Unlocking German With Paul Noble

by Paul Noble

  In fact, if you’ve got as far as Chapter 5, it should already be obvious to you that you are quite capable of learning a foreign language when it’s taught in the right way. The secret to success for you will be choosing the right materials once you’re finished with this book (more on that later).

  CHAPTER 6 (1)

  We’re lucky that the weather’s so good.

  We’re lucky that the weather’s so good.

  Person 1: We’re lucky that the weather’s so good.

  Person 2: Why?

  Person 1: Because I feel like going to the park.

  The brief exchange above does not seem complicated in English and yet, even if you have studied German before, you might well find it impossible to know exactly where to begin in order to express it. By the end of this chapter, you will have learnt how to carry out both sides of this conversation, plus a great deal more German besides.

  Let’s begin!

  Again, what is “I am” in German?

  ich bin

  (ikh bin)

  And how would you say “I am romantic”?

  Ich bin romantisch.

  (ikh bin roe-marn-tish)

  Do you remember what “because” is in German?

  weil

  (vile)

  And do you remember how to say “because I am romantic”?

  weil ich romantisch bin

  (vile ikh roe-marn-tish bin)

  So, as we first learnt in Chapter 2, “weil” (because) is a catapult word and we’ve seen how it took the second word from the original sentence (I am romantic) and catapulted it it to the end of the sentence. So “I am romantic” becomes “because I romantic am”.

  Let’s practise what catapult words do just a couple more times to make sure we haven’t forgotten.

  How would you say “I am very romantic”?

  Ich bin sehr romantisch.

  (ikh bin zair roe-marn-tish)

  How about “I am not very romantic”?

  Ich bin nicht sehr romantisch.

  (ikh bin nikht zair roe-marn-tish)

  And how would you say “because I am not very romantic”?

  weil ich nicht sehr romantisch bin

  (vile ikh nikht zair roe-marn-tish bin)

  What is “drunk” in German?

  betrunken

  (be-troon-kurn)

  And “I am drunk”?

  Ich bin betrunken.

  (ikh bin be-troon-kurn)

  How about “I am very drunk”?

  Ich bin sehr betrunken.

  (ikh bin zair be-troon-kurn)

  And how would you say “because I am very drunk”?

  weil ich sehr betrunken bin

  (vile ikh zair be-troon-kurn bin)

  So, we now know how to use these catapult words, although so far we have only learnt one of them. That will change later in this chapter, however…

  First though, let’s have another letter swap!

  Time to swap some letters!

  Letter Swap Number 4

  Alright, let’s try a fourth letter swap.

  This time we’ll see how a “th” in English can be swapped for a “d” in German.

  We’ll begin by swapping the “th” at the beginning of the English word “thing” for a “d”. This will give us the German word “Ding” which, of course, means “thing” in English. Then let’s swap the “th” in “thorn” and so get “Dorn” in German. And if we do this again with “bath” we get “bad” and with “thick” we get “dick”.

  So, we have found our equivalent words in German this time by swapping THs for Ds!

  Another excellent letter swap, I think! Of course, sometimes these letters swaps don’t work perfectly. An important exception to this most recent letter swap is the word “weather”.

  “Weather” in German is, unfortunately, not “weader” as letter swap number 4 would lead us to believe. Fortunately, however, it is still very close to the English. “The weather” in German is simply:

  das Wetter

  (das vet-er)

  So how would you say “the weather is good”?

  Das Wetter ist gut.

  (das vet-er ist goot)

  And how about “the weather is not good”?

  Das Wetter ist nicht gut.

  (das vet-er ist nikht goot)

  “So” in German, is, rather wonderfully:

  so

  (zo)

  As you can see, it’s spelt in exactly the same way as in English but make sure to pay attention to the pronunciation guidance below it. “So” in German is not pronounced like “so” in English but like the “zo” in the word “zodiac” or the name “Zoe”.

  So how would you say “the weather is so good”?

  Das Wetter ist so gut.

  (das vet-er ist zo goot)

  How about “the weather is not so good”?

  Das Wetter ist nicht so gut.

  (das vet-er ist nikht zo goot)

  And how would you say “it is not so good”?

  Es ist nicht so gut.

  (es ist nikht zo goot)

  Now, look at the sentence you have just created, “it is not so good” / “es ist nicht so gut”.What is the second word in that sentence?

  ist

  (ist)

  So, once again, if we now put a catapult word at the beginning of that sentence, it is this “ist” that will be catapulted to the end of the sentence.

  So, how would you say “because it is not so good”?

  weil es nicht so gut ist

  (vile es nikht zo goot ist)

  I’m actually now going to explain how catapult words work in greater detail so that I can introduce more of them to you. But before I do that I’m going to introduce a dreaded grammar term!

  A dreaded grammar term…

  I’m going to introduce a grammar term now but, before I do, I’m going to make sure that you really understand what it means. If you already know what it means then you can, of course, simply ignore the explanation given in this box. If you don’t, however, then please feel free to read through this as many times as you need to.

