it. Perfect. ​I am going.​  

Student: ​Ich gehe. 

Teacher: Very good, ich gehe. ​Es​ E S, ​es​ is ​it,​ in German, ​es​.  

Student: ​Es. 

Teacher:​ ​I want it?​  

Student: ​Ich will es. 

Teacher:​ ​Very good, ich will es. You might also hear ​ich will’s​ in spoken German as 
a contraction ​ich will’s​. 

Student: ​Ich will’s. 

Teacher: What is ​to find​? 

Student: ​Finden. 

Teacher:​ Finden​, good. ​I’m finding it?  

Student: ​Ich finde es. 

Teacher: ​Ich finde es​, good. ​I’m not finding it?​ In German you will say ​I’m finding 
it not - I find it not​ like old English ​I find it not​. You will notice that the structure 
in German is often like old English ​I find it not.​  

Student: ​Ich finde nicht. 

Teacher: ​I find it not. 

Student: ​Ich finde es nicht. 

Teacher: ​Ich finde es nicht​, very good. You might have heard ​Thank you​ in 
German ​danke​. 

Student: ​Danke. 
Teacher: ​Danke.​ This presents us with a new consonant shift: English TH becoming 
D in German, ​thank​ - ​danke​. If ​danke​ is ​I thank​, no? When we say ​thank you​ we 
are saying ​I thank you,​ what is ​to thank? 

Student: ​Danken. 

Teacher: Very good, ​danken​. So we can work backwards, also. We can work from 
danke​ the I version, to get the to form. ​danken​ - ​to thank​. So, we said that we 
have TH to D, English TH to German D. ​To think​ is ​denken - denken. 

Student: ​Denken. 

Teacher: So we have a vowel change again but we could recognize that in context 
denken​ - ​to think​. How would you say ​to bathe - to bathe? 

Student: ​Baden. 

Teacher: ​Baden - Baden.​ And a ​bath?​ Like a ​bath​, the ​bath?​  

Student: ​Bad. 

Teacher: ​Bad.​ ​I’m bathing? 

Student: ​Ich bade. 

Teacher: ​Ich bade.​ If you heard ​Bruder​, what would you think it is, ​Bruder? 

Student: ​Brother. 

Teacher: ​Brother,​ good. ​Mein Bruder? 

Student: ​My brother. 

Teacher: ​My brother,​ good. So ​mein​, we have the word ​mine​ in English as well but 
we use it in a different way. ​Mein​ is ​my​ in German. ​Mein Bruder ​-​ my brother 

Student: ​Mein Bruder. 

Teacher: And you notice the German accent here is much like the English, you 
have ER at the end of ​brother​, but you don’t really pronounce it like in ER, it’s a 
little bit like an A, ​Bruder​. ​My brother can come - my brother is able to come - my 
brother can to come​? 

Student: ​Mein Bruder kann kommen. 

Teacher: Very good, ​mein Bruder kann kommen​. ​Can my brother come? 

Student: ​Kann mein Bruder kommen? 

Teacher: Very good, ​kann mein Bruder kommen​? Good. ​Can’t my brother come? 
So again we will undo the contraction to find the word order in German, so ​can my 
brother not come? 

Student: ​Kann mein Bruder nicht kommen? 

Teacher: Very good, ​kann mein Bruder nicht kommen? ​- ​can’t my brother come? 
What do you think Ding means in German? ​Ding​? 

Student: ​Thing. 

Teacher: Of course. You can use the word ​then​ in German, like ​because​. How 
would ​then​ be in German? ​Then? 

Student: ​Denn. 

Teacher: ​Denn​, good. So you can use this word like ​because.​ ​Can my brother come 
because I can’t - Can my brother come because I can’t?​ So, let’s start with ​can​. 

Student: ​Kann mein Bruder kommen? 

Teacher: Good. Because, or, then? 

Student: ​Denn. 

Teacher: ​I can’t. 

Student: ​Ich kann nicht. 

Teacher: Very good. ​Kann mein Bruder kommen, denn ich kann nicht.​ ​I want to 
go because I can’t sleep - I want to go because I can’t sleep​ so the first bit is ​I 
want to go 

Student: ​Ich will gehen. 

Teacher: ​Because? 

Student: ​Denn. 

Teacher: Like English ​then​ - ​denn​, ​I can’t sleep. 

Student: ​Ich kann nicht einshlefen - einschlafen. 

Teacher: You said ​because I can’t fall asleep​ no? Which makes sense here as well. 
Ich will gehen, denn ich kann nicht einschlafen​ or ​ich kann nicht schlafen​, both 
would be fine. 

5 

Teacher: What was ​I want​? 

Student: ​Ich will. 

Teacher: ​Ich will.​ ​will​ is spelled W I L L, W I L L which looks like? What does that 
look like? 

Student: ​Will. 

Teacher: It looks like ​will​ in English, no? And, in fact, it is the ​will​ in English. Now 
ich will​ means ​I want​ not ​I will​ but the word ​will​ in English comes from the 
German ​want.​ When you say ​I will go​ in English you are actually saying ​I want, I 
want to go​. In fact we still use the word ​will​ like ​want​ in some situations in 
English. We say ​the will of the people,​ that’s ​the want of the people.​ We say ​I 
don’t have the will to do it - I don’t have the want to do it.​ So, when we say ​I will 
eat​ we are actually saying something like ​I want/wish to eat​. And this used to be 
shall​ more commonly in English ​I shall go​ related to the meaning of ​should​, so 
maybe this marked a change of mentality, the future is not about what should be 
but what you want to be. ​Ich will​ is ​I want​. In fact, in German, you don’t really 
need the word for ​will​ to speak about the future, most of the time. If we have a 
word that shows us that we are speaking about the future we don’t have any need 
for the word ​will​, in German. So, for example, the word for ​tomorrow​ and also 
morning​, in German, is ​morgen. 

Student: ​Morgen. 

Teacher:​ Morgen.​ Interestingly like Spanish mañana which means ​tomorrow​ and 
also ​morning​, ​morgen​ means ​tomorrow​ and it means ​morning​. So, ​I will help 
tomorrow - I will help tomorrow​ in German you can just say ​I help tomorrow​. How 
would that be? 

Student: ​Ich helfe morgen. 

Teacher: Good,​ ich helfe morgen​, good. ​I am coming tomorrow? 

Student: ​Ich komme morgen. 

Teacher: ​Ich komme morgen​, good. So we see in the spelling of ​ich will​. W I L L 
that the W produces a V sound in German. So, this isn’t a consonant shift, it’s still 
a W. Just the W in German sounds like V. How do you think you would say ​to wash,​  
in German? ​To wash.​  

Student: ​Waschen. 

Teacher:​ Waschen. 

Student: ​Waschen. 

Teacher: How would you say ​I am washing it? 

Student: I​ ch wasche es. 

Teacher: Very good, ​ich wasche es.​ ​I’ll wash it tomorrow - I will wash it 
tomorrow​ or ​I am going to wash it tomorrow? 

Student: I​ ch wasche es morgen. 

Teacher: Very good, ​ich wasche es morgen.​ ​We​, in German, is ​wir - wir​ W I R, ​wir 

Student: ​Wir. 

Teacher: Good, and it’s very much like the English contraction of ​we are,​ no? 
We’re -​ ​wir​ so that’s ​we.​ Now, ​we​ you can use with the ​to​ form of the verb, that 
means ​wir kommen​ means ​we’re coming​ or ​we come.​ You don’t have to worry 
about changing ​kommen​, you can just leave it as it is. ​We are finding it? 

​ ir finden es. 
Student: W

Teacher: ​Wir finden es​, good. ​To want,​ so we have ​ich will​ - ​I want​. ​To want​ is 
wollen - wollen​. 

Student: ​Wollen. 

Teacher: So here we see actually that ​will​ is irregular. It is not ​ich wolle​ like you 
might have expected it to be ​ich will​ but with ​wollen ​- ​to want​ we see much 
closer the connection with ​voluntary​ that we mentioned before ​wollen​ - 
voluntary.​ So ​wollen​ is ​to want.​ How do you say ​we want? 

​ ir wollen. 
Student: W

Teacher: ​Wir wollen​, ​we want to come? 

Student:​ ​Wir wollen kommen. 

Teacher:​ ​Very good, ​wir wollen kommen​. ​We are coming? 

Student: ​Wir kommen. 

Teacher: ​We’re coming tomorrow​ or ​we will come tomorrow​ or ​we’re going to 
come tomorrow.​ This​ going to​ in English is just the future. You won’t try to 
translate that with ​gehen​. So ​we’ll come tomorrow? 

​ ir kommen morgen. 
Student: W

Teacher:​ ​Very good, ​wir kommen morgen​. ​We’ll find it tomorrow? 

Student: ​Wir finden morgen. 

Teacher: ​Find it tomorrow. 

Student:​ ​Wir finden es morgen. 

Teacher: Good, ​wir finden es morgen​. So we saw how the German W sounds like 
the English V ​ich will​ -​ I want,​ ​wollen ​-​ to want,​ ​wir ​- ​we,​ ​waschen ​- ​to wash.​ The 
German S can sound like the English Z. For example, ​to see​ in German is ​sehen 

Student: ​Sehen. 

Teacher: ​Sehen​, is spelled S E H E N and again we have that H stretching out the 
vowel. ​Sehen​. Unless word is pronounced really slowly or emphatically, you are 
not going to hear that H, it’s just an extension of the vowel. But, if somebody 
pronounces the word slowly for you, you might hear ​sehen​, you might feel like you 
are hearing that H. But in fluent speech you won’t hear it. ​Gehen​ - ​to go,​ ​sehen ​- 
to see.​  

Student: ​Sehen.  

Teacher: ​We see it? 

Student: ​Wir sehen es. 

Teacher: Good, ​wir sehen es​. So the letter S on the word for ​it​ - ​es​, sounds like an 
S. The S on ​sehen​ sounds like a Z and that’s what happens when we have an S and 
a vowel starting a syllable ​sehen​. ​We’ll see it tomorrow? 

Student:​ ​Wir sehen es morgen. 

Teacher:​ ​Good, ​wir sehen es morgen​. ​I’ll see it tomorrow? 

Student: ​Ich sehen es morgen. 

Teacher: Mmmh 

Student: ​Ich sehe es morgen. 

Teacher: Very good, ​ich sehe es morgen​. Good. 

6 

Teacher: What was ​to see​? We had the ‘s’ of English sounding like a ‘z’ there in 
German.  
Student: ​Sehen. 
Teacher: ​Sehen​... Good. The word for ​they​ and also the word for ​you,​ the formal 
you​, The formal way to address somebody in German is ​Sie​. 
Student: ​Sie​. 
Teacher: This is spelt S-I-E. So we get the ’s’ again making the ‘z’ sound and the 
i-e making the ‘ee’ sound. ​Sie​. 
Student: ​Sie. 
Teacher: ​Now, like with ​wir​, you can use just the ​to form​ of the verb, we don’t 
have to change it. We don’t have to worry about doing anything to it, taking 
anything off. We just use that form. So, if you want to say, ​they’re coming​ or ​you 
speaking formally ..​Sie…​? 
Student: ​Sie kommen​. 
Teacher: ​Sie kommen​. Good. ​They are not coming? You are not coming? 
Student: ​Sie nicht kommen​. 
Teacher: Now this is the English order, no? In German, how is it? 
Student: ​Sie kommen nicht​. 
Teacher: ​Sie kommen nicht​…very good. ​They’re not coming tomorrow.​ .. Now, 
generally speaking ​tomorrow​ the time expression, when something is happening is 
going to come before ​nicht.​ ​They’re coming tomorrow​ not. How would that be? 
Student: ​Sie kommen morgen nicht. 
Teacher: Very good, ​Sie kommen morgen nicht​. So, ​morgen​, the time expression, 
can move for stress. But the general position is before ​nicht​. ​Sie kommen morgen 
nicht​, but if you wanted to stress not tomorrow, they are coming on Tuesday, not 
tomorrow, then we might hear ​nicht morgen​, but the common order would be ​sie 
kommen morgen nicht​. ​Aren’t they coming tomorrow?​ How would that be? So we 
need to make a question here. It’s very confusing in English. ​Aren’t they? Are they 
​ ut all we need to think is that, in German we’re making a question and for 
not? B
the question we need the inversion. We need to switch the positions of ​they​ and 
coming? ​Aren’t they coming tomorrow? 
Student: ​Kommen sie morgen nicht? 
Teacher: Very good. ​Kommen Sie morgen nicht​ very good. You must also make 
the question tone with your voice quite obvious. Because without it, you are saying 
come tomorrow. ​Kommen Sie morgen​. This is the order. So in German you have 
this inversion switching the position of the person and the verb for the question. 
Kommen sie​ and also the order, ​kommen Sie​, so how would you say ​come 
tomorrow?  
Student: ​Kommen Sie morgen. 
Teacher: ​Kommen Sie morgen​. Good.​ Don’t come tomorrow. 
Student: ​Kommen Sie morgen nicht. 
Teacher: Good. ​Kommen Sie morgen nicht​. ​Don’t come tomorrow. Aren’t you 
coming tomorrow? 
Student: ​Kommen Sie morgen nicht? 
Teacher: Good. ​Kommen Sie morgen nicht​?. So the inversion gives you the order 
and the question. And that would (???) depend on your tone of voice. ow would you 
say, ​are you finding it or are they finding it​ , so you don’t want to work with ​are 
they finding it,​ that’s very complicated in English, no? You want to think, ​you are 
finding it​ and make it into a question.  
Student: ​Finden Sie es? 
Teacher: Very good. ​Finden Sie es?​ ​Are you finding it.​ How would you say? ​Find 
it. 
Student: ​Finden Sie es. 
Teacher: Very good. ​Finden Sie es.​ That’s the order and the question,  
Finden Sie es?  
Good. So you get both there in German. ​Will you find it tomorrow? 
Student: ​Finden Sie es morgen? 
Teacher: ​Finden Sie es morgen.​ Good. ​Will you find it ​tomorrow​? ​Find it 
tomorrow. 
Student: ​Finden Sie es morgen? 
Teacher: Good. ​Finden Sie es morgen.​ Good. What was ​to go?​  
Student: ​Gehen. 
Teacher: ​Gehen​. Good. And ​we are going?​  
Student: ​Wir gehen​. 
Teacher: How does ‘w’ sound in German? 
Student: ‘V’ 
Student: ​Wir gehen. 
Teacher: Good .​Wir gehen.​ ​Are we going?​  
Student: ​Gehen wir? 
Teacher: ​Gehen wir? ​Let’s go.​ Also the order no. ​L​et's​ go. 
Student: ​Gehen wir. 
Teacher: ​Gehen wir.​ You just have to change your tone. ​Gehen wir! 
Student: ​Gehen wir! 
Teacher: ​Let’s go. ​Gehen wir?​ ​Are we going?​ We saw before the th to d shift. 
Thank, danke, think, denke. The word for the, or one of the words for ​the​ in 
German is ​die​. Like the English ​the​ sometimes pronounced like the in English no? 
We see in German is d-i-e.  
Student: ​Die​. 
Teacher: So we saw, as in Sie, those who are hearing die, the i-e just gives us the 
i-e sound, Sie, die. The children is ​die Kinder​. ​Die Kinder​ like in Kindergarden, I 
am sure you are familiar with this word. Child garden or a nursery. ​Die Kinder. 
Student: ​Die Kinder. 
Teacher: How would you say ​the children are coming? 
Student: ​Die Kinder kommen.  
Teacher: Very good. ​Die Kinder kommen​. ​Are the children coming?​ so again this 
gets a little complicated in English. Are the children coming.. all you need to think 
in German, is that you are making the inversion to make the question, so die 
Kinder kommen, to make that the question.​ Are the children coming? 
Student: ​Kommen die Kinder? 
Teacher: Very good. ​Kommen die Kinder? ​How would you say ​the children are not 
coming?t​ he c​hildren come not. 
Student: ​Die Kinder kommen nicht. 
Teacher: Very good. ​Die Kinder kommen nicht.​ ​Aren’t the c​ hildren​ coming? 
Student: ​Kommen die Kinder nicht? 
Teacher: Very good. ​Kommen die Kinder nicht?​ Very good . ​o sing,​ in German, is 
singen​. Singen. So again we have the ‘s’ like a ‘z’. ​Singen.  
Student: ​Singen. 
Teacher: Good. ​They are singing, they will sing tomorrow​, or ​they are going to 
sing tomorrow.  
Student: ​Sie singen morgen. 
Teacher: Good. ​Sie singen morgen.​ So again, what’s the word for ​they​ or ​formal 
you? 
Student: ​Sie. 
Teacher: ​Sie.​Good. This is also the word for ​them.​ So ​they , them​ we have a 
change there in English that we don’t have in German. ​They​ and ​them​ are ​sie​ and 
sie​. ​They are seeing them tomorrow.​ How would that be? ​They are seeing them 
tomorrow. 
Student: ​Sie sehen sie morgen. ​Good 
Teacher: ​Sie sehen sie morgen.​ ​They are seeing them tomorrow​. How would you 
say ​they are washing it? 
Student: ​Sie waschen es. 
Teacher: Very good. ​Sie waschen es. 
Teacher: ​They are washing them. 
Student: ​Sie waschen sie. 
Teacher: ​Sie waschen sie.​ery good. 
7 
Teacher: How is ​to see?​  
Student: ​Sehen. 
Teacher: ​Sehen.​ And ​they see​ or ​they are seeing​ or ​you (formal) see? 
Student: ​Sie sehen. 
Teacher: ​Sie sehen.​ So this is the formal ​you,​ the one we will use to be polite, the 
one we will use when we don’t know somebody, the one we will use when we 
speak to elders and when we speak in a formal environment, ​Sie​. ​Sie sehen​. ​You 
(formal) see​ or ​they see​. What was the word for ​I​? 
Student: ​Ich. 
Teacher: ​Ich. ​The word for me is ​mich​. 
Student: ​Mich. 
Teacher: ​M-I-C-H​, and again no friction on the /CH/ , we shouldn’t hear mi/CH/ . 
mich, no? 
Student: ​Mich. 
Teacher: ​Mich… Ich, mich , mich,​, me… ​They see me? 
Student: ​Sie sehen mich. 
Teacher: ​Sie sehen mich​…good. ​They will see me tomorrow?  
Student: ​Sie sehen mich morgen. 
Teacher: Very good. ​Sie sehen mich morgen.​ ​Won’t you see me tomorrow?​ ​Won’t 
you see me tomorrow?​ So, the first thing we should think about is just making the 
you see,​ but as a question. 
Student: S​ehen sie mich morgen?  
Teacher: Good, but we said ​won’t you see me tomorrow?​ So, where is that ​not 
going to come? 
Student: ​Sehen sie mich... 
Teacher: So,​ mich, es​, little words like this, next to the verb. ​Sehen sie 
mich...​and then what comes? 
Student: ​Nicht..Sehen sie mich morgen nicht? 
Teacher: Very good. The common decision on that when, of that time expression, 
when something happens is before the nicht.​ Sehen sie mich morgen nicht. ​Aren’t 
you seeing me tomorrow?​ But in this circumstance, tomorrow is just a detail, no, 
aren’t you seeing me tomorrow?​ But if we wanted to stress tomorrow, then we 
might move the position. ​Sehen sie mich nicht morgen… sehen sie mich nicht 
morgen?​ You might hear that as well. But the general standard position is to have 
that when before nicht. ​Sehen sie mich morgen nicht. ​What was it? 
Student: E​s​. 
Teacher: E​s.​ This is another consonant switch we can learn in German. The English 
‘T’ becoming the German ‘S’ . ​It,​ ​es.​ So, knowing that, how’d you think you would 
make ​to eat , to eat? 
Student: E​ss. 
Teacher: That’s the first thing you do, no you change the’ t’ to an ‘s’, and now 
what you do to get to eat 
Student: essen 
Teacher: essen, very good. That’s to eat. essen. It’s also the word for foodin 
German. In English, we hae delicatessen , no? In some supermarkets, delicatessen 
this is delicate foods. How do you think you would say water?  
Student: Wasser 
Teacher: Wasser. Very good. ‘W’ sounds like a ‘V’and ‘T’ to’S’, Wasser. Better? 
Student: Besser 
Teacher: Besser. How do you say WE’ll eat it tomorrow? So we’ll eat it tomorrow 
Student: Wir essen es morgen 
Teacher: Wir essen es morgen. We’ll eat it tomorrow. We’ll eat them tomorrow? 
Student: Wir essen sie morgen 
Teacher: Very good. Wiressen sie morgen… I’m eating it? 
Student: Ich esse es 
Teacher: Ich esse es…very good.How do you think, this you have to guess , How o 
you think they’d say they hate it. They hate it? 
Student: SIe hasse es 
Teacher: Good. Sie hassen es. They hate it, sie hassen es. They hate them? 
Student: Sie hassen sie 
Teacher: They hate me ? 
Student: Siehassen mich 
Teacher: Sie hassen mich. Good. What do you think vergessen mean? vergessen. If 
you to hear around what’d be your guess? 
Student: FOrget 
Teacher: Very good. Forget. Now you take up the –en , you check you have any 
consonant switches and there you would find the verb in English. vergessen forget. 
How would you say I’m forgetting it… 
Student: Ich vorgesse es 
Teacher: And that’s vergessen not Vorgessen. Ich vergesse es… good. I’m forgetting 
myself or I’m forgetting me, the word for me also mean myself is funny way to say 
that I get crazy , I lose my temper, I get angry in German. We can use that , so I 
forget me, I forgetmyself . How would that be? 
Student: Ich vergesse mich 
Teacher: Ich vergesse mich, ICh vergesse mich, bear in your mind, the ‘t’ to ‘s’, 
how would you say I must 
Student: Ich muss 
Teacher: Ich muss. 
Student: Ich muss.  
Teacher: I must go. This is like I must TO go. I have TO go. 
Student: Ich muss gehen 
Teacher: ICh muss gehen, bery good. Imust eat, I have to eat, so this is used as a 
very normal verb in German not so heavy a sit sounds in Englsih, a sin I must, In 
German this is what you’ll use for I have to, so I have to eat, I must eat 
Student: Ich muss essen 
Teacher: Very good. Ich muss essen.So we said this is more like have to than must 
if we compare it to English, you know must and muss are the same word. In the 
ame way, If you say I must not, It sounds much more like I don’t have to rather 
than I must not , So If you want to say I don’t have to eat, you can say I must not 
eat, and to the German ear this is going to sound like, I don’t have to eat. Not I 
musnt eat. So how would you say that? I don’t have to eat 
Student: Ich muss essen nicht 
Teacher: I must not eat, I don’t have to eat …First , I must not , I musnt , I don’t 
have to… 
Student: Ich muss nicht 
Teacher: to eat? 
Student: essen 
Teacher: Bravo… Ich muss nicht essen…I don’t have to eat.. I don’t have to come 
Student: Ich muss ncht kommen 
Teacher: Good. Ich muss nicht kommen.So this isn’t I musnt come but I don’t have 
to … You can also use this like the English Must I go?, Do I have to go?No…Like when 
you don’t want to do something do I have to, Must I, you can use this in the same 
way in German as well. So how would you say that Must I? Must I? 
Student: Muss ich? 
Teacher: Bravo. Muss ich, Muss ich. Must I go? Do I have to go? 
Student: Muss ich gehen? 
Teacher: Muss ich gehen? Do I have to eat? 
Student: Muss ich essen? 
Teacher: Muss ich essen, very good. 
Complete German, Track 08 
 
Teacher: ​So some other words with this t to s switch(ts) ,the word for big is groß 
like great,you see the t switching to s, since some vowels changing. What do you 
think das means? 
 
Student: ​that  
Teacher: ​Good,we have the d to th and the s to t.So we have two letter switches 
happening there (thd, ts) And this can also be used like this...So das is this or 
that...The word for is is ist..So now you could say this is big or that is big or great. 
So let’s make a recoup of these words...What is this or that?  
Student: ​Das  
Teacher: ​And what is is?​Student: ​ist 
Teacher: ​and big or great? 
Student: ​groß 
Teacher: ​how do you say this is big?  
Student: ​Das ist groß 
Teacher: ​this is not big​Student: ​das ist nicht groß​Teacher: ​this is bettter 
Student: ​das ist besser 
Teacher: ​is this/that better?  
Student: ​Ist das besser? 
Teacher: ​isnt this better. And as i mentioned before deconstructing takes you 
closer to the german order. Is this not better?  
Student: ​ist das nicht besser? 
Teacher: ​How do you think you would say out in german? 
Student: ​aus 
Teacher: ​ausgehen means to go out like to a bar or club or something. How do you 
say i want to go out? 
Student: ​ich will ausgehen.. 
Teacher: ​we can use the word then like because in german,so what is then in 
german 
Student: ​denn.. 
Teacher: ​i want to go out because i can’t sleep 
Student: ​ich will ausgehn denn ich kan nicht einschlafen/schlafen 
Teacher: ​ausslafen,to out sleep means to sleep in,so to sleep in in german is to 
sleep out,to have a long sleep in the morning.I want to sleep in  
Teacher: ​ich will ausschlafen​..so we have einslclaphen to fall asleep and 
ausschlafen to out sleep which actually means to sleep in. 
Teacher: how do you think you say what in german? 
Student: was 
Teacher: we have the w sounds like v and t to s switch.. 
Teacher: what was to want? Somethig more like voluntary? 
Student: wollen 
Teacher: what do they/you(formal)want? 
Student: was wollen sie/Sie?  
Teacher: What do you want to eat? 
Student: was wollen sie essen? 
Teacher: what are we eating? 
Student: was essen wir?  
Teacher: And how do you say what is this?  
Student: was ist das? 
Teacher: So the word for it was es and the word for is was ist.How do you say it is? 
Student: es ist... 
Teacher: what was the word for big/great? 
Student: groß 
Teacher: it is big 
Student: es ist groß 
Teacher: it is not big 
Student: es ist nicht groß 
9 
 
Teacher: We've seen some letter changes, english P to german F (hopehoffen), 
english T to german S (eatessen),english TH to german D (thankdanke) and we also 
saw that some letters stay the same but sound different in german, the english S 
can sound like Z ,can in English as well although in quite different positions to 
German. We’ve also seen that W sounds like V, the german V sounds like 
F.Verstehen means to understand. So again we see the V sounding like an F and 
then we get stehen,that H as we saw before it’s just stretching the vowel and ST 
gives us st just as we got sl inschlafen to sleep, we get an sh sound . How would 
you say I understand? 
-Ich verstehe.. 
Teacher: I want to hear the sht. Again. If this is an uncomfortable sound for you, 
you won't get it by going faster, you will have to slow down to make sure you 
putting those sounds in.I don't understand(= I understand not) 
-Ich verstehe nicht.. 
Teacher: ​I don't understand it 
-Ich verstehe nicht es... 
Teacher: In german these little words like es,mich,sie, they're going to come next 
to the verb 
-Ich verstehe es nicht.. 
Teacher: Very good. I understand it not in german. I don't understand them or I 
don't understand you 
-Ich verstehe sie/Sie nicht.. 
Teacher: Very good. Interestingly stehen by itself means to stand , so we have in 
english to under stand and in german we have ver stehen ​so stehen is to stand. 
How do we say we understand? 
-Wir verstehen.. 
Teacher: We understand you/them? 
-Wir verstehen sie/Sie.. 
Teacher: We don't understand them? 
-Wir verstehen sie nicht.. 
Teacher: Again take more time to make sure you're getting the sht in verstehen 
-Do you understand? 
-Verstehen Sie? 
Teacher: Don’t you understand? 
-Verstehen Sie nicht?.. 
Teacher: Don’t you understand me? 
-Verstehen Sie mich nicht?... 
Teacher: Good. So we said that this stehen is to stand now this sh sound with 
another consonant like schlafen to sleep, stehen to stand is what you would have 
to get very used to in German. In German when you get an S and another 
consonant starting a syllable, you will get this sh sound appearing. For example the 
word spät with two little dots, those two dots over A make sound like E,is the word 
for late. In Berlin for example you will see everywhere spätkauf, late buy, which is 
like an off- license or a convenience store. Knowing that spätkauf means late 
buy,how do you think you would say to buy? 
-Kaufen.. 
Teacher: Bravo. Which we can take fromspätkauf. So you can identify words like 
this in German which are built of different words is a very common 
occurrence in german and you can maybe extract of the vocabulary from these 
words likespätkaufkaufen=to buy 
Teacher: I am buying it 
-Ich kaufe es.. 
Teacher: I am not buying it 
-Ich kaufe es nicht.. 
Teacher: What was the word for late,again? 
-Spät.. 
Teacher: Later is später, you do the same as you do in english, you just add er 
(latelater). I’ll buy it later? 
-Ich kaufe es später.. 
Teacher: I’ll buy them later 
-Ich kaufe sie später.. 
Teacher: These sp, sl sounds are especially unfamiliar to you, so you need to slow 
down to insist with yourself to get those sounds. You 
don't want to skip over. You might not be understood in German if you don’t 
pronounce it. 
Teacher: They'll buy it tomorrow. So we have a they here, we have a it here.We 
want to start with the verb,who is buying it. 
-Sie kaufen es morgen.. 
Teacher: If you start with who is buying, if you are sure of that, the rest will fit 
into place. 
Teacher: They’ll buy them tomorrow 
-Sie kaufen sie morgen.. 
Teacher: They won’t buy them tomorrow 
-Sie kaufen sie morgen nicht.. 
Teacher: Tell me again what was to understand ? 
-Verstehen.. 
Teacher: Good. You can make it. You only need to care enough about it to correct 
that mistake. If you don't care you will just not but is very important. 
Teacher: To sell is verkaufen, so we take this ver and we get to sell from to 
buy.You will see this ver around a lot in German. We've already seen 
verstehen,verkaufen and also vergessen=to forget. How would you say they/you 
are selling it? 
-Sie/sie verkaufen es.. 
Teacher: Are they/you selling it? 
-Verkaufen sie/Sie es?.. 
Teacher: And how about the order? Sell it! 
-Verkaufen Sie es!.. 
Teacher: Aren’t they/you selling it? 
-Verkaufen sie/Sie es nicht? 
Teacher: And the order? Don’t sell it 
-Verkaufen sie es nicht!.. 
Teacher: But is important also to make it sound like an order.And how isWe sell? 
-Wir verkaufen.. 
Teacher: What are we selling? 
-Was verkaufen wir?... 
Teacher: Very good. And this is again an excellent example that you don't need to 
worry about memorizing because you found was from what. We took the in 
betweens them.You went from what to wat and then to was. That’s perfect. That's 
how you find the words that you know without having to worry about your memory. 
Just see where your first thought will take you and will take you somewhere. And 
if this somewhere it's not where you want to go,it probably take you where you 
want to go. Whatwatwas. Very good. 
Lesson 10 
 
Teacher: ​So, we mentioned ​spätkauf,​ which is like a convenience store. Literally 
meaning late-buy, ‘cause they tend to be open until late. So, we have ​spät​, or 
late, and ​kauf​, for buy, what was later? 
Student: ​ ​Später​. 
Teacher: ​Später,​ good. And what was to buy? 
Student: ​ ​Kaufen. 
Teacher: ​Kaufen. ​Good. And what was to sell? We added something to ​kaufen​ to 
get to sell. 
Student: ​ ​Verkaufen. 
Teacher: ​Verkaufen.​ Good. To sell. How would you say I’m buying it tomorrow? 
Student:​ ​Ich kaufe es morgen. 
Teacher: ​Very good. ​Ich kaufe es morgen.​ And we saw that when something 
happens tends to come just before ​nicht​. So, if you say something like I’m not 
buying it tomorrow, we get quite a different order than in English. I’m buying it 
tomorrow not. 
Student: ​Ich kaufe es morgen nicht.  
Teacher: ​Ich kaufe es morgen nicht.​ I’m not buying it tomorrow. So, we have 
morgen b ​ efore ​nicht​ in its common position. So, this is the common position and I 
mention that it can be flexible on the context, maybe say ​Ich kaufe es nicht 
morgen, nicht morgen.​ I’m not buying it tomorrow, I’m buying it on Tuesday. No, 
so there we, we raise tomorrow from being just a detail to the detail. We can do 
this with the word order. And for the neutral I’m not buying it tomorrow when 
tomorrow is just a detail, not the detail, then you have the standard word order. 
Ich kaufe es morgen nicht. Morgen​ before ​nicht. ​To send is ​senden.​ ​Senden. 
Student: ​ Senden. 
Teacher:​ So, again, we have the ‘s’ sounding like a ‘z.’ ​Senden. 
Student: ​ ​Senden. 
Teacher:​ They’re sending it. They’re sending it. 
Student: ​Sie senden es. 
Teacher: ​ ​Sie senden es. ​Good, They’re not sending it. 
Student: ​ ​Sie senden es nicht​. 
Teacher: ​Good. ​Sie senden es nicht​. They’re not sending it tomorrow. 
Student:​ ​Sie senden es morgen nicht.​   
Teacher: ​ Very good. ​Sie senden es morgen nicht.​ The day after tomorrow is 
übermorgen.​ ​Übermorgen.  
Student:​ ​Übermorgen. 
Teacher: ​ This literally mean over or above tomorrow. 
Student:​ Mm-hm. 
Teacher: ​The u here, is spelled u with two dots above the u. This changes the 
pronunciation in German. The best way to achieve this sound is to make a u [u] [u] 
Student:​ [u] [u] 
Teacher: And keeping your lips in that position, in the position that your lips fall 
when you make [u]. Keeping your lips there, try to make an [e] sound, but without 
moving your mouth back how it does when you make an [e]. So, you go [u] [u] [u]. 
You keep your lips there [u] [u] [y] 
Student:​ [u] [u] 
Teacher: ​ [y] 
Student:​ [u] 
Teacher: ​ [u] [u] [y]. [y] 
Student:​ [y][y] 
Teacher: ​Good. Very good. And this is the sound we have with ​übermorgen. 
Übermorgen.  
Student:​ Ü​bermorgen.  
Teacher:​ Very good. So the u with the two dots, these two dots, in effect, and an 
e quality to the sound. We already saw that with ​spät​ which was spelled with the a 
with the two dots on it giving us a more e sound. How would you say I’m coming 
the day after tomorrow? 
Student:​ ​Ich komme übermorgen.​  
Teacher: ​ Good. ​Ich komme übermorgen.​ How would you say They’re sending them 
tomorrow? 
Student: ​ ​Sie senden sie morgen.  
Teacher: ​Good. ​Sie senden sie morgen.​ They’re not sending them tomorrow. 
Student:​ ​Sie senden sie morgen nicht.  
Teacher:​ Very good. ​Sie senden sie morgen nicht.​ But, maybe, if you were to say 
They’re not sending them tomorrow; they’re sending them the day after 
tomorrow. Maybe, in this circumstance you will change that order of ​morgen nicht 
because you are emphasizing not tomorrow, the day after tomorrow. So, here you 
can witness the order being flexible. You can observe this knowing the general 
position and safe position for the time expression is before ​nicht, ​and also play 
with it yourself to give a different emphasis to your sentences. So, let’s try this. 
They’re not sending them tomorrow. They’re sending them the day after 
tomorrow. So, the first bit: They’re not sending them tomorrow. 
Student: ​ ​Sie senden sie morgen nicht. 
Teacher: ​ Good, this would be the standard order, but as you will then contrast 
They’re sending them the day after tomorrow. You might want to change that 
order. You might want to say, They’re sending them NOT tomorrow. 
Student: ​ ​Sie senden sie nicht morgen. 
Teacher: ​They’re sending them the day after tomorrow. 
Student:​ ​Sie senden sie übermorgen. 
Teacher:​ Very good. ​Sie senden sie nicht morgen. S​ o, you can feel the emphasis 
shift there. They’re sending them not tomorrow, they sending them the day after 
tomorrow. ​Sie senden sie übermorgen. G ​ ood. So, your general and safe position is 
to have that time expression before the ​nicht.​ But, I don’t want anybody to hear it 
in another place and think that they misunderstood something about the rules of 
German. So, if you hear it in another place, it’s moved for emphasis.   
 
