62 "To have" in German
2026-03-20 15 min
Description & Show Notes
In this episode, you’ll learn how “haben” (engl. "to have") works in real sentences! And you will learn how to add objects to a sentence (what are you having) - and what change is happening with the article "der".
This is a very basic episode to make slightly longer sentences in German.
This is a very basic episode to make slightly longer sentences in German.
If you want to stop guessing and start forming correct sentences, this is one of the first building blocks.
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🔑 What You’ll Learn in This Episode
- Why “haben” is not always used the way English “have” is,
- How to say “I have…” correctly in German,
- How to build a basic sentence step by step,
- How small word changes affect meaning,
- Why one word in the sentence sometimes changes form (your first step into sentence structure).
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Transcript
Hello!
So welcome to this episode.
In this episode, we're going to
learn the beginning of how to
use the verb "to have" in German.
I started recording this episode and then
I realized it's a little tricky because
the point is, in order to make sentences,
longer complex sentences with "haben"
something like, I have a beautiful mother"
there is several steps that are connected
to that, and that is a little bit too much
for one short audio episode, I realized,
if you really want to do it step by step.
let's go first over, what
does "haben" mean in German?
There's a slight meaning in difference.
"haben," means really, to possess
something or to have it at your disposal.
There is a second meaning in English,
which means to consume something.
Like, "I have milk every day."
Or, "She had coffee and he had tea."
That means he drank
coffee and she drank tea.
That meaning does not exist in German.
"haben" means really
the more literal thing.
So obviously in English, maybe the
first thing you think of if you say
"to have" it means you own something
or you have it for you to use.
You can say "I have an apartment
in the city," no matter if you
actually own it or rent it.
Or you can say, "I have a wife," then
obviously you're not owning the wife,
not she belongs to you, not you own her,
but something that shows a connection.
You could have that, yes.
Or "I have a question."
"Ich habe eine Frage,"
Yes, but there is one meaning in English
that does not exist in German, which
means "to drink" or "eat" something.
Like "I have breakfast."
No, you cannot say that,
not with "haben" anyway.
Actually, "to have breakfast"
means "frühstücken"
" Frühstück" is breakfast and
it's kind of like breakfasting.
Or "to have coffee"
Now you would have to say, "Ich
trinke Kaffee," or you could say,
"I take coffee," but you cannot say
"have coffee for, " to drink coffee."
That is something we should know.
Okay, good.
So "he has coffee," doesn't
mean that he's drinking coffee.
It really means that he owns
coffee or he has it in his
hands or something like that.
"Er hat Kaffee."
Good.
So if you want to say things like, "I
have the book," but also in German,
but I also, you could say, "I have a
book," or "I have books" and so on.
But let's go into the actual start
of this, and this is how to say
the word "zu haben" "to have."
So I'll say it, you repeat it.
"To have" " haben"
"I have" "ich habe"
"ich habe."
"You have" " du hast"
"du hast."
"He has."
"er hat"
"er hat"
"She has"
"sie hat"
"sie hat."
"It has" "es hat."
"es hat."
"We have"
"wir haben" "wir haben"
"You have" talking to more
than one person, "ihr habt"
ihr habt."
" They have" " "sie haben"
"sie haben"
That's the basic forms.
Now we're going to look at a few examples,
and for these example sentences I'm
using, just to make it not too difficult
for the beginning, plural words.
So "I have apples"
" Ich habe Äpfel"
"You have chairs,"
"Du hast Stühle"
"She has cats."
"sie hat Katzen."
"We have tables."
"Wir haben Tische"
"You have windows."
"You" more than one person.
"ihr habt Fenster."
"They have cars."
" Sie haben Autos"
Alright, now we're going to
make a few different sentences.
What you can also use, you don't
need an article for that at all,
use something that is a substance,
or that could not be counted.
Something like air or
love or milk or water.
Words like that.
In English, we call them uncountable.
in German we can call them
"unzählbar" and we can
make sentences with those.
So "I have air"
" ich habe Luft"
Fun fact, " ich habe Luft" in German
can mean quite literally "I have
air," but it can also mean that you
have some time for something like,
"Let's get together next
week. I have some time left."
You could say, so "treffen wir
uns nächste Woche" that's kind
of like, "let's meet next week."
