German · Chapter 8 · Lesson 21 · Themed review
In der Stadt
Getting around a town: the places, the transport, and the verbs of moving between them. The distinction English does not make is between going on foot and going by anything else.
Practise this lesson
20-word session
A quick mix of exercises - recognise, recall, type and build each word. Miss one and it comes back round until it sticks.
Worth knowing
In der Stadt: getting around a German town
This session is the town: the places in it, the ways of getting between them, and the two words you need when somebody gives you directions.
The places
is town or city, and German does not split the two the way English does. is street, and it is spelled with ß, which is a double s after a long vowel. is a square, and also a seat, and also room or space: ? is is there room here?
is a shop, Hotel is a hotel, is an office, is a church, is the police and is a hospital, which is literally a sick house and is exactly as logical as it sounds. German compounds are often like this: once you know and , the word explains itself.
Bank is a bank, where you keep money. It is also a bench, and the two are told apart in the plural: for the money kind, Bänke for the kind you sit on.
Getting there
Here is the distinction English does not make. means to go on foot. If you go by car, train or bus, you use . in die means I am going into town, by some kind of vehicle. Saying Berlin tells a German you are walking there, which is a long way from most places.
is to fly, in a , an aeroplane, which again is a compound: fly thing. is train and is car. is a journey or a trip.
is the colloquial wildcard. Strictly it means to run, but in everyday speech it often just means to walk, and it also means to be showing, as in a film: Was ? is what is on today? Context settles which.
Directions
links is left, is right, and is direction. The last one is useful beyond directions: on trains and platforms you will see Hamburg, meaning towards Hamburg, and the station announcer will use it too.
German directions also lean on and , contractions of and : , . Which one depends on the gender of the place, which is one more reason to learn every noun here with its article attached.