In this lesson we’re looking at the irregular verb être meaning “to be”. Like avoir, être is also irregular so we need to learn each part of the verb as it does not follow the regular patterns.
Month: May 2013
Counting in German: how to write and say numbers
When learning a new language, mastering Zahlen numbers, is a crucial step that can make everyday interactions much smoother. Whether you’re shopping, making a hotel reservation, or simply trying to understand prices, knowing how to count and write numbers in German is essential.
In this guide, we’ll walk you through the basics of counting from 11 to 1000 in German, providing you with the tools you need to use numbers confidently in any situation. Don’t forget to press play and listen to the podcast to help your pronunciation of the bigger numbers.
The basics of counting in German
Before moving on to the bigger numbers, let’s quickly review the foundations. In German, numbers from 1 to 10 are pretty straightforward, with each number having its own distinct word. Going beyond ten is still similar to English, however once you make it past 20, you need to be ready to count differently.
But let’s take things slow and only count to 20 for now.
- elf eleven
- zwölf twelve
- dreizehn thirteen
- vierzehn fourteen
- fünfzehn fifteen
- sechzehn sixteen (note the difference here to sechs)
- siebzehn seventeen (note the difference here to sieben)
- achtzehn eighteen
- neunzehn nineteen
- zwanzig twenty
Counting in German past 20 and all the way to 100
Now that you can order up to zwanzig Brezen at a time, you are well prepared for all food or drink situations. Unfortunately, prices don’t stop here, so let’s have a look at numbers beyond twenty.
To say 21 in German you have to go back to front – einundzwanzig (literally one and twenty). Once you get to grips with this way of counting all that’s left to learn is how to say 30, 40… And you can count in German all the way to neunundneunzig ninety-nine.
- vierundzwanzig twenty-four
- neunundzwanzig twenty-nine
- dreißig thirty
- zweiunddreißig thirty-two
- vierzig forty
- fünfzig fifty
- sechzig sixty (note the difference again)
- siebzig seventy (note the difference again)
- achtzig eighty
- neunzig ninety
- einhundert one hundred
Writing numbers in German higher than 100
When dealing with numbers larger than 100, the pattern remains consistent. You simply combine the numbers you’ve learned so far. Let’s break down a few examples to understand the pattern once more.
- einhundertdreiundvierzig – 143 (literally one hundred three and forty)
- dreihundertzwölf – 312
- sechshundertfünfundsiebzig – 675
As you can see, mastering this pattern is key to accurately forming larger numbers in German. With a bit of practice, this will become second nature.
Practice makes perfect
The best way to consolidate your understanding of numbers in German is through practice. Try writing out different numbers and saying them aloud. Start with smaller numbers and gradually work your way up to larger ones. Understanding numbers is equally important to saying and writing numbers in German, so have a look at these example sentences to test your comprehension skills.
- Das Doppelzimmer für 4 Nächte kostet dreihundertachtundsiebzig Euro.
- Drei Kaffee, zwei Apfelkuchen und ein Stück Käsekuchen kosten zusammen vierzehn Euro.
Counting in German might seem tricky at first, but with practice, it becomes much easier. The key is to remember the pattern of reversing the units and tens and to practise as much as possible. Whether you’re preparing for a trip to a German-speaking country or simply expanding your language skills, mastering numbers is a fundamental part of your journey.
For more practice, be sure to listen to the podcast episode, where you can perfect your pronunciation and hear these numbers in action. Also why don’t you continue and learn some German shopping vocabulary and phrases now that you mastered the numbers.
The CBF Verb Fix 104 – AVOIR
In this lesson we’re looking at the irregular verb avoir meaning “to have”. Avoir is the first irregular verb we’ve discussed here on the Verb Fix. This means that this verb follows slightly different patterns than the regular verbs we’ve covered so far.
Coffee Break Spanish Magazine – Episode 203
After a short delay we’re back with a new episode of the Coffee Break Spanish Magazine. In this episode:
- Alba asks, ¿qué es lo primero que has pensado esta mañana? – what was the first thing you thought about this morning?
