9.1 Dialogue
Literally, Freizeit means free time, i.e., spare time. In this dialogue, Franz and Greta are
familiarizing each other with their sports activities.
Franz Hallo, Greta! Wie spät ist es?
Greta Es ist Viertel vor drei.
Franz Wirklich? Ich spiele um drei Fußball. Machst du Sport, Greta?
Greta Nein, ich bin faul. Ich gehe jetzt nach Hause.
Franz Fußball macht aber Spaß!
Greta Bis dann.
Franz Wiedersehen!
English German
late spät
quarter das Viertel
to (+ hour) vor (+ hour)
three drei
to play spielen
I play ich spiele
at (+ time) um (+ time)
soccer der* Fußball
(to) make; (to) do machen
you make; you do du machst
sport(s) der Sport
lazy faul
(to) go gehen
I go ich gehe
now jetzt
to (+ place) nach (+ place)
house das Haus
home (direction) nach Hause
at home (place) zu Hause
English German
but aber
fun der
Spaß
*The audio recording says "das", but it should be "der".
9.2 Sports and Activities
English German
the sport(s) der Sport
the interests, hobbies, activities
die Hobbys (singular: das Hobby) or das Steckenpferd
(-e)
the football/soccer der Fußball
the American football der Football (pronounced as in English)
the volleyball der Volleyball (the Volley- in Volleyball is pronounced
as in English)
the basketball der Basketball
the tennis das Tennis
the baseball der Baseball (pronounced as in English)
the 9-pin bowling das Kegeln
the chess das Schach
the board game das Brettspiel
the game das Spiel
the homework die Hausaufgaben (usually plural; singular: die
Hausaufgabe)
the TV watching das Fernsehen (the TV: der Fernseher)
the movie der Film
9.3 Spielen, Machen and Other Verbs
All three verbs that you were introduced to in Lesson 2 are irregular in some way; however,
most verbs are regular verbs. In English, the regular conjugation is very easy: only for
the third person singular an "-s" is added to the infinitive ("to see" becomes "he/she/it
sees").
Unfortunately, there are more endings in German. The following two tables show
the endings for the two regular verbs spielen (to play) and machen (to do; to make):
TABLE
1 http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/%2FProblems%23Sports%20and%20Activities
32
Spielen, Machen and Other Verbs
English German
singular
1st person I play ich spiel
e
2nd person you play du spielst
3rd person he/she/it plays er/sie/es spielt
plural
1st person we play wir spielen
2nd person you play ihr spielt
3rd person they play sie spielen
33
Lesson
English German singular 1st person I do/make ich mach
e
2nd person you do/make du machst
3rd person he/she/it does/makes er/sie/es macht
plural
1st person we do/make wir machen
2nd person you do/make ihr macht
3rd person they do/make sie machen
34
Spielen, Machen and Other Verbs
As you see, the endings are the same for corresponding forms of spielen and machen. In
fact, they are the same for all regular verbs. Thus, you can always just remove the -en from
the infinitive of a regular German verb to form the stem (e.g., spielen becomes spiel- and
machen becomes mach-) and then add the ending for the particular person. Here is a table
with these endings:
35
Lesson 1.02 - Freizeit English German singular 1st person I - ich -e 2nd person you - du -st 3rd person he/she/it -s er/sie/es -t plural 1st person we - wir -en 2nd person you - ihr -t 3rd person they - sie -en*
36
Spielen, Machen and Other Verbs
*The form for you (polite) — Sie is exactly the same as for the plural, 3rd person pronoun
they — sie.
9.3.1 Examples
• Was machst du?
What are you doing?
• Ich spiele Basketball.
I'm playing basketball.
• Spielst du Fußball?
Do you play soccer?
• Ich mache Hausaufgaben.
I'm doing homework.
• Er macht Hausaufgaben.
He's doing homework.
• Machst/Treibst du Sport?
Do you play sports?
Note that in English one plays sport, while in German one does sport. You can also use the
question words from Lesson 32
to form more combinations:
• Warum spielst du Baseball?
Why do you play baseball?
• Wann machst du die Hausaufgaben?
When do you do the/your homework?
To say "not", use "nicht". "Nicht" goes after the verb but before the sport.
• Wer spielt nicht Fußball?
Who doesn't play soccer?
• Wir spielen nicht Tennis.
We don't play tennis.
9.3.2 Compound Sentences
English German
2
http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/German%2FLevel%20I%2FBitte_buchstabieren_Sie%23Forming%
20Questions
37
Lesson 1.02 - Freizeit
English German
and und
but aber
or oder
Both German and English have compound sentences; the applications of these are enormous.
They can be used in lists and also in compound sentences.
For example,
• Ich spiele Basketball und er spielt auch Basketball.
I play basketball, and he also plays basketball.
The new word, also — auch is very important. The one grammar rule about auch is that
it always comes after the verb.
9.3.3 Other Verbs and Their Conjugations
English German
(to) read lesen
(to) watch schauen
(to) see sehen
(to) work arbeiten
(to) write schreiben
(to) swim schwimmen
Schauen, schreiben and schwimmen are all regular verbs; i.e., they follow regular conjugations.
