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 the transcript of the fifth 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 most valuable for A1 German learners. Our podcast coincides with topics in our curriculum at chatterbug.com. So, if you’re looking to dive deeper 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 hotel and travel, checking into hotel, and describing a room.
Today’s episode is “Im Laufe der Jahre”, meaning “Over the Years”. Anniversaries are a time to celebrate years of togetherness. They also offer us the opportunity to reflect on those shared experiences, perhaps for worse, but hopefully for better.
Over the Years
[01:03]
HANNAH: Dieses Bett ist so klein.
I don’t even think he’d realized. With his attention glued on work assignments, he’d supposedly gotten out of for the weekend. I was uncomfortable, and I wasn’t in the mood to sugar-coat things. It had been a long night of getting nowhere. In a broken-down car, now parked in a repair shop, we’d arrived far from our chosen destination. We were supposed to be toasting a five-year anniversary. Instead, here we were, feeling useless, hanging in a kind of pre-celebratory limbo, just waiting for morning to come so we could forget about the day’s events; not exactly the start I’d hoped for.
ADRIAN: Ach, es ist okay. Immer noch besser als auf dem Boden zu schlafen, oder?
HANNAH:
He assured me, barely looking up from his phone. He was hoping for a truce, but I wasn’t sure how he’d find one without lifting his head from the screen.
Und ich denke, es wäre besser auf dem Boden… Also, wenn du auf dem Boden wärst.
He didn’t respond to my indignant retort. But if nothing else, it got him glancing up, even if it was in exasperation at me. Then he added in amusement:
ADRIAN: Zumindest haben wir ein eigenes Bad.
HANNAH:
He was alluding to the makeshift facilities — shower and toilet included — that formed a corner of the room, with no dividers to cordon it off. I had to stifle a laugh as he continued.
ADRIAN: Ich finde es praktisch, dass die Toilette direkt neben der Minibar steht.
HANNAH:
He said referring to the paper cups precariously balancing on a toilet paper stand.
Das ist ein Witz.
Ironically, I said this, holding myself back from appreciating the funny side of our circumstances.
ADRIAN: Was ist das Problem, Schatz?
HANNAH:
And then another text came through on his phone, which felt fitting. My problem was that it wasn’t just the bed making me squirm. This trip was supposed to ignite something in us, something that we hadn’t tapped into for a while. But it just seemed to be drawing out more the same. Even in these unfamiliar surroundings, we couldn’t shake our played-out conversations, our way of routine.
Kannst du wenigstens die Lampe ausschalten?
ADRIAN: Die ist auf der anderen Seite des Raumes.
HANNAH:
He said. His finger tapping almost accompanied his speech now.
Du bist näher dran.
I protested.
ADRIAN: Um einen Zentimeter.
HANNAH:
He countered. Sulking, I rolled off the end of the bed and made my way over in the orange glow. But in that second, a squirrel the size of a large tabby cat appeared out of nowhere.
Oh, mein Gott!
Just silence on his end.
Oh, mein Gott!!!
Louder still.
Das Fenster! Da ist ein Eichhörnchen neben dem Fenster!
Was he not hearing this?
Adrian!!!
ADRIAN: Was???
HANNAH: Da ist ein Eichhörnchen! In unserem Zimmer!
I wailed.
Das war’s! Wir gehen!
This was the last straw of a very unpleasant string of events. And I refused to just stew in our discomfort. Accordingly, I found myself — Adrian in tow — downstairs, addressing the issue with the night staff on the front desk.
Entschuldigung, wir brauchen ein neues Zimmer.
Adrian whispered to me:
ADRIAN: Ist das wirklich notwendig? Ich habe es nicht einmal gesehen.
HANNAH:
That’s because you were on your phone, Adrian. That’s how you miss things.
FRONT DESK ASSISTANT: Guten Abend! Was für ein Zimmer? Eins mit Aussicht? Oh, tut mir leid. Wir sind heute Abend komplett ausgebucht.
HANNAH:
Perfect!
Okay. Wenn das so ist, dann gehen wir und möchten eine Rückerstattung für unser Doppelzimmer.
Adrian sidled over, clearly uncertain about the new plan.
ADRIAN: Bist du sicher? Ich glaube nicht, dass es Hotels in der Nähe gibt.
HANNAH: Ja, ich bin mir sicher.
I repeated.
Wir gehen und möchten unser Geld für das Doppelzimmer zurück.
Then the man corrected me:
FRONT DESK ASSISTANT: Oh, Sie meinen, Sie möchten auschecken?
HANNAH:
And I did back:
Nein, wir wollen den Raum nicht mehr.
FRONT DESK ASSISTANT: Pardon? Ich bin mir nicht sicher, ob ich Sie richtig verstehe. Sie haben den Raum schon genutzt.
HANNAH:
Frustrated with his bewilderment, I persevered.
In unserem Zimmer ist ein großes Eichhörnchen und wir möchten nicht länger hier bleiben. Bitte erstatten Sie uns den Preis für unser Doppelzimmer.
He was clearly pained by my persistence, replying:
FRONT DESK ASSISTANT: Ich fürchte, das ist nicht möglich.
HANNAH:
But I was not having it.
Welcher Teil? Das Eichhörnchen oder die Rückerstattung?
He retaliated with one word.
FRONT DESK ASSISTANT: Beide.
HANNAH:
Funny how two syllables can set you off! But that was all it took.
Kann ich bitte mit Ihrem Manager sprechen?
I asked. His head lifted from his screen, his eyes suddenly focusing on mine.
FRONT DESK ASSISTANT: Warum?
HANNAH:
He enquired, unwavering. But he knew exactly why. And I wasn’t about to shy away from his challenge.
Weil Sie nicht hilfreich sind.
I then listed a long line of expletives that may or may not have shown me in my best light. And, with that, I was given my marching orders; escorted out into the parking lot alongside a profusely apologetic Adrian. I’ve never been forced off of premises before, so I can admit that I’d probably gone a little far. I guess that’s what a luckless day can do to you. Stubbornly, I wasn’t going to acknowledge this to Adrian though. And so, he proceeded to reprimand me for my apparent lack of manners.
ADRIAN: Es war nicht nötig, so unhöflich zu ihm zu sein. Es ist nicht sein Hotel. Was soll er machen?
HANNAH:
He stood deflated in the middle of the parking lot. I wasn’t finished though.
Es ist besser ehrlich zu sein als höflich.
But then he questioned me.
ADRIAN: Ist das so? Denn wenn wir schon über Ehrlichkeit sprechen, habe ich das Eichhörnchen nie gesehen.
HANNAH:
Did he think I was lying?
Vielleicht hättest du, wenn du nicht ewig auf dein Handy schauen würdest.
He was silent, but, as if on cue, began patting for his phone.
Ist das dein Ernst? Du suchst einfach weiter nach deinem Handy?
ADRIAN: Mist! Ich glaube, ich habe es drinnen vergessen. Ich muss zurück gehen.
