German/Level I/Bitte buchstabieren Sie

Lesson I.3: Bitte buchstabieren Sie

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This lesson is about the German alphabet. We also have a closer look at the word order in questions and at articles.

Dialogue

Read and listen to this short phone conversation. Try to read it aloud. The translation of words and phrases is given below the text.

Dialogue: Directory Assistance — Fernsprechauskunft
Auskunft	Auskunft, guten Tag.
Franz	Guten Tag. Ich hätte gerne die Telefonnummer von Frau Claudia Bolliger aus Bern.
Auskunft	Wie schreibt man das? Bitte buchstabieren Sie.
Franz	Natürlich. Claudia: C wie Cäsar, L wie Ludwig, A wie Anton, U wie Ursula, D wie Dora, I wie Ida, A
	wie Anton. Bolliger: B wie Berta, O wie Otto, zweimal L wie Ludwig, I wie Ida, G wie Gustav, E wie
	Emil und R wie Richard.
Auskunft	Danke. Die Nummer lautet ...

Vocabulary: Vocabulary — Wortschatz
English	German
the directory assistance	die Auskunft
I would like to have...	Ich hätte gern(e) ...
the phone number	die Telefonnummer
from Berne	aus Bern
How do you write this?	Wie schreibt man das?
please	bitte
(to) spell	buchstabieren
of course	natürlich
A as in Anton	A wie Anton
twice	zweimal
The number is...	Die Nummer lautet ...

Problems: Working with the dialogue

By now you might be familiar with the tasks:

1. Translate the dialogue to English.
2. Listen to the recording without reading and try to understand the meaning of the words.
3. Read the dialogue aloud.
4. Listen to the recording without reading and write down the dialogue in German.

Answers

1. Translation to English:

   Assistant: Directory assistance, hello.

   Franz: Hello, I would like to have the phone number of Mrs. Claudia Bolliger from Berne.

   Assistant: How do you write the name? Please spell it.

   Franz: Of course. Claudia: C as in Cäsar, L as in Ludwig, A as in Anton, ...

   Assistant: Thanks. The number is...

2. —
3. —
4. —

The German Alphabet

Grammar: The Alphabet — Das Alphabet
Characters	Aa	Bb	Cc	Dd	Ee	Ff	Gg	Hh	Ii	Jj	Kk	Ll	Mm	Nn	Oo	Pp	Qq	Rr	Ss	Tt	Uu	Vv	Ww	Xx	Yy	Zz
Umlauts	Ää														Öö				SS ß		Üü
Examples	Ärger (anger)														Ökonom (economist)						Übermut (high spirits)

The 26 letters in both German and English are shown above. One, the ligature ß (eszett or scharfes s), is written as SS if capitalized; however, it is pronounced just like a normal s. It is only used when the preceding vowel is long, for example: der Fuß (the foot). Note that the ß is not used in Switzerland. There you always write double s instead, even after long vowels. For example: der Fuss (the foot).

Another difference between German and English is the umlaut. The vowels a, o, and u can take an umlaut (the double dots above), becoming ä, ö, and ü. The umlaut changes the sound of the vowel. For pronunciations of all the letters, go to the pronunciation guide.

Notes:

• In English, the word umlaut refers to the two dots. The German word Umlaut usually refers to one of the vowels ä, ö, or ü.
• In German, the vowels ä, ö, and ü are even used when spelling; i.e., you make the sound of an ö (like the "u" in "turn") instead of saying "o umlaut". Common words used to clarify a given letter are Ärger (anger), Ökonom (economist) and Übermut (high spirits). To say "umlaut" after the letter is an English custom used when spelling German words in English.
• If there is no way to type the umlaut, the vowels ä, ö, and ü must be substituted with ae, oe, and ue. This spelling is also used in some names, e.g. Goethe, or in crosswords.
• In most search engines and online dictionaries, a vowel with umlaut can be entered as either the simple vowel or in vowel-plus-e form. For example, if you wish to find Ärger you may enter any of the following three search strings: Ärger, Aerger, or even the incorrect Arger.
• Unless you have a German keyboard with the special German letters, you will have to use one of the following ways to type the umlaut.