- Mark joins Fernanda on a virtual tour of Easter Island;
- and JP and Nahyeli answer a question from listener Iván who wants to know about the nuances of using the immediate future tense (voy a mandar una carta) or the simple future tense (mandaré una carta).
How to say ‘hotel’ in German? Essential vocabulary for checking into a hotel in German
One essential topic to master before going on a holiday to a German-speaking country is how to check into a hotel in German. For this, we first need to learn how to say ‘hotel’ in German and ask for a Einzelzimmer single room or Doppelzimmer double room for example, as well as master some phrases using the verb haben.
In this blog post, we’ll explore the necessary vocabulary and grammatical constructions to make your hotel check-in easier. Don’t forget to press play to listen to the podcast while or after reading the article to improve your pronunciation.
How to say ‘room’ or ‘hotel’ in German
Let’s dive right in and start with some basic vocabulary you need to know when starting your holiday: how to say ‘room’ and ‘hotel’ in German.
- Hotel (n) hotel
- Reservierung (f) reservation
- Zimmer (n) room
Most of these words are straightforward and once we start combining them with the verb haben to have and for example our name, we can start forming sentences to check in to a hotel in German.
- Guten Tag, mein Name ist Samuel Smith und ich habe eine Reservierung. Good day, my name is Samuel Smith and I have a reservation.
Answering questions when checking into a hotel in German
Now that you know how to say ‘hotel’ in German and the words for “room” and “reservation”, you are ready to move forward. Whether you were prepared and booked in advance or just walked into a hotel, once you walk up to reception, there are normally a few questions you will be asked in German.
Let’s have a look at what those might be and how you can answer them.
Guten Tag, kann ich Ihnen helfen? Good day, can I help you? – This question is the first phrase you will hear most likely when walking up to the reception.
- Auf welchen Namen? In what name?
- Haben Sie eine Reservierung? Do you have a reservation? – Here, your answer could be the sentence we saw above, or if your visit is more spontaneous, you could also answer Nein, ich habe keine Reservierung. No, I don’t have a reservation.
How to check in and ask for a room with ….
Now that we have covered the basic vocabulary for checking into a hotel, let’s have a look at some room specifications. To ask for these you can either use the expression we already learned Ich möchte gern(e) I would like, or you can form a question by putting the verb at the start Haben Sie … ? Do you have … ?
Here are some suggestions:
- ein Einzelzimmer / Doppelzimmer … a single room / double room
- mit Bad with a bath
- mit Dusche with a shower
- mit Balkon with a balcony
- mit Meerblick/Bergblick with a sea view / with a mountain view
That’s you! You know all the German you need to check into a hotel during your next stay in a German-speaking country. To finish things off, let’s have a look at a complete hotel conversation. Can you understand everything?
- Rezeptionist: Guten Abend, kann ich Ihnen helfen?
- Frau Siebert: Hallo, mein Name ist Frau Siebert. Ich möchte gerne ein Einzelzimmer
mit Bergblick. - Rezeptionist: Okay, haben Sie eine Reservierung.
- Frau Siebert: Nein, ich habe keine Reservierung.
- Rezeptionist: Okay, ich habe ein Einzelzimmer mit Balkon und Bergblick für 78€.
- Frau Siebert: Das ist perfekt, danke.
Großartig! If you saw the price for the hotel room and weren’t quite sure how you would say that number in German, have a look at our lesson about mastering higher numbers in German.
The CBF Verb Fix 103 – VENDRE
In this lesson we’re looking at the verb vendre meaning “to sell”. Vendre is an example of a regular -re verb. This means that with this lesson not only will you learn to conjugate vendre in the present, perfect, imperfect and future tenses, you’ll also learn to conjugate all other regular -re verbs!