HANNAH:
Oh, I guess his phone really did need him. But just as soon as he was at the doors, Adrian was once again ejected from the premises. We had no option but to remove ourselves from the site. At this point, I wasn’t even sure if we should be leaving together. A supposed liar and a fool — What a pair! But a pair we were. There was no one else to escape with but each other. And so, begrudgingly, we did. For the remaining hours of darkness, walking into the night, we discovered a patch of grass to lay down on. It was chilly, and so we found ourselves huddling for warmth. This time there was no bed, no hotel, no obstacle, only the two of us. And when the sun rose, it seemed to soften our memories of the night. Adrian insisted we apologize to the hotel staff, something that this morning felt more reasonable, uncomplicated. After apologies were made, we excused ourselves and decided on a more spontaneous route. As we left, I had the sense that we were lighter. It turned out, we were. The man from the night before came running out after us.
FRONT DESK ASSISTANT: Entschuldigung, Sie haben Ihr Handy vergessen.
HANNAH:
He handed it over, his olive branch.
Oh, danke. Stimmt, das hat er.
I said and I smiled, handing it to Adrian, who was relaxed, zipping it into a back pocket. Turning the corner, I suddenly felt different, peaceful. And then…
ADRIAN: Oh, hey, schau da!
HANNAH:
Adrian reached his arm out. He was pointing at a squirrel — the size of tabby cat — running across the side of the building. We stood for a moment, watching it scurry through the walls. Adrian then rested that same arm over my shoulder, and we continued on. We crossed the road laughing at the ridiculousness of it all. That day we wished each other “a happy five years”. It had been.
Over the Years – Breakdown
[12:10]
HELENA: You’ve just been listening to “Im Laufe der Jahre” or “Over the years”. I’m your host, Helena, and this is Danielle, our A1 German learner, here to break down the story with us.
DANIELLE: Hi, Helena!
HELENA: Hey, how’s it going?
DANIELLE: I’m doing pretty good.
HELENA: Nice. So, what exactly happened in this story? Do you remember?
DANIELLE: Let’s see if I can come up with some things. So, I know that there’s this couple, right? That, I guess, they’re celebrating their fifth-year wedding anniversary.
HELENA: I don’t know if it’s their wedding anniversary, but it might just be their relationship anniversary.
DANIELLE: Okay, right, yeah. I just… I guess I was thinking wedding anniversary, but, yeah, it’s possible that it was just their relationship anniversary. But, anyway, it’s been five years, and I guess they had some sort of big plans planned, and things haven’t been going according to plan. They had like some kind of like… I think their car broke down, and they’ve ended up at this hotel.
HELENA: This hotel on the side of the road, in the middle of nowhere.
DANIELLE: In the middle of nowhere. And the woman, she…
HELENA: The woman, Hannah. That’s her name.
DANIELLE: Okay. Hannah is obviously very, very annoyed. The fact that… You know, I really felt like I was Hannah in this story. But she’s very, very annoyed that things haven’t gone very well and then also that her partner does not seem to be caring very much, that, you know, he keeps like… he’s like staying on his phone…
HELENA: Doing his work.
DANIELLE: Yeah, not really paying attention to her, you know, all of the complaining that she’s doing about everything. And he’s being a little bit sarcastic when he does sort of respond to her. But, anyway, she sees a little rodent in the…
HELENA: A little? I think the point was that it was huge.
DANIELLE: Just a little rodent. I mean, you’re not okay with rodents in your hotel rooms? I mean…
HELENA: I encourage them.
DANIELLE: Yeah. So, there’s like a squirrel, I think, in their hotel room. And so, she has already been complaining up to this point, and then she says, okay, that’s enough! And so, she goes down to the receptionist and, I guess, says that they need another room.
HELENA: Demands it.
DANIELLE: She demands it. And the receptionist basically gives her lip, or he doesn’t respond in the way that she thinks is, you know… somebody working in the service industry should respond.
HELENA: Yeah, but it is Germany, after all, so I don’t know what she was expecting.
DANIELLE: Right.
HELENA: So, after that, she basically gets thrown out of the hotel…
DANIELLE: Oh, right!
HELENA: Because she doesn’t get her room, and then they have to end up sleeping in like a corn field somewhere. So, they end up sleeping in a field somewhere, and, through the experience, they end up coming closer together. So, their hectic, horrible anniversary turned into a bonding moment.
DANIELLE: Yeah, and I think that’s usually how these things happen, right?
HELENA: Yes, you can always laugh at them in hindsight.
DANIELLE: Right. There’s always some crazy, dramatic situation and then, at the end of it, you come together and you’re like — Oh, that’s why I love you; that’s why I want to go through life with you. So, it was a very nice story.
HELENA: Definitely! So, Danielle, have you ever been on vacation in Germany? This episode is a little bit about traveling, and hotel rooms, and the experience of going out to somewhere you don’t know. Have you explored much of Germany yourself?
DANIELLE: I have a little bit. I haven’t been to a lot of places. I’ve been to Hamburg, and Cologne, the Schattwald area, and I’ve been to Munich.
HELENA: Okay.
DANIELLE: So, I’ve had a couple of hotel situations and a little bit of traveling here.
HELENA: Cool. How do you find the hotels in Germany overall?
DANIELLE: Well, I am a kind of a, you know, between a three star… You know, if I’m being budget-friendly, then I’ll do a three-star hotel, but mostly I’d try to go for four-star. Especially when I get away from, you know, from home, I want to be able to have a little bit of, you know, luxury. And so, I usually stay at hotels on the nicer end, and I found them to be pretty good. You know, like, in the story, you see the hotel staff aren’t nearly as friendly and accommodating as they are in the U.S.
HELENA: True. But if you pulled off the side of the road in the middle of America at some random motel…
DANIELLE: That’s very true.
HELENA: I don’t feel like you’d be getting a very warm reception either.
DANIELLE: That’s a very, very, very good point. So, but, yeah, they’ve actually mostly been pleasant experiences. I’ve never really had to complain. I don’t think… I can’t think of any time I’ve had to complain about anything at a hotel. But, yeah, I just always generally find… When I look, I always use booking.com, and whenever I’m on there, people will always like write these glowing reviews, like “Oh, my God! This hotel is so nice!” And I get there and I’m like, “This is… this is okay, but not that nice.”
HELENA: Yeah, I’m wondering how the standards of hotel in Germany compared to the U.S. are different.
DANIELLE: I think just, in general, outside of the U.S., it’s always like maybe a little bit slightly lower, unless you are really, really, really on the high end. Yeah.
HELENA: Interesting. Yeah, I haven’t stayed in that many hotels in the U.S., more of a camping family myself.
DANIELLE: Okay, okay.
HELENA: But, yeah, the hotels I’ve been in have been pretty similar, I think, in Germany and in the U.S.
DANIELLE: Yeah, and one of the things that you will always notice in hotels in the U.S. is they will go out of their way to accommodate you. So, like in the situation that… You know, in the story, you know, they were like, “Okay, there’s no other rooms.” They would figure something out for you in the U.S., or either, like, just comp your stay and say, okay, you don’t have to pay for your stay.
