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Better German Podcast with Susi

Susanne Schilk-Blümel
Since 09/2023 56 episodes

20 Easy Sentences in German - What is that? That is a _______.

2024-01-18 26 min

Description & Show Notes

Hello! This is Episode 20 of the Better German Podcast. You will learn a Sentence Pattern, you will learn to say "What is that?" and "That is..." in German. Your host, Susi, will also give you tips on how to practice this, either with a study partner or by yourself. And do not worry, if you want more support learning German, you can simply get into the Better German Community for live lessons, PDF worksheets for this and previous episodes, and friendly help!

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Introduction
In this episode of Better German, host Susi Blumel presents a useful sentence pattern that will come in handy for German learners: "What is that? That is a...." She suggests that beginners should start with earlier episodes if they are new to the German language (see links below).

Susi breaks down the sentence pattern, offering clear pronunciation and translations for listeners to learn and repeat. Susi encourages listeners to master the sentence pattern before progressing to new material.
Susi also shares practical tips for immersive learning, highlighting the benefits of practicing with a partner and providing extra guidance for individuals studying independently.

So, join Susi Blumel on this enjoyable language journey, learn with essential language skills get confident in learning German!

Key topics and bullet points
Primary Topic: Introduction to Sentence Pattern
  • Importance of learning sentence patterns in German.
  • Suggestions for beginners to start with earlier podcast episodes.
Primary Topic: Sentence Pattern "What is that? That is a"
  • Explanation of the sentence pattern "What is that? That is a" in German.
  • Breakdown of the words and their meanings in the sentence pattern.
  • Clarification on the usage of different forms in German sentence patterns.
  • Discussion on the significance of articles in German and their role in sentence patterns.
Primary Topic: Examples and Practice
  • Demonstration of the sentence pattern with various examples such as table, chair, door, lamp, plant, window, and picture.
  • Encouragement for practice and repeated usage of the sentence pattern to master it effectively.
  • Recommendations to revisit previous episodes for additional vocabulary and word lists.
Primary Topic: Tips for Practice
  • Suggestions for practicing the sentence pattern with a study partner, emphasizing its effectiveness.
  • Advice on self-practice and strategies for improving sentence pattern usage.
  • Suggestions on how to use new words in the sentence pattern for continuous practice and learning.
Primary Topic: Conclusion and Resources
  • Emphasis on the simplicity and importance of the introduced sentence pattern in learning German.
  • Overall, the text covers the introduction, breakdown, examples, practice, and conclusion of the sentence pattern "What is that? That is a" in German, along with recommendations and resources to aid in the learning process.
Related Episodes
 Episode 5: Introduction to Articles (I suggest listening to that first if you are a beginner)
Episode 6: Wordlist Body Parts  (Learn the words that I am using in this Sentence Pattern)
Episode 12: Wordlist Office/Classroom (The rest of the words I am using)
Episode 19: Introduction to German Levels & Exams
Episode 21: Introduction to the Differences between Austrian and German, German

Other Resources
  • This PDF goes with episode 20 of the Better German Podcast. You will learn how to say “What is this?” “This is a ….” in German. Download this PDF and listen to the episode right away.
  • Watch this video version of this episode on YouTube
  • Grab your copy of our Interactive German Movie Guide. Watching German movies and TV shows is great to help you learn German. In this guide, you will find suitable TV shows and movies with subtitles in your language, so you can start using movies to learn right away! 

