Talk #3 - A1-A2: How to say something in the past in German (Present Perfect)

[0:00 – 20:49]

[Tom]
Hallo und herzlich willkommen zum Expertly German Podcast, dem Podcast, wo du Deutsch lernen kannst. Heute wieder mit dem Gast Luise, today again with the guest Louise. She will help me to teach you German better.

We will go through sentences today. I will say the sentences in English and maybe also some words in English. And then Louise has to build the sentences in German, which helps you to understand better the underlying principles there. We touch on a lot of grammar topics today, prepositions, adjectives, verb conjugations and so on. Louise, are you ready?

[Louise]
Absolutely.

[Tom]
Okay, great. So, the first word or the first sentence that I have, let’s use the word book. How would you say I read a book? Or in English, I think you actually say I am reading a book using the present tense.

[Louise]
Okay, so a book, was it?

[Tom]
Yeah.

[Louise]
Ah, because it would be different if it was I’m reading the book.

[Tom]
Yeah, how do we call the A, like those types of articles, do you know?

[Louise]
So it would be ein, eine or einen, depending on which…

[Tom]
Yeah, and we call those indefinite articles.

[Louise]
Indefinite articles. Or it would be das, der or… what’s the other one?

[Tom]
Der, die, das.

[Louise]
Der, die, das. So, for das Buch, it would be ich lese einen Buch.

[Tom]
Ein Buch. Ich lese ein Buch. Ein just stays like that. And so ich is the subject, lese is the verb, ich lese. And then ein Buch is the object, and here we have the accusative case. Because I can ask, what do I read? It’s the direct object here. What do I read? Ein Buch, a book.

And then when you have the accusative case, and when you have a noun that is neutral, like das Buch, then ein stays ein. So for masculine it would be einen, for feminine it would be eine, but for neutral it just stays ein. So this is how you would say it. Ich lese ein Buch. So now, how would you say, I eat an apple?

[Louise]
Ich esse einen Apfel.

[Tom]
Yes, exactly, einen Apfel. That’s pretty good. So here we have again the accusative case, einen Apfel, ich esse einen Apfel. And here the masculine, der Apfel, becomes einen in the accusative case. Oder ich esse den Apfel, if you want to use a definite article. Can you think of a sentence using the word donkey?

[Louise]
No.

[Tom]
What else?

[Louise]
Ich brauche…

[Tom]
You need a donkey? Einen Esel. Yes, ich brauche einen Esel, that’s a bit of a weird sentence. I need a donkey. But grammatically correct.

[Louise]
I can’t think of any normal verb, like I eat a donkey, I was like, nope. I need a donkey.

[Tom]
You could say, maybe I ride a donkey. Do you ride a donkey? Can you ride on a donkey?

[Louise]
It’s all just a funny topic around donkey.

[Tom]
How would you say, I ride a donkey?

[Louise]
Isn’t that like fahrradfahren? I ride a bike?

[Tom]
Ich reite. And then you probably use the preposition auf.

[Louise]
I ride on a donkey.

[Tom]
Ich reite auf einem Esel. And auf is a preposition. And for you listeners as well, auf is a two-way preposition. And you can use the accusative case or the dative case here. And in this case you have to use the dative case.

[Louise]
That goes a little bit beyond my level.

[Tom]
That’s fine. Ich reite auf einem Esel. That’s what you could say.

[Louise]
Oder ich brauche einen Esel.

[Tom]
Oder ich brauche einen Esel. Which was absolutely correct as well. Football. Can you think of a sentence with football?

[Louise]
Meine Freundin macht Fußball.

[Tom]
Mein Freund.

[Louise]
Mein Freund. I always get really confused with the whole Freundin-Freundin thing in German.

[Tom]
Yes, but then you have to say… So, der… That’s a whole other topic. The Germans are completely confused about that themselves. So, der Fußball. That’s correct. If you want to say your friend. Or your boyfriend. In this case, mein Freund. And then plays is spielt. Er spielt. Mein Freund spielt Fußball.

[Louise]
Or likes football.

[Tom]
How would you say that?

[Louise]
Mein Freund macht.

[Tom]
Mag. M-A-G. It comes from mögen. M-Ö-G-E-N mögen Ich mag. Du magst. Er mag. Wir mögen. And so on.

[Louise]
I feel like I’m picking all the good ones. Okay, fine. So, we’ll do it your way. Mein Freund spielt der Fußball.

[Tom]
Or just Fußball. Mein Freund spielt Fußball.

[Louise]
I wouldn’t play with their football.

[Tom]
Exactly. And then we could use the word, the hand. How would you say for example… Maybe let’s use the past. Like last time. I, I cut my hand. But using the past.

[Louise]
How do you say cut?

[Tom]
Schneiden.

[Louise]
Ah, okay.