Lesson 11 
 
Teacher: ​ German has reputation of being quite a difficult language. But, I think 
that’s mainly because it’s been understood and taught quite badly. Once we 
understand the value system of German, it becomes quite simple and transparent 
as a language. But, what do I mean by value system? Languages have different 
things that they care about, and things that they don’t. This we can call the value 
system of the language, what the language cares about and shows in it’s structure 
and grammar and vocabulary. Some languages change to mark certain things that 
other languages simply ignore. German, from the perspective of rules and 
exceptions, can look very complicated. From the perspective of its value system, 
it becomes very simple and transparent. The structure of German appears to be 
very much geared around preventing assumptions. We don’t want the listener to 
assume they know what we are going to say. And in the same way, we hold off 
interruptions that might stem from these presumptions. What’s more is that 
German identifies situations in which you may be more vulnerable to interruption, 
and takes steps to avoid the occurring{sic} by saving the most important 
information, the most key information until last. So, German seems to identify 
weak points, where people might assume what you are saying, and interrupt you. 
Understood or imagined in this lens, we can understand the driving force behind 
German, and understand why we end up with certain word orders. One such time 
when we might be vulnerable to presumption and therefore interruption is when 
we use more than one verb. For example, in I want to see you tomorrow. We open 
with a verb, I want. We shovel everything else in the middle: you, tomorrow, and 
then we close with the other verb, to see. Verbs are words we can put to in front 
of. to buy to want So, what we say in German is I want you tomorrow to see So, 
German identifies these occasions when we use two or more verbs, as an occasion 
where we might be developing a bigger idea, and also at the same time be 
vulnerable to interruption. Interruptions, which are usually the result of 
presumptions. Usually, when we interrupt somebody, it’s because we presume we 
know what they are going to say. Often, we’re wrong, and we interrupt that idea 
and the construction of the idea. German acts to avoid this. So, when we have a 
sentence with two verbs, for example. We can avoid this occurring by saving that 
last verb until right at the end of the structure. Now, you might not realize the 
impact of this when you’re building a sentence, because when you are building a 
sentence you already know the idea you are transmitting. But, when you are 
hearing the sentence of somebody else, you really realize that until you get to the 
last word you have no idea what’s going on. You must hear all the details before 
you complete the picture. This avoids interruption, unless you are very sure what’s 
coming. So, what a different resource German offers us then, to communicate and 
piece together the information we share! This is to be enjoyed, and not dreaded. 
And it’s really fun during speaking, too. You know what you are saying; you know 
what is the idea that you want to communicate, and you can watch it peace 
together in the other person that will not understand what you are saying until you 
put that last verb on the end. Language isn’t thought. We are often asked, Oh, 
what language do you think in?, if you speak more than one language. No, this is a 
very common misconception. Language is a tool that we use in thought. But, 
actually, thought is something we transcribe to language. So, when we say 
something like I don’t want to wait here very long today, we transcribe that 
thought in that linear way in English. But, in English when we say I don’t want to 
stay, there we know what’s going on, and those details then modify that reaction 
that occurs already on the end of I don’t want to stay, then we modify that 
reaction very long here today, whatever. But in German, we deconstruct and 
reconstruct that thought for the other person in a completely different way. I 
don’t want, all of the other information, then comes here very long today et 
cetera and then to stay on the end, completing the picture. So, let’s play with 
this. What was to buy again? 
Student:​ ​Kaufen. 
Teacher: ​ ​Kaufen. ​So, starting with the simplest structures, if you were to say I 
want to buy it, you have two verbs there: I want and then to buy. These are the 
verbs. So, we start with the verb, the first verb, which is I want. 
Student: ​ ​Ich will.  
Teacher: ​ ​Ich will. ​ And then we have, to buy it, but we must finish with that to 
buy, So, where does that it go? 
Student: ​ ​Ich will es kaufen. 
Teacher: ​ Bravo. ​Ich will es kaufen. N​ ote: I want it to buy, huh, not the meaning 
in English, I want it to buy, I want him to buy something. No, I want to buy it I 
want it and we don’t complete the picture until we get to the end, to buy. I want 
to buy it. ​Ich will es kaufen.​ I want to buy it tomorrow. Again, you will have the 
second verb on the end. We’re not going to understand anything about what you 
are talking about until we get to the end. I want to buy it tomorrow. 
Student: ​ ​Ich will kaufen es 
Teacher: ​ We’re not going to understand anything about what you are saying until 
we get to the end. So, you start with one verb, you shovel everything else in the 
middle, in the order that we’ve been learning until now, and then you finish with 
the last verb. 
Student: ​ ​Ich will es morgen kaufen. 
Teacher: ​ ​Ich will es morgen kaufen. 
Student: ​ Mmhm. 
Teacher: ​ So, really, as a listener, I have no idea about what idea you are 
deciphering for me until I get to the end. ​Ich will es morgen ​I want it tomorrow, to 
buy and then I understand what’s going on. That means I won’t interrupt you, 
unless I’m very, very sure on what you will say. We will explore this idea, of this 
supposed value of German, of leaving the picture very incomplete until the end to 
avoid interruptions, to avoid presumptions about what one is saying, leaving the 
key piece of information that is necessary to contextualize everything else until 
the end of the clause. We will keep coming back to this idea of avoiding 
interruptions and assumptions throughout this entire course when we look at other 
adjustments that are made to the structure of German, which always seem to be 
identifying times in which we are vulnerable to this possible interruption and 
assumption and trying to save us from that peril.  
 
Lesson 12 
 
Teacher: ​ So, we’ve begun to explore the character of German in a profound way, 
understanding how German identifies situations where we might be vulnerable to 
interruption or assumption, and German takes steps to avoid it. For example, when 
we use two verbs, we have the second verb, which holds the most key information, 
at the end. I don’t want to buy it tomorrow, I want it tomorrow not to buy. So, we 
see the order of the words between these two verbs is the same as what we’ve 
been seeing until now. We begin with our first verb, and then any small words like 
es​ or ​mich, t​ he time expression before ​nicht​ and the second verb on the end. So, 
how would you say I don’t want to buy it tomorrow? Where will you begin? 
Student: ​ ​Ich will es mor.., ​mmm, ​morgen nicht kaufen.  
Teacher: ​ Bravo. ​Ich will es morgen nicht kaufen. A ​ nd you can feel your mind, no?, 
processing that idea in a different way. You think of the second verb sooner, and 
then you have to forget it until you get to the end. So you think oh, to buy. OK, I 
won’t worry about that until I get to the end. Don’t worry about finding to buy yet. 
Don’t worry about working out that to buy is ​kaufen​ because you will have to hold 
on to that if you work that out now whilst you’re putting in your ​es morgen nicht​. 
You only want to think about the bit that is in front of you. This will be a very 
simple way to work your way through German. So, you say I want, ​Ich will t​ o buy, 
oh no that will go at the end. Don’t have to think about that yet, and you don’t. 
You think about the things that will come in the middle. So, OK, first we have 
words like ​es​, then we have the time expression-​morgen,​ then we have ​nicht,​ and 
then we put on our​ kaufen. ​So, we start experiencing a very different architecture 
in German. How would you say, I can’t send it tomorrow? So, it might feel like a 
very complicated sentence to decipher all at once. you worry about what will 
come first and what will come next, and all of your concentration just on that. I 
can’t send it tomorrow. 
Student: ​ ​Ich kann nicht -​ no- ​Ich kann es morgen nicht senden. 
Teacher: ​ Very good. Very good. ​Ich kann es morgen nicht senden. Ich kann nicht 
is a very natural place to start from for an English speaker, and English speakers 
will have to be careful of this because, of course, we have I can’t, so we want to 
say ​Ich kann nicht​ but of course be have ​Ich kann​ and before ​nicht​, ​es,​ the time 
expression-​morgen, t​ hen ​nicht​ and then the final verb- ​senden​. So, again, if I’m 
listening to you, I don’t know what you’re talking about until you complete that 
idea. I can it tomorrow not and then we complete the picture - send. ​Ich kann es 
morgen nicht senden.​ We saw how ​spät i​ s late and ​später i​ s later, so how would 
you say I can’t buy it later? I can’t buy it later. 
Student: ​ What’s buy? I forget.  
Teacher: ​ Don’t worry about that, yet. That’s actually the last thing you need to 
think about. If you think about it now... 
Student: ​ Mmm. Then I.. 
Teacher: ​...you will be trying to hold on to that, and that will really affect your 
mental processing for the rest. So you go...  
Student: ​ Mm. 
Teacher: ​ ...ok to buy, that’s at the end.  
Student: ​ Mmhm. 
Teacher: ​ I can’t buy it later. 
Student: ​ ​Ich kann es später nicht kaufen.​  
Teacher: ​ ​Ich kann es später nicht kaufen​. And then you remembered ​kaufen v​ ery 
easily. You didn’t have to think about it. No? But if you start worrying about what 
you know, what you don’t at the beginning, then we start to get shut-downs in the 
mind. Stress, no, which really inhibits our finding process. to stay is ​bleiben.​ B L E 
I B E N. ​Bleiben.  
Student: ​ ​Bleiben 
Teacher: ​ So this e-i gives us [​aɪ] sound, we actually also had it in ​einschlafen ​to 
fall asleep, to in sleep. That ​ein​ of ​einschlafen​ is spelled E I N. So again we have 
here EI giving us [aɪ]. ​Bleiben.​   
Student: ​ ​Bleiben​.  
Teacher: ​ And that’s to stay. the word for here in German is ​hier 
Student: ​ ​Hier 
Teacher: ​ And this is spelled H I E R. So, IE gives is ​[​iː​]​, where EI gives us [​aɪ]​. 
Now, we don’t want to memorize that. We just want to know there are words we 
can look back to, to check which one’s which. So we can look back to ​Sie,​ which is 
spelled S I E, they or you to ​die,​ the, which is spelled D I E. We can look back to 
hier, ​H I E R, and that will remind us that the IE gives us this ​[​iː​]​, ​hier​. 
Student: ​ ​Hier. 
Teacher: ​ I can stay here. How would you say that? I can stay here 
Student: ​ ​Ich kann hier bleiben.​  
Teacher: ​ Good. ​Ich kann hier bleiben.​   
How would you say I can’t stay here tomorrow? I can’t stay here tomorrow. So, just 
worry about the bit you need to get out first. 
Student: ​ ​Ich kann morgen nicht hier bleiben. 
Teacher: ​ Very good. ​Ich kann morgen nicht hier bleiben. V ​ ery good. Again, we 
see how in English we modify the reaction I can’t stay here tomorrow, and in 
German we construct the reaction. I can tomorrow not here stay. We only work out 
what’s going on once we have all of the other information. So, word order is a 
fascinating area in German. It gives a different pace and mechanism to both 
everyday conversation, as well as the art we make of language, such as poetry, 
song lyrics. These elements of German are not an obstacle to learning and 
speaking, but constitute a lot of what German has to offer you, a different way to 
process information, a different way to think, and a different way to make yourself 
understood when you’re expressing yourself in German. Something to be 
thoroughly enjoyed and investigated, rather than seen as a hurdle to 
communication because of its differences with English. Languages are mechanisms 
which both permit and oblige us to perceive and express the world in a certain 
way. They force us and they allow us to perceive the world and to express the 
world in a certain way. Learning a new language that does this differently can be a 
life changing experience.  
 
 
 
Language Transfer: Complete German: Track 13 Transcript 
 
Teacher: So as mentioned we're going to be recording Complete German with a 
variety of students as we tour Europe with the Language Transfer project. So Hello 
to our student number two, Hello Matty. 
Student: Hello 
Teacher: So we will continue from where we left off on Track 12, but we'll begin 
learning a new word. 
The word for now in German is Jetzt Jetzt 
Student: Jetzt 
Teacher: So it's like the English word yet with an st, an extra st. So if this is 
complicated to pronounce, you can think of the English word yet, and then, after 
you think of that, add on the st, Jetzt. 
Student: Jetzt 
Teacher: Good. And of course these words are related, no? The German word Jetzt 
is related to the English word yet, but in German Jetzt means now, Jetzt. 
Student: Jetzt 
Teacher: Good, you can think first of yet then add your st. because this is a kind of 
complicated word. I should also mention that this je sound is spelled with a j in 
German. Like the German word for yes Ja spelled j a. How would you say they 
want it. ? 
Student: Sie wollen es 
Teacher: Sie wollen es, good. And this could also contract to Sie wollen's. You can 
contract wollen and es to wollen's, sie wollen's. Do they want it? 
Student: Wollen sie es? 
Teacher: Very good! Wollen sie es, and this you could also contract to wollen sie's. 
So the sie and the es can contract to sie's. Wollen sie's. 
Student: Wollen sie's 
Teacher: Good. They want it now!? 
Student: Sie wollen's jetzt. 
Teacher: Very good. Sie wollen es jetzt or sie wollen's jetzt. What do they want 
now? 
Student: Was wollen sie jetzt. 
Teacher: Very good. Was wollen sie jetzt. What do they want to eat now? What 
was to eat? 
Student: Essen 
Teacher: Essen, good. So let's begin with what do they want. 
Student: Was wollen sie essen jetzt. 
Teacher: We have two verbs here, no? 
Student: Ahh,ok. Was wollen sie jetzt essen. 
Teacher: Very good. Was wollen sie jetzt essen. Good. So part of this is being very 
clear on what verbs are, no? And spotting when you are using two of them. Then 
you know that you need to make yoursandwich, opening with the verb, shoving 
everything else there in the middle and then closing with the verb. So here we 
have was wollen sie, what do they want, to eat now. And we recognise with that 
to eat that we have a second verb so that will close the sentence and the now is 
going to go in the middle. Was wollen sie jetzt essen. It's easy to identify verbs by 
their form. To words and those that come from them. So to go, to come, to eat 
and words that come from them like eat, comes, came. A couple of verbs in 
English don't have two forms. There is no to can for example but can is a verb. But 
we don't have any to can. Instead we use to be able, but that's a rarity of English. 
That's an English problem. In German we do have to can. The same with must. In 
English we have I must, you must, we must, but not to must. Instead we use to 
have to. But in German we do have a to must. So to can or to be able, in English, is 
können. 
 
Student: Können 
Teacher: Könne. This is spelt k o and the o has two dots on the top, n n e n. The 
vowel here, in können, is like the vowel in bird. So it might be confusing to think 
of it as an o because there is not much of an o sound here. So what we can do, we 
can look at the word bird, in English, and just import that sound over. Bird, kö, 
können. 
Student: Können 
Teacher: Können. So this is the o plus the umlaut giving us this ö sound as in bird. 
They can? 
Student: Sie können. 
Teacher: Sie können. The children can? 
Student: Kinder 
Teacher: Good, and the children was? If you don't remember the word for the, 
maybe you can look at the English word for the or the and see what happens to th 
in German. 
Student: Die Kinder? 
Teacher: Die Kinder, good. 
Student: Die Kinder können. 
Teacher: Könne, good. And the r in Kinder is not really pronounced. It's more like 
the English. Late, later, Kinder. 
Student: Kinder 
Teacher: And of course, die Kinder is like they, so we are again keeping the true 
form of the verb. Die Kinder können. The children can. We can? 
Student: Wir können? 
Teacher: Wir können. 
Student: Wir können. 
Teacher: Good. Again, the r, we're not really hearing it like wir, we have w i r but 
the r on the end of the word there is like in English, like in car. 
Student: Wir können. 
Teacher: Good, wir. What was to buy? 
Student: Verkaufen 
Teacher: Verkaufen is to sell. We added that ver to get sell from buy. 
Student: Kaufen. 
Teacher: Kaufen, good. Can we buy it now? 
Student: There are two verbs. 
Teacher: Tell me, which are the two verbs? 
Student: Can and buy. 
Teacher: Can and buy, good. So, that's half the work. Identifying where you have 
that situation of two verbs and now you know what you must do. So can we buy it 
now? 
Student: Können wir es jetzt kaufen? 
Teacher: Very well done. Können wir es jetzt kaufen. Very good. What was to stay? 
Student: Bleiben. 
Teacher: Bleiben, good. And the word for here? It's the same. 
Student: Bleiben. 
Teacher: No, the same as English. 
(Laughter) 
Student: Hier. 
Teacher: Hier, good. The same as in English but spelt h i e r. Ie in German gives us 
ee, like a long ee, like in die, the word for the, spelt d i e. And ei gives us i as in 
bleiben which is b l e i b e n. So ei gives us i and ie gives us ee, as in hier, bier 
also, like the drink, also spelt b i e r in German. What was I can? 
Student: Ich kann. 
Teacher: Ich kann, soft ich, ich kann. And we see actually how kann is irregular, 
no? It's not ich könne from können. It's ich kann. So that's irregular just as ich will 
from wollen was irregular. How would you say: I can't stay here now? I can't stay 
here now? 
Student: I don't remember where nicht goes. 
Teacher: So ok, start with the first bit that you are sure of that you can get out of 
the way. That's really helpful. So what's the first bit? 
Student: Ich kann nicht 
Teacher: You're sure of ich kann. You're not sure about the nicht, right?   
Student: Ok so ich kann 
Teacher: Good, let's frees up some mental space to think about the rest, no? So 
what comes first? What type of word comes first? 
Student: Now 
Teacher: Good, the time expression. So ich kann jetzt then what comes? 
Student: Nicht 
Teacher: Nicht. So we have time expressions coming before nicht. So you want to 
give that a try all together. I can't stay here now. 
Student: Ich kann jetzt nicht hier bleiben. 
Teacher: Very good. Very good. Well done. And you notice how the listener here 
has no idea what's going on until they get to the end. Ich kann jetzt nicht hier 
what? Bleiben. And then you know what's going on.   
Lesson 14 
 
Teacher:​ What was the word for here in German? 
Student:​ ​Hier. 
Teacher:​ ​Hier.​ The word for there is ​da​. ​Da, s​ pelled D-A. 
Student:​ ​Da. 
Teacher:​ Of course, we see the T-H to D shift again. English T-H in there to 
German D in ​da. H ​ ow would you say, I can stay there tomorrow? I can stay there 
tomorrow. 
Student:​ ​ Ich kann da... O​ .K. ​ Ich kann morgen da bleiben. 
Teacher:​ Good. ​Ich kann morgen da bleiben. ​So we need to think about the order 
of these words, no? We have the when first, if we have a ​nicht, i​ t’s gonna come 
afterward, and then we have the where. Here we don’t have any ​nicht​. So, we 
have ​Ich kann​ ​morgen da bleiben. ​I can stay there tomorrow. ​dableiben,​ also 
means to stay put. So, depending on the context, ​Ich kann morgen da bleiben, 
might mean I can stay there tomorrow or I can stay put tomorrow. So, that might 
be ambiguous but you can understand the difference by the context. Another to 
form that we have in German, that we don’t have in English, is to must. We 
mentioned that in German we have to can, we have to must, and we don’t have 
these verbs in English. In English, we get around having no to must by using to 
have, to have to, which of course is closer t o the meaning of ​muss ​in German. We 
said that ​ich muss​ is much more like I have to than I must. So, how would you say, I 
don’t have to go now? Literally, I mustn’t go now in German. 
Student:​ ​Ich muss jetzt nicht gehen. 
Teacher:​ Very good. ​Ich muss jetzt nicht gehen. ​So, in German we have ​müssen​. 
Müssen. 
Student:​ ​Müssen. 
Teacher:​ This is written M-U, and u with the umlaut, the two little dots above the 
U, S-S-E-N. Now, this double S, makes the [Y]-sound shorter. ​Müssen. 
Student:​ ​Müssen 
Teacher:​ Good. So, ​ich muss​ doesn’t have these two dots above the u. It’s 
irregular, just how we saw ​Ich kann​ was irregular and ​ich will w
​ as irregular. ​Ich 
muss​ is also irregular, the to-form also has two dots over the u. ​Müssen. Müssen. 
Student:​ ​Müssen 
Teacher:​ How would you say We must? 
Student:​ ​Wir müssen. 
Teacher:​ ​Wir müssen. G ​ ood. How would you say Must We? Do we have to? 
Student:​ ​Müssen wir? 
Teacher:​ Good. ​Müssen wir? ​There’s also quite a few verbs in German of Latin 
origin, that end I-E-R-E-N. Now, this IEREN ending, which will show you that the 
verb came in from Latin, is pronounced like [iən] mostly. It’s contracted in 
spoken{SIC}, and the pronunciation you get is [iən]. So, you don’t really hear the R 
there. For example, organize becomes ​organisieren.​   
Student:​ ​Organisieren​. 
Teacher:​ How would you say Must we organize it now? Must we organize it now? 
Student:​ ​Müssen wir es jetzt organisieren.  
Teacher:​ Very good. Very good. ​Müssen wir es jetzt organisieren. V ​ ery good. to 
study is ​studieren. Studieren. 
Student:​ ​Studieren. 
Teacher:​ We have the ST of study, giving us [ʃtə] in German. ​Studieren 
Student:​ ​Studieren 
Teacher:​ Must we study? Do we have to study?  
Student:​ ​Müssen wir studieren? 
Teacher:​ ​Müssen wir studieren? M ​ ust we study now? 
Student:​ ​Müssen wir jetzt studieren? 
Teacher:​ Very good. ​Müssen wir jetzt studieren? T ​ o give you more words of Latin 
origin that you might hear around, you can guess their meaning: ​adoptieren 
Student:​ To adopt. 
Teacher:​ Adopt, of course. ​aktivieren 
Student:​ To activate. 
Teacher:​ Activate. ​Argumentieren. 
Student:​ To argue. Argument. 
Teacher:​ Yes, exactly, it’s not like argue, but it’s not argument, because this is a 
noun in English. No, we don’t really have to argument, but the meaning is exactly 
that. It’s to put forward an argument, rather than to argue. Very good. 
Boykottieren 
Student:​ To boycott. 
Teacher:​ To boycott. ​Autorisieren. Attackieren. Definieren. Demolieren. C ​ an you 
work that one out? ​Demol-- 
Student:​ Demolish. 
Teacher:​ Demolish. From Italian, you get this one, no? It’s more obvious. 
Deportieren. 
Student:​ To deport. 
Teacher:​ ​Funktionieren. 
Student:​ To function 
Teacher:​ To function or to work not to say that something works. So, quite a few, 
you will hear around: ​informieren​, ​interessieren​, ​kopieren,​ ​normalisieren.​ et 
cetera, et cetera, so keep an eye out for those, and of course there will be many 
of these words you want to use, that you won’t realize that they exist in German 
‘till you give it a try. So, maybe one time you want to use the word, exist, and you 
decided you’re going to give it a try in German, and see what happens, what would 
you do?  
Student:​ ​Existieren. 
Teacher:​ ​Existieren.​ And, you will be right. ​Existieren.​ A Latin C sound, like a C 
making an S sound, like in accept, or reduce often become a Z in German. For 
example, in reduce, it’s a Latin C giving us an S sound in English, and this will 
become a Z in German. And Z in German, are pronounced T-S.. T-S. That’s the 
pronunciation of a Z sound in German. So, knowing that, how you will say Reduce? 
Student:​ ​Reduz. 
Teacher:​ And how..what’s the verb ending? 
Student:​ Ahh..​Reduzieren. 
Teacher:​ Good. ​Reduzieren. A ​ ccept Accept has two C’s, the first one becomes a 
K; the second C, that sounds like an S, Ac​c​ept becomes a Z. So, in German, this is 
A-K-Z 
Student:​ [ɛ]​kzeptieren. 
Teacher:​ [​æ​]​kzeptieren 
Student:​ ​Akzeptieren 
Teacher:​ ​Akzeptieren. ​Good. I must. 
Student:​ ​Ich musse. 
Teacher:​ But, it’s irregular, no? It’s not coming directly from ​müssen,​ it’s slightly 
irregular. 
Student:​ ​Ich muss. 
Teacher:​ ​Ich muss. A ​ h, we have a normal U. ​Ich muss.​ So, that’s slightly irregular. 
And then, we have You must(speaking formally), You (plural) must, They must. 
Student:​ ​Sie​ ​müssen 
Teacher:​ ​Sie müssen. T ​ here we have the U with the two dots on the top giving it 
that E quality, no? ​Müssen. T ​ hey must copy it there. They must copy it there. 
Student:​ ​Sie​ ​müssen es da kopie.  
Teacher:​ It’s to copy now, no? 
Student:​ ​Kopieren.  
Teacher:​ Ah, I didn’t hear the N on the end. So, it didn’t sound like to copy. It’s 
very important to hear that N. The R is getting swallowed up there? No? But, the N 
is important. ​Sie​ ​müssen es da kopieren. ​So, the word for we is... 
Student:​ ​Wir. 
Teacher:​ ​Wir. ​The word for us is ​uns. Uns. 
Student:​ ​Uns. 
Teacher:​ Spelled U-N-S. ​Uns. H ​ ow would you say, They must inform us. So, inform 
is a Latin verb. 
Student:​ ​Informieren.  
Teacher:​ ​Informieren. ​So, They must inform us. 
Student:​ ​ Sie müssen uns informieren. 
Teacher:​ Very good. ​Sie​ ​müssen uns informieren. ​They don’t interest us. How[SIC] 
do you think is to interest? 
Student:​ I​ntere[​ t]​sieren 
Teacher:​ ​Interessieren. ​The T here become an S.   
Student:​ ​Interessieren. 
Teacher:​ So, They interest us not. They don’t interest us. 
Student:​ ​Sie interessieren uns nicht. 
Teacher:​ Exactly. ​Sie interessieren uns nicht. ​And, again, soft ​nicht. -icht.  
 
 15 
 
Teacher: What was ​to stay​? 
Student: Bleib 
Teacher: ​Bleiben 
Teacher: ​I stay?​  
Student: ​Ich bleibe 
Teacher: ​Ich bleibe 
Teacher: And in spoken German ​ich blei​b is very common in spoken German it is 
very common to lose that last e. No? Even though in written German you will read 
ich bleibe​. This is different from the loss of the e that we find in ​ich kann​, ​ich 
will​, ​ich muss​. These verbs are written without that e. And they are other changes 
as well. ​Können​ to ​kann​, ​müssen​ to ​muss​, ​wollen​ to ​will​. So those were irregular, 
but pretty much all verbs that you put in the I form can be pronounced without the 
last e sound so ​ich bleibe​,​ ich bleib​. ​I’m coming​? 
Student: ​Ich komm 
Ich Komm.. ich komme.. you can hear either . no? I’m coming tomorrow? 
Ich komm morgen 
Ich komm morgen.. And I’m not coming tomorrow 
Ich komm morgen nicht 
.. Morgen the time, the when before the nicht. So we’ve seen two versions of the 
verb actually. That’s what we’ve seen so far. We’ve seen the to form. Bleiben 
kommen which we can use for a lot, for ‘they’ ‘you formal’ ‘you plural’ for we sie 
bleiben wir bleiben sie kommen sie kommen. We’ve seen the I form bleibe ich 
bleib komme ich komm. We also have in german an informal you, which is the one 
which you’ll want to use while practicing german with your friends for example: 
you might have heard the sentence where fr art thou Romeo. Do you know what it 
means? Where for art thou Romeo.. ? 
Where are you Romeo? 
That’s what you think. That’s what most people assume. Where are you romeo, 
but then it doesn’t mean where for but it means why. Why are you Romeo? Which 
if you know the story of Romeo and Juliet is two young people that fell in love on 
two wolling families, you can understand why she is asking why re you 
Romeo. Why is that your name? why are you from the other family? Thou is the 
English word for you and thus you can imagine, she’s probably talking to Romeo 
informally. The german, informal word for you is du 
du 
What do we see between thou and du 
Th became d 
Th became d, exactly. Thou… du… So this thou in old English, if you ever read any 
Shakespeare in English, or example the old bible in English or you will come across 
these forms thou and in german that’s du. Th to d shift. Also if you’ve had any 
exposure to old English, you might be familiar with thou goehst. Weder goehst 
thou? Where do you go? So we have goehst in old English, we have the same in 
german. Du gehst. We have an st ending for thou. We use du for the informal you 
and we change the verb by adding on an st to the end of the verb after we remove 
our ending 
So for example, to go was  
Gehen 
Gehen… if we remove out en and put an st, how is that gonna sound? 
Du gehst 
Du gehst. Good. 
What was to study? 
Studen 
What do you add at the end? 
Studieren 
Good. You study speaking informally 
Du studerst…Du studierst 
Very good. Du studierst 
What do you study? 
Was studierst du? 
Was studierst du? Very good 
What was to understand? 
Verstehen 
Verstehen. You understand, speaking informally 
Du verstandest 
Slowly, you cannot go from verstehen to verstandest if you are not rushing 
Du verstehst 
Du verstehst 
Du verstehst 
Good and the e is coming little bit at the back as you can see, my mouth that i'm 
pulling that right back. verstehst 
Do you understand me? 
Verstand..no? 
You must be sure of what is du form of the verb before you start manipulating it, 
if you have any insecurity there then of course then you are taking something 
insecure and then you are changing into very unlikely to get it right. no? Verstehen 
verstehen 
Give me first, do you understand 
Verstehst du? 
Verstehst du? 
Do You understand me? 
Verstehst du mich? 
Good. Don’t you understand me? Don’t you understand me? 
Verstehst du mich nicht? 
Very good.. Verstehst du mich nicht? 
Tell me again the word for not 
Nicht 
To say anything or nothing, anything or nothing we just had an s to nicht 
Nichts nichts 
nichts 
Its bit of a mouth full no, to have ch t s all together. Nichts. You can think of nicht 
first and then add s. Nichts 
Nichts 
In the same way we thought about the yet of the word now and then we added the 
zt jetzt to help us pronounce it. Either way you will hear in colloquial german, nix. 
Like nix, and you will also see it if you’re looking around for adverts etc. nix n-i-x 
for nothing, but really, nichts. 
How do you say ‘you understand nothing’ 
Du verstehst nichts [nix] 
Du verstehst nichts or nix 
Don’t you understand anything? lit. you understand nothing 
Verstehst du nichts [nix] 
nichts or nix ..good 
I want to eat 
Er will essen 
Ich will essen 
I don’t want to eat 
Ich will nicht essen 
Ich will nicht essen 
How do you say I don’t want to eat anything. 
Ich will nicht nichts essen 
So we don’t put 
Nicht and nichts 
Yes, we would say, I want nothing to eat 
Ich will nichts essen or ich will nix essen 
So we have I want 
Ich will 
Ich will 
What is to want 
Wollen 
Wollen. You want, the informal you, is du willst 
Du willst 
So it’s a bit irregular, we are not going from wollen, it’s not du wollst. We are 
going from will, ich will. We are keeping that irregularity of will. And wi get du 
willst. 
Du willst 
Do you want? 
Willst du? 
Do you want to eat? 
Willst du essen? 
Willst du essen? 
Don’t you want to eat anything? So this is just you want to eat nothing, in German. 
Don’t you want to eat anything? 
Willst du nichts essen? 
What was I can 
Ich kann 
And to can or to be able in english 
Können 
Können 
Think about bird and then import that sound over when I say import that sound 
over, you go bö kó. Können. 
Können. 
Können. Very Good. 
 
You can, speaking informally, is Du kannst. So again we are taking the irregularity 
of ich kann and we are using it also for du. Du kannst. Not du könnst. No? So it’s 
irregular. Du kannst. 
Du kannst. 
Can you help? 
Du kannst helfen? 
There is a question. 
Kannst du helfen? 
Can’t you help? 
Kannst du nicht helfen? 
Good, and I like how you thought to see if anything was going to come before that 
nichts, I saw you think about it, and that’s what you need to do, the slower we 
think about it, the more time we take to think about the word orders and where 
things should go, the more it becomes second nature, the more we are installing 
the structures of german in our minds so that afterwards actually we don’t really 
need to think about it. 
What was to see? 
Sieh 
to see? 
Sehen. 
Sehen. You know it must end in en if it is with to. It’s a to word. Sehen. 
Can you see it? 
Kannst du es sehen? 
Good kannst du es sehen. And the Du and es can contract, as well. So you might 
hear: 
Kannst du’s sehen 
Kannst du’s sehen. 
Very good. 
 
