Another amusing discussion from Charles J. James, U of Wis-Madison.
When you boil it all down, German, like English, is composed at its heart of short, one and two syllable words, where one of the syllables is frequently some kind of morphosyntactic or semantic marker. Anyway, here is one page of single syllable words in German, most of which are very common and which form the basis for longer words. There are, of course, many more. I see, for example, that I forgot das Blei but did include der Stift, ergo Bleistift.
Like Band (der, die, das), a couple of words in the list can be more than one form class. There is a different between das Stift and der Stift, just as there is between das Schild and der Schild.
words-of-one-syllable department
DAS
buch kind jahr holz bein knie
hemd licht heft bild schild brett
bett ohr haus land wort reh
huhn rad blatt schwein kalb netz
nest glas loch band haar kinn
lied leid pferd herz tuch bier
tier kleid meer ding stueck werk
lid stift seil schiff boot obst
DIE
wand frau hand bahn frau maus
laus tuer nacht kuh bank burg
fahrt zahl wahl qual welt zeit
macht kraft schuld wurst stadt milz
stirn frucht angst furcht tat wut
DER
mann ball tag stuhl grund knopf
ring fuss arm rock stift zahn
mund zug fall band kopf hals
stern schuh hund punkt satz bock
tisch freund koch fluss frosch bach
strom hof stamm baum stein brief
raum blick wind band draht wein
schrank see mond rat berg stock
wald bauch lauch schwung witz saal
sohn spass stich strick strich streich
This is a handout to encourage students to build up a repetoire of short but useful expressions in German. These seems to be the most useful single word expressions in German. You hear them often enough!
BITTE: Bitte can make anything you say more polite. It means "can I help you?" "would you repeat?" "here you are" "you're welcome" "go ahead" etc.
WIE: Literally "how," wie? is used in many situations where English speakers say "what?" In other words, don't say "Was?!" for English "What?!" Say Wie? or Wie bitte?
DANKE: Danke means "thank you." But watch out! If somebody asks you if you want something and you do want it, say bitte (ja). If you don't want it, say danke (nein). Watch your timing, however: once you have it, say danke, but not before.
ICH: Literally "I", ich and other pronouns in the Nominativ are used to point to somebody. English uses expressions like "it's me" or "that's him" German always uses ICH, DU, ER, SIE usw. There's a knock at the door. You ask Wer ist da? The person on the other side says Ich bin's! Remember the flowers in Sesamstra½e (Ich bin's! - Nein, ich bin's!)? You see a friend on the street and say to yourself: Das ist er! Obviously, if you have sentences that call for the Akkusativ, the pronoun would also be Akkusativ: Wen meinen Sie? Mich? Ihn? ... Same goes for Dativ: Wem gibst du den Ring? Ihm? Ihr? Mir? ...
"THING": The German word "Ding" is used much much much less often than its English equivalent. Much more often used is Sache ("thing" or "matter" or "affair" or "object") VORSICHT: If you mean something like "the nice thing (about living in Madison)" or "the most important thing (in life)" you may not under any circumstances use "Ding." You must use an Adjektiv after "das" as in das Sch ne (am Leben in Madison) or das Wichtigste (im Leben) or Das Seltsamste (an den Amerikanern). "One thing (that I like)" is simply eins or ein(e)s (was ich mag).
ALSO: English speakers like to sprinkle the word "so" throughout their speech ("So I said to him ..." "So we went home ..."). German speakers do the same, except they use also (Also habe ich ihm gesagt ... Also sind wir nach Hause gegangen ...). So in German means "(do it) this way" ("Schreiben Sie den Brief so!") or "(so) very" (Das Bett war so klein, wir haben berhaupt keinen Platz zum Schlafen gehabt.)
Aufgaben:(1) You drop a book in a crowded library. A stranger picks it up and yells out "Wem geh rt das Buch?" You reply: _____. (2) You are a guest for dinner. You are offered another cup of coffee but you have had enough. You say: _____. (3) You are telling a funny story and are about to deliver the punchline. You start by saying: _____. (4) You are asked a question in class and you don't quite understand. You say: _____. (5) Your teacher asks who'll read his/her essay. You raise your hand and say: _____. (6) You want to tell your German friends a few good things about the climate in Wisconsin. You start _____.
NOCH (EIN)MAL: Noch means "still" or "again" or "yet" but in the phrase noch einmal it means "again" as in "(do it, say it, read it ...) again." In rapid speech you will frequently hear "noch mal" but otherwise "noch einmal" is also common. You can, of course, use numbers above ein to indicate how often you want something done: "do it twice, three, ten, a thousand more times, etc." "mach es noch zweimal, dreimal, zehnmal, tausendmal ...
NA: Na appears in a number of handy expressions, all with the flavor of English "well ..." or "well now ..." - "Nanu" ("well now, what have we here?"), "Na und?" ("well, so what?"), "Naja" ("well, OK, if you say so"). It is especially useful when you want to express hesitation: "Na, was machen wir denn jetzt?" ("Let's see, what are going to do now?")
Last updated September 22, 1996.
|
| . | Please visit my excellent service provider since 1995! |