" Da habe ich Luft" Literally, it
means "I have air there or then."
So " Luft haben" can also mean that.
Back to our examples.
"He has milk,"
Er hat Milch" These are also
sentences that you could be saying.
And now I'm going to give you one more
type for this episode because I don't want
to make it too long, and that is quite
simple, and that is if you're using "der,
die or das," there's just one change.
So you're speaking that you have a
specific thing that would only make sense
if you had already talked before it.
But if you would say, "I have the cat."
Like, everybody has been looking for
the cat and you say, "I have the cat."
Then you say,
"ich habe die Katze"
"The cat."
"die Katze," "Ich habe die Katze"
Or, "He has the book."
"The book." "das Buch."
"Er hat das Buch"
Good.
Then there's one more that we know.
For example, let's take
"der Stuhl," —"the chair."
That would be "der Stuhl" and
in this sentence with haben and
with many, many other verbs,
this becomes in this case "den,"
So if you want to say, "I have the chair,"
You say, " Ich habe den Stuhl."
Okay.
So it's, fairly easy actually.
You don't do a lot of changing
here, just "der" becomes "den."
All right!
Let's make more examples.
I'm going to do them
with translation, okay?
"She has the table, she has the table,"
"Sie hat den Tisch."
"We have the car."
"Wir haben das Auto."
"They have the dog."
"Sie haben den Hund.
Okay, a few more.
"I have the book"
"Ich habe das Buch"
"You have the pen," "Du
hast den Kugelschreiber."
Or "du hast den Stift"
"Kugelschreiber" is actually "the pen."
In this case, I know pen, such a small
word and "Kugelschreiber" is a big word.
In German, we have a tendency of
making words by describing them.
Sometimes this can become long and, if
you are new to the language, it can appear
that it's complicated, but actually once
you have learned the base vocabulary,
it's actually relatively simple because
there is many, many examples where
words are just describing the object.
So "Kugelschreiber" means "ball writer."
It is something that writes using a ball.
So in English there is a word, it's a
"ball point pen." So that's what it is
There's so many words like that.
"Vorhang" —"the curtain,"
"Vorhang." It's just the hanging in front.
"Vor" means "in front" and "hang"
is something that hangs so, "in
front hang," something like that.
So there is like thousands of words that
are super descriptive and if you know
the parts, then you know the whole word.
Okay!
So I was actually saying
the sentence, I think
" Du hast den Kugelschreiber."
"You have the ballpoint pen or the pen?"
Let's do a few more simple ones.
"She has the lamp."
"Sie hat die Lampe."
"We have the bottle.
" Wir haben die Flasche"
"He has the key."
"Er hat den Schlüssel."
The key is "der Schlüssel." "He
has the key." "Er hat den Schlüssel."
Alright!
I'm going to make another episode.
There will probably be many episodes
where I can refer to this one.
So there will be other episodes
where we are looking at how do we
use the same thing now with "a." In
German, there is some changes here.
The other thing I'm telling you
is what is the next episode about.
So our next episode will be
"Words About the Breakfast."
We've had a recent "Restaurant"
episode and you seem to have liked it.
So we're going to make an episode
about words about the breakfast.
So when you're in Vienna or somewhere
in Germany or Switzerland and you're on
holidays and you want to eat breakfast or
have breakfast in English, I can say that.
That's, by the way, one of the reasons why
I have a tendency to say "eat breakfast"
instead of "have breakfast" because
in Germany it doesn't work like that.
Anyway, so, and you want to have
breakfast, then you obviously
need to have some words.
So we are going to go over, what are
the things you can usually find on a
breakfast buffet, and also what are
the words for them and, things that you
might, want to be able to say to order
coffee or tea or whatever you might need.
This is going to be the
next episode, Episode 63.
Tune in then and, the other thing
that I wanted to mention is I'm,
publishing more podcast episodes now.
So please do let me know what
rhythm would be best for you.
Do you want one episode a week
or would you like to have two
episodes a week or even three?
What would be the thing that you
would prefer and please, if you
like the podcast and if you want me
to produce more episodes, leave me
a rating, give me a 5-star rating.
Give me a review and you can always
write to me at podcast@bettergerman.info.
So talk to you soon.
Bye bye!