video 002: explanations :: grammar :: vocabulary

Hallo, da bin ich wieder! = Hi, here I am again!

sein - bin = ser - soy
wieder = de nuevo

Und ich! = And I!

und = and
ich = I

Heute geht es um Berlin. = Today we are talking aobout Berlin. ( literally: Today it deals with Berlin.)

gehen =to go
es geht = it works (but not in this context)
es geht um = it is about

Grammar: The construction Es geht has nothint got do with gehen.

Berlin ist eine riesengroße Stadt und die Hauptstadt von Deutschland. = Berlin is a very big city and the capital of Germany.

groß = big
riesig = enormous
riesengroß = very big
Hauptstadt = capital

Grammar: German distinguish itself from other languages by the quantity of compound words, which can be created "on the fly". Riesengroß is an example of this kind of word.

und gleichzeitig ein eigenes Bundesland. = and at the same time a federal state.


gleichzeitig = at the same time
eigen = on its own

Und die Berliner sind so begeistert von ihrer eigenen Stadt, dass sie die ganze Zeit feiern. = And the people of Berlin are fascinated by their town and always make parties.

begeistert = fascinated
ganz = all
ganze Zeit = all the time
sein - sind = to be - they are

Und manchmal laden sie zum Feiern auch noch Gäste ein, die machen dann einfach mit. = And sometimes the invite guests as well, who join the party.

manchmal = sometimes
einladen = to invite
Gast - Gäste = guest - guests
feiern = to make party
auch = as well
machen = to make
mitmachen = to participate

Grammar: In this sentence there is a relative claus 'die machen dann einfach mit'. This relative clause is
introduced by a relative pronoun. The relative pronouns in german have to agree in gender and number with the object they refer to. For more information relative pronouns. Beside that there are two verbs, einladen and mitmachen, which are formed with a prefix. The prefix is very often separated from the verb if the verb is conjugated ('Ich mache' but 'Ich mache mit').

Die Gäste kommen nicht nur aus Deutschland, sondern aus der ganzen Welt! = The guests don' t come only from Germany, but from all over the world.

sondern = but
kommen - kommen = to come - they come
Welt = the world

Und man hört ganz viele Sprachen! = And you hear a lot of languages!

Grammar: In german, and in many other languages, there is a special pronoun to be used if the subject of the sentence is unknown or irrelevant. In english it is not so clear. Sometimes you can translate 'man' with 'one' but very often the german 'man' is translated with 'we' or 'you' and the meaning must be deduced from the context.

hören = to hear
Sprache - Sprachen = language - languages
viele = many
man = (indefinit pronoun, corresponds sometimes to the english 'one')

Grammar: The 'man' ist a problem, it is an indefinite pronoun and should not be confused with 'Mann', which
means Mann.

 

Berlin ist wirklich eine tolle Stadt! = Berlin is really a fantastic city!

toll = fantastic
wirklich = really

Warst Du schon mal da? = Have you ever been there?

sein - warst = to be - you were

Nö, Du ? = No, and you?

nö = no (slang used by youngsters and children)

Nein, aber ich war schon mal in Hamburg. = No, but I once was in Hamburg.
sein - war = to be - I was

Grammar: The verb 'sein' is completely irregular, for mor information see the times of the past.

Hamburg ist nicht ganz so groß wie Berlin, ist aber auch ein eigenes Bundesland. = Hamburg is not as big al Berlin, but is as well a federal state on his own.

nicht so groß wie = not as big as (comparative of equality)
nicht ganz so groß wie = not as big as (the so doesn' t mean a lot in these sentence)

Davon erzählen wir Euch im nächsten Video. = We are going to tell you about something about it in the next video.

davon = about that

Grammar: In german you have a lot of words called adverbial pronouns. In general they are translated to english with 'preposition + pronoun'. With that, about that, in that etc..

Bis dann! = See you soon!