My second day of class

Today, I was late again in class. Phew...but only 3 minutes late. I took the 8:28am Bus and it took more than 15 minutes to Steingrube. Anyway, I did not miss anything. As I arrived in the classroom, our Instructor was still outside. So lucky me! =)

This is the text book + workbook + Audio CD (not shown in the photo) which we are using. We bought this book at the bookstore at Schuhstraße. It costs 13,50 Euros.

Our lesson today started at the Page 14 of this book. It is about listening, pronouncing the Deutsch Alphabet and spelling your surname with the correct pronounciation of the letters. Below is the German Alphabet and its pronounciations and examples.

We listened to an audio CD for the pronounciations. And then we were given a seatwork wherein we wrote down the spelling of the names as pronounced in the audio CD. I had a problem with the letters E, I, O, U, R, L.

E is pronounced as E in egg, however, in the audio CD it was pronounced as Eee like how we pronounced Ea in Eagle. But the letter I is pronounced as long Eeeeeee. And not like Eye. So there is a very slim difference in the pronounciation of E and I. Although E must be pronounced as E in egg.

And O is pronounced similar to U. But U is long Uuuuu.

R is pronounced as Er. And L as El. However again, in the audio CD, the letters R and L has slim difference in pronounciation too. And O and U also. So I must listen attentively to get the correct answer.

We've also learned on how to pronounce the letters with the UMLAUT sign- ä, ö und ü. Umlaut is the 2 points above the letters a, o and u. And as well as ei, eu and au. Ei is pronounced in English as ey like in Play. In Deutsch, it is pronounced as ay like in Fry. Eu is pronounced in Deutsch as oy like in Soy. And au as au in English.

Then we proceeded to learning a few common verbs such as heißen, kommen and sprechen.

Wie heißen Sie?  = How are you called?

Heißen and are called are the verbs.

Sie is you in English. But in Nominative case. Sie is used to address a person in formal. Person or individual which you met for the first time. And Sie must be with capital letter S. Du is also you in English and in Nominative case too, however it is used to address a person with whom you are familiar like your friends, your family or your colleagues. There is another sie with a small s in the German language. And it is she and they in English. So sie with small s means she and they in German language. The only way to know whether a person is referring to a she or they is by the verb following the word sie. For example,

1. Sie ist noch hier. = She is still here. Ist is the verb for sie(she).

2. Sie sind noch hier. = They are still here. Sind is the verb for sie(they).

Let us tackle more on the forms of the verb heißen for Sie (you as formal), Du (you as familiar), Er/Sie (Er means He, Sie means She), Sie (they).  Ah wait, another important thing to remember when using Sie, is that when we are referring to a stranger or being formal, we must use always the capital letter S for Sie. S is always in big letter even when it is not the first word in the sentence. And when referring to she and they, Sie is written with a capital letter S only when it is in the beginning of the sentence. Use small S when it is inside the sentence. For example:


1. Wer sind Sie? = Who are you? I am asking this question to a person with whom I have just met today. Or when we are being formal. Notice the capital S.


2. Sie sind schön.= You are beautiful. Again, I am saying this to a person with whom I have just met. Or when we are being formal.


3. Sie ist schön. = She is beautiful. With a capital letter s because it is in the beginning of the sentence. But I am referring to a third person.


4. Wer ist sie? = Who is she? Notice the small letter s.


5. Wer sind sie? = Who are they? Same with number 1 but with a small letter s.


6. Sie sind hier. = They are here. With a capital letter s because it is in the beginning of the sentence.


Okay now back to the verbs.

 Class dismissed.

Tschüss