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So, how would you say “can you come tonight?”
Kannst du heute Nacht kommen?
(kanst doo hoy-ter nahkht kom-urn)
“To come over” in German is, more or less, “to come by” (or more literally “to by come”), which is:
vorbeikommen
(for-by-kom-urn)
So, how would you say “can you come over?” / “can you come by?”
Kannst du vorbeikommen?
(kanst doo for-by-kom-urn)
How about “can you come over today?“
Kannst du heute vorbeikommen?
(kanst doo hoy-ter for-by-kom-urn)
Finally, how would you say “can you come over tonight?”
Kannst du heute Nacht vorbeikommen?
(kanst doo hoy-ter nahkht for-by-kom-urn)
So, you can now construct the sentence that we started the chapter with – and, as you will soon discover, this is only the very beginning of your journey into German!
Building Blocks
You have just learnt how to say (amongst other things) “can you come over tonight?” Having done this, we are now going to move on to expand what you can say through the use of additional “building blocks”.
The new building blocks you are going to learn will allow you to begin instantly expanding your range of expression in the German language.
So far, some of the building blocks you have already learnt include:
And you already know how to use these building blocks to construct a sentence. So, once again, how would you say “can you come over tonight?”
So, you already know how to build the four building blocks above into a sentence. Take a look now at the six new building blocks below. Just have a glance over them and then I’ll show you how we’re going to add these into the mix of what we’ve learnt so far.
So, here we have six new building blocks to play with.
Now, first things first: please don’t to try to memorise them. No, no, no! Instead, I simply want you to play with your building blocks. After all, that’s what building blocks are for, isn’t it?
And the way you’re going to play with them is like this: on the next page they have been put into three piles and all I want you to do is to make sentences with them. You’ll do this by each time using one building block from the first pile, one from the second, and one from the third.
You will find that you can say a lot of different things using them in this way and it’s up to you what sentences you make. The only thing I want you to make sure you do is to use every building block at least once and, also, please don’t bother writing down the sentences you make. Instead, say them out loud, or, if you’re not in a place where you can do this, say them in your head. Now, off you go; make as many sentences as you can!
The Checklist
You have now reached the final part of Chapter 1. Once you have finished this short section you will not only have completed your first chapter but you will also understand how this book works as the other chapters follow the same pattern, with your German getting ever more sophisticated as you complete each chapter.
The section you are now on will be the final part of each chapter and is what I call “The Checklist”. It involves nothing more than a read-through of a selection of some of the words or expressions you have so far encountered.
You will actually see The Checklist twice. The first time you will see that the German words are written in black (on the left-hand side) and that the English words are written in red (on the right-hand side) – and you know what red means… cover up!
So, what I want you to do here is to cover up the English words (which are written in red on the right-hand side) while you read through the list of German words on the left. Read through them all, from the top of the list to the bottom, and see if you can recall what they mean in English (uncover one red word at a time to check if you’ve remembered the meaning correctly). If you can go through the entire list, giving the correct English meaning for each of the German words / expressions without making more than three mistakes in total, then you’re done. If not, then go through the list again. Keep doing this, either working from the top of the list to the bottom or from the bottom to the top (it doesn’t matter which) until you can do it without making more than three mistakes.
Got it? Then let’s go!
| Ich kann (ikh kan) | I can |
| nicht (nikht) | not |
| beginnen (baig-in-urn) | begin / to begin |
| Ich kann nicht beginnen. (ikh kan nikht baig-in-urn) | I cannot begin. |
| parken (park-urn) | park / to park |
| bringen (bring-urn) | bring / to bring |
| campen (camp-urn) | camp / to camp |
| sie kann (zee kan) | she can |
| kommen (kom-urn) | come / to come |
| Sie kann kommen. (zee kan kom-urn) | She can come. |
| Sie kann nicht kommen. (zee kan nikht kom-urn) | She cannot come. |
| aber (ah-ber) | but |
| Sie kann campen aber ich kann nicht kommen. (zee kan camp-urn ah-ber ikh kan nikht kom-urn) | She can camp but I can’t come. |
| heute (hoy-ter) | today |
| Sie kann heute kommen. (zee kan hoy-ter kom-urn) | She can come today. |
| hier (hear) | here |
| Ich kann hier campen. (ikh kan hear camp-urn) | I can camp here. |
| du kannst (doo kanst) | you can |
| Du kannst hier parken. (doo kanst hear park-urn) | You can park here. |
| Kannst du? (kanst doo) | Can you? |
| heute Nacht (hoy-ter nahkht) | tonight |
| vorbeikommen (for-by-kom-urn) | come over / to come over / to come by |
| Kannst du heute Nacht vorbeikommen? (kanst doo hoy-ter nahkht for-by-kom-urn) | Can you come over tonight? |
| Kann ich? (kan ikh) | Can I? |
| heute Morgen (hoy-ter mor-gurn) | this morning |
| Kann ich heute Morgen vorbeikommen? (kan ikh hoy-ter mor-gurn for-by-kom-urn) | Can I come over this morning? |
| Können wir? (kurn-urn |