Following a longer speaker
Ninety seconds of German at a time: what the speaker wants, why, and what happens next.
These passages are two or three times longer than the ones in Listening I. You will not catch every word, and you do not need to.
Listen for the shape, not the words: what happened → why → what the speaker wants. Almost every spoken message has that shape.
The connectors you now produce yourself are also the signposts you should be hearing:
…, sodass ich den Anschluss verpasst habe.
the result
sodass always introduces a consequence
Obwohl ich dreimal angerufen habe, …
a concession — something did not work despite an effort
Könnten Sie mir bitte Bescheid geben, ob …
the request, usually last
the indirect question is where the speaker says what they need
One practical habit: when a message names two times, two dates or two numbers, one of them is usually the old one and one the new one. The question will ask for the new one.
Answering from the first number you catch.Waiting to hear whether it is being replaced.
Spoken German states the change after the original: "statt am Dienstag jetzt am Donnerstag".
Words from this topic
- Darf ich kurz unterbrechen?may I interrupt briefly?
- Da bin ich nicht ganz Ihrer Meinung.I do not quite share your view
- Ich verstehe Ihren Punkt, aber …I take your point, but …
- Wäre es für Sie in Ordnung, wenn …?would it be all right with you if …?
- Damit könnte ich leben.I could live with that
- Wir haben vereinbart, dass …we have agreed that …
- Wie sehen Sie das?how do you see it?
- Bescheid gebento let someone know
- die die Übergabethe handover
- die die Zusagethe confirmation, the acceptance
- kümmernto take care of (sich kümmern um)
- der der Ersatzthe replacement
- ausfallento be cancelled, to break down