Chatterbug’s new podcast, Long Story Short, covers beginners German for English speakers. Each episode is in German and English, and takes you on a journey. Listen as the characters navigate their way through chance meetings, miscommunications and surprises.
You can also listen on Apple or the RSS feed. Below is a transcript of the seventh episode.
Intro
HELENA: From Chatterbug and produced by Weframe Studios, you’re listening to Long Story Short — Lange Rede, kurzer Sinn — ein Podcast in Deutsch und Englisch. In season one, we will focus on talking points we found to be the most valuable for A1 German learners. Our podcast coincides with topics in our Chatterbug curriculum at chatterbug.com. So, if you’re looking for a deeper dive into language learning, check us out there! For those of you following the Chatterbug curriculum, remember to look out for a few key themes today, covering describing your office and, perhaps the most important when learning a new language, introducing yourself and small talk.
Today’s episode is “A Moment’s Difference”, meaning “Der entscheidende Augenblick”. It’s common to adjust our behavior depending on the situation we find ourselves in. But if you only have one version of yourself to present to the world, which would you choose?
A Moment’s Difference
[01:05]
MARTA: Entschuldigung, wo ist die Toilette?
I’d asked a kind-eyed reveler in the dimly lit passageway.
KIND STRANGER: Auf der rechten Seite, um die Ecke.
MARTA:
Their eyes flickered with the light while they pointed me on my way.
Danke schön!
I was grateful then, but entirely unaware of who I was about to be confronted with. As I turned the corner, I arrived. And this is where we met — in one of those gender-neutral bathrooms; strange place to meet someone, even stranger when they turn out to be your future boss. But there we were, knocking cubicle doors and taking turns with the soap dispenser. It was only at the dryer, when he allowed me to go first, that we realized this wasn’t the first time we’d spoken.
MAN: Ladies first. Oh, Entschuldigung, kann ich das auf einer gemischten Toilette sagen?
MARTA: Ich… ich weiß nicht, ob das noch jemand sagt.
We both laughed, and I finally looked up. But he looked at me oddly, then promptly turned around and rushed out. I felt a little dumbfounded. As I made my way back down the corridor, the kind eyes of the reveler had widened. He asked me:
KIND STRANGER: Was ist mit ihm passiert? Er ist aus der Bar gerannt.
MARTA: Ich weiß nicht.
I said feeling pretty bewildered myself.
KIND STRANGER: Er sah alarmiert aus. Kennst du ihn?
He said quizzing me.
MARTA: Nun, ich glaube, er ist mein neuer Chef.
I admitted. But my new friend gave me perspective:
KIND STRANGER: Du Glückspilz! Muss ein lustiger Typ sein!
MARTA:
“That’s true,” I thought. “He must be.” But I still felt thrown off my balance. It, perhaps, wouldn’t have been so unusual if it hadn’t been for where this bathroom stood — at the back of a pretty shady bar, the one downtown that you’d either find lonely bachelors in, or brave and a little boozy, bachelorette parties. I was in the latter category… and totally on board, and so he’d seemed only moments earlier with one of the club’s dancers in fact. It had been hazy through all of the neon lights and rosé-tinted glasses, so, at the time, I hadn’t clocked him from his LinkedIn page that I’d been stalking only days prior. But standing in the bathroom, I could be sure — His online personality had portrayed somebody different to the guy I’d just shared sanitizer with. Although, “sanitized” is how I’d describe his world I’d viewed online. He had the beautiful partner and kids, of course, a great job, even the Golden Retriever — a perfect, dreamy life. I wasn’t sure if the image of him performing this evening was one that he’d share with his social following. But, hey, this is Berlin, and if you can’t here, where can you? So, I went on my way and really looked forward to my new job… until the next time we met, a week Monday morning, my start date. As first days tend to go, I muddled my way through the morning, making friends with a new colleague. I hadn’t yet found my workspace, when she sidled over.
HEIKE: Hallo! Sind Sie Marta, die neue Assistentin?
MARTA:
To which I confirmed, a little bashful.
Hallo, ja, das bin ich!
HEIKE: Ach, ich habe Sie schon gesucht.
MARTA:
She said, holding her hand out.
HEIKE: Ich bin Heike. Ich habe gehört, Sie kommen aus Düsseldorf?
Heike directed me towards what I presumed to be my desk.
MARTA: Ja, geboren in Düsseldorf, aber ich lebe schon seit einigen Jahren hier in Berlin.
I explained, getting comfortable with my new surroundings.
HEIKE: Ach, dann sind Sie also nicht ganz neu!
MARTA:
She was right. I was familiar with a few things around here.
Stimmt, ich fühle mich mittlerweile fast schon wie ein Berliner.
I smiled.
HEIKE: Vielleicht kennen Sie hier auch schon ein paar Gesichter!
MARTA:
She said. Maybe I would. Heike instructed me to:
HEIKE: Wenn Sie möchten, können Sie Ihre Sachen hier lassen. Das ist Ihr Schreibtisch. Wie Sie sehen, befindet er sich direkt am Aufzug, was Ihnen helfen sollte, falls Sie einmal zu spät kommen.
MARTA:
She laughed and then continued with:
HEIKE: Ich kann Sie herumführen!
MARTA:
So, we toured across the office floor. I had that fresh feeling, excited about the journey I’d be taking in this new space. Every room, every conversation represented a change for me. It was thrilling. Heike explained:
HEIKE: Das Büro erstreckt sich über drei Stockwerke. Sie werden in der obersten Etage arbeiten und die Küche befindet sich hier oben rechts, ebenso wie die meisten Meetingräume. Oh! Und es gibt ein Badezimmer auf der linken Seite.
MARTA:
As she pointed me in the right direction, I noticed that across the glossy open-plan space there were only a few desks. And so, I asked:
Welche Teams arbeiten auf dieser Etage?
To which she confirmed:
HEIKE: Die Leitungsteams und ihre Assistenten arbeiten auf der dritten Etage. Man sieht also den Chef ganz oft. Aber er ist großartig, also machen Sie sich keine Sorgen. Da ist er auch schon!
MARTA:
There he was! After Heike’s praise, I was resolved to feel calm about our professional introduction.
HEIKE: Entschuldigen Sie die Unterbrechung, Herr Wolf…
MARTA:
Heike began.
HEIKE: Aber darf ich Ihnen schnell unsere neue Assistentin, Marta, vorstellen?
WOLF: Äh… hallo!
MARTA:
But he barely bat an eyelid.
Hi!
I replied, though he cut me off, directing his attention almost deliberately away from me, it seemed.
WOLF: Heike, könnten Sie bitte meine Dokumente auf den Tisch im Besprechungsraum legen?
MARTA:
And Heike, wearily, kept up, first responding to him:
HEIKE: Äh, ja, natürlich!
MARTA:
And then, uncomfortably, back to me.
HEIKE: Er muss im Moment sehr gestresst sein. Er ist normalerweise sehr freundlich.
MARTA: Ach, kein Problem!
I excused. Except there was. Far from his warm phone personality and uninhibited bathroom self, I was faced with a very different kind of Herr Wolf. For weeks after, I was either ignored or berated by someone who now seemed unrecognizable to the guy I’d met not long before. Even the smallest things seemed to set him off. I couldn’t be sure who I was dealing with. And it wasn’t long before I was sat in a corner office, in hush-hush tones, being told I wouldn’t make it past my probation period. As I made my way out of the shortest job I’d ever had, my friend stopped me to say goodbye.
