1.1 Mein Alltag und Zuhause
Lektionsüberblick
The things you do daily should be among the things you feel most confident about when speaking German. Many conversations we have with friends, family, classmates, and even strangers are about what we have going now and what we have done. The “what you are doing now” part was covered in first year German and will be quickly reviewed here. The “what you have done” part will be the focus. In the end, you will be able to 1) talk about your daily routine, 2) say how often you perform elements of your care routine, and 3) talk about your daily routine yesterday.
1)Meine Tagesroutine
Wie ist deine Tagesroutine?
What is your daily routine like? Think about the words and phrases you already know on this topic. Then review some common daily tasks. Which ones do you do? Which ones are missing?
Die Körperpflege
In the presentation above, we remembered how to say when we get up, shower, have breakfast, go to campus, etc. But what about the in-between steps like getting dressed and brushing our teeth? Let’s look at the first set of phrases of a care and hygiene routine. Be sure to listen to the audio before turning the card over. If you want to challenge yourself, write down what you hear, before turning the card over.
You may have noticed that many of those phrases look a bit different from the way we talk about care in English. Every sentence had the word mich in it, which means “myself” when ich is the subject. The biggest difference in these phrases is that you can’t leave off the mich in German like you often can in English. Yet another reason to enter your “German mindset” while learning and then using German, instead of thinking of German through English!
You may be wondering where the other bits of the personal care routine are, like brushing one’s teeth. Let’s look at the next set of phrases. Pay closest attention to the phrases that are most relevant to you! Be sure to listen to the audio before turning the card over. If you want to challenge yourself, write down what you hear, before turning the card over.
Let’s practice.
BECKI – MADE A COUPLE CHANGES TO MAKE SLIGHTLY HARDER
Kleiner Hinweis
Whether you are a person who is generally on time or running behind, the expression, Ich bin spät dran, is a useful expression. It translates as; I am running late. You might recognize the word dran from the Jeztz bist du dran exercises. Although daran or dran can mean “on it” or “about it,” in everyday German it often functions as part of fixed expressions, so you translate the whole phrase—not the word itself.
Wann stehst du auf? Wann gehst du an die Uni? Using the model sentences from the presentation, write down in what order you do your everyday tasks. When you are done, look over the model again and check if your spelling and structures match with the model.
Challenge yourself by using some connecting words like “zuerst” (first), “dann” (then), “danach” (after that). Remember to reverse the subject-verb order if you begin a sentence with anything other than the subject. You can hear these connections in the audio. For example:
Ich dusche. Ich frühstücke. -> Zuerst dusche ich. Dann frühstücke ich. – or – Zuerst dusche ich und dann frühstücke ich.
Take it one step further. Answer this question as part of your assignment: Welche Aufgabe lässt du aus, wenn du spät dran bist? Which task do you leave out, when you are running late?
When you are done, record your daily tasks in your audio journal. Be sure to listen to your recording and rerecord, if you are not satisfied.
Zürich im Blickpunkt
Die Schweiz hat sehr sauberes Trinkwasser. In Zürich, der größten Stadt der Schweiz, gibt es mehr als 1.200 Brunnen mit Trinkwasser. Die Brunnen sind für alle Menschen zu benutzen und gehören zur Stadt. Viele Menschen benutzen sie jeden Tag, besonders im Sommer. Touristen und Einwohner können dort kostenlos Wasser trinken oder ihre Flaschen auffüllen.
Switzerland has very clean drinking water. In Zurich, Switzerland’s largest city, there are more than 1,200 drinking water fountains. These fountains are available for everyone to use and belong to the city. Many people use them every day, especially in the summer. Tourists and residents alike can drink water or refill their bottles there free of charge.
2) Täglich, wöchentlich
BECKI – FOR THIS ONE, THE DIFFERENTIATON YOU SUGGESTED SAYS TO SAY WHY OR GIVE AN EXPLANATION AS TO WHY YOU DO THESE PARTS OF YOUR DAILY ROUTINE AS OFTEN AS YOU DO. BUT IS DOESN’T SEEM ALL THAT NATURAL. I COULD SAY I WASH MY HAIR EVERY OTHER DAY, BECAUSE WASHING IT EVERY DAY DRIES IT OUT OR THAT IS WHEN IT STARTS GETTING DIRTY BUT THAT ISN’T ANYTHING I FEEL LIKE WE ARE TRYING TO TEACH RIGHT NOW. SO RIGHT NOW THE DIFFERENTIATE IS IN THE PRESENTATION. Wie oft putzt du dir die Zähne? Wie oft wäscht du dir die Haare? Wie oft schneidest du dir die Nägel?