Coffee Break Spanish Magazine Update
Based on listener feedback, we have decided to add the Coffee Break Spanish Magazine free episodes to the main Coffee Break Spanish feed to ensure that our Coffee Break Spanish community is not missing the episodes. From now on, anyone subscribed to Coffee Break Spanish in iTunes or on any other podcast app or aggregator will automatically pick up the free episodes of the Magazine. We’ve backdated this to include episode 1, and this post will ensure that episode 2 reaches the feed too.
Episode 3 will be updated on Monday 13th May, with episode 4 coming next weekend. We hope that you find this useful!
CBF Community Show – 10 May 2013
Introduction
Welcome to this week’s Coffee Break French Community Show where we hand it over to our worldwide community of learners. In this episode our listeners provide their sentences featuring the verb finir, which was this week’s verb in our Verb Fix show. We also share some news about a new development for French learners from Radio Lingua.
Listen to the show
Use the audio player above to listen to the lesson, or make sure you’re subscribed to Coffee Break French in iTunes to receive this lesson and all future lessons automatically.
More tenses, exercises and bonus materials?
The premium version of The Coffee Break French Verb Fix provides additional materials which will help you build your knowledge of French verbs more effectively with your mastery of French verbs. The premium version is in the form of downloadable pdf lesson notes which include the following additional elements:
- Verb tables: each verb is listed in the four tenses covered in the main lesson (present, perfect, imperfect and conditional) so that you can see the written form of the verbs and learn the structures and patterns more effectively;
- Bonus verb tables: in addition to the main tenses we’ve also included the conjugations for the conditional, present subjunctive, past historic, pluperfect, future perfect and conditional perfect tenses;
- Exercises: test your understanding with our translation quizzes – full answer key provided!
- Bonus Audio: don’t want to listen to the whole show again? We’ve included the “Big Four” audio which extracts just the four main tenses of each verb in the members’ version.
The members’ version can be accessed through our membership system. You can purchase the course using the links below. Please note that the lessons are published from April 2013 onwards and you will have access to the materials as soon as they are published. Think of this as a “Season Pass”.
Subscribe links
Please note – if you’re already subscribed to Coffee Break French then you’ll receive the Verb Fix automatically – you don’t need to do anything! If you’re not already subscribed to Coffee Break French you can use the links below:
Purchase Membership | Access Members’ Materials | iTunes link | RSS feed
German restaurant vocabulary – Selecting things from the menu
Enjoying food and drink in a German restaurant is a great way to immerse yourself in the language and culture. After you’ve browsed the menu, having a few useful German restaurant vocabulary phrases can make your time eating out a bit more special and memorable.
In this blog post, we’ll cover some essential language to help you dine out in Austria, Germany or Switzerland. Listen to the podcast to get some more insight into the pronunciation of these new words!
German restaurant vocabulary: expressing how hungry or thirsty you are
Before you order, you might want to express how hungry or thirsty you are. To do that, you can use the following phrases:
- Hunger haben to be hungry or literally “to have hunger”.
- Durst haben, “to have thirst” or to be thirsty.
If you want to say that someone else in your party with you has a rumbling tummy you would say:
- Sie/Er hat Hunger she/he is hungry. It is a matter of conjugating the verb haben depending on who you are talking about when you’re eating out. It’s the same again for expressing someone else’s thirst:
- Sie/Wir haben Durst They/We are thirsty.
Ordering and enjoying your food at the restaurant
When you’re ready to order, here are some phrases to help you: Ich hätte gern(e)… I would like. This is a polite way to order food or drinks. It literally means “I would like to have…”. For example:
- Ich hätte gern(e) dasVanilleeis. I would like the vanilla ice cream.
Once the food arrives, you can wish everyone a good meal using this important German restaurant vocabulary: Guten Appetit! Enjoy your meal! You may also hear Mahlzeit! in Austria or southern Germany.
If you’re having a drink, it’s common to toast by saying Prost! Cheers!
What to choose from the menu?
