Freizeit

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 

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 

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):

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:

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.

Compound Sentences

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. 

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.

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. 

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.

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).