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Transcript

Hello. Welcome to the better German podcast. I'm Suzy. And I will teach you German. And I will teach you everything about. German, the German culture, German countries, the German speaking countries, which are mainly Germany, Austria, and Switzerland. And the culture. in this episode, we're going to learn a Sentence Pattern. Or a way how you can say a sentence. If you're totally new. To, my podcast. Then, and you haven't started learning German at all. Then I highly recommend you to maybe start. With some earlier episodes. So, first of all, there's a freebie and a page for this episode. And you can go to bettergerman.info/20. This is the 20th episode of this podcast. And you will find all the information about this episodes and links that I'm mentioning here. If in this episode, you're learning sentences, simple sentences. For example, something like, "What is that?" "That is a table." In German that would be, Was ist das? "Das ist ein Tisch." So that is not super hard. You will see it's easy. However, if you have not followed my podcast so far, and you're new to the German language, first of all welcome. I'm glad you're here. You've come to the right place. In that case. I would suggest you to start and listen some of the earlier episodes first. This could make things easier. Particularly ones that you should know before you listen to this, if you're a total beginner is Episode 5, which is Introduction to articles and there I will explain a little bit about articles. I'll tell you what they mean, and a little bit about the significance, in German. And then, if you're a beginner, I also suggested to listen to Episode 6, which is the Word List - Body Parts, because we're using quite a few of these words to practice this Sentence Pattern. So these would be the bare minimum. Ideally, if you're a total beginner, I just suggest for you to start from the first episode and go on up. Anyway, let's go into this episode topic. There is a freebie for this episode, which is a PDF, with all the texts that we're going to go through with the Sentence Pattern written up, and the words we're using and the example sentences. If you want to watch this as a video, you can also do that. And you can find the link to my course, and to a beginner's course, and I will make this video available for free, to look at in that course. That the course is not totally free. It's open, for enrollment. It's going to start in March, so soon. But this video is going to be available for free. Okay. So, and I, I, it's easier maybe as a video to watch it, but all the texts that I'm referring to in the video that you can see individually, you can also download as a PDF and watch. Good. So let's. Go into this. We are going to go into Sentence Pattern. I don't teach German as a set of rules of grammar rules. So, what I do is I'm going to teach you a sentence in a Sentence Pattern. So Sentence Pattern is a sentence with a blank, and we're going to look at a very easy Sentence Pattern, and that is, "What is that?" "That is a hmm." And then we're going to put all the things in there. So in German you going to go through all the words that we need in order to do that. So first word in German, you can repeat that after me it's "was." That is "what" in English. It asks for a thing. "was" Very good. The next word is, repeat that as well, "ist." And that is very simple. That's "is." Like "it is blue." "Es ist blau." " das." Now, "das," in this case, in this Sentence Pattern, means "that." "What is that?" "Was ist das." " Das" can also have other meanings. It can be one of the articles. Like that we would translate as "the." That's why I suggest you to listen to Episode 5, as well. So in this Sentence Pattern, "das" means " that " and that gives us a sentence, which is "What is that?" in English. And in German, repeat it after me, "Was ist das?" Saying it a little slower, "Was ist das?" Very simple, "What is that?" Very helpful for you if you are learning German. And you want to know, "what is that?" And you just say, " Was ist das?" And you can point obviously. So "was ist das?" Okay. And then the answer would be, "das ist ein —" Or. Das ist eine — These are the two different versions. We have two forms in German here for the Sentence Pattern. And we're going to look at that in a second, but for now, I simply want you to repeat, "Das ist ein — " " That is a—" Or in English that will be the same translation. " Das ist eine —." " That is a —." In case, —because maybe if you're listening to me and you don't see any texts, maybe you wondering what's even the difference, —so I have two different versions. I have "das ist ein —." And "das ist eine —." . So, we're going to look at that. Again, if you're now like a little bit confused of what that means, just listen to the Introduction to Articles once. This is something that you shouldn't be worrying about, but german is a language that has, three genders. So we consider every object to either be female, that would be what a woman is. Male, that would be what a man is, or it's the characteristics of a man, or neutral. And they have different forms, and for a few things in a sentence, these forms change with that. This is not something to worry about. A lot of German learners get very much worried about, and think this is super complicated. Yes. It's something that you learn, but it's not very