[Tom]
But you…

[Louise]
Ich habe mein… Hang on. Ich habe meine Hand geschneiden?

[Tom]
Geschnitten.

[Louise]
Oh, God.

[Tom]
Ich habe meine Hand geschnitten. But we would probably say more commonly, Ich habe mir in die Hand geschnitten.

[Louise]
It’s never easy with you.

[Tom]
But ich habe meine Hand geschnitten. You can say that. You can say that. The past participle of schneiden is geschnitten. And you can say that. But the more German way of saying it would be, Ich habe mir in die Hand geschnitten. Which is kind of, I myself cut in my hand. Something like that. Can you think of a sentence with the Internet?

[Louise]
Das Internet. So that’s neutral. So that would be like… I’ve forgotten already. Mein…

[Tom]
Mein Internet ist schlecht. And how would you say, My Internet is quick.

[Louise]
Mein Internet ist schlecht.

[Tom]
Yes, perfect. Exactly. And here the adjective is not attributive. So you don’t have to decline it. How would you use a sentence with the cookie? For example I don’t know. My friends using the past again cooked cookies for me. Ah ja. My sentences are a little bit more difficult than yours.

[Louise]
So meinen Freunden?

[Tom]
No.

[Louise]
Meine Freundin?

[Tom]
So when you use plural then you say Meine Freunde.

[Louise]
Meine Freunde haben der Keks gebacken. Yes.

[Tom]
Meine Freunde haben Kekse gebacken. That’s the plural. And I wouldn’t use an article here. Just like my friends baked cookies. You don’t say the cookies.

[Louise]
Yeah, but it’s a different context.

[Tom]
Meine Freunde haben für mich Kekse gebacken. If you want to make it more difficult. And für is an accusative preposition. So after für we have to use the accusative case. The word, the next word we could use is the night. Can you think of a sentence for example In the night I go I don’t know, hiking?

[Louise]
In der Nacht. Would I say Ich wandern gehen?

[Tom]
No, in der Nacht. In the second position of the sentence you have to put the conjugated verb.

[Louise]
In der Nacht gehen wandern ich?

[Tom]
No, so in der Nacht is the object. In der Nacht is the object. Then we have the conjugated verb. In der Nacht gehe. Then you have to put the subject there. Because you literally switch around. You could also say Ich gehe in der Nacht wandern. In der Nacht gehe ich wandern. In der Nacht gehe ich gern wandern. I like to hike in the night. Of course. It’s a bit weird to enjoy the view.

[Louise]
All of our sentences are really weird.

[Tom]
That’s fine.

[Louise]
I need a donkey and I like to walk in the night.

[Tom]
Exactly. Awesome. Alright. Can you think about a sentence with the park? Which the German translation is super difficult here. Der Park. Der Park, correct.

[Louise]
Ja. Mein Schwester. Meine Schwester. Meine Schwester spielt Fußball in der Park.

[Tom]
Im Park. Because it is Der Park and in is a two-way preposition. So after in we have to use the… dative case. That is why and park is masculine. Meine Schwester spielt Fußball im Park.

[Louise]
Can you say in der and in as a shorthand? Or is it that you absolutely have to change it to in?

[Tom]
You could maybe say in dem Park. But most of the time we would say im.

[Louise]
Right. Okay.

[Tom]
The trip. The journey.

[Louise]
Ich habe eine große Reise gegeben.

[Tom]
What is it you want to say?

[Louise]
I had a Does it make sense in English? I went on a long trip. Or I had a long trip. Something like that.

[Tom]
So you can say you can use the Präteritum here. But let’s go with the present perfect. Which would be… Ich habe eine lange Reise… gehabt. And if you want to use the Präteritum in English you would maybe say like the simple past. Then it would be Ich hatte eine lange Reise. So those are there are two ways of how you can say something in the past in German. One is the present perfect which we actually touched on last episode. And then there is the Präteritum which you can use as well.

Okay. And then let’s do a couple more sentences. How would you say I don’t know. I bought a coffee in the supermarket.

[Louise]
Ich habe ein Kaffee im Supermarkt bezahlt. Oh, gekauft.

[Tom]
Ich habe einen Kaffee im Supermarkt gekauft. Do you have any idea about how to say I will buy a coffee in the supermarket.

[Louise]
Ich werde einen Kaffee im Supermarkt kaufen.

[Tom]
Just the infinitive verb at the end. Ich werde einen Kaffee im Supermarkt kaufen.

[Louise]
That’s like the first easy thing that you said in terms of a rule today.

[Tom]
So listeners this is something like the will future. And so you have the verb which you conjugate and then kaufen is just the plain infinitive verb that you put at the end. Ich werde einen Kaffee kaufen. Ich werde einen Kaffee im Supermarkt kaufen. That’s a pretty easy way to use something in the future. Okay. Let’s use the word weather. How would you say, Yesterday we had nice weather. Or we had nice weather yesterday. Depends on how you want to say it.