HEIKE: Hey, tut mir wirklich leid, dass es nicht geklappt hat.
MARTA:
She said truly looking sorry and somewhat perplexed with this turn of events.
Mach dir keine Sorgen, es hat wohl nicht sein sollen.
We both turned to walk away, when I decided to take a final chance.
Er hat nicht gesagt, warum, oder?
I asked, apprehensive of what could come. She seemed uncertain, convinced it was just office talk.
HEIKE: Ich bin mir nicht sicher. Etwas über einen Mangel an Orientierung. Ich würde nicht zu viel davon halten. Es ist nur Gerede aus dem Büro.
MARTA:
Except this went way beyond the office, all the way back to some little bathroom stalls.
A Moment’s Difference – Breakdown
[10:13]
HELENA: You’ve just been listening to “A Moment’s Difference” or “Der entscheidende Augenblick”. We have our German learner, Danielle, with us today.
DANIELLE: Hello!
HELENA: How’s it going?
DANIELLE: I’m doing pretty good. How about you?
HELENA: Pretty good. It’s very hot in Berlin today.
DANIELLE: Yes, very hot.
HELENA: But we’re making it work. Speaking about Berlin, this story takes place in Berlin.
DANIELLE: Yeah, in our fair city.
HELENA: Or not so fair city.
DANIELLE: Grungy, dirty city. No, no, no.
HELENA: I mean, depending on where you’re coming from, it’s dirty.
DANIELLE: Sure.
HELENA: If you’re coming from Wien or München, Vienna or München, it’s pretty dirty. But if you’re coming from, I don’t know…
DANIELLE: Other major cities, like…
HELENA: New York or something…
DANIELLE: New York or London, I think it’s pretty clean in comparison.
HELENA: Yeah, I’d say so, too. This story brushes upon quite a few interesting topics, some that are a little bit, I don’t know, almost controversial, or very political in some ways, but let’s quickly recap what the story was about.
DANIELLE: Okay. Yeah, so let’s see. Our protagonist, Marta, is, you know, I guess in a bathroom at a club, at a nightclub.
HELENA: A “gemischte Toilette” or a “Unisex-Toilette”.
DANIELLE: Yeah, “gemischte Toilette”. But like a co-ed bathroom, right?
HELENA: Right.
DANIELLE: And she runs into a guy, and we’re not really sure… Other than that, she just runs into him. He seems cordial at first.
HELENA: Or almost flirty.
DANIELLE: Yeah, almost flirty, but then he… I guess they both realized that they had…
HELENA: They recognized each other.
DANIELLE: Yeah, they recognized each other. They had previously spoken. And so, he gets a little bit nervous and he runs out when he, I guess, you know, makes this realization. And so, then…
HELENA: BAM! Cut forward to the office scene.
DANIELLE: Yeah, so BOOM!
HELENA: So, from a club to the office.
DANIELLE: Club to the office.
HELENA: It’s Marta’s first day.
DANIELLE: It’s Marta’s first day at her new job, and she’s being shown around the office, and then she sees her new boss, which she also had run into previously at this nightclub. And he doesn’t seem so excited about meeting her, his new assistant.
HELENA: Not as excited as he was about meeting her in the bathroom earlier.
DANIELLE: Oh, no! And so, yeah, so I guess her time there is obviously a bit complicated, and it just sounds like he’s not a very nice boss to her. And so, then we later find out that her contract isn’t going to be renewed or…
HELENA: I think she didn’t make it past the trial period.
DANIELLE: She didn’t make it. Because this is a very German thing, right? You have this sort of probation period where you can be sort of fired or, yeah, you can be fired at will without reason, right? But within this probation period.
HELENA: I think it is with reason, but it’s not… Like, in Germany, usually, when you have a contract with a company, it’s really hard for the company to fire you.
DANIELLE: Right.
HELENA: It’s not like in the U.S.
DANIELLE: Right.
HELENA: So, I think they have to give you two warnings, like written warnings, that you’re not being the employee that they’re looking for, and only then are they allowed to fire you. And then they still have to pay a bunch of, I think, money so that it’s possible for you to find a job after your contract is terminated.
DANIELLE: Right. But when you’re within this probation period, if they decide not to renew your contract, they don’t really have to give you a reason why.
HELENA: Exactly. They don’t have to do the two warnings. They can just be like — Actually, it wasn’t the fit that we were looking for.
DANIELLE: Sure, right.
HELENA: And we’re not going to take you on.
DANIELLE: Yeah, and so that’s essentially what happened to Marta. And she’s probably… it seems like she’s got a couple of ideas maybe about, you know, why this happened. And there’s obviously been a little bit of office gossip about why she’s being let go, but, yeah, that’s kind of where the story ends, isn’t it?
HELENA: So, we actually are left to speculate quite a bit of what actually happens because it’s not explicit in the story. But, basically, we’re left to believe that Marta saw the boss, who has this perfect family life — they describe in the story, with like two children, and then wife, and a dog, and, you know, the perfect life — and maybe he didn’t want his reputation to be tarnished by being seen in like a skeezy club in Berlin.
DANIELLE: Yeah. Right.
HELENA: There’s other interpretations that we could go into, but I think we’re going to stick with this one.
DANIELLE: Yeah, I think let’s stick with this one. And it actually also brings up — maybe we can talk about this a little bit later in the story — but this idea of work life balance.
HELENA: I’ve heard that Germans are much more aware of this separation, or they’re a little bit more careful about it. Like, they’ll be really adamant about never taking emails after they leave work.
DANIELLE: Sure.
HELENA: And they don’t necessarily have friends that are colleagues, that they meet outside of work. So, they really try to separate the two. And maybe this is also — like in the story, like you said — the case of the boss trying to have like a very strict separation between his whatever he’s doing in his free time to his reputation in his office. Yeah, and we can also talk a little bit about the difference between a more traditional workplace in a startup culture, because Berlin is bursting with startups right now.
DANIELLE: Yeah, there are tons of startups, which is… You know, we work for a startup and so, right, there’s already a sort of… a bit of… a lot more relaxed than maybe a sort of corporate…
HELENA: Yeah, like a German bank or like a traditional car industry job.
DANIELLE: Exactly.
HELENA: BMW or something like that. So, yeah, lots of fun topics to discuss today.
DANIELLE: Nice.
HELENA: But let’s first listen to the first dialogue.
DANIELLE: Okay.
MAN: Ladies first. Oh, Entschuldigung, kann ich das auf einer gemischten Toilette sagen?
MARTA: Ich… ich weiß nicht, ob das noch jemand sagt.
We both laughed, and I finally looked up. But he looked at me oddly, then promptly turned around and rushed out. I felt a little dumbfounded. As I made my way back down the corridor, the kind eyes of the reveler had widened. He asked me:
KIND STRANGER: Was ist mit ihm passiert? Er ist aus der Bar gerannt.
MARTA: Ich weiß nicht.
I said feeling pretty bewildered myself.
KIND STRANGER: Er sah alarmiert aus. Kennst du ihn?
He said quizzing me.
MARTA: Nun, ich glaube, er ist mein neuer Chef.
I admitted. But my new friend gave me perspective:
KIND STRANGER: Du Glückspilz! Muss ein lustiger Typ sein!
HELENA: So, that dialogue included a little bit of small talk right at the beginning.
DANIELLE: Yeah.
HELENA: What is one of the most important phrases you need to know before you go to any country?
