Go to the homepage of this German Course Chapter 2: Talking about yourself University of Portsmouth
2.6 Conversation: Im Café

Das Café
An English tourist Peter Withe (standing, left) strikes up a conversation with a German local Klaus Wagner (seated, right) whilst sitting outside a café in Bavaria in summer. What sort of questions do they ask each other, and how do they respond?

Im Café

Peter Withe Guten Tag.
Klaus Wagner Guten Tag. Sind Sie vielleicht Ausländer?
Peter Withe Ja, ich bin Engländer.
Klaus Wagner Woher kommen Sie?
Peter Withe Ich komme aus Birmingham.
Klaus Wagner Sie sind also kein Amerikaner?
Peter Withe Nein, ich komme nicht aus den USA. Und Sie?
Klaus Wagner Ich bin Deutscher. Ich komme aus Norddeutschland. Aber ich wohne hier in Bayern. Mein Name ist Wagner, Klaus Wagner. Und wie heißen Sie?
Peter Withe Ich heiße Withe, Peter Withe.

das Café  The café 
im Café  In the café
der Ausländer  A male "foreigner". A female foreigner would be "die Ausländerin"
Sind Sie vielleicht Ausländer?  "Are you a foreigner by any chance?" Peter's German accent is not as authentic as he thinks! Note that "Ausländer" is used in exactly the same way as all other nationalities - without a definite article. The literal translation is "Are you perhaps foreigner?"
vielleicht  In almost all other contexts, "vielleicht" would be translated as "perhaps".
also  Be very careful of this word in German! It doesn't mean English "also" but "therefore" or "so".
Sie sind also kein Amerikaner? "So you're not American?" The word "kein" literally means "not an".
Norddeutschland  "North Germany". This is one word only in German - a compound noun.
Bayern  This means "Bavaria". Many German regions with which we are familiar turn out to have very different names in German.


Weiter!Chapter 2.7: Conversation: Im Sitzungssaal

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