German I

This is the place for the first lesson in German.

## Dialogue: Two people introduce themselves

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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 ?

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

Stay thrilled.