DANIELLE: Oh! I would say you definitely need to know how to say “excuse me” — “Entschuldigung”.
HELENA: Yeah.
DANIELLE: And most definitely “Wo ist die Toilette?”.
HELENA: Yeah, exactly.
DANIELLE: “Where’s the bathroom?” I think it’s a very, very important question.
HELENA: Yes. “Wo ist die Toilette?” So, there’s two ways that sometimes the toilet is referred to. There’s quite a few ways.
DANIELLE: There’s a couple of ways here in Germany, isn’t there?
HELENA: Yeah, there’s “Toilette”, there’s “WC”.
DANIELLE: ”WC”.
HELENA: I think it stands for “water closet”.
DANIELLE: Water closet. I actually had to look that up because in the U.S. we would never say… You’re starting to see it a little bit now, but WC is like not a thing there. And so, when I first moved here, I actually had to look it up. I was like, “What is WC?”
HELENA: You keep going in them and you’re like, “No, this isn’t a WC. This is a toilet. I’m so confused!”. And then you have the “Badezimmer”.
DANIELLE: “Badezimmer”.
HELENA: But this is a little bit different, right? Because the “Badezimmer” usually includes a bath or a shower.
DANIELLE: Oh, right. Oh, okay. So, a bathroom…
HELENA: Yes.
DANIELLE: Versus a toilet.
HELENA: Exactly. You wouldn’t go into a bar or a restaurant and be like “Wo ist das Badezimmer?”.
DANIELLE: But why can I say “Wo ist das Toilettezimmer?”… Is that a thing?
HELENA: No.
DANIELLE: Okay. Damn!
HELENA: Right. So, they’re in the toilet, and it’s a “gemischte Toilette” or a “Unisex-Toilette”.
DANIELLE: Yeah, I guess in English we’d say like “co-ed bathroom” or a “unisex bathroom”.
HELENA: But do you have those in the U.S. very often? Like, I feel like it’s pretty common that if they have a unisex toilet, it’s a single stall.
DANIELLE: It’s usually a single stall, yeah.
HELENA: Right. In Germany, or at least in Berlin, the clubs — especially in like queer scenes, queer bars — there’s usually a “gemischte Toilette”.
DANIELLE: Okay.
HELENA: But, yeah, I think it’s much less of a taboo thing to use a different gender toilet in Germany or in Berlin than in the U.S.
DANIELLE: Yeah, in the U.S., yeah, you’re right, it would mostly be a single toilet.
HELENA: And then in response to the boss asking if he can still say “ladies first”, Marta says, “Ich weiß nicht.”
DANIELLE: “Ich weiß nicht.”, yeah. Which means “I don’t know.”.
HELENA: Yeah, and it’s actually also a casual way of saying “Ich weiß es nicht.”.
DANIELLE: Oh, okay. So, that’s the actual sentence — “Ich weiß es nicht.”
HELENA: Yeah.
DANIELLE: Oh, I didn’t know that.
HELENA: But you can just say “Ich weiß nicht.”. But it’s actually not correct.
DANIELLE: Oh, good to know.
HELENA: Yeah.
DANIELLE: So, if I wanted to sound very posh, then I should say “Ich weiß es nicht.”.
HELENA: Yeah.
DANIELLE: Okay.
HELENA: If you want to sound…
DANIELLE: Like I know and understand German grammar.
HELENA: Yeah, exactly.
DANIELLE: There was a word that was used that I didn’t quite know — “Du Glückspilz!” And I know “Glück” means “happy” or “lucky”.
HELENA: Yeah.
DANIELLE: And “Pilz” is a mushroom.
HELENA: Yes.
DANIELLE: So, it’s like…
HELENA: “You lucky mushroom!”
DANIELLE: You lucky mushroom? What does that mean?
HELENA: He’s calling her a lucky duck because he’s saying, “Oh, if that’s your boss and your boss goes to places like this, he must be a pretty cool guy!”
DANIELLE: Okay.
HELENA: But turns out to be not the case, as we’ll find out later. All right. So, she’s made it into her new office.
DANIELLE: Yeah!
HELENA: And she is greeted by the person who greets her.
DANIELLE: Heike?
HELENA: Heike. She says, “Hallo! Sind Sie Marta, die neue Assistentin?”
DANIELLE: So, “Hi! Are you Marta, the new assistant?”
HELENA: Yes.
DANIELLE: Okay. And so, she says, “Sind Sie…”
HELENA: “Sind Sie”, yeah. So, this is kind of what implies that she’s working at a little bit of a more traditional workplace.
DANIELLE: I see.
HELENA: Like maybe a bank or something like that, because in startup culture, you don’t “Sie” each other.
DANIELLE: You would “du” each other.
HELENA: You’d “du” each other.
DANIELLE: Oh!
HELENA: I love that. It’s so funny in German. You really do that, though, like “siezen und duzen”.
DANIELLE: Oh!
HELENA: That’s what it’s called in German. But when you translate it to English, it just sounds very funny.
DANIELLE: Oh, gosh!
HELENA: So, watch out, listeners! Be careful when you’re translating the difference between “Sie” and “du”.
DANIELLE: Oh, gosh!
HELENA: Even if people are like at a similar status as you are, or a similar age, you would still use the formal form in a traditional workplace.
DANIELLE: Okay. So, that’s good to know because I’m sometimes not always clear on when I should use “Sie” and when I should use “du”. And I have actually been in situations where I have used “Sie” because I didn’t really know the person that well and they will quickly correct me and say “No, du”. Is that like a way of saying like, oh, no, you don’t have to be so formal with me; I’m a friend?
HELENA: Yeah.
DANIELLE: Okay.
HELENA: And it’s really… You have to be careful with it because sometimes it could be a double-edged sword.
DANIELLE: I see.
HELENA: Like, if you “Sie” somebody, it can imply distance or it can come off as kind of rude, like, oh, I don’t want to be too close, or…
DANIELLE: I see.
HELENA: Sometimes it just can be taken the wrong way. But, on the other hand, if you “du” somebody… Oh, this does not get old! Okay. On the other hand, if you use the “du” form for people that want actually to be “siezt”, using the “Sie” form, then you can get into trouble. Like, once I was talking with my grandmother’s friend, who I thought was family, so I used the “du” form, but then she corrected me and told me to use “Sie”.
DANIELLE: Really?
HELENA: Yeah.
DANIELLE: Wow! She’s like — No, you need to be formal with me.
HELENA: Yeah, and I was like, “Oh!”
DANIELLE: Wow!
HELENA: So, yeah, it’s really tricky. I also struggle with it. So, I would say when in doubt, use Sie.
DANIELLE: Okay.
HELENA: Because, usually, it’s more offensive than somebody… you use “Sie” and they’re like “No, no, no. Use du.”.
DANIELLE: I see.
HELENA: So, that can be corrected pretty easily. But, obviously, you wouldn’t use “Sie” to a child.
DANIELLE: So, with my son I can always say “du”.
HELENA: Well, your son is family, so you would use “du” anyways.
DANIELLE: Okay. Right, right, right. Yeah, okay. Good to know.
HELENA: But your child’s friends, for example, you would also “duz” them.
DANIELLE: Okay. Okay.
HELENA: Yeah.
DANIELLE: Good to know.
HELENA: What other forms of introduction can you use in Germany when you’re getting to know somebody, or you’re trying to figure out who’s who, or when you’re first introduced in a workplace?
DANIELLE: I guess, like, well, you could say “Wie heißen Sie?”.
