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Coffee Break German Lesson 14 Study Notes

Coffee Break German: Lesson 14 - Notes

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LESSON NOTES ICH HABE EIN DOPPELZIMMER RESERVIERT In this lesson you'll learn useful words and expressions for checking into a hotel. You'll also learn to conjugate the verb haben and some cultural information about breakfast in German-speaking countries.

INTRODUCTION Read the following conversation which begins the lesson: Mark:

Hallo zusammen und herzlich Willkommen zu Coffee Break German. Ich heiße Mark.

Thomas: Mein Name ist Thomas... Mark, alles klar heute? Mark:

Noch einmal, bitte?

Thomas: Alles klar. Everything’s all right today? Mark:

Ja, alles in Ordnung.

Thomas: Sehr gut. Thomas: Sollen wir anfangen? Mark:

Ja, los geht’s!

alles klar heute? is everything ok today?

sollen wir anfangen? should we begin?

Coffee Break German: Lesson 14 - Notes

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AT THE HOTEL CHECK-IN DESK The main part of this lesson focuses on the words and phrases used when checking into a hotel.

haben Sie reserviert? do you have a reservation? (literally “have you reserved?”)

ich habe reserviert I have a reservation (literally “I have reserved”)

wir haben reserviert we have a reservation (literally “we have reserved”)

wir haben nicht reserviert we don’t have a reservation (literally “we have not reserved”) While ich habe reserviert is the most natural way to say “I have a reservation”, it is also possible to use the word Reservierung:

eine/die Reservierung a/the reservation So it is theoretically possible to use the following construction to mean the same thing:

ich habe eine Reservierung I have a reservation In this case, to say that you don’t have a reservation you would use the word keine:

ich habe keine Reservierung Coffee Break German: Lesson 14 - Notes

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I don’t have a reservation / I have no reservation Whether or not you have a reservation, it is likely that you will be asked for your name:

Wie heißen Sie? what is your name? In this formal situation note the use of Sie. It is also possible that you may be asked “in/under what name is the reservation?”:

auf welchen Namen? in what name?

unter welchen Namen? under what name? When giving your name, you are most likely to use “Mr” or “Mrs”, etc.:

mein Name ist Herr Smith my name is Mr Smith

mein Name ist Frau Smith my name is Mrs Smith There is also a word for “Miss”, Fräulein, which we came across in a previous lesson. However, this is slightly old-fashioned and a young woman is more like to use Frau these days.

DESCRIBING THE ROOM Coffee Break German: Lesson 14 - Notes

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The basic word for “room” is das Zimmer. You will also hear:

das Doppelzimmer the double room

das Einzelzimmer the single room So, to say “I have a reservation for a double room”, you can use:

ich habe eine Reservierung für ein Doppelzimmer I have a reservation for a double room If you prefer to use the more natural German-sounding expression ich habe reserviert then something happens to the word order:

ich habe ein Doppelzimmer reserviert I have reserved a double room / I have a reservation for a double room Note that reserviert goes to the end of this sentence, after the object which it refers to, in this case the particular room which has been reserved. You can go on to specify a particular type of room:

ein Zimmer mit Bad a room with a bath

ein Zimmer mit Dusche a room with a shower Note that there is no word for “a” in these examples: ein Zimmer mit Bad literally translates as “a room with bath”, but this is correct Coffee Break German: Lesson 14 - Notes

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in German. Other types of rooms you may wish include:

ein Zimmer mit Balkon a room with a balcony

ein Zimmer mit Meerblick a room with a sea view

ein Zimmer mit Bergblick a room with a mountain view

FOR HOW MANY NIGHTS? The word for “night” is die Nacht and the plural form is Nächte, so you could say:

für eine Nacht for one night

für zwei Nächte for two nights This pattern of forming the plural by placing an umlaut (¨) over the vowel is quite common in German. Consider these examples:

ein Bruder > zwei Brüder one brother > two brothers

eine Mutter > zwei Mütter Coffee Break German: Lesson 14 - Notes

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one mother > two mothers If you are staying longer you may need to use eine Woche:

für eine Woche for one week Note that Woche forms its plural in a different way:

für zwei Wochen for two weeks Other words which form their plural in this way include:

eine Dusche > zwei Duschen one shower > two showers Just as in English, plurals are formed in a number of ways in German, and there are some patterns which you will begin to recognise. For now it is best to learn the plural of a word along with its gender when you learn the word itself.

