Learn German A1 Lesson 3. While, in this lesson you would learn Basic survival phrases in German language. Meanwhile, Article includes introduction to nouns, basic counting tips from 20 to 100, as number 1 to 19 counting has been mentioned in German A1 Lesson 2. You would also learn how to pronounce days of week, months and seasons in German.

Los geht’s! (Let’s go!)

Basic Survival Phrases

To ask someone to repeat what they just said, we can say…

Wie bitte? Pardon?

Wie bitte? We use it to ask for repetition!

Nein, danke (No thank you). It is used to politely decline an offer.

Ja, bitte (Yes please). While It is used to accept an offer.

For Example:

The waitress asks: “Kaffee?” (Coffee?). You would like some. What can you say?

Meanwhile, You can say Ja, Bitte.

You’re tipping the waitress. She says “Danke!”. You can reply “Bitte!”, Because “Bitte” = “please“, “there you go” and “you’re welcome“.

So you will often hear conversations like this one:

Guest: Ein Bier bitte. (One bear please.)
Waitress *brings beer*: Bitte! (There you go!)
Guest: Danke! (Thanks!)
Waitress: Bitte! (You are welcome!)

German vs English: Differences & Similarities

Introduction to Nouns

You might have noticed something odd about lots of the German words you’ve seen so far: many of them start with capital letters.

That’s because in German, all nouns (every person, place and thing) are capitalised.

People: e.g. Frau (woman), Kind (child), Freund (boyfriend), Onkel (uncle), Mutter (mother), Vater (father)!

Places: e.g. Wien (Vienna), Museum (museum), Krankenhaus (hospital), Kino (movie theater), Bank (bank)!

Objects: e.g. Bus (bus), Haus (house), Auto (car), Zug (train), Fenster (window), Ticket (ticket)!

So, as you can see in up mentioned examples, Capital letters at the start of a German word are a helpful clue that tells you that word is a noun.

While, In German all nouns are either masculine, feminine or neuter.

In using articles, English uses a, an and the as indefinite and definite articles, respectively. In German, the articles have gender, thus the definite article ”der” is used for masculine, ”die” for feminine and plural words and ”das” for neuter. While, for the indefinite article ” ein” is used for masculine, ”eine” for feminine and ”ein” for neuter gender.

For Example:

masculine: The garden: der Garten, A garden: ein Garten

feminine: The daughter: die Tochter, A daughter: eine Tochter

neuter: The cafe: Das Café, A cafe: ein Café

Remember that all nouns have a gender in German. While, In general, you need to learn the noun with its definite article: der, die and das when you must meet it.

If a noun is made up of more than one noun, it is the last element the determines the gender:

das Bier + der Garten = der Biergarten

das Haus + die Frau = die Hausfrau

Guidelines to know the gender of Nouns:

While, there are few guidelines to help you know the gender of nouns in German. Here are some basic rules to differentiate between genders of noun.

masculine nouns: most nouns ending in -ling: der Liebling (darling)

feminine nouns: most nouns ending in -in: die Amerikanerin (American)

: most nouns ending in -tät: die Nationalität, die Universität (university)

neuter nouns: most nouns ending in -chen: das Mädchen (girl)

Counting 20 to 100

You have to add ’’ Zig’’ at end for Numbers from 20 to 90! While, Zig is pronounced as Zeesh!

20 = zwanzig
30 = dreißig
40= vierzig
50= fünfzig
60= sechzig
70=siebzig
80=achtzig
90= neunzig
100= hundert

While, In German number like 21, 22, 23, 32, 43, 54 start with last number and works backwards!

21= einundzwanzig; Notice a Pattern: ein(one) + und(and) + zwanzig(twenty)
22= zweiundzwanzig; Notice a Pattern: zwei(two) + und(and) + zwanzig(twenty)
23= dreiundzwanzig; Notice a Pattern: drei(three) + und(and) + zwanzig (twenty)

The same pattern would be for 30, 40, 50…….. series as like 21 to 29, as you can find below:

32=zweiunddreißig; Notice a Pattern: zwei(two) + und(and) + dreißig(thirty)
43= dreiundvierzig; Notice a Pattern: drei(three) + und(and) + vierzig(forty)
54= vierundfünfzig; Notice a Pattern: vier(four) + und(and) + fünfzig (fifty)

Days of week in German

Montag (mohn-tahk) – Monday.
Dienstag (deens-tahk) – Tuesday.
Mittwoch (mit-vock) – Wednesday.
Donnerstag (don-ers-tahk) – Thursday.
Freitag (fry-tahk) – Friday.
Samstag (zahms-tahk) – Saturday.
Sonntag (zon-tahk) – Sunday.

Months in German

Januar (yah-noo-ahr) – January
Februar ( fay-broo-ahr) – February
März (mehrtz) – March
April (ah-pril) – April
Mai (my) – May
Juni (yoo-nee) – June

Juli (juli) – July
August (ow-goost) – August
September (zehp-tehm-ber) – September
Oktober (ok-toh-ber) – October
November (no-vehm-ber) – November
Dezember (de-tsem-ber) – December

Seasons in German

Frühling (frew-ling) – spring
Sommer (zom-mer) – summer
Herbst (hehrpst) – autumn
Winter (vin-ter) – winter

Lastly, Write your questions in comment box section about ” Learn German A1 Lesson 3.” If you need further support or individual guidance to learn German, you can contact here.

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