Here are some popular flavours you may see when ordering desserts or drinks:
- die Vanille vanilla If you were putting it into a sentence to order your dessert, it might go something like this: Ich hätte gern(e) das Vanilleeis. I would like the vanilla ice cream.
- die Erdbeere strawberry If you fancied an ice cream of that flavour, you could say: Ich hätte gern(e) das Erdbeereis. I would like the strawberry ice cream.
- die Schokolade chocolate If this flavour is your favourite for a dessert you might order: Ich hätte gern(e) die Schokoladentorte. I would like the chocolate cake.
Sample conversation in a restaurant
Let’s imagine you’re at a restaurant and ready to order:
- Server: Was möchten Sie bestellen?
- You: Ich hätte gern die Erdbeertorte und ein Glas Wasser, bitter.
- Server: Kommt sofort. Guten Appetit!
- You: Danke! Prost!
In this conversation, did you work out what was ordered? And what customary greetings were used?
We hope practising this German restaurant vocabulary helps you build confidence for when you’re ordering in a German restaurant. Whether you’re enjoying food or drinks, knowing these phrases will make eating out a more memorable experience when you can put your learning into practice.
You already know your way around eating out, but how about finding a hotel or communicating a problem with your room? Can you explain the situation in German? In case you need a hand with that, don’t miss out on the blog post and episode where we give you some useful phrases for a hotel stay in a German-speaking country!
Coffee Break Spanish Magazine – Episode 202
We’re back with a new season of the Coffee Break Spanish Magazine. In this episode:
- Alba asks, ¿qué te llevarías a una isla desierta? – what would you take to a desert island?
- Fernanda tells Mark all about the the city of Buenos Aires;
- and JP and Nahyeli answer an interesting question about a word which listener Rodney has come across in a Mexican soap opera!
The CBF Verb Fix 102 – FINIR
In this lesson we’re looking at the verb finir meaning “to finish” or “to end”. Finir is an example of a regular -ir verb. This means that with this lesson not only will you learn to conjugate finir in the present, perfect, imperfect and future tenses, you’ll also learn to conjugate hundreds of other regular -ir verbs!
CBF Community Show – 2 May 2013
Introduction
Introducing our new Community Show where we hand it over to our worldwide community of learners. In this episode our listeners provide their sentences featuring the verb parler, which was this week’s verb in our Verb Fix show. We also share some feedback from Facebook and iTunes.
Listen to the show
Use the audio player above to listen to the lesson, or make sure you’re subscribed to Coffee Break French in iTunes to receive this lesson and all future lessons automatically.
More tenses, exercises and bonus materials?
The premium version of The Coffee Break French Verb Fix provides additional materials which will help you build your knowledge of French verbs more effectively with your mastery of French verbs. The premium version is in the form of downloadable pdf lesson notes which include the following additional elements:
- Verb tables: each verb is listed in the four tenses covered in the main lesson (present, perfect, imperfect and conditional) so that you can see the written form of the verbs and learn the structures and patterns more effectively;
- Bonus verb tables: in addition to the main tenses we’ve also included the conjugations for the conditional, present subjunctive, past historic, pluperfect, future perfect and conditional perfect tenses;
- Exercises: test your understanding with our translation quizzes – full answer key provided!
- Bonus Audio: don’t want to listen to the whole show again? We’ve included the “Big Four” audio which extracts just the four main tenses of each verb in the members’ version.
The members’ version can be accessed through our membership system. You can purchase the course using the links below. Please note that the lessons are published from April 2013 onwards and you will have access to the materials as soon as they are published. Think of this as a “Season Pass”.
Subscribe links
Please note – if you’re already subscribed to Coffee Break French then you’ll receive the Verb Fix automatically – you don’t need to do anything! If you’re not already subscribed to Coffee Break French you can use the links below:
Purchase Membership | Access Members’ Materials | iTunes link | RSS feed
Ordering food in German: a quick guide for eating out in a café
Ordering food in German can be a fun and practical way to practise your language skills. In this blog post, we’ll cover essential phrases and vocabulary that will help you place your order in a café with confidence.