ein Bad > zwei Bäde one bath > two baths

ein Zimmer > zwei Zimmer one room > two rooms You may also want to ask if breakfast is included, and we have come across das Frühstück in a previous lesson. You can ask:

ist das Frühstück inklusive? is breakfast included?

Coffee Break German: Lesson 14 - Notes

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CULTURAL CORRESPONDENT In this lesson’s Cultural Correspondent feature, Julia tells us about breakfast traditions in German-speaking areas. Hallo ihr beiden, und alle Coffee Break German Zuhörer. Alles in Ordnung? Ich bin’s wieder, Julia, eure Kulturreporterin. I hear you’ve been learning about hotels in this lesson, and that all-important question: ist das Frühstück inklusive? is breakfast included? How about I tell you about what we actually eat for breakfast? And it all begins with bread. I’ve heard that in some languages spoken in the far north there are hundreds of words for “snow”. Here in Germany it sometimes seems as if we have hundreds of different words to describe bread rolls. So you may hear Semmel, Schrippe, Weck, Rundstück and many more, but as soon as you know the word Brötchen, literally meaning “little bread loaf”, then you’ll know what to ask for in any bakery. Now, what do you put on your Brötchen? Well, that really depends on whether you are a savoury or sweet type. It’s very common to have butter, cheese, ham, sausage, and together these are often referred to as Aufschnitt. This literally means “cut up” because these items would be cut in slices. If you have more of a sweet tooth you can spread jam, honey or chocolate spread on your Brötchen. Do you remember when we mentioned that lunch these days often consists of a quick sandwich on the go and that people tend to have more time to cook in the evening? However, traditionally, it actually was the other way round: lunch was a hot meal, whereas

Coffee Break German: Lesson 14 - Notes

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at night you had slices of dark bread with cheese or meat, and this is why one word for the evening meal in German-speaking areas is Abendbrot, or “evening bread”. You may also hear Abendessen or in the south of Germany, Austria and Switzerland people may well use Vesper. So there you have it, another cultural tip from me, and I’m going to hand you back to Thomas and Mark in the studio. Bis bald!

COMPLETING THE CHECK-IN You may also want to ask how much the room costs. We have already covered the expression:

wie viel kostet das? how much does it cost? However you can also use the following phrases:

wie viel kostet das Zimmer pro Nacht? how much does the room cost per night?

wie viel kostet das Zimmer pro Person? how much does the room cos per person? One final word which is important for checking into a hotel is the word for “a key”:

der Schlüssel the key

die Schlüssel (pl) the keys Coffee Break German: Lesson 14 - Notes

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Note that the word Schlüssel does not change in the plural form. Given that der Schlüssel is masculine if you wanted to say “I have the key” you would have to use the accusative form as follows:

ich habe den Schlüssel I have the key One final phrase which you may hear on checking into the hotel is the following phrase:

ich wünsche Ihnen einen angenehmen Aufenthalt I wish you a pleasant stay Note the accusative forms in this phrase.

