4.3 Dein Freund oder ein Freund von dir?

Guten Tag!

Zum Aufwärmen machen wir unseren Tagesminiplausch und eine Wiederholung.

Wiederholung

In the previous lesson, you learned how to introduce your best friend, say where they live, and how old they are. Let’s review what you have learned.

Read and listen to Yasmin’s description of her best friend. Then, practice reading the description aloud yourself.

Jasmin Mein bester Freund heißt Timo. Er ist 23 Jahre alt und studiert Literatur. Er wohnt in München. Er ist klein und hat blonde Haare. Seine Augen sind braun. Timo ist sehr intelligent. Ich finde Timo auch sympathisch und freundlich.
Jetzt bist du dran!

Read Yasmin’s description aloud one more time in your audio journal. How does it feel to be able to read German aloud and to understand what it means?

Lektionsüberblick

Whom we called friend is often culturally based. Compared to German, there are fewer words in English for “people we know and like but maybe do not hang out and we would not call in an emergency”. Germans generally reserve the words “Freund/Freundin” for close friends and then use a variety of words – to be covered in this lesson – to describe the kind of person mentioned previously. To make matters more complicated is that the words “Freund/Freundin” are also the words for boyfriend/girlfriend, i.e. they suggest a romantic relationship. In this lesson, we will look at some of the words used in German to talk about people we like (and people we “like” like). In the end, you will be able to 1) use the language of friendship and 2) use the language of romantic relationships.

Kleiner Hinweis

Kumpel may no longer be the right slang word for friend. Since the authors learned German in the 1990s, here’s a list of Jugendsprache, language of the youth, (from 2022), if you want to know what the cool kids are/were saying.

1) How to talk about friends

Look at the examples and see if you can guess what level of friendship the individuals have with one another.

 

Sie sind Schulkameraden. Sie sind gute Freunde. Sie sind Kumpels.
Er ist ein neuer Bekannter. Die Frau sagt, “Er ist ein Friend von mir.”

Also remember that you can describe someone as your best friend. You can review that in the Wiederholung above, if needed.

Using the clues in the images and statements above, practice with the following questions. Be sure to click through to each question.

 

 

🎥 For fun, you can watch this video in which native Germans describe their friendships and what friendship means to them.

 

Jetzt bist du dran!

Think about the people you know in your life. If you were German, whom would you call “Freund/Freundin/Freund*in“? Whom would you call “Bekannte“? Copy the categories in your written journal, and write down some names of people in each category.

2) How to talk about romantic relationships

Can you tell which statements have to do with being self-partnered versus being in a party of two?

Woman holding flower Ich bin ledig.
Ich bin single.
Wir haben ein Date.
Wir verabreden uns.		 Couple on date
Wir sind in einer festen Beziehung.

 

Using the clues from above, practice with these questions. Be sure to click through to each question.

 

 

Jetzt bist du dran!

How would you describe your relationship status? In your written journal practice writing a sentence like the examples above.
Then record yourself in your audio journal.

 

Zum Schluß

In this lesson, you learned  1) use the language of friendship and 2) use the language of romantic relationships, If you are feeling unsure about any part, please go back and review.
Now think about your friends. Which of the German words would you use for each of them? Write down the words you would use. If you would like, you can also say their names. E.g. Markus ist ein Bekannter. Sara ist eine gute Freundin. Emily ist eine Schulkamaradin. Marie ist meina Freund*in.
Then record yourself 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 I (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.