• On a Macintosh, hold down the Option key and type “u” (this will create an umlaut), then let go of the Option key and type the vowel you want to put the umlaut on. The Option key and “s” will produce ß.
• In Windows, you will need to use the Alt key and numbers from the right side of your keyboard. Windows users also have the option of setting their keyboard settings to “English-international”, which allows them to create umlauts by typing a quotation mark before the umlauted vowel.
• Linux users can generally designate a Compose key using their keyboard configuration options in their system settings (or alternatively if such menu is not available may use commandline programs xmodmap, or setxkbmap), from then on allow the user to enter umlaut letters by pressing the Compose key plus the Double Quotation Mark key and then the designated letter. The ß can also be created by pressing the Compose key and then pressing the “s” key twice.

Misc.: Alt keys for German characters — Alt-Tastenkombinationen für deutsche Buchstaben
ß	Alt + 0223
ü	Alt + 0252
Ü	Alt + 0220
ö	Alt + 0246
Ö	Alt + 0214
ä	Alt + 0228
Ä	Alt + 0196

Problems: The German Alphabet

1. Recite the alphabet as fast as you can. If you want, try to get your time under four seconds.

2. Try to spell your name out loud. Spell others' names out loud, too, until you get the hang of it.

3. Spell the following words aloud:

1. warum
2. Franz
3. Mädchen
4. gut
5. woher
6. danke
7. Herr
8. morgen
9. bis dann
10. wiedersehen

Answers

There is no answer for this.

Forming Questions

The basic word order in a German sentence is the same as in English: subject — verb — object(s). For example:

• Der Junge spielt Fußball. (Subjekt: der Junge, Verb: spielt, Objekt: Fußball.)

The boy plays football. (Subject: the boy, verb: plays, object: football.)

To change the English sentence The boy plays football. into a question, we insert the auxiliary verb does before boy, change plays to the infinitive form play and place a question mark at the end: Does the boy play football?

The process is very similar in German. However, we don't need an auxiliary verb in German; thus, we just switch the whole verb with the subject, ending up with:

• Spielt der Junge Fußball?

Does the boy play football?

In German, there are two basic ways of forming a question. The first is the method described above. In addition to this, you can use a question word (an interrogative adverb); for example, how — wie as in How are you? — Wie geht's? Other question words are summarized in the following table.

Vocabulary: Questions — Fragen
English	German
who?	wer?
what?	was?
where?	wo?
when?	wann?
why?	warum?
how?	wie?

The question Wie heißt ...? literally translates to How is ... called? meaning What is ... called?. This is why the German question does not contain what — was.

A question word comes first in a sentence; thus, the word order is: question word — verb — subject — object(s). For example:

• Warum spielt der Junge Fußball?

Why does the boy play football?

Note that in German, the verb almost always comes second in the sentence, except in the case of a question as described above. The subject is almost always next to the verb, if not in front of it then following it. For example:

• Der Junge spielt nicht Fußball.

The boy is not playing football.

• Heute spielt der Junge Fußball.

Today, the boy plays football.

Problems: Forming Questions

1. Translate the following sentences into German.
   1. Who is called Josef?
   2. Is her name Sabina?
   3. When do we have German?
   4. What is the boy's name?
   5. Where are you?
   6. What is the woman's name?
   7. Why is your name Georg?
   8. When is he a man?
2. Explain in your own words why the translation of What is your name? — Wie heißen Sie? contains how — wie instead of what — was.
3. Provide questions (in German) for the following answers.
   1. Sie heißen Johannes und Christine.
   2. Es heißt "Volkswagen".
   3. Sie heißt Helga.
   4. Ich heiße Kirstin.
   5. Wir heißen Fritz und Werner.
   6. Er heißt Dirk.

Answers

1. Translated questions:
   1. Wer heißt Josef?
   2. Heißt sie Sabine?
   3. Wann haben wir Deutsch?
   4. Wie heißt der Junge?
   5. Wo bist du? / Wo sind Sie?
   6. Wie heißt die Frau?
   7. Warum heißt du Georg?
   8. Wann ist er ein Mann?
2. In German, the question is changed from What are you called? to How are you called? (Note: This is not the only time wie replaces was. For example, when asking to repeat something, Germans usually say Wie bitte? (or just: Bitte?) instead of Was? In fact, the latter is considered impolite.)
3. German questions:
   1. Wie heißen sie?
   2. Wie heißt es?
   3. Wie heißt sie?
   4. Wie heißt du? / Wie heißen Sie?
   5. Wie heißt ihr?
   6. Wie heißt er?