16 
 
To do or to make is machen. Machen… 
Machen. 
That’s spelt M-a-c-h-e-n. ANd here we have friction on the ch. Machen. 
Machen. 
So, It's only soft when we have an I before it, like ich, mich, nicht or if we have an 
e before. Like in for example, brechen, which is to break, brechen. So we are 
actually seeing another pattern here. This is English k to German ch. Make – 
Machen, Break – brechen, to speak – sprechen. 
Sprechen 
Good, so when we have a ch with an i or an e before it’s soft. When we have 
another vowel before it is hard with friction. Like in machen. How would you say 
I’m making it? 
Ich mache es. 
Ich mache es. Or with the contraction ich mach’s 
Ich mach’s  
Good. So we could add Ich mache, Ich mach for I make or I’m making. How would 
you say you make, speaking formally? 
Sie machen 
Sie machen. How do you say you make speaking informally using du 
Du machst 
Du machst. Good. What are you doing? 
Was machst du? 
Was machst du? This can mean what are you doing and also what do you do, like, 
as a job, for example: What do you do? Was machst du? Are you going to do it 
tomorrow? Will you do it tomorrow? Are you doing it tomorrow? 
Machst du es morgen? 
Machst du es morgen? Are you going to do it tomorrow? Will you do it tomorrow? 
And the du and the es, they can contract. Machst du’s morgen? So the du and the 
es can contract to du’s . Machst du’s morgen. What are you doing there? 
Was machst du da? 
Was machst du da? What was I want? 
Ich will 
Ich will. And you want, talking informally? 
Du willst 
Du willst. Very good. Slightly irregular. We have will and willst. I can? 
Ich kann. 
Ich kann. 
Ich kann. 
Much better. You can informally? 
Du kannst. 
Du kannst. What was to must or to have to? 
Müssen 
Müssen. I must? 
Ich muss. 
Ich muss. So slightly different. We are not keeping the vowel with the dots. We 
have a vowel without the dots. Ich muss. You must keep the irregularity in the 
same way as we saw with Ich will, du willst, Ich kann, du kannst, Ich muss… 
Du musst 
Good, Du musst, Du musst, good. So that’s also irregular. It’s more subtle the 
irregularity, no? ‘Cause it’s just a difference between a o with the two dots and 
the o without those two dots. But we see the same irregularity happening; Ich 
kann, du kannst; Ich will, Du willst; Ich muss, du musst; How would you say you 
have to do it? 
Du musst es machen. 
Good. Du musst es machen. Or you can also contract that musst and that s it’s 
little bit complicated to think out musst’s, but it can happen. Du musst’s machen. 
Du musst’s machen. Du musst es machen. The word for soon is bald. bald – soon. 
Bald. 
That means soon, bald. You have to do it soon. 
Du musst es bald machen. // 4:08 
Very good. Du musst es or du musst’s. If we contract the es and the must, bald 
machen. Du musst es bald machen. Du musst’s bald machen. Good… So we notice 
that the verbs that are irregular for I, they’re keeping this irregularity for du as 
well. Ich will – du willst; Ich kann – du kannst; Ich muss- du musst; But generally 
we’re working from the to form of the verb, removing the –en and thenadding our 
–st, to get our informal you. So to organize is: 
Organisien 
And you organize? 
Du organisiest 
Du organsiest. To sing? 
Singen 
Singen, good… with aZ sound for that S. Singen spelt S-I-N-G-E-N. But the S we 
pronounce as Z. Singen. You sing? 
Du singst. 
Du singst. Do you sing? 
Singst du? 
Singst du? To accept was spelt akz- at the beginning. Z’s in german we said are 
pronounced ts so the beginning of the word might be a bit challenging. 
Akzept… ah no. Ak-Zeptieren 
Akzeptieren. Do you accept it? 
Akz-z… 
So you must do it slowly, so when you have challenging word like this, it’s a very 
nice experience for having to slow yourself right down to get your head around it. 
Ak-zeptest… 
So when you come across that point of insecurity, just go back to the tu form. Be 
very sure of what’s the to form. 
Akzeptierst du es? 
Very Good. 
Or akzeptierst es no du’s. 
Very good. Akzeptierst dus? With the contraction or Akzeptierst du es? Very good.  
 
17 
 
So what was the word we learnt for you, the informal you 
Du 
Du. And we saw this was the th to ‘d’ pattern as in old English thou and then 
German du. Thou is spelt T-H-O-U and du is pronounced D-U and this O-U to U is 
like another pattern you wil come across. Many words that have O-U in them in 
English, have just U in them in German. For example: Course in german is Kurs, 
K-U-R-S 
Kurs 
The word for soon is bald 
Bald 
Bald is spelt B-A-L-D. The D at the end of the syllable in German is pronounced 
more like a T. So B-A-L –D but what we here is BAL-T, if we think about it the T is 
just a hard version of the D, very similar sounds D and T. So we can say that the T 
becomes hard at the end of the syllable BALD 
Bald 
In the same way, the word for mouth in German is Mund. This is spelt M-U-N-D. So 
what is happening how do we get from mouth to mund? 
OU become U and TH become D 
Exactly, we have two shifts happening there, no? OU to U and TH to D, but T being 
at the end of the syllable is being pronounced hard, Mund - Mouth 
Mund 
How do you think you might say Ground? 
Grund 
Grund. Good. G-R-U-N-D and that ‘D’ pronounced like a ‘T’. GRUND. Round? 
Rund 
Rund. Its end with soon 
Bald 
B-A-L-D bald. Very good. A Course is ein Kurs. 
Ein Kurs. 
A mouth is Ein Mund 
Ein Mund 
This is coming from eins which means one. Number one is eins, then we have ein 
for a and if we think about it ein literally means one, no? A mouth is one mouth – 
ein Mund. Blouse is Bluse.  
Bluse. 
Bluse. Now, a blouse is eine Bluse. 
Eine Bluse. 
Eine Bluse. So we have ein and eine, eine we use for feminine nouns. Bluse is 
feminine in german, eine Bluse. Many feminine words look like this word a – eine. 
Now, how do they look like each other? Eine has the accent just before the e on 
the end. Eine has the final e and the accent just before it. Eine. We can find other 
words that have the final e and the accent just before and many ofthose will be 
feminine. We see already Meine Bluse, how do you think you would say Wound? If I 
tell you that Wound is feminine in German. 
Eine Wunde 
Good, but what will you do with that W. 
Eine Wunde.  
Good. Eine Wunde, good. A wound. A soup is eine Suppe. We have an ‘S’, we know 
it give a ‘Z’ sound, we have 2 ‘P’s here, making that ‘U’ shorter. Eine Suppe. 
Eine Suppe. 
Good. So we see that the feminine nouns, nouns which are feminine in German 
take eine for a, many of the feminine nouns look like eine, in that they have this, 
final ‘e’ on the end. eine Wunde, eine Bluse, eine Suppe, what was the word to do 
or to make? 
Machen 
Machen, good,TO cook? Take a guess. 
Kuchen. 
Kochen. Good. K-O-C-H-E-N. Kochen. 
Kochen. How would you say you have to cook a soup, you have to make a soup. You 
will say, you have to cook a soup. Let’s speak informally, so you have to… 
Du must eine Suppe kochen. 
Du must eine Suppe kochen. Very good. So for a so likea course we have… 
ein 
And for feminine words we have 
eine 
eine. my is mein. So we just put an ‘m’ before ein. mein 
mein 
mein.. So mein means my. Soein is spelt E-I-N. We know this E-I gives the EI sound 
and mein is spelt M-E-I-N. How do you say my brother? 
Mein Bruder. 
Mein Bruder.Mein Bruder.How do you think you would say young in German? 
Jung. 
Jung. So we have the OU there, so it might just might be the same in German. 
Here it is, young – jung. How do you say my brother is young. What is the word for 
is?  
Ist. 
My brother is young. 
Mein Bruder ist Jung 
It’slike the English NG actually, so you don’t really hear G here, its more asal jung. 
Jung. 
Good. Mein Bruder ist jung. So what was a blouse 
Eine Bluse 
Very good. eine – eine Bluse, because this word is feminine. So my blouse? 
Meine Bluse 
Good, eine Bluse plus ‘m’ , Meine Bluse. Very good. Word for where is wo 
Wo 
That’s W-O, the word for where, just W-O wo 
. How do you say Where is my blouse? 
Wo ist meine Blouse- Bluse? 
Yes, Wo ist meine Bluse. Where is my brother? 
Wo…Wo ist mein Bruder? 
Good. Wo ist mein Bruder. Dein- dein means your. This is the informal you and of 
course we can realize this because we are taking the ‘d’ from Du ein plus our d 
from Du and we get dein. SO if you want to say your brother 
Dein Bruder 
Dein Bruder. Is your brother young? Again the word order doesn’t change between 
German and English here. Because in Englsih we have lso making the inversion for 
the question. The non-question would be your brither is young and then Is you 
brother young? is the way we make the question. So how would that be in German?  
Ist dein Bruder jung? 
Ist dein Bruder jung? Good. The word for House in German is Haus 
Haus 
It’s not feminine so how would you say my house? 
Mein Haus 
Mein Hhaus, your house? 
Dein Haus 
Dein Haus. Where is your haus? 
Wo ist dein Haus? 
Wo is dein Haus?So you’ve seen how we can identify by some feminine nouns by 
the fact that they have an ‘e’ on the end and the accent just before. Just like 
eine. Word for Street in German isStrasse 
Strasse 
Strasse, so we have st and that’s giving us st nd the second ‘s’ there is the ‘t’ to 
‘s’ shift , like in it , essen , street, strasse, and the ‘e’ on the end of strasse is 
showing us that it’s feminine. So if you want to say a street. 
Eine strasse 
Eine strasse. My street? 
Meine Strasse. 
Meine strasse. Your street? Talking informally… 
Deine Strasse. 
Where is your street? 
Wo ist deine Strasse? 
Wo ist deine Strasse? Very good. 
18 
Haben in German is to have, haben 
Haben 
Haben, How do you say I have 
Ich habe 
Ich habe, and with the contraction that we have said, you will very often hear in 
the spoken language. 
Ich hab’ 
Ich hab. Very good. I have it? 
Ich hab’s 
Ich hab’s, or without any contractiions? 
Ich habe es 
Ich habe es, very good. I don’t have it? 
Ich habe es nicht 
Very good. Ich habe es nicht or hab’s nicht. So we saw the word for a, or two 
words for a,,, what were those? 
Ein, eine 
Ein or eine, Good. You have ein and eine. In fact in German, nouns, words that can 
put the or a in front , so in school we mostly are told that nouns are things or 
objects. But that can get quite confusing. It’s much better for us to look at the 
form of nouns to understand what is a noun. Because if we are thinking as it is a 
thing, we might think of peace, dream, and have a problem understanding whether 
that’s a thing or not. For us, a noun is a word that you can put a or the in front of. 
The peace, The dream, ok that works, so they’re nouns. Nouns in German can be 
masculine, feminine or neuter. Ein we use for masculine and neuter nouns and Eine 
for feminine nouns. We also saw the word or the words for my. How was that? 
Mein 
Mein or… 
Meine 
Meine. So we have mein for masculine and neuter nouns and meine for feminine 
nouns, like, my blouse, for example. 
Meine bluse 
Meine Bluse. We also saw the word for your talking informally. 
Dein, deine. 
Dein, deine. Good. So your street would be ? 
Dein…deine strasse. 
Very good. Deine Strasse. We also have kein and keine. Kein and keine mean no in 
the sense of not any like no problem, when you say no problem, you mean not 
any problem, This is kein problem, keinProblem 
Kein problem 
Kein Problem. How would you say this is no problem… This is no problem 
Das ist kein problem 
Very good. Das ist kein problem. I have no problem or I don’t have a problem. So 
you want to translate, I don’t have .Ich habe nicht . You will translate I have no 
problem 
Ich habe kein problem 
Ich habe kein problem, good. What was a street? 
Eine strasse 
Eine strasse, my street? 
Meine Strasse 
No strreet? 
Keine Strasse. 
Keine stasse, good. Do you see my street? This talk formally or plurally, Do you see 
my street? 
Sehen, see meine strasse 
We don’t see any street, we see no street 
Wir sehen nict keine Strasse 
So you don’t need nicht , you would just say We see no street 
Wir sehen keine strasse 
Wir sehen keine Strasse. What was to have 
Haben 
Haben. I have? 
Ich hab 
Ich hab, ich habe. We have? 
Wir haben 
Wir haben, you have? Talking informally, we have du, du hast…du hast… 
Du hast 
So, it probably started life as du habst but its kinds too complicated to put so many 
sounds together for such a common verb , du habst… du habst… du hast, you can 
see are easily over time that ‘b’ disappeared, du hast …du hast 
Du hast 
Do you have my blouse? 
Hast du meine bluse? 
Hast du meine Bluse? Good. So this e at the end of eine… meine… keine… we have 
said is for feminine but its also for the plural, the feminine and the plural are 
connected in German. And you see this frau Geman, interestingly the feminine and 
the plural are connected in other curious ways in other languages too. Such as 
Arabic and Greek, for example. So you are an Arabic speaker. Can you tell me how 
the plural and feminine are connected in the odd way in Arabic?  
No 
Plural objects , you always treat them with feminine adjectives no?, and the 
feminine word? 
Ya..ya..ya 
Ya, so you find that weird connection between plural and feminine in quite a few 
languages, so we’ve seen the plural word in German already. We’ve seen the word 
for Children which is not child, it’s children. Its plural. So how is that word 
children?  
Kinder 
Kinder. My children, there we are going to use, what we’ve learnt as the feminine 
my, so what was that? 
Meine Kinder. 
So meine is for feminine and plural. Meine Kinder. Your children, speaking 
informally? 
Deine Kinder. 
Deine Kinder. No children? 
Keine Kinder.  
Keine Kinder. How do you say, we have no children. We don’t have children. 
Wir haben keine Kinder. 
Wir haben keine Kinder. We have no children. Child, child in singular is kind… kind 
Kind 
But its spelt K-I-N-D. So again like in bald- soon, Like in mund- mouth, rund -round, 
grund- ground, we have the ‘d’ at the end of the syllable pronounced like ‘t’. 
Kind. 
Kind 
Kind. But when we put the er for the plural, actually this ‘d’ is not at the end of 
the syllable anymore, it becomes the first of the next syllable. Kin-der. So it 
soften. Kinder. It becomes a new syllable. Kinder. Kinder. 
Kinder. 
SO let’s make a little recap. What was the word for a? 
Ein 
Or? 
Eine 
Ein or eine. We had the word for my 
Mein 
And? 
Meine 
Good. Your talking informally 
Dein, deine 
Dein, deine . Good. For no as in no problem 
Kein, keine 
Kein, keine . So we get all of this by adding on to ein. Ein mein dein kein. We can 
even get the word for no, not in the sense of no problem but in the sense of DO 
you want one? No, no I don’t 
Nein 
Nein…Exactly, nein. Good. 
19 
We mentioned how number one in German is eins - eins 
Eins 
And we get the word for a out of that as well ein - eine. Number two in German is 
zwei 
Zwei 
Zwei. Zwei is spelled Z W E I we’ve already seen how the Z in German is 
prononunced tz, T Z. We will find the English T turning into a German Z and this is 
what we see in two which is of course spelled T W O in English, and zwei in 
German. We have the Z like TS, we have the W like a V and then we have that EI 
giving us I. Zwei. 
Zwei 
So this is two like the number two in German but if you want to say to, like in 
order to, like the too that we use in too quiet - too warm then we can look at the 
spelling in English and change that T over to a Z 
Zu 
Zu, in German, Z U  
Zu 
And the U is long, zu 
Zu 
What was the word for is in German? 
Ist 
Ist. And it is? 
Its ist 
What is the word for it? I want it? 
Ah, es! 
Yes, it doesn’t change, it’s the same it. So, it is? 
Es ist 
It is warm? And warm is the same word in German as it is in English, so it is warm? 
Es ist w-warm 
When I say it’s the same word you still have to germanify it a little bit, no? Think 
about how it is written 
Warm 
Ah, perfect! Es ist warm, perfect. It is too warm? 
Es ist zu warm. 
Es ist zu warm. To say warmer we say wärmer 
Wärmer 
This is because adding the ER very often we add an umlaut, we add two dots. So if 
we have warm when we add on that ER, the A is going to take on two little dots, 
wärmer, that’s part of the change that comes with ER 
Now, we haven’t noticed it yet because of course we couldn’t do this before with 
for example spät and später because spät is spelled A with two dots, it already has 
them there. So when we say später we have no change. But with warm we have W 
A R M and when we add on the ER to say warmer that will add two dots over that 
A. So, it is warmer? 
Es ist wärmer 
Es ist wärmer. So we can’t add an umplaut, we can’t add those two dots to any 
vowel, no? We can’t add it to an E because those two dots give us the quality of an 
E, we’re not going to add the quality of an E to an E, no? We can’t add it to an I, 
because an I already has a dot so as in Kind - Kinder we don’t have any change in 
that I of Kind. But we can add it to an O so this takes us from O to Ö like in bird, 
like in können. We can add it to an U, this takes us from the U sound of ich muss to 
the Ü sound of über - müssen and we can add it to an A which takes us from an A, 
sound of das to an A sound of spät, from wärm to wärmer. So this is something we 
will have to think about when we are adding an ER, either like in warm - warmer, 
wärm - wärmer or as a plural. What was the word for big, do you remember the 
word for big? 
Gross 
Gross 
How would you say this is too big? What is the word for this? 
Das  
Das. This is too big? 
Das ist so gross 
Das ist so gross sounds like this is so big, but if you want to? 
Zu 
Zu. Make that vowel longer, zu 
Zu 
The U, in German, is a long sound like food, no? Like the double O in food and ?? 
we have a double consonant after it, shortening it, no? Like in must (?) but 
generally is a long vowel like in zu. Das ist zu gross. This is so big? 
Das ist so-so gross 
Good. So the S sounds like a Z das ist so gross. How would you say this is bigger? 
This is bigger 
Das ist grösser 
So, I can hear that you are trying to put the two dots but I think it’s good to take 
time to import this sound, to make sure that you are getting the right sound. So 
where can you look to get the O with umlaut? The O with the two dots 
Können 
Ok, so Können 
Können, grösser  
Good, das ist grösser, good. Cold is kalt K A L T 
Kalt 
How would you say it is cold? 
Es ist kalt 
Es ist kalt. It is colder - it is colder? 
Est ist kölder 
So you are making a change but you are not really in control of this change, I can 
here that you know that putting that ER changes the vowel before, what we need 
to do is to think what vowel we have in kalt 
A 
An A. So, that’s where we are going to put that umlaut, our two dots, so how is 
that A with two dots going to sound? 
Ö 
There is a word that’s very common for you that ?? with two dots. You should go 
back there, you should take the time to go back there and to find the 
pronunciation. You are not going to have to do this many times but to insist and to 
do it is going to give you a lot of confidence. What’s the word for late? 
Spät 
Spät. And how is it spelled? 
S P A T 
And what does that A have? 
Two dots 
Yes, it’s spät. So we can look back at spät whenever we find ?? with an A with two 
dots over it to import the sound over. So tell me it is colder 
Es ist kälter 
Good. Es ist kälter. So kalt becomes kälter. How would you say it is too cold? 
Es ist zu kalt 
Es ist zu kalt 
20 
So we saw two as in the number two, was? 
Zwei 
Zwei, good. Z W E I. And that Z gives us TS, zwei. And we saw too we saw it in the 
sense of too warm - too loud which was? 
Zu 
Zu, good. T O O becoming Z U, zu. This zu could also be used when we imply in 
order to in English. For example, to say I feel like it - I feel like it, in German, you 
would say I have lust, lust, I have lust and this means I feel like it and lust is the 
same word in English and German, lust. So how would you say that, I have lust? 
Ich habe lust, lust 
Good, ich habe lust, or ich hab lust. So this means I feel like it no? And generally 
you will use it as part of a bigger sentence where you would say something like I 
feel like going. Now, when you say I have lust to go you are implying I have lust in 
order to go. When you are implying this feeling of in order to the to go, gehen is 
not enough. You must say I have lust in order to go there you will need to use zu in 
German. So how would you say that I feel like going - I have lust in order to go? 
Ich habe lust zu gehen  
Ich habe lust zu gehen, good. How would you say you have speaking informally, it 
was du? 
Du habst 
It would be habst but what happened? There was a sligh irregularity, many years of 
habst - habst - habst 
Hast 
Hast 
Du hast  
Du hast 
Do you feel like eating, do you have lust in order to eat? 
Hast du lust zu essen 
Very good, Hast du lust zu essen? How would you say we feel like seeing it? So you 
will say we have lust it to see 
Wir haben lust es zu sehen 
Very good, wir haben lust es zu sehen. What was the word for what? 
Was 
Was, somewhat - somewhat is etwas - etwas E T W A S, etwas 
Etwas 
How would you say this is somewhat big - this is somewhat big 
Das ist etwas groß 
Very good, das ist etwas groß. And somewhat sounds formal in German as it does in 
English. How would you say this is somewhat bigger? 
Das ist etwas großer 
Good, but what appens to groß when you add the ER, something else happens 
It has two points, größer 
So, to find the pronounciation of that O with two dots on it, the O with the 
umlaut, where do you look back to, to be sure? 
Bird 
Bird, and then you are sure you have the right pronounciation there with bird. So 
we got that bird we export that sound  
Größer 
Größer. Thinking about the O is going to produce something that feels closer to you 
to an O but the sound in bird has very little to do with O, for us, no? So you really 
want to litterally and slowly export that sound from bird and then use it to build  
Größer 
Bird, größer, bravo. This is somewhat bigger? 
Das ist etwas größer 
Das ist etwas größer. How would you say it is, it is somewhat warm? 
Es ist etwas warm 
It is somewhat warm, es ist etwas warm. It is somewhat warmer? 
Es ist etwas warmer 
And again, what happens here when you put the ER? 
It has two dots on the A  
Ok, so I don’t want you to guess about how that should sound, I want you to look 
somewhere to find that sound and import it and that might take some time but 
that’s ok, no? This is how you well install confidence with the different sounds of 
vowels in German  
Spät 
Spät, so this word can act like a hook to look back to whenever you need a 
reminding on how A with the umlaut should sound and then import that sound over 
to give me it is somewhat warmer 
Es ist etwas wärmer 
Es ist etwas wärmer, good. Etwas, other than somewhat, also means something 
and of course you will hear etwas much more as something than as somewhat 
especially as like in English somewhat is quite formal, in German. So, etwas we 
also have for something. How would you say do you feel like eating something?? do 
you feel like eating something?, speaking informally 
Hast du lust etwas zu essen, zu etwas essen 
Your first one was correct zu is going to stay next to the verb, no? Essen is to eat 
and then zu gives us that feeling of in order to eat and it’s going to stay next to 
the verb zu essen. So, hast du lust etwas zu essen?. Do you feel like cooking 
something?? 
Hast du lust etwas zu kochen  
How would you say do you want to cook something?? Again, informally. Do you 
want to cook something?? 
Willst tu etwas kochen? 
Very good, Willst du etwas kochen? You might hear etwas contracted to was in 
spoken German, don’t let that confuse you, it’s not what you will know what the 
word is by the position of the word. So, instead of etwas you might hear was, in 
spoken. So, for example, if you say do you want to cook something?, contracting 
this etwas to was? How is it going to sound? 
Willst du was kochen? 
Willst du was kochen? So here we know is etwas by the position, if it was what 
where would that be? what do you want to cook?? 
Was willst du kochen? 
Good, was willst du kochen? What do you want to cook but then do you want to 
cook something? - Willst du was kochen so that was is just etwas 
21 
The word lust is a feminine word, so how would you say I don’t feel like eating - I 
have no lust in order to eat? 
Keine 
Good, so I have no lust in order to eat 
Ich habe keine lust zu essen 
Good, because here the to eat implies in order to eat. I don’t have any lust in 
order to eat and for that reason we use zu here. So, essen by itself is to eat 
already, we’ve seen that I want to eat - ich will essen but when that to implies in 
order to you will find zu popping up ich habe keine lust zu essen. To search is 
suchen 
Suchen 
To search or to seek, much more like to seek because when we say in English I seek 
it we don’t use anything else, any for like we do in search, I search for it and the 
verb is like this in German so we can think of it like seek with the K to CH shift 
seek - suchen S U C H E N 
Suchen 
So, let’s look for seek, how would you say I’m looking for it? 
Ich suche es 
Ich suche es or ich suche es and with the contraction, with the S, how would that 
sound? 
Ich such’s 
Ich such’s, good, ich such’s, with the contraction. What are you looking for?, 
talking informally, talking (?) to du 
Was suchst du? 
Very good. Was suchst du? Are you looking for it? 
Suchst du es? 
Very good. Suchst du es? And with the contraction? Can you contract anything 
there? 
Suchst du’s? 
Very good. Suchst du’s? Do you look for it? - Are you looking for it? Suchst du’s? So, 
before we saw that we have verstehen which is to understand and then stehen 
which is stand. We saw that we have kaufen - to buy and then to sell was? 
Verkaufen 
Verkaufen. So this VER is quite a common addition, this V E R, remember it’s V 
because the V letter in German in pronounced like F. What was to search or to 
seek? 
Such 
To search - to seek? 
Suchen 
Suchen. It’s very important that when we mention to you think of the verb ends in 
the EN, this is your launching pad, this is the verb you are always going to go back 
to, to work with so it is very important that mentally you acquaint (?) to with the 
EN. Suchen. Versuchen means to try. So this VER is quite unpredictable in the 
change that it results in, no? The meaning from stand to understand, the meaning 
from to buy - to sell from to search to to try they are quite varied, no? The 
differences in meaning, there. There is no pattern there in the meaning, but we 
will identify some interesting patterns in the use of VER and we will encounter it 
very often in German. 
So, how is I’m trying? 
Ich versuche 
Ich versuche, Ich versuch. If you want to say I’m trying to do it, in German, this is 
I’m trying in order to do it. In German there is a in order to implied there, which 
means you must use? 
Zu 
Zu, good. So, I’m trying to do it - I’m trying in order to do it? 
Ich versuche es zu machen 
Very good, ich versuche es zu machen, very good. So, we say in order to do it - in 
order to make it, and that doesn’t feel great in English but that’s ok, we are not 
looking for what feels great in direct translations, we are looking for a sense, we 
are looking for the feeling of in order to to understand where we should use zu in 
German. So, (??) it doesn’t sound great in English I’m trying in order to do it it 
definitely fits, it fits, so we use zu in German. Ich versuche es zu machen. What 
was the word for late? 
Spät 
Spät. And later? 
Später 
Später. How would you say I’m trying to look for it - I’m trying to look for it 
Ich versuche es zu suchen 
Very good, ich versuche es zu suchen or, ich versuch’s zu suchen. How would you 
say I try to look for it later - I try to look for it later? 
Ich versuch es später zu suchen 
Good, ich versuch es später zu suchen, very good I try to look for it later with the 
contraction Ich versuch’s später zu suchen. So we have suchen - to seek - to look 
for - to search, versuchen - to try and besuchen means to visit - besuchen 
Besuchen 
How would you say I visit? 
Ich besuch 
Ich besuch, Ich besuche. You visit? Talking informally 
Du besuchst 
Du besuchst. I’m visiting you? The formal or the plural, or I’m visiting them - later? 
Ich besuch Sie später 
Good, ich besuch Sie später. I try to visit you -or them- later - I try to visit them 
later? So, the first thought is I try 
Ich versuch Sie später besuchen 
In order to visit 
Zu besuchen 
Very good I try - Ich versuche - in order to - visit them later - Sie später zu 
besuchen, very good. 
22 
What was the word for you, the informal you? 
Du  
Du. And how would you say you understand? 
Du verstehst 
Du verstehst. I understand you is ich verstehe dich. So we have du when the verb is 
changing, for you du verstehst, du kommst, but when it’s not, we have dich. I see 
you - Ich sehe dich, I understand you - Ich verstehe dich. It’s actually exactly the 
same difference that what we have between I and me, ich - mich. We have ich and 
mich and we have du and dich. Only that in English the word for you doesn’t 
change so it might seem complicated that we have two words for you but it’s not, 
it’s exactly the same difference in I and me, ich and mich, du and dich. So, how 
would you say I don’t understand you? 
Ich verstehe dich nicht 
Good but less friction again, Ich verstehe dich nicht, there is no friction in any of 
them, good. So, I don’t understand you, Ich verstehe dich, you understand du 
verstehst and as we saw, for the formal you Sie, there is no change between those 
two yous. So, you -formal- understand, you -plural- understand, is? 
Sie verstehen 
Sie verstehen. I understand you? 
Ich verstehe Sie 
Good, ich verstehe Sie. So, Sie doesn’t change, no? We have Sie and Sie for both of 
those two different use as we do in English but with du we have du and dich. 
Warten or warten is to wait. W A R T E N but you can hear warten or warten with 
the T pronounced or not, just like in English bottle or bottle and the most common 
in German is to hear warten  
Warten 
If you say I wait for you in German you won’t say for you you will say on you, I’m 
waiting on you, auf dich - auf dich. Auf is spelled A U F. So how would you say I am 
waiting on you? 
Ich warte auf dich 
Ich warte auf dich. Are they waiting for me? - Are they waiting on me?? 
Warten sie auf mich? 
Warten sie auf mich? Good. You wait, talking informally is du wartest - du wartest 
Du wartest 
And you find, speaking informally is du findest 
Du findest 
So this is because after a T or a D we can’t add the ST. Du wartst - du findsts, it’s 
too complicated so German sticks in a little E to help there. So for du you are 
adding EST in this cases du wartest - du findest. How would you say don’t you find 
it?, talking informally? 
Findest du, findest du’s nicht? 
Very good, well ?? with the contraction. Findest du’s nicht? - Findest du es nicht? 
Good.  
Don’t you find anything? Don’t you find nothing? 
Findest du  
How do we get nothing? We have nicht for not  
Nichts   
So, Don’t you find anything? Don’t you find nothing? 
Findest du nichts? 
Findest du nichts? Good. To answer is antworten - antworten that is spelled A N T 
W O R T E N antworten 
Antworten 
That is to answer. What was the word for we? 
Wir  
And us, do you remember?  
Uns 
Uns, good. U N S, us. How would you say they don’t answer us? Or they are not 
answering us? 
Sie antworten uns nicht 
Very good, sie antworten uns nicht. you don’t answer us, speaking informally. You 
don’t answer us? 
Du antwortest  
Very good, you have to add EST here, no? Du antwortest. You don’t answer us? 
Du antwortest uns nicht 
Very good. Du antwortest uns nicht. 
23 
So we’ve seen that the CH in German is soft when there’s is an I or an E sound 
before so like in ICH, DICH, NICHT but when we have another vowel sound before 
like in suchen, machen, we get a hard CH so in the real world syllables exist rather 
that individual sounds, individual phonics (??) so which is why as far as we know an 
alphabet was only invented once in all of human history because it was quite an 
unnatural way to think about sounds, there were natural ways to think about 
syllables KU, KA, KI, SU, SA, SI, rather than dividing up the K and the U  
So we see that here in German as well what is more important is the syllable to 
understand the sound so when we have an E or I sound before CH we get soft CH, 
ICH, ECH and when we have another vowel we have hard CH like in suchen, 
machen 
so we saw that the English K can become the German CH. To break is spelled B R E 
C H E N, so how would you pronounce that? 
Brechen  
Brechen 
So here we have an E before the CH that is giving us a soft CH, Brechen  
Brechen 
Good 
To speak is Sprechen, that’s S P R E C H E N, Sprechen. Again a soft CH 
Sprechen 
Much better, Sprechen 
How would you say Do you speak German? talking formally. The word for German is 
Deutsch, Deutsch. Do you speak German? 
Sprechen Sie Deutsch? 
Deutsch is spelled D E U T S C H so EU in German gives us EU, gives us this EU 
sound. You hear people talking about the Euro and they talk about the Euro in 
German, Euro. EU gives us EU 
And this T S C H altogether just gives us TSCH, Deutsch 
Deutsch 
Which, interestingly, sounds a lot like the word Dutch in English no? And there is a 
reason for this of course. The English word for Dutch, which is of course the same 
as the German word for German, used to refer to continental German people 
generally, no? 
They were referred to as The Dutch. Then the sense narrowed later to the 
Netherlands in around the 17th century. There’s a lot of slang in English that 
refers to negative things as Dutch. Even the idea of splitting the bill on a date 
which you might think of something more positive was considered quite a negative 
thing in English culture and this is called to go Dutch. They put the Dutch there 
and that kind of made it something undesirable. So, in English, when we refer to 
people from the Netherlands, we use the German word for German when we call 
them Dutch. 
How would you say Can we speak German? So how would you say that Can we 
speak German? 
Können wir sprechen Deutsch? 
It’s a little bit lost, no? Deutsch outside of the … 
Können wir Deutsch sprechen? 
Very good, Können wir Deutsch sprechen? 
Riechen in German, means to smell. Now you might be familiar in English with the 
word to reek, no? To reek means to really smell, to stink, to smell bad or to have a 
really ??? it reeks of soup for example. Now English is a language that takes lots of 
different words from different languages and holds onto them all. English holds 
onto a great amount of vocabulary that it comes across. Now what English does to 
hold on to some much vocabulary is to give all the vocabulary a slightly different 
register, a slightly different feeling otherwise there’s no real reason to hold onto 
it. There are not really any too true synonyms don’t really get towards (??) with 
exactly the same meaning otherwise one of them falls out of use. There’s no 
reason to hold onto them. So, Riechen, just a normal word for to smell in German 
exists in English but it has a slightly different connotation to reek, to like really 
smell. But in German that’s just a normal verb for to smell, Riechen. So if you 
want to say I smell it 
Ich Rieche’s  
Ich Rieche’s or Ich Rieche es. Ich Rieche’s, Ich Rieche es. If you want to say to reek 
or to stink in German you will use to stink, Stinken 
Stinken 
So this is something we want to very mind, That we can share words with German 
and English but the register of the meaning or the connotation might change quite 
drastically so you want to watch out for that we don’t want to just take on a lot of 
similar something vocabulary without keeping our ears attentive to how it might be 
used differently. Another example would be the world for dog. The word for dog 
in German is Hund, Hund 
Hund 
It is spelled H U N D so in English we have the word Hound which we can use to 
refer to a dog maybe in a ?? kind of way or maybe in a less personal kind of way or 
even there are some breeds of dog that contain hound like Greyhound for example. 
So in English a every day word is dog and then Hound has a slightly different 
connotation but in German the every day word for dog is Hund, Hound. We also see 
the OU to U pattern. Hound is spelled H O U N D and Hund H U N D. 
To know in German is Wissen, Wissen 
Wissen 
It’s spelled W I S S E N, Wissen 
Wissen 
Like wise, like the word wise in English. How would you say Do you know where my 
dog is? Speaking formally. Firstly what was the word for where, very short word 
Wo 
Wo, so speaking formally Do you know where my dog is? 
Wissen Sie wo mein Hund ist? 
Good, Wissen Sie wo mein Hund ist? And here the order is exactly the same as in 
English, no?  
Do you know - Wissen Sie  
where - wo 
my dog is - mein Hund ist 
I know, I know is Ich weiß, Ich weiß 
Ich weiß 
Ich weiß, so this is irregular. Wissen, Ich weiß. How would you say I know it? 
Ich weiß’s 
Ich weiß es 
I don’t know it 
Ich weiß es nicht 
Good, Ich weiß es nicht. I don’t know where your house is. I don’t know, that’s the 
first bit. 
Ich weiß’s nicht 
Where your house is and we are speaking informally 
Wo dein  
Good 
Dein Haus ist 
Good, Ich weiß nicht wo dein Haus ist. I don’t know where your house is. Good.  
So as we saw with kann and kannst, and will and willst, and muss and musst when 
we have an irregular version for the ?? form we saw that that irregularity tends to 
carry over to Du that’s why we have kann and kannst from können and will and 
willst from wollen. So Ich weiß and du? 
weißt 
weißt, du weißt 
Do you know where my dog is? 
Weißt du wo mein Hund ist?  
Very good, weißt du wo mein Hund ist? 
24 
So we mentioned that we have three genders for nouns in German, we have 
neutral, we have feminine and we have masculine and we also mentioned that we 
can identify nouns as words where we can put the or A in front of. So, the child is 
a noun. We also have three genders in English: she, he, it. Give us our three 
genders in English she is feminine, he is masculine and it is neutral. It has no 
gender, it’s neutral, it’s neutral. Now you might tell me Well you can say the same 
for any language, but you can’t . For example in Turkish he, she and it are all the 
same word. Turkish doesn’t have any gender whatsoever. he, she and it is all the 
same word 
But English does. English does already have masculine, feminine and neutral. Only 
that in German every noun can be masculine, feminine or neutral. So, this 
distinction that we do have in English is just used much more in German. What was 
the world for the that we saw? 
Die 
Die, D I E we said the I E gives us this E sound. Die 
This is the word for feminine and for plural words. We saw that the feminine and 
the plural are connected in German. So the children is? 
Die Kinder 
Die Kinder. So this er plural pattern like Kind to Kinder is mostly for short neutral 
words who find it used mostly with short neutral words of one syllable. That means 
Kind is neutral, the child is neutral. Which is interesting, maybe it’s because as a 
child they don’t have yet the gender, maybe that’s the idea. The blouse? 
Die Bluse 
Die Bluse. Die Frau? Die Frau means the woman 
Die Frau 
Frau is spelled F R A U, die Frau. So we have die for the, for feminine and for 
plural. The word for she in German is Sie, Sie 
Sie 
Which of course is also the word for They, no? So, again we are seeing this 
connection between the feminine and the plural. We have die for feminine and 
plural and she for feminine and plural. They is plural, is the plural for he or she, to 
his is they. To ??? are they. No? And of course sie is like die with an S die, sie 
So what was the word for she? 
Sie 
Sie, She is? 
Sie ist 
Sie ist. She is here? 
Sie ist hier 
Sie ist hier. What was the word for they? 
Sie 
Sie. Also they. They are is Sie sind, Sie sind 
Sie sind 
So, sind means are. They are here 
Sie sind hier 
Sie sind hier. Sind is spelled S I N D. So you have the S pronounced like a Z and the 
D on the end of the syllable pronounced like a T. Sie sind. The children are here? 
Die Kinder sind hier 
Good, Die Kinder sind hier. Are your children here?, Are your children here?? 
Sind dein Kinder hier? 
Good, but dein we would use for masculine and neutral. What was the word for 
feminine and for plural? 
Deine 
Deine, good. So, Are your children here?? 
Sind deine Kinder hier? 
Good, Sind deine Kinder hier? Very good. Child Kind, I mentioned was neutral. The 
child is das Kind 
Das Kind 
What was the word for it? 
Es 
Es, and we said that it was neutral. And we can see a connection between es and 
das. Das is like es with a D. Ok, it changes a little bit but it’s like es with a D. Das. 
And even in some dialects of German you can hear des instead of das. So there you 
see the connection maintained between the word for it, es and the neutral word 
for the, das, or in some dialects des. And of course we also saw that das meant 
this or that. So, the word for it? 
Es 
Es, and that’s neutral and the child? 
Das Kind 
Das Kind, good. House is also neutral. So, the house? 
Das Haus 
Das Haus. Masculine words so, for example, Hund, dog, takes der for the that’s D E 
R, der 
Der 
Der. The hound, the dog? 
Der Hund 
Der Hund. The man? Man is the same word 
Der Mann 
Der Mann. So Der is the word for the for masculine words. The word for he is er 
Er 
Er. So we are seeing the connection here, no? Between the words for he, she, it 
and the different words for the. Let’s go through it again. What’s the word for she, 
for they? 
Sie 
And what is the word for the, for feminine and for plural? 
Die 
So we have sie and die , connected in the meaning and sounding very similar. What 
was the word for it? 
Es 
Es. And this was neutral. We said that it was neutral. It doesn’t refer to any 
gender. it. How would you say the child? 
Das Kind 
Das Kind. So das is like es with a D. Ok it changes to an A here no? das but das is a 
phonetic change to make it easier. es, das. And finally we saw that we have the 
word he which is er so how would you say He is here? 
Er ist hier 
Er ist hier. But if you want to say the dog is here and dog is masculine? 
Der Hund ist hier 
Der Hund ist hier. And of course the addition of a D to Z to S to R is just a TH that 
we have in the English word for the is the TH to D shift. So er plus D, der. she plus 
D die, es plus D, das or as we mentioned even in some dialects des. So you can tell 
me she is here? 
Sie ist hier 
Sie ist hier. The woman is here? Woman was Frau 
Die Frau ist hier 
Die Frau ist hier. How would you say they are here? 
Sie sind hier 
Sie sind hier. The children are here? 
Die Kinder sind hier 
Die Kinder sind hier. It is hier? 
Es ist hier 
Es ist hier. The house is here? 
Das Haus ist hier 
Das Haus ist hier. He is here? 
Er ist hier 
Er ist hier. The man is here? 
Der Mann is hier 
Der Mann is hier. So these connection between words like sie, er, es and the word 
for the we are going to find ?? German. 
25 
We said that the word for child was Kind and the word for children was? 
Kinder 
Kinder. So we are adding this ER to get the plural and also the D is softening again 
becoming like a D again rather than a T because it’s not at the end of the syllable 
anymore, it’s not in a new syllable Kinder rather than Kind. So we saw two uses of 
this ER ending in German, one to make a word plural and then the other to give 
the meaning of more, like in late - more late - or later, no? spät - später well, 
actually it’s doing the same thing in both cases: Kind - child, Kinder - more child, 
children. Spät - late, Später - more late, later. Another way of making nouns plural 
is by adding an E. What was the word for dog? 
Hund 
Hund. And the dog? 
Der Hund 
Der Hund, masculine. The dogs is Die Hunde 
Die Hunde 
And we notice so that D is soft again because it’s not in the end of the syllable like 
in der Hund. Die Hunde. So we add an E and we get the plural die Hunde. Plural 
nouns, whatever gender they were at the beginning, they are all going to take die. 
Just like Sie means they. You respect people gender. So this die doesn’t meant 
that Hund is becoming feminine, no? This is the plural die. Die Hunde, the dogs. 
How would you say my dogs? 
Meine Hunde 
Meine Hunde, So again this meine is for plural. How would you say my dog is here? 
Mein Hund ist hier 
Good, Mein Hund ist hier. My dogs are here? 
Meine Hunde sind hier 
Good but Hunde? 
Hunde 
Hunde, good. Because now the D is starting the syllable, Hunde. Mine Hunde sind 
hier. So sometimes you come across the world in German and you won’t know if 
it’s feminine or plural, because of course we have seen how this E on the end can 
be both feminine as in die Bluse and plural as in die Hunde so you will have to look 
a the context around the word and figure out for yourself whether you are looking 
at a plural noun or a feminine noun. For example cat is Katze, Katze 
Katze 
K A T Z E, Katze 
Katze 
So, die Katze if you would come across die Katze as far you know could be the cats 
or the cat, it could be the cats or it could be the cat as a feminine word if you 
don’t know the word you are not going to know when you come across it. So you 
want to look around the context to figure out whether you are looking at the 
feminine word or a plural. Or if you learn a word from a dictionary for example you 
want to learn it as a singular word and with the gender. Learning with the word for 
the in the singular. This way when you have to use the noun when you have to do 
something with it you are not asking so for the first time oh, what gender is this 
word. So die Katze is a singular word and it’s feminine. So we saw that ER plural 
that often we have to ad an umlaut before, for example the word is das Wort, das 
Wort, W O R T and we make this word plural with the ER ending we said that for 
many neutral short words of one syllable this would be our plural ending. So we 
see das Wort, this is neutral, little short word we can suspect that it will become 
plural with ER. How might that sound? The words. This is actually spelled with a T 
so you won’t soften it 
Die Worter 
When you add the ER onto Wort the O takes an umlaut. So to find the sound what 
word do we look at in English to find the sound of the O with two dots over it? 
Bird 
Good, good. So now give me the plural or Wort 
Die Wörter 
Die Wörter. It’s actually the same vowel not only as we have in bird also as we 
have in word in English. And this will happen often, you will find some version of 
the German word that really sounds like the English one then you will understand 
where the English sounding word might have come from, what version of German it 
might come from. Word sounds like Wörter the same vowel word - bird - Wörter. 
Another example of how you might be able to identify where the English word 
came from is the plural of man, man also become plural with ER, give it a try the 
man 
Die Manner 
But the umlaut? 
Männer 
Die Männer, good. You added those two dots on A and you got die Männer which of 
course sounds more like men, no? In English we have man and men then we can 
think, oh, ok, maybe that’s where men came from. You will find many connections 
like this in German and it will really aid your memory. So we’ve seen the ER plural, 
we also saw the E plural, we had Hund for dog, and dogs is? 
Hunde 
Hunde. The addition of this E could also add an umlaut. So for example the hand is 
die Hand, die Hand. The hands? 
Die Hände 
Good, die Hände. We add the umlaut here. Die Wurst, can you guess what that 
means, die Wurst? 
The sausage 
Yes! If you think of how it is spelled we have a W, W U R S T no? Die Wurst and 
when we make this plural with an E it will also add an umlaut so how would it 
sound? 
Würste 
Good, die Würste. The ambiguity that we mentioned of having a E for feminine and 
E for plural will often be cleared up for you by this umlaut. so if you find Würste - 
Würste, somewhere and you are not sure by the context whether it’s feminine o 
whether it’s plural, that umlaut, those two dots about the vowel can make you 
suspect at least that it’s plural. 
So we’ve seen how the addition of E can also ?? the addition of an umlaut so we 
have to bear that in mind, listen out for it and also know that it doesn’t always 
happen. For example, the year is das Jahr, that’s spelled J A H R and the H just 
stretches out that vowel, das Jahr. The years you will add an E to get this plural 
but we won’t add an umlaut. So, how would that sound, the years? 
Die J A H R 
Just walk ?? on the sound, Jahr 
Die Jahre 
Die Jahre. So we won’t always add an umlaut. You will notice patterns and we will 
mention them, about when you do and when you don’t but mostly is listening and 
noticing when you hear it happen. You might also have noticed that E is not very 
fuzzy about the gender of the word it is used for. We said that ER is usually with 
short neutral words but E, we’ve just seen, with das Jahr so das Jahr is neutral 
then we’ve die Wurst which is feminine, we also had die Hand, also feminine and 
der Hund, masculine, becoming die Hunde. So the E plural ending is not very fuzzy 
about what gender it goes with. Another important way of making plurals in 
German is by adding EN or just N if we are already finishing with a vowel sound. 
This doesn’t add umlaut so we don’t have to worry about adding the two dots 
when we add our EN or N. So we saw die Katze, we can’t add an E onto die Katze, 
we already have an E ending there, we saw that the ER is usually for just short 
neutral words so would lead us to the conclusion that the plural here must be with 
an N. So how would you say the cats? 
Die Katzen 
Die Katzen. My cats? 
Meine Katzen 
Meine Katzen. And we mentioned that if it ends in a vowel sound you will just add 
an N rather than a EN. So die Katze - die Katzen, the cat - the cats but this refers 
to vowel sounds rather than a vowel. Die Frau, the woman, spelled F R A U ends in 
a vowel but it doesn’t really end in a vowel sound, die Frau, it ends in a W die Frau 
so to say the women you will add EN. So we are working with sound here, if it ends 
in a consonant sound we want to add EN. 
Die Frauen 
Die Frauen. The word for neighbour was Nachbar, der Nachbar, this is spelled N A 
C H B A R, it ends in a consonant, it doesn’t sound like a consonant tho, sounds like 
an A, no? Nachbar. So in this case you will just add an N as if you are adding it onto 
a vowel. The neighbours? 
Die Nachbarn 
Die Nachbarn. So Katzen - cats, Frauen - women, Nachbarn - neighbours might look 
like verbs, no? Ending there in EN or N. German has a way to get around this in the 
writing. In spoken language we tend to worry about ambiguity much less, we have 
much more context in spoken language, but in the written language German tries 
to avoid any ambiguity that might arise here by writing nouns in capitals. Nouns 
are capitalised in German. 
26 
Question: Tell me again, what was the word for neighbor? 

