Hallo liebe Studierende!

Zum Aufwärmen machen wir unseren Tagesminiplausch und eine Wiederholung.

Wiederholung

In the previous lesson, you learned how to describe yourself using the word nicht and also by using contrasting adjectives.

Lektionsüberblick

Today may feel like a pretty important lesson. You will finally be able to ask someone how they are doing and respond in kind. Unlike English, which has turned the question “How are you?” into a greeting, the question “Wie geht’s?” is not a German greeting. It is a earnest question expecting an honest answer. Because of this difference in usage, the English greeting “How are you?” can come across as superficial for the German speaker, since the “questioner” does not want or expect an authentic answer.

This curriculum is written to help you speak and understand German as German speakers do, so “Wie geht’s?” was naturally not introduced with the greetings, but instead, is appearing in this Thema on descriptions of humans, inside and out. Without further ado, we will now look at how to talk about your daily state of mind (Geisteszustände). In other words, you will learn how to say 1) how you are doing 2) and ask others how they are doing.

1) Mir geht es gut!

Wie geht es dir heute? How are you doing today? These should look familiar from our Tagesminiplausch. Let’s look over some standard answers and practice saying them. It goes like this…

Now listen to the conversation between Frau Meier and Herr Dall. You might notice that the speakers are speaking to each other in a formal way, but that’s okay. Listen closely to how they express how they are doing.

2) Wie geht’s?

Wie geht’s? (How are you?) is one of the few questions you should try to commit to memory during these first weeks of learning German. If you like catchy tunes, then the following video will help you memorize the question and it will repeat a variety of possible answers. What do you think they all mean?

Now listen as two people meet each other. Then answer the questions that follow.

As you can see, Wie geht’s? and Wie geht es dir? are two ways you can ask someone how they are doing.

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

Media Attribution

• Hallo! Wie geht’s? Video adapted from Немецкий язык, under a CC0 International License.