h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

That one is especially for Bel!

müssen – Present Tense

ich muss (I must)
du musst (you must)
er sie es muss (he she it must)

wir müssen (we must)
ihr müsst (you must)
sie müssen (they must)

formal:
Sie müssen (you must)


example:
Ich muss ihn sehen. - I must see him.
Du musst ihn sehen. - You must see him.
.
.
.


negative form:

(!!!) Ich muss ihn nicht sehen. – I need not see him.
(!!!) Du musst ihn nicht sehen. – You need not see him.

(!!!) (Ich darf ihn nicht sehen. – I must not see him.)

Any questions, Bel?

katkodl

*blinks and lets the information sink in*

I'm full of admiration that you know the new orthography, Katkodl

I have to admit that I'm one of the few proponents of the new orthography.

I'm too old, I'll never learn it

Aw, it’s easy and much more logical. (I know, that’s only my personal point of view. )
But you keep using it yourself, don’t you? And you haven’t made any mistakes so far (I’m sure I would have recognized).

I thought we’d do some Christmassy stuff on the teaching thread this week. Everybody seems to be VERY excited about the Christmas Game, so everyone will be happy about this lesson as well, huh?


some Christmassy nouns

Weihnacht – Christmas

Weihnachten – Christmas

das Christkind – Christ Child

der Weihnachtsmann – Santa Claus

der Christbaum (die Christbäume) – Christmas tree

die Tanne (die Tannen) – fir

der Tannenzweig (die Tannenzweige) – twig of a fir

der Christbaumschmuck (pl. and sg.) – Christmas tree decorations

die Christbaumkugel (die Christbaumkugeln) – Christmas bauble

der Stern (die Sterne) -

der Strohstern (die Strohsterne) – star made of straw

der Lebkuchen – gingerbread

der Keks (die Kekse) – cooky

der Engel (die Engel) – angel

das Weihnachtslied (die Weihnachtslieder) – Christmas carol

die Weihnachtsstimmung – Christmassy mood

der Schnee – snow

der Schneemann (die Schneemänner) –

das Rentier (die Rentiere) –

der Mistelzweig (die Mistelzweige) -

die Stechpalme –

das Geschenk (die Geschenke) – present

die Glocke (die Glocken) - bell

der Wunsch (die Wünsche) – wish

die Kirche (die Kirchen) – church

die Kerze (die Kerzen) - candle



some adjectives

weihnachtlich – Christmassy

grün – green

red – rot

fröhlich – happy

glänzend – shiny

kitschig - kitschy



some verbs

singen – to sing

sich wünschen – to wish

sich freuen – to be pleased, to be happy

spenden – to donate

helfen – to help

feiern – to celebrate

basteln – to do handicrafts

backen – to bake



some phrases and sentences

Frohe Weihnachten! – Merry Christmas

Fröhliche Weichnachten! – Merry Christmas

Wir schmücken den Baum. – We are decorating the tree.

Ich wünsche mir zu Weihnachten... – My wish for Christmas is...

Ich backe Kekse. – I’m baking cookies.







You are welcome to form sentences.
Are there any words you’d like to know the translation for?
Shall I conjugate the verbs for you?
As you know, I’m always pleased to help!

*is studying and doesn't know why she's studying when she's oh so tired, but doesn't care*

At least Danielle pretends that she’s interested, that’s nice!

Ich backe das Christbaumschmucs

---

I'm baking Christmas tree ornaments.

Really, I am- found a good recipe for bread dough ornaments, and that's what I'm giving this year.

Hello Scandera!

correction of your sentence:
Ich backe Christbaumschmuck.
You need no article here. If you want to use the article, it must be “den”:
Ich backe den Christbaumschmuck.

explanation:
(den) Christbaumschmuck is 4th case (accusative) here.

Here is the (singular) declension of der “Christbaumschmuck”:

der Christbaumschmuck (nominative)
des Christbaumschmucks (genitive)
dem Christbaumschmuck (dative)
den Christbaumschmuck (accusative)


What kind of „Christbaumschmuck“ are you baking? When I was a child we baked Lebkuchen (gingerbread) decorations: Sterne (stars), Herzen (hearts), Schneemänner (snowmen), kleine Häuschen (little houses), Glocken (bells), Schaukelpferde (rocking horses)… That was fun!

I was interested! And I was studying until my brother turned the light off and tried to sleep...

That explanation is confusing, but that's probably because I just woke up...

Ich bin müde. (I am tired.)

... At least it wasn't a corection of something I said because then I would be forcing myself to understand now instead of later when I am sure I will still be confused when I look at it. Ah, the joys of constant confusion. *leans back in chair lazily*

Ich bake sterne, herzen, schneemanner, (wreaths), und (drums).

I'm baking stars, hearts, snowmen, wreaths, and drums.

Please note : nouns always with capital letters.


wreath - der Kranz

drums - die Trommeln

die Schneemaenner

Ich habe dieses Jahr nichts gebacken.