GRAMMAR GURU In recent lessons we have come across the verb haben in a number of situations. In the Grammar Guru section for this lesson, we’ll take a closer look at this verb and conjugate it fully in the present tense. In today’s grammar lesson, we’re going to learn about one of the verbs which has been cropping up over the last few lessons: the verb haben meaning “to have”. In our previous experience with verbs, we concentrated on kommen, which has a regular pattern in the present tense. As you may have guessed, haben doesn’t have this same regular pattern. It’s what we call an irregular verb, but don’t worry: it’s not too difficult! As usual, we’ll start with the singular forms. You’ll recognise a few of these already. We start off forming the first person singular just Coffee Break German: Lesson 14 - Notes

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like a regular verb, by taking the -en off the infinitive and adding on an -e, which gives us ich habe, meaning “I have”. However, as with many irregular verbs, the second and third person singular forms are slightly different: the du form has its usual -st ending, but this time the -b- disappears from the infinitve and we end up with du hast. The -b- is also absent in the third person singular, but it keeps its -t ending, which gives us er / sie / es hat. You’ll remember this form from the last lesson when we had er/sie hat Hunger. When we get to the plural verb forms, the -b- is back, so the first person plural, “we” form, is wir haben, looking just like the infinitive. The second person plural adds a -t ending to the stem, giving ihr habt, and finally we’re back to haben for the sie form, the third person plural. SINGULAR

PLURAL

I

ich habe

wir haben

YOU (INFORMAL)

du hast

ihr habt

HE/SHE/IT

er/sie/es hat

sie haben

You’ll have noticed that in this conjugation we’ve not mentioned the formal forms at all. However you can simply go to the third person plural and use those forms for both “you singular” and “you plural” in the formal form. Remember to use the capital S in Sie though! So now you know how to conjugate haben in the present tense. In a later lesson we’ll look at another really common verb, sein, meaning “to be”. Das reicht für heute - I’ll hand you back to Thomas and Mark at Radio Lingua HQ.

Coffee Break German: Lesson 14 - Notes

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DAS REICHT FÜR HEUTE Ready for more? Turn the page to continue with the bonus materials for this lesson.

Coffee Break German: Lesson 14 - Notes

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CORE VOCABULARY haben Sie reserviert? do you have a reservation?

ich habe reserviert I have a reservation

wir haben reserviert we have a reservation

wir haben nicht reserviert we don’t have a reservation

eine/die Reservierung a/the reservation

ich habe eine Reservierung I have a reservation

ich habe keine Reservierung I don’t have a reservation / I have no reservation

auf welchen Namen? in what name?

unter welchen Namen? under what name?

mein Name ist Herr Smith my name is Mr Smith

Coffee Break German: Lesson 14 - Notes

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mein Name ist Frau Smith my name is Mrs Smith

das Doppelzimmer the double room

das Einzelzimmer the single room

ich habe eine Reservierung für ein Doppelzimmer I have a reservation for a double room

ich habe ein Doppelzimmer reserviert I have reserved a double room / I have a reservation for a double room

ein Zimmer mit Bad a room with a bath

ein Zimmer mit Dusche a room with a shower

ein Zimmer mit Balkon a room with a balcony

ein Zimmer mit Meerblick a room with a sea view

ein Zimmer mit Bergblick a room with a mountain view

für eine Nacht Coffee Break German: Lesson 14 - Notes

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for one night

für zwei Nächte for two nights

für eine Woche for one week

für zwei Wochen for two weeks

ist das Frühstück inklusive? is breakfast included?

wie viel kostet das? how much does it cost?

wie viel kostet das Zimmer pro Nacht? how much does the room cost per night?

wie viel kostet das Zimmer pro Person? how much does the room cos per person?

der Schlüssel the key

ich wünsche Ihnen einen angenehmen Aufenthalt I wish you a pleasant stay

BONUS VOCABULARY Coffee Break German: Lesson 14 - Notes

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der Ausweis passport

wo können wir parken? where can we park?

wo kann ich parken? where can I park?

können wir das Zimmer sehen? can we see the room?

der Nachname surname

haben Sie einen Aufzug? do you have an elevator / lift?

der Aufzug lift / elevator

haben Sie ein Schwimmbad? do you have a swimming pool?

das Schwimmbad swimming pool

Coffee Break German: Lesson 14 - Notes

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