German I

This is the place for the first lesson in German.

Dialogue: Two people introduce themselves

The following dialogue is between two persons who just met and introduce themselves. After reading it listen to the audio file to get a feeling for the German language (in case you wonder: the voice of Jörg is spoken by a French native):

person	German	English
Franz	Hallo, wie heißt du ?	Hello, what is your name ?
Jörg	Hallo, ich heiße Jörg. Und du ?	Hello, my name is Jörg. What about you ?
Franz	Ich heiße Franz.	My name is Franz.
Jörg	Wie alt bist du ?	How old are you ?
Franz	Ich bin neunzehn Jahre alt, und du ?	I am 19 years old, what about you ?
Jörg	Ich bin zwanzig.	I am 20 (years old).
Franz	Gut. Bis später !	Ok. See you later !
Jörg	Tschüss !	Bye !

The first thing we find in this dialogue is the conjugation of a verb. In German, all verbs are conjugated for all pronouns, different to English. Think of it as the verb "to be": I am, you are, he is, they are, etc. German has distinct conjugations for every verb. For instance, the verb "sein":

ich bin
du bist
er/sie/es ist
wir sind
Ihr seid
sie/Sie sind

You will learn more about conjugating verbs in further lessons.

The other thing we notice on the dialogue is that the age is said as in English. I am 19 years old -> Ich bin neunzehn Jahre alt. In other languages, like French or Spanish the age is said using "to have... years" instead of using "to be ... years old": "J'ai 30 ans" -> "Tengo 30 años".

next ?

For further planning, please visit the Learning German talk page.

Stay thrilled.