Stress Free German Ep: 20 Putting it All Together

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Welcome to Lesson 20 of Stress Free German and congratulations on reaching the final lesson of Volume 1. I know how much time and effort you put in to make it here, so I hope you keep your momentum going by joining me in volume two. All you need to do is head over to stressfreegerman.com and click on the banner to see what you'll be getting. Meantime, let's start by recalling this phrase. We are going to the movies. We go to the Kino! I'm going to the museum. Ich gehe ins Museum.

Why are they saying in? As we learned back in lesson ten, it's a contraction of in and das. Okay, but what about a masculine location?

Pit pause and take a guess on how we might say I'm going to the park. Ich gehe in den Park. Why is it in den Because going towards something counts as doing something to it. Usually. Back in lesson fourteen, I mentioned that there was one common exception to this idea, and now is the time to talk about it. It's this little word tsu. Because you can also say, ich gehe zum Park. Here's the difference between the two. When he says, Ich gehe in den Park.

He enters the park itself. Take a moment and visualize that scene. A man walking to the park and actually entering it. Okay, but when he says Ich gehe zum Park. He might not actually enter the park. Maybe he's meeting friends by the entrance. Let's try it again with another masculine location. Der Supermarkt So given the idea of I'm going to the supermarket, she might say Ich gehe in den Supermarkt. Or she might phrase it. Ich gehe zum Supermarkt.

With the first one? Indeed. She is entering the store itself. But with the second one she might not actually enter the store. Maybe she's going fairly late, and the store might be closed. A good way to visualize this is to draw an arrow in your mind, piercing the location. The arrow goes into the place. That's the concept behind the German word in. Then imagine an arrow that ends right in front of the place itself. That would be Tsu. Tsu.

So imagine a bank and a post office next door to each other, and an elderly woman standing outside, as if deciding which place to enter. The presence of the woman in this mental image tells us that in German these two locations are both feminine. die Bank Die Post? Hey, wait, isn't Bank? The word for a bench? It is. German, too, has homonyms, words that sound the same but have different meanings. At least they're both feminine, right?

So let's say Thomas is going to the post office, or maybe he's meeting a friend outside the building. He says, I'm going to the post. Right? Our mental arrow ends just outside of the building. But if he intended to go inside and buy stamps or go pick up a package Ich gehe in die Post. Now our arrow pierces the door and goes inside. Same with the bank. Lisa is meeting a friend outside the bank. So as she heads out, she informs her roommate.

Ich gehe zur Bank. ZU DER ZUR But if she intends to go in and make a deposit? Ich gehe in die Bank. Let's try train station. You're going there because there's a guy who sells awesome pretzels from a little cart just outside the station. So you tell your roommate. Ich gehe zum Bahnhof. But if you intend on going inside to buy tickets or to wait for a friend's arrival, Normally, when we say we're going to the movies, we mean we intend to end up inside it, right? Watching a movie.

Wir gehen ins Kino. But if your arrow takes you only to the building itself, maybe to meet friends outside it, what would we say? Wir gehen zum Kino.

Let's change topics for a bit and add a new verb. So your friend comes over in a great mood. She shows you a train ticket and says, Ich fahre nach London. Clearly she's going to London, but why didn't she use the other version that we learned? Ich gehe. Well, the verb fahren. also conveys the idea of going somewhere, but it implies by some kind of vehicle. Car, bus, train, even a bike so she's saying, I'm travelling to London. Ich fahre nach London. You try it, say, I'm traveling to France.

Ich fahre nach Frankreich. We're traveling to Austria. Wir fahren nach Österreich. My brother is travelling to Germany. Mein Bruder fährt nach Deutschland. Ask a friend, are you traveling to Berlin? Fährst du nach Berlin? Maybe we can combine these two main concepts we're working on. How might you say, I'm going by vehicle to the supermarket? Ich fahre zum Supermarkt. I'm going inside the supermarket. Ich gehe in den Supermarkt. How about I now am inside the supermarket?

Ich bin jetzt im Supermarkt. Excellent. Back in a bit. From stress free.

If you think of your vocabulary in a language as a big pot of stew, Then the tip today is to remember to constantly stir deep down into the pot. Keep churning the language, mixing old vocab with new. Because, as the saying goes, use it or lose it. But the problem is, unless you have an unlimited amount of time, it becomes increasingly more challenging to properly stir one's growing vocabulary stew.

