We’ve been publishing a daily word on Facebook and Twitter and each day we’ve asked our Facebook friends and Twitter followers to post a comment using the word of the day, thereby practising their language skills. This week, in honour of St Valentine’s Day, we’ve focused on the topic of love and we’ve shared the following words and phrases with our community: l’amour, tomber amoureux, les fleurs, je t’aime and un indécrottable romantique. As usual, the Radio Lingua community has come up with some excellent examples of these words in sentences, and that’s what we’re looking at in this episode of the show.
Month: February 2013
Spanish WOTD Review – 20 Feb 2013
We’ve been publishing a daily word on Facebook and Twitter and each day we’ve asked our Facebook friends and Twitter followers to post a comment using the word of the day, thereby practising their language skills. Last week our theme was love, in honour of St Valentine’s Day, and as usual the Radio Lingua community has come up with some excellent examples of this week’s words: enamorarse, las flores, una cita, el amor and un beso.
Episode 304 – Q&A Spanish
In this episode of Q&A Spanish JP and Nahyeli answer questions from listeners Marta, Steve and Joe. Marta needs help with translating “to enjoy” and she also wants to know more about the difference between gracioso and divertido. Joe is wondering about buying a ticket for a sporting event: should he buy un boleto, un billete or something else? Steve wants help saying “it’s no problem” if someone bumps into him. JP and Nahyeli have lots of advice and examples in their answers.
Use the player below to listen to this week’s episode:
If you have a question for our experts, you can get in touch with the Q&A Spanish team at the Q&A Spanish page. Remember that we welcome all questions, even if you’re just starting out with Spanish!
Family in German – essential vocabulary for beginners
Learning how to talk about family is an important step in mastering any new language, and German is no exception. Whether you’re planning a trip to Germany, studying the language for fun, or connecting with German-speaking relatives, knowing the essential vocabulary for family in German will help you communicate more effectively.
In this blog article, you will find key vocabulary and phrases related to the theme. So, keep reading and don’t forget to press play to listen to the podcast episode and master your pronunciation.
Basic terms for talking about family in German
If you are wondering ‘What is father in German?’, ‘How to say mum in German?’ or ‘How to say sister in German?’, fear not! We will start with the basics. Here are some of the most common vocabulary you need to have to talk about your family in German:
- der Vater the father
- die Mutter the mother
- das Kind the child
- der Sohn the son
- die Tochter the daughter
- der Bruder the brother
- die Schwester the sister
- der Großvater the grandfather
- die Großmutter the grandmother
- der Enkel the grandson
- die Enkelin the granddaughter
- der Onkel the uncle
- die Tante the aunt
- der Cousin the (male) cousin
- die Cousine the (female) cousin
If you want to talk about your whole family, your parents or your grandparents, you can use one of these words:
- die Familie the family
- die Eltern the parents
- die Kinder the children
- die Großeltern the grandparents
Introducing family members in German
You already know how to introduce yourself in German, but to be able to introduce your family in German, you will need the terms you learned in the previous section and how to say ‘my’. As with anything in the language, this possessive pronoun changes according to the noun gender and case:
- meine Mutter my mom
- mein Bruder my brother
- meine Kinder my children
It is worth noting that for feminine and plural words, we use meine, and for masculine and neuter words, we use mein. Now that you are familiar with how to say ‘my’, you can form phrases using the expression ‘das ist’.
The good news is that this expression does not change and it’s used to introduce males and females in the singular. Check it out:
- Das ist mein Vater. This is my father.
- Das ist meine Cousine. This is my cousin.
- Das ist mein Kind. This is my child.
Telling how someone else is called
To tell someone’s name, you will use the same verb we learned to say ‘I’m called…’ in German: the verb heißen. For example:
- Mein Vater heißt Hans. My father is called Hans.
- Meine Mutter heißt Nicole. My mother is called Nicole.
- Meine Tochter heißt Janina. My daughter is called Janina.