I haven't baked anything this year.

der Tannenzweig (die Tannenzweige) – twig of a fir

Fir tree twig, or...actually it's branch!! Fir branch

Wir haben die Christbaum geschmueckt und es hat ein schlechter Engel, dass ich, als ich fünf Jahre alt war, gemacht. Es hat schlechter Augen und meine Eltern leibe es.

***

We have decorated the Christmas tree and it has an evil angel, which I made when I was five. It has evil eyes and my parents love it.


Katkodl, a splendiferous lesson as always. I wish other departments would operate the same as this one.

Don’t laugh at my twig of a fir!

correction of your sentences (with explanations in brackets):

“Wir haben den (4th case) Christbaum geschmückt, und er („Baum“ is male in German) hat einen schlechten (4th case; I'd rather say "bösen" than "schlechten") Engel, den (4th case) ich, als ich fünf Jahre alt war, gemacht habe (tense: Perfekt - we haven't talked about it yet). Er („Engel“ is male in German) hat böse („schlechte“ means that he can’t see very well) Augen und meine Eltern lieben (Plural) ihn (as mentioned before, „Engel“ is male).“

I think we should practice the fourth case. I’ve explained it in a lesson some weeks ago, haven’t I? It’s important to know the different interrogative pronouns. For the 4th case it’s necessary that you understand at least the difference between “wen” and “wer” and “was”.

Thanks for complimenting me on my “captainhood”!

Yeah okay I think we DEFINITELY need to practice the cases, all of them probably. Oh well at least we are operating correctly .

Yes dear Twig of a Fir is a BEAUTIFUL name

Captain Katkodl has a certain ring to it.

Although...Admiral Kat sounds great.



Nobody knows my carol Even I'm not sure anymore!

Silvester


Silvester – New Year’s Eve

Mitternacht - midnight

Neujahr – New Year’s Day

das Feuerwerk - fireworks

der Vorsatz (die Vorsätze) – resolution

der gute Vorsatz für das neue Jahr – New Year’s resolution

der Glücksbringer (die Glücksbringer) – lucky charm

die Musik – music

der Sekt – sparkling wine
(beware: „die Sekte (die Sekten)“ is „(religious) sect(s)“)

der Champagner – champagne

der Wein – wine

das Bier – beer (ale)

der Schnaps – schnaps

der Cocktail – cocktail

der Alkohol - alcohol

der Kater – hangover
(please note: „der Kater“ is also the translation for „tomcat“ )

der Rausch – intoxication

die Alkoholvergiftung – alcoholic intoxication

die akute Alkoholvergiftung – acute alcoholic intoxication

die anonymen Alkoholiker (AA) – Alcoholics Anonymous

Prost! - Cheers! (on New Year's Eve also: "Prosit!"... like: "Prosit Neujahr!")





feiern – to celebrate

trinken – to drink

sich übergeben – to throw up

lachen – to laugh

singen – to sing

tanzen – to dance

schmollen – to sulk

weinen – to cry



betrunken – drunk

laut – loud

lustig – funny

spät – late

deprimiert – depressed

traurig – sad



Frohes neues Jahr! – Happy New Year!

Einen guten Rutsch ins neue Jahr! – Happy New Year! (literally: a good slide into the new year! – I personally would never say that – I think it’s a stupid phrase.)


Bei uns ist es üblich, sich zu Silvester Glücksbringer zu schenken.
It’s very common here to give each other lucky charms on New Year’s Eve.


some lucky charms:

das Schwein (die Schweine) – pig

das Kleeblatt (die Kleeblätter) – cloverleaf

der Rauchfangkehrer (die Rauchfangkehrer) – chimney sweeper (Austrian German I think... as far as I know Germans call him „der Kaminkehrer“ or something)

der Fliegenpilz (die Fliegenpilze) – fly agaric

die schwarze Katze (die schwarzen Katzen) – black cat

der Marienkäfer (die Marienkäfer) – ladybug

das Hufeisen (die Hufeisen) – horseshoe



In the German speaking area „Bleigießen“ is a common costum. Anyone ever heard of it, if so, would you like to explain?





P.S.: In case I’ve forgotten about something important please jump in!

"agaric"- that's a type of mushroom which has a large top bit and lots of gills. It used to be used dried to stop...to stop...sweating I think.

Just incase you don't know all you people out there in web land.

Ich habe keine Vorsaetze, weil sie dumb sind.

die akute Alkoholvergiftung ist wie Alkoholvergiftung oder schlechter? Kann mann schlechter als Alkoholvergiftung haben??

***
I have no resolutions because they are stupid.
Acute Alcohol Poisoning is the same as alcohol poisoning or worse?
Can you get worse than alcohol poisoning??

An „acute alcoholic intoxication“ is worse than an „alcoholic intoxication“.

The German word for “stupid” is “dumm” oder “blöd”.

Ich habe auch keine Vorsätze. I have no resolutions either.

Fliegenpilze are red with white dots. They are toxic… or at least their skin is. And they have gills, yes. They look nice, I think. Here is a pic of 2 Fliegenpilze:
http://www.toxinfo.org/pilz/db/bilder/Fliegenpilz_(amanita_muscaria).Fliegenpilz_giftig.001.JPG

What about “Bleigießen”?