German organized

German Level Two Lessons
Grundlegende Lektionen
A Basic Course in German

Level Two Contents
Section 2.01 ~ Salzburg, Austria
•Lesson 2.01 • Einfache Gespräche unter Freunden ~ German grammar (introduction),
familiar conversations, word order in questions, pronouns (introduction).
•Lesson 2.02 • Fremde und Freunde ~ Verbs (introduction), pronouns in nominative case,
formal conversations, pronoun gender.
•Lesson 2.03 • Die Zahlen ~ Counting (theme), numbers 1 to 12, telling time, nouns
(introduction), definite articles & noun gender, indefinite articles.
•Lesson 2.04 • Eine Geschichte über Zürich ~ Adjectives (introduction), nouns and pronouns
in the accusative and dative, interrogatives.
•Review 2.01 • Review of Lessons 1-4
Section 2.02 ~ Zürich, Switzerland
•Lesson 2.05 • Die Wohnung ~ Conjugating verbs (present tense), commands.
•Lesson 2.06 • Mathematik ~ Simple math, numbers 13-100, telling time: minutes & seconds,
days of the week, months, and seasons
•Lesson 2.07 • Mein, Dein, und Sein ~ School subjects, a description of German schools, basic
vocabulary in school classes (math, geography, etc.), and school supplies.
•Lesson 2.08 • Einkaufen gehen ~ Articles of clothing, separable verbs, colors.
•Review 2.02 • Review of Lessons 5-8
Section 2.03 ~ Hannover, Germany
•Lesson 2.09 • Verbtempus und Wortstellung ~ Inverted word order, past and future tense
verbs.
•Lesson 2.10 • Undeveloped ~ Undeveloped
•Lesson 2.11 • Undeveloped ~ Undeveloped
•Lesson 2.12 • Undeveloped ~ Undeveloped
•Review 2.03 • Review of Lessons 9-12

Section 2.01 ~ Salzburg, Austria
Lesson 2.01 • Einfache Gespräche unter
Freunden
Grammatik 1-1 ~ Introduction to German grammar
Knowing the parts of speech (how words function in a sentence) is important for anyone attempting to
learn a second language. English speakers will find many strong parallels between their language and
German. However, as noted in the introduction, German grammar signals—how words indicate their
function in a sentence—are more complex than English, and identifying the meaning of words in a
German sentence is difficult without understanding these clues or signals to word function that come
from the grammatical rules. The basic lessons (Level II) of this textbook are set up to first introduce the
parts of speech, and then bring in the rules that govern these. Pay particular attention to both word
endings and sentence word order as you progress in learning the German language.
Following is a short conversation piece (Gespräch). Play the audio file first, then attempt to repeat what
you hear, reading the spoken parts of the conversation. Go back and forth (listening and then speaking)
until the German flows easily from your lips. This may take considerable practice. Refer to the
vocabulary (Vokabeln) below to understand the meaning of the German sentences you are hearing and
speaking.
Gespräch 1-1 ~ Die Freunde
Heinrich trifft Karl auf der Straße. Heinrich und Karl sind Freunde.
•Heinrich: Guten Tag, Karl. Wie geht es dir?
•Karl: Guten Tag. Danke, es geht mir gut. Und dir?
•Heinrich: Danke, es geht mir gut. Auf Wiedersehen.
•Karl: Auf Wiedersehen!
•Audio: OGG (97KB)
In this conversation we learn several simple greetings exchanged between friends meeting very briefly
on the street.
Vokabeln 1-1
This first vocabulary (Vokabeln) may seem a bit long considering you have been presented with only
the brief conversation piece above, but it also contains all of the German words you have encountered
up to this point in the Level II textbook, including words in photo captions and lesson section headers.

