Talk:German/Level I/Freizeit

Audio Files
I really appreciate all the work people have given to this project and I am happy that I can use this Wikibook to learn Geman (I have printed it!) but I hate to say that some audio files are iritating. "Vocoded" and filtered files sound unnatural and simply do not fit the purpose. Editing is fine, as long as the listeners cannot "hear" that the voice was modulated -marvin

Gern vs Gerne
I had a bit of doubt on where to use gern and when to use gerne. Has it got anything to do with the cases? I hope it's not too abusive to post a question here, hope it can improve the course somehow.

Both words can be used in the same situations, but "gern" is used more often. --LaRzarus 15:49, 18 February 2007 (UTC)

Really? I think I'm using "gerne" more often. Maybe a north-south difference? 92.225.139.188 (talk) 20:44, 7 June 2010 (UTC)

"Gern" is an shortend version of "Gerne". You can use both, it doesn'T matter--93.232.218.115 (talk) 19:47, 23 August 2010 (UTC)

Saying when you do something
Does Time, Manner, Place not apply here?

Ich spiele Football um halb Vier is that not Um halb vier spiele ich Football In meiner Freizeit spiele ich Fussball etc

It's not clear to me at all how you're supposed to conjugate the verb "lesen". The section should actually say this instead of leaving the student guessing. Specifically, I have no idea how to conjugate it for 'ich'. The book talks about not adding an extra 's'. What extra 's'??? Where did that come from. Why would I hadd it and where would I put it?

I'm totally baffled by that comment. If the correct conjugation is ich lese then what's the point of talking about extra s's? Should the book also say not to add an extra w and two additional q's?

Ich lese is correct indeed, and I can't see any sense in the extra-s comment, either. I'm taking the liberty to take it out. Epsilon 20:29, 13 March 2006 (UTC)
 * Correcting myself:The extra-s comment refers to the du-form, where you'd normally use the ending -st. As the stem of lesen ends in s, ond of the s's is indeed dropped. Du liest rather than du liesst or - even worse - du lesst. Epsilon 20:36, 13 March 2006 (UTC)

--- How come all of the WikiBooks are messed up like this? Now you can't see the lesson.

Sorry, there are a couple of word-order mistakes in the German and the 'Likes and Dislikes' uses the wrong verb.


 * Mag and other words will be introduced later, so please don't try to include them in this lesson. "Gern" will be left out when you use "mag", of course, but for this lesson, please leave it in (used with haben and schwimmen, etc.) Thanks. - SamE 13:22, 7 Apr 2004 (UTC)
 * Even if we were to introduce "Mag", we would need to give them conjugations and an introduction to modals. - SamE 17:42, 7 Apr 2004 (UTC)

I intend to add example problems to this at German:Beginner Lesson 2P (P for problems), so I apologize if the explanations (especially for time) seem way too brief. - SamE 17:50, 23 Apr 2004 (UTC)

Thanks SamE for fixing the errors and making the lesson viewable again.

It is not explained what plural and what singular was.

Pl/sing ecc. can be illustrated by a picture/pictogram.


 * It is assumed the reader already knows what plural and singular are, as it is taught as early as kindergarten and first grade. In lesson 1, the reader was introduced to the pronouns and their English equivalents. This should be enough. Actually, I was thinking about doing something defining the cases, as 1st person plural can include all three persons, for example. But it doesn't go here, rather in the first review. - SamE 03:03, 1 Sep 2004 (UTC)

In Austria 15:15 (and all other xx:15) is often called "Viertel Vier" (same use as the "Dreiviertel" mentioned in the text).

Also "Viertel", "Halb" and "Dreiviertel" only apply to 1-12 hours (I think this is true for Germany too). So one should never say "Viertel Dreizehn" or "Halb Fuenfzehn".

If somebody feels like reworking some lines, please consider these comments.

Hi, I do not understand the "Das soll Spass sein" in the dialogue. Perhaps it means "That should be fun", but WHAT should be fun? To what does it aplly? In every case, I would translate "That should/could be fun" with "Das soll/kann Spass MACHEN", because "this is fun" is translated with "das macht spass" -- 84.130.185.235 20:39, 8 December 2005 (UTC)

Replaced: !Franz
 * Wirklich? Ich spiele Fußball um drei.

by: !Franz
 * Wirklich? Ich spiele um drei Fußball.

"Ich Spiele Fußbal um drei" is correct, but unusual.