HELENA: Right.
DANIELLE: So, there’s always some type of accommodation, I think, in the U.S. service industry.
HELENA: They’re living off of tips, so I guess that’s where it’s from.
DANIELLE: Yeah, sure, sure.
HELENA: Let’s just dive in and listen to the first dialogue.
DANIELLE: Sounds good.
ADRIAN: Ich finde es praktisch, dass die Toilette direkt neben der Minibar steht.
HANNAH:
He said referring to the paper cups precariously balancing on a toilet paper stand.
Das ist ein Witz.
Ironically, I said this, holding myself back from appreciating the funny side of our circumstances.
ADRIAN: Was ist das Problem, Schatz?
HANNAH:
And then another text came through on his phone, which felt fitting. My problem was that it wasn’t just the bed making me squirm. This trip was supposed to ignite something in us, something that we hadn’t tapped into for a while. But it just seemed to be drawing out more the same. Even in these unfamiliar surroundings, we couldn’t shake our played-out conversations, our way of routine.
Kannst du wenigstens die Lampe ausschalten?
ADRIAN: Die ist auf der anderen Seite des Raumes.
HANNAH:
He said. His finger tapping almost accompanied his speech now.
Du bist näher dran.
I protested.
ADRIAN: Um einen Zentimeter.
HANNAH:
He countered. Sulking, I rolled off the end of the bed and made my way over in the orange glow. But in that second, a squirrel the size of a large tabby cat appeared out of nowhere.
Oh, mein Gott!
Just silence on his end.
Oh, mein Gott!!!
Louder still.
Das Fenster! Da ist ein Eichhörnchen neben dem Fenster!
Was he not hearing this?
Adrian!!!
ADRIAN: Was???
HANNAH: Da ist ein Eichhörnchen! In unserem Zimmer!
I wailed.
Das war’s! Wir gehen!
DANIELLE: I must say I would also be very annoyed with this guy.
HELENA: Yeah, he’s doing his work stuff while they’re on their vacation? Unacceptable!
DANIELLE: Yeah, and he’s like, you know, being… I don’t know, my husband does this as well. When you ask him a question, he’s like, “What?” That’s so rude.
HELENA: They should be like “Yes, darling?”.
DANIELLE: Yes, dear.
HELENA: Love of my life, what can I do for you?
DANIELLE: What can I do for you? That’s the only acceptable way to respond to me calling you.
HELENA: Completely agree. You deserve it.
DANIELLE: Yeah.
HELENA: Wow! Let’s talk about this hotel room. It is a mess. Did you catch all of the German prepositions used to describe where things were in this room?
DANIELLE: No, I would say prepositions are probably the hardest thing for everybody learning a language, aren’t they?
HELENA: Yeah, and this section was full of them. I’m going to do a little bit of a quiz for you. I’m going to say a sentence and you’re going to say where the things are in relation to each other.
DANIELLE: Oh, gosh!
HELENA: Okay.
DANIELLE: Let’s see.
HELENA: Are you ready?
DANIELLE: Hopefully I pass.
HELENA: You got this.
DANIELLE: Okay.
HELENA: “Ich finde es praktisch, dass die Toilette direkt neben der Minibar steht.”
DANIELLE: So, it’s directly near?
HELENA: Next to. What is…
DANIELLE: Oh, “neben”. Oh, okay. So, the minibar is directly next to the toilet.
HELENA: Ding, ding, ding!
DANIELLE: “Neben” is “next to”.
HELENA: Yes.
DANIELLE: Okay. Oh, “Nähe” is “near”.
HELENA: Yes.
DANIELLE: Okay, okay. I mixed up those in words.
HELENA: Oh, that’s tricky. True. Those are very similar to each other.
DANIELLE: Yeah.
HELENA: Oh, man! That sounds very unappetizing, honestly.
DANIELLE: Yeah, that’s disgusting.
HELENA: Okay.
DANIELLE: But maybe the cups are not for drinking alcohol. Maybe they’re for rinsing your mouth out.
HELENA: Oh, I mean, multipurpose.
DANIELLE: Over the toilet is still kind of gross.
HELENA: Yeah.
DANIELLE: Or next to the toilet.
HELENA: Yeah, I think that they said that the cups are on the paper towel stand or something like that.
DANIELLE: Oh, paper towel stand. Usually, they’re sitting on the sink.
HELENA: Yeah.
DANIELLE: I think.
HELENA: And, apparently, their toilet is not even in its own room. It’s just sitting in there.
DANIELLE: Right, in the middle of the room.
HELENA: Not in the middle, but in its little corner. But, yeah, the walls are nice.
DANIELLE: Like prison.
HELENA: Yeah, maybe that’s where they ended up.
DANIELLE: This is basically a motel.
HELENA: Yes.
DANIELLE: Okay.
HELENA: Okay, so here’s another one. This one is a multi-part one. Okay. First, Adrian says, “Immer noch besser als auf dem Boden zu schlafen, oder?”
DANIELLE: “Auf dem Boden.” So, it’s like on the floor?
HELENA: So, “That’s still better than sleeping on the ground, right?”.
DANIELLE: Yeah.
HELENA: And then she says, “Und ich denke, es wäre besser auf dem Boden. Also, wenn du auf dem Boden wärst.”
DANIELLE: Yeah, that would… First of all, if-statements in German always throw me off. So, did she say it would be better… the floor would be better if you were there?
HELENA: Basically. She was basically telling him to sleep on the floor.
DANIELLE: I totally got the spirit of the statement, even if I didn’t understand all the words.
HELENA: Yeah. So, Danielle, I think it’s that “Boden” is closer to “floor”, and “ground” in German can be more roughly translated to “Erde”, “schmutzig”, like the dirt section.
DANIELLE: Okay. Yeah, okay.
HELENA: And a floor, or “Boden”, usually means like, in a house, something that’s like the ground.
DANIELLE: The ground of a place.
HELENA: Yeah, but it’s really…
DANIELLE: Not outside.
HELENA: Yeah, you wouldn’t really say “Boden” to like outside floor.
DANIELLE: Okay. Yeah, ‘cause those two words could get a bit tricky in English as well.
HELENA: Yeah.
DANIELLE: ‘Cause sometimes they’re used interchangeably and sometimes not at all.
HELENA: It’s like “ground floor”. What does that even mean?
DANIELLE: Ground floor. ‘Cause you say “Erdgeschoss”.
HELENA: True.
DANIELLE: Instead of “Bodengeschoss”.
HELENA: Yeah, you don’t say “Bodengeschoss”. That’s for sure. And you can have like a…
DANIELLE: You should totally change that in German.
HELENA: You know what a “Tortenboden” is?
DANIELLE: No. “Tortenboden”?
HELENA: A “Tortenboden” means the bottom of a cake. Like, sometimes, if you have a cake and you’re like putting strawberries on top of it, or something like that, the “Tortenboden” is…
DANIELLE: Oh, Torten-boden!