  The grammar term I’m going to introduce is a... verb.

  If you are reading this book and don’t know what a verb is then you will, just by seeing the word written down, have already developed a feeling of grammar dread. Memories of confusion and suffering in language classes at school will be flooding back to you!

  Fear not, however, as I’m going to give you an explanation that you will actually understand.

  Normally, teachers will tell you that a verb is a doing word.Well, if that kind of explanation works for you then great but, if not, I’m going to give you a much simpler way to know how to recognise and know what a verb is.

  To know if something is a verb, all you need to do is see if you can put “I” or “he” or “we” directly in front of that word. If you can and it makes sense then you can feel fairly confident that it’s a verb. I’ll show you what I mean through some examples:

  “I can” – wow, people say “I can” all the time (I can do it, I can see her, I can be there at eight). So, since the word “I” can go in front of “can” then “can” must be a verb. Awesome!

  “He is” – wow, people say “he is” all the time (he is stupid, he is horrible, he is a bus driver) so “is” must be a verb – we know this because we can put “he” directly in front of it.

  “We have” – wow, people say “we have” all the time (we have two cats, we have a dog, we have a son who won’t leave home) so “have” must be a verb – we know this because we can put “we” directly in front of it.

  Get the idea? Try it yourself.You’ll find words that are verbs (like “can”, “is”, “have” and so on) make sense when you put “I”, “he” or “we” etc in front of them, but words that aren’t verbs, like “awesome”, “dog” or “because” don’t make sense at all when you put “I” or “he” or “we” in front of them. Imagine saying “I awesome” or “he do
g” or “we because” – they just don’t make sense at all. And why? Because those words aren’t verbs!

  When you say “I dance” or “he drinks” or “we want”, however, it becomes very clear that these words are verbs because they do make sense when you put “I” or “he” or “we” in front of them.

  So, if you want to know if something is a verb, see if you can put a word like “I” or “he” or “we” directly in front of it!

  So, why did I just take the time to introduce what a verb is?

  Well, the reason I did this is because the actual rule for how catapult words affect sentences isn’t simply that you throw the second word to the end but actually that you throw the verb to the end.

  And this is in fact what you’ve been doing so far with the catapult words – I just didn’t describe it in that way. For instance, we did it with “it is not so good”.

  Again, how would you say “it is not so good”?

  Es ist nicht so gut.

  (es ist nikht zo goot)

  And how would you say “because it is not so good”?

  weil es nicht so gut ist

  (vile es nikht zo goot ist)

  So, we’ve done this before. However, although we thought of it at that time as simply throwing the second word from the original sentence all the way to the end, the technical way of looking at it is that we were actually throwing the verb to the end of the sentence.

  And how do we know it’s a verb?Well, can we put “I” or “he” or “we” in front of the word that was thrown? The word we threw was “ist” (is) and we can say “he is” so, yes, “is” is clearly a verb.

  Now you may wonder, “why is he bothering to teach me this?” I already know which word to throw to the end of the sentence; it’s the second word from the original sentence, isn’t it?

  Well, normally it is, but now that you can identify what a verb is, you have a more foolproof way of being certain which word to catapult: simply throw the verb. In fact, let’s throw one now!

  What is “the weather” in German?

  das Wetter

  (das vet-er)

  And so how would you say “the weather is so good”?

  Das Wetter ist so gut.

  (das vet-er ist zo goot)

  And how would you say “because the weather is so good”? Keeping in mind that “is” is the verb in this sentence.

  weil das Wetter so gut ist

  (vile das vet-er zo goot ist)

  So once again we have thrown the verb to the end of the sentence, which is what catapult words do in German.

  How would you say “I am romantic”?

  Ich bin romantisch.

  (ikh bin roe-marn-tish)

  And how would you say “because I am romantic”?

  weil ich romantisch bin

  (vile ikh roe-marn-tish bin)

  So, “bin” (am) has been thrown to the end of the sentence. It must therefore be the verb.You can check of course, if you want. Simply see if you can put “I” or “he” or “we” directly in front of that word and have it make sense. If one of them does make sense when it’s placed in front of it – and it doesn’t matter which one it is – then you know it’s a verb. And look, yes, “I” can can be placed in front of “am” and makes sense – I am happy, I am drunk, I am busy etc – so “am” (bin) is clearly the verb here and is catapulted to the end.

  What is “my father”?

  mein Vater

  (mine far-ter)

  And how would you say “my father is romantic”?

  Mein Vater ist romantisch.

  (mine far-ter ist roe-marn-tish)

  And how would you say “because my father is romantic”?

  weil mein Vater romantisch ist

  (vile mine far-ter roe-marn-tish ist)

  So, because we know that it is the verb that gets thrown to the end, we know exactly which word to catapult.

  What is “I have” in German?

  ich habe

  (ikh hah-ber)

  And how would you say “I have it”?