Conflicting answers
The lesson says that "In English one plays a sport, while in German one does a sport." so you should use the verb machen, but in the section quiz answers it uses spielen as in spielen Football instead of machen Football. I'm no expert in German, but this seems to conflict with the lesson. 68.211.46.194 22:36, 19 May 2006 (UTC)

Yes, in German one does a sport, but one plays soccer. If you do not understand I'll explain it it greater detail. --Je suis 00:44, 20 May 2006 (UTC)


 * I think I get it. If you are naming a specific sport, one uses spielen but if you are referring to sports in general (Sport) one uses machen, correct?  208.61.4.77 03:48, 21 May 2006 (UTC)

Ja! -- Je suis 21:21, 22 May 2006 (UTC)

Volunteer for speaking the audiofiles
Hi ! My name is Stefan and i like to volunteer for making the audiofiles in native german. I am speaking the "high german" with no dialect. I have equipment to do high quality recording. Nice greetings --SvonHalenbach 11:10, 30 July 2006 (UTC)

Hi folks! I'd help too. but how can i convert wav files to ogg? Can anybody help me? Thanks! Christoph 84.174.102.18 14:12, 13 February 2007 (UTC)

One program for media conversion that I've used and liked is SUPER. For recording audio, I suggest Audacity, which exports .ogg easily. --TheSpinningBrain 04:37, 23 August 2007 (UTC)

Sentence Structure
Quotation: '
 * Ich spiele Basketball, und er spielt auch Basketball.
 * I play basketball, and he also plays basketball.

The new word, "auch", is very important and it means "also". The one grammar rule about "auch" is that is always comes after the verb.'

I think you are a bit strict concerning the sentence structure: e. g. (see also previous unit) 'auch' can have many positions: to stress that _he_ also plays basketball, I could write 'und auch er spielt Basketball.', as well. I could even say '... und Basketball spielt er auch.' Some positions are impossible, i. e. '... Basketball auch spielt er.' and '... er auch spielt Basketball.' and '... er spielt Basketball auch.', but every different structure (with verb in second position) is allowed!

"auch" doesn't neccessarily comes after a verb: "ich spiele Fußball, auch spiele ich Tennis". However, this sounds a bit exalted. 92.225.139.188 (talk) 20:42, 7 June 2010 (UTC)

Nicht
In the lesson, it says, "To say 'not', use 'nicht'. 'Nicht' goes after the verb but before the sport." It can, but it's more common for nicht to be at the end of the sentence in this case, unless the direct object is followed by "sondern," as in "Ich spiele nicht Fußball, sondern Schach." Otherwise, I would say either "Ich spiele Fußball nicht" or "Ich spiele keinen Fußball." --TheSpinningBrain 05:15, 23 August 2007 (UTC)
 * "Ich spiele Fußball nicht" sounds wrong to me (native German). 92.225.139.188 (talk) 20:40, 7 June 2010 (UTC)
 * The rules for the position of "nicht" in non-contrastive uses are quite difficult; see in canoo.net. They consider "Ich spiele Gitarre nicht." as incorrect and "Ich spiele nicht Gitarre." as correct. I think the same is true for the example with "Fußball". --Martin Kraus (talk) 23:58, 7 June 2010 (UTC)

Sport Machen Versus Sport Treiben
When I was taught German, I mostly was exposed to using Treiben with Sport, and not Machen. Could someone please clarify if there's a difference in meaning, if one is more proper or more frequently used, and any other details that should be known? Thanks. --Silvorte 04:16, 07 June 2010 (UTC)


 * to me "treiben" sounds more exalted and "old school". However, "treiben" can also have a sexual connotation. 92.225.139.188 (talk) 20:39, 7 June 2010 (UTC)


 * I think you can use "treiben" and "machen" with the word "Sport". "treiben" is less colloquial and might be more common in written German. "machen" is more colloquial and probably more common in spoken German. E.g.: "Treibst/Machst du Sport?", "Ich treibe/mache (jeden Tag) Sport.", "Welchen Sport treibst/machst du?". With a specific sport (e.g. "Fußball", "Handball", "Basketball") you should use "spielen". "treiben" sounds very strange in this case and "machen" very colloquial (and wrong if you speak with an accent). --Martin Kraus (talk) 00:11, 8 June 2010 (UTC)

Wrong sentences?
For me (German native speaker), the following sentences sound wrong or at least strange: "Wer hat Hausaufgaben?" (what does that mean? Maybe "Wer hat die Hausaufgaben gemacht?" or "Wer hat Hausaufgaben auf?"), "Wer spielt nicht Fußball?" (strange, correct: "Wer (von Euch) spielt kein Fußball?"), "Wir spielen nicht Tennis." (strange, correct: "Wir spielen kein Tennis."). 92.225.139.188 (talk) 20:37, 7 June 2010 (UTC)


 * True, the meaning of "Wer hat Hausaufgaben?" depends on the context. Without context it's unclear. "Wer spielt nicht Fußball?" and "Wir spielen nicht Tennis." sound correct to me (also native German speaker), although I would probably say "Wir spielen kein Tennis." --Martin Kraus (talk) 00:18, 8 June 2010 (UTC)

Page split
I suggest to split this very long lesson into two: Freizeit (currently lesson 2a) and Zeit (currently lesson 2b).--Martin Kraus (talk) 07:12, 4 July 2010 (UTC) Subscript text

No test
The link to the test leads to an empty page.
 * Okay, I will check it. Thanks. Vishal Bakhai - Works[[Image:Flag_of_India.svg|15px]] 19:28, 5 December 2016 (UTC)
 * It is there. See | Test Page. Thanks. Vishal Bakhai - Works[[Image:Flag_of_India.svg|15px]] 19:40, 5 December 2016 (UTC)