Answer: Nachbar. 

This is ​gh to ch​. So, we saw already ​k to ch ​(make/machen, cook/kochen) and 

English gh can also become German ch (neighbor/Nachbar). Nicht is actually like 
the English naught, another word for zero. We have the word night/Nacht in 
German. We have laugh... 

Q.​: ​How do you think to laugh would be in German? 

A.: Lachen. 

Lachen. Good.  

Q.: How would you say my neighbor is so loud​ (loud is the same word in German, 
which is spelled laut)? 

A.: Mein Nachbar ist ZU laut. (​ CORRECTION: „Mein Nachbar ist SO laut)  

Q.: How would you say „my neighbor is too loud? 

A.: Mein Nachbar ist ZU laut. 

Good. „Nachbar actually means something like „towards building. Nach, 

pronounced with a longer a when it stands alone means towards or after or to and 
bauen means to build. So Nachbar is the one who builds next to you. 

Q.: Do you remember how to make Nachbar plural? ​What pattern did it use? 

A.: Nachbaren. 

Good, but we won’t add en because it already ends with a vowel sound, even 
though it is ending with an r.  

A.: Nachbarn. 

Nachbarn. 

Q.: My neighbors are good. ​(The word for good is gut, and that u gives us a long 
oo sound, like in food.) 

A.: Meine Nachbarn sind gut. 

Very good. So we had „sind for „are.  

Q.: How would you say we are? 

 A.: Wir sind. 

Q.: They are? 

A.: Sie sind. 

Good. And it is spelled sind, and again we have the hard version of the d sounding 
like a t. Sind. 

Q.: How was the word child? 

A.: ​Kind. 

Again kind, but we hear it t. Childhood is Kindheit. So this -heit ending is like 
-hood in English, and it is used much more in German than in English. And -heit is a 
feminine ending, so whenever you find -heit at the end of the word, you 
understand this is a feminine ending and the word will take die. 

Q.: So how would you say childhood? 

A.: Die Kindheit. 

Q.: And my childhood? 

A.: Meine Kindheit. 

Very good. We’ve actually found another pattern here: -heit is spelled h-e-i-t, so 
going from the English -hood of childhood to the German -heit of Kindheit, we can 
see how the English -d is changed to a German -t. And we’ve actually seen it quite 
a few times already. I’ve mentioned the word Kindergarten. Garten is spelled 
G-a-r-​t​-e-n: English garden with the d to t shift. We’ve seen the word Wort, the 
word for word, which is spelled W-o-r-​t​. We saw laut, which is spelled l-a-u-​t​, 
kalt/cold, gut. The word daughter is Tocher, so we see a couple of changes there: 
we have the d to t, the gh to ch and we get Tochter. 

Q.: How do you think you would say to drink? 

A.: Trinken. 

Q.: Shoulder. How do you think you would say shoulder in German? 

A.: Schulter. 

You have to ou to u and the d to t: Schulter. To dance is tanzen. We have to d to t 

and we have that latin c again in dance, becoming z. I don’t know if you would’ve 
heard in English before I bid you farewell? I bid is the German word bitten – to ask 
for. You might have also come across the word please in German: bitte. It’s used 
like please: Ich bitte, but without the ich generally, just bitte – please. And that’s 
just bid, what we have in English: I bid you. And farewell actually means to travel 
well. So this is a very Germanic sentence now in English: I bid you farewell, 
because to travel is fahren. So, to travel or to ride, like to ride a train – fahren. So: 
I bid you travel well, I bid you ride well - I bid you farewell. So you could say, for 
example, My neighbors are riding or traveling towards Berlin. Let’s take it piece by 
piece. 

Q.: My neighbors 

A.: Meine Nachbarn. 

Q.: Are traveling / are riding? 

A.: Fahren. 

Q.: Towards?​ (We said that Nachbarn means like towards or to + build) 

​ orrection: Nachbarn) ​fahren nach Berlin. 

A.: Meine Nachbaren (C

Good. So if we have „bitten, to ask in the sense to ask for... 

Q.: How would you say I’m asking for, speaking informally? 

A.: Ich bitte dich. 

Now you could also say „I’m asking you to come. 

​Q.: I’m asking you (in order)​ ​to come? 

A.: Ich bitte dich zu kommen. 

Very good. 

Q.: I’m asking you to stay? 

A.: Ich bitte dich zu bleiben. 

Good​. 

Q.: I’m asking you to stay here? 

A.: Ich bitte dich hier zu bleiben. 

Very good. 

Q.: Are you asking me to go, asking informally again? Are you asking, let’s start 
there, informally? 

A.: Bittest du? 

Very good. You had to add -est. Bitten, we take off our -en and we get bitt-, but 
we can’t make bittst – we say bittest, like we saw with warten / wartest – to wait 
and finden / findest - to find. So bittest du... 

Q.: Are you asking me to go? 

 A.: Bittest du mich zu gehen? 

Very good. 

27 

What is the word for „is? 

-ist. 

It is? 

-Es ist. 

„She is? 

-Sie ist. 

He is? 

-Er ist 

He, she and it in German use the same verb form. Like in English, we have an s. He 
comes, she comes,It comes, we add an s onto to come. But in German, we add a t. 
Just like we have in ist. Ist is is plus a t. He is – Er ist. She is – Sie ist. So, to bild 
verbs for he/she/it in German, we remove our ending from the to form. So let’s 
begin with to come first. What is to come? 

-Kommen. 

We remove the -en, then we add a t and we get the form for he/she and it. So 
what would be he is coming? 

-Er kommt. 

She is staying here? 

-Sie bleibt hier. 

To visit was besuchen. Say: „he is visiting me. 

-Er besucht mich. 

Good. He doesn’t understand anything / „He understands nothing. 

-Er versteht nix. (or: nichts) 

How would you say: „It stinks!? What was to stink? 

- Stinken. 

It stinks? 
-Es stinkt. 

What was to smell? (like the English to reek) 

-Riechen. (without the hard CH!) 

If you want to say, for example, It smells of soup, you will use nach - to soup. It 
smells TO soup, which is quite literally, if you think about it: When you smell 
something, the smell is originating from somewhere, and leads you to that, no? So 
it smells towards soup. So how would that be? It smells towards soup? 

-Es riecht (soft ch!) nach Suppe. 

So, we have the two different ch here, no? Es rie​ch​t na​ch​ Suppe. Good. What was 
„to do or „to make? 

-Machen. 

How would you say „it makes? 

-Es macht.  

How would you say it makes nothing? 

-Es macht nichts. (or: nix) 

This is used like „it doesn’t matter, which very interestingly is ideologically the 
same. If you think, matter refers to matter – stuff, things. When you say es macht 
nichts, you think it makes nothing – there is no matter, no? And then you have it 
doesn’t matter. That’s very interesting, how the idea behind those two expressions 
is extremely similar, but it’s said in a different way. It doesn’t matter – Es macht 
nichts. We saw Machen, for to do or to make, but we also have a word coming 
right from to do, so make your d-to-t-shift and then make it into a German verb. 
What does it sound like? 

-Ta?  

We have do.. 

-Tun! 

Good, no? Delete t and then put an en to make it a verb in German – tun. So 
Machen is most commonly used to to do and to make, but tun is especially used in 
some kinds of expressions. For example, how would you say it does, using tun? 

-Es tut. 

Es tut mir leid – means: It does TO me – mir means to me, so we have mich for me 
and mir for to me. Es tut mir leid – It does to me suffering, and this is a way of 
saying sorry. It’s much like the Spanish way: lo siento – by in Spanish saying I feel it 
you are demonstrating your empathy with sorry, and the same is happening here in 
German: es tut mir leid – it does to me suffering. So, tun is used very often in 
expressions like this. So, es tut mir leid means I’m sorry. How’d you say are you 
sorry? (talking informally) – does it make to you suffering?, if we have mich and 
dich, what do you think to you might be? mich – mir, dich – ...? 

-Dir. 

Yes. D-I-R. Not M-I-R, D-I-R. Mir – Dir. So, are you sorry? – does it do to you 
suffering? 

-Tut es dir leid? 

Tut es dir leid? – Are you sorry? Leid is spelled L-E-I-D, by the way. Another use of 
tun in such an expression would be to say that something hurts. If you were to say, 
for example, my shoulder hurts, you would say my shoulder does aching. Meine 
Schulter, that’s feminine, meine Schulter tut weh – my shoulder does aching. But 
generally speaking, you will use Machen for to do and to make. 

LANGUAGE TRANSFER -- COMPLETE GERMAN COURSE -- TRACK 28 

To shine​, if you had to guess this word in German ​to shine​ – like ​the shining of the 
sun​, the verb – how might it be? 
scheinen? 
Yes, ​scheinen​ of course. That’s spelt S-C-H-E-I-N-E-N. So S-C-H give us the sh - /ʃ/ 
sound. ​Scheinen​ - /ʃaɪnən/ 
So ​scheinen​ is ​to shine​ and it’s also used like ​to seem.​ So if you wanted to say it 
seems so you’d say It ​shines ​so. – it’s almost the same word in German. How would 
that be?  
Es scheinen so? 
Good. But ​scheinen,​ you’d have to change that for ​es…
​  
Oh yeah. Es scheint so.  
Very good. Es scheint so. Or you could also hear scheint so – seems so just like in 
English. So in German, like in English, we need to include these words like ​it, he, 
she,​ but not always. We might hear an exception like seems so – scheint so. 
Erscheinen,​ so ​scheinen​ with -ER at the beginning, means ​to appear.​ So we add 
on-ER at the beginning of ​scheinen​ – ​to shine​ – and we get ​to appear​. ​Erscheinen​ - 
/ɛʁʃaɪnən/ 
Erscheinen.  
So how would you say he appears? 
Er erscheinen 
But think it through. 
Ah. Er erscheint 
Very good. So we don’t want to be confused by this repetition here. Now we have 
one ​er​ for ​he​ and the other one is what we are adding to ​scheinen​ to get a 
different meaning. And we will see that around in German. ​Er erscheint​. 
And the -r after the vowel, like in ​er​, it’s not really pronounced like an r in 
German, it’s more like a /ɛ/. You can even think of it as an E-A really. It’s like the 
-r on the end of ​car​, that just kind of makes the vowel longer in English, caar. It’s 
much more like an extension of the vowel. Car - /kɑː/. And the r in German after 
a vowel is very similar - /ɛ/. ​Erscheinen​.  
Erscheinen​ can also mean ​to come out​, like a movie. Like a movie comes out, or a 
book. So the movie or the film is ​der Film.​ What gender is that? ​Film?​  
Masculine?  
Good. Masculine. ​Der Film.​   
Do you remember how to say ​soon​ in German? ​Bald.​ Good ​bald​, B-A-L-D and we 
have that final -D sounding more like a -T. Bald - /balt/. So you could say 
something like the movie is coming out soon.  
The movie? 
der film 
…is coming out…? 
ist 
So, that’s all one word actually: ​is coming out​ = ​to come out 
erscheinen. 
Ok. So that’s what we need to go back to, the to form of the verb, and as long as 
we can identify that then we are able to manipulate it and we can feel confident 
about it. So we have ​der Film​, then we have ​erscheinen.​  
erscheint 
Soon?  
bald 
Good. ​Der Film erscheint bald.​ Good. 
If you know what you’re talking about, you can just say ​IT’S coming out soon​. So 
here we are talking about ​der Film,​ so for ​it​ we want to use a masculine word, so 
we can actually use ​der​ or ​er​. We can refer to the movie as ​er​ - ​he​ or ​der​ – which 
is of course just the masculine word for ​the​ or ​this​. So how would you say that? It’s 
coming out soon and we mean ​the movie.​ So we are not using ​es​ any more for ​it​ if 
we know we mean ​der Film.​  
Der erscheint bald. 
Good. ​Der erscheint bald.​ Or, ​er erscheint bald.​   
So ​er​ is something else you might find at the beginning of verbs, changing their 
meanings, and you don’t want to confuse that with the word for ​he.​  
For example, another verb we can use this with – the verb for ​to clarify/clear 
up/sort out/resolve​ is ​klären​. That’s K-L-Ä-R-E-N. Klären - /klɛːʁən/. So this is 
like ​to clear.​  
How is, ​we must​ or ​we have to​? 
Wir müssen? 
Good, so we have the U with the umlaut. Ü - / yː/. ​Müssen​ - mʏsən. 
How would you say, ​We have to sort it out/ we have to clear it?​   
Wir müssen es klären. 
Wir müssen es klären.​ Good. ​Wir müssen es klären.​  
E​rklären,​ so ​klären​ with ER- at the beginning, ​erklären,​ means ​to​ ​explain​. So the 
difference between meaning that this er- now gives us between ​scheinen​ (to shine) 
and ​erscheinen​ (to come out or to appear like a movie) or ​klären​ (to clear) and 
erklären​ (to explain), is a little bit random. 
Just like VER-. We saw that ​ver-​ as used in ​stehen​ and ​verstehen​ (changing ​stand 
to ​understand​) or ​kaufen​ and ​verkaufen​ (​buy​ to ​sell​) occasions quite a random 
change in meaning. And the same with ER-. We can see that between 
scheinen​/​erscheinen​ and ​klären​/​erklären​. So ​erklären​ = ​to explain​. 
How would you say ​Can you explain it to me?.​ And in German we keep that same 
order ​…​it​ to m
​ e.​ Can you explain it to me. 
Kannst du es mich erklaren…erklären. 
Good, but ​mich,​ is ​me,​ but here we actually want ​to me​. How was ​to me​.  
Mir. 
M-I-R. Mir - /miːɐ/. 
So let’s do that again. ​Can you explain it to me?​ – ​Can you it, to me, explain?  
Kannst du es mir erklären? 
Very good. ​Kannst du es mir erklären?​ Good. 
 
Language Transfer Complete German Track 29 
 
To say, to say in German is sagen. Sagen. 
 
Sagen 
 
And with this word sagen we get a new consonant shift, a new shift between 
consonants between English and German. The Ys in English will often become Gs in 
German. Sagen is literally to say. The Y becomes a G. We have the initial S-vowel, 
pronounced like Z and we add our –en to make the German verb.  
 
We can even see the shift in English as well between for example garden and yard. 
The G just became a Y. So this might be the reason why these consonant shifts 
happen just gives us more vocabulary. We actually have a word in English that 
comes from the German word sagen can you think what it is? It’s not very obvious 
at all. Saga. Because we pronounce it like an s. But saga. We took it from or we 
got it from say. It’s the same root, no? So we made the consonant shift and we 
kept both words. They have a similar meaning, because a saga is like a story – it’s 
told- and we manage to house 2 different meanings in two words in this way, same 
with Garden and yard. How would you say, He’s saying He says? 
 
Er sagt. 
 
Er sagt good. She’s telling me? Here we are going to say, she’s telling TO me. She’s 
saying to me. 
 
Sie sagt mir. 
 
Very good. Sie sagt mir. She’s saying it to me? She’s saying IT to me? 
 
Sie sagt es mir. 
 
Good. Sie sagt es mir. Very good. What was the word for „what? So if you don’t 
remember what was what, just look for a consonant shift. 
 
The W changes to a V. Well, in pronunciation. 
 
Very good, well yes in pronunciation…it’s still a W but it’s pronounced V, and the 
T? 
 
…changes to an S. So was​​. 
 
Ok. So Was is what. So some-what or something. Do you remember that? Somewhat 
or something. 
 
Etwas. 
 
Good. Etwas. So she’s telling me something. She’s telling TO me something. 
 
Sie sagen 
 
Sie sagt 
 
Sie sagt mir etwas. 
 
Very good. Sie sagt mir etwas. So before when we said, she's telling it to me. We 
say sie sagt es mir. but etwas is not a little word like es or mir or dir or dich which 
needs to be next to the verb, so it's coming afterwards. Sie sagt mir etwas. What 
are you telling me? So what was the ending we had for you? –t is for he, she and it, 
and for you we have...? 
 
Its either –ts or –st 
. 
You could think of the sentence (im not sure if youre familiar with this!) GO-est 
thou? Goest is just German really. So what are you telling me? 
 
Was sagst du mir? 
 
Very good, was sagst du mir? What do you have to tell me? What must you tell me? 
 
Was musst du mir sagen? 
 
Very good. Was musst du mir sagen? You must not. Mussen nicht. Du musst nicht, 
gives us you don't have to rather than mussnt. So how would you say, you don't 
have to tell me it. You don't have to tell IT to ME. 
 
Du musst es mir nicht sagen. 
 
Very good. Du musst es mir nicht sagen. We had nicht, no, for not. But what was 
nothing? We had nicht for not and for nothing we can just add something on to 
nicht actually.  
 
an –s 
 
Good. An –s. Which is a little bit hard. Nichts. So even in spoken you would hear 
quite often nix, if people don’t want to bother pronouncing nichts. So you can say, 
you don't have to tell me anything. you don't have to tell me anything  
 
Du musst nichts. no. Du musst mir nichts sagen. 
 
Very good. Du musst mir nichts sagen. So Nichts is like etwas, it's not one of these 
little words that we have to put first. So first we have du musst mir and then 
nichts sagen. Us, or to us, in German is Uns. Uns. 
 
Uns. 
 
U-N-S. U-N-S, uns. So how would you say in German They’re saying to us they’re 
saying to us.  
 
Sie sagen uns.  
 
Good. Sie sagen uns. And they’re telling IT to us or they’re saying IT to us. 
 
Sie sagen es uns.  
 
Very good. Sie sagen es uns. They’re not saying anything to us. They’re not saying 
anything to us? 
 
Sie sagen uns nichts.  
 
Again 
 
NICHTS. 
 
Very good. Sie sagen uns nichts. What was what again? 
 
was 
 
and something? 
 
etwas. 
 
Etwas, something or somewhat. So how would you say, they’re saying something to 
us? 
 
Sie sagen uns etwas. 
 
Sie sagen uns etwas. And She’s saying something to us? 
 
Sie sagt uns etwas. 
 
Very good. Sie sagt uns etwas. So the only difference there is in the verb. Sie 
SAGEN uns etwas – They’re telling us something and sie SAGT uns etwas – she’s 
telling us something. 
Language transfer complete German track 30 

„Man sagt. Man sagt. „Man says. Is one says. One says. So this is what you will use 
when you say something like „how do you say this in German? If you say, how do 
you say this in German, it will sound like you as an individual, so we want to say 
how does one say and that is man sagt, man says – one says. How how in German is 
wie wie.  

Be. 

Wie. 

Wie. 

How do you think that might be spelled?  

V-I-E. W-I-E. 

Ok. Good. I was going to tell you that V-I-E would be fee no?! W-I-E. Wie. Good. 
How. W-I-E, so –ie give us that ee sound. Like in die, the feminine word for the. So 
if you want to say how do you say it in German? – in German is auf Deutsch auf 
Deutsch. 

Auf Deutsch. 

So how would you say that? How do you say it – how does ONE say it in German? 

Wie man sagt es auf Deutsch? 

Good, but we have a question here, no? So we have man sagt – one says. But if we 
want to make a question, HOW does one say then we will invert those.  

Wie sagt man es auf Deutsch? 

Very good. When you want to know the name of something, or how something is 
called in German you can point at it and say „Wie sagt man es auf Deutsch or Wie 
sagt man das auf Deutsch? What was to do or to make?  
Machen 

Machen – to do or to make – machen. How would you say, how do you do it? – how 
does one do it? 

Wie macht man es? 

Very good. „Wie macht man es. „one does it like this. the word for like this is so – 
you can just say so. So. 

Man macht es so. 

Man macht es so. Good. So machen is to do or to make. Aufmachen is to open. You 

can even say es ist auf and it will be perfectly understood that you mean, it is 
open. Es ist auf. Zumachen, what does zu mean? 

To. 

To – so to make to, means to close. So you can even say, it’s closed, by just saying 
it is zu. How would that be? „It is closed. 

Es ist zu 

Yes. Es ist zu. Anmachen means to turn on. Anmachen. And you could say, It is on. 
How would that be, it is on? 

Es ist an. 

Es ist an. 

Es ist an.  

So we have machen – to do or to make. Aufmachen - to open. Zumachen - to 

close. Anmachen - to turn on. So as we’ve been seeing, German is like English, in 
that you get a simple verb, like to make - machen. But then a whole bunch of 
other meanings by adding to it. Aufmachen – open, zumachen – close, anmachen- 
turn on and many more. In English we have the same feature, no? We have to make 
which is the simple verb and then we have to make for, which means like to get 
away. Like make for the train - to make for somewhere. You have to make out – 
which means to pretend. Like I’m making out that, I’m pretending that. Or like 
romantically, to make out with someone. You have to make up – which is to invent 
or lie. To make something up. And then to make up, to make up with someone like 
after an argument, like we made up. 

So this way of creating new vocabulary is a very Germanic feature of English and 
something we find throughout German as well. We can identify how we do it in 
English and understand that the same thing is happening in German but that the 
words are not always going to match. Actually they seldom will. Ich darf. Ich darf. 
D-A-R-F. Darf. Means I may. Or I’m allowed. I’m allowed or I may. Ich darf. 

Ich darf. 

So we saw that we had aufmachen for to open. How would you say May I open it? - 
am I allowed to open it?. 

Darf ich aufmachen? 

Very good, for the question inversion there – darf ich for the question. But we need 
the it still, as well.  

Darf ich es aufmachen? 

Darf ich es aufmachen. May I open it? or Am I allowed to open it. Am I allowed to 
open them? or May I open them? 

Darf ich sie aufmachen? 

Very good. To turn on we said was anmachen. Anmachen. 

Anmachen. 

Anmachen – spelled A-N-M-A-C-H-E-N. So anmanchen is to turn on. I must, I have 

to turn it on. I have to turn it on. 

Ich muss es anmachen. 

Very good. Ich muss es anmachen. You don’t have to turn them on. You don’t have 
to turn them on. 

Du musst sie nicht anmachen. 

Very good. Du musst sie nicht anmachen. So we have nicht for not and not yet is 
noch nicht. Noch nicht. You will hear this very often in German, it’s a very useful 
expression.  

Noch nicht.  

Good. You could say you don’t have to turn them on yet. How would that be? You 
don’t have to turn them on yet? 

Du musst sie noch nicht anmachen.  