HELENA: Oder “Wie heißt du?”.
DANIELLE: Oder “Wie heißt du?”. But if we’re at work, then, yeah, maybe “Wie heißen Sie?”. And then also I could say, if I want to ask someone their name, are there other ways?
HELENA: You can say “Wie heißt du?”.
DANIELLE: “Wie heißt du?”. Okay. So, could I say something like “Was ist deine Name?”?
HELENA: You could, but it’s not really commonly used.
DANIELLE: Oh, okay.
HELENA: It’s interesting because in English you’d say “What’s your name?”, but in German you would say “What are you called?”. And if you’re coming into a workplace, and you’re new there, and you don’t know who you should be talking to, you can say “Ich suche…” so and so, or “Ich habe einen Termin…”.
DANIELLE: “Ich habe einen Termin…”
HELENA: “I have an appointment”. Or you can say “Wissen Sie wo… so and so… ist?” — “Do you know where…?”. In this case, she was looking for Heike, her assistant, or the person who’s showing her around, so she would say “Wissen Sie, wo Heike ist?”.
DANIELLE: Oh, okay. “Wissen Sie, wo Heike ist?” Okay. There was this other word that was used in the dialogue, that I wasn’t quite sure about. I think it was “mittlerweile”.
HELENA: “Mittlerweile”?
DANIELLE: What does that mean?
HELENA: Right. So, she uses it in the context of “Ich fühle mich mittlerweile fast schon wie ein Berliner.”.
DANIELLE: Oh, okay. So, I understood most of… Did she say, “I feel like you’re a Berliner.”?
HELENA: She says, “I feel like a Berliner.”
DANIELLE: “I feel like a Berliner.”
HELENA: So, she’s living in Berlin so many years already that she feels like she’s from there.
DANIELLE: Oh! So, “Ich fühle mich…” — “I feel like I…”
HELENA: Yeah.
DANIELLE: Okay.
HELENA: And the word “mittlerweile” is to indicate that some time has passed.
DANIELLE: Oh!
HELENA: So, that’s where… She’s implying that she’s been there for a long time. So, another example would be if you’re trying to explain that you used to be homesick, but now you feel really comfortable in Berlin.
DANIELLE: Okay.
HELENA: So, you could say “Am Anfang hatte ich viel Heimweh, aber mittlerweile habe ich mit hier eingelebt.”.
DANIELLE: Oh, okay. So, “In the beginning I was a bit homesick, but by this point I feel like I live here.”.
HELENA: Yeah, this is actually a nice German word — “eingelebt”.
DANIELLE: “Eingelebt”.
HELENA: Which means “to feel moved in”.
DANIELLE: Oh! Feel accustomed to?
HELENA: Yeah.
DANIELLE: Oh, okay.
HELENA: It’s like when you’ve been somewhere and you feel comfortable there.
DANIELLE: Yeah.
HELENA: You’re in a city, and you’ve been there for years, and it’s kind of like you’re home now.
DANIELLE: That’s a really nice sentence for me because that’s actually how I feel living in Berlin.
HELENA: Du bist jetzt in Berlin eingelebt.
DANIELLE: Ja, genau.
HELENA: Ich auch. So, let’s listen to the next dialogue.
HEIKE: Hallo! Sind Sie Marta, die neue Assistentin?
MARTA:
To which I confirmed, a little bashful.
Hallo, ja, das bin ich!
HEIKE: Ach, ich habe Sie schon gesucht.
MARTA:
She said, holding her hand out.
HEIKE: Ich bin Heike. Ich habe gehört, Sie kommen aus Düsseldorf?
Heike directed me towards what I presumed to be my desk.
MARTA: Ja, geboren in Düsseldorf, aber ich lebe schon seit einigen Jahren hier in Berlin.
I explained, getting comfortable with my new surroundings.
HEIKE: Ach, dann sind Sie also nicht ganz neu!
MARTA:
She was right. I was familiar with a few things around here.
Stimmt, ich fühle mich mittlerweile fast schon wie ein Berliner.
I smiled.
HEIKE: Vielleicht kennen Sie hier auch schon ein paar Gesichter!
MARTA:
She said. Maybe I would. Heike instructed me to:
HEIKE: Wenn Sie möchten, können Sie Ihre Sachen hier lassen. Das ist Ihr Schreibtisch. Wie Sie sehen, befindet er sich direkt am Aufzug, was Ihnen helfen sollte, falls Sie einmal zu spät kommen.
MARTA:
She laughed and then continued with:
HEIKE: Ich kann Sie herumführen!
MARTA:
So, we toured across the office floor. I had that fresh feeling, excited about the journey I’d be taking in this new space. Every room, every conversation represented a change for me. It was thrilling. Heike explained:
HEIKE: Das Büro erstreckt sich über drei Stockwerke. Sie werden in der obersten Etage arbeiten und die Küche befindet sich hier oben rechts, ebenso wie die meisten Meetingräume. Oh! Und es gibt ein Badezimmer auf der linken Seite.
MARTA:
As she pointed me in the right direction, I noticed that across the glossy open-plan space there were only a few desks. And so, I asked:
Welche Teams arbeiten auf dieser Etage?
To which she confirmed:
HEIKE: Die Leitungsteams und ihre Assistenten arbeiten auf der dritten Etage. Man sieht also den Chef ganz oft. Aber er ist großartig, also machen Sie sich keine Sorgen. Da ist er auch schon!
MARTA:
There he was! After Heike’s praise, I was resolved to feel calm about our professional introduction.
HEIKE: Entschuldigen Sie die Unterbrechung, Herr Wolf…
MARTA:
Heike began.
HEIKE: Aber darf ich Ihnen schnell unsere neue Assistentin, Marta, vorstellen?
WOLF: Äh… hallo!
MARTA:
But he barely bat an eyelid.
Hi!
I replied, though he cut me off, directing his attention almost deliberately away from me, it seemed.
WOLF: Heike, könnten Sie bitte meine Dokumente auf den Tisch im Besprechungsraum legen?
MARTA:
And Heike, wearily, kept up, first responding to him:
HEIKE: Äh, ja, natürlich!
MARTA:
And then, uncomfortably, back to me.
HEIKE: Er muss im Moment sehr gestresst sein. Er ist normalerweise sehr freundlich.
MARTA: Ach, kein Problem!
HELENA: All right. So, they’re at the part of the day where Heike is going to show Marta around.
DANIELLE: Oh, yeah, and she uses this great word — “herumführen”.
HELENA: “Herumführen”, yeah, exactly.
DANIELLE: Yeah, so that means “to show someone around”.
HELENA: Yeah.
DANIELLE: That’s such a great word! I had to look that up when I first listened to the story. Oh, what does that mean?
HELENA: It’s a beautiful example of a German compound word where everything is just stuck together. “Herumführen” — to show around.
DANIELLE: So, what is… “Herum” is what?
HELENA: “Around”.
DANIELLE: Around. And “führen”?
HELENA: “To lead”.
DANIELLE: To lead. Oh, very cool. I love German in that way.
HELENA: Yeah, you can find so much meaning if you just take the words apart.
DANIELLE: And how could I use that word in a sentence? Like, how… ‘Cause it’s one of those verbs that needs to be split, right?
HELENA: Yes, it’s a “trennbares Verb”, and we’re going to talk all about those in Grammatically Speaking.
DANIELLE: Oh, goodie. Cannot wait!
HELENA: So, stay tuned!
DANIELLE: Nice.