You can also say:
- er heißt …. he is called …
- sie heißt … she is called …
For talking about your father or your mum and daughter, without naming their relation to you. And don’t forget that the best way to solidify your newly found vocabulary of family in German is through practice. Try presenting your relatives and writing sentences to consolidate what you learned today.
But, what if you have more than one brother or sister? What if you want to say how many cousins you have? You’ll need to know the numbers from 1 to 10 in German! Check out the blog post on the subject!
Episode 303 – Q&A Spanish
In this week’s episode of Q&A Spanish, JP and Nahyeli answer questions from listeners Andrew, Eimar and Suzanne. Topics covered include the difference between hasta la semana que viene and para dentro de una semana; ; the difference between sino and pero; and how best to translate two phrases: “to bump into someone” and “no cheating”. As usual, our experts provide lots of examples to help Andrew, Eimar, Suzanne and the whole Radio Lingua community understand the answers.
Use the player below to listen to this week’s episode:
If you have a question for our experts, you can get in touch with the Q&A Spanish team at the Q&A Spanish page. Remember that we welcome all questions, even if you’re just starting out with Spanish!
‘Where do you live’ in German – How to ask and answer this question
If you have plans of interacting with someone in Berlin, Vienna or Bern, two of the things you want to be able to ask someone are ‘where are you from’ and ‘where do you live’ in German. Especially because this is a fundamental part of everyday conversation, right?
So, whether you’re meeting new friends, networking, or just practising your language skills, knowing how to navigate this topic will help you feel more confident to talk to the locals. In this article, we will explore how to ask ‘where do you live’ in German, how to respond, and some useful phrases that will help you engage in conversation about locations.
Keep reading to check it out and don’t forget to listen to the episode while reading the article to make your pronunciation flawless!
Asking the question ‘where do you live’ in German
If you already know how to ask someone ‘where are you from’ in German, the next step to continue the conversation is to ask where the person lives. The structure to ask is quite simple; check these examples:
- Wo wohnst du?
- Wo wohnen Sie?
As you already know, du indicates a more informal variation of the question while Sie marks the ‘where do you live’ in German formal variation.
Responding to the question ‘where do you live’ in German
When responding to the question, you can keep it simple. The basic structure to answer “where do you live” in German is:
- Ich wohne in… I live in…
This can be followed by the name of a neighbourhood, region, city, town or country. For example:
- Ich wohne in München. I live in Munich.
- Ich wohne in Kanada. I live in Frankfurt.
- Ich wohne im Stadtzentrum. I live in the city center.
Adding more details
To make your answer even more complete, you can add extra details about your living situation. Here are some phrases you might find useful:
- Ich wohne in einem Haus im Vorort. I live in a house in the suburbs.
- Ich wohne in einer Wohnung in Frankfurt. I live in an apartment in Frankfurt.
- Ich wohne allein in Österreich. I live alone in Austria.
And you?
Ok, if the person you are talking to asked you ‘where do you live’ first, how can you ask them back? Simple! You can simply say Und du? Wo wohnst du? or Und Sie? Wo wohnen Sie? for a more formal setting.
Now that you have a good understanding of how to ask and answer the question about where you live, try practising with a friend or language partner. Use the phrases and vocabulary you’ve learned to create your own dialogues.
In sum, knowing how to ask and answer this question is a crucial step in developing your language skills. With these key phrases and structured responses, you are ready to chat with the locals.
To keep learning new, useful vocabulary, read the article where we talk about family members in German!
Send us a voice message!
We’ve added a new feature to our website and Facebook pages: if you have a microphone or webcam connected to your computer, you can leave us a voice message easily by clicking on the “Send us a voice message” on the right hand side of the screen. Please note that for the time being this feature does not work on iOS, but we hope to include an iOS option soon.
If you’d like to send us a voice message to be included in the next Word of the Day Review episode, please also post your message on the CBS Facebook page or CBF Facebook page on the relevant entry to make sure it’s picked up by the team. If you’re sending a question for Q&A Spanish, please make sure you leave your name.
Please be aware that by sending your voice message we may use this in future shows. However, we do not guarantee to use all voice messages.