Very good. Du musst sie noch nicht anmachen. Very good. So we see how müssen 
nicht is not have to rather than mustn’t. When we want to say that I don’t have to 
do something we will use, ich muss nicht. If we want to get the meaning of I 
mustn’t, I mustn’t, then we would say, I may not. How was I may or I'm allowed? 

Darf. 
Ich darf. 

Ich darf. 

So when this goes in the negative it gives us the feeling of mustn’t. That strong 
feeling we have of I mustn’t. Ich darf nicht. So how would you say, I mustn't turn it 
on? I mustn’t turn it on.  

Ich darf nicht es anmachen. 

Good we have all the elements there, but the es was not in a great position!  

Ich darf es nicht on - anmachen. 

Very good. Ich darf es nicht anmachen.Very good. I mustn’t turn it on. And of 
course this could also mean I’m not allowed to turn it on. No? Ich darf is I may or 
I’m allowed. How would you say, you may, or you are allowed? 

Du darfst. 

Very good. Du darfst. You may turn them on. 

Du darfst sie anmachen. 

Du darfst sie anmachen. You mustn’t turn them on. Or you may not, you’re not 
allowed, you mustn’t turn them on. 

Du darfst sie nicht anmachen. 

Very good. Du darfst sie nicht anmachen. To close was zumachen, so to make to. If 
you think about it, to make to, if you imagine something like a box, and it being 
closed and you make one part to the other part - that’s actually that action of 
closing something, no? So from that we have zumachen. I guess from that. How 
would you say, may I close it - am I allowed to close it?  

Darf ich es zumachen? 

Good. Darf ich es zumachen? Am I allowed to close it, may I close it? How would 
you say, I mustn’t close it. 

Ich darf es nicht zumachen. 

Very good, ich darf es nicht zumachen. So very good darf nicht gives us the 
meaning of mustn’t. Give me again the meaning of have to close it. 

Ich muss es zuzmachen. 

Very good. Ich muss es zumachen. I don’t have to close it. 

Ich muss es nicht zumachen. 

Very good. Ich muss es nicht zu machen. So muss nicht gives us the meaning of 
don’t have to rather than mustn’t which is what we get with darf nicht. 

Language Transfer – Complete German – Track 31 

What was the word for how? You remember the word for how? 
Wie. 
Wie. To say how are you. How are you in German. You can say how goes it. Let’s 
start there. How. 
Wie. 
Goes it. 
Geht es. 
Good. Now contract for me geht and es.  
Geht’s. 
Wie geht’s. Wie geht’s. In the spoken language you will hear it all the time for how 
are you? how’s it going?– with that geht and es contracted. Wie geht’s. Tell me 
again - what was to see? 
Sehen 
Sehen. So just to have a look at what kind of things we could get from one verb. 
When we start diversifying the vocabulary. Ansehen means to look at. Ansehen. 
Zusehen means to watch. Zusehen. Aussehen. Aussehen means to look in the sense 
of like you look good. Ich will gut aussehen. I want to look good. Wiedersehen. You 
might hear aufwiedersehen. Used like goodbye which means until again – until 
seeing each other again. So wieder means again and wider sehen to again see, to 
see again. Ubersehen means to overlook. Vorsehen - to take care. Vorsicht. 
Vorsicht, which you might see on signs around Germany, means warning. Or 
literally foresight. There we have the ch to the gh shift. So you don’t want to sit 
around memorising these, no? Or even try to remember all the translations you 
might find in the dictionary. Some will only be very seldom used as well. It’s better 
to just be aware that this is a big feature of German and to listen out for it in 
really life. We should always look for opportunities to listen actively, and not 
worry about how much we understand but to be looking for things that make us 
think about things we’ve seen and things we’ve wondered about rather than 
worrying about how much we understand, which is a totally different mental 
process. What was to make? 
Machen. 
Machen. And to open? 
Aufmachen.  
Aufmachen. Too close? To make to? 
Zumachen. 
Zumachen. To turn on?  
Anmachen. 
Anmachen. Abmachen. Abmachen means to remove. Abmachen. 
Abmachen. 
Ab means something like away from. So to make away from – to remove. It can also 
mean to agree on something – abmachen. 
These are so random. 
Yea they feel really random. But if you look at English they’re so random as well. If 
you  
look at English, you tend to have a really clear, obvious meaning. You know, like 
give in – to hand something in. And then another one that involves a lot of 
imagination. Like to give up, no? To give in -to give up which is then a very 
idiomatic meaning. So language and society complicate together. Society as a 
whole or individuals get new ideas or diversify ideas and need a way to express 
them, so rather than inventing new ideas from nothing well it makes sense to 
combine ideas that already exit creatively, metaphorically. So this has been 
happening for a long time, both in English and German. New ideas need to find 
new homes. And that’s what a word is: a home for an idea. Language isn’t thought. 
Language has to jump in to represent thoughts, and as we complicate thought, we 
expand language. And we don’t just find this in the Germanic side of English – we 
find it in the Latin side too. Decay for example means of/from – that’s de falling/ 
caer in Spanish, you speak Spanish, falling. Defalling. Depend just means from 
hanging. Like a pendant is a hanging thing. And sometimes you will even find words 
which from Latin English, like depend, having the same translation in another 
language like German. Depend in German is abhängen. And we find even the two 
words that look totally different, depend abhängen are the same words. So what 
do we do for vocabulary? We listen. We can understand so much from context and 
there are so many of the words we hear will be built of bits that are familiar to us, 
they’ll be easier to the ear, easier to pick up and make the language seem much 
slower to our ears, giving us more mental space to think about the context and try 
to get the meaning of the word we hear, built of parts we know. So listen out - 
between the context and the parts of the words you recognise you can get a lot of 
German vocabulary on the go, just picking it up on the go. To lay in German is 
legen.  
Legen 
So again we have that e which is kind of further back, a bit more smiley. Legen. 
Legen legen 
This is again the y to g shift no? Like we saw between say and sagen. Lay legen. 
Legen can also be used like to put, to lay something down. Gelegenheit. 
Gelegenheit. Is a great word. This means opportunity. Gelegenheit. 
Gelegenheit. 
So the ge is a lot like what we are going to come across a lot in German for many 
different reasons – we don’t really care about it now. Legen means to lay and heit 
– what is heit? 
Hood. 
Hood – so it’s like the laid down hood – your opportunity gelegenhiet is the laid 
down hood. So if you were to look up this word in a dictionary, you don’t just want 
to memorise it – what you want to do is to go – ok what is that built of? No? The ge 
you will find around a lot, we will look at it later but it’s not important here – you 
can see that you have legen the verb and heit. And that will help you interiorise 
this word that you have just looked up in the dictionary, or asked somebody for. 
How would you say the opportunity?  
It’s – is it masculine? 
What would you look at to decide what gender it is? 
The ending. 
Good. 
So it ends in -t or -d maybe.  
So the letter is not so important. What’s important here about the ending is -heit. 
So do you remember how to say childhood?  
Kindheit 
And the childhood? 
Die Kindheit. 
Very good. Very good. So this thing about looking somewhere else is very good 
idea. Because of course you’ve said die Kindheit and you remember, oh, it is 
feminine. And oh, heit is feminine. So the opportunity? You forgot the word for 
opportunity? Well you can try to build it again, no? You remember what bits and 
pieces it had. Or one of the bits and pieces.  
Legen. Gelegenheit. 
Gelegentheit. Good. So we don’t want to just try and remember the whole word. 
We want to try and think about something that will bring us closer to it. Relaxed – 
not worrying about trying to remember / don’t I remember it. Just try to get loser 
to wit. Er, what was it about, what was connected to it, what sounds did it have, 
what did it look like. Anything. Relaxed. So the opportunity? 
Die Gelegenheit. 
Good. Die Gelegenheit. How would you say, this is the opportunity? This is quite a 
common expression in German. This is the opportunity. How would you say that? 
Das ist die Gelegenheit. 
Das ist die Gelegenheit. Good. Opportunity in English which is a Latin word. Is also 
built of other words. It means something like, towards the port. O -port means 
towards the port and its probably in reference to the wind. And that’s opportune. 
That’s an opportunity when the wind goes towards the port. So tell me again, what 
was to lay, or to lay something down? 
Legen 
Legen. Auflegen means to hang up the phone. Or DJ-ing of so, to DJ. Auflegen. 
Auslegen. What does aus mean?  
Out. 
Good - out. So auslegen means to display. It also means to pay for someone on the 
promise of getting it back later. So imagine we go out for lunch and I can auslegen 
you, which means that I’m paying for you but you are going to give it back to me 
later. So that’s an idea, no? That’s an idea, not a bunch of words. To pay for you 
so that you give it back to me later. And that idea is all just housed in that word 
auslegen. So moving between languages sometimes you will find you need many 
words to express an idea and the other language will be able to express all of that 
idea just in one, and vice versa. 
 
Language Transfer – Complete German – Track 32 
How was I want? I want. 
Ich will. 
Ich will good and you want? 
Du willst. 
Du willst good. But to want, to want, is wollen. Wollen. Like in the word voluntary.  
Wollen. 
And this is the form you’ll use for we for example. So if you say we want. 
Wir wollen. 
Wir wollen. Good. Wir wollen. So we have an irregularity for the I form – ich will. 
And that carries over to the you form. Du willst. We build that on the I form not on 
the to form, which is what we usually work with, no? We’ve seen this with a couple 
of other verbs. What was I can? 
Ich kann. 
Ich kann. Good. And you can? 
Du kannst. 
Du kannst. But what was to be able or to can – even though that doesn’t exist in 
English, to can or to be able? 
Können. 
Können. Good. With the o with the umlaut, können, pronounced like the vowel in 
bird. So again we have kann and kannst. The you form shares the irregularity with 
the I form. Ich kann du kannst. But then we have können. So we are able to. We 
can.  
Wir können 
Wir können. The same with müssen. Müssen, to have to, or to must, let’s say, has 
the u with the umlaut. Müssen.  
Müssen.  
Very good. But I must, doesn’t. 
Ich müss. Ich muss. 
Ich muss. It doesn’t have it. So that’s irregular, no? Ich muss.  
Is there a t at the end of that? 
No. The t changed to an s. The t to s shift. Must – muss. Ich muss. But if you say 
you must.  
Du musst. 
Good du musst. And the t is from the st that we are adding for du. So again we 
have that small irregularity - the fact that the u loses the umlaut, carrying over to 
the you form. Ich muss. Du musst. But to have to or to must let’s say is müssen. 
Müssen. 
We also saw briefly, to know. To know. You can think of wise to find it. 
Wiessen. 
Wissen. 
Wissen. 
Wissen, good. So they know? 
Sie wissen. 
Sie wissen. Now I know again is irregular. If you don’t remember it actually you can 
think of how the colour white would be in German. Because actually by 
coincidence it’s the same word, it sounds exactly the same. So how would white 
be in German? 
Weiss? 
Weiss good. The W like a V and the t to s. Weiss. And ich weiss is I know. 
Ich weiss. 
So you know. 
Du weisst. 
Du weisst. So again we share that irregularity with the I form. Ich weiss. Du weisst. 
Now these verbs that have this kind of shared irregularity between the I and the 
you - the ich and the du – form, use the I form - the ich form - the I form, they use 
this also for he, she and it. So for example he can is er kann. It’s using the same 
form as ich kann – I can. Er kann. So she can? 
Sie kann 
Sie kann. It can? 
Es kann. 
Es kann. Good. Nehmen is to take. That’s N-E-H and that H is just stretching the 
vowel -M-E-N. Nehmen. 
Nehmen. 
That’s to take. Can he take it now? Can he take it now? 
Nehmen 
So start with can he. 
Kann er es jetzt nehmen. 
Very good. Kann er es jetzt nehmen? Can’t he take it now?  
Kann er es jetzt nicht nehmen?  
Very good. Kann er es jetzt nicht nehmen? Very good. You could always have nicht 
jetzt if you really wanted to stress that. Kann er es nicht jetzt nehmen? How would 
you say she can’t take it yet? She can’t take it yet. 
Sie kann es jetzt …bald 
Actually yet in german is more like an extension of not. So we have nicht for not 
and not yet was? 
Noch nicht. 
So can’t she take it yet? 
Kann sie es noch nicht nehmen? 
Kann sie es noch nicht nehmen? So these verbs that have this shared irregularity 
between the ich and the du form - the I and the you form - just use the I form for 
he, she and it. So we have er kann, sie kann, es kann. For she must, how would 
that be? 
Sie muss. 
Sie muss. She knows 
Sie weiss 
Sie weiss. She wants. 
Sie will. 
Sie will. She wants to take them. 
Sie will sie nehmen. 
Sie will sie nehmen. Good. The word for with, the word for with in German is mit. 
Mit. M-I-T. 
Mit.  
Mitnehmen, means to take away. To take with, to take away, like to take away 
food for example. Mitnehmen. 
Mitnehmen. 
So how would you say, can we take it away? 
Kann. No. Können wir es mitnehmen? 
Very good. Können wir es mitnehmen? Good. Can I take it away? 
Kann ich es mitnehmen? 
Kann ich es mitnehmen? Can she take it away? 
Kann sie es mitnehmen? 
Kann sie es mitnehmen? Good. I may, or I’m allowed, in German was ich darf, darf. 
Ich darf. 
Good. And you may, you are allowed to? 
Du darfst. 
Du darfst. Du darfst. Now these are actually the irregular. The to form, so to be 
allowed to or to may let’s say, is dürfen. U with an umlaut, dürfen. 
Dürfen. 
So that’s the to form. We have a shared irregularity between ich darf and du darfst 
which means that if we wanted to say for example he may, how would that be? 
Er darf. 
Er darf. Good, we’ve just got to use the I form. Ich darf. Er darf. She may. 
Sie darf. 
Sie darf. He’s not allowed to come. Or he mustn’t come. 
Er darf nicht kommen. 
Good. Er darf nicht kommen. Good. Mitkommen. Mitkommen, is to come with, in 
the sense of to accompany, to come with. So if we wanted to say for example, may 
he come with me, we can just say may he come with. So how would that be? May 
he come with?  
Darf er mitkommen? 
That’s it! Darf er mitkommen. So mitkommen is one word. One verb. Like 
ankommen, to arrive, mitkommen to accompany or to come with.  
 
Language Transfer - Complete German - Track 33 

Now we can look at the past in German. Now, firstly, let’s have a look at the past 
in English. We can use English to understand a little bit about how we talk about 
the past in language. Now in English we have three main ways to talk about the 
past. For example, you could say, I laughed, I was laughing or I have laughed. So 
these are our three main ways to talk about the past. I have laughed, I laughed, I 
was laughing. Now in German the most common in spoken German by far is the I 
have laughed. Even when the direct translation into English would sound quite 
strange. For example in English if I want to say did you laugh? In German you are 
going to say have you laughed. This doesn’t mean ever in your life, no, did you 
laugh that’s just the most common past that we use in spoken German. So, if we 
wanted to build I laughed we would think of I have laughed. Now the first part that 
we need is I have. This bit we know it already. What is I have? 

Ich habe. 

Ich habe, good. Or ich hab, good. Now to laugh, we can get this through our gh to 
ch shift. So how would that be, to laugh? 

Lachen. 
Lachen. Lachen. Now to get laughed, the version of the verb that we are going to 
use for the version of the past in I have laughed, the first thing we do is start with 
the he/she/it form. So what is the he/she/it form of lachen. 

Lacht. 

Lacht good. And then we stick a ge in front of that. G-E. Ge.  

Gelacht. 

Gelacht. Gelacht. So now you can say I laughed or I have laughed. 

Ich habe gelacht. 

Ich habe gelacht. Very good. Machen. Machen, to do or to make. How would that 
be in our past? So what do we start with to build made?  

We take off the en and we put a t on the end of it 

Good we start with the he/she/it form. Macht and then? 

We put a ge in front of it. 

Good. How would that sound?  

Gemacht. 

Gemacht good. So if you wanted to say I have done it, how would that be. I have 
done it? 

Ich habe es gemacht. 

Very good, ich habe es gemacht. and you put es first because gemacht is a verb, 
no? So we start with one and everything else goes in the middle and then we finish. 
Ich habe es gemacht. Very good. Or with the contraction, ich habs gemacht. So we 
saw ge before no? Like in gelegenheit, the word for opportunity, and you will find 
it around quite often. So don’t assume that every time you see it that you have a 
past, no. Even the difference between a verb in English and a verb in German can 
just be this ge. So for example to win is gewinnen, no, with the w, gewinnen. So 
you will find it about a lot. It’s not always showing us that we have the past. But 
we will recognize that because we will have ich habe gemacht. How would you say 
I haven’t done it? I haven’t done it. 

Ich habe es nicht gemacht. 

Very good. Ich habe es nicht gemacht. Or ich habs nicht gemacht. How would you 
say I haven’t done it yet? 

Ich habe es jetzt nicht gemacht. 

So jetzt means now and it’s related to the word yet in English of course that’s 
really clear no. But to say not yet, this is like an extension of not in German, an 
extension of nicht. So how was that? 

Noch nicht. 

Noch nicht. So I haven’t done it yet? 

Ich habe es noch nicht gemacht. 

Very good. Ich habe es noch nicht gemacht. How would you say you have? 

Du hab – it’s not habst – hast. 

Very good, du hast. So even if you know something is irregular you should still start 
building it how it should be. That’s likely to trigger the memory of what the 
irregularity was. So du habst – hast. Du hast. Good. Haven’t you done it yet? 
Havent you done it yet? 

Hast du es noch nicht gemacht. 

Very good. Hast du es noch nicht gemacht. So we have to deconstruct the thought 
in a very different way in German, no? And the way to make sure this isn’t 
overwhelming is just by asking ourselves what comes first and then what comes 
next - and that way we work our way through the thought rather than translating 
the whole idea altogether. The word for why in German is warum, warum. 

Warum. 

Warum. 

Warum. This is W-A-R-U-M,warum. 

Warum. 

So the r between vowels you can hear it like, warum, warum, you can kind of feel 
like it’s coming a bit more from the throat. This really depends on the accent in 
German. Warum, warum, warum – you can go with whatever is easier. 

Warum. 

Good. How would you say he has? 

Er ha- hast. 

Hast is for du, no? But they do share this irregularity, the b that got swallowed up. 

Er hat. 

Good. Er hat. Why hasn’t he done it yet? Why hasn’t he done it yet? 
Warum hat er es noch nicht gemacht? 

Very good. Very good. Warum hat er es noch nicht gemacht? 

Language Transfer - Complete German - Track 34 

The word for yesterday in German is gestern.  

Gestern. 

Gestern. 

Gestern. 

So this of course is our y to g shift, no. yesterday, gerstern. G-E-S-T-E-R-N. Why 

didn’t he do it yesterday?  

Warum, macht - 

So why didn’t he do it. First we need to deconstruct that in the way would say it in 
German. So, why didn’t he do it yesterday is why hasn’t he done it yesterday? 

Warum hat er es – yesterday, ge – gestern gemacht. 

Why hasn‘t.  

Nicht –  

Do it from the beginning. Why hasn’t he done it yesterday.  

Warum hat er es gestern nicht gemacht. 

Very good. Very good. We can just think about what we need now and then we 
think about what comes next, rather than thinking about it all together. Warum 
hat er es gestern nicht gemacht. And if we wanted to really stress why not 
yesterday, we might also say warum hat er es nicht gestern gemacht. Nicht 
gestern, so nicht first. What was to buy? Do you remember to buy? 

Kaufen. 

Kaufen. And how would our have past be from kaufen? How would you make the 
version of kaufen we’ll use in our have past? 

Gekauft 

Gekauft, good. So, I bought it? 

Ich hab es gekauft 

Good. Ich habe es gekauft. Ich hab es gekauft. Or, ich habs gekauft. Good. I 
haven‘t bought it yet. 
Ich hab es noch nicht gekauft. 

Very good. Ich hab es noch nicht gekauft. Ich habs nocht nicht gekauft. Very good. 
So mostly we can find the have past starting with the he/she/it version with the -t 
and putting ge- at the beginning. But we’ll often find irregularities as well and 
sometimes the irregularities are interestingly like the English. These shared 
irregularities are actually ancient. So for example, when in English we say I have 
brought, that’s an irregular version, I have brought. We get that from to bring, no? 
To bring in German is the same verb, so how is that? 

Bringen 

Bringen. Now brought is gebracht. Gebracht. 

Gebracht. 

So it might not seem so similar initially, but when you realize that we have the gh 
to ch shift, no, from brought to gebracht, brought and bracht are extremely 
similar. So this is a shared ancient irregularity. How would you say, why haven’t 
you brought it to me yet? Why haven’t you brought it to me yet? So let’s just start 
with what comes first. What comes first? 

Warum hast du es noch nicht gebracht. 

Very good. Very good. The order was perfect, but we missed a little bit of 
information. Why haven’t you brought it to me yet? What is to me? 

Mir 

Mir. Ok. Let’s go from the beginning. Why haven’t you brought it to me yet? 

Warum hast du es mir noch nicht gebracht? 

Very good. Warum hast dus – with the contraction you can have hast dus – hast du 
es mir noch nicht gebracht. Warum hast du es mir noch nicht gebracht. Or with the 
contraction, warum hast dus mir noch nicht gebracht. Very good. What was to 
understand? 

Verstehen. 

Good. Now understood, as in I have understood, is verstanden. Verstanden. 

Verstanden. 

Now it’s remarkably like I understand, just a different version of the verb it’s not 
like understood as in I have understood, no? But it looks very much like understand 
– verstanden. So that’s what you will use for that, for the have past. So how would 
you say, I understood, or I have understood? 
Ich hab verstanden. 

Good. Ich hab verstanden. Ich habe verstanden. Good. I didnt understand? 

Ich hab nicht verstanden. 

Ich hab nicht verstanden. I didn’t understand anything? 

Anything is kein? 

Anything is nothing.  

Nicht.  

Close. 

Nichts. 

Good. So when you want anything it’s the same as nothing. I’ve understood 
nothing, I haven’t understood anything.  

Ich hab nichts verstenden. 

Very good. Ich habe nichts. Ich hab nichts verstanden. Very good. 

 
Language Transfer – Complete German – Track 35 

What was to buy? 

Kaufen. 

Kaufen. And buy now have past.  

Gekauft. 

Gekauft. To make? 

Machen. 

Machen. And made as in I have made? 

Gemacht 

Gemacht. You remember to wait? 

Warten. 

W-A-R-T-E-N. If you want to say he waits, you can’t add the -t of he/she/it on to 
the t- of wart- once you take of your –en, no? So to help you do that you’re going 
to add an e in between there. Wartet. Wartet. So he waits? 

Er wartet. 
Good and if you say he’s waiting for me, you would say he’s waiting on me in 
German - auf mich. So how would you say that – he’s waiting for me? 

Er wartet auf mich. 

Very good. Er wartet auf mich. And he has waited for me. 

Er hat auf mich gewartet. 

Very good. Very good. Er hat auf mich gewartet. Very good. To cost is kosten. 
Kosten. 

Kosten.  

How would you say it costs? 

Es kost-et. Kostet. 

Good. Very good. You realised that you put the t on in your mind but you can’t 
hear it, no? So you need the extra e to actually hear it. Es kostet. Good. How was 
the word for how, how in German. You can think of how goes it? 

Wie geht’s? Wie. 

Wie. Good. How much is wie viel. Wie viel. 

Wie viel.  

Viel is spelt V-I-E-L, V-I-E-L and of course the V gives us an F sound like in 
verstehen to understand. Viel. So wie viel is how much. Wie viel? How much?  

Wie viel? 

How would you say how much does it cost? 

Wie viel es kostet? 

Good. But it’s a question, no? How do we construct a question in German? 

...kostet es. 

Good. So we start with how much... 

Wie viel... 

Good, and then we get to the verb construction and that’s what we need to invert 
when we make a question. 

Wie viel kostet es? 

Good how much costs is? This is what we say in German. How much costs it? Wie 
viel kostet es? How much did it cost? How much has it cost? 
Wie viel hat es gekostet? 

Very good. Wie viel hat es gekostet. Very good. What was the word for what? 

Was. 

Was. What have you done? Or, what did you do? 

Was hast du gemacht? 

Good. Was hast du gemacht? What was to say? If you don’t have it from memory 
yet from having used it, in its early days (we only saw it briefly), you can look at 
the consonant shift, no? So we have a y in say, what might that become in German? 

g 

And then what's the next step to making that a verb? 

en 

Ok. Now start practicing it and see what happens. 

Sagen. 

Ok. Sagen. Good - to say. So how would you say, what did they tell you, what did 
they say to you, what have they said to you? So lets start with what.. 

Was... 

...have they... 

...haben sie... 

...haben sie, here English inverts like in German, no? We have they have and then 
what have they. So English inverts just like German here. What have they said to 
you? 

Was haben sie –it’s not mir, to me, it’s to you, so - dir – errr said in the past... – 
gesagt? 

Very good. Was haben sie dir gesagt. How was how?  

How – I don’t know 

You can find it in another way no? How goes it 

Wie gehts? 

So how is how? 

Wie. 

Wie so you have it no? And how was how much? 

Wie viel? 

Very good. So if wie viel is how much, how do you say much by itself? 

Viel. 

Viel how would you say so much? 

So viel. 

So viel. Why did it cost so much? Why has it cost so much? 

Warum hat es so viel gekostet? 

Very good. Warum hat es so viel gekostet. So mostly we can get this have past by 
going from the he/she/it version of the verb and sticking this ge- at the beginning. 
But we have quite a few irregular forms and we already saw a couple that look 
like English versions of the verb, no? Gebracht, like braught. And verstanden 
–understood. Like understand but used like understood. ich habe verstanden. I 
have understood. Another one from to find. Do you remember to find? 

Finden. 

Finden I have found? Found is gefunden. So it’s just like found with the ge-. 
Gefunden. 

Gefunden. 

Gefunden. We found it? 

Wir haben es gefunden. 

Good. Wir haben es gefunden. What was to see?  

Sehen. 

I have seen. Again, the irregularity is very much like the English. Seen becomes 
gesehen. So it’s like seen in I have seen, with ge-. So I have seen? 

Ich habe gesehen. 

Ich habe gesehen. So its it’s like the to form, S-E-H-E-N with th G-E in the front. 
Ich habe gesehen. What is the word for she?  

Sie. 

Sie. This is also the word for her. 

I saw her.  

Ich hab sie gesehen. 

Ich hab sie gesehen. Ich habe sie gesehen. And how would you say I’ve seen them? 

Ich hab sie gesehen.  

Good. The same, no? Ich habe sie gesehen. Ich hab sie gesehen. The word for 
him is ihn. Ihn. 

Ihn. 

That is I-H-N, him, ihn. 

Ihn. 

Very good. So the H there stretches the I. We don’t want to say in, but ihn. I’ve 
seen him. I saw him. 

Ich hab ihn gesehen.  

Ich habe ihn gesehen. What was the word for yesterday? 

Ge- something. 

Go from yesterday, no? You don’t need to be certain before we start a road. So we 
can start the road of changing the y to g in yesterday.  

Gesterday. 

Ok gesterday. It doesn’t bring you to the word in German? 

Gestern! 

Gestern. 

Gestern. 

Now if you start yesterday- gesterday – ok Gerstern. It will bring you there. Ok 
good.  

I saw him yesterday? 

Ich hab ihn gestern gesehen. 

Ich hab ihn gestern gesehen. I saw him yesterday, I have seen him yesterday. Very 
good.  

36 

What was the word for she? 

Sie. 
And the word for her? 

Sie. 

Good. So sie doesn’t change. And that’s also the case for when it means they, no? 
Sie is they and also them. What was the word for he? 

Er. 

Good. Er. And him? 

Ihn. 

Ihn. Good. The word for - for, as in I made it for him - is für. Für.  

Für. 

What am I pronouncing there? 

-e-u 

Well actually… 

…U umlaut? 

It’s the U with the umlaut, but the idea with the umlaut is it adds the quality of an 
e. So actually another way of thinking about this sound is to think of a U-U-U and 
put your lips in the shape they are when they make and U – U- and keeping your 
lips in that shape pronounce an E. U – Ü. Für. 

U – U – Ü Ü für.  

Exactly, that’s it. So that’s the idea, that the umlaut adds the quality of an E. So 
für. So how would you say, I made it for him. I have made it for him? 

Ich hab es für – für-… 

that was good! 

…für ihn gemacht. 

Good. Ich habe es für ihn gemacht. I have made it for him. I have it, for him, 
made. So we saw that we had machen -to do or to make. And then to close, was 
to to make, to make to. How was that?  

Zumachen. 

Zumachen good. And to open – do you remember how was to open? 

Aufmachen. 
Aufmachen. Good. We had also to turn on. The word for on in German was an. So 
to on turn was? 

Anmachen. 

Anmachen. What was to to search. Do you remember to search? 

Suchen 

Suchen. Good. And to try? Which we built from to search. 

Versuchen. 

Versuchen. Good. And to visit? 

Besuchen 

Besuchen. How would you say I want to visit him?  

Ich will ihn besuchen. 

Good. Ich will ihn besuchen. To pick out, is to out search. So how is out?  

Aussachen – aussuchen.  

Aussuchen. Now these verbs that we build from other verbs, no? So we start with 
for example suchen and we build versuchen, besuchen, aussuchen, we start with 
machen and we build zumachen, aufmachen, anmachen and so on. These verbs 
that we build, when we use them not in their to form – not in their to form- some 
of them split. For example how would you say I’m doing it tomorrow.  

Ich mache es morgen. 

Good. Ich mache es morgen. Now if you were to say for example I’m opening it 
tomorrow. I’m opening it tomorrow. When it’s not to open, aufmachen splits. Now 
when aufmachen splits and we’re left with machen and auf what is auf? It’s still a 
verb – or still part of a verb. No? So when that verb splits, it’s like again, like we 
have 2 verbs and that auf is going to go right to the end. So how would you say 
that? I’m opening it tomorrow? 

Ich mach es morgen auf. 

Good. Ich mach – ich mache- es morgen auf. So this is another great example of 
how German saves the picture right to the end. Because the person that’s hearing 
that is understanding I will do it tomorrow until they hear auf and that changes the 
whole meaning to ill open it tomorrow. We could have ich mache es morgen zu. 
What does that mean? Ich mache es morgen zu? 

Close. 
Yeah. I will close it tomorrow. So you understand I’ll do it tomorrow until you hear 
zu right on the end. What was to search? 

Suchen. 

Suchen. To try? 

Versuchen. 

Versuchen. How is I try or I’m trying? 

Ich versuche.  

Ich versuche. So here it doesn’t split. Here versuche stays whole. So sometimes 
this happens – sometimes we have this split – and sometimes we don’t. And there’s 
a really easy way to know when you should do it. If the bit we add to the verb to 
change is meaning is a word that you can use in its own right – we saw that 
aufmachen was to open and I mentioned briefly that we can also say es ist auf to 
mean that is is open – auf is something that we can use in its own right. So when 
aufmachen is not in its to form that is going to split. But ver- doesn’t mean 
anything by itself. So for that reason it stays put. Versuche. I try – I’m trying. How 
was to understand? 

Verstehen 

Verstehen. Verstehen. How do you say I understand? 

Ich verstehe. 

Ich verstehe. You will never hear ich stehe ver. This will not split off because it’s 
not a word in its own right. But you might be asking yourself well how am I 
supposed to know what is a word in its own right at this stage of my German, no? 
Well there’s a very easy rule for that as well. If the bit that we add to the verb to 
change its meaning takes the accent, then it’s a word in its own right. So let’s see 
this with an example. To search. Give me that again. 

Suchen. 

Suchen. How is to try? 

Versuchen. 

Versuchen. Where is the accent? 

Suchen. 

Good it’s not on ver because ver is not a word in its own right and it is going to 
stay put. Ich versuche. How is to visit? 

Besuchen.  
Where is the accent? 

Suchen 

So be- isn’t a word in its own right and its going to stay put. So how do you say I’m 
visiting him tomorrow? 

Ich besuche ihn morgen. 

Ich besuche ihn morgen. How was to pick out - to out search? 

Aussuchen. 

Aussuchen. Does this take the accent? 

Yes. 

It’s because it’s a word in its own right. So here when we are using a word outside 
of its to form that is going to split off and it's going to act like we have two verbs. 
So now we have aus and suchen and it’s going to go to the end. So if you say 
something like I’m picking it out tomorrow – I’ll pick it out tomorrow, how would 
that be? 

Ich suche es morgen aus.  

Very good. Ich suche es morgen aus. So until you get to aus, what you understand 
is I’m searching for it tomorrow, I’ll look for it tomorrow. Aus – now I’ll pick it out 
tomorrow. So this is why you really must listen to the end in German to understand 
what is going on. What was to come? 

Kommen. 

Kommen. You remember to arrive? It means to come on. 

Ankommen. 

Ankommen. Would this verb split? 

Yes. 

Why? 

Because the accent is on the an. 

Good. And an is its own word. So how would you say, I’m arriving tomorrow? 

Ich kommen morgen an.  

Good. You were so concentrated on the an that you forgot to change kommen. 

Ich komme morgen an. 

Good. Ich komme morgen an. But if the verb is in its to form you leave it as it is, 
ankommen. So if you say for example I want to arrive tomorrow. 

Ich will morgen ankommen. 

Ich will morgen ankommen. Good. How would you say we want to arrive tomorrow?  

Wir wollen morgen ankommen. 

Very good. Wir wollen morgen ankommen. Good. We want to arrive tomorrow. 
Now, when you say we’re arriving tomorrow and you have one verb, even though 
we use the to form, let’s say, for we and they it’s not really the to from any more 
is it? We say, we arrive. It’s we now. So it’s still going to split. We arrive 
tomorrow? We’re arriving tomorrow?  

Wir kommen.We’ve morgen an. 

Very good. Wir kommen morgen an. Good. They’re arriving tomorrow?  

Sie kommen morgen an.  

Very good. Sie kommen morgen an.   

