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Alex meets a new classmate, Lena, on the first day of class in Berlin.
German capitalises every noun, not just names — Deutsch, Berlin, and every other noun you meet from here on. It looks strange for about a week and then becomes the most useful spelling rule in the language, because a capital letter in the middle of a sentence tells you instantly that you are looking at a thing rather than an action. heißen does not mean "to name." It means "to be called," so Ich heiße Lena is literally "I am called Lena." You will also hear Mein Name ist Lena, which is the closer translation of "my name is" — it is correct but noticeably more formal, and heißen is what you want in almost every conversation. The letter ß is called the scharfes S, and it is a single letter, not a capital B. It sounds exactly like a sharp s: heißen rhymes with the English "mice-en." You only ever see it after a long vowel or a diphthong, which is why it is heißen but küssen. Switzerland writes ss everywhere and has no ß at all — this course is set in Germany, so ß it is.
How do I read these pronunciations? See the pronunciation guide.
1. ich and du
ich means "I" and du means "you." This course uses du throughout — it is the everyday form, used with friends, classmates and anyone roughly your own age. There is a polite form, Sie, and it appears in the fourth grammar point below. Note that ich is only capitalised at the start of a sentence, unlike English "I" which is always capital.
2. sein — the verb "to be"
sein is the most irregular verb in German and the most useful, so it is worth learning as three flat facts rather than as a pattern: ich bin, du bist, er/sie/es ist. There is no equivalent of English "am/is/are" agreeing in any predictable way, and trying to derive bin from sein will only slow you down.
3. heißen — what you are called
Regular verbs take an ending that depends on who is doing the action: -e for ich, -st for du, -t for er/sie/es. heißen follows this, with one wrinkle — because the stem already ends in an s sound, du heißt takes just -t rather than -st. Every verb in this lesson works the same way: ich komme, du kommst; ich wohne, du wohnst; ich lerne, du lernst.
4. du or Sie?
German makes you choose how well you know someone every time you address them. du is for friends, family, classmates, children and anyone who has invited you to use it; Sie is for strangers, officials, shopkeepers and anyone noticeably older in a formal setting. Sie takes the same verb form as the plural: Wie heißen Sie? Getting it wrong is a small social stumble, not a disaster — and among students your own age, du is assumed from the first word.
5. Questions with wie and woher
A question that starts with a question word puts the verb straight after it, before the subject: Woher kommst du? — literally "Where-from come you?" This is the first sighting of the rule that governs German word order everywhere: the verb wants to be in second position. Not second word, second slot — Wie alt bist du? has the question word and alt sharing the first slot, and bist still lands second.
A. Fill in the Blank · Ergänzen Sie
Fill in the blank with a word from this lesson's vocabulary.
- 1.Hallo! Ich Lena.my name is
- 2.Ich neu hier.I am
- 3. kommst du?where from
- 4.Ich aus München.I come
B. Multiple Choice · Wählen Sie
Choose the correct German sentence.
- 1.How do you say "My name is Alex" in German?
- 2.How do you ask someone's age?
- 3.How do you say "I'm twenty-two"?
- 4.How do you ask where someone is from?
C. Word Order · Bilden Sie Sätze
Put the words in the right order.
- 1.Tap tiles below…
- 2.Tap tiles below…
- 3.Tap tiles below…
- 4.Tap tiles below…
D. True or False · Richtig oder falsch
Decide whether each statement about the dialogue is true.
- 1.Lena is from Berlin.
- 2.Alex is learning German.
- 3.Alex and Lena are the same age.
- 4.Lena still lives in Munich.
E. Matching · Ordnen Sie zu
Match each question to the answer that fits it.
F. Translation · Übersetzen Sie
Translate between German and English.
- 1.My name is Alex.
- 2.Where are you from?
- 3.Ich wohne jetzt in Berlin.
- 4.Freut mich!
Generate a brand-new dialog on any topic, using this lesson's 15 vocab words — plus any words you add below.
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The handshake, and when it stops
Germans shake hands far more than English speakers do — on being introduced, on arriving somewhere, often on leaving again, and between women as readily as between men. It is brief and firm, with eye contact, and it is the safe default with anyone you have just met. Hugging is reserved for close friends and family, and the cheek-kissing you may have met in France is not a German habit. Among students of the same age the handshake often disappears after the first meeting, replaced by a nod and a Hallo. The one place it stays is anywhere formal: arrive for an appointment, an interview or a meeting, and you shake hands with everyone in the room, including the people you already know.