HELENA: The part of the cake that’s the bottom.
DANIELLE: Ah! So, “Boden” can also just mean “bottom” in some cases?
HELENA: Yeah, it can.
DANIELLE: Interesting.
HELENA: So, it’s a word that’s really not easily translated. I think it’s a situational sort of thing.
DANIELLE: Sure, yeah. Well, anyway, I understood pretty much what it meant. That was just kind of wanting to clarify that — when I use one or the other.
HELENA: “Erde” has to do with like the ground outside, I think.
DANIELLE: Okay.
HELENA: Yeah, and “Boden” refers to the floor in a building. So, back to the prepositions, I was wondering how many German prepositions can you name off the top of your head?
DANIELLE: Oh, gosh! “Neben”?
HELENA: Yes.
DANIELLE: “Durch”?
HELENA: What?
DANIELLE: “Durch”? Like… isn’t like…
HELENA: “Durch”?
DANIELLE: “Durch”. D-U-R-C-H?
HELENA: Yeah, “durch”.
DANIELLE: ”Durch”? Oh, my gosh! “Durch.
HELENA: Means “through”.
DANIELLE: Through. “Bei”?
HELENA: Aha.
DANIELLE: That’s all I got.
HELENA: Okay. There’s “hinter”…
DANIELLE: “Hinter”. Okay, I know “hinter”.
HELENA: “Über”, “unter”…
DANIELLE: Oh, my gosh! I know all those. “Hinter”, “über”.
HELENA: “An”, “auf”…
DANIELLE: “An”, “auf”, yeah. “Aus”?
HELENA: “Aus”?
DANIELLE: No, no, no.
HELENA: Is that a preposition?
DANIELLE: No, it’s not.
HELENA: That’s a prefix.
DANIELLE: It’s a prefix. No, no. “Gegen”?
HELENA: “Gegen”? Is that a preposition?
DANIELLE: Around? Isn’t it?
HELENA: Yeah, that’s a preposition. Wow! Lots of prepositions. And the interesting thing about prepositions is that they’re not really easy to translate, because sometimes one preposition you use in one language and in English you use a different preposition to describe the relationship to something.
DANIELLE: And, I guess, prepositions can’t really be translated. And I think that’s why learners struggle with them in all languages actually.
HELENA: Right. I mean, it’s kind of interesting because it’s a very, how do you say, metaphysical sort of thing to describe objects and space to each other.
DANIELLE: Yeah, sure.
HELENA: I think that’s why it’s not really obviously translatable.
DANIELLE: Oh, yeah. But I think they are a little bit clearer in German than they are in English.
HELENA: You think so?
DANIELLE: Well…
HELENA: Do you have an example?
DANIELLE: So, in English, I know one of the things that people really struggle with is like the difference between “in” and “at”. Like, people really struggle with the difference between those two, like, “I’m at work.”, “I’m in the building.”.
HELENA: I’m in the bus.
DANIELLE: I’m on the bus, actually.
HELENA: Right? You don’t sit in the bus.
DANIELLE: Yeah. So, I don’t know. I somehow… When I’ve learned German prepositions, they feel a little bit more literal than the English ones. There seems to be kind of some reasoning — a little bit — behind. It’s not as random as they are in English.
HELENA: Well, Stefie and Inda are going to go over prepositions in the grammar segment.
DANIELLE: Uh, giddy!
HELENA: Okay. You guys have that to look forward to.
DANIELLE: Can’t wait!
HELENA: And let’s go over a bit of vocabulary of the things in their room.
DANIELLE: Oh, yeah.
HELENA: Can you remember some of the things that they mentioned that are in the room?
DANIELLE: “Boden”?
HELENA: “Boden”. Wow! Good memory.
DANIELLE: Okay. “Bett”.
HELENA: Yeah, which means bed. Not a big leap to make there.
DANIELLE: Toiletten?
HELENA: “Toilette”.
DANIELLE: “Toilette”. You see, I remembered all of the ones that are…
HELENA: That we just went over?
DANIELLE: English cognates. Oh, yeah, that’s true, too
HELENA: And English cognates. That’s true. There’s another one.
DANIELLE: “Zimmer”? No, no, no, “Zimmer” is room. “Fenster”.
HELENA: “Fenster”. And there’s the “Lampe”.
DANIELLE: “Lampe” is lamp.
HELENA: And the “Minibar”.
DANIELLE: My favorite. Minibar… or bar.
HELENA: And then there’s also one more thing, the “Eichhörnchen”.
DANIELLE: The “Eichhörnchen” — squirrel.
HELENA: Squirrel.
DANIELLE: That was like one of the first difficult… Like, I took like a difficult German Words Quiz once, and that was the word that I got. I totally mispronounced “Eichhörnchen”.
HELENA: It’s a really difficult word. It’s full of these “ch” noises, the “ch” sound in German.
DANIELLE: Which, yeah, it’s almost impossible for…
HELENA: Yeah. And it has an “ö”. So, this is also something that a lot of English speakers can’t pronounce. “-hörnchen”, also “-hörnchen”.
DANIELLE: “-hörnchen”, “Eichhörnchen”.
HELENA: “Eichhörnchen”.
DANIELLE: But it’s “Eis-”. Isn’t “Eis” like ice cream?
HELENA: No! “Eis” is, but it’s not “Eis-”. It’s “Eich-”.
DANIELLE: “Eichhörnchen”.
HELENA: “Eiche” is oak tree.
DANIELLE: Ah, so it’s like the animal of the oak tree?
HELENA: “Hörnchen” means horn.
DANIELLE: Oh, the horn of an oak tree.
HELENA: I guess so.
DANIELLE: Interesting. “Eichhörnchen”.
HELENA: So, after a bit of research, we found out that “Eich-” doesn’t have anything to do with an oak tree. It actually means “agile”.
DANIELLE: Which makes sense because squirrels are quite agile
HELENA: They are.
DANIELLE: Especially when they scurry up and down the trees.
HELENA: Or around the trees, playing with each other.
DANIELLE: Or when they want to take your food. Has a squirrel ever taking your food before?
HELENA: No, but a sparrow tried to today.
DANIELLE: A sparrow?
HELENA: Yeah. I was eating pizza. They were aggressive.
DANIELLE: Oh, yeah. A sparrow took my “Brötchen” once actually. I was quite upset about it because I really wanted it. He was very hungry.
HELENA: Poor thing! They’re so aggressive.
DANIELLE: There was one word that I didn’t understand — “ein Witz”?
HELENA: “Witz”?
DANIELLE: “Witz”.
HELENA: That means joke.
DANIELLE: Aaah!
HELENA: Yeah, so Hannah says, “Das ist ein Witz.”
DANIELLE: Oh, okay.
HELENA: After she describes how the toilet’s right next to the mini bar.
DANIELLE: Oh, like this is a joke.
HELENA: Yeah.
DANIELLE: Like, are you serious?
HELENA: Yeah, exactly.