Language Transfer – German – Track 37 

What was to do or to make? 
Machen. 
Machen. And to turn on, to on make 
Anmachen 
Anmachen, good. And that’s with A-N, no, anmachen. 
How would you say, can you turn it on? 
Kannst du es anmachen? 
Good. Kannst du es anmachen? Good. How would you say I’m turning it on. 
Ich anmache es. 
Now when you put that stress on anmache, maybe it reminds you….yes. 
I’m supposed to split it. 
Good, ok.  
Ich mache es an. 
Good. Ich mache es an. So anmachen is a verb built from machen. The stress is on 
an, which shows us it’s a word in its own right, so when it’s not in the to form – 
like kannst du es anmachen- can you turn it on – when it’s not in that to form, then 
we’re going to split it. Ich mache es an. How was to search? 
Suchen. 
Good. And to try? 
Versuchen. 
Versuchen. I’m trying? 
Ich versuche. 
Ich versuche. If we want to say I tried – these verbs that have a ver- or something 
at the beginning that doesn’t move, no, like in ich versuche, it doesn’t move - it’s 
not going to move for the ge- of the past, either. So if you want to say, for 
example, I have tried. Tried is versucht. So we have the -t no, like the he, she and 
it form, but we don’t have the ge- at the beginning. The ver- refused to move for 
it, so we just don’t have it. So versucht. For tried. So I have tried, or I tried? 
Versucht. 
Good. But we need the whole construction no, for I tried or I have tried. 
Ich hab versucht. 
Ich hab versucht. So whether we mean I tried or I have tried in spoken German it’s 
ich habe versucht. How was to visit? 
Besuchen. 
Besuchen good. How would you say, I visited him – I have visited him?  
Ich hab ihn besucht. 
Very good, ich hab ihn besucht. So again the be- doesn’t move, so it’s not going to 
get out the way for a ge- so we just have a -t for the past. Ich habe ihn besucht. 
What was to buy? 
Kaufen. 
Kaufen. And to sell? 
Verkaufen.  
Verkaufen. Have you sold it? 
Hast du es verkauft? 
Very good. Hast du es verkauft? Or you could also hear with the contraction – Hast 
dus - du es, the contraction of du es, dus - Hast dus verkauft? Good. Why haven’t 
you bought it yet? What was why? 
Warum. 
Warum, good. Why haven’t you bought it yet? 
Warum hast du es noch nicht gekauft? 
Very good. Warum hast du es noch nicht gekauft? Why haven’t you bought it yet? 
So with these unmovables, no, like versuchen, besuchen, we just had a -t on the 
end. But, if we have a verb like anmachen, aufmachen, zumachen, where this auf, 
this zu, this an is a word in its own right so its movable, then what we get for our 
past is angemacht, all one word and an- moves to make way for that ge-. So the 
past of to turn on is angemacht. So that an- moves for the ge-. Angemacht – turned 
on, as in I have turned on. 
Angemacht. 
So how would you say, I have turned them on. I have turned them on. 
Ich hab sie angemacht. 
Good. Ich habe sie angemacht. Have they opened? 
Haben sie angemacht? 
Opened. What is to open? 
Aufgemacht. 
Good. Have they opened? 
Haben sie aufgemacht? Good. Today is heute. Heute. H-E-U….and we’ve seen how 
eu gives us oi in german… T-E. Heute. 
Heute. 
Have they opened today? 
Haben sie heute aufgemacht? 
Very good. Haben sie heute aufgemacht. Have they opened today? Why haven’t 
they opened yet today. Haha. So just start with what comes first and then after 
that what should I put now, no? So the whole idea is: Why haven’t they opened yet 
today? What do we start with? 
Warum haben sie heute noch nicht aufgemacht ? 
Very good. Warum haben sie heute noch nicht aufgemacht? Very good. 
What was to search?  
Suchen.  
Suchen. And to pick out? 
Aussuchen. 
Aussuchen. Good. So how would you say, have you chosen? 
Hast du aussuchen? …Hast du aussucht? 
So does aus move ?  
Yes. 
So it will move for that ge-. 
Hast du ausgesucht? 
Hast du ausgesucht? Have you chosen it? 
Hast du es augesucht? 
Good. Hast du es ausgesucht? And how would that be with the contraction? 
Hast dus ausgesucht? 
Very good. Hast dus ausgesucht. 
 
38 - Language Transfer Complete German 
 
So we've seen how in spoken German, when we talk about the past, generally
speaking we'll use this structure of 'I have done' rather than 'I did', 'I have visited'
rather than just 'I visited'. And we've seen how mostly to get this 'have past' of a verb
we start with the he, she, it version of the verb, the verb with our -t ending instead of
our -n or -en ending. Then we add our ge- to the beginning. So if we start with
machen, (to do, to make), we first go to macht and we the put our ge- at the
beginning and we then get gemacht.

So how would you say 'I have done it'? 'I have made it'?
Ich habe es gemacht.
Very good. Ich habe es gemacht. What was 'to wait'?
warten
warten, good. And he waits?
Er wartet.
Good we needed to add an -e here to hear that -t that we're adding on. And 'waited'
as in 'I have waited'?
Gewartet.
Ich habe gewartet. So in German we wait on somebody, rather than waiting for them.
We wait 'auf' somebody. So how would you say 'I have waited for you'?
Ich habe auf dich gewartet.
So we have two verbs here, no? We make a sandwich of those verbs. We have the
first one at the beginning and the second one at the end.
Ich habe auf dich gewartet. Very good.

So er is he, and him was?

Ihn
So that -h makes that ih sound, the i a little bit longer. 'Did you wait for him?' ' have
you waited for him?'
Hast du auf ihn gewartet?

And we've also seen exceptions to this rule, of using ge- and a -t to get this 'have
past'. Many of these exceptions look uncannily like the English forms. 'Bringen' for
example, to bring goes to gebracht, just like brought in i have brought. 'Sehen' to see
goes to gesehen, jest like seen but with a ge- added. Essen to eat, goes like eaten,
we have eaten, gegessen which is particularly irregular. We have an extra g there.
Have you eaten?
Hast du gegessen?
The word for already in German in schon. Have you eaten already?
Hast du schon gegessen?
Very good, hast du schon gegessen? So because we have two verbs we have schon
in the middle there. Hast du schon gegessen?
And this also means have you eaten yet? Both of these meanings are included in
schon. Have you eaten already? Have you eaten yet? Hast du schon gegessen?

So already or yet is schon, but not yet was noch nicht. So we have the hard -ch after
the o in noch and the soft -ch after the i sound, nicht. Noch nicht. So how would you
say, Haven't you eaten yet? Have you not eaten yet?
Hast du noch nicht gegessen?
Very good. So we have nicht for not and nothing or anything was?
Nichts
With an s on the end. Nichts. Haven't you eaten anything?
Hast du nichts gegessen?
Very good. Hast du nichts gegessen? And if you want to say anything yet, nothing
yet, you can use noch nichts.
So noch means still. Noch nicht, not yet is still not. And noch nichts, nothing yet, not
anything yet is still nothing. Noch nichts. Haven't you eaten anything yet?
Hast du noch nicht nichts gegessen?
Haven't you eaten anything yet? Hast du noch nichts gegessen? But just Haven't
you eaten yet? Have you still not eaten?
Hast du noch nicht gegessen?
Very good. Hast du noch nicht gegessen?

So we have some irregular verbs when forming this past, this 'have past'. English
can be of a great help to compare these versions to the English versions and check
if they're irregular there too. So gegessen is like eaten. Gebracht like brought. And
just thinking about that, whether the irregularity is shared or not is extremely helpful
for us to internalise the irregularity in German. Whether its shared or not, just
thinking about it rather than just trying to memorise the new form.

We also saw how verbs that are built of parts, so like anmachen for example, this is
built from an and machen. So these verbs we have to pay special attention in the
past. Before deciding how they are in the past, we have to decide whether the verb
is separable or not. Whether this verb built of parts splits or not. So anmachen, to
turn on, is from an and machen. Is anmachen a separable verb? Can it split?
Yes it is.
Why?
Because the stress is on the an- part.
Very good. An- is stressed that show us that it is a word in own right. So this verb
can split. Anmachen, good. So if we say for example, I am turning it on, in the
present, I am turning it on. How is that?
Ich mache es an.
Very good. Ich mache es an. Or ich mach's an. So that verb splits and that an- goes
to the end, as if it were a second verb. Its a part of a verb, so it counts as a kind of a
second verb. Ich mach es an.

And when anmachen goes into the past, because an is separable, the an will move
out of the way for the ge-. So we get angemacht. The an moves for this ge-. What
was already again?
Schon
Schon. Have the turned it on already? Have you turned it on yet?
Hast du es schon angemacht?
Very good. Hast du es schon angemacht? Have you not turned it on yet?
Hast du es …. I don't know where to put the nicht... Hast du es nicht schon
angemacht?
So not yet. How was not yet?
Noch nicht.
So we don't want to go too quickly when we hear yet to schon. When its a not yet we
have, noch nicht. So haven’t you have you not turned it on yet?
Hast du es noch nicht angemacht?
Very good. Hast du es noch nicht angemacht?

So this es assumes that with it we are talking about something neuter, like das
Telefon. The telephone. But if we refer to something masculine, for example like the
television, which is der Fernseher, the far-see-er, literally. Like the English tele is
from Greek which means far, vision, seeing. Telephone, far voice. So if we referred
to der Fernseher, the TV, which is masculine and we say Haven't you turned it on
yet? We would use ihn the word for him, when we say it, talking about this masculine
thing. So how would that be? Haven't you turned it on yet? And we mean the
television.
Hast du ihn nicht nicht angemacht?
Very good. Hast du ihn noch nicht angemacht?
And if we mean for example, die Lampe, the lamp the light, which is feminine, die
Lampe when we say Haven't you turned it on yet? Then how would that be?
Hast du sie noch nicht angemacht?
Hast du sie noch nicht angemacht?

39 - Language Transfer Complete German

Ausmachen, ausmachen means to turn off. Ausmachen. Is ausmachen a separable

verb?
I don't think so.
Why?
Because ausmachen.
Where was the stress when we said to turn on?
An​machen. Oh yer, I'm sorry.
So at the beginning when we have it there on the bit we add on Anmachen and
Ausmachen , what does that mean?
That it's separable.
It also shows us that 'aus' is a word in its own right, which means out, no? We have
the -t to -s shift there. Out, Aus. Ausmachen, to turn off. So if we say I'm turning it off,
how would that be? I'm turning it off.
Ich mache es aus.
Ich mache es aus. Ich mach's aus. So ausmachen splits and aus being a verb part, it
has to go to the end as if we have two verbs in this sentence. Ich mache es aus.

Now, the word now, related to yet in English was?

Jetzt.
Jetzt. Good J,E,T,Z,T. And of course when ausmachen is in its 'to' form, when it's
complete this verb ausmachen, we don't have to worry about splitting it. So if you say
something like ' You must turn it off now' and we mean das Telefon, you have to turn
it off now.
Du musst es jetzt ausmachen.
Good. Du musst es jetzt ausmachen. So there we have ausmachen, its a complete
verb we won't split it, it just goes on the end, being the second verb. Du musst es
jetzt ausmachen. And if we mean der Fernseher, the TV, You must turn it off now,
how would that be?
Du musst es jetzt anmachen, aufmachen.
Ausmachen.
Ausmachen.
But we mean the television. So it's not es.
Ihn, ihn
And stop panicking!
Du musst ihn jetzt anmachen. It was ausmachen.
Ausmachen, and don't just try to memorize it, there's a sense there no? It's to 'make
out'. To make something out, to go out, to make something go out is to turn it off.
Ausmachen. So Du musst ihn jetzt ausmachen. And if we want to say I have turned
it off, then we know that split-able, seperable verbs, like ausmachen, will find a place
for this ge- of the past.

So how do we get turned off, from ausmachen?

Ausgemacht
Ausgemacht, very good, ausgemacht. So, 'I've already turned it off'? Something
masculine like der Fernseher?
Ich habe ihn schon ausgemacht.
Very good. Ich habe ihn schon ausgemacht. 'I've already turned them off'.
Ich habe Sie schon ausgemacht.
Very good. Ich habe Sie schon ausgemacht. And of course this ‘sie’ could also refer
to turning a feminine thing off, like the lamp, die Lampe. 'Haven't you turned them, or
it feminine it, off yet?' ' haven't you turned it off yet?'
Hast du sie noch nicht ausgemacht?
Very good. Hast du sie noch nicht ausgemacht?. What was the word for why?
Warum.
Warum. Good. W-a-r-u-m. Warum. 'Why have you turned them off already?' 'Why
have you turned them off already?'
Warum hast du sie schon ausgemacht?
Very good. Warum hast du sie schon ausgemacht? And what if we mean a neuter
thing, like das Telefon, why have you turned it off already?
Warum hast du es schon ausgemacht?
Very good. Warum hast du es schon ausgemacht?
And when we're referring to das Telefon we could actually use es or das, no? Es is
maybe a bit more like it and das more like this it that or this one or that one. But it's
hard to translate that directly, you will find in German maybe people using das, this
or that, when in English you might prefer it and vice versa. So you could hear both
'Warum hast du es schon ausgemacht?' or 'Warum hast du das schon
ausgemacht?'.

So when we have a movable part of a verb like aus, like the aus of ausmachen, it will
make way for the ge- of the past. And we've also seen how when we have a verb
built of parts which aren't separable the new just have our have past with the final 't'.
We don't use ge-. What was to search, to look for?
suchen.
suchen. So an 's' vowel syllable gives us a 'z' sound. Suchen.
suchen.
suchen. And to visit?
besuchen.
Besuchen. He visits?
Er besucht.
Er besucht. So besucht is also just what we use for the past of besuchen because
besuchen is not separable, we don't have the accent on be-, that's not a word in its
own right, so we don't use ge-. Besucht is also our past version. So if you want to
say 'Have you visited him?'
Hast du ihn besucht?
Hast du ihn besucht? Have you not visited them?
Hast du sie nicht besucht?
Hast du sie nicht besucht? And like I said before, that we could use das or es, no?,
to say it, referring to something neuter. Here we could say sie or die, Hast du die
nicht besucht? Hast du sie nicht besucht?
Haven't you visited her yet? Haven't you visited her yet?
Hast du sie nicht schon besucht?
What is not yet?
Ah! Noch nicht! Hast du sie noch nicht besucht?
Very good, very good. Haven't you visited her yet? Hast du sie noch nicht besucht?
So noch nicht is still not yet and nothing yet, not anything yet, still nothing is?
Noch nichts.
Noch nichts. Very goot. What was to try? Also from suchen?
Versuchen. It's spelt with a v but that v is an f. Versuchen.
Versuchen.
Is this separable?
No.
No? We have the accent on suchen, showing us that ver- stays put. Versuchen. She
tries?
Sie versucht.
Sie versucht. And this is also the past version because we made that step of putting
our -t on the end, and the next step of ge- we can't do it because ver- doesn't move.
So versucht is tried. So Haven't you tried anything yet? Haven't you tried anything
yet?
Hast du noch nicht, noch nichts versucht?
Hast du noch nichts versucht? Very good.
Another group of verbs that don't take that ge- but that take that final -t to make the
past, are those verbs of Latin origin that end in -ieren. I-e-r-e-n. So we have for
example studieren – to study, markieren – to mark, korrigieren – to correct. How
would you say, You must correct me?
Du musst mich korrigieren.
Good. Du musst mich korrigieren. And the -ieren we can also hear it kind of
abbreviated in some accents, -ien. korrigieren. We could have servieren. To serve,
like to serve food. So these verbs ending -ieren of Latin origin, when they go into the
past they also don't use this ge-.

So how would you say I have studied?

Ich habe studiert.
Ich habe studiert. Good.

The word for long in German is lange. L-A-N-G-E. And this -ng that is falling on the
end of the syllable is is like the English -ing, we don't have a hard 'g' sound. Lange.
Lange.
Good. Have you studied long?
Hast du lange studiert?
Hast du lange studiert? What was to organise?
Organisieren.
Very good. Organisieren. The past, organised?
Organisiert.
Organisiert. What was yesterday in German? We can think of our y to g shift.
Gestern.
Gestern. Gestern. The day before yesterday is vorgestern.
Vorgestern.
So we have vor-, thats with a v, then gestern. We organized it the day before
yesterday. We organized it the day before yesterday.
Wir habe es vorgestern organiziert.
Good. But try to take a little more time as a theres a couple of problems that are
coming from trying to think too fast. So give me again We have
Wir haben.
Good. Wir haben. We have organized it the day before yesterday.
Wir habe es vorgestern organiziert.
Organisiert.
Organisiert.
Good. That's an s not a z. So it’s s not tz.
Wir habe es vorgestern organisiert.
So es here refers to something general and unnamed, no? Like that thing that we
were going to do. We organised it the day before yesterday. Something that doesn't
have a gender. For this we can automatically go to es for it. But if we refer to
something specific, something named, like the party for example, which isn't neuter,
we have to change the way we say 'it'. So how would that be? We organised it the
day before yesterday, but we mean the party. Die party.
Wir haben sie vorgestern organisiert.
Very good. Wir habe sie vorgestern organisiert. And instead of 'sie' we could also
use 'die'. Wir habe die vorgestern organisiert.
Everything or all in German is alles. A-L-L-E-S. Alles. Everything or all.
Alles.
We organised everything the day before yesterday.
Wir haben alles vorgestern organisiert.
Very good. Wir haben alles vorgestern organisiert. These verbs of Latin origin may
not be getting ge- in the past because most often verbs in Latin are built of bits and
pieces stuck together, just like some German verbs. Maybe German senses this and
not having any way to split a Latin verb, or to decide wether to split it or wether it's
built of parts or not, it just decides not to bother with this ge- business. So for
example we have kollaborieren, to collaborate. Which is actually built of 'with' and
'labour' in Latin. With labour. Kollaborieren. To intervene. Intervenieren. Intervene.
Built of 'between come', to between come. So maybe German detects somehow this
is how Latin verbs are built, which is why it doesn't want to put this ge-. Did you
intervene?
Hast du interviert?
Intervenieren.
Hast du interveniert?
Very good. Hast du interveniert? Very good.

Lesson 40:

Teacher: ​Kapieren, kapieren is to get. But like to get in the sense of, you know to
work something out, to catch on, to understand something.

Student: ​How would that be in the past, kapieren?

Student: ​Kapiert.

Teacher: ​Kapiert. How would you say: I didn't get it.

Student: ​Ich habe es nicht kapiert.

Teacher: ​Very good. Ich habe es nicht kapiert. I didn't get anything. I didn't get a
thing.

Student: ​Ich habe nichts kapiert.

Teacher: ​Very good. Ich habe nichts kapiert.

Teacher: ​So this is: I didn't get anything, in the sense of: I didn't get it. I didn't
understand anything. And kapieren, is coming from the Latin meaning to grasp. Like
in capture, when you grasp something, you get it, you understand it, kapieren, to get.
So, if you find a verb going into the past just with the T on the end without the g, then
you know, it's either a verb of Latin origin, ending -ieren, organisieren, kapieren,
servieren, or a verb with a non-movable building block at the beginning, like
besuchen - to visit, versuchen - to try, which of course become besucht, versucht.
To repair, repair is reparieren, reparieren.

Student: ​Reparieren.

Teacher: ​Or reparieren. So what's the first thing we notice about this verbP?

Student: ​It's the latin one.

Teacher: ​It's a Latin word no.? It ends -ieren. So this Latin verb repair is built of re
and pair, no? Which is what you do, when you repair something, you pair it back up,
you re-pair it. So as I mentioned, German probably senses, somehow that Latin
verbs are built like this and doesn't bother with the ge in the past, not being able to
split a Latin verb, how would you say: I have repaired it?

Student: ​Ich habe es repariert.

Teacher: ​Ich habe es or ich hab's repariert. I repaired them?

Student: ​Ich habe sie repariert.

Teacher: ​Ich habe sie repariert. And this also means I repaired it, no? Referring to a
feminine noun. Ich habe sie repariert. So we can have both those meanings there. I
repaired them, I repaired feminine it. I have to repair it, I must repair it and here with
it, we mean the TV, the television, der Fernseher?

Student: ​Ich muss ihn repariert.

Teacher: ​Ihn might sound a little bit like in, which is also in, in German, so we really
want that longer vowel - ihn.

Student: ​Ok, ich muss ihn reparieren.

Teacher: ​Ich muss ihn reparieren.

Teacher: ​So many people think the gender, as a concept, means that language
goes around deciding which objects are masculine and which are feminine, but it's
not really the object that has the gender, but the word in itself. It's words which are
masculine or feminine or neuter, rather than things in themselves. We know this,
because you might use two words with two different genders to refer to the same
thing, for example, for train, we will commonly hear both, der Zug and die Bahn, we
could have der Zug, Z U G hear the G on the end of the word is hardened, so it
sounds like a K, Zug, or die Bahn, B A H N, for the train. So, when we say, it,
referring to a train, whether we use ihn, the word for him or sie, the word for her,
would depend on whether in our minds we are thinking about der Zug, masculine or
die Bahn, feminine, but either way, we're still thinking about the train no?, so the train
in itself doesn't have a gender, it's the word that does. So we have, der Zug, which is
related to ziehen, which means to pull, so a train is like a pulley, something that pulls
something along and then, die Bahn and Bahn actually means track, but die Bahn,
the track, is also used to refer to the train. To take, to take, was nehmen - N E H M E
N.

Student: ​Nehmen.

Teacher: ​I'm taking the train, let's use die Bahn, I am taking the train.

Student: ​Ich nehme die Bahn.

Student: ​Good. Ich nehme die Bahn. What was tomorrow, like morning?

Student: ​Morgen?

Teacher: ​I'm taking the train tomorrow.

Student: ​Ich nehme die Bahn morgen.

Teacher: ​Very good. Ich nehme die Bahn morgen. Or we could also change that
order for a different stress. Ich nehme morgen die Bahn. I'm taking it tomorrow,
referring to the Bahn. I'm taking it tomorrow.

Student: ​Ich nehme sie morgen.

Teacher: ​Very good. Ich nehme sie morgen. But if you had, in your head, Zug, der
Zug, when you say, I'm taking it tomorrow, you will say: I am taking him tomorrow.

Student: ​Ich nehme ihn morgen.

Teacher: ​Very good. Ich nehme ihn morgen.The day after tomorrow, the day after
tomorrow was Übermorgen, Übermorgen, over tomorrow.

Student: ​Übermorgen.

Teacher: ​They're repairing it, the day after tomorrow. They're repairing it, they repair
it, the day after tomorrow and we mean, der Zug.

Student: ​Sie reparieren ihn übermorgen.

Teacher: ​Very good. Sie reparieren ihn übermorgen. She is repairing it, the day after
tomorrow, she is repairing it the day after tomorrow.

Student: ​Sie repariert ihn übermorgen.

Teacher: ​Sie repariert ihn übermorgen. So, repariert, looks like the past form, no,
but we know it's not, because we don't have haben anywhere there. Sie repariert ihn
übermorgen. She repaired it the day before yesterday. She repaired it the day before
yesterday.

Student: ​Sie habe ihn.

Teacher: ​Sie habe?

Student: ​Sie hat es vorgestern repariert.

Teacher: ​Now if you say s and you're talking about the train, you wouldn't be
understood, so you could have ihn or sie, no, depending on whether you are
referencing, der Zug or die Bahn. This will depend on what you have in your mind or
what you've used already in the conversation. Sie hat sie vorgestern repariert or sie
hat ihn vorgestern repariert. So when referencing, der Zug or die Bahn, if you just
went automatically to s for it, you wouldn't be understood, you'd leave people
wondering what that, it, referred to. So, asked it, when we talk about something
general, like can you believe it, is automatically s, if we are referring to a noun, one
of those words we put the in front of, we'll have to think about its gender, before
translating the word, it.

Lesson 41:

Teacher: ​What was the word for I in German?

Student: ​Ich.

Teacher: ​Ich. And the word for me?

Student: ​Mich.

Teacher: ​Mich. Good.

Teacher: ​And if when we say, me, we mean, to me, we had a different word for that,
what was that?

Student: ​Mir.
Teacher: ​Mir. Good. So, this is, to me, or maybe sometimes, for me, or, on me, but
mostly, to me, mir. What was the word for you?

Student: ​Du.

Teacher: ​Du. And we had another word for you, if we mean, for example, I see you,
rather than you see. I understand you, rather than, you understand. What was that
word?

Student: ​Dich.

Teacher: ​Dich. Good. And, if we mean, to you, or maybe, for you, on you, by you,
but mostly, to you, what do we have?

Student: ​Dir.

Teacher: ​Dir. Good, D I R, just like Mir, M I R. What was the verb, to do, or, to
make?

Student: ​Machen.

Teacher: ​Machen. Vermachen means, to leave something behind for somebody, like
when you die, to leave something behind to somebody. Vermachen.

Student: ​Vermachen.

Teacher: ​Vermachen. The house, in German is, das Haus, H A U S, das Haus, the
house.

Student: ​Das Haus.

Teacher: ​So, you could say, for example, he left me the house, he left me the
house.
Student: ​Er hast.

Teacher: ​Er hast? What sound?

Student: ​Er hat.

Teacher: ​Good, we have a t now for he, she or it, we add this on to haben, once we
take the -en away, we would have habt, but it contracts that b got lost, er hat. Er hat.
So, he left me the house?

Student: ​Er hat mir das Haus vermacht.

Teacher: ​And how does that V sound?

Student: ​Vermacht.

Teacher: ​Very good. Er hat mir das Haus vermacht. Very good. And he left it to me?
We will have it first. He left it to me.

Student: ​Er hat es mir verhat, vermacht.

Teacher: ​Very good. Er hat es mir vermacht. So, here we say es, because we refer
to the house, das Haus, but if we refer to, die Bahn, if you inherited the train, he left it
to me. How would that be?

Student: ​Er hat sie, er hat sie mir vermacht.

Teacher: ​Very good. Er hat sie mir vermacht. And if, when you we were talking
about that train, you weren't thinking about, die Bahn, but, der Zug, how would that
be? He left me it. He left it to me?
Student: ​Er hat ihn mir vermacht.

Teacher: ​Very good, er hat ihn mir vermacht. So, we've seen how we have Ich, Mich
and Mir,no, to refer to oneself. I, Mich, Me and then Mir, to me, for me, there may be
some other meanings but mostly to me, mir. We saw, we have, Du, Dich and Dir, to
refer to you. What was the word for she?

Student: ​Sie.

Teacher: ​And the word for her?

Student: ​Sie.

Teacher: ​Sie, also sie that doesn't change. But for to her, we have ihr. I H R, Ihr.

Student: ​Ihr.

Teacher: ​What was, to say, or to tell? We had the y to g shift with this verbs, to say.

Student: ​Sagen.

Teacher: ​Sagen. Very good. The initial s vowel, sounding like a z, no, and the y to g
shift. Sagen. With sagen, to say, to tell, we say to, we tell to. So, instead of sie, for
her, we use ihr, for, to her, instead of mich, for me, we use, to me, mir. What was the
word for what?

Student: ​Was.

Teacher: ​Was. Our t to s shift. Was. What did you tell her? What have you told her?

Student: ​Was hast du ihr sagt?

Teacher: ​You did half the work to build the past of sagen. What is the other bit, you
have to do?

Student: ​Gesagt.

Teacher: ​Gesagt. Gesagt. Very good. Was hast du ihr gesagt? I told her it,
yesterday. So, in a complete sentence, for a complete sentence in German, we
wouldn't just say, I told her yesterday, like in English, we would say: I told her it. With
sagen, we need to say, what we've said. So, we're going to say it to her. I told it to
her, yesterday.

Student: ​Ich habe es ihr gesagt.

Teacher: ​And Yesterday?

Student: ​Ich habe es ihr gestern gesagt.

Teacher: ​Ich habe es ihr gestern gesagt. Very good. So, we have s first, no, es ihr.
In English, we can have both orders, I told her it, yesterday. I told it to her, yesterday,
but the German order is, it to her, we have the thing first, it, when we are using these
little words like es, ihn, sie. Ich habe es ihr gestern gesagt. What was the word for
he?

Student: ​Er.

Teacher: ​Er. Him?

Student: ​Ihn.

Teacher: ​I H N. To him, sometimes for him, by him, on him, but mostly, to him, is
ihm.

Student: ​Ihm.
Teacher: ​I H M. So, to her, ihr and to him, ihm, look more like the English forms of
him and her than sie and ihn, no? Him, ending with an m, like ihm and her, ending
with an r, like ihr. So, this is a nice way to remember these set of words, to him, to
her, ihm and ihr, just like him and her, in English and we have that h there in both of
these words, making the vowel longer, to him, ihm, I H M, to her, ihr, I H R. We told
him, the day before yesterday. We told him, the day before yesterday?

Student: ​Wir haben ihn vorgestern gesagt. (ihn again instead ihm)

Teacher: ​Very good. Wir haben ihm vorgestern gesagt. Now, if you're going to follow
up, you know, if we told him that, this happened or we told him and then say, what
you told in this sentence is fine, but if you want a complete sentence there, there you
will say: We told him it, with the ver, to say, sagen. Sagen, we say what we have
said. So, how would that be? We told him, the day before yesterday?

Student: ​Wir haben es ihm vorgestern...vorgestern gesagt.

Teacher: ​Wir haben es ihm vorgestern gesagt. So, in these sentences, we can
safely use s, because s here, sagen es, doesn't refer to anything that has a gender,
it doesn't refer to any noun here. What was what again?

Student: ​Was.

Teacher: ​Was. And something or somewhat?

Student: ​Etwas.

Teacher: ​Etwas. Did you tell her something? Have you told her something?

Student: ​Hast du ihr etwas gesagt?

Teacher: ​Hast du ihr etwas gesagt? And, in the spoken language, etwas can be
shortened to was. So, you may also hear and say, hast du ihr was gesagt? We know
it's not what, no? Because if it were what, it would be at the beginning. Hast du ihr
was gesagt? Did you tell her something? What was the word for everything? Like
all?

Student: ​Alles.

Teacher: ​Alles. But, in German, but is aber. Aber. A B E R.

Student: ​Aber.

Teacher: ​So, you could say, no, nein, no, but I told him everything. So, no, but I told
him everything.

Student: ​Nein, aber ich habe ihm alles gesagt.

Teacher: ​Very good. Did you tell her something? Hast du ihr was gesagt? No, but I
told him everything. Nein, aber ich habe ihm alles gesagt.

Lesson 42:
Teacher: ​To give, was geben, to give.

Student: ​Geben.

Teacher: ​They are giving me something.

Student: ​Sie geben, sie geben mir etwas.

Teacher: ​Sie geben mir etwas. Very good, you used Mir, because when they give,
no, they give to me. So, we have Mir. Sie geben mir etwas or just was. Sie geben mir
was. So, this is actually another consonant shift, to give, geben, we have v to b. We
also saw übermorgen, no? Literally, over tomorrow, for the day after tomorrow. Over.
Über. Again v to b. To live, in German, is leben, to love, lieben, believe, glauben. The
be, at the beginning of the English word, is a G in German and then you get, believe,
glauben. And Raven is Rabe.

Student: ​Rabe.

Teacher: ​So, in Raven, Rabe, we have a v to be shift. And this is even related to the
word decrepit in English, if you know it. It's all coming from the sound of creaking, the
b, so, the b, there we have P, in repit, but that repit bit is where raven also comes
from. A decrepit person is out creaking and a raven creaks. So, that's another
consonant shift you can use to play between English and German words. V to b. To
give, geben. Given, so the past, given, is gegeben.

Student: ​Gegeben.

Teacher: ​Again, like the English verb, given, no, but with the consonant shift and ge.
I have given him something?

Student: ​Ich habe ihr etwas gegeben.

Teacher: ​That would be, I've given her something, but I've given him, to him.

Student: ​Im, it would be Im?

Teacher: ​Ihm, the h is in the middle, stretching the vowel. Ihm, I H M.

Student: ​Ich habe ihm etwas gegeben.

Teacher: ​Very good. Ich habe ihm etwas gegeben or was gegeben. I haven't given
him anything, I haven't given him anything?

Student: ​Ich habe ihm nichts gegeben.

Teacher: ​Very good. Ich habe ihm nichts gegeben. I haven't given him anything yet?
Student: ​Ich habe ihm noch nichts gegeben.

Teacher: ​Very good. Ich habe ihm noch nichts gegeben. They gave me something?

Student: ​Sie haben mir etwas gegeben.

Teacher: ​Sie haben mir etwas gegeben or in the spoken language you will very
commonly hear: Sie haben mir was gegeben. They gave her something?

Student: ​Sie haben ihr was gegeben.

Teacher: ​Sie haben ihr was gegeben. Silver, silver in German, is Silber, spelt the
same, but instead of a v we have a b.

Student: ​Silber.

Teacher: ​So, again our v to be shift. The silver, das Silber.

Student: ​Das Silber.

Teacher: ​Did you give her the silver?

Student: ​Hast du ihr das Silber gegeben?

Teacher: ​Very good. Hast du ihr das Silber gegeben? Did you give her it, meaning
the silver?

Student: ​Hast du ihr es gegeben?

Teacher: ​So, this order is possible in English but in German, when we are using
these little words like s, mir, we will put the thing first. The​ sound that refers​ to a
thing?

Student: ​Hast du es ihr gegeben?

Teacher: ​Very good. Hast du es ihr gegeben? 7, in German, the number 7, is,
Sieben. This is spelt S I E B E N. Sieben.

Student: ​Sieben.

Teacher: ​We gave you 7, we gave you 7.

Student: ​Wir haben dich sieben gegeben.

Teacher: ​If you say, for example, wir haben dich gegeben, it means, we picked you
up and we gave you, but if you want, we gave to you.

Student: ​Wir haben dir sieben gegeben.

Teacher: ​Wir haben dir sieben gegeben. You remember the word for child?

Student: ​Kind.

Teacher: ​Kind. This was spelt K I N D and the d on the end, was hardened, by being
in the end, we hear a t, Kind. My child?

Student: ​Mein Kind.

Teacher: ​What was the word for train? The male, the masculine word for train? We
had der...?
Student: ​Der Zug.

Teacher: ​Zug. And Zug was spelt Z U G. And this g on the end is hardened, just like
the d of Kind. It's hardened and we hear a k, no? Zug, and it's Z U G. In the same
way, to give away, to give away, is weggeben. Weggeben.

Student: ​Weggeben.

Teacher: ​This is spelt, W E G geben. What word might this be, this W E G, if we
think about our consonant shifts, what might that be in English?

Student: ​I don't remember it.

Teacher: ​I'm sure you do. What was, to say?

Student: ​Sagen.

Teacher: ​So, what's the consonant shift there?

Student: ​A ‘y’. Ah, way.

Teacher: ​Way, to give away. So, we have the y to g shift here, but we are hearing a
k sound, no? Weggeben. So, this is an interesting word that is showing us that,
even on the end of the syllable, not necessarily on the end of the word. No, if you
have one of these sounds that can harden on the end of the syllable, it will -
weggeben. W E G - G E B E N, to give away, to give away. I'm giving it away and we
refer to something neuter.

Student: ​Ich weggebe es?

Teacher: ​Where is the stress on weggeben?

Student: ​Ich gebe es weg?

Teacher: ​Ich gebe es weg. If we want to find the past of weggeben, first, we can
think of the past of geben. So, what is geben in the past?

Student: ​Gegeben.

Teacher: ​Gegeben. The weg will move for this g, so we have gegeben, for the past
of geben and then the past of weggeben, would be?