difficult. It's something that you need to learn, and if you learn it correctly and you understand it right from the beginning and you don't worry about it too much, I will give you tips and I will tell you how you can learn that without getting gray hair or ripping your hair out, okay. So for this Sentence Pattern, this is very simple. If you have a word like, let's start, "der" becomes "ein." And "die" becomes "eine." By the way the meanings of the articles are also described in Episode 5, Introduction to Articles. However, "der" is an English "the." And "ein," is, "a" So we use "thde die or das" when you're talking about a specific thing. Like you have a table they're standing right in front of you and you say that table is big, then we use, "Der Tisch ist big." And we use "ein" oder (or) "eine" when we talk about any object. English, " a." Good. So now, let's look at that as an example. So, for example, I can, let's take the table. That's this one. "der Tish." So "der" is "ein" So, the whole Sentence Pattern with "der Tisch" should be. "Was ist das?" And I'm pointing to table, for example. Then the answer would be "Das ist ein Tisch." I'm going to give you more examples. So we have this one. So if it's there, then it's "Das ist ein Tisch." I'm going to give you a few more examples using simple words that, we have already learned. These are words that you can, you have learned if you've listened to the previous episodes of this podcast. However, you can also either go watch the video. You would find, you find the link to this video on the page, bettergerman.info/20, because this is the 20th episode. Or you just go and download the PDF. You will find the PDF also, on bettergerman.info/20. There you have the examples. So, I'm going to give you if you examples with "der" for now. So "was ist das?" " das ist ein Stuhl." "That is a chair." Good. So, and then, and that's really pretty much the only change here, when you have a word that is "die," which we consider female. Like "die Tür." "The door." Then we have a little change. We add an "e" here. So then we say "Das ist eine Tür." "That is a door." And that's really all the magic that's happening here, and it's just a matter of practice. The only thing that could get you in trouble here, or there's two things that could get you in trouble here about this. First, if you haven't, if you didn't understand, what it is, like, what's the change. So here it is very simple. You need to first understand the idea behind this, that we have three different categories which we put every object into. Again, listen to Episode 5, if that gives you any trouble. Then you have to understand it in how you're using it in a Sentence Pattern. So in this case, what you have to understand is this is all the same. The only little little change is when you have die, like "die Tür, die Lampe, die Pflanze" There's this little change and you'll say "eine." And then, and that is very, very, very important. Listen to me. Now you need to practice this to a point where you don't have to think about it. If you still have to think about it for this Sentence Pattern and you start adding something new, that's what will make you confused. So, we're going to practice together first, and I'm going to give you tips or information on how you can continue practicing this. And then I suggested to do that, and not learn any new grammar, or any new Sentence Pattern until you mastered this one. This is not very hard and it's a very helpful one, and you can use it with any words for objects, or even if you more, probably, but mainly stick to objects for now, and it's very simple to practice. You'll see it. And only when you have practice this until you know it without thinking about it or, yeah, then you start learning something new, and this is how you learn. Okay. Good. So what are you going to do now is I'm going to say this Sentence Pattern, and I'm saying it with translation and you simply repeat it. So, I'm for the first few sentences, also going to keep repeating the translation for "Was ist das?" Okay. So repeat after me. "Was ist das?" " Was ist," I'm sorry, I didn't say it. So, "Was ist das?" "What is that?" "Das ist die Tür." Okay, I'm going to do that again. Cut. So I'll say it, you repeat it. "Was ist das?" "What is that?" " Das ist eine Tür." "That is a door." "Was ist das?" "What is that?" "Das ist eine Lampe." "That is a lamp." " Was ist das?" "What is that?" "Das ist eine Pflanze." "That is a plant." "What is that?" " Was ist das?" "What is that?" "Das ist ein Fenster." "That is a window." "Was ist das?" "What is that?" "Das ist ein Bild." "That is a picture." Alright. I think you're ready, for no more translation. So the next step is, I'll say it, I'm not going to repeat the first few we did already. I'll continue on my list, as I said. Unless you're super familiar with these words, but I really, really suggested to either watch the video, or download the PDF and follow it, or both. So, the next step is I'm just going to say the words, sentence Pattern, "what is that?" In German, "was ist das?" and you're repeating it, and then I'm going to use the next word. And I'm going to say I'm not— no more translations here. I trust that you understand it, and if you have the PDF or you watched a video, you have the translation of the word right there. If you're not fully familiar with it yet. Okay, good. However, if you want to get more