DANIELLE: I felt… Again, I felt the spirit. I was totally Hannah in the room. So, I understood, because I was Hannah, and so, even if I didn’t understand all the words…
HELENA: Did you also understand when she’s like, “Du bist näher dran.”?
DANIELLE: Oh, you are… you are near… Yeah, what is “dran”?
HELENA: Yeah, she’s basically saying you’re closer to it. “Näher dran” — “dran” is just a word, like “you’re closer by”.
DANIELLE: Oh, okay. And he said, “Yeah, only by a centimeter.”
HELENA: Yeah, exactly.
DANIELLE: This guy… My goodness!
HELENA: I mean, they’re arguing about who should turn off the light switch, so, clearly, they’re not having the best time.
DANIELLE: Right, right. But she’s irritated, so he should obviously turn the light off. I’m just really on her side.
HELENA: So, the next part of the story, she’s like, “I’ve had it!” — “Das war’s! Wir gehen!”. She was completely…
DANIELLE: Yeah, that was a really… I loved that! “Das wär’s!”?
HELENA: Yeah.
DANIELLE: Yeah, I really liked that.
HELENA: Oh, it’s “Das war’s!”. Sorry.
DANIELLE: “Das war’s!” I was like, I’m going to start using that. “Wir gehen!”
HELENA: “That’s it!”
DANIELLE: Yeah.
HELENA: And that leads us to the next part of the story.
DANIELLE: Great.
HANNAH:
Entschuldigung, wir brauchen ein neues Zimmer.
Adrian whispered to me:
ADRIAN: Ist das wirklich notwendig? Ich habe es nicht einmal gesehen.
HANNAH:
That’s because you were on your phone, Adrian. That’s how you miss things.
FRONT DESK ASSISTANT: Guten Abend! Was für ein Zimmer? Eins mit Aussicht? Oh, tut mir leid. Wir sind heute Abend komplett ausgebucht.
HANNAH:
Perfect!
Okay. Wenn das so ist, dann gehen wir und möchten eine Rückerstattung für unser Doppelzimmer.
Adrian sidled over, clearly uncertain about the new plan.
ADRIAN: Bist du sicher? Ich glaube nicht, dass es Hotels in der Nähe gibt.
HANNAH: Ja, ich bin mir sicher.
I repeated.
Wir gehen und möchten unser Geld für das Doppelzimmer zurück.
Then the man corrected me:
FRONT DESK ASSISTANT: Oh, Sie meinen, Sie möchten auschecken?
HANNAH:
And I did back:
Nein, wir wollen den Raum nicht mehr.
FRONT DESK ASSISTANT: Pardon? Ich bin mir nicht sicher, ob ich Sie richtig verstehe. Sie haben den Raum schon genutzt.
HANNAH:
Frustrated with his bewilderment, I persevered.
In unserem Zimmer ist ein großes Eichhörnchen und wir möchten nicht länger hier bleiben. Bitte erstatten Sie uns den Preis für unser Doppelzimmer.
He was clearly pained by my persistence, replying:
FRONT DESK ASSISTANT: Ich fürchte, das ist nicht möglich.
HANNAH:
But I was not having it.
Welcher Teil? Das Eichhörnchen oder die Rückerstattung?
He retaliated with one word.
FRONT DESK ASSISTANT: Beide.
HANNAH:
Funny how two syllables can set you off! But that was all it took.
Kann ich bitte mit Ihrem Manager sprechen?
I asked. His head lifted from his screen, his eyes suddenly focusing on mine.
FRONT DESK ASSISTANT: Warum?
HANNAH:
He enquired, unwavering. But he knew exactly why. And I wasn’t about to shy away from his challenge.
Weil Sie nicht hilfreich sind.
HELENA: “Weil Sie nicht hilfreich sind.” That was not a very successful conversation.
DANIELLE: No. Although it was very nice to hear blow by blow a German complaining. That was pretty cool.
HELENA: Yeah, I was gonna ask you. Have you ever had to complain in German?
DANIELLE: You know, it’s really tough, but I am a big complainer in the U.S. Like, I am the person who’s sending food back and who’s like, “You know what? This is not up to my standards.” But, in Germany, because I’m not really a strong German speaker, I tend to actually not complain nearly as much as I do at home. And so, it would be great to actually learn a little bit of complaining language so that I can, you know, be myself here.
HELENA: Well, this time Hannah is on your side, Danielle. She’s got your back.
DANIELLE: I see.
HELENA: So, the first thing she says is, “Entschuldigung, wir brauchen ein neues Zimmer.”
DANIELLE: Yeah. So, “Excuse me, we need a new room.”?
HELENA: Yes, exactly. And Adrian is very embarrassed. And, I mean, honestly, I think, in this situation, I’m a little bit more like Adrian. I’m very non-confrontational. It makes me uncomfortable. And my partner is definitely more of the type of person that will be like putting his needs and wishes first and like demanding it. And, honestly, it’s great to learn how to do this because, sometimes, you don’t want people to walk all over you and…
DANIELLE: Yeah, sure. Because I’m actually quite non-confrontational as well, like with friends and colleagues. But when it comes to me paying my money, then I don’t care.
HELENA: Yeah, makes sense. So, Adrian’s like, “Ist das wirklich notwendig? Ich habe es nicht einmal gesehen.”
DANIELLE: So, it sounds like he was saying, “Is it really that serious? I didn’t see anything.”
HELENA: Yeah, well, “notwendig” means “Is this necessary?”.
DANIELLE: Yeah, right. “Notwendig”.
HELENA: “Notwendig”.
DANIELLE: “Notwendig”. Yeah. “Is this necessary?”
HELENA: Yeah. The front desk assistant then says, “Guten Abend. Was für ein Zimmer? Eins mit Aussicht?” Do you know what “Aussicht” means?
DANIELLE: No, I wrote that down. I didn’t understand what that meant.
HELENA: So, “Aussicht” means “a room with a view”.
DANIELLE: Aaah! So, he said, “Do you want a room with a view?”
HELENA: Yeah. She says, “We need a new room,” and he says, “Hey, what type of room do you need? Do you need one with a view?”
DANIELLE: With a view! Oh, okay. But they’re in the middle of nowhere, so what would the view be?
HELENA: Of the parking lot?
DANIELLE: Of the garden?
HELENA: Yeah.
DANIELLE: Of the trees that the “Eichhörnchen” live in?
HELENA: I have no clue. Maybe it was like a… just a field, cornfield.
DANIELLE: Wait, does the German countryside have cornfields?
HELENA: Yeah, where my mother is from, it’s just cornfields.
DANIELLE: Really?
HELENA: Yeah, in Niedersachsen, yeah.
DANIELLE: Oh, okay. I might say I haven’t been to the countryside in Germany. Whenever I travel around the country, I always go to cities. I mean, I went to Schwarzwald, but that’s just a forest.
HELENA: That’s a forest, yeah. But then he realizes actually they’re “komplett ausgebucht”.
DANIELLE: Oh, so he’s like… Yeah, that’s what I was a little bit curious about. He said… So, you’re asking if they want a room with a view only then to realize, oh, we’re completely booked.