Student: ​Weggegeben.

Teacher: ​Weggegeben. My child gave it away, my child has given it away?

Student: ​Mein Kind has... hat.

Teacher: ​Good. Mein Kind is like he or she, no, so hat. Mein Kind hat.

Student: ​Mein Kind hat es weggegeben.

Teacher: ​Mein Kind hat es weggegeben. Good, so for weggegeben, we have geben,
we know that is gegeben in the past and then to get the past then of weggeben, we
know we will include the g because weg is movable. Weggegeben. And what if we
meant a feminine thing or more than one thing? My child gave it away or my child
gave them away?

Student: ​Mein Kind hat sie weggegeben.

Teacher: ​Mein Kind hat sie weggegeben, or Mein Kind hat die weggegeben. Very
good.

Lesson 43:
Teacher: ​Do you remember how was, to help, in German?
Student: ​Helfen.

Teacher: ​Helfen.

Student: ​Helfen.

Teacher: ​Helfen. H E L F E N. In German, when you help somebody, you help, to

them, or you help, for them. So, we don't say mich, for example, if you help me, you
help mir. You help to me or for me. How would you say: Can you help me? Can you
help me?

Student: ​Kannst du mir helfen?

Teacher: ​Very good. Kannst du mir helfen. Can you help him?

Student: ​Kannst du ihn...ihm...ihm helfen?

Teacher: ​Ihm. When it's to him, we have ihm, instead of ihn. Kannst du ihm helfen?
Can you help her?

Student: ​Kannst du ihr helfen?

Teacher: ​Kannst du ihr helfen? Very good. So, sometimes, in German, we might get
mir, to me, when we might just expect a simple mich, me. We might get ihr, when we
expect sie. And this just means that German is thinking of the verb or the world in a
different way to you. German sees, helfen as to help for, to aid to, rather than just to
help. Nobody, in German, is niemand.

Student: ​Niemand.

Teacher: ​How was, he wants?

Student: ​Er will.

Teacher: ​Very good. Er will. Nobody wants?

Student: ​Niemand will.

Teacher: ​Niemand will. So, nobody, is like he or she, er will, niemand will. Nobody
wants to help her. Nobody wants to help her.

Student: ​Niemand will ihr helfen.

Teacher: ​Niemand will ihr helfen. What was to give, again, to give?

Student: ​Geben.

Teacher: ​Geben. To forgive, to forgive, to forgive, is vergeben.

Student: ​Vergeben.

Teacher: ​In the same way that we give to somebody, we also forgive to somebody,
in German, so I forgive you.

Student: ​Ich vergebe dir.

Teacher: ​Very good. Ich vergebe dir. So, vergeben, is not splittable, no. Ich vergebe
dir. The past of, geben, was gegeben. So, how might the past of vergeben be?

Student: ​Vergegeben.

Teacher: ​Ver- doesn't move, it's not splittable.

Student: ​Vergeben.

Teacher: ​Vergeben. Good. It's the same, the to form is the same as the past,
because of course we can't have the ge, when we have a non-moveable piece like
ver-, and we know we don't add the t onto geben, this is irregular, we know that,
because we have gegeben, so the past of vergeben is just vergeben. I forgave you. I
have forgiven you.

Student: ​Ich habe dir vergeben.

Teacher: ​Ich habe dir vergeben. To ask, in German, to ask, is fragen.

Student: ​Fragen.

Teacher: ​What verb might this be in English, if we have the p to f shift, like in help,
helfen, there's another shift there too, what might it be in English? Fragen. F to p and
what do g's become?

Student: ​Y? p and y? But, pray?

Teacher: ​Pray. It is actually to pray, but it means to ask and still we have in English
the expression, pray tell, if you've heard that or why pray are you, no? And that's why
I ask why I ask. Pray tell, I ask you tell. So, it's still used like that in English in some
fixed expressions, if you've ever heard them. So fragen, like pray, but to ask, in
German. So, just like helfen, to help, or vergeben, to forgive, surprise us, using to me
mir, instead of just me, mich. To him, ihm, instead of just him, ihn. Just like these
verbs surprised us by doing this, other verbs might surprise us too. We might see a
verb like fragen, to ask, and think, ah, okay, I've got this covered, this in German
must be, to ask to. But German can surprise us. So, with fragen, we don't ask to
someone, in the way we tell or say, to someone, we just ask them. We use ihn, sie,
mich, dich, those words, rather than mir, dir, ihr, etc. How would you say, I want to
ask you something? I want to ask you something?

Student: ​Ich will dich etwas fragen.

Teacher: ​Ich will dich etwas fragen. I have asked you something?

Student: ​Ich habe dich etwas gefragt.

Teacher: ​Very good. Ich habe dich etwas or was gefragt. Nobody, was, do you
remember nobody?

Student: ​Niemand.

Teacher: ​Niemand. So, the nie- at the beginning is a bit longer, because we have
-ie, like in die. Niemand. Nobody asked you. Nobody asked you?

Student: ​Niemand hat du gefragt.

Teacher: ​So du, is when you have asked. But to ask you?

Student: ​Niemand hat dich gefragt.

Teacher: ​Very good. Niemand hat dich gefragt. He didn't ask me anything.

Student: ​Er hat mich nichts gefragt.

Teacher: ​Very good. Er hat mich nichts gefragt. I didn't ask him anything?

Student: ​Ich habe ihn nichts gefragt.

Teacher: ​Ich habe ihn nichts gefragt. I didn't tell him anything. I didn't tell him
anything?

Student: ​Ich habe ihn nichts gesagt.

Teacher: ​So, whilst, when we ask, we just asked directly somebody, ihn, when we
say, we say to somebody, so, we don't use ihn, but?

Student: ​Ihm.

Teacher: ​Ihm. The word that looks like him, in English. So, I didn't tell him anything?

Student: ​Ich habe ihm nichts gesagt.

Teacher: ​Ich habe ihm nichts gesagt. So, in German, when we use words like, me,
her, him, we need to think about, if we mean just me or to me, for me, if we mean
just him or to him, for him. Sometimes, German would disagree with you and this
doesn't mean that you haven't understood the rules only that German sees the world
differently to you. So, when we come across words like mir, dir, ihr, ihm, we should
make a habit of taking a moment to analyze the context in which we find them and
try to figure out why these words are being used.

Lesson 44:
Teacher: ​What was the word for, we, in German? 
  
Student: ​Wir. 
  
Teacher: ​Wir. And the word for us, is uns, uns. 
  
Student: ​Uns. 
  
Teacher: ​U N S, uns. 
  
Student: ​Uns. 
  
Teacher: ​What was, to wait? 
  
Student: ​Warten. 
  
Teacher: ​Warten. They are waiting for us? And we don't say for us in German, we 
say like, on us, auf. 
  
Student: ​Sie warten auf uns. 
  
Teacher: ​Sie warten auf uns. Uns is also, to us, so, uns doesn't change. Us to us, 
uns. So, they are telling us something? 
  
Student: ​Sie sagen uns etwas? 
  
Teacher: ​Very good. Sie sagen uns etwas or sie sagen uns was. So, this is telling to 
us, no. But that's also uns, uns doesn't change. What are they telling us? 
  
Student: ​Was sagen sie uns? 
  
Teacher: ​Was sagen sie uns? What was to try, built from suchen? 
  
Student: ​Versuchen. 
  
Teacher: ​Versuchen. And we saw, previously that when we tried to do something, 
we try in order to do something, in German, we try zu, we try to, so, if we say, for 
example, they are trying to tell us something, we will say, they are trying, in order 
to, zu, tell us something. So, they are trying to tell us something. There's a lot of 
information there, we think about what comes first and what comes next. 
  
Student: ​Sie versuchen etwas zu sagen. 
  
Teacher: ​Good, but you missed out a small piece of information. Us. But you know 
where that goes? 
  
Student: ​Sie versuchen uns etwas zu sagen. 
  
Teacher: ​Very good. Sie versuchen uns was, uns etwas, zu sagen. So, sagen, is to 
say or to tell and to speak, is sprechen. 
  
Student: ​Sprechen. 
  
Teacher: ​Sprechen. So, we have k to ch, no, like in make, machen, seek, suchen, 
speak, sprechen. Ansprechen, means to go and start a conversation with someone. 
This is from the meaning of an- like on, like in anmachen, to turn on, so, you 
know, to onspeak, to go and start up a conversation with somebody. Ansprechen. 
  
Student: ​Ansprechen. 
  
Teacher: ​Ansprechen, can also be used like to like, you can say, for example, they 
speak to me, I like them, referring to things, you know, like, they speak to me, 
like I'm feeling them, in English. You can use ansprechen for this. So, here an-, is 
like to, when they speak to me. So, how might it be, they speak to me, I like 
them, I am feeling them? 
  
Student: ​Sie sprechen mir an. 
  
Teacher: ​So, actually, here in this case, the information of to, to speak to, is 
included in an-, not in me. So, we don't use mir, here. We use mich. So, again? 
  
Student: ​Sie sprechen mich an. 
  
Teacher: ​Very good. Sie sprechen mich an. So, sometimes that information of to, 
or for, or on, we said it could be sometimes, is included in the word for me, mich 
or mir, you, dich or dir. But that information could also be included in another 
place in the language. Like, I like them, they speak to me, talking about things, sie 
sprechen mich an. 
It speaks, is es spricht. The e of sprechen, kind of gets crushed into an i, es 
spricht. 
  
Student: ​Es spricht. 
  
Teacher: ​So, I like it. I'm feeling it. It speaks to me? 
  
Student: ​Es spricht mich an. 
  
Teacher: ​Very good. Es spricht mich an. Ansprechen, can also mean, to bring up, 
like to bring up in conversation. How would you say, we don't bring it up. We don't 
bring it up? 
  
Student: ​Wir ansprechen es nicht. 
  
Teacher: ​But, we know this verb is splittable, no? We've just said, es spricht mich 
an. 
  
Student: ​Wir sprechen es nicht an. 
  
Teacher: ​Very good. Wir sprechen es nicht an. We don't bring it up. The past of 
sprechen is gesprochen. Gesprochen. 
  
Student: ​Gesprochen. 
  
Teacher: ​So, again, like the English, spoken, in I have spoken, no? Gesprochen. So, 
what would the past of ansprechen be? 
  
Student: ​Angesprochen. 
  
Teacher: ​Very good. Angesprochen. We know that the an- moves, so it will move 
for that ge-, angesprochen. Very good. Did they bring it up. Did they bring it up? 
  
Student: ​Haben sie es angesprochen? 
  
Teacher: ​Very good. Haben sie es angesprochen. Very good. Aussprechen. To 
speak out, means to pronounce, to pronounce, aussprechen. 
  
Student: ​Aussprechen. 
  
Teacher: ​We pronounce? 
  
Student: ​Wir aussprechen? 
  
Teacher: ​Did you ask yourself what you need to ask yourself, before you made the 
sentence? Aussprechen. It's a constructed verb no? So, we need to check what, 
before we use it? 
  
Student: ​Yeah, if it can split or not? Right? Wir sprechen aus. 
  
Teacher: ​Wir sprechen aus. They pronounce? 
  
Student: ​Sie sprechen aus. 
  
Teacher: ​Sie sprechen aus. They pronounced? In the past. They pronounced? 
  
Student: ​Sie ausgesprochen. 
  
Teacher: ​Good, but they have pronounced, this is what we need to say. 
  
Student: ​Sie haben ausgesprochen. 
  
Teacher: ​Very good. Sie haben ausgesprochen. What was the word for already? 
  
Student: ​Schon. 
  
Teacher: ​Schon. And this is S C H O N. Schön, with the O with the Umlaut, with 
the two dots on the top that give us the sound that we have in bird, so schön. 
  
Student: ​Schön. 
  
Teacher: ​Means beautiful, or beautifully. Schön. 
  
Student: ​Schön. 
  
Teacher: ​And you will hear this often in German, you will hear very often, 
dankeschön. Thank you beautifully. Dankeschön. So that's schön. Beautiful, 
beautifully, not, schon, already. Both words are very common. They pronounce it 
beautifully. 
  
Student: ​Sie sprechen es schön aus. 
  
Teacher: ​Very good. Sie sprechen es schön aus. So, here we use ​es​ no, because we 
refer to something unnamed, when referring to a sound, when we say they 
pronounce it beautifully. If you want to say, well, just well, rather than 
beautifully, you can say good, in German, they pronounce it, good, which is gut. G 
U T, gut. 
  
Student: ​Gut. 
  
Teacher: ​So, they pronounce it well, they pronounce it gut. 
  
Student: ​Sie sprechen es gut aus. 
  
Teacher: ​Very good. Sie sprechen es gut aus. Sie sprechen es gut aus. And you will 
find other words, also built of sprechen. Versprechen, to promise, das 
Versprechen. The promise. 
 
Lesson 45: 
 
Teacher: ​Brechen, what might brechen mean? If you undo the consonant shift 
there, k to ch, what might brechen mean? 
  
Student: ​Break. 
  
Teacher: ​To break, to break, brechen, just like to speak. Sprechen. Although, you 
may hear much more, kaputtmachen, in the colloquial language, for, to break, 
kaputtmachen, to make kaputt, to break. 
  
Student: ​Kaputtmachen. 
  
Teacher: ​You're breaking it? 
  
Student: ​Du machst es kaputt. 
  
Teacher: ​Du machst es kaputt. You broke it? 
  
Student: ​Du hast es kaputt gemacht. 
  
Teacher: ​Very good. Du hast es kaputt gemacht. He has broken it? 
  
Student: ​Er hat es kaputt gemacht. 
  
Teacher: ​Very good. Er hat es kaputt gemacht. To learn, to learn, was lernen. 
  
Student: ​Lernen. 
  
Teacher: ​And to teach, is lehren. 
  
Student: ​Lehren. 
  
Teacher: ​L E H R E N. Lehren. 
  
Student: ​Lehren. 
  
Teacher: ​The teacher, is, der Lehrer, the teacher. Well, a male teacher, anyway. 
Der Lehrer. 
  
Student: ​Der Lehrer. 
  
Teacher: ​How would you say, the teacher has broken it? 
  
Student: ​Der Lehrer hat es kaputt gemacht. 
  
Teacher: ​Der Lehrer hat es kaputt gemacht. And again, we are using, hat, no, for 
der Lehrer, for the teacher. He is like, the teacher. He has the teacher, has, er 
hat, der Lehrer hat. So, we have kaputt machen, for to break, but also brechen, 
for to break, although derivations of brechen are more common than the verb, 
brechen, when talking about breaking something. So, abbrechen, to break off, or 
to cancel, like in computer language, to cancel. Zerbrechen, to break in two, or in 
pieces. And you can get other verbs from brechen, also, verbrechen, to commit a 
crime. ​Commiting a crime is Ein Verbrechen begehen, the word is always used as a 
noun, although du hast das verbrochen is used to describe sth. bad/stupid that 
has been done by someone, it is not linked to committing a crime. Maybe clarify 
at this point? 
  
Student: ​Unterbrechen. 
  
Teacher: ​To interrupt. 
  
Student: ​Unterbrechen. 
  
Teacher: ​And interrupt, in English, also contains -rupt, which means break, 
rupture, no, that also means break, but Latin. Interrupt, unterbrechen. 
  
Student: ​Unterbrechen. 
  
Teacher: ​Unter, means under, unterbrechen, we have the d to t shift, like in good 
and gut. And, unter, is a word in its own right, but unterbrechen doesn't split. How 
do we know that unterbrechen doesn't split? 
  
Student: ​Because the accent is in, the stress is in brechen. 
  
Teacher: ​Exactly. Unterbrechen. So, even though, we have an addition there that 
is a word in its own right, we know that the verb doesn't split, because of the 
accent. Unterbrechen. So, when we have an addition on the verb, it may stay put, 
even though, it's a word in its own right, but it shouldn't cause us any problems, 
because, looking where the accent is, will let us know, if the verb splits or not. 
Unterbrechen doesn't split. I interrupt? 
  
Student: ​Ich unterbreche. 
  
Teacher: ​Ich unterbreche. Very good. He interrupts. Now, the e of brechen, is 
going to get squashed into an i, just like what happened with sprechen and spricht. 
We will get brechen and bricht. So, he interrupts? 
  
Student: ​Er unterbricht. 
  
Teacher: ​Very good. Er unterbricht. What was the teacher? 
  
Student: ​Der Lehrer. 
  
Teacher: ​Der Lehrer. L E H R E R. The teacher interrupts me? The teacher 
interrupts me? 
  
Student: ​Der Lehrer unterbre... unterbricht mich. 
  
Teacher: ​Very good. Der Lehrer unterbricht mich. The word for always, the word 
for always, in German, is immer, I M M E R, I M M E R, immer. 
  
Student: ​Immer. 
  
Teacher: ​The teacher always interrupts me? 
  
Student: ​Der Lehrer unterbricht immer mich. Immer unterbricht mich. 
  
Teacher: ​You know the German word order, don't be too heavily influenced by the 
English word order here. You know what tends to come first in German, so try that 
again. The teacher always interrupts me? 
  
Student: ​Der Lehrer unterbricht mich immer. 
  
Teacher: ​Bravo. The teacher always interrupts me. Der Lehrer unterbricht mich 
immer. Although, we could have immer mich, if we wanted to emphasize, mich, 
but the most common word order, der Lehrer unterbricht mich immer. Brechen, in 
the past, becomes gebrochen. Again, just like the English irregularity, broken, but 
without ge no, and the consonant shift of k to ch, broken, gebrochen. So, many 
otherwise crazy irregularities in German, are easy for us as English speakers to 
digest, because they are often so similar to the English irregular version. So, if 
brechen, becomes gebrochen, in the past, how might unterbrechen become in the 
past? 
  
Student: ​Unterbrochen. 
  
Teacher: ​Unterbrochen. Good. We can't have a g there, because we know that 
unter- and -brechen are not splittable. Unterbrechen. 
  
Student: ​Unterbrochen. 
  
Teacher: ​Very good. And we can notice how the ch also is soft, with an e before, 
as in brechen, and then hard, with the o before, as in brochen. He has interrupted 
me? 
  
Student: ​Er hat mich unterbrochen. 
  
Teacher: ​Er hat mich unterbrochen. Very good. The teacher has interrupted me? 
  
Student: ​Der Lehrer hat mich unterbrochen. 
  
Teacher: ​Very good. Der Lehrer hat mich unterbrochen. So, we have spoken about 
how der, der, the masculine word for the, is just d, like the th to d, consonant 
shift, like the th that we have an English word for the, is just a d plus er, the word 
for he. So, we get der, for the, masculine. Die, the feminine the, is again, the 
letter d and then sie, the word for she or they, kind of mashed together, no, and 
there we get the feminine or the plural the, die. Das, is like es, no, the word for 
it, but again with a d and a the little vowel change, no, we have es and das. 
This means that der Lehrer, is, the teacher, but only, when the teacher is 
behaving like he. When it's behaving like er, er hat. Der Lehrer hat. Here, the 
teacher, is he, he interrupted me. The teacher interrupted me. Er hat, der Lehrer 
hat. But the teacher, might also be behaving like him, no? Maybe we want to say, I 
interrupted the teacher. Here, the teacher is behaving like him. I interrupted him. 
It's not I interrupted he, no? So, der Lehrer, won't work for us anymore. Der Lehrer, 
we use, for when the teacher is behaving like he, like er. So, instead of combining 
the letter d with er, he, to get the word for ​the,​ we'll combine now d with the 
word ihn, the word for him, to get the word for the. And we get den, den Lehrer. 
So, if the teacher is behaving like him, we no longer use, der Lehrer, but den 
Lehrer. Den, built from die and ihn. 
  
Student: ​Den Lehrer. 
  
Teacher: ​So, if you want to say, for example, I have interrupted the teacher? 
  
Student: ​Ich habe den Lehrer unterbrochen. 
  
Teacher: ​Very good. Ich habe den Lehrer unterbrochen. So, here we say, den 
Lehrer, because the teacher is behaving like him. It's I interrupted him, rather than 
he, no? So, the word for the is built of die and ihn, rather than die and er. The 
teacher interrupted us. The teacher here, is behaving like he or like him? 
  
Student: ​Like he. 
  
Teacher: ​Like he. Very good. So, the teacher interrupted us? 
  
Student: ​Der Lehrer hat uns unterbrochen. 
  
Teacher: ​Very good. Der Lehrer hat uns unterbrochen. What was the word for 
always again? 
  
Student: ​Immer. 
  
Teacher: ​Immer. I always interrupt the teacher. Here, the teacher, is behaving 
like him or like he, when you say I always interrupt the teacher? 
  
Student: ​Him. 
  
Teacher: ​Like him. I always interrupt the teacher? 
  
Student: ​Ich unterbreche den Lehrer immer. 
  
Teacher: ​Very good. Ich unterbreche den Lehrer immer or ich unterbreche immer 
den Lehrer. So, der Lehrer, is the teacher and the teacher is behaving like, he, like 
er, and when it's behaving like him, like ihn, we get, den Lehrer. The teacher, 
might also, be behaving like to him, no? Like ihm. For example, we might want to 
say, I gave it to the teacher. So, how might that be, just, the teacher. But when 
the teacher is behaving like to him? 
  
Student: ​Dem Lehrer. 
  
Teacher: ​Dem Lehrer. Very good. So, just how we combined d and ihn, to get den, 
we will combine d and ihm and get dem. So, if we want to say, I have given it to 
the teacher? 
  
Student: ​Ich habe es dem Lehrer gegeben. 
  
Teacher: ​Ich habe es dem Lehrer gegeben. Very good. 
 
Lesson 46: 
 
Teacher: How was, to break, in German? We had our k to ch shift? 
  
Student: Brechen. 
  
Teacher: Brechen. So here the ch is soft, no, because we have the e before, 
brechen. And, she breaks? 
  
Student: Sie bricht. 
  
Teacher: Sie bricht. Very good. The e gets crushed into an i, when we add our t. 
Sie bricht. What was to speak? 
  
Student: Sprechen. 
  
Teacher: Sprechen. And he speaks? 
  
Student: Er spricht. 
  
Teacher: Er spricht. So, again, we have our e becoming an i there, no? Er spricht. 
What is to give? 
  
Student: Geben. 
  
Teacher: Geben. He gives? 
  
Student: Er gibt. 
  
Teacher: Er gibt. So, irregularities, often are also regular. We can find patterns in 
them. What do brechen, sprechen and geben, all have in common? Sprechen, 
brechen, geben? 
  
Student: I would say they have ch, but not in geben. 
  
Teacher: So, they sound very different, so it's not so obvious to notice that they all 
have consonant sound, e, consonant sound, and then our -en ending. Brechen, 
sprechen, geben, no? We have a consonant sound or a consonant cluster, like spre- 
or bre-, an e, and then another consonant sound, -en. Brechen, sprechen, geben. 
So, when we add a t to these, the e will often get squashed to an i. She gives. How 
is she gives? 
  
Student: Sie gibt. 
  
Teacher: Sie gibt. But they give? 
  
Student: Sie geben. 
  
Teacher: Sie geben. Very good. The same also happens with the st that we add for 
du. That first e of geben, will become an i with the st ending that we have for du, 
for you. So you give? 
  
Student: Du gibst. 
  
Teacher: Du gibst. What are you giving her. What are you giving her? 
  
Student: Was gibst du ihr? 
  
Teacher: Was gibst du ihr. Good. So, we have ihr, for to her, no. What are you 
giving her, is what are you giving to her. Was gibst du ihr. What was the teacher? 
  
Student: Der Lehrer. 
  
Teacher: Der Lehrer. So, der Lehrer, is a masculine word and it refers to a male 
teacher and we can make the word feminine, to refer to a female teacher. Die 
Lehrerin. Die Lehrerin. 
  
Student: Die Lehrerin. 
  
Teacher: Die Lehrerin. So, we have -in, as a feminine ending, der Lehrer. Die 
Lehrerin. To love, was lieben. We have the v to b shift, like in give, geben. Love, 
lieben. 
  
Student: Lieben. 
  
Teacher: How would you say, I love the teacher and we mean the female teacher. I 
love the teacher? 
  
Student: Ich liebe die Lehrerin. 
  
Teacher: Very good. Ich liebe die Lehrerin. So, die Lehrerin, is the teacher, when 
it's behaving like she or her, which are both sie, no. So, we get, die Lehrerin, 
irrespective of whether it's behaving like she or like her. So, sie is she or her. But 
what was to her? 
  
Student: Ihr. 
  
Teacher: Ihr. So, if, with the teacher, we mean, to the teacher, in the feminine, 
to the teacher. How would you say that just, to the teacher. Feminine? 
  
Student: Der Lehrerin. 
  
Teacher: Der Lehrerin. So, yes, it becomes der. So, d plus ihr, gives us der. You 
put an e, like what happened with, d plus ihn, and ihm, no, we got den, dem. So, 
if you didn't know that, der Lehrerin, would look very confusing, no, you'd see der, 
which looks masculine, and then the in, feminine ending on a noun, and be very 
confused. But this der, is not the masculine der, it's simply, d plus ihr, becoming 
der. What are you giving, to the teacher. A female teacher still. What are you 
giving to the teacher? 
  
Student: Was gibst du der Lehrerin? 
  
Teacher: Very good. Was gibst du der Lehrerin. So, we don't need to look for the 
word for, to, here, no? That information is contained in, der Lehrerin. Was gibst du 
der Lehrerin? What if it were a male teacher. What are you giving to the teacher? 
  
Student: Was gibst du dem Lehrer? 
  
Teacher: Very good. Was gibst du dem Lehrer? So, here, we have d plus ihm, no, to 
him and we get dem. Was gibst du dem Lehrer? To wait, was? 
  
Student: Warten. 
  
Teacher: Warten. W A R T E N. And when we say, we're waiting for someone, we 
know that, in German, we say, warten auf. The information of waiting for, or on, 
is of course contained in auf. So, sometimes, we include this information of, to, 
for, on, by, in the noun, no, or in the word for the, and sometimes in a separate 
word, like auf. I'm waiting for the teacher and we mean a female teacher. 
  
Student: Ich warte auf die Lehrerin. 
  
Teacher: Ich warte auf die Lehrerin. So, even though in the sentence, no, we have, 
you know, waiting for the teacher, we don't have, der Lehrerin, because that 
information of for, is in auf, not, in, the teacher. I'm waiting for the teacher and 
we mean a male teacher? 
  
Student: Ich warte auf den Lehrer. 
  
Teacher: Very good. Ich warte auf den Lehrer. Because we are waiting for him 
rather than for he, no? Den Lehrer. Ich warte auf den Lehrer. What was to give, 
again? 
  
Student: Geben. 
  
Teacher: Geben. I give, I'm giving? 
  
Student: Ich gebe. 
  
Teacher: Ich gebe. They give? 
  
Student: Sie geben. 
  
Teacher: Sie geben. And of course this could also be, you formal, give, to one or 
more people. Sie geben. How was she gives? 
  
Student: Sie geben. Sie gibt. 
  
Teacher: Gibt. Sie gibt. No, the t crushes that e to an i. Sie gibt. And you give? 
  
Student: Du gibst. 
  
Teacher: Du gibst. So, with he, she, it and the informal you, no the t and the st 
endings. With this type of verb that has a pattern, like geben, sprechen, a 
consonant sound, an e, a consonant sound and then our -en ending, we'll often find 
the e, being altered to an i. So, listen out for that, to notice when it does or 
doesn't happen. How would you say it gives?. 
  
Student: Es gibt. 
  
Teacher: Es gibt. Es gibt, in German, means, there is, or there are. Es gibt. 
Literally, it gives, no. So, you might think this is quite an odd way to express an 
idea of there is or there are, but it's often expressed in quite odd ways in various 
languages. Interestingly, Turkish expresses this like German. In Turkish also you 
would say, it gives, for there is or there are. So, you get es gibt. Es gibt. It gives, 
there is, there are. A problem is, ein Problem, which is a neuter word, we have, 
das Problem. So, if you wanted to say, there is a problem, it gives a problem? 
  
Student: Es gibt ein Problem. 
  
Teacher: Very good. Es gibt ein Problem. Rice, in German, is Reis. R E I S. 
  
Student: Reis. 
  
Teacher: Is there rice? 
  
Student: Es gibt Reis? 
  
Teacher: Good, but here we have a question, no? Is there rice? 
  
Student: Gibt es Reis? 
  
Teacher: Very good. Gibt es Reis? You can also use, noch, still, to mean like, any 
left, any rice left? Is there still rice? How might that be? 
  
Student: Gibt es noch Reis? 
  
Teacher: Gibt es noch Reis? Is there any rice left? And the ch here is harder, 
because we have an o before, noch, rather than noch. Noch. 
  
Student: Noch. 
  
Teacher: Gibt es noch Reis? Pizza, in German, is pronounced Pizza. Pizza. 
  
Student: Pizza. 
  
Teacher: Is there any pizza left? 
  
Student: Gibt es noch Pizza? 
  
Teacher: Gibt es noch Pizza? Very good. 
  
 
Lesson 47: 
Teacher: ​What was to help, to help, in German? 
  
Student: ​Helfen. 
  
Teacher: ​Helfen. Can you help him? 
  
Student: ​Kannst du ihn helfen. 
  
Teacher: ​So, kannst du ihn helfen, would be, where we go to more naturally, no, 
but we did see that, in German, helfen, is kind of like, to help for, or to aid to, 
because we don't use ihn, but? 
  
Student: ​Ihm. 
  
Teacher: ​Ok, give me that again. 
  
Student: ​Kannst du ihm helfen? 
  
Teacher: ​Kannst du ihm helfen? Very good. Can you help the teacher, we mean a 
male teacher? 
  
Student: ​Kannst du dem Lehrer helfen? 
  
Teacher: ​Very good. Kannst du dem Lehrer helfen. And what if we meant a female 
teacher. Can you help the teacher? 
  
Student: ​Kannst du die Lehrerin helfen. 
  
Teacher: ​How did you pronounce the, for the teacher, there? 
  
Student: ​I think it's d, or maybe it is dem. 
  
Teacher: ​Well, think about it. 
  
Student: ​It will be dem. 
  
Teacher: ​Why? 
  
Student: ​Because it's not like in English. 
  
Teacher: ​Yeah, we have dem Lehrer, so, we have, to him, so we will have to her, 
as well. So, give me that again. Can you help the female teacher? 
  
Student: ​Kannst du der Lehrerin helfen? 
  
Teacher: ​Very good. Kannst du der Lehrerin helfen? Der Koch, der Koch, means, 
the cook. We have the k to ch shift, there. Cook. Koch. Der Koch, a male cook. 
  
Student: ​Der Koch. 
  
Teacher: ​Have you seen the cook? 
  
Student: ​Hast du den Koch gesehen? 
  
Teacher: ​Hast du den Koch gesehen? Very good. So, here we have, den Koch, 
behaving like ihn, like him, no, hast du ihn gesehen? Hast du den Koch gesehen? 
Can you help the cook? 
  
Student: ​Kannst du dem Koch helfen? 
  
Teacher: ​Very good. Kannst du dem Koch helfen? So, of course, with helfen, we 
are helping to, or aiding to. So, we have dem. A female cook, is Köchin. 
  
Student: ​Köchin. 
  
Teacher: ​So, we add our -in, for feminine, like we did with Lehrer, Lehrerin, but 
the o here takes an Umlaut, when we add our -in ending, so, we have Koch for the 
male and then Köchin, for the female. So, die Köchin, the female cook. 
  
Student: ​Die Köchin. 
  
Teacher: ​And here the ch is softer again, with the o with the Umlaut. Die Köchin. 
  
Student: ​Köchin. 
  
Teacher: ​Köchin. Can you help the cook, female cook? 
  
Student: ​Kannst du der Köchin helfen? 
  
Teacher: ​Kannst du der Köchin helfen. So, with nouns, or some nouns, we need to 
think about how they are behaving, before we use them, no? If we have, for 
example, the teacher, behaving like, he, how is it? A male teacher? 
  
Student: ​Der Lehrer. 
  
Teacher: ​Der Lehrer. And if it's behaving like him, like ihn? 
  
Student: ​Den Lehrer. 
  
Teacher: ​Den Lehrer. And if it's behaving like, to him, like ihm? 
  
Student: ​Dem Lehrer. 
  
Teacher: ​Dem Lehrer. So, we see how with masculine nouns, we always need to 
think about this. How about the female teacher, how is that, behaving like she? 
  
Student: ​Die Lehrerin. 
  
Teacher: ​Die Lehrerin. And behaving like her? 
  
Student: ​Der Lehrerin. 
  
Teacher: ​That's like to her. 
  
Student: ​Die Lehrerin. 
  
Teacher: ​Die Lehrerin. So, with feminine nouns, we don't have to worry about, if 
they are behaving like she or her, as we have sie, for both she and her. We have, 
die, for both of those, but we do care, if the noun is behaving like to her, for her, 
on her, no, by her. So, how would that be? 
  
Student: ​Der Lehrerin. 
  
Teacher: ​Der Lehrerin, like ihr. And this doesn't just count for people, in German, 
this is for any noun. The train, for example, der Zug, can also be behaving like, he 
or like, him. How was to come? 
  
Student: ​Kommen. 
  
Teacher: ​Kommen. So, if you want to say, the train is coming, how would you do 
that? 
  
Student: ​Der Zug komme, komme, kommst. 
  
Teacher: ​Think about it. 
  
Student: ​Der Zug kommt. 
  
Teacher: ​Der Zug kommt. We have the t for he, she, it, no, der Zug, is like he, or 
like it, so, der Zug kommt. No, and we have der, because, as we mentioned, the 
train here, is behaving like he, he is coming, the train is coming. So, kommen, 
kommen, was to come. Do you remember how to say, to arrive, to come on, to on 
come? 
  
Student: ​Ankommen. 
  
Teacher: ​Ankommen. How would you say, the train is arriving? 
  
Student: ​Der Zug ankommt. 
  
Teacher: ​Where is the stress on ankommen? 
  
Student: ​Ankommt. Ankommen. 
  
Teacher: ​Good. So what does that mean? 
  
Student: ​That is splittable. Yeah. So, der Zug kommt an? 
  
Teacher: ​Very good. Der Zug kommt an. What was to see? 
  
Student: ​Sehen. 
  
Teacher: ​Sehen. He sees, is, er sieht. Er sieht. 
  
Student: ​Er sieht. 
  
Teacher: ​So, sehen, has the same pattern as geben, gibt, sprechen, spricht, only 
that the h of sehen keeps that i long, we have S I E H T. Sieht. Er sieht. How 
would, you see, be? 
  
Student: ​Du siehst. 
  
Teacher: ​Du siehst. So, this irregularity, no, is shared, between he she it, the t 
and the st of du, so, if we have er sieht, of course we have du siehst. Do you see 
the train? 
  