HELENA: So, let’s talk a little bit about where things are in the office.
DANIELLE: Okay.
HELENA: There’s a lot of dialogue that describes where the “Schreibtisch” are — and that’s what “desk” is — and where the “Aufzug” is.
DANIELLE: “Aufzug” is like the elevator or the lift.
HELENA: Exactly. So, she says, “Wenn Sie möchten, können Sie Ihre Sachen hier lassen. Das ist Ihr Schreibtisch.”
DANIELLE: Oh, okay. So, I guess, when you’re ready, you can sit here. This is your desk.
HELENA: “Wie Sie sehen, befindet er sich direkt am Aufzug, was Ihnen helfen sollte, falls Sie einmal zu spät kommen.”
DANIELLE: So, she says that you’re like right near the elevator, so it’ll help you if you are late to work.
HELENA: Exactly.
DANIELLE: You can get here and sit down before anybody can sneak in. Yeah, okay.
HELENA: Later in the dialogue, they talk a lot about different floors.
DANIELLE: Yeah, I caught that. There was a lot of “Geschoss” and “Stock” and…
HELENA: “Stockwerk”, “Stock”. Yeah, there’s a few ways that you can say it in German. We have “der Stock”, which… These all mean “floor” basically.
DANIELLE: Okay. “Der Stock”.
HELENA: ”Der Stock”, “das Stockwerk”.
DANIELLE: “Das Stockwerk”.
HELENA: “Das Geschoss”.
DANIELLE: “Das Geschoss” — that’s the one that I’ve heard a lot.
HELENA: Und “die Etage”.
DANIELLE: “Die Etage”. I also know that one.
HELENA: Right. So, actually, this is interesting that, in Europe, the first floor, the ground floor, is called the “Erdgeschoss”.
DANIELLE: “Erdgeschoss”, yeah.
HELENA: And then the floor above that it’s called the…
DANIELLE: “Erste Obergeschoss”.
HELENA: So, on an elevator, you would see usually a button for EG. That means “the ground”. And then the floor above that isn’t 2; it’s 1.
DANIELLE: Yeah, that was really difficult when I first moved here, because it’s obviously not like that in the U.S. So, for us, the first floor is the first floor.
HELENA: So, be sure to pay attention to that. It’s the “erste Obergeschoss”.
DANIELLE: Okay.
HELENA: And “Obergeschoss” means “floor above”.
DANIELLE: Floor above, okay.
HELENA: That kind of gives you a little bit of a hint to what it means.
DANIELLE: So, what is the difference between the “Erdgeschoss” and the “Untergeschoss”?
HELENA: So, “Untergeschoss” is what you described earlier. It’s the floor below. So, like if there’s a cellar…
DANIELLE: Like a parking…
HELENA: Parking, yeah.
DANIELLE: Yeah, parking deck or something… parking garage, I mean.
HELENA: And “Unter-”, as you can tell, means…
DANIELLE: Under.
HELENA: Below.
DANIELLE: Okay, below.
HELENA: Yeah. And then you also have the “Dachgeschoss”.
DANIELLE: That’s usually like the penthouse, the top floor, right?
HELENA: Exactly.
DANIELLE: Yeah. The penthouse.
HELENA: I actually live in a penthouse.
DANIELLE: Oh, do you?
HELENA: Yeah, the top floor.
DANIELLE: Oh, nice!
HELENA: It sounds more luxurious than it is.
DANIELLE: In English, it’s like, “Oh, the penthouse!” Usually, it means that you have the most expensive flat, but I guess that it means that here as well, right?
HELENA: Yeah, it can mean that, but, for me, it is a… I actually do live in a three-story penthouse.
DANIELLE: Wow!
HELENA: But it is still like pretty down to earth.
DANIELLE: Okay.
HELENA: And it’s a WG, so it’s not all of our space.
DANIELLE: Okay.
HELENA: It’s very split up.
DANIELLE: Interesting. Is there a… Should I use “der Stock”, or “das Geschoss”, or “die Etage” in certain situations?
HELENA: Why don’t I give you some examples of common phrases that you use each individual one in?
DANIELLE: Okay, great.
HELENA: So, for the UG, or EG, or DG, you always use “Geschoss”. So, for the “Untergeschoss”, or the “Erdgeschoss”, or “Dachgeschoss”, we use the word “Geschoss”.
DANIELLE: Okay.
HELENA: But if you’re looking for something, you can say like “Dein Büro findet sich im ersten Stock.” or “im ersten Stockwerk”. So, the office is on the first floor.
DANIELLE: Okay.
HELENA: You can also say “Das Gebäude hat drei Stockwerke.”.
DANIELLE: So, it has three stories.
HELENA: Yeah, to describe what it is.
DANIELLE: I see.
HELENA: Not where you are.
DANIELLE: Okay. “Das Gebäude hat drei Stockwerke.”
HELENA: Exactly.
DANIELLE: Okay.
HELENA: And then you can also say “Ich wohne im ersten Geschoss.” or “Ich wohne im ersten Stock.”.
DANIELLE: “Ersten Stock”, okay. ‘Cause I actually say… I live on the third floor and I say “Ich wohne in die dritte Etage.”. Is that okay to say? I’ve said that to the delivery guy a couple of times.
HELENA: Yeah, that’s totally fine.
DANIELLE: Okay. So, at one point, when Heike is showing Marta around, she says “der Chef”. So, is he a cook?
HELENA: This is a really funny false friend in German, but “Chef” literally just means “boss”.
DANIELLE: Oh, it means boss. Oh, ‘cause it’s the same in Spanish, I think.
HELENA: Oh, “jefe”.
DANIELLE: “Jefe”, yeah.
HELENA: True.
DANIELLE: Yeah. Okay, so “Chef” is not a cook chef. It just means “boss”.
HELENA: You would say “Koch” for a chef.
DANIELLE: Oh, really? A cook.
HELENA: Yeah.
DANIELLE: Oh, okay. Interesting.
HELENA: If you say to somebody “I need to talk to you about something.”, it’s not like let’s meet and drink and talk with about, I don’t know, boy or something like that.
DANIELLE: It means something very serious.
HELENA: Yeah. It’s like, we need to talk about our “Putzplan” or something like that.
DANIELLE: A “Putzplan”? A cleaning plan?
HELENA: “Besprechung”. Or if your partner is like “ugh”, you know that’s going to be a serious discussion.
DANIELLE: Oh, that’s really interesting. ‘Cause in English, you really have to infer that based on… Actually, you probably don’t even know, but whenever someone says “I need to talk to you”, like that could mean not much, but it could also mean something really, really serious.
HELENA: Yeah.
DANIELLE: And it’s super loaded in English. So, but it sounds like it’s loaded in German as well.
HELENA: Yeah, I mean, not necessarily. Like I said, it could also just mean, like, in a work context, that it’s a meeting.
DANIELLE: Okay, okay.
HELENA: Yeah.
DANIELLE: But it usually doesn’t mean to just like have small talk, chew the fat.
HELENA: Yeah, exactly.
DANIELLE: Okay, okay.
HELENA: “Besprechung” does not equal “chew the fat”.
DANIELLE: Okay, that’s going to be my major takeaway.
HELENA: So, let’s listen to the next dialogue.
HEIKE: Hey, tut mir wirklich leid, dass es nicht geklappt hat.
MARTA:
She said truly looking sorry and somewhat perplexed with this turn of events.
Mach dir keine Sorgen, es hat wohl nicht sein sollen.