Do you have the same answer to all of these questions? Or do you perform some care activities more frequently than others? For example, a dentist will recommend that you brush your teeth at least twice a day, but maybe you do so more (or less) often. This section reviews and introduces different ways of talking about frequency, when it comes to your care routine.
Go back to the phrases from #1 that fit your morning routine. Rewrite each sentence adding the detail of how often you do each thing. For example,
Ich dusche mich täglich, aber ich wasche mir die Haare alle zwei Tage. Ich putze mir die Zähne zweimal am Tag.
3) Meine Tagesroutine – gestern
Was hast du gestern gemacht?
What did you do yesterday? Did you do all of the same daily tasks from #1 yesterday?
Let’s see how Germans-speakers talk about gestern (yesterday) – gestern Morgen, gestern Mittag, gestern Abend. Be sure to click through each slide and complete the questions embedded in the presentations.
Kleiner Hinweis
As you learn how to talk about things in the past, it is more important than ever to enter your German mindset – rather than thinking English thoughts and then translating them into German. Look at what the following sentences mean in translation:
| German | Translation |
|---|---|
| Ich bin aufgestanden. | = I got up. = I have gotten up. |
| Ich habe geduscht. | = I showered. = I have showered. |
| Ich habe gefrühstückt. | = I ate breakfast. = I have eaten breakfast. |
| Ich bin an die Uni gegangen. | = I went to campus. = I have gone to campus. |
As you can see, in English, we differentiate between using the 1-verb past tense (called the imperfect, e.g. I went) and the 2-verb past tense (called the present perfect, e.g. I have gone). In German, by contrast, all of the sentences use the 2-word past tense (Ich bin gegangen).
Another difference you may have noticed is that the first verb (called the auxiliary or helping verb) is not always haben in German, but in English it is always have. The grammatical explanation is that transitive verbs (=can take an object) take haben as the helping verb and intransitive verbs (= cannot take an object) take sein. Another way to think about it is this: Verbs that move someone/something thing from A to B will take sein. Since other verbs also take sein, the “simplest” way to remember which verbs take haben und which take sein is to learn both parts together. That means, when you are learning new sentences that allow you to talk about something in the past, work on memorizing the first and second verbs as a pair (Ich bin aufgestanden. Ich bin gegangen. — Ich habe geduscht. Ich habe gefrühstückt.)
A final difference worth noting is the location of the second verb (called the past participle). In English, the second verb immediately follows the first (I have gone to campus), but in German, the second verb comes at the end of the phrase (Ich bin an die Uni gegangen).
Was hast du gestern gemacht? Wann bist du aufgestanden? Wann hast du zu Mittag gegessen? Using the model sentences from the presentations, write down what you did yesterday. When you are done, look over the model again and check if your spelling and structures match with the model.
Then ask yourself if there was something you normally do but did not do yesterday or vice versa. You can start your sentence with normalerweise (normally)…
Then record your description in your audio journal. Be sure to listen to your recording and rerecord, if you are not satisfied.
Jetzt kombinieren
In this lesson, you reviewed how to 1) talk about your daily routine, 2) say how often you perform elements of your care routine, and 3) talk about your daily routine yesterday.
In this combination activity, you can either imagine a scenario, in which you are recording your actions in real-time throughout the day and then comparing them to yesterday, or you can actually do it. Just keep your written journal with you throughout the day and periodically write down a sentence in German about what you are doing. Then think about what that activity looked yesterday. For example,
Heute stehe ich um 7 Uhr auf, aber gestern bin ich um 10 Uhr aufgestanden.
Ich esse heute um 12 Uhr zu Mittag, aber gestern habe ich um 13 Uhr zu Mittag gegessen.
Heute lerne ich 3 Stunden in der Bibliothek, aber gestern habe ich nicht in der Bibliothek gelernt. Ich habe nur zu Hause gelernt.
Try to include at least one sentence in which you compare the number of times you performed a specific task.
Whether you are writing down your activities in real-time or all in one setting, be sure to compare your spelling and structures with the vocabulary in this lesson. Once you are done, record your comparisons in your audio journal. Be sure to listen to your recording and rerecord, if you are not satisfied.
Below is a sentence bank that you can use to help guide the formation of your past tense sentences. Focus on copying them as they are and insert the applicable time as indicated, if that information is relevant. Or, add the word nicht if you did not do that activity. Feel free to add other activities from the presentations above if you don’t see one listed below.
Media Attributions
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