Lesson 1

Say who you are

Meet classmates, say who is here, and introduce names.

A1 · Unit 1 · Meet people · 23 steps · about 20 minutes

What you will practice

• Match the person with sein
• Introduce names with heißen

What you will notice

At your first class

Anna and Lukas arrive for class. Anna speaks about herself, then addresses Lukas. Listen for the change from I to you.

• Ich bin hier.I am here.
• Du bist hier.You are here.

Match the person with sein

In this classroom, ich means I, du addresses one classmate informally, er means he, sie means she or they, wir means we, and ihr addresses several classmates informally. Pair each person with sein, to be: ich bin, du bist, er ist, sie ist (she), wir sind, ihr seid, sie sind (they). The verb distinguishes sie ist from sie sind. Hier means here; dort means there. Full statements normally include a subject. These tasks use subject + verb + place, with the finite verb second. German also allows another phrase first, as in Dort bin ich; that order comes later. Formal Sie means you and takes sind; it sounds like sie for they, and capitalization at the start of a sentence cannot settle the meaning. Tasks about they explicitly refer to classmates being described, not listeners being addressed. Formal address and es come later.

• Ich bin hier.I am here.
• Du bist hier.You are here.
• Er ist hier.He is here.
• Sie ist hier.She is here.
• Wir sind hier.We are here.
• Ihr seid hier.You are all here.
• Sie sind hier.They are here (describing classmates).

Here or there

Anna is here; Lukas is over there. Keep the same person–verb pair when changing the place.

• Ich bin hier.I am here.
• Er ist dort.He is there.

Introduce names with heißen

To give a name with heißen, use ich heiße, du heißt, er heißt or sie heißt (she). Du, er and sie share heißt; the subject tells you whose name it is. Keep ß in heiße and heißt in this Germany-focused lesson. Standard Swiss spelling uses ss instead. Ich heiße Anna and Ich bin Anna are both normal introductions. The naming tasks here specifically request heißen, with subject first, then the verb, then the name. Names keep their capital letters; ordinary word tiles are lowercase so capitalization does not give away the first tile. Use full subject-and-verb statements. Plural heißen forms, questions, titles and formal address come later.

• Ich heiße Anna.My name is Anna.
• Du heißt Lukas.Your name is Lukas.
• Er heißt Ben.His name is Ben.
• Sie heißt Mia.Her name is Mia.

Words in this lesson

• AnnaAnna (a name)
• LukasLukas (a name)
• BenBen (a name)
• MiaMia (a name)
• ichI
• duyou (one person, informal)
• erhe
• sieshe; they (the scene and verb show which)
• wirwe
• ihryou (several people, informal)
• binam (with ich)
• bistare (with du)
• istis (with er or sie for she)
• sindare (with wir or sie for they)
• seidare (with ihr)
• hierhere
• dortthere
• heißeam called (with ich)
• heißtare called (with du); is called (with er or sie for she)