Asking QuestionsIn German
Asking questions in German ...
Imagine that you are on a date... on a date with Marlene Dietrich.
@IMAGE - of marlene dietrich ?
You wonder if she could be your soulmate. You want to get to know her. You want to ask her some ... questions!
But how?
In this lesson, we'll learn how to interrogate somebody on a date, with important question words and phrases.
Let's start!
German Question Words
Take a look at the vocabulary table below:
These are the important w-question German words. You will often need them, to ask questions. But how to use them?
Forming Questions
1. Basic Questions
To learn how to use these words in a question, we have to turn our attention to some German Grammar rules. Usually, a basic w-question uses this sentence construction:
Here are some example questions:
These questions are pretty simple and straightforward.
Now, let's add a direct object to the sentence.
2. Advanced Questions
Usually, a w-question that includes an object uses this sentence construction:
Here are some example questions:
Use the word picker to build sensical sentences using the sentence structure we have just learned
3. Yes / No Questions
How about questions that do not begin the a w-word? Such as: 'Do you have siblings?', or 'Do you enjoy watching films?'. These questions are called yes-no questions. The sentence construction needed to form such questions is pretty straightforward.
To form a yes-no, we can just take the default sentence structure and swap the positions of the subject and verb around, so that the verb is at position 1 and the subject is at position 2.
Here is an example of a sentence using the default sentence structure:
And here is the same sentence as a question:
Well done! 🎉
You are forming questions in German!
Now, with these two important sentence constructions and the w-words we have learned so far, let's go on a date with Marlene Dietrich!
@IMAGE - date with marlene dietrich, rose in vase?
Forming Questions Exercise
Let's now practice how to ask questions in German with a short example dialogue.
Go through the dialogue and examine each sentence. Once you are sure to understand what's being said, read the whole dialogue again, and then listen to the audio recording without looking at the text. Are you able to follow it?
If you need some help, click on the blurred lines to show english translations of the questions and answers.
The conversation continues ...
Well done! 🎉
You have completed this lesson, and your date with Marlene Dietrich!
When you are ready, head over to the next lesson here.