HELENA: Yeah, exactly. He looked in the system and was like “oops”.
DANIELLE: Okay. It would be great if he knew what was happening in his hotel.
HELENA: Yeah, I think so, too, but he’s just a front desk assistant with no power and no overview.
DANIELLE: Okay, sure.
HELENA: And then Hannah says, “Okay. Wenn das so ist, dann gehen wir und möchten eine Rückerstattung für unser Doppelzimmer.” Do you know what “Rückerstattung” means?
DANIELLE: I don’t know that entire word, but I do know the word “Rück-” means back, or it usually refers to return, so…
HELENA: Like “Rückflug”.
DANIELLE: Right. Exactly.
HELENA: Return flight.
DANIELLE: Yeah, but I don’t know the rest of that word.
HELENA: Okay. Yeah, “Rückerstattung” basically just means to get you your money back.
DANIELLE: To get your money back. Okay.
HELENA: Yeah, they want… Yeah, how do you say that in English in one word?
DANIELLE: I don’t think we have a word. I don’t know. I don’t think there…
HELENA: Refund!
DANIELLE: Oh, my gosh! There is a word in English for that.
HELENA: Yeah!
DANIELLE: Refund.
HELENA: She’s like, “Well, then we want a refund.”
DANIELLE: Yeah. And we even… Like, we’ll specify — “I want a full refund” — right? Especially when you’re complaining. I want a full refund!
HELENA: Not just 20% back.
DANIELLE: With taxes back, too.
HELENA: And, yeah, so, apparently, they’re staying in a “Doppelzimmer”.
DANIELLE: “Doppelzimmer”, so a double room. Yeah, that is one thing that’s… I mean, I don’t see double room as often in the U.S. when I’m booking hotels as I see here in Germany, this “Doppelzimmer”.
HELENA: Yeah, I think it means that it’s a room with a bed, with like a bed for two people.
DANIELLE: Right, but in the U.S. it’s usually a room that two people can stay in; one person could also stay in. But here, they specify, “Einzelzimmer” — Isn’t that a single room? “Einzelzimmer”? — or “Doppelzimmer”. But we don’t have this distinction in U.S. hotels.
HELENA: True.
DANIELLE: So, when I was looking for a hotel here in Germany, I kept seeing that. I was like, “Well, if I’m one or two people it doesn’t matter. I just want a room.”
HELENA: True.
DANIELLE: Yeah, but the bed size is different, I guess, between one person or two people.
HELENA: Yeah, I think, and maybe there’s also a bit more room, like around the bed, for two people.
DANIELLE: Okay.
HELENA: Yeah.
DANIELLE: Okay.
HELENA: Yeah. So, Adrian is not really on board with this idea of cancelling the room and getting money back, because he says, “Bist du sicher? Ich glaube nicht, dass es Hotels in der Nähe gibt.”
DANIELLE: Ah, so, “Are you sure? There aren’t any other hotels nearby.”
HELENA: Yeah, he says, “I don’t think there are any more hotels in the area.”
DANIELLE: We are in the middle of nowhere.
HELENA: Hannah’s like, “Ja, ich bin mir sicher.”
DANIELLE: Yes. She’s very… I mean, she’s very resolved that she’s going to get out of this and she’s going to get all her money back. Where does she think she’s going?
HELENA: I do not know. She just knows she’s not staying.
DANIELLE: Okay. I mean, I’ve been angry like that before, though, where it’s like I don’t really care what’s about to happen next; I just know I don’t want to be in this situation.
HELENA: Yeah, yeah. So, the front desk assistant, he is not having any of it and he’s like, “Oh, Sie meinen, Sie möchten auschecken?”
DANIELLE: Do you want to check out?
HELENA: Yeah, “auschecken”. That’s easy.
DANIELLE: But, in Germany, they actually will say “check out” in the hotels as well.
HELENA: Yeah, it’s been… I mean, I guess you want to have international language in hotels so people know what… I mean, foreigners know what they’re talking about. “Abreise”.
DANIELLE: “Abreise”.
HELENA: So, you can also say… When you’re leaving the hotel, you can say “Ich muss heute abreisen.”.
DANIELLE: “Abreisen”.
HELENA: So, that means “to leave”. So, after a few more exchanges that don’t get her anywhere, where she’s like, “Please give me the money back! Give me the room! I don’t want the room anymore!”…
DANIELLE: So, is the receptionist… Is he not clear what she’s asking or is he like intentionally playing dumb?
HELENA: I think he’s intentionally playing dumb.
DANIELLE: Yeah. It’s like — Are you being obtuse? Because I’m being quite clear. I want my money back!
HELENA: He just doesn’t want to give the money back. And I guess she literally can’t do anything about it, and it’s not making her happy. Towards the end Hannah’s like, “Kann ich bitte mit Ihrem Manager sprechen?”
DANIELLE: Ooh! I know what that means. “Can I speak with your manager?” And I know that because I say that a lot, not in German, but…
HELENA: Now you know how to say it in German.
DANIELLE: Now I know how to say it in German. “Kann ich mit deinem Manager sprechen?”
HELENA: Yeah, but you would usually use the formal phrasing, so it would be “Kann ich bitte mit Ihrem Manager sprechen?”.
DANIELLE: “Ihrem”. Ah, okay, “mit Ihrem Manager sprechen”. “Sprechen” — that “ch” is so difficult. “Sprechen” or “sprechen”?
HELENA: “Sprechen”.
DANIELLE: “Sprechen”.
HELENA: Instead of “Manager” you can also say “Vorgesetzten”.
DANIELLE: “Kann ich mit Ihrem Vorgesetzten sprechen?”
HELENA: “Vorgesetzter”.
DANIELLE: “Vorgesetzter”. Oh, German, I love you. German, ich liebe dich.
HELENA: Let’s move on to the next part.
DANIELLE: Okay.
ADRIAN: Es war nicht nötig, so unhöflich zu ihm zu sein. Es ist nicht sein Hotel. Was soll er machen?
HANNAH:
He stood deflated in the middle of the parking lot. I wasn’t finished though.
Es ist besser ehrlich zu sein als höflich.
But then he questioned me.
ADRIAN: Ist das so? Denn wenn wir schon über Ehrlichkeit sprechen, habe ich das Eichhörnchen nie gesehen.
HANNAH:
Did he think I was lying?
Vielleicht hättest du, wenn du nicht ewig auf dein Handy schauen würdest.
He was silent, but, as if on cue, began patting for his phone.
Ist das dein Ernst? Du suchst einfach weiter nach deinem Handy?
ADRIAN: Mist! Ich glaube, ich habe es drinnen vergessen. Ich muss zurück gehen.
HELENA: Poor Hannah!
DANIELLE: I know!
HELENA: Got thrown off the property.
DANIELLE: I know! It’s like… Have you ever been escorted out of a place?
HELENA: Yeah, I have been escorted out of Oktoberfest. That’s a story for another time.
