2.2 Meine Familienverhältnisse

Guten Tag!

Let’s warm up with our Tagesminiplausch und Wiederholung.

Wiederholung

In the previous lesson, you learned how to talk about your extended Familienkreis, how to say how your age compares with the age of your siblings, and how to ask others about their family. Let’s review.

 

Jetzt bist du dran!

Wie groß ist deine Familie? Answer the questions giving as many details as you want about the size of your family is, who belongs to your nuclear (Kernfamilie) and extended family (erweiterer Familienkreis), and any pet(s) you have. Then record yourself in your audio journal.

Lektionsüberblick

In this lesson, we will expand our ability to talk about families. In the end, you will be able to 1) talk about the familial relationships in your extended family, 2) talk about family relationships and 3) give biographical information (names, ages, birthdates) of extended family members.

Was weißt du schon?

Noch nicht start klar?

Du kannst immer auf die gleiche 1010-Lektion zurückgreifen!

 Not confident about starting this lesson?

You can always review the same Lektion from 1010.

1) Meine Familienverhältnisse (familial relationships)

Using your prior knowledge of German and what you know about cognates, see if you can figure out the meaning of these words.

Now see if you can match these full sentences with their translation.

Let’s practice!

Kleiner Hinweis

Two comments about the language of family relationships:

  1. These kind of formulations are the only way to talk about family relationships in German. Die Schwester meines Cousins means both the sister of my cousin and my cousin’s sister. There is a possessive “s” in German (like in my cousin’s sister), but it only exists in combination with a proper/given name. To use the previous family relationship as an example: If we already know that Manfred is your cousin, then you can say “Manfreds Schwester“. (Note that there is no apostrophe before the “s”.)
  2. You can also use mütterlicherseits (maternal) and väterlicherseits (paternal) to talk about family relationships. For example: Sofie can say either, “Die Mutter meiner Mutter heißt Gertrud” or “Meine Großmutter mütterlicherseits heißt Gertrud” (both in English: “The mother of my grandmother/My mother’s mother is called Gertrud” or “My maternal grandmother is called Getrud.”

 

Jetzt bist du dran!

In your written journal, record some of the relationships in your family. For example, Wie heißt die Mutter deines Vaters? (your father’s mother) or Wie heißt der Mann deiner Tante? (your aunt’s husband). Example answers could be Die Mutter meines Vaters heißt Susan. Der Mann meiner Tante heißt Eric. Write enough sentences that you feel comfortable talking about these kinds of family relationships. Then read your sentences aloud in your audio journal.

 

2) Andere Familienverhältnisse

Large or small, families are a series of connections and relationships. Read and listen to the comic below, paying special attention to how the character introduces the mother and father.

Character talking about cousin

Let’s practice what you have read.

Jetzt bist du dran!

In your audio journal, practice reading the sentences in the comic aloud. Be sure to listen to each sentence again, if needed, before recording.

3) Talking about extended family

It’s important that we can share information about our family members. Read the comic below and learn why today is a special day.

Let’s practice sharing information about others by completing the questions below.

Jetzt bist du dran!

Let’s do a quick review. Do you remember how to answer the question “Wann hast du Geburtstag?” Answer it in your written journal.

 

Zum Schluß

In this lesson, you learned how to 1) talk about the familial relationships in your extended family, 2) talk about family relationships and 3) give biographical information (names, ages, birthdates) of extended family members.If you are feeling unsure, please go back to that section and review.
Pick a cousin or a sibling and write about their familial relationships. For example, Sofie could write the following sentences about her cousin, Kaja: “Meine Kusine heißt Kaja. Sie hat am 21. Dezember 2008 Geburtstag. Die Mutter meiner Kusine heißt Lisa. Sie hat am 5. Mai 1972 Geburtstag. Der Vater meiner Kusine heißt Markus. Er hat am 13. April 1966 Geburtstag. Die Stiefmutter meiner Kusine heißt Nuri. Sie hat am 30. November 1976 Geburtstag.” Use Sofie’s model to write about your family member. (Remember: if you are talking about a male cousin or brother, you will write “Die Mutter meines Cousins/Bruders).
When you are done, record your sentences in your audio journal. If you can do it immediately without reading, that’s great! Otherwise, practice saying it a couple times before recording. Or rerecord, if you are not satisfied.

*As you conclude this lesson, don’t forget to check Canvas!*

 

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Deutsch im Alltag II (DE) Copyright © by Rebecca Steele and Stephanie Schottel is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License, except where otherwise noted.

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