We both turned to walk away, when I decided to take a final chance.
Er hat nicht gesagt, warum, oder?
I asked, apprehensive of what could come. She seemed uncertain, convinced it was just office talk.
HEIKE: Ich bin mir nicht sicher. Etwas über einen Mangel an Orientierung. Ich würde nicht zu viel davon halten. Es ist nur Gerede aus dem Büro.
DANIELLE: So sad, right?
HELENA: Yeah, in this dialogue we find out that she got laid off, or that she didn’t make it past her trial period.
DANIELLE: Right.
HELENA: Heike says, “Hey, es tut mir wirklich leid, dass es nicht geklappt hat.” Do you know what “klappen” means? Or “es hat geklappt”, “es hat nicht geklappt”?
DANIELLE: I assume “geklappt” is like “clapped”. I’m assuming it means something like that.
HELENA: Not quite.
DANIELLE: Not quite? Okay.
HELENA: It means it didn’t work out.
DANIELLE: Oh, okay. So, this is very idiomatic then.
HELENA: Yeah.
DANIELLE: Okay.
HELENA: Like, say you’re fixing your bike, or trying to fix your bike, and then somebody asks you “Hey, hat das geklappt?”.
DANIELLE: Oh, okay.
HELENA: Did you make it work?
DANIELLE: Did you make it work? Okay.
HELENA: And then you would probably say “Nein, es hat nicht geklappt.”.
DANIELLE: Oh, okay.
HELENA: But, as you can see here, it also works in a more serious context where she’s like, “Oh, it didn’t work out.”.
DANIELLE: It didn’t work out, okay. “Es nicht geklappt hat.”
HELENA: “Es hat nicht geklappt.”
DANIELLE: “Es hat nicht geklappt.”
HELENA: Marta also responds saying, “Mach dir keine Sorgen.”
DANIELLE: Yeah, “Mach dir keine Sorgen.”. That means “Don’t worry.”. I’ve heard this phrase before.
HELENA: And notice here that she uses the “dir” form.
DANIELLE: Oh! Because now they’re friends, right? Which makes this even more sad.
HELENA: Yeah.
DANIELLE: “Mach dir keine Sorgen.”
HELENA: Yeah. After that, she says, “es hat wohl nicht sein sollen.” That’s another idiom.
DANIELLE: Oh, okay. Okay.
HELENA: Which means “It wasn’t meant to be.”.
DANIELLE: Oh, that’s so sad. Okay, so “Es hat nicht sein voll sollen.”?
HELENA: Almost. “Es hat wohl nicht sein sollen.”
DANIELLE: Okay. “Es hat nicht… Noch einmal, bitte.”
HELENA: “Es hat wohl nicht sein sollen”.
DANIELLE: Okay.
HELENA: And then we can also talk about another word.
DANIELLE: I really like learning about idiomatic phrases because they… I feel like those are the things that really make you sound like you really speak the language.
HELENA: Totally!
DANIELLE: Do you know what I mean?
HELENA: Yeah.
DANIELLE: ‘Cause it’s like, you know, you learn all this sort of textbook stuff, but what pushes you from just being able to speak a little bit to “now I sound like a native speaker” are these idiomatic expressions.
HELENA: Totally! So, you can totally do a shortcut and learn a bunch of them.
DANIELLE: Yeah.
HELENA: And use them in your language and see where it gets you.
DANIELLE: And people will be like — Whoa! Sie spricht sehr gut Deutsch!
HELENA: “Sie sprechen sehr gut Deutsch!”
DANIELLE: “Sie sprechen sehr gut Deutsch!” Okay.
HELENA: Marta then asks why did she get fired. She says, “Er hat nicht gesagt, warum, oder?” And to that Heike responds with, “Ich bin mir nicht sicher.” — “I am not too sure.”
DANIELLE: I’m not sure.
HELENA: “Etwas über einen Mangel an Orientierung.” That means “He said something vague about a lack of orientation.”.
DANIELLE: Oh, so she didn’t really, I guess, fit in very well there.
HELENA: And then next comes “Ich würde nicht zu viel davon halten. Es ist nur Gerede aus dem Büro.”.
DANIELLE: Oh, what does that mean?
HELENA: “Ich würde nicht zu viel davon halten.” means “I wouldn’t…”. I guess it kind of means “I would take it with a grain of salt.”.
DANIELLE: Oh!
HELENA: “I wouldn’t take it too seriously.” or “I wouldn’t read too much into it.”. She says, “Es ist nur Gerede aus dem Büro.” — “It’s just gossip or just office talk.”
DANIELLE: Okay.
HELENA: Office gossip.
DANIELLE: Office gossip. What’s the word for gossip?
HELENA: “Gerede”.
DANIELLE: “Gerede”. Oh, okay. I didn’t know that.
HELENA: But you can also say “Klatsch” or…
DANIELLE: “Klatsch, Tratsch”.
HELENA: “Tratsch, Klatsch”.
DANIELLE: “Klatsch”.
HELENA: “Klatsch und Tratsch”. Sounds like clapping onomatopoeia.
DANIELLE: Oh, yeah, “Klatsch”.
HELENA: “Klatschen” means “to clap” also.
DANIELLE: Oh, okay. Oh, is it? Oh, I didn’t know that.
HELENA: Well, we’ve made it to the end.
DANIELLE: Yeah.
HELENA: Thanks, Danielle, for joining me and talking about this little bit heavier story this time.
DANIELLE: Yeah, thanks for having me
HELENA: And we’ll see you next week.
Grammatically Speaking
[41:25]
As you know, I’m not a language teacher, but we have our two wonderfully talented language teachers in the house today, Inda and Stefie. Hello, girls!
INDA: Hi, Helena!
STEFIE: Hello!
HELENA: This week we’re going to talk again about verbs. This time specifically, we’re going to take a closer look at prefix verbs ‘cause they came up a few times in our story. Inda, can you explain a little bit what prefix verbs are?
INDA: Yes. So, there is quite a bunch of verbs in German that we have, that start with a prefix, and those prefixes either get detached from the verb when we conjugate them, when we build sentences, right? Or they don’t.
HELENA: Can you give me some examples of prefixes?
INDA: Right. So, for example, “ausgehen” is “to go out”. You have this in English as well.
HELENA: And the prefix is “aus-“.
INDA: “Aus-“. So, you know, German likes to merge words and create these compounds, and this is a clear example of how a German does these phrasal verbs that you have in English. In English, you have a phrase. And in German, you have just one word that is composed of a prefix and the main part.
HELENA: Right. “To go out”.
INDA: Right.
HELENA: That’s three words, and in German it is “ausgehen”.
INDA: Right. All in one word. So, “ausgehen” is an example of a prefix verb that gets separated when we use it. So, for example, “Ich gehe Morgen aus.” — “I’m going out tomorrow.” But there are other prefixes that don’t like to be detached from the verb, so it’s just one mass, and you never separate those. Hence, we call them inseparable verbs.
HELENA: We call them what?
INDA: Inseparable.
HELENA: Inseparable.
INDA: “Untrennbar”.
HELENA: “Untrennbar” in German.
INDA: Right.
HELENA: Easier to say.
INDA: Much easier in German. So, yeah, this is what we’re going to talk about today. What does it mean to have a separable verb, or a “trennbares Verb”? And since we talked about the past tense last week, we wanted to show you how to use these verbs, particularly in the present, but also in the past tense.
