Longer spoken German

Connected speech: what the speaker thinks, what they actually want, and what follows from what.

Not started

Longer audio is not harder because the words are harder. It is harder because you cannot hold every word — and you do not need to.

Listen for the shape first: what is the speaker doing — explaining, complaining, recommending, refusing? The details attach themselves to that.

A few signals carry most of the meaning in spoken German, and they are easy to catch even when the rest goes past:

Ehrlich gesagt … / Um ehrlich zu sein …
a candid opinion is coming
Das Problem ist nur, dass …
the objection — this is usually the real point
Ich würde eher … / An Ihrer Stelle würde ich …
a recommendation, softened
Grundsätzlich schon, aber …
agreement in principle, disagreement in practice
the aber carries everything
Das heißt, …
the speaker is about to say what it all comes down to

Stopping to work out one unknown word.Letting it go and staying with the speaker.

One missed word costs you one word. Stopping to think costs you the next sentence, which usually contained the answer.

Words from this topic