LESSON NOTES

Absolute Beginner S1 #1
Is Your Coee as Strong as Your
German Apologies?

CONTENTS
2 German
2 English
3 Vocabulary
4 Sample Sentences
5 Vocabulary Phrase Usage
5 Grammar
6 Cultural Insight

# 1
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 GERMAN

1. (A spills his water onto the next passenger's lap)

2. A: Oh! Entschuldigung! Entschuldigung, es tut mir wirklich leid.

3. D: Es ist schon okay.

4. A: Sind Sie sicher?

5. D: Ja. Es ist okay.

6. A: Sind Sie wirklich sicher?

7. D (grins): Ja. Es ist nur Wasser.

8. A: Kein Problem?

9. D: Nein, kein Problem.

10. A: Ich bin Joe Cardigan, und Sie?

11. D: Ich bin Anke Lwen.

ENGLISH

1. (A spills his water onto the next passenger's lap)

2. A: Oh! Excuse me! ... Excuse me, I'm really sorry.

3. D: It's okay.

CONT'D OVER

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4. A: Are you sure?

5. D: Yes. It's okay.

6. A: Are you really sure?

7. D (grins): Yes. It's just water.

8. A: No problem?

9. D: No, no problem.

10. A: I'm Joe Cardigan, and you?

11. D: I'm Anke Lwen.

VOCABULARY

Ge r man English C lass Ge nde r

wirklich really adverb

personal pronoun;
ich I nominative

nein no particle

Wasser water noun neutral

nur only, just adverb

ja yes particle

sicher sure adjective

Sie you (formal) personal pronoun

schon already adverb

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 es it pronoun

sein to be verb

und and conjunction

SAMPLE SENTENCES

Ich m a g d i e se n Fi l m w i rkl i ch se h r. D i e se Sta d t i st w i rkl i ch g ro .

I really like this movie! This city is really big.

D a s w a r w i rkl i ch l e cke r. Ich h a tte l e tz te Wo ch e so vi e l z u

tu n !
This was really yummy.
I was so busy last week!

Ich bi n L i sa . N e i n , i ch bi n n i ch t a u s K l n .

I am Lisa. No, I am not from Cologne.

U n d d e r Ka h n so l l u n s w i rkl i ch h e i l Ei n G l a s Wa sse r o h n e Ko h l e n s u re
be r d a s Wa sse r bri n g e n ? bi tte !

And this barge is really supposed to bring A glass of water without carbonation
us safely over the water? please!

Ich h a be n u r a m So n n ta g Z e i t. Ich e sse n u r G e m se .

I am only free on Sunday. I only eat vegetables.

N a sch n , d u h a st j a R e ch t. J a , d a s sti m m t.

Fair enough, you're right. (In the sense of Yes, that's right.
"I'm giving in.")

Bi st d u d i r si ch e r? H a be n Si e e i n e a n d e re Kre d i tka rte ?

Are you sure? Do you have another credit card?

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Si e si n d H e rr Sm i th . Bi st d u sch o n m d e ?

You are Mr. Smith. Are you tired already?

Es i st j e tz t h a l b z e h n . Es i st 1 1 U h r.

It is now half past nine. (half ten) It's 11:00.

Ich bi n a u s D e u tsch l a n d . Es i st e i n e Ka m e ra .

I am from Germany. It's a camera.

Th o m a s u n d L i sa .

Thomas and Lisa.

VOCABULARY PHRASE USAGE

Sie = you, formally. There is a notion of formality in German, just like in French, Spanish,
Italian and other languages. If you're addressing somebody by their family name, you should
also call them Sie and use the corresponding form of the verbs. If you're addressing
somebody by their first name, you will usually use another pronoun, du. The formal address
is the default in German unless you're talking to children or people who explicitly asked you to
switch to an informal address. As a foreigner, you'd do well to address everybody as Sie
initially.

GRAMMAR

Th e fo cu s o f th i s l e sso n i s th e ve rb "se i n " (to be )

Ich bi n J o e .
"I a m J o e ."

In this lesson we've seen three forms of the verb sein, to be. This verb is irregular in almost
all languages, and German is no exception. Here are the forms we've seen;

sein to be

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ich bin I am

es ist it is

Sie sind you are (formally)

We've also seen that German word order corresponds to English so far. When you're asking
a question, the verb moves to the front of the sentence in German, just like in English.

Sind Sie Joe? = Are you Joe?

Sind Sie sicher? = Are you sure?

CULTURAL INSIGHT

Apo l o g i z i n g a n d re a cti n g

The most general word of apology in German is Entschuldigung. This literally means
apology, and it's used in most situations:

when you've accidentally done something bad

when you want somebody's attention

when you want people to make room

It is NOT used when somebody tells some sad news about themselves, because that is not
something you should apologize for unless you had any stake in it.

If you need something stronger than Entschuldigung, use Es tut mir leid (literally it does
me harm). And you can make it even stronger by adding an adverb before the leid.

Es tut mir wirklich leid. - I'm really sorry.

Es tut mir sehr leid. - I'm very sorry.

To accept an apology informally, say;

Es ist (schon) okay. - It's okay (now).

Kein Problem. - No problem.

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