Greeting. Basic word order in German sentences

Lesson 2: Acquaintance. Activity 1

From this activity you will know how to:

• greet somebody
• start a conversation with a stranger
• introduce yourself
• ask your interlocutor’s name

Learn the words and expressions for the dialogue

Pay attention to the form and the usage of the words

1. Sie – 3^rd person pronoun. Note that it is its plural and polite form. So, yes, you can use it to address several people politely, but in most cases you will use it just to be polite to 1 person. It is always written with a capital letter. The usual - not polite - form of address will be introduced in the second part of the course, so that you will at least remember one form correctly, and it will be the polite one.
2. sind – 3^rd person plural of the verb sein (“to be”).
3. ja (“yes”) is used as the positive answer to a “yes/no question”.
4. nein (“no”) is the opposite of “ja”.
5. ich – 1^st person pronoun singular.
6. bin – 1^st person singular of the verb sein (“to be”).
7. der – the definite article. Unlike English, article also indicates gender, singular or plural number and the case of a noun. The article der is a characteristic of masculine nouns.

Always learn German nouns with their articles!

Remember the main ways of word-formation

1. composition (combination of two or several roots)
2. formation of derivative words with suffixes and prefixes
3. interchange of root-vowels
4. substantivation (the use different parts of speech as nouns)

Practise in reading the words

Wie heißen Sie?

* Smirnov is a Russian surname. Remember that you are using a Russian course, but you do like it, right? ;-)

Grammar points

1. Both in German and English the predicate’s (verb’s) place in a sentence is fixed, namely:

   a) in a simple declarative sentence the verb takes the second place, the tone falls to the end of the sentence:

   Ich heiße Bergmann.

   My name is Bergman.

   b) in an interrogative sentence with a question word the verb also takes the second place, the tone falls to the end of the sentence:

   Wie heißen Sie?

   What is your name?

   c) in an interrogative sentence without a question word the verb takes the first place; the tone rises to the end of the sentence:

   Sind Sie Herr Bergmann?

   Are you Mr. Bergmann?

   d) in an imperative sentenсe that expresses a request, a command etc. the verb takes the first place; the tone falls to the end of the sentence:

   Entschuldigen Sie!

   Excuse me!

2. Memorize the personal pronouns and their corresponding forms of the verb sein (“to be”):

    

   1^st person singular

   ich bin

    

   3^rd person plural

   Sie sind

   For example:

   Are you Mr. Bergmann?

   Sind Sie Herr Bergmann?

3. Note that the official address to a man with the surname Lenz is Herr Lenz, to a woman – Frau Lenz. When people address young people and tourists they often use the word Freund.

Word order in German sentence

While doing exercises in every lesson, first do them by looking at the example, and then without looking. Check yourself by hovering over the key under the exercise on the right or by touching it (on mobile devices).

1. You are looking for Mr. Meier. Ask an appropriate question. How would you answer if you were Mr. Meier?

2. You are looking for Mrs. Berg. Ask an appropriate question. How would you answer if you were not Mrs. Berg but List?

3. You have been asked your name. Answer the question. Ask your partner the same question.

4. You are not sure about your interlocutor’s name. Ask an appropriate question. How would you answer if you were Rolf?

5. Fill in the gaps with the appropriate words from the dialogue.

6. Reconstruct the dialogue by filling in the gaps with the appropriate words.

7. Try to reproduce the dialogue “Wie heißen Sie?” by memory.

Check yourself!

What expressions will you use if you want to:

greet somebody
start a conversation with a stranger
introduce yourself
ask your interlocutor’s name

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