Lesson 6-2 - Lektion 6-2
Perfekt – spoken past tense in German
Lesson 6: In the hotel. Activity 2
From this activity you will know how to:
- ask to wake you up
- ask to make your bill ready
- ask to order a taxi
- find out if someone asked about you
Learn the words and expressions for the dialogue
to wake (up)
Wake me up 6 o’clock!
what; which (one)
What room does Fred live in?
number
What is the number of the form?
order
Everything is in order.
That’ll be all right! / I’ll see to it! / Ok!
– Wake me up! – I’ll see to it!
to leave
When are you leaving?
to do, to make
What are you doing in Berlin?
bill
Here is your bill.
ready, finished
Are you ready?
to order
I’d like to order a room.
taxi
Would you like to order a taxi?
somebody, someone; anybody, anyone
Is someone leaving today?
to ask
Ask Mr. Jung!
to answer, to reply
He didn’t answer anything.
to say; to tell
Tell him, I’m leaving..
to call, to phone, to ring
When will you call me?
Pay attention to the form and the usage of the words
The question word welcher? (what, which) has the same endings as the demonstrative pronoun dieser:
welche Kollegen
welches Formulardiese Kollegen
dieses Formular usw.Remember the government of the verbs fragen nach D and anrufen A:
Wer hat nach mir gefragt?Who (has) asked about me?Wer hat mich angerufen?Who called me?The adverbs can be formed from the nouns der Morgen, der Tag etc. by adding the suffix -s:
um 7 Uhr morgens (abends)at 7 o’clock in the morning (evening)Abends besuche ich Rolf.In the evening(s) I visit Rolf.- In order to make different forms of a verb, it is important to know whether the verb is strong or weak. Therefore, it is recommended to memorize verbs in 3 forms:
Infinitive
(Infinitiv)Preterite
(Präteritum)Participle II
(Partizip II)A list of the main verb forms is placed on this page (click).
Remember the following ways of word-formation (1 and 2)
das Zimmer + die Nummer = die Zimmernummer
der Morgen + s = morgens
der Tag + s = tags
der Abend + s = abends
die Nacht + s = nachts
Practise in reading the words
Im Hotel
Grammar points
Unlike English, there are three past tenses in German: preterite (simple past tense), perfekt (spoken past tense) и plusquamperfekt (past perfect tense).
Perfekt is formed by adding the auxiliary verb haben or sein to the participle II of the main verb. In this case, the auxiliary verb get the second place in the sentence while the participle II is placed at the end:
Er hat mir das Formular gegeben.
He gave me the form.
Er ist um 7 Uhr gekommen.
He came at 7 o’clock.
Most verbs form Perfekt by adding the auxiliary verb haben. However, the verbs that indicate movement or a change of state (kommen, gehen etc.) form Perfekt by adding the auxiliary verb sein.
There are two types of verbs in German: the strong (irregular) and the weak (regular) verbs. Weak verbs form their participles II using the prefix ge- and the suffix -t:
ge + (root) + t: gewohnt, geraucht, gearbeitet usw.
Strong verbs form their participles II using the prefix ge- and the suffix -еn. In doing so, they often change the root vowel:
ge + (root) + en: gekommen, gegeben, genommen usw.
If a verb has a separable prefix, then the prefix ge- goes between the separable prefix and the root: vorgestellt, eingeladen usw. If a verb has an inseparable prefix (be-, ver-, er-, ge-) or ends on -ieren, then there will be no ge- prefix: verstanden, besucht, studiert usw.
Perfekt is the most used past tense in German. It is usually used in colloquial speech (questions and answers) and in short messages:
Er ist heute gekommen. – He (has) arrived today (and now he is here).
For perfekt forms of the verbs haben and sein their preterite forms hatte and war are used:
Ich war noch nicht in Berlin.
I still haven’t been to Berlin.
Ich hatte ein Zimmer mit Dusche.
I had a room with shower.
Note that Perfekt is not the equivalent of Present Perfect in English.
Formation of Perfekt (spoken past)
Ich
habe
den Kollegen
gefragt.
Er
hat
in Dresden
gearbeitet.
Wir
haben
den Freund
vorgestellt.
Sie
haben
in Berlin
studiert.
Sie
hat
ein Taxi
bestellt.
Ich
bin
aus Moskau
gekommen.
Er
ist
nach Hause
gegangen.
1. Confirm that the particular action actually took place. Ask the interlocutor if (s)he performed such an action.
B. Ja, ich habe in Dresden gearbeitet.
Continue:
Haben Sie das Formular ausgefüllt? Haben Sie in diesem Hotel gewohnt? Sind Sie aus der Schweiz gekommen?
2. Answer the interlocutor about what you did in the evening. Ask him or her the same thing.
B. Ich habe den Bruder angerufen.
Continue:
ein Taxi bestellen, die Eltern besuchen, Freunde einladen, ein Formular ausfüllen, nach den Kollegen fragen.
3. Find out if someone called you on the phone. How would you answer if you were asked the same thing?
B. Ja. Herr Stumm hat nach Ihnen gefragt.
Continue:
Frau Meier, ein Freund, der Arzt, ein Kollege, die Dolmetscherin, die Eltern, die Journalisten, eine Ärztin.
4. Somebody called you on the phone. Ask who was it. What would you say if you were the interlocutor?
B. Welcher Arzt?
A. Er hat gesagt, er ist aus Moskau gekommen.
Continue:
ein Ingenieur, eine Ärztin, ein Techniker, eine Journalistin, ein Dolmetscher, ein Journalist, die Kollegen.
5. Fill in the gaps with the appropriate words from the dialogue.
1. Ich morgen um 8 Uhr . 2. Bitte Sie mich um halb sieben. 3. Bestellen Sie bitte ! 4. Hat nach mir gefragt? 5. Machen Sie bitte fertig. 6. Ein Herr hat .
6. Reconstruct the dialogue by filling in the gaps with the appropriate words.
Ich Reise morgen um 7.30 ab.
Machen Sie mir bitte die Rechnung fertig.
.
.
7. Try to reproduce the dialogue “Im Hotel” by memory.
Check yourself!
What expressions will you use if you want to:
ask to wake you up
ask to make your bill ready
ask to order a taxi
find out if someone asked about you