HELENA: Sounds good. So, can you give me some more examples of words that have a prefix, or verbs that have a prefix? I’d like to hear. Just give me 10, just so I can hear like a little bit of pattern.
STEFIE: So, what is the first thing you do when you wake up?
HELENA: “Aufwachen”?
STEFIE: Yeah, that’s “wake up”, exactly. “Aufwachen” and then you “aufstehen”.
HELENA: “Aufstehen”, right. “To get up”.
STEFIE: Exactly.
HELENA: But you can also get out of a chair, right?
STEFIE: Yeah.
HELENA: “Ich stehe auf”?
STEFIE: “Ich stehe auf”, exactly. So, “aufstehen”; “aufwachen”; “ausmachen”, for example, to turn something off; or “anmachen”, to turn it on; or “ausgehen”, to go out. When you’re in the U-Bahn, for example, and you have to “aussteigen”…
HELENA: Get out. But what if I’m going into the U-Bahn?
STEFIE: You have to “einsteigen”.
HELENA: “Einsteigen”, okay.
STEFIE: Exactly.
HELENA: I know words that are like “erklären”. I know “klären” is the word. Is the “er-“ also a prefix?
STEFIE: Exactly. So, Inda talked about some other verbs who use prefixes but are not separable.
HELENA: Okay. But let’s… First, tell me some examples, some more verbs, that have prefixes, just generally.
STEFIE: Just in general, okay. So, we have “erklären” for example or…
HELENA: To explain.
STEFIE: To explain, exactly. “Verstehen”, “erzählen”…
HELENA: So, “ver-“, “er-“ — those are both prefixes.
STEFIE: Exactly.
HELENA: Okay.
STEFIE: “Frühstücken”…
HELENA: Breakfast.
STEFIE: To have breakfast. There’s a verb for that. German is always very practical in that sense. So, these are all verbs who use a prefix.
HELENA: Okay. But how do I know which verbs are separable and which aren’t? Because that would be the next question.
STEFIE: Yes. So, you have to listen to the way the word is pronounced. So, we have this “trennbares Verb” — separable verb — where the stress is on the “auf-”. It’s on the prefix — “aufstehen” — whereas you have “verstehen”. Where is the stress there?
HELENA: The emphasis is on the root word, correct? In “verstehen”.
INDA: Yes, right after the prefix.
HELENA: Okay. So, because “aufstehen” or “verstehen”, “steh-” is the root.
STEFIE: Yeah.
HELENA: Does it have a definition, “stehen”? “To stand”, right?
STEFIE: Yeah, to stand. Exactly.
HELENA: There’s “understand”. “Stand” is in English, too.
INDA: Yeah, that’s true.
HELENA: That’s so cool.
STEFIE: So, I don’t know why people complain about German. It’s exactly the same as in English. Everything! Now, if the prefix is being emphasized, then it’s a separable verb. If it’s not, then it’s not a separable verb.
HELENA: Okay. So, “aufstehen”, “ausgehen”, “zurückgeben”, “zusammenziehen” — these are all verbs that are “trennbare Verben”.
STEFIE: Exactly.
HELENA: But words like “verstehen”, “erzählen” , “erklären”, “frühstücken”…
STEFIE: Yeah?
HELENA: Oh!
STEFIE: Yeah, “frühstücken” — that’s an exception.
HELENA: Okay.
STEFIE: We always have exceptions in grammar, of course. So, in this one, it’s not separable, but you have the stress on the first syllable, on the prefix.
INDA: Technically, “früh-” is not a prefix.
STEFIE: Yeah, it’s not a prefix. That’s true.
HELENA: Oh, that’s why! Interesting. But it’s the beginning of the word, right?
INDA: It can be misleading because it looks like a prefix.
HELENA: I see. So, I have a question. Are prefixes always going to be “trennbar” or “untrennbar”? Like, I noticed “auf-“ or “aus-“, those prefixes, are “trennbar”. Is it always the case that they’re “trennbar”?
INDA: Most of the times, yes. There is, again, few exceptions, but a good rule of thumb is that the prefixes that don’t like to be detached from the rest, that are not separable, are those that are never to be found on the dictionary, right? Because those are not words that exist on their own. While if you look up, “zusammen” means “together”, “auf” means up, “aus” means “out”,”zurück” means “back”. So, those are words on their own, and that’s why they are independent enough to be detached from the verb while the others, on their own, don’t make any sense.
HELENA: Like “ver-“.
INDA: Right.
HELENA: That doesn’t mean anything. Neither does…
STEFIE: Or “be-“.
HELENA: “Be-” or “er-“.
INDA: Yeah.
HELENA: Oh! “Er” does mean something. That’s a different meaning.
INDA: But, of course, there is one exception I can think of, which is “um“. “Um” is a word. You can find it in the dictionary — it means “around” — and “um” can be used as a separable prefix or not separable prefix. So, we have things like “umziehen”, which is “to move houses”. “Ich ziehe um” — you separate it. But then the verb “umkreisen”, which means…
HELENA: “To circle around”.
INDA: To circle or to orbit — it’s not separable. It’s “Die Erde umkreist…” What does it “umkreist”? The sun.
HELENA: “Der Sonne”… “Die Sonne”!
INDA: “Die Erde umkreist die Sonne.” So, you see here, this is the only example I can think of, but that’s actually a really good question. Prefixes are generally either separable or not separable, and you can learn those on their own. They are less. But I’d rather have you, as Stefie was saying, just listen to the verb and see where the stress is, and you will figure it out pretty quickly. If the stress is in the beginning, it’s separable.
HELENA: That comes in handy when you’re having a conversation, and you’re listening to somebody talk, and they say a word, and maybe you need to repeat it. If you’re paying really special attention, then you can maybe make a correct sentence out of it, depending on where the emphasis of the word is.
INDA: Yes.
HELENA: That’s a really cool tip. So, you mentioned that “trennbare Verben” are separable from another. But what does that even mean? I know you can put one in one place in the sentence and one in another place of the sentence, but what is a pattern that occurs in this sense?
STEFIE: Okay. So, in German, there’s something called “Satzklammer”, which is a bracket sentence structure. So, what that means is — we’ve already seen it — is that the conjugated verb, the part of the verb that changes, goes into second position as usual. And then the other part — in the Perfekt, it was this “ge-” word we talked about — goes in the end. And in this case with a “trennbares Verb”, the prefix goes in the end. The part that doesn’t change just goes right in the end.
HELENA: Can you give me an example?
STEFIE: “Ich stehe jeden Morgen um 9 Uhr auf.”
HELENA: Okay, so the…
STEFIE: “Stehe auf”.
HELENA: “Aufstehen”.
STEFIE: Exactly.
HELENA: And “auf-“ goes at the very end.
STEFIE: Exactly. So, the part that doesn’t change just goes in the end.
HELENA: The very end?
STEFIE: The very end.
HELENA: The very, very, very end?
STEFIE: The very end.
INDA: Remember how Germans like to keep everything mysterious and keep you paying attention to what they’re saying. So, you could be like “Ich stehe jeden Morgen um 7 Uhr…” And then you’re like — What… what is happening? Are you standing up or…
STEFIE: Well, there’s not so much to do. I mean, you can infer the meaning, I guess.
HELENA: In this sense, yes.
STEFIE: In this sense, yeah.
HELENA: I’ve definitely had sentences where I’m talking and when I get to the end of the sentence, I don’t remember what prefix I wanted to use.