familiar with the words, and this is the first time, I suggest you to listen to Episode, 6, which is the Word List about Body Parts, and hang on. There should be another episode about the classroom. Yes, and Episode 12, which is Words about Classroom. I'm not using all of the words that you learn in those two episodes because all of the words that I'm using other than the Sentence Pattern words, are in those two episodes, Episode 6 and Episode 12. These are perfect. So Episodes 6, 12, and this one, they kind of go with each other. Also, if you have already done the Sentence Pattern in Episode 7, this is something, like this Sentence Pattern we're doing an episode 20, you can get some more practice. So, next step. Hang on, let me to go back to my other text here. So next step. I'll say it, you repeat it. No more translations. If you still need the translations then I suggest you to go back to the beginning of the episode and listen uh to it until you come back to this point. Good. So I'll say it, you'll repeat it. " Was ist das?" " Das ist ein Stuhl." " Was ist das?" "Das ist ein Boden." " Was ist das?" " Das ist ein Bleistift." " Was ist das?" " Das ist ein Zimmer. All right! And, we're going to end off this episodes with a couple of tip episodes. Did I just say episodes? It's one episode. I'm going to end off and give you a couple of more tips on how to practice this, because this is really just the beginning, and, you should practice this much more. So, first of all, the absolutely best way practicing this is, grab a partner, and do this together. So one person, we'll ask "was ist das," and point to an object. I've made sure that these are objects that you would find around you, no matter what. Okay. Maybe there is not a plant and not a pencil in every room, but pretty much everything else you should find in every room. So, grab a partner, and do this together. This is the absolutely best version of doing this, and you switch as many times as you want until you can do this and this will help you both learn those words, and also learn the Sentence Pattern. And if one of you does it wrong, like let's say you say, " Was ist das?" and you point to a table, and he says, "Das ist eine Tisch." And you notice that this is incorrect because it's, it's supposed to be "das ist ein Tisch," Then just tell your study partner for that moment, "Hm. Why don't you look again, are you sure?" And then and try to let him find the mistake. Because you want to be able to find your own mistakes, right? Good. So that is the absolutely best way of practicing this. And when you've done this both to the point where you feel your perfect, and with those words that you have, you have no problem, then you're good. Then you can go onto the next thing. You can use any words with this. However, I suggest you to write them up first and make sure that you have to correct article so you practice it correctly. Okay. Good. And once you have done this verbally, sit down and drive it up. Make a lot of sentence, use a dictionary if you have to, and do that. You can even start using pictures, books and so on. If you don't have a study partner, I still suggest you to get one, because learning is so much more fun together, and it's better. But anyway, if you really don't have one and you don't want one, or you don't want to wait and you want to practice something anyway, you can do it by yourself. You can even say, " Was ist das?" point to whatever you have around. I have a picture right in front of me so I will go, "Was ist das?" " Das ist ein Bild." And, "Was ist das?" " Das ist ein Fenster." Just do it for yourself. It's better if you don't do it for yourself and you have to do it with a partner. But, if you're by yourself, it's still, you can do that. That's totally okay, totally workable. And then again, if you did that, then you write it up afterwards. You do it in writing and you can do it with more sentences. If you still feel that it's a little hard for you, the Sentence Pattern itself, get more words. The other tip I'm going to give you, you can practice, like if you learn new words, you can again use this Sentence Pattern to practice these words. Okay. So that's pretty much what I have for you today. This maybe doesn't look super difficult and it's not. However, it can be a very important first step, to your roads to German. And you'll see, if you learn this one, and you learn the next one, you will be on the right step. So. Definitely go to bettergerman.info/20 and get your PDF, or find there, the link to the video which you can watch for free in my upcoming course, the German beginner's course, and you also find there the YouTube channel. Most of my podcast episodes we'll be available on the YouTube channel. They're not all at the point of my recording, but we're just putting them there. And you will also find the links to all of the episodes that there they have been published and to all the freebies. One other thing I'm leaving you with, you can also get access to a movie guide where you can see what videos you can watch to help you learn German. Okay. So I'm looking forward very much to seeing or hearing you, or you hearing me in the next episode. I'm very glad that you listen to me. Thank you very much. Enjoy your German, German journey. Learning German can be fun and see you, or hear you in the next episode. Bye bye.

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