The trick is to choose wisely. Focus on reviewing those words which are inherently more challenging to recall. This is something we do here in this course and will continue to do in the lessons ahead. Speaking of which, I hope you'll continue your journey with the team here at Stressfree German. I may be the voice of the course, but there are a lot of people who've come together to make this happen.

Thanks needs to go out to the tech guys in Hiroshima, Japan, our language partners in Western Ukraine and Germany, our graphics team down in Crimea, even the financial guys in the US, we're a small company, but we have big ambitions. To help people realize that even the most challenging languages can be easy, even fun to learn. Time for some fun review. Try to say, today we're shopping in the supermarket.

Heute kaufen wir im Supermarkt ein. At the bakery department of the store ask for one whole grain bread. Einmal Vollkornbrot. Your friend is always late. Tell him your clock is broken. Deine Uhr ist kaputt. As you head out to go camping, say I'm taking a knife with implying with me. Ich nehme ein Messer mit. Ask a friend, are you taking his book with Nimmst du sein Buch mit? I'm buying a new garbage bin. Ich kaufe eine neue Mülltonne. He is standing on the chair. Er steht auf dem Stuhl.

Grandma is making a beautiful rug. Oma macht einen schönen Teppich. Your friend is wearing a new jacket with the logo of a German bank on it. Ask Do you work in a bank? Arbeitest du in einer Bank? Tell your boss, I give you my word. Ich gebe Ihnen mein Wort. We know that phrase, but now let's try it with reported speech. So, how will his wife repeat to him, He is giving you his word? Er gibt dir sein Wort. We need a new cutting board. Wir brauchen ein neues Brett.

Thomas is meeting a friend outside the bank. As he heads out, he informs his wife I'm going to the bank. Lisa is going to the train station to buy a newspaper at one of the kiosks outside of it. So she says. Ich gehe zum Bahnhof. There's a good choice of cafes inside the train station, so as Hans heads out, he says I'm going into the train station. Ich gehe in den Bahnhof. Catherine needs to make a deposit inside the bank, so she says Ich gehe in die Bank.

Let's add one word into the mix that you likely already know. For example, a friend tells you that there's a free jazz concert in the park tonight. Having to work until seven in the evening, you ask, Wann ist das Konzert? How would you translate this next phrase? Wann fahren wir nach Berlin? That means when are we travelling to Berlin? So you try it. Ask when are we travelling to Dublin? Wann fahren wir nach Dublin? When are we going shopping? Wann gehen wir einkaufen?

When are you going to the post office, implying going in to mail something? Wann gæst du en de post? All right, and for our last little topic today, let's work with with. Well, the German version. It's spelled MIT. What do you think Carl is saying here? Ich fahre nach Hamburg mit dem Bus. Mit dem Boss. He said, I'm travelling to Hamburg with the bus. We've encountered the word. Dim For example, your key is on the table. Dein Schlüssel ist auf dem Tisch. or I'm in the museum. Ich bin im Museum.

is a contraction of in dim Try to say, we're traveling with the train. Wir fahren mit dem Zug. Of course in normal English we'd use the word by, right? I'm going by train. Take a moment, use that pause button, and try to think of how you would say, I ride a bike to school. Ich fahre mit dem Fahrrad zur Schule. We use here because when we're on the bike, our arrow of movement only goes up to the school. You're not riding inside of it, are you?

And why was it Sue? Because she's contracting A key takeaway here is that normally motion towards a place is considered this. Right? It's considered doing something to the place, usually. But not when Tsu is involved. So try that phrase again. I ride a bike to school. Literally, I travel with the bike. Ich fahre mit dem Fahrrad zur Schule. I'm travelling by train to work. Ich fahre mit dem Zug zur Arbeit. My friend rides a bike to work. Or my friend is riding a bike to work.

Mein Freund fährt mit dem Fahrrad zur Arbeit. We're riding the bus home. Wir fahren mit dem Bus nach Hause. Ask your boss, are you travelling by car or by bus? Fahren Sie mit dem Auto oder mit dem Bus? Ask your sister, are you travelling by bus or by train? Fajršišišišišišišišišišišišišišišišišišiši.

Guys, fantastic job. Of course, on finishing this lesson, but mostly for making it all the way through volume one of this course. It says something about a person when they can choose a goal and stick with it to the end. Of course, in some ways, this was only the beginning. Up next, in the first lesson of volume two, we're going to talk about our family and friends as we begin to tell our story.

I hope to see you there, but if your path takes you down a different road, I wish you all the best in your pursuit of the language. Tschuss. You've been listening to Stress-Free German, where the method makes the difference.