Lesson One: Learning German with Jemma

To remember your conversational partner's name would be a good start, but I think that's transnational, except you're from London maybe.

  

"Hi, ich bin Emma." - "Hi, I'm Emma."

 

'Hi'...that sounds so...English. Well, yeah, we Germans love your language..or at least the young folk does. That's why our cell phones are called 'Handy' - a total English word even though no one would ever say 'Handy' in an English speaking country. It's just cool to invent and take on English words. It starts at 'Hi', goes over 'nice' and 'sorry', 'dissen' and 'mobbing', 'team coaching camp', 'tour guide' and finally ends with "Junior Service Management Assistant'. But we're drifting off.

 

"Hi." and "Hey." are commonly used as a greeting by young people.

 

"Hallo." , in my experience, is ceasing. You'd rather use it to question someone's sanity, for example if someone did something totally inappropriate you'll say: "Halllooo???" Optionally add a "Hast du sie nicht mehr alle?" -"Are you crazy or what?" (Literally seen, that is the short form of the German saying "Hast du nicht mehr alle Tassen im Schrank?"  - "Do you not have all cups in the cupboard anymore?")

 

Then there is the good old 'Guten Tag' (Good day) in all variations depending on the attitude of the sun and this is really commonly used ->

 

• It's morning you're entering your backery: "Guten Morgen, ich möchte Croissants für meine traumatisierte Freundin kaufen." (Good morning, I'd like to buy croissants for my traumatized girlfriend.)

• It's noon and someone wants to steal your hot chocolate from the coffee machine. "Guten Tag, denk bloß nicht daran den zu klauen. Das ist mein Kakao!" (Good day, don't you even think about stealing this. This is my hot chocolate!)

• It's evening you're coming home and your crush is standing in the middle of your oddly enough decorated living room looking stunningly cute. "Guten Abend, warum hast du immer noch deine Jacke an?" (Good evening, why are you still wearing your jacket?)

 

Alright, with that you will be armed for a greeting. If you're up north, you don't say (Guten) Morgen, but just "Moin". Also you can use the Spanish 'Hola' if you're in a good mood - or at least I do that.

 

Good bye seems to be the hardest word

 

Let's hope we'll never have to use it in relation to Jemma, but here's how to say goodbye.

 

All different forms of the italian 'Ciao'

Tschüss
Tschö (if you want to be funny say 'Tschö mit (with) Ö' It's not funny at all and I'm wondering where that came from)
Tschau or the actual 'Ciao'

 

Good-bye - (literally: See you again.)

(Auf) Wiedersehen

If you hate the person you're saying goodbye to "Auf nimmer Wiedersehen" – Never see you again.

 

See you (later)

Wir sehen uns (später) – (literally: We'll see each other (later))

Bis bald/Bis gleich/Bis dann/Bis (insert day or time) – (literally: Till soon/in a moment/then):

 

Others:

Servus (if you're in Bavaria where Lucy is from)

Mach es gut. (reply: Mach es besser.) - "Be well/Do it well. - Be better/Do it better."

Ade

•  Jenny fährt rückwärts und crasht in Emma mit Herr Bergmanns Auto. Emmas Fahrrad ist kaputt.

• Jenny drives backwards and hits Emma with the car of Mr. Bergmann. Emma's bike is kaput.

 

See Auto (car) and Fahrrad (bike) and Herr (Mister) are nouns which deserve to be written with a capital letter. So do Jenny, Bergmann and Emma because they are actual people and definitely do have a soul ... or at least Jenny and Emma do - beautiful ones at that.

Also you may have noticed that with 'crasht' we have the Germans doing English again. Your words are taken and the 'ed' of the past form are replaced with a 't'. But, you also might have noticed that your kaput is coming from our kaputt.

So note, every Thing and Name are written with a capital Letter at the Start. And your Language and Words would look like this being written under that german Rule.