The layout of the Vokabeln is explained in the Lesson Layout Guide in the German~English textbook
introduction, but the four parts of the Vokabeln are labeled in this first lesson to reenforce the concept.
Note that column 3 may contain (in parentheses) additional notes about a word in column 1. Also, you
can find the greeting phrases that appear in the simple conversations above (and many others) in
Anhang 2, a German-English phrase book.
NOUNS
der Anhang, die Anhänge appendix, appendices (singular and plural)
die Brücke bridge
der Freund, die Freunde friend, friends (singular and plural)
das Gespräch, die Gespräche conversation, conversations
die Grammatik grammar (note irregular stress)
die Lektion lesson (note irregular stress)
die Straße street
das Tor gateway
die Vokabeln word list, vocabulary
das Vorwort foreword, preface (introduction to a book)
SHORT PHRASES
auf der Straße on the street
Auf Wiedersehen Good bye
Es geht mir gut I am fine (lit: 'It goes with me
good')
Guten Tag! Good day (greeting)
Und dir? And you? (implied: 'And how are
you?')
unter Freunden between friends
Wie geht es dir? How are you (lit: 'How goes it with
you?')
Wie geht's? How are you? (casual, but more commonly
used)
VERBS
gehen go (geht is "goes")
treffen meet, come upon (trifft is "meets")
OTHER "SMALL" WORDS (adjectives, adverbs, prepositions, etc.)
danke thank you; thanks
dir (with or for) you
einfach simple
es it
gut good
mir (with or to) me
und and
wie? how?
<< Lesson Layout Guide
Pronunciation Guide >>

Gespräch 1-2 ~ Die Studenten
Markus ist Student. Er studiert Biologie. Er begegnet Katrin. Sie studiert
Mathematik. Markus und Katrin sind Freunde.
•Markus: Hallo, Katrin! Wohin gehst du?
•Katrin: Ich gehe einkaufen. Der Kühlschrank ist fast leer. Ich brauche Wurst
und Käse. Und du? Wohin gehst du?
•Markus: Zur Uni. Ich habe viel zu tun.
•Katrin: Gut! Dann bis bald. Tschüss.
•Markus: Tschüss, Katrin.
Here again, two friends (college students) meet casually and discuss briefly what each is doing.
Grammatik 1-2 ~ Word Order in Questions
Basic or normal word order in simple German sentences is the same as in English—subject then verb
then verb object:
Ich habe Käse ~ I (subject) have (verb) cheese (verb object = what you "have")
Also, as with English sentence structure, a question sentence in German is formed by reversing subject
and verb:
Hast du Käse? ~ Have (verb) you (subject) cheese?
This is called inverted word order. Examples are provided in Gespräch 1-1 and Gespräch 1-2. As
another example, consider the statement: Er studiert Biologie ('He studies biology'). A question
statement might be: Was studiert er? ('What studies he?'; although in English, we would usually say:
"What is he studying?"). The normal word order of subject (er or "he") then verb (studiert or "study")
is reversed and, in this case, an interrogative (was or "what") added onto the front replacing the
unknown (to the speaker) object (here, "biology"). Additional examples of questions formed from basic
statements illustrate inverted word order:
Wie geht es dir? from Es geht mir gut. ('It goes well with me.')
Wohin geht sie? from Sie geht einkaufen. ('She goes shopping.')
Was ist fast leer? from Der Kühlschrank ist fast leer. ('The fridge is almost empty.')
Was brauche ich? from Ich brauche Wurst und Käse. ('I need sausage and cheese.')
Versteht sie mich? from Sie versteht mich. ('She understands me.')
Grammatik 1-3 ~ Introduction to pronouns
A pronoun (Pronomen) is a short word that takes the place of a noun previously mentioned in the
sentence, paragraph, or conversation. A pronoun substitutes for a noun or noun phrase and designates
persons or things asked for, previously specified, or understood from context. A specific pronoun in
English as well as German has person, number, and case. You will be encountering all of the common
German pronouns in the next several lessons, so we will track these as they appear. The following