Whether you’re craving something savoury or have a sweet tooth, these tips will guide you to sample all sorts on the menu! As always, you can listen to the podcast while reading the article to improve your pronunciation skills!
Ordering food in German: how to place your order
Ich möchte… This means “I would like…” and is a polite way to express what you want. For example: Ich möchte einen Döner I would like a döner kebab.
Another common way to order is by saying Ich nehme..., which means I’ll take…. Check out this example: Ich nehme ein Sandwich mit Käse I’ll take a sandwich with cheese.
The server might ask you the question Was möchten Sie?, which means What would you like?. For example: Was möchten Sie essen? What would you like to eat?
Was möchtest du? is the informal version of the question above, used when talking to someone you know well. You could say: Was möchtest du trinken? What would you like to drink?
More ways of ordering food in German
There are, of course, more ways than the ones we have already looked at to say what you want to eat and drink. Here are a couple of other options for ordering food in German:
- Zum Essen nehme ich eine Bratwurst. For food/To eat, I’ll take a fried sausage.
Just as you’d hear Was möchten Sie essen? you’d be asked Was möchten Sie trinken? What would you like to drink?
You could answer the question above using the construction Zum Trinken…
- Zum Trinken möchte ich ein Wasser. To drink, I would like a water.
What you might see on the menu
Here is some German food vocabulary you might find in a café in a German-speaking place. There may be a variety of types of sausage available:
- eine Wurst (f) a sausage
- eine Currywurst (f) a curry sausage
- eine Bratwurst (f) a fried sausage
- eine Bockwurst (f) a bockwurst, a type of sausage
- ein Salat (m) a salad
Ich möchte einen kleinen Salat. I would like a small salad.
It’s worth noting the change here in the word for “a”. This is because for masculine nouns the indefinite article, the word for “a”, changes from ein to einen in the accusative case. We will go into greater detail what the different cases are and when we need to use which one in future lessons. For now just remember the just mentioned change when ordering food or drinks using Ich möchte… or Ich nehme… . You might have noticed already that the adjective klein small, also had the added ending -en.
Again, this is because of the accusative case.
- Ich möchte einen großen Salat. I would like a large salad.
Ich nehme ein Sandwich. I’ll take a sandwich.
There are many possible sandwich fillings, of course. We’ve listed a few popular ones. The good news is that you don’t need to remember a gender for each filling. They simply follow the word mit.
- …mit Käse with cheese
- …mit Hähnchen with chicken
- …mit Schinken with ham
- …mit Pute with turkey
ein Stück (n) Pizza a slice of pizza
Pizza can be found everywhere and in German, you don’t need to say “a slice/piece of pizza”. This makes it more straightforward. Literally, it’s “a piece pizza/cake”. Have a look at some different types of cakes you might see below:
- ein Stück Kuchen a piece of cake
- ein Stück Apfelkuchen a piece of apple cake
- ein Stück Apfelstrudel a piece of apple strudel
- ein Stück Käsekuchen a piece of cheesecake
Are you ready to order? Practise with this example
Let’s see how a typical conversation might go when ordering food in German in a café:
- Server: Was möchten Sie essen?
- You: Ich möchte eine Currywurst und einen großen Salat.
- Server: Was möchten Sie trinken?
- You: Zum Trinken nehme ich ein Wasser, bitte.
Or with something sweet:
- Server: Was möchten Sie essen?
- You: Ich nehme ein Stück Apfelkuchen und ein Eis.
- Server: Und zum Trinken?
- You: Eine Cola, bitte.
By practising these phrases and familiarising yourself with the vocabulary for ordering food in German, you’ll be able to enjoy your café experience and hopefully get what you want to eat with no problem. Guten Appetit!
And how about going out for a meal in a restaurant? Do you have any idea how to order food in a German restaurant? If you need some help with key vocabulary, check out the blog post we prepared on the subject, and feel even more confident in your next holiday!