DANIELLE: Oh, okay. I would like to hear that story. But, yeah, there was actually a lot that I did not catch in this part of the dialogue.
HELENA: Okay. Yeah, it was pretty tricky. I think a good place to start is when Hannah says, “Es ist besser ehrlich zu sein als höflich.”
DANIELLE: Yeah, that, I… ‘Cause I know “höflich” means like “hope/to hope/hoping” or something…
HELENA: No.
DANIELLE: It doesn’t?
HELENA: No, “hoffen” is “to hope”. “Höflich” means “polite”.
DANIELLE: Ah, okay. Then that’s probably why I wasn’t catching that exchange.
HELENA: Yeah, Adrian says, “Es war nicht nötig, so unhöflich zu ihm zu sein.”
DANIELLE: You weren’t being polite to him?
HELENA: Yeah, Adrian says, “Es war nicht nötig, so unhöflich zu ihm zu sein.”
DANIELLE: Okay. So, “It wasn’t necessary to be impolite to him.”
HELENA: Yeah, exactly.
DANIELLE: Okay.
HELENA: So, “nötig” means “necessary”.
DANIELLE: Necessary. But “höflich” never means “hope”?
HELENA: No.
DANIELLE: Oh, my gosh! Where did I get that from?
HELENA: I don’t know. It’s close — “hoffen”.
DANIELLE: “Hoffen”, okay.
HELENA: Yeah, but “höflich”, it comes from the word “Hof”, and it goes back to the days of the German courts. Like, I don’t know if I can explain this right now, but, like, the German palaces and, you know, when the French were on the top of the world with King Louie, and they had all this extravagant wealth, and the “Hof” was the…
DANIELLE: Was the court.
HELENA: Not the court system but like court life.
DANIELLE: Oh, yeah. Yeah, yeah, okay. “Court” in that sense, palace life.
HELENA: Palace life, yeah.And this word, “Hof”, like the “Innenhof”, which means “courtyard”. So, that’s a way you can remember it.
DANIELLE: “Innenhof” Oh, okay, okay. Nice.
HELENA: “Höflich” means polite.
DANIELLE: Okay. “Höflich” means polite.
HELENA: To be like a king or a royal. Yeah, to be…
DANIELLE: Talk as if you were talking to a king.
HELENA: Yeah, exactly, yeah. And then she says… well, let’s… going back to this first quote I mentioned, “Es ist besser ehrlich zu sein.” Do you know what “ehrlich” means?
DANIELLE: No.
HELENA: So, “ehrlich” means “honest”. She says, “It’s better to be honest than it is to be polite.”
DANIELLE: Polite. Oh! Which is very true. And it’s a very German principle, isn’t it?
HELENA: I don’t know. I feel like Germans can actually be very polite.
DANIELLE: Actually, Germans can be very polite, but they are honest at the same time. They’re both.
HELENA: Yeah, they’re polite and direct.
DANIELLE: Yeah, they are both, yeah.
HELENA: And I think, common to popular belief, Germans can also be passive-aggressive.
DANIELLE: Really?
HELENA: Yeah. Have you seen those notes around Berlin? Of Germans, like… “Notes of Berlin” is about a bunch of pictures of notes taken by people writing like passive-aggressive posted notes basically. And they leave them like in the hallway of their “Wohnungen”.
DANIELLE: Oh, yeah, I have seen those, yeah.
HELENA: Yeah, complaining about stuff.
DANIELLE: Yeah. We have a “Kinderwagen”, a stroller, that we leave right by the elevator because we have a little half staircase that we have to go up to our apartment and we have one of those really big sturdy strollers. And so, we always leave it by the elevator, and we got one of those very passive-aggressive notes. But the thing is we read through, and I can pick up most of the words, but there were like a few words that I didn’t understand. So, I just did a quick little Google translate and I was like, “Aaah! They’re telling me to put my stroller away without saying that directly.”
HELENA: Oh, okay, so they weren’t like “Put your stroller away!”. They were like “Es wäre schön, wenn…”
DANIELLE: Exactly. “It’s a bit difficult when you need to get out of the elevator when the stroller is there.” It was kind of like that.
HELENA: And you’re like — Are you being so nice because you really are nice, or are you being so nice because you’re being passive-aggressive about it? I think there’s a fine line there.
DANIELLE: Sure.
HELENA: So, later, Hannah says in response to Adrian noticing that he has his phone missing and he’s looking for it…
DANIELLE: What’s “Ernst”?
HELENA: “Ernst” means “serious”.
DANIELLE: Oh, is it that serious?
HELENA: Well, no. She says, “Ist das dein Ernst?” Means “Are you serious?”.
DANIELLE: “Are you serious?” Oh, okay.
HELENA: Like… but, like, not in the way like “are you serious” like being…
DANIELLE: No. Like, “Are you kidding me?”.
HELENA: Yeah, exactly. That’s what it means.
DANIELLE: Okay. Nice. “Ist das dein Ernst?”
HELENA: It’s another one you can use, Danielle.
DANIELLE: I can use it with my husband tonight.
HELENA: And then the last few exchanges is the front desk assistant. When Hannah has realized, okay, maybe I overreacted; I’m going to go back to the hotel and apologize. And the front desk assistant then sort of in apology back says, “Entschuldigung, aber Sie haben Ihr Handy vergessen.”
DANIELLE: Ooh! “Excuse me, you forgot your cell phone.”
HELENA: Exactly. So, he’s like, okay, I’ll I remind you that you forgot your cell phone and not make you drive away and then drive back. And then…
DANIELLE: Well, that was nice. Even though she had been not so nice to him.
HELENA: Yeah, and then Hannah says, “Oh, danke. Stimmt, das hat er.”
DANIELLE: “Stimmt”. Yeah, so “stimmt”… I guess she means like “Okay, great!” maybe?
HELENA: Yeah, she means “Oh, that’s right.”
DANIELLE: Oh, that’s right.
HELENA: Or “True!”.
DANIELLE: So “stimmt” is like this word that I hear all the time in Germany. And so, I’m assuming there are like lots of different ways that you can use it.
HELENA: Yeah, you can. Well, basically, it’s like a way to say you agree with something.
DANIELLE: Okay.
HELENA: So, it’s basically saying “right” or “sure”.
DANIELLE: Okay.
HELENA: “Yeah, totally!”
DANIELLE: Or “okay”.
HELENA: Yeah, so just like “stimmt”.
DANIELLE: Yeah, “stimmt”.
HELENA: I think that’s… Like, when you’re in conversation, you can say “stimmt” if you agree with the person you’re talking.
DANIELLE: Oh, okay.
HELENA: Yeah.
DANIELLE: Okay. So, is that one of those words that’ll make me sound like a real German speaker if I’m like “Ach, stimmt!”?
HELENA: Genau!
DANIELLE: Okay. “Genau” is another one.
HELENA: Yeah, they have very similar meanings.
DANIELLE: Okay, cool.
HELENA: But you can say, which means “I agree”. That’s a bit more of a formal way of saying it.
DANIELLE: Okay. So, if I don’t know the person, then I could say “Ich stimme zu.”.