  Ich habe es.

  (ikh hah-ber)

  What about “I have seen it”?

  Ich habe es gesehen.

  (ikh hah-ber es ge-zay-urn)

  And “I have done it”?

  Ich habe es getan.

  (ikh hah-ber es ge-tarn)

  What is “we have”?

  wir haben

  (veer harb-urn)

  So how would you say “we have done it”?

  Wir haben es getan.

  (veer harb-urn es ge-tarn)

  How about “we have seen it”?

  Wir haben es gesehen.

  (veer harb-urn es ge-zay-urn)

  “Luck” in German is:

  Glück

  (glook)

  And to say “we’re lucky” in German, you will literally say “we have luck”. How would you say that?

  Wir haben Glück.

  (veer harb-urn glook)

  And how would you say “because the weather is so good”?

  weil das Wetter so gut ist

  (vile das vet-er zo goot ist)

  And so how would you say “we’re lucky because the weather is so good”?

  Wir haben Glück, weil das Wetter so gut ist.

  (veer harb-urn glook vile das vet-er zo goot ist)

  Okay, that’s a lot to absorb in one go. Go away now and take a break before moving on to the second part of the chapter where you’ll complete the dialogue given at the beginning of this section. Remember, there’s no rush! Berlin wasn’t built in a day as they say, or something like that at least…

  CHAPTER 6 (2)

  We’re lucky that the weather’s so good.

  We’re lucky that the weather’s so good.

  Person 1: We’re lucky that the weather’s so good.

  Person 2: Why?

  Person 1: Because I feel like going to the park.

  Time to swap some letters!

  Letter Swap Number 5

  Alright, fifth letter swap.

  This time we’ll see how a “t” in English can be swapped for an “s” or an “ss” in German.

  We can begin this time by swapping the “t” in the English word “water” for an “ss” in German, which gives us the German word for water: “Wasser”. We can also take “better” and, by swapping the Ts for Ss, get “besser”. We can also turn “nut” into “Nuss” and “bit” into “biss”. See, it’s easy!

  So, swap Ts for Ss to find the German equivalent!

  Okay, we’re still building towards this little dialogue. Let’s have another letter swap to help us out with it!

  This “t” to “s” or “ss” letter swap you’ve just learnt is very useful in learning German, as it affects a lot of words.

  And actually all of the letter swaps become even more useful when you become aware that they don’t need to be used in isolation; they can in fact be combined. I’ll show you what I mean.

  In the last two letter swaps, we learnt both that a “th” in English can be swapped for a “d” in German, and also that a “t” in English can be swapped for an “ss” in German. Knowing this, can you work out what the word for “that” is in German? What do you think it will become once you change the “th” at the beginning to a “d” and the “t” at the end to an “ss”?

  dass

  (das)

  Now again, how would you say “we are lucky” (literally “we have luck”)?

  Wir haben Glück.

  (veer harb-urn glook)

  And how would you say “the weather is so good”?

  Das Wetter ist so gut.

  (das vet-er ist zo goot)

  And “because the weather is so good”?

  weil das Wetter so gut ist

  (vile das vet-er zo goot ist)

  And what was “that” in German?

  dass

  (das)

  So, as you now know “dass” (that), I should also let you know that it’s a catapult word
. So it works just like “weil” (because).

  Let’s use it!

  What is “the weather is so good”?

  Das Wetter ist so gut.

  (das vet-er ist zo goot)

  And how would you say “because the weather is so good”?

  weil das Wetter so gut ist

  (vile das vet-er zo goot ist)

  And so how would you say “…that the weather is so good”?

  …dass das Wetter so gut ist

  (das das vet-er zo goot ist)

  So, just like “weil” (because), “dass” (that) is a catapult word and works in exactly the same way.

  Now again, what is “we are lucky” (literally “we have luck”)?

  Wir haben Glück.

  (veer harb-urn glook)

  So how would you say “we’re lucky that the weather is so good”?

  Wir haben Glück, dass das Wetter so gut ist.

  (veer harb-urn glook das das vet-er zo goot ist)

  What is “the beer”?

  das Bier

  (das bee-er)

  So how would you say “we’re lucky that the beer is so good”?

  Wir haben Glück, dass das Bier so gut ist.

  (veer harb-urn glook das das bee-er zo goot ist)

  Now, just on its own, what is “we have”?

  wir haben

  (veer harb-urn)

  And what is “I have”?

  ich habe

  (ikh hah-ber)

  To say “I feel like…” in German, you will literally say “I have lust…” The word for “lust” in German is:

  Lust

  (loost)

  So, how would you say “I feel like…” / “I have lust…”?

  Ich habe Lust…

  (ikh hah-ber loost)

  And how would you say “because I feel like…” / “because I have lust…”?

  weil ich Lust habe…

  (vile ikh loost hah-ber)

  So because “have” is the verb here, it’s been thrown after “lust” by the catapult word.