For this you’ll need to know how to say the alphabet in German! The table below provides the pronunciation of each letter in German. Fischer speaking DAS ALPHABET If you have a name which is not particularly common in a Germanspeaking country it is likely that you would be asked to spell your name. “who is calling?” Equally, you may also hear: mit wem spreche ich? with whom am I speaking? In answer to this question you can give your name: Coffee Break German: Lesson 24 - Notes page 5 of 16 ich heiße Donald My name is Donald / I’m called Donald However a more natural way to answer the question would be: Sie sprechen mit Frau Fischer you are speaking to Mrs. In a more informal context you could say: Hallo / Servus Hello Another common expression you will need to use and understand is: wer ist am Apparat? who is speaking? Literally this means “who is on the apparatus?”, i.e. Schmidt? When starting a phone conversation in an official context you could say something like: Guten Tag. kann ich mit Herrn Schmidt sprechen? can I speak to Mr. However the preposition mit requires us to use the dative case and the word Herr changes to Herrn in the dative. Schmidt? The word for “Mr.” as in “Mr Schmidt” is normally Herr. Schmidt? Coffee Break German: Lesson 24 - Notes page 4 of 16 darf ich mit Herrn Schmidt sprechen? may I speak to Mr. is a polite way of asking “may I.?” darf ich mit Frau Schmidt sprechen? may I speak to Mrs. ich muss mit Steffi sprechen I must speak to Steffi darf ich mit Steffi sprechen? may I speak to Steffi? The word darf comes from the infinitive dürfen, another modal verb.
infinitive in the following sentence: kann ich mit Steffi sprechen? can I speak to Steffi? In German it is more normal to ask if you can speak “with” someone, rather than “to” someone as we do in English. Here are some other examples: ich kann ein Ticket kaufen I can buy a ticket wo kann ich ein Ticket kaufen? where can I buy a ticket? USING THE PHONE IN GERMAN Continuing the idea of using the modal verbs, we can use the expression kann ich. Müssen is a modal verb: ich muss ein Ticket kaufen I have to buy a ticket As you can see from this example, ich muss sends the infinitive to Coffee Break German: Lesson 24 - Notes page 3 of 16 the end of the sentence. Sie müssen diese Tabletten nehmen you must (formal) take these tablets Sie müssen you must (formal) du musst you must (informal) ich muss I must er/sie muss he/she must Note the difference in pronunciation between ich muss, du musst, er/sie muss and sie müssen: the u and ü are pronounced differently. Thomas: Es ist Zeit anzufangen! der Kurs der euch hilft the course which helps you euer Deutsch zu verbessern to improve your German Coffee Break German: Lesson 24 - Notes page 2 of 16 es ist Zeit anzufangen it’s time to begin A REVIEW OF MÜSSEN Based on what we learned in the last lesson, Thomas and Mark reviewed some parts of the verb müssen, “to have to”. INTRODUCTION In the introductory conversation, Thomas uses an expression which we’ll come back to later in the lesson: Mark: Hallo zusammen! Thomas: Und herzlich Willkommen zu Coffee Break German, der Kurs der euch hilft euer Deutsch zu verbessern. You’ll also learn more about dative pronouns and about the concept of Kurorte in Germanspeaking areas. In this lesson you’ll become familiar with lots of phrases which will come in useful when dealing with phone calls in German. Coffee Break German Lesson 24 Study Notes Coffee Break German: Lesson 24 - Notes page 1 of 16 LESSON NOTES DARF ICH MIT HERRN SCHMIDT SPRECHEN? It’s time to learn to use the phone in German.
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