Here’s a video to explain more:
Spanish WOTD Review – 9 Feb 2013
We’ve been publishing a daily word on Facebook and Twitter and each day we’ve asked our Facebook friends and Twitter followers to post a comment using the word of the day, thereby practising their language skills. This week we’ve been talking about buying things and as usual the Radio Lingua community has come up with some excellent examples of this week’s words: comprar, la talla, el precio, hacer un cambio, and el recibo.
French WOTD Review – 9 Feb 2013
We’ve been publishing a daily word on Facebook and Twitter and each day we’ve asked our Facebook friends and Twitter followers to post a comment using the word of the day, thereby practising their language skills. This week we’ve focused on the topic of eating out and we’ve shared the following words and phrases with our community: l’addition, la carte, l’entrée, commande and réserver. As usual, the Radio Lingua community has come up with some excellent examples of these words in sentences, and that’s what we’re looking at in this episode of the show.
Episode 302 – Q&A Spanish
JP and Nahyeli are back with another episode of Q&A Spanish. In this episode they answer a question from listener Laya about possessive pronouns, and a couple of questions from Sam about how best to say “these days” in Spanish, and also how to say “it can’t be denied”. Find out the answers to these questions in this episode.
Use the player below to listen to this week’s episode:
If you have a question for our experts, you can get in touch with the Q&A Spanish team at the Q&A Spanish page. Remember that we welcome all questions, even if you’re just starting out with Spanish!
Woher kommst du? Learn how to ask and tell where are you from in German
When learning a new language, one of the fundamental skills is being able to ask and answer where someone is from. This is especially useful when travelling and meeting new people. In this blog post, we will understand what woher kommst du means and how to answer where you are from in German.
By the end of this text, you’ll be able to confidently discuss the topic in the language. To master the pronunciation, press play and listen to the episode while reading the article!
Woher kommst du? – askng ‘Where are you from?’ in German
After saying ‘hello’ in German and introducing yourself, you are probably looking for questions to keep the conversation going and to ask someone where they are from is a great way.
To do that in German, you can use the phrase ‘Woher kommst du?’ which translates directly to ‘Where do you come from?’. This is the informal way of asking, suitable for conversations with friends and people of the same age group or younger than you.
For a more formal setting, such as speaking with an elder, a superior, or someone you don’t know well, you should use ‘Woher kommen Sie?’. As you are aware, the use of Sie indicates formality.
Telling where do you come from in German
Responding to the question ‘Woher kommst du?’ is quite simple. You only need to follow a straightforward structure: Ich komme aus, followed by the name of the country or city you are from.
Let’s check some examples and check some countries names:
- Ich komme aus den U.S.A. I come from the USA.
- Ich komme aus Spanien. I come from Spain.
- Er kommt aus der Schweiz. He comes from Switzerland.
- Sie kommen aus Wien. They come from Vienna.
Notice that when you are talking about “the United States” you need the definite article den and when talking about Switzerland, you need the definite article der. But don’t worry too much about the articles and their different forms in German just yet, we will go back to it in another blog post. Other countries
To enrich your vocabulary, let’s check some more countries:
- Schottland Scotland
- Brasilien Brasil
- Italien Italy
- Mexiko Mexico
- Österreich Austria
Nationalities in German
Another way of answering the question ‘woher kommst du?’ is by telling your nationality. You can use the structure you’ve learned for introducing yourself in German: ‘Ich bin…’. This is another way of describing your origin.
For example:
- Ich bin Deutscher/Deutsche (masc/fem). I am German.
- Ich bin Amerikaner/Amerikanerin (masc/fem). I am American.
- Ich bin Spanier/Spanierin (masc/fem). I am Spanish.
- Ich bin Schotte/Schottin (masc/fem). I am Scottish.
- Ich bin Portugiese/ Portugiesin (masc/fem). I am Portuguese.
With this new vocabulary, you are ready to ask ‘woher kommst du’ and answer the question when asked. What a great way to share your background and learn about others, right?
To keep learning more about useful phrases and improving your conversation skills, check out the blog post on how to say where you live in German right now!