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German I Chapter 2 Practice with Discussing Hobbies and Pastimes: Erste
Stufe (Vocabulary List Purple Section) and Zweite Stufe (Vocabulary List BlueGreen Section.
**Remember the two ways of forming questions in German, depending on what type of
answer you are looking for:
1) to get a ja/nein answer, you begin the question with the verb. Machst du Sport? Translation:
Do you sports? (This is not correct English grammar, but remember we discussed that changing
the English word order sets you up for a correct translation to German). Machen means to do.
This question gives you a ja/nein or yes/no answer. Ja, ich mache Sport.
2) to find out the sports rather than just a yes or no, you would use the special question words we
have learned. In this case, you would start the question with was (what) in German. Was
machst du in deiner Freizeit? Translation: What do you do in your free time? You would expect
the answer of which sports the person you asked does.
Was machst du in deiner Freizeit? Possible answers: Ich spiele Fußball. Ich spiele Klavier
(piano). Ich tanze (dance).
**In the case of playing an instrument or a sport, the use of spielen in your answer is similar
to English. You play an instrument or a sport.
Examples: I play tennis. Ich spiele Tennis. I play the piano. Ich spiele Klavier. When you
discuss playing an instrument in German, you don’t say the in the sentence. Ich spiele Klavier.
Ich spiele Golf.
Ich spiele Schach (chess).
Ich spiele Basketball.
Ich spiele Baseball.
**German works like English when you are describing activities that you engage in, rather
than play. For example: Ich tanze (dance). Ich schwimme (swim). Ich jage (hunt). Ich
wandere (hike). Ich zeichne (draw).
**Here are some additional verbs in our chapter:
Fernsehen schauen= to watch TV, Musik hören= to listen to music, Freunde besuchen= to visit
friends, Briefmarken sammeln= stamp collecting, Comics sammeln= collecting comics.
**You say: Ich sammle Comics, Ich schaue Fernsehen, Ich besuche Freunde, Ich sammle
Briefmarken, Ich höre Musik. Notice that when you match the verb sammeln to match ich, you
don’t say sammele. You drop the e and say sammle. The same is true with the other verb in our
chapter that looks like sammeln, which is basteln =to do crafts. You would say ‘Ich bastle’, not
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bastele. This is to make the verb easier to pronounce. This only applies when you are using the
ich form.
**Using gern (like to), nicht gern (not like to) and nicht so gern (not like to very much).
Example sentences and questions:
(More info question) Was machst du gern in deiner Freizeit? Ich spiele gern Tennis. Was
machst du nicht gern in deiner Freizeit? Ich spiele nicht gern Tennis.
(Yes/no question) Machst du gern Sport? Nein, ich mache nicht gern Sport. (or) Ja, ich mache
gern Sport. Spielst du gern Fußball? Ja, ich spiele gern Fußball. (or) Nein, ich spiele nicht gern
Fußball. Sammelst du Briefmarken? Ja, ich sammle gern Briefmarken. (or) Nein, ich sammle
nicht gern Briefmarken. Ich sammle nicht gern Briefmarken. You can also add sehr or so in
front of gern to increase the degree of enthusiasm created by gern. Sehr = very and so = so. Ich
spiele so gern Tennis. Ich spiele sehr gern Tennis. Ich spiele nicht so gern Tennis. Ich spiele
nicht sehr gern Tennis.
**Practice with the words viel, oft, and andere. Viel = much, a lot. Oft = often. Andere =
other.
Spielst du oft Tennis? Do you often play tennis? Ja, ich spiele oft Tennis. Ich spiele sehr
gern Tennis. Spielst du viel Golf? Do you play a lot of golf? Nein, ich spiele nicht viel Golf.
Ich spiele nicht so gern Golf. Hast du andere Interessen? Do you have other interests? Ja, ich
spiele Baseball. A negative answer: Ich habe keine anderen Interessen. You’ll learn about how
‚kein’works later in German sentences.
Now, you should be able to answer sentences in your workbook under Erste and Zweite Stufe.
We’ll talk about the vocabulary and grammar in Dritte Stufe (orange section) later.
**Some practice sentences to help in your workbook:
On Workbook Page 16 Section 7, I slightly modified the following 2 example sentences:
1) Monika / spielen / Tennis / gern? This is what is known as a dehydrated sentence. That
means you put the parts between the slashes in correct order and make the verb match the
subject (in this case, Monika). This sentence has a question mark, so you have to remember
how to order the parts into a ‘yes/no’ question. Answer: Spielt Monika gern Tennis?
2) Er / ja / Sport / machen. spielen / Basketball / er / Volleyball / und. These are two
sentences. In the second sentence, nothing is capitalized except the nouns. Remember:
Nouns are always capitalized in German. Answer: Ja, er macht Sport. Er spielt Basketball
und Volleyball.
**These sentences should help you as you complete section 7.
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On Workbook Page 16 Section 8, 2 more slightly modified sentences to help you with this
section:
Question: Spielt Katrina Klavier?
Answer: Nein, Katrina spielt nicht Klavier.
Question: Macht Robert gern Sport?
Answer:
Nein, Robert macht nicht gern Sport, aber er spielt sehr gern Schach.
**These should help you in workbook exercises through to the end of Zweite Stufe workbook
page 19. We’ll go over these in class after you’ve completed them.