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Chapter 1: What common phrases can help when you're lost for words in German?
Hello and welcome to a new episode of Coffee Break German. In today's episode, we are looking at something that happens to absolutely everyone learning a language and, to be honest, to native speakers too. It's that moment when you're in the middle of a sentence and suddenly you just can't find the words you are looking for.
Zum Glück, there are various things you can do or say when you're missing a word. And today we are looking exactly at what German speakers do when that happens. Also, let's kick this off with some phrases that can buy you some time. First up, something that really always works. And that's the phrase, einen Moment bitte. Just a moment, please. Einen Moment bitte.
This is perfect if you need a second to think. It is polite, it is relatively easy to remember, and it really works everywhere. Very similar to this one, but slightly more informal, I would say, would be the phrase, Gib mir eine Sekunde. Give me a second. Gib mir eine Sekunde. And then the last and the shortest version to buy you some time is the short two-word phrase, Warte kurz. Wait a second.
Warte kurz. Alles klar? In order of length and level of politeness, we just had the three phrases. Einen Moment bitte. Gib mir eine Sekunde. Und warte kurz. Now, in a real life situation, you could use all three of them in a conversation like this one here. Entschuldigung. Kann ich bitte... Gib mir eine Sekunde. den Kartoffelschäler haben.
See, this way, instead of having an awkward silence and leaving the sentence half finished, you buy yourself some time to remember the very important German word for potato peeler. Everyone wins. Aber what if the word just doesn't come to you at all? Either you've actually never learned it, you never knew it, or you just can't remember it.
Well, that's when you can use the following phrases to actually ask for a certain word. You can say, wie sagt man, for example, potato peeler auf Deutsch? So you're asking, so how do you see potato peeler in German? And then the other person can give you the word and you can finish your sentence. Very similar to that phrase, but even shorter would be the expression. Was war das Wort für?
So in English, what was the word for? And again, to give you a little bit of an example conversation, you can use it like that. Hey, kannst du mir kurz helfen? Ich brauche ein... Was war das Wort für charger? Ein Ladegerät.
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Chapter 2: How can you politely ask for a moment to think in German?
Danke. Ich brauche ein Ladegerät für mein Handy. So, if you already have a rough idea or know a word that is close to what you're looking for, you might also actually use this phrase. Es ist so ähnlich wie. So, it is similar to. This gives you the chance to describe what you're looking for. You could, for example, say... Ich meine dieses Gemüse.
Es ist so ähnlich wie eine Karotte, nur weiß und scharf und größer. Let me know in the comments if you know what vegetable I'm looking for here. Okay, we've learned phrases to buy some time. We've learned phrases where you can ask for a specific word. But now I want to show you one German phrase that native speakers use a lot when they can't think of a word. And then at the end,
I also still have that magic word for you that will solve all your problems. Let's start with the phrase. Es liegt mir auf der Zunge. So literally, it is lying on top of my tongue. Or in better English, of course, it's on the tip of my tongue. And just like in English, it's used when you know a word, a name or an answer. but it's somewhere there, but it just won't come out at that moment.
It also does what all of today's other phrases did because it first of all buys you some time to think and the other person is also likely to tell you what the word is that you're looking for if they themselves know it. Give it a go and try these phrases the next time you can't remember a word or you're a little bit, you lost your train of thoughts and are struggling to complete the sentence.
Okay, now for the great finale, the all-powerful word that all German speakers use way too often, actually, and it can really mean anything. You ready? Dings. Dings. Or in an even more eloquent and glorious form, you could also say dingsbums. Dingsbums. I'll give you a few examples how to use it. Gib mir doch bitte mal das Dings. Please give me the thingy.
Ah, wir müssen noch dieses Dingsbums machen. We have to do that thingy magic. Or last example. Weißt du, wann der Dings ankommt? Do you know when the you know what or who arrives? So you see, it is really a magical word that you can use for so many different situations. And I am sure now that you're actually aware of it, you will notice how often it is used in spoken German.
And that's it for today. Very important here. Remember, communicating isn't about having every sentence perfectly planned. Most of the time, there's a big element of just improvising or