To conjugate them, you first remove the -en from the infinitive to form the stem (i.e.,
schau-, schreib-, and schwimm-), and then add the correct ending. Here is an example:
verb (infinitive) first step (stem) conjugated form
schauen schau- ich schaue
Arbeiten is an irregular verb; however, it has a simple change. Whenever the ending starts
with a consonant, an -e- is added before it.
For example, du arbeitest (not du arbeitst). As
well as er/sie/es/ihr arbeitet (not er/sie/es/ihr arbeitt).
Lesen is also an irregular verb. For the second and third person singular the form is liest,
i.e., du/er/sie/es liest (not du lesst).
Sehen is the last irregular verb. The second person singular is du siehst and the third person
singular is er/sie/es sieht.
Section Problems4>>
3
http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/%2FProblems%23Spielen%2C%20Machen%2C%20and%20Other%
20Verbs
4 http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/%2FProblems%23Other%20Verbs%20and%20Their%20Conjugations
38
Expressing likes and dislikes
9.3.4 Two More Verb Forms
There are two common verb forms in English that just don't exist in German: the ing-form
(or: present progressive); e.g., "I am playing" or "he is making"; and forms with "to do";
e.g., "I do play" or "he does not play".
The simple rule is: these constructions don't exist in German. Thus, you should translate I
am playing to ich spiele.
Similarly, I do play is also translated to ich spiele. Anything else
(ich mache spielen or ich bin spielen) is either not possible in German or has a different
meaning.
The phrase I do not play should be translated to ich spiele nicht (literally: I play not) since
nicht (not) comes usually after the verb. This may sound like Early Modern English in a
play by Shakespeare, and this is no coincidence since German and English are both West
Germanic languages.
9.4 Expressing likes and dislikes
English German
What do you like to do? Was machst du gern*?
I like to play. Ich spiele gerne*.
What do you like to play? Was spielst du gerne*?
I like to play soccer. Ich spiele gerne* Fußball.
* gern and gerne can be used interchangeably.
In German, there are several ways to express likes and dislikes; this is just one of them.
You can also add other verbs for other activities, e.g., I like to read. — Ich lese gern. or I
like to work. — Ich arbeite gern. or I like to watch TV. — Ich schaue gern Fernsehen.
To express preference, you can use lieber instead of gern.
For example, I prefer to play
basketball. — Ich spiele lieber Basketball. or I prefer to read. — Ich lese lieber.
To express favorite activities, you can use am liebsten (meaning most of all) instead of lieber
or gern. For example, Most of all, I like to play chess. — Ich spiele am liebsten Schach.
To express dislikes, you can use nicht gern instead of gern, for example I don't like to swim.
— Ich schwimme nicht gern. or I don't like to work. — Ich arbeite nicht gern. or I don't
like to play soccer. — Ich spiele nicht gern Fußball.
Section Problems6>>
5 http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/%2FProblems%23Two%20More%20Verb%20Forms
6 http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/%2FProblems%23Expressing%20likes%20and%20dislikes
9.5 Numbers
Numbers are among the most important and most useful words: we need them to talk
about time, amounts, money, etc. Even if you are "just" a tourist, you often cannot avoid
numbers. Learning numbers can be a bit of a pain; thus, here is some advice: whenever you
have time, count something in German; e.g., steps, cars, people, seconds, whatever: just
count.
English German
zero -null*
one -eins
two -zwei**
three- drei
four -vier
five- fünf
six- sechs
seven -sieben
eight- acht
nine- neun
ten -zehn
eleven- elf
twelve -zwölf
thirteen- dreizehn
fourteen -vierzehn
fifteen- fünfzehn
sixteen -sechzehn
seventeen -siebzehn
eighteen - achtzehn
nineteen -neunzehn
twenty -zwanzig
twenty-one- einundzwanzig*
twenty-two -zweiundzwanzig*
twenty-three -dreiundzwanzig*
24 - 29 analogous to 22 and 23
thirty -dreißig
31 - 39, etc. analogous to 21 - 29
forty -vierzig
fifty -fünfzig
sixty-sechzig
seventy -siebzig
eighty- achtzig*
ninety- neunzig*
hundred -hundert (or: einhundert)
hundred and one hunderteins*
two hundred -zweihundert*
thousand -tausend (or: eintausend)
two thousand -zweitausend*
*Some numbers are missing in the audio recording.
**Some people sometimes say zwo instead of zwei in order to distinguishing it more clearly
from drei (three), especially on the phone.
Notice the pattern: -teen translates to -zehn, and -ty to -zig.
There is one big problem with the numbers: in German the unit position comes before the
tens and is connected by und (and).
For example: twenty-three — dreiundzwanzig (literally:
threeandtwenty), twenty-four — vierundzwanzig, thirty-five — fünfunddreißig, forty-six —
sechsundvierzig, etc.
One exception is eins which becomes ein- in 21, 31, 41, etc.: twenty-one — einundzwanzig
(literally: oneandtwenty), thirty-one — einunddreißig, forty-one — einundvierzig, etc.
German is not the only language with this "reverse" order of numbers: Danish (another
Germanic language) and Arabic do it the same way. This was also the standard way of
forming numbers in older versions of English ("Four and twenty blackbirds/Baked in a pie."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sing_a_Song_of_Sixpence).
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