Student: ​Siehst du den Zug? 
  
Teacher: ​Siehst du den Zug. So, here, no, the train is behaving like him, it's do you 
see him, rather than, do you see he. So, we have den Zug, siehst du den Zug. How 
would you say, I'm waiting for the train? 
  
Student: ​Ich warte auf dem Zug. 
  
Teacher: ​Why dem Zug? 
  
Student: ​I was waiting for, him, but it's not. 
  
Teacher: ​Because it's waiting for, now, but the for, the information of for, is 
contained in auf, even though, in German, we say waiting on, no, that information 
of for or on, it's contained in auf, it's down there already, no. So, when we get to 
the train, we only need to think about, if it's behaving like, he or like, him. Are we 
waiting on he or are waiting on him. So, again, I'm waiting for the train? 
  
Student: ​Ich warte auf den Zug. 
  
Teacher: ​Ich warte auf den Zug. So, that information of to, or for, you know 
sometimes, in German, that's included in a word like auf and sometimes it's going 
into the noun, in the word for the, and that depends on the verb. With warten, 
that information, we have it there in auf. 
So, these changes, based on how the noun is behaving, occur, with the words for 
the, no, but also with some other words to, so, for example, a train, is, ein Zug. 
Ein Zug. But this is, if a train is behaving like he, like if we say, a train is coming, 
that's he is coming, not him is coming. So, how would that be, a train is coming? 
  
Student: ​Ein Zug kommt. 
  
Teacher: ​Ein Zug kommt. If a train is acting like him, no, like ihn, we'll have to 
combine ein and ihn, in much the same way, as we combined der and ihn. We get, 
einen Zug. Einen, from ein and ihn. Einen Zug. 
  
Student: ​Einen Zug. 
  
Teacher: ​So, if you want to say, for example, I'm waiting for a train, I'm waiting on 
a train? 
  
Student: ​Ich warte einen Zug. 
  
Teacher: ​Slower. 
  
Student: ​Ich warte auf einen Zug. 
  
Teacher: ​Ich warte auf einen Zug. What was, to give, again? 
  
Student: ​Geben. 
  
Teacher: ​Geben. There is, there are? Literally, it gives? 
  
Student: ​Es gibt. 
  
Teacher: ​Es gibt. So, if we say, there is a train, literally, we are saying, it gives a 
train. So, in it gives a train, is a train, acting like he or like him? It might feel like a 
very abstract question, but we only need to check, if it gives he or it gives him 
makes more sense. Which is it? 
  
Student: ​It gives him. 
  
Teacher: ​It gives him. So, if you wanted to say, there is a train, it gives a train? 
  
Student: ​Es gibt einen Zug. 
  
Teacher: ​Es gibt einen Zug. The word for today, today, was heute. Heute. 
  
Student: ​Heute. 
  
Teacher: ​Is there a train today.? Is there a train today? 
  
Student: ​Gibt es heute einen Zug? 
  
Teacher: ​Very good. Gibt es heute einen Zug? So, we said Zug, comes from the 
meaning of pulling, the train is a pull. An elevator, is, ein Aufzug. Auf, here, 
meaning something like up, the up-pull, also masculine. We have, der Aufzug. This 
is one word. Aufzug. Elevator. 
  
Student: ​Aufzug. 
  
Teacher: ​Is there an elevator? 
  
Student: ​Gibt es einen Aufzug? 
  
Teacher: ​Very good. Gibt es einen Aufzug. No, so we have einen again, that's ein, 
plus ihn, because an elevator is behaving like him, here, ein plus ihn, and we get 
einen. E I N E N. Gibt es einen Aufzug? I'm waiting for the elevator? 
  
Student: ​Ich warte auf den Aufzug. 
  
Teacher: ​Very good. Ich warte auf den Aufzug. So, the first auf, means on, for, no, 
waiting on, waiting for, the second auf, is just forming part of the word Aufzug. 
The elevator. Ich warte auf den Aufzug. Kaputt, was broken. Kaputt. 
  
Student: ​Kaputt. 
  
Teacher: ​What was the word for is? 
  
Student: ​Ist. 
  
Teacher: ​The elevator is broken. 
  
Student: ​Der Aufzug ist kaputt. 
  
Teacher: ​Very good. Der Aufzug ist kaputt. Here, the elevator, is behaving like he, 
no, he is broken. Rather than, him is broken. Der Aufzug ist kaputt. Very good. 
  
  
  
  
Lesson 48: 
Teacher: ​A friend, a friend, in German, is, ein Freund. Ein Freund. 
  
Student: ​Ein Freund. 
  
Teacher: ​This is spelt F R E U N D. But of course the d on the end there is 
hardened, sounding like a t. Ein Freund. 
  
Student: ​Ein Freund. 
  
Teacher: ​My friend? 
  
Student: ​Mein Freund. 
  
Teacher: ​Mein Freund. My friend is waiting for a train. My friend is waiting for a 
train. 
  
Student: ​Mein Freund wartet auf...auf einen Zug. 
  
Teacher: ​Mein Freund wartet auf einen Zug. So, we have einen Zug, no, because 
here the train is behaving like him. What, if we were to use, die Bahn. Eine Bahn, 
for train. Would the word eine change? My friend is waiting for a train, using Bahn. 
  
Student: ​Mein Freund wartet auf eine Bahn. 
  
Teacher: ​Very good. Mein Freund wartet auf eine Bahn. So, of course, eine, like 
die, doesn't change, because we have sie for she and her, so in the same way, we 
will have d and eine for both she and her positions. 
So, mein, is built of m and ein. So, it would also change, if, for example, my 
friend, is behaving like him, rather than he. So how would that be. I'm waiting for 
my friend? 
  
Student: ​Ich warte auf meinen Freund. 
  
Teacher: ​Ich warte auf meinen Freund. Very good. So, mein, built of m and ein, 
no, becomes meinen, now built of m and einen. Meinen Freund. And ein Freund 
refers to a masculine friend, a feminine friend, is eine...you want to give it a go. 
How do you think it will be? 
  
Student: ​Freundin. 
  
Teacher: ​Freundin. Very good. And the d is soft again now, no. We have -in ending 
to make it a feminine noun and that softens the d, so ein Freund, eine Freundin. 
My friend, a female friend? 
  
Student: ​Meine Freundin. 
  
Teacher: ​Meine Freundin. I'm waiting for my female friend? 
  
Student: ​Ich warte auf meinen Freundin. 
  
Teacher: ​Meinen? 
  
Student: ​I'm not sure about it. 
  
Teacher: ​So, be sure, before you build your sentence. Think about it and commit 
yourself. If you are not sure, it's just because you said it too fast. 
  
Student: ​I'd say, ich warte auf meine Freundin. 
  
Teacher: ​Very good. Ich warte auf meine Freundin. So, we have meine, we don't 
have any change to meine, in the same way that we don't have any change to sie, 
sie means she and sie means her. Ich warte auf meine Freundin. And Freund, other 
than friend, can also mean my girlfriend, boyfriend, it's very often used like that. 
So, this can mean, I'm waiting for my girlfriend. To say, or to tell, how was that, to 
say, or to tell? 
  
Student: ​Sagen. 
  
Teacher: ​Sagen. Have you told my friend or my girlfriend. So, you want to 
combine ihr, with meine, here. Have you told my girlfriend, my friend? 
  
Student: ​Hast du meine Freundin gesagt? 
  
Teacher: ​We are combining the ihr of, to her, with meine and we get meiner, -er, 
M E I N E R. Hast du meiner Freundin gesagt. But, if you wanted a complete 
sentence there, you would say, have you told it to my girlfriend. So, how would 
that be? 
  
Student: ​Hast du es meiner Freundin gesagt. 
  
Teacher: ​Hast du es meiner Freundin gesagt. So meine, M E I N E, and meiner, M E 
I N E R, sound very similar, no? So, mein was my. How was your? 
  
Student: ​Dein. 
  
Teacher: ​Dein. So, we have like the m of mich and ein, giving us mein and then 
the d of du and ein, giving us dein, your. Have you told your friend or your 
boyfriend. Have you told it to your boyfriend? 
  
Student: ​Hast du deinem Freund gesagt? 
  
Teacher: ​Good. And if we want a complete sentence with es in, in this case, hast 
du es deinem Freund gesagt? Friends, in the plural, is, die Freunde. Die Freunde. 
  
Student: ​Die Freunde. 
  
Teacher: ​So, we have an e, for the plural, with this word, no, and we have seen 
that, in German, we can make the plural in various ways, with an -e with an -er, or 
with an -en, here we have an -e. Freund. Freunde. I'm seeing my friends tomorrow. 
I'm seeing my friends tomorrow? 
  
Student: ​Ich sehe meinen Freunde morgen. 
  
Teacher: ​Why meinen? 
  
Student: ​Because it's like seeing them. 
  
Teacher: ​And how would you say, I see them. Give me that. I see them. 
  
Student: ​Ich, ah ja, ich sehe sie. 
  
Teacher: ​Ich sehe sie. No? So, no change for sie that means no change either for 
meine, no? So, I'm seeing my friends tomorrow? 
  
Student: ​Ich sehe meine Freunde morgen. 
  
Teacher: ​Ich sehe meine Freunde morgen or ich sehe morgen meine Freunde. Very 
good. I'm waiting for my friends? 
  
Student: ​Ich warte auf meine Freunde. 
  
Teacher: ​Ich warte auf meine Freunde. There's nothing to worry about here, other 
than finding the plural, no, because we know that, sie, is both they and them. It 
doesn't change sie for they and them, which means that, with the plural, we don't 
need to worry about, if the plural is behaving like they or them. It won't change. 
But we do have a different word for, to them, in German, to them, is ihnen. Ihnen. 
  
Student: ​Ihnen. 
  
Teacher: ​I H N E N. It's like he, in the plural, actually. We saw how an -n or an -en, 
can be a way to make the plural, like Katze, cat, Katzen, cats, Nachbar, neighbor, 
Nachbarn, neighbors. So, ihnen, is like ihn, him, but made plural, ihnen. So, it 
seems like this is where ihnen came from, the plural of ihn, but in modern 
German, ihnen, means to them, to them, ihnen. 
  
Student: ​Ihnen. 
  
Teacher: ​You can make the verb, to send, German, just by putting our -en ending, 
our verb ending and making it sound a bit more German. So, how would, to send, 
be in German? 
  
Student: ​Senden. 
  
Teacher: ​Senden. Very good. You made the s sound like a z. Senden. I'm sending 
it? 
  
Student: ​Ich sende es. 
  
Teacher: ​Ich sende es. I'm sending it to them? 
  
Student: ​Ich sende es ihnen. 
  
Teacher: ​Very good. Ich sende es ihnen. So, you know, we could have, depending 
on whether it was a neuter, masculine or feminine, we could have, ich sende es 
ihnen, ich sende ihn ihnen, ich sende sie ihnen. A Mail, is an e-mail or just Mail, in 
German. The e-mail is a feminine, die E-Mail, it's a feminine word, so you could 
say, I will send them a mail tomorrow, I'll send them a mail tomorrow? 
  
Student: ​Ich sende ihnen eine Mail morgen. 
  
Teacher: ​Very good. Ich sende ihnen eine Mail morgen or Morgen sende ich ihnen 
eine Mail. Eine E-Mail. And here, we're using the present tense, no, to talk about 
the future, just with morgen that's enough future context, to understand that 
we're talking about the future, so ich sende ihnen morgen eine Mail, eine E-Mail. 
Do you remember the word for nobody? 
  
Student: ​Niemand. 
  
Teacher: ​Niemand. So, this is N I E M A N D, but the d on the end there, is 
sounding like a t, no, because it's on the end. Niemand. Niemand. Nobody wants to 
help them, nobody wants to help them? 
  
Student: ​Niemand will ihnen helfen. 
  
Teacher: ​Niemand will ihnen helfen. Very good. 
 
Lesson 49: 
 
Teacher: ​To write, to write, is to scribe, Schreiben. 
  
Student: ​Schreiben. 
  
Teacher: ​That's S C H R E I B E N. Schreiben. 
  
Student: ​Schreiben. 
  
Teacher: ​I will write them tomorrow. I will write them tomorrow? 
  
Student: ​Ich schreibe ihnen morgen. 
  
Teacher: ​Ich schreibe ihnen morgen. But, it would depend on what exactly we 
meant with, I will write them tomorrow. In English, I will write them tomorrow, 
can mean, I will write to them. Or it could mean, directly writing things, no, 
writing something. So, if you were to say, I will write them tomorrow and you 
meant, I don't know, the receipts, the papers, whatever, how would it be? 
  
Student: ​Ich schreibe sie morgen. 
  
Teacher: ​Ich schreibe sie morgen. Very good. What was the child? 
  
Student: ​Das Kind. 
  
Teacher: ​Very good. Das Kind. And we had K I N D, but that D is hardened there, 
by being on the end. Das Kind. The children? 
  
Student: ​Die Kinder. 
  
Teacher: ​Die Kinder. So, we have the -er plural here, which we also use to give us 
the meaning of more, no, we saw, for example, spät, late, and später, later. Kind, 
child, Kinder, more children, the plural. I'm seeing the children tomorrow? 
  
Student: ​Ich sehe den Kinder morgen. 
  
Teacher: ​Why den Kinder? 
  
Student: ​Because I thought, like it was, ihnen. 
  
Teacher: ​Ihnen is to them. 
  
Student: ​It's to them. 
  
Teacher: ​What is them? 
  
Student: ​Sie. 
  
Teacher: ​So, make these checks. Don't just guess. Make these checks, look back to 
those words, no? So, I'm seeing them, ich sehe sie. I'm seeing the children 
tomorrow. 
  
Student: ​Ich sehe die Kinder morgen. 
  
Teacher: ​Very good. Ich sehe die Kinder morgen or morgen sehe ich die Kinder. 
Now, if you have, to the children, like in, I will write to the children, tomorrow. 
There, die Kinder, is behaving like to them, like Ihnen. So, die Kinder, becomes, 
den Kindern. We get two n's. We get both of the ‘n’s’ of ihnen. Den Kindern. One 
goes on the word for the, and the other goes onto the noun. Die Kinder, when it's 
to them, den Kindern. So, I will write to the children tomorrow? 
  
Student: ​Ich schreibe den Kindern morgen. 
  
Teacher: ​Ich schreibe den Kindern morgen. Very good. Can you give it to the 
children. Can you give it to the children? 
  
Student: ​Kannst du es den Kinder geben. 
  
Teacher: ​Almost. Den. 
  
Student: ​Den Kindern. 
  
Teacher: ​Good, we have two n's from ihnen to deal with, no. Kannst du es den 
Kindern geben? Can you give it to the children, if this it, is a neuter thing, no, we 
used es. Give me again the word for cook, the cook? 
  
Student: ​Koch. 
  
Teacher: ​Koch. Der Koch. Cooks, in the plural, the cooks, is, die Köche. So, we 
have an e, for our plural, but it also puts an Umlaut onto the o, so Koch becomes 
Köche. 
  
Student: ​Die Köche. 
  
Teacher: ​Are you waiting for the cooks? 
  
Student: ​Warst du. 
  
Teacher: ​How we say, you wait? 
  
Student: ​Du wartst. 
  
Teacher: ​So, we have wartet, er wartet, which means we have du? 
  
Student: ​Ah, wartest. 
  
Teacher: ​As it's hard to make wartst, wartst, we also put an e there. Wartest. 
  
Student: ​Wartest du auf dem Köchen. 
  
Teacher: ​How do you say, waiting for them? Auf. Give me that first. Are you 
waiting for them? 
  
Student: ​Wartest du auf...auf sie. 
  
Teacher: ​Very good. Auf sie, no. So, we have sie, for them, no. So, how would you 
say, are you waiting for the cooks? 
  
Student: ​Wartest du auf die Köche. 
  
Teacher: ​Wartest du auf die Köche. So, we don't need to look for, for the cooks, 
the word for, is auf. We've dealt with that information already, when we get to the 
cooks, we just need to think about, if it's behaving like they or them and then soon 
we will realize actually that we don't even need to think about that, because they 
and them are both sie, no, so, we wouldn't have a change there. Wartest du auf 
die Köche. What was, to send? 
  
Student: ​Senden. 
  
Teacher: ​Senden. What was, I must? 
  
Student: ​Ich muss. 
  
Teacher: ​Ich muss. And to must, let's say. To have to? 
  
Student: ​Müssen. 
  
Teacher: ​Müssen. You have the u with Umlaut there. Müssen. We must send it to 
the cooks. We must send it to the cooks? 
  
Student: ​Wir müssen es die Köche senden. 
  
Teacher: ​This means, we have to send it to cooks. It doesn't mean to the cooks, 
we haven't included the information of to, here. 
  
Student: ​So, like, do I need a zu? 
  
Teacher: ​No, what was to them? 
  
Student: ​Ihnen. 
  
Teacher: ​Ihnen. So, what is sie, is they and them, for to them, there we have 
Ihnen. So, we must send it to the cooks? 
  
Student: ​Wir müssen es den Köche senden. 
  
Teacher: ​Almost, no, we have two n's of ihnen to transfer over, so we get den 
Köchen. Wir müssen es den Köchen senden. So, we've seen how, in German, we 
often have to think about how a noun, a word we can put the in front of, no, is 
behaving, before we use it. The most important thing is not to try to remember all 
of the information that we've seen together, which probably feels quite cloudy at 
the moment, but to just worry about having the thoughts you need to have, in any 
given situation, to find the form that you need, no, which is looking back to those 
forms of, you know, if we have sie or ihr or ihn or ihm, no, and then marrying that 
with the noun. I'll send it to my friends tomorrow. I'm sending it to my friends 
tomorrow. 
  
Student: ​Ich sende es morgen meinen Freunden. 
  
Teacher: ​I will send it to my friends tomorrow. I'm sending it to my friends 
tomorrow. Ich sende es morgen meinen Freunden. So, there, you added an n to 
Freunde and we got Freunden, but also to meine, meinen Freunden. So, you only 
need to focus on the thoughts you need, to have in any given situation to find the 
form that you need or to work out why you see or hear a certain form, you may 
have not expected to. And then, if you insist on analyzing in this way, all of this 
will quickly become second nature to you. 
 
Lesson 50: 
 
Teacher: ​How was, there is or there are, in German? 
  
Student: ​Es gibt. 
  
Teacher: ​Es gibt. Literally, it gives. So, here, it, is like he or she, no, he gives, she 
gives, it gives, es gibt. How would you say, I want it. I want it? 
  
Student: ​Ich will es. 
  
Teacher: ​Ich will es. And here, it, is like him or her, no, I want him, I want her, I 
want it. So, es, doesn't change, depending on whether it's behaving like, he or she, 
or like him or her. So, the word for the, for neuter nouns, won't change either. 
How was that word for the, for neuter nouns? How would you say, the house? 
  
Student: ​Das Haus. 
  
Teacher: ​Das Haus. Das Haus. What was to buy? 
  
Student: ​Kaufen. 
  
Teacher: ​Kaufen. I want to buy the house. 
  
Student: ​Ich will das Haus kaufen. 
  
Teacher: ​Very good. Ich will das Haus kaufen. So, we would have es, there, no, so 
das, is to das. Ich will es kaufen, ich will das Haus kaufen. What was I must, I have 
to? 
  
Student: ​Ich muss. 
  
Teacher: ​Ich muss. What was to sell. We have kaufen, to buy and to sell? 
  
Student: ​Verkaufen. 
  
Teacher: ​Verkaufen. I must sell the house, I must sell the house? 
  
Student: ​Ich muss das Haus verkaufen. Verkaufen. 
  
Teacher: ​Ich muss das Haus verkaufen. Good. And a house is? 
  
Student: ​Ein Haus. 
  
Teacher: ​Ein Haus. How was, to find, to find, in German? 
  
Student: ​Finden. 
  
Teacher: ​Finden. I must find a house, I must find a house? 
  
Student: ​Ich muss ein Haus finden. 
  
Teacher: ​Very good. So, again, we have no change to ein, no, because we'd have 
es, for it, here, so, not change to ein. Ich muss ein Haus finden. But to it, isn't es, 
to it, is ihn, the same as to him. So, with neuter nouns, we'll also want to check, if 
we mean, to the noun. What was, the child? 
  
Student: ​Das Kind. 
  
Teacher: ​Das Kind. So, child is neuter, in German. Das Kind. So we had, senden, 
for, to send. You will also very commonly hear, schicken, schicken, which is spelt 
like chicken, but with an s at the beginning, no, schicken. S C H I C K E N. 
  
Student: ​Schicken. 
  
Teacher: ​So, using schicken, I'm sending it to the child. 
  
Student: ​Ich schicke es dem Kind. 
  
Teacher: ​Ich schicke es dem Kind. Good. What was the word for they? 
  
Student: ​Sie. 
  
Teacher: ​And the word for them? 
  
Student: ​Sie. 
  
Teacher: ​And to them? Here, we had a change. 
  
Student: ​I don't remember it. 
  
Teacher: ​We can think that it looks like ihn, in the plural. 
  
Student: ​Ihnen. 
  
Teacher: ​Ihnen. Very good. So, I'm sending it to them? 
  
Student: ​Ich schicke es ihnen. 
  
Teacher: ​Ich schicke es ihnen. And if we want to say, I'm sending it to the 
children, if we want, to the children, now we need to combine ihnen, with, die 
Kinder, how does that sound? I'm sending it to the children. We had two n's to 
move over from ihnen. Give it a try. I'm sending it to the children. 
  
Student: ​Ich schicke es dem...den Kindern. 
  
Teacher: ​Good, one of the n's of ihnen goes to the word for the and the other one 
here, goes to the noun, so we get, den Kindern. Ich schicke es den Kindern. Good. 
The teachers, is, die Lehrer. So, the noun Lehrer, doesn't change, but we know it's 
plural, because we have die...die Lehrer. 
  
Student: ​Die Lehrer. 
  
Teacher: ​I'm sending it to the teachers, I'm sending it to the teachers? 
  
Student: ​Ich schicke es den Lehrern. 
  
Teacher: ​Very good. Perfect. Ich schicke es den Lehrern. And we're using, es, 
here, assuming that our it is neuter, but of course it can be ihn or sie, if we are 
referring to a masculine noun or a feminine noun. Ich schicke es, sie, ihn, den 
Lehrern.  
To be, in German, to be, is sein. Sein. 
  
Student: ​Sein. 
  
Teacher: ​How do you think that's spelt? 
  
Student: ​S E I N. 
  
Teacher: ​Good, an s there, no, giving us a z sound. Sein. S E I N. I want to be here. 
How would you say that? 
  
Student: ​Ich will hier sein. 
  
Teacher: ​Ich will hier sein. I am, I am, is, ich bin. Ich bin. 
  
Student: ​Ich bin. 
  
Teacher: ​Dick, in German, means, fat. So, we have the d to th shift, Dick. Thick. 
And thick, in German, means, fat. So, how would you say, am I fat? 
  
Student: ​Bin ich dick? 
  
Teacher: ​Very good. Bin ich dick? You are, is, du bist. Du bist. 
  
Student: ​Du bist. 
  
Teacher: ​So, we have ich bin and du bist, for I am and you are. The word for thin, 
in German, is dünn. So, again the th to d shift, no, thin, dünn. 
  
Student: ​Dünn. 
  
Teacher: ​How would you say, you are so thin? So, is the same word in German. You 
are so thin? 
  
Student: ​Du bist so dünn. 
  
Teacher: ​Good. It's the same word so, but how would it sound in German? 
  
Student: ​So. 
  
Teacher: ​Good. Du bist so dünn. 
  
Student: ​Du bist so dünn. 
  
Teacher: ​And how do we say, to, in German? The word to by itself? 
  
Student: ​Zu. 
  
Teacher: ​You are too thin. 
  
Student: ​Du bist zu dünn. 
  
Teacher: ​Very good. Du bist zu dünn. Thursday, in German, is Donnerstag. 
  
Student: ​Donnerstag. 
  
Teacher: ​Donner, is thunder. Again, the th to d shift, no. And Tag, is day, spelt T 
A G. And in that word we see two consonant shifts. We have our d to t like drink, 
trinken. And then we have our y to g, like say, sagen. So, day and tag, looking very 
different, no, but again, the same word. So, Donnerstag is thunder's day, which is 
the same idea as in English, in English, we have Thor's day, Thursday, the day of 
Thor, the thunder-making god, the dude with the hammer. How would you say, it 
is Thursday. It is Thursday? 
  
Student: ​Es ist Donnerstag. 
  
Teacher: ​Es ist Donnerstag. So, we have ist for is, no. How do we say he is? 
  
Student: ​Er ist. 
  
Teacher: ​Er ist. And she is? 
  
Student: ​Sie ist. 
  
Teacher: ​Sie ist. And it is? 
  
Student: ​Es ist. 
  
Teacher: ​Es ist. Are, was, sind. So, how do we say, we are? 
  
Student: ​Wir sind. 
  
Teacher: ​Wir sind. So, it's S I N D, but the D on the end there, is hardened, 
something like a T. Wir sind. They are? 
  
Student: ​Sie sind. 
  
Teacher: ​Sie sind. How was again, I am? 
  
Student: ​Ich bin. 
  
Teacher: ​Ich bin. And you are? 
  
Student: ​Du bist. 
  
Teacher: ​Du bist. Du bist. So, all of these come from sein, to be. Ist, sind, bin, 
bist, all come from sein. They don't look too much like sein, but neither do, is, 
are, am, look very much like, to be, in English. To be, in many languages, is quite 
an irregular verb. So, we have sein, to be, but then ist, sind, bin, bist, for the 
different versions. If you want to say something on Thursday, you will say am 
Donnerstag, in German, that's A M, am Donnerstag. 
  
Student: ​Am Donnerstag. 
  
Teacher: ​What was, to bring, in German? 
  
Student: ​Bringen. 
  
Teacher: ​Bringen. So, you don't pronounce so much the g, here, because it's N G, 
it's an N G combination. Bringen. 
  
Student: ​Bringen. 
  
Teacher: ​He brought it to me on Thursday, he brought it to me on Thursday, he 
has brought it to me on Thursday? 
  
Student: ​Er hat am Donnerstag mir gebrochen. 
  
Teacher: ​I think you are putting the words in an order that you are thinking of 
them, no? You know what comes first in German. So, think about the idea as a 
whole. Break it up into its individual ideas and just think about which bit comes 
first. So, he brought it to me on Thursday. What information do we have, there? He 
brought it to me on Thursday, no. Those are your different elements of 
information. So, just think about which one comes first. He brought it to me on 
Thursday? 
  
Student: ​Er hat mir am Donnerstag... gebrocht. 
  
Teacher: ​Gebracht. 
  
Student: ​Gebracht. 
  
Teacher: ​Gebracht. Good but you're just missing a little bit of information which 
was, it, where does that go? 
  
Student: ​Er hat es mir am Donnerstag gebracht. 
  
Teacher: ​Very good. Er hat es mir am Donnerstag gebracht. And here, the ch is 
harder again, we have an a before gebracht, not like ich. Er hat es mir am 
Donnerstag gebracht. So, for, he brought, in German, we will say, he has brought. 
But this isn't the case for all verbs, some verbs behave slightly differently, to going 
to the past. For example, verbs that move you, that leave you in a different place 
to where you started, like kommen, to come, gehen, to go, will go into the past 
with to be, with sein, rather than haben. Rather than saying, I have gone, we will 
say, I am gone, in German. Like in more formal or literary English, or older English, 
no. Which still survives in some saying, like The time is come, which, of course, 
means, the time has come, no. This is older English and still modern German. So, 
with some verbs like those that will leave you in a different place the way you 
started, we would build the past with, to be. Gone, in, I have gone, or I am gone, 
is gegangen. Gegangen. 
  
Student: ​Gegangen. 
  
Teacher: ​That's a weird one, no? Gegangen from gehen. We have the g, but then 
gangen, like gangway, in English, which is like a corridor, gangway and also we 
have alleyway in English, alleyway comes from the French, allée, to go, and then 
gangway is coming from the German, gone. So, gegangen, gone. So, with to go, we 
have a verb involving a change in our location. So, for I have gone, we have, I am 
gone, in German. How would that be. I have gone, I am gone? 
  
Student: ​Ich bin gegangen. 
  
Teacher: ​Ich bin gegangen. He is gone, he went, he has gone? 
  
Student: ​Er ist gegangen. 
  
Teacher: ​Er ist gegangen. So, it might feel like a big jump to go from, he went, 
no, to he is gone. We just have to think in English, okay what is he went, he went 
is, he has gone and then hopefully there we will notice, ah okay, here we have a 
verb of movement, so, it'll be, he is gone. So, we have a few steps there, no, to go 
from what we might think about in English, he went, to what we will say in 
German, he went, he has gone, ah he is gone. Er ist gegangen. He went on 
Thursday? 
  
Student: ​Er ist am Donnerstag gegangen. 
  
Teacher: ​Very well done. Er ist am Donnerstag gegangen. So, we have two verbs, 
no, ist, is is, from sein, as we've seen that's a verb, and then, gegangen. So, 
information like, am Donnerstag, comes in between. Er ist am Donnerstag 
gegangen. What was the word for still, like in, not yet? 
  
Student: ​Noch. 
  
Teacher: ​He hasn't gone yet. He is still not gone? 
  
Student: ​Er ist...Er ist noch nicht gegangen. 
  
Teacher: ​Er ist noch nicht gegangen. And there we hear the contrast between the 
two different ch sounds, no. Noch nicht. To go out, is ausgehen. Ausgehen. 
  
Student: ​Ausgehen. 
  
Teacher: ​Now, if you want to find gone out, gone out, like I have, I am gone out. 
What do we need to ask ourselves in order to build this? 
 
Student: ​If it's splittable? 
 
Teacher: ​Good. So, what was the past of gehen? 
  
Student: ​Gegangen. 
  
Teacher: ​Good. 
  
Student: ​Ausgegangen. 
  
Teacher: ​Ausgegangen. So, we have gegangen, from gehen, we know that we will 
keep that g from the past, because aus is movable, it will move for it, so the past 
of ausgehen is just ausgegangen. So, this is used like to go out to a party, or to 
dinner, or something not literally leaving somewhere. Ausgehen is like to go out in 
that sense, go out to a party or dinner or something. What was, I am? 
  
Student: ​Ich bin. 
  
Teacher: ​And you are? 
  
Student: ​Du bist. 
  
Teacher: ​Du bist. Did you go out? 
  
Student: ​Bist du ausgegangen? 
  
Teacher: ​Bist du ausgegangen. Did you go out? What was to come? 
  
Student: ​Kommen. 
  
Teacher: ​Kommen. The past of to come is, gekommen. 
  
Student: ​Gekommen. 
  
Teacher: ​So, we're seeing also that many of these verbs that leave us in a 
different place are also irregular in the past, no, we have gekommen, rather than 
gekommt, no. What was on Thursday again? 
  
Student: ​Am Donnerstag. 
  
Teacher: ​Am Donnerstag. Monday, which is moon day, in English, is Montag, in 
German, also the day of the moon. Montag. 
  
Student: ​Montag. 
  
Teacher: ​Did you come on Monday? 
  
Student: ​Bist du am Montag gekommen? 
  
Teacher: ​Bist du am Montag gekommen. What do you think, Mittwoch, might 
mean. Mittwoch? 
  
Student: ​Weekend. 
  
Teacher: ​What do you think, Mitt-, might mean? 
  
Student: ​The middle. 
  
Teacher: ​Good. Middle, no. We can work backwards from our d to t shift, drink, 
trinken, no, and go, okay, maybe that's a d. And what do you think, woch, might 
mean? 
  
Student: ​Week. 
  
Teacher: ​So, what might Mittwoch mean? 
  
Student: ​Wednesday. 
  
Teacher: ​Wednesday. Good. Midweek. Wednesday. Mittwoch. So, we have our d to 
t shift, our k to ch shift, week, woch, and of course the w, sounding like a v. Did 
you come on Wednesday? 
  
Student: ​Bist du am Wittwoch. 
  
Teacher: ​So, that's memory, no, working, Wittewoch, no. But, if you think about, 
okay, how was it built, why, and then, you know, you will find it. 
  
Student: ​Bist du am Mittwoch gekommen? 
  
Teacher: ​Very good. Bist du am Mittwoch gekommen. So, we don't rely on our 
memory, we rely on thinking about what we spoke about, no. Bist du am Mittwoch 
gekommen? No, I came yesterday. 
  
Student: ​Nein, ich bin gestern gekommen. 
  
Teacher: ​Very good. Nein, ich bin gestern gekommen. Sunday, is the day of the 
sun, in English and in German. In German we have Sonntag, Sonntag. 
  
Student: ​Sonntag. 
  
Teacher: ​What was they are? 
  
Student: ​Sie sind. 
  
Teacher: ​Sie sind. The d on the end there, also sounding hard, sounding like a t, 
no. Sie sind. Did they come on Sunday. Have they come on Sunday? 
  
Student: ​Sind sie am Sonntag gekommen? 
  
Teacher: ​Sind sie am Sonntag gekommen? What was the word for already? 
  
Student: ​Schon. 
  
Teacher: ​It's more like Sean. 
  
Student: ​Schon. 
  
Teacher: ​Have they come already? 
  
Student: ​Sind sie schon gekommen? 
  
Teacher: ​Sind sie schon gekommen? Very good. 
  
Student: ​That was it? 
  
Teacher: ​Congratulations... 
  
Student: ​Oh my god. 
  
Teacher: ​...for finishing the audio segment of complete German. But there's a lot 
more of complete German to come, the remainder of this course will come in the 
form of open public workshops that will be recorded, but won't be edited until we 
reach the three thousand dollar milestone on the Patreon campaign. And that's 
because, since 2013, continuously, just one poor guy, me, Mihalis, has been 
responsible for learning the languages you vote for, designing the courses, testing 
them, editing the audios and this in addition to everything else I need to do to stay 
on top of LT. This is, as can be imagined, a totally unsustainable workload for one 
person. Which is why I can no longer be responsible for course production or in 
other words the production of audios, so I will continue to share this learning 
experience through recorded open public workshops, but as I mentioned, these 
video recordings will remain rudimentary and unedited until there are funds to hire 
somebody to help turn them into a polished product, cinematically filmed, and 
efficiently edited for a smooth learning experience, like with the audios. But with 
this added visual experience of participating remotely in an open public workshop. 
So, this will be a wonderful way, to share the language transfer learning 
experience, but your help is needed to make it happen. You can donate 
occasionally or monthly through the website, there are links in the video or track 
description, or through the Patreon campaign. So, in short, if you love the fruit of 
this project, commit more to it. Thank you.