HELENA: Yeah. You can say that, but also means… Like, if you’re in a heated debate with somebody maybe, and they make a good point, then instead of “stimmt”, you can say “Ich stimme zu.”.
DANIELLE: Okay. If you want to be… make sure you’re being polite in the disagreement.
HELENA: Yeah. Or it’s just like a bit more of a formal way of saying it.
DANIELLE: Okay, “Ich stimme zu.”. But if it’s somebody that I’m friendly with and everything’s okay — “Stimmt!”
HELENA: Uh-huh.
DANIELLE: Okay, cool.
HELENA: Yeah, I think that’s it. So, Danielle, now you know how to complain, and you know a little bit about prepositions.
DANIELLE: I do. I’m going to go out and start complaining here in Germany.
HELENA: I wish you the most luck.
DANIELLE: Thanks!
Grammatically Speaking
[50:22]
HELENA: As you know, I am not an official language teacher. So, let’s hear from our wonderful in-house teachers, Inda and Stefie, on some memory techniques you can use to retain all that vocabulary we’ve learned today. They will also go over a way to remember all those tricky prepositions we’ve looked at.
STEFIE: Thanks, Elena! This week’s episode is about prepositions.
SPEAKER 1:
Please send it to me until Friday.
I live in Berlin. I moved here for three years.
I worked since two years for this company.
I worked by Chatterbug.
I am in the bus.
STEFIE: So, these are some of the most common mistakes German native speakers make in English. Did you notice that prepositions where the problem in every sentence?
INDA: If there is one thing that cannot be translated, that’s prepositions.
STEFIE: So, let’s take a look at those mistakes and understand where they come from. We have the first sentence — “Please send it to me until Friday.”
INDA: Bitte schick es mir bis Freitag.
STEFIE: I live in Berlin. I moved here for three years.
INDA: Ich wohne in Berlin. Ich bin vor drei Jahren hergezogen.
STEFIE: I work since two years for this company.
INDA: Ich arbeite seit zwei Jahren für diese Firma.
STEFIE: I work by Chatterbug.
INDA: Ich arbeite bei Chatterbug.
STEFIE: I am in the bus.
INDA: Ich bin im Bus.
STEFIE: Okay. So, basically, our tip here is — Do not translate prepositions!
INDA: Yes, most prepositions, in almost every other language I know, are very idiomatic. So, when you start translating prepositions, looking them up in a dictionary, you either end up with a lot of different meanings for preposition, which is very confusing and not very helpful, or it’s misleading and you end up making this kind of mistakes. So, as always, I prefer to advice people to learn some grammatical structures that are pretty inconsistent, unpredictable, to learn them in chunks. So, write sentences that are very common, very helpful, and then just learn them as chunks.
STEFIE: Yeah, so you could create flashcards, for example, with a couple of chunks. For example, “Ich arbeite bei Google/Facebook.”, or “Ich wohne in Berlin/in Frankreich/in Deutschland seit… Jahren.”, or “Ich bin im Bus/in der U-Bahn/in der Straßenbahn.” and so on.
INDA: Right. There is a group of prepositions that are semantically predictable, kind of more understandable, and even perhaps you will get ahead with translating. So, those are the local prepositions. They describe where an object or a person are located, so just “at”, “on”, “over”, “beside”. You will find on the internet lots of explanations about why these are tricky in their own right. It’s because of the declension. They’re called “Wechselpräpositionen“. These are in their own right a little bit complicated because of the grammar. So, they’re called “Wechselpräpositionen“, or “changing prepositions” if you want to translate it, because they are followed by accusative or dative.
STEFIE: Exactly!
INDA: So, in the previous examples, we’ve learned dative preposition and active accusative prepositions.
STEFIE: The propositions that just go with accusative and the ones who go just with dative, but there are others that go with both, depending on the context. “I’m there.” — so, you’ll use the dative, “Wo?”, “Where are you?”, instead of using the accusative, which you will use when you want to say where you’re going to go, for example. So, you’re moving from one place to the other. “Ich gehe in den Supermarkt.” — “I am going to the supermarket.” and not “I am in the supermarket.” — “Ich bin im Supermarkt.”.
INDA: Yes. So, German uses “in” for what English uses “to”. And you just gave that example, right? “Ich gehe in den Supermarkt.” It means “I’m going to the supermarket.”. So, sometimes “in” can mean “to” when it’s this motion in place, and you express the motion in German using accusative. You would express the static notion using the dative.
STEFIE: Exactly. So, the proposition “in” is to say you’re going inside somewhere, for example. So, it’s very, very visual actually. Whether if you’re just saying, for example, “My cup is on the table.”, you would use a different proposition, “auf”.
INDA: Yeah, and this is something that might also change from language to language. You can say in English “I am in the in the parking lot.”, and in German is “auf dem Parkplatz” because German is way more literal. So, if you are going to use “in”, it has to be a place that is closed.
STEFIE: It has to have walls.
INDA: It has walls. An interesting difference is also, for countries, you would say “in”, you know, imagining there’s these metaphorical borders. I guess you are inside some territory, right? But for islands, you would say “auf”.
STEFIE: “Auf Maiorca”.
INDA: So, yeah, there are plenty of examples in the story. I remember one that says “Da ist ein Eichhörnchen in unserem Zimmer!”. So, again, here you’re using “in” because the room is a place with walls, and then you use the dative, “in unserem Zimmer”. So, yeah, memory.
STEFIE: That’s one of the common mistakes — the “in” and “auf” — for people to grasp because you have like a lot of different translations in different languages.
INDA: So, I got a crazy idea to help you memorize these changing prepositions, or nine of them.
STEFIE: Exactly. I’ll just list them very briefly. So, we have “vor”, which is “in front of”; “hinter”, behind; “über”, over; “unter”, under; “neben”, next to; “an”, at; “auf”, on; “im” which is “in”; and “zwischen” in-between two things.
INDA: Yeah, we always like to give you tips and tricks to memorize grammar. I hope the explanation was helpful, but it’s a long way to remember these things. Yeah, project-based learning — Have you heard of that?
STEFIE: Yes, of course. It’s a way to actually practice what you’ve been learning while doing something.
INDA: Yeah. Since we are in the era of selfies, I thought why not grabbing an object — a banana, your cat — taking some selfies, placing the objects over your head, under your head, behind your head, and just writing the caption “auf dem Kopf”, “über dem Kopf”, “hinter dem Kopf”, and so on and so forth so you’ll be practicing these prepositions. And, yeah, just share them with your loved ones and learn German while you do.
STEFIE: And remember — Wir sind immer für euch da.
HELENA: Uff! Those prepositions sure are pesky, but with a little bit of practice, I’m sure you’ll be able to master them in no time.
That’s a wrap! Vielen Dank to Danielle, Inda, and Stefie for joining us, and a special thanks to our actor Jelena Markovic for her reading of this episode.
If you’re following along with Chatterbug’s curriculum, you can find 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’m Helena, und bis bald!
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