STEFIE: Exactly. But, yeah, it’s exactly the same with having the conjugated verb in the second position and then having the part that doesn’t change in the very end.
HELENA: Can you give me one more example?
STEFIE: Yeah. For example, we have this in our story, when the boss is running out of the bar, someone says, “Er sieht alarmiert aus.” Like, he looks like he’s… troubled? “Alarmiert”?
HELENA: Alarmed?
STEFIE: He’s alarmed, yeah. Worried, exactly.
HELENA: So, the word “Er sieht alarmiert aus.”, that means… What’s the verb?
INDA+STEFIE: “Aussehen”.
HELENA: Oh, okay.
STEFIE: So, “sieht” — that part changes. If we’re talking about “er” — “er sieht”. If I’m talking about myself — “ich sehe”.
HELENA: Okay.
STEFIE: “Ich sehe schön aus. Ich sehe heute schön aus.” — I look beautiful today.
HELENA: But it’s past tense, right?
STEFIE: This is present tense.
HELENA: Okay.
STEFIE: “Ich sehe”.
HELENA: So, for another example of the present tense you could say “Ihr seht gut aus.”.
INDA: Danke schön!
HELENA: You guys are looking lovely today. But how would we say it in the past tense? You no longer look good.
STEFIE: You were looking good yesterday, but…
INDA: Yeah, “Ihr habt gut ausgesehen.”.
HELENA: Ugh! That’s very different.
INDA: I know. So, we learned last week that we have this bracket structure of the verb “haben” or “sein” in the second position and then the participle in the end. Let’s recap very quickly what the participles are. So, participles are what we call the “ge-” words, right? So, when we are building a sentence in the past tense, we would use “haben” or “sein” and this “ge-” word, participle.
HELENA: So, “ich habe gesehen”.
INDA: “Ich habe gesehen”.
HELENA: “Gesehen” is the past participle.
INDA: Right.
HELENA: And “habe” is the…
INDA: It’s an auxiliary verb.
HELENA: Auxiliary verb.
INDA: Helping verb.
HELENA: The helping verb, okay. But now we need to add the “aus-“, right?
INDA: Now we have this prefix.
HELENA: Okay.
INDA: And because it’s separable, we don’t put it together. We put it before the “ge-”. So, “ich habe aus-” and then you’ll move on, “gesehen”.
HELENA: Okay.
INDA: So, instead of saying “geausehen”, you say “ausgesehen”. Basically, the “ge-” is the element that is separating the verb from the prefix.
HELENA: Is that one word or two words? Is “aus-” its own word now? Or is it a whole word?
INDA: You write it together.
HELENA: Altogether.
INDA: Yeah.
HELENA: Okay. “Ausgesehen” is one word.
INDA: Yes.
HELENA: It’s not “aus gesehen”.
INDA: No.
HELENA: But the “ge-”…
INDA: It’s a whole compound — prefix, “ge-”, another prefix, and then the verb.
HELENA: Why does German do this to us?
INDA: I know. That’s why words are fantastically long. It’s because you have like ten words in one.
HELENA: Incredible. So, let’s look at another example, just to solidify what we learned.
STEFIE: In the story we have “Er ist aus der Bar raus ge rannt.”.
HELENA: “Rausgerannt”.
STEFIE: Exactly.
HELENA: Okay.
STEFIE: So, that’s also a separable verb, a “trennbares Verb” — “raus-rennen”.
HELENA: To run out.
STEFIE: To run out. Yeah, exactly. So, this is, again, the boss is running out of the bar because he’s… well, something happened there. So, you would have the “ge-” in the middle — “raus-ge-rannt”. You’re separating.
HELENA: Okay. But the verb is still at the very end.
STEFIE: Yes, that’s the…
INDA: Participle.
STEFIE: That’s the…
HELENA: The participle is still at the very end.
STEFIE: Exactly. That’s the past.
HELENA: “Ist”, in this case, is what we talked about last week, the auxiliary verb.
STEFIE: Yeah, exactly.
HELENA: “Er ist aus der Bar rausgerannt.”
STEFIE: That’s right.
INDA: Right. We have a change of location and, therefore, instead of “haben”, we have “sein”.
HELENA: Cool. That’s a great review of what we learned last week.
INDA: Right. And, yeah, just wrapping up, keep in mind — If you’re using a separable verb in the past tense, you will need this “ge-”, to put this “ge-” somewhere most of the time, so you put it between the prefix and the rest of the verb. You separate the verb with the “ge-”.
STEFIE: Yes.
HELENA: But you have to make sure that it’s actually a verb that you can separate.
STEFIE: Exactly.
INDA: Right. “Verstehen” would be…
STEFIE: “Verstanden”.
INDA: Right? So, there is no… This is actually very, very important. The not separable verbs — “untrennbare verben” — not only don’t they get separated, they also get rid of the “ge-” altogether. So, you never have a “ge-” in verbs that have prefixes that don’t get detached.
HELENA: So, I could say “ich habe verstanden”?
INDA: “Ich habe erklärt”, “ich habe erzählt”. So, those are the ones that lack the “ge-”.
HELENA: ’Cause I guess they already have their own little prefix that can’t stand by itself, so you don’t want to add another one — “ge-verstanden”.
INDA: Right.
HELENA: Doesn’t work at all.
INDA: Not at all.
HELENA: You can’t really put them together in this sense.
INDA: Yes.
STEFIE: Exactly. And I have one last tip for you. So, there’s this band I love, AnnenMayKantereit.
HELENA: Called what?
STEFIE: AnnenMayKantereit. Yeah, we’ll put that in the description. It’s a mouthful. And they have this song called “Oft gefragt”. So, if you want to listen to a bunch of separable verbs in the past tense, this is actually an ode to one of the singers’ dads. So, it’s — “Du hast mich angezogen, ausgezogen, großgezogen. Und wir sind umgezogen. Ich hab dich angelogen.” It’s a really nice song as well. And I always recommend this band to German learners because the singer has an amazing voice and it’s so clear you actually understand every word he says.
HELENA: So, he enunciates and he teaches German through song.
STEFIE: Exactly. And he actually started very young, I think at 18, I’m not sure. And he has this deep voice that you wouldn’t believe he’s so young.
HELENA: Wow! Yeah, take a listen. Sounds like a really great way of learning German because melodies get stuck in your head. And if you have a way of connecting a melody to lyrics, you all of a sudden have something that you’ll remember for the rest of your life. I know I still remember all the songs that I had to learn in elementary school for drama class. So, they just really stick with you.
STEFIE: Definitely.
HELENA: Great tip! So, that was a pretty intense grammar explanation right now. If you want to read more about grammar, or practice grammar with quizzes, or, even better, engage in a real-life conversation with a native speaker on online classes, you can go to chatterbug.com and we’ll provide all those resources for you.
Well, that’s a wrap, guys! Thank you so much to Danielle, Inda, and Stefie for joining us for this week’s episode of Long Story Short. A special thank you to our actor Rosa Landers for her reading of this episode.
If you’re following along with Chatterbug’s curriculum, you can find the links to this episode’s topics in the podcast notes and on Chatterbug’s blog.
Long Story Short is from Chatterbug and produced by Weframe Studios. We will have a new story for you next Tuesday. I am Helena, and see you next week. Tschüss!
Want to learn more?
If you’re feeling inspired, sign up below for a free Live Lesson with a private qualified tutor to start speaking a new language for real! Our classes are structured around exercises created by language teachers, so there’ll be no awkward silences – we promise! 😉