Articles

In English and German, there are two different types of articles: definite articles (the) and indefinite articles (a and an). In German, however, there are different forms of each type of article. Here we discuss only the articles of subject nouns (the most important nouns in sentences, which are in the so-called nominative case). In this case, the form of the article depends only on the gender and number (singular or plural) of the noun.

The three genders of German nouns are: masculine (examples for masculine nouns are Junge (boy) or Mann (man)), feminine (e.g., Frau (woman) or Blume (flower)) and neuter (e.g., Haus (house) or Mädchen (girl)). The forms of the definite and indefinite articles for nouns of the three genders are given in the following table. For plural nouns the definite article is always die and (as in English) there is no indefinite article for plural nouns.

Grammar: The Definite Article in the Nominative Case — Der bestimmte Artikel im Nominativ
		German	English
singular	masculine	der Junge	the boy
	feminine	die Frau	the woman
	neuter	das Mädchen*	the girl
plural	masculine	die Jungen	the boys
	feminine	die Frauen	the women
	neuter	die Mädchen	the girls

*Note that Mädchen is neuter. (In fact, almost all words with the ending -chen are neuter.)

Grammar: The Indefinite Article in the Nominative Case — Der unbestimmte Artikel im Nominativ
		German	English
singular	masculine	ein Mann	a man
	feminine	eine Frau	a woman
	neuter	ein Mädchen*	a girl

*Note that Mädchen is neuter.

Problems: Articles

Fill in the blanks in these conversations.

1. Heißt _____ Mädchen Ulrike?
2. Nein, _____ Mädchen heißt Ute.
3. O.K. Und wie heißt _____ Frau?
4. Sie heißt Frau Schmidt.
5. Und wer ist _____ Mann?
6. Das ist _____ Lehrer.
7. Wie heißt er?
8. _____ Lehrer heißt Herr Schmidt.

Answers

1. Heißt das Mädchen Ulrike?
2. Nein, das Mädchen heißt Ute.
3. O.K. Und wie heißt die Frau?
4. Sie heißt Frau Schmidt.
5. Und wer ist der Mann?
6. Das ist der Lehrer.
7. Wie heißt er?
8. Der Lehrer heißt Herr Schmidt.

Test

The test consists of three parts: grammar, vocabulary, and translation. The grammar part is about articles, the vocabulary about question words, and the translation is very similar to the dialogue of this lesson.

Problems: Grammar

Translate the following phrases using the correct article.

1. a boy
2. the boy
3. a man
4. the man
5. the boys
6. a girl
7. the woman
8. the girls
9. a woman
10. the girl
11. the women

Answers

1. ein Junge
2. der Junge
3. ein Mann
4. der Mann
5. die Jungen
6. ein Mädchen
7. die Frau
8. die Mädchen
9. eine Frau
10. das Mädchen
11. die Frauen

Problems: Vocabulary

Translate from English to German:

1. why?
2. how?
3. what?
4. where?
5. who?
6. when?

Answers

1. warum?
2. wie?
3. was?
4. wo?
5. wer?
6. wann?

Problems: Translation

Translate from English to German:

1. Hello! I would like to have the phone number of Mrs. Susanne Meyer from Berlin.
2. How do you write this? Please spell it.
3. B as in Berta, E as in Emil, R as in Richard, L as in Ludwig, I as in Ida, N as in Nordpol.
4. Berlin? No! How do you spell Meyer?
5. M as in Martha, E as in Emil, Y as in Ypsilon, E as in Emil, R as in Richard.
6. Thanks. The number is...

Answers

1. Hallo! Ich hätte gern die Nummer von Frau Susanne Meyer aus Berlin.
2. Wie schreibt man das? Bitte buchstabieren Sie.
3. B wie Berta, E wie Emil, R in Richard, L wie Ludwig, I wie Ida, N wie Nordpol.
4. Berlin? Nein! Wie schreibt man Meyer?
5. M wie Martha, E wie Emil, Y wie Ypsilon, E wie Emil, R wie Richard.
6. Danke. Die Nummer lautet ...