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Welcome to the first lesson of our Free Mini-Course! Let's learn how to introduce ourselves, in German.
Imagine this: you have been invited to lunch. When you arrive, you notice a man you have never met before. He looks a lot like the German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche. He says hello.
Why don't you say hello back to him, and introduce yourself in German?
The most straight forward way to say hello in German is simply Hallo.
However, there are many different ways to greet somebody.
We have listed a few of them, here:
Next, it's time to introduce yourself. As with greeting somebody, there are several ways to tell a person what your name is.
Let's see how the other guests attending the lunch do this:
Here are the translations:
Now, to be polite, you may like to ask him for his name:
At this point, we have managed to say hello in German, and introduce ourselves with our name. Now, let's start a little conversation.
Why don't you ask Nietzsche how he's doing:
The formal way to ask how someone is, is in fact: 'Wie geht es dir?'. However, in informal conversation, it's typical to shorten this phrase to: 'Wie geht's?'.
In response, he may reply something like:
Or, simply:
Let's listen to a conversation between yourself & Nietzsche, using the phrases we have just learned:
Wonderful! 🎉
You have now begun a conversation with Friedrich Nietzsche. And do you know what? He seems to like you! In fact, he'd like to know more about you.
What can you say about yourself, in German?
First, let's get a couple of the most popular questions out of the way. Namely, where do you live? Where are you from?
Very good! Let's continue.
In order to share even more about ourselves, we must now learn an important German verb: sein, which means "to be".
It is one of the most versatile verbs in the German language, and you will use it all the time!
Take a look at this conjugation table for sein:
| Pronoun | sein | Translation |
|---|---|---|
| Ich | bin | I am |
| Du | bist | You are |
| Er / Sie / Es | ist | He / She / It is |
| Wir | sind | We are |
| Ihr | seid | You are |
| Sie | sind | They are |
Now we can use sein to talk about our age:
It might be helpful here to check out our post on the numbers in German.
We can also talk about what we do for a living:
Alternatively, you may also use the verb arbeiten to talk about your job:
If you're interested, here is a list of job titles in German.
Lastly, here are some other Ich bin ... sentences that may come in handy when introducing yourself!
Well done! 🎉
You have learned some important basic phrases in German! You now know how to greet somebody, introduce yourself with your name and even talk a little bit about yourself.
Now it's time to test your knowledge, with this listening comprehension exercise.
Here, we have a some audio recordings, that include phrases from this lesson. Listen closely to each recording. Can you follow the conversations? Do you understand what the speakers are saying?
Were you able to follow the German conversations?
If so, well done. 🎉
You are ready to move on to the next lesson: German pronunciation.
