To ask “when is your birthday?” in German you can say wann hast du Geburtstag?, or in a more formal situation, wann haben Sie Geburtstag? In this episode of Coffee Break German To Go, Julia asks this questions to interviewees in the streets of Berlin. You can use the answers of our interviewees to help you learn to answer this question yourself.
In the first part of the video, watch the interviews without subtitles and try to understand. In the second part of the video, we’ve provided subtitles in German at the top of the screen. You can choose to turn on subtitles in English using the Subtitles/CC button.
In our first series, Julia is in the city of Berlin, and in each episode she’ll ask passers-by one question. Of course, that one question will result in many answers, and it’s through these answers that you can practise your German and build your vocabulary.
If you’d prefer not to wait for all 10 lessons of Season 1 to be published, you can access downloadable versions of the videos along with audio versions and lesson notes / transcripts in the Coffee Break Academy: https://coffeebreakacademy.com/p/coffee-break-german-to-go-season1/
Join Coffee Break Founder and CEO Mark for this week’s edition of the Coffee Break Catch-up, our weekly show in which we’ll update you on all things Coffee Break Languages. There are discussions on language learning, and a roundup of some of the cultural events happening around the world.
In this edition:
Updates on our latest episodes of the Coffee Break Italian Magazine, En Marcha con Coffee Break Spanish and the launch of One Minute Swedish on our YouTube channel;
a welcome to our new social media assistants who started this week;
a discussion about the origin of some words associated with tennis and how they are related to the French language;
cultural news from around the world
If you’d like to access all the links for this episode and practise your reading skills, click here.
The French Open – les Championnats Internationaux de France de Tennis – is an annual event which takes place at the Stade Roland-Garros in Paris. Since this is the only one of the four most prestigious tournaments in tennis which is held in a country where English is not the official language, we thought we’d take a closer look at the links between tennis and the French language. So, if you “let” us, we’d “love” to “serve” you up this “set” of fascinating discoveries!
Of course, etymology is sometimes not an exact science in that some word origins are not 100% clear. However, we’ve done our best to investigate the words below and we’re excited to share our findings, donc c’est parti !
1. Tennis
Let’s start with the name for “the sport of kings”. Back in 13th century France, a version of what would later become modern tennis was played in which players would hit the ball with the palm of their hand. This game was called jeu de paume in French. In this game, before hitting a shot across to their opponent, it is thought that players would shout tenez (from the verb tenir, meaning “to hold”), to let them know the point was about to be played. Over the years, tenez evolved into tennis, giving the sport its name.
2. Let
A let is always an exciting moment in tennis. During a player’s serve, when the ball strikes the net and topples over onto the opponent’s side of the court, the player is given the chance to retake their serve. This is called a “let” and, due to the net’s starring role in this shot, “let” is thought to be a shortened version of the French word for net, filet.
3. Love
Next on the list is the term we use when a player has not yet scored any points in a tennis game. in English, we say “love”, but don’t be tempted to use amour, the French equivalent! In French, you simply say zéro in this instance. But what is the origin of the word “love” in tennis. Believe it or not it has something to do with the oval-like shape of the zero. Back when tennis was in its early stages in France, people thought that the zero looked like an egg, or an œuf. If we add a definite article, this becomes l’oeuf, and this is said to be where “love” comes from in the English scoring system.
4. Deuce
Our final tennis term is the word “deuce” which is used when two players have 40 points each. There are a couple of theories as to the origin of the word deuce, but one of the most likely is that it is derived from the French phrase à deux de jeu, meaning “to be two points away from winning the game”. It’s also possible that it came from the Old French word for two – deus – now deux in Modern French. Interestingly “deuce” is not used in French: instead when score reaches 40-40 this is called quarante-A. If one player then gains advantage by winning the next point but subsequently loses the following point, the score returns to 40-40. From then on “deuce” is referred to as égalité.
So now you have the perfect opportunity to practise your French further while enjoying watching – or playing – tennis. And if you’re learning another language then you can download our multilingual tennis terms cheat sheet below. According to our scorecard, that makes it jeu, set, match !