[Louise]
Wir haben gestern schöne Wetter gehabt.

[Tom]
Gehabt. Wir haben gestern schönes Wetter gehabt. Schönes Wetter. Oder wir hatten gestern schönes Wetter. Which is actually more natural to say here. Wir hatten gestern schönes Wetter. Schönes Wetter. Here we have the accusative case again. Wetter is neutral. Das Wetter.

Wir hatten gestern schönes Wetter. In this case there is no article in front of schönes. In front of the adjective. Therefore we put an es at the end of schön. Schönes. Now I would like you to actually pronounce a couple of words in German. Sorry, spell a couple of words in German.

I will help you with that. How would you spell the word Thomas?

[Louise]
Okay, I’m going to give this a go. T. I hate just one of the ones I’m always mixing up with.

[Tom]
H.

[Louise]
T, H, O. M, A, S.

[Tom]
Ja, S.

[Louise]
S, because the S-er is the double S.

[Tom]
No, there is no S-er. There is just S. T, H, O, M, A, S. Thomas. The next one. Zimmer, which is the room. Das Zimmer.

[Louise]
Z. I. M, M, E, R.

[Tom]
Ja, R. Yes, so I know a lot of you guys, listeners have problems with saying the R. Many, not many, like a couple of my clients have that problem using the R that we kind of roll with the throat rather than with the tongue. And so if you say the letter R then it’s really like R. R. We don’t say R. I don’t do the front of my tongue. I use my throat.

[Louise]
I can’t do it now, sorry. R.

[Tom]
Yeah, well, it’s pretty close. Z, I, M, M, E, R. Exactly like that. Alright, and the next letter, the brother. Der Bruder. How would you spell that?

[Louise]
B, R, U, D, E, R.

[Tom]
Ja. B, R, U, D, E, R. Correct, ja. And how would you spell the bicycle? Das Fahrrad. Oh, we have a lot of R’s there. I feel like I’ve picked the words that have especially a lot of R’s.

[Louise]
Just throw some more Z in there, why don’t you? And H’s as well. Yeah, I don’t like that. F. Oh, it’s just F. So many of the letters are like English and then there’s the odd one that’s just completely different.

[Tom]
Sneaky.

[Louise]
F, A, H.

[Tom]
F, A, H. Oh man.

[Louise]
F, A, H, R, R, A, D.

[Tom]
Yes. F, A, H, R, R, A, D. Das Fahrrad. Exactly. Alright, and then now well, let’s use the last one. Germany. Deutschland. How would you spell Deutschland?

[Louise]
D, E, U.

[Tom]
D, E, U.

[Louise]
D, E, U. T, S, C.

[Tom]
C.

[Louise]
C, H. L, A, N, D.

[Tom]
Yes, exactly. D, E, U. T, S. C, H. L, A, N, D. L, A, N, D. Spelling letters I think is something fundamental and important. So, I mean I think that was a good exercise. How did you like today’s lesson?

[Louise]
I feel like it actually represented how I feel about German in general. If you try and tell me a sentence, I know roughly I feel like I get like 80% of the gist of what I should say in German but then my lack of confidence with the rules slips me up in at least a couple of instances in every sentence. Or like, yeah, going through all of the different cases and adjective endings and different things that mean that I need to adapt words to fit the context of a sentence is the real focus, I think, for me.

But yeah, I think it’s good to kind of feel like I can say most of the stuff where I know most of what the words are saying. It’s just trying to be able to say it in a sentence that’s grammatically like, makes sense to someone else.

[Tom]
Yeah, and I think that is the same for many people. You kind of have a good idea of the vocabulary. You also know how to say a sentence but you’re not so sure about how to say the grammar.

And that’s the problem for a lot of my clients. So that’s why I mean, join courses or get a private tutor to help you to go through those topics where you feel not so confident about and solve that problem rather than spending time and kind of like trying to figure that out too much on your own because that maybe gives you more headache than it actually solves the problem. So, thank you guys for listening and learning.

If you want to know more about, well, the podcast and about me and the service that I’m offering then go to expertlygerman.com There you can find a course that I’ve recorded videos that I’ve recorded that teaches German between the level of A2 to B2. So you can go to there. I also offer one-on-one lessons which you can also find on my platform.

You can also book a 15 minutes discovery lesson with me. And then there is also a lot more material on my website like free e-books and blog posts that help you to improve your German. As well as this podcast. Also, if you listen to it on Apple Podcast, please hit the button subscribe and if you’re listening to Spotify then follow the podcast that really helps to make this podcast even more popular. 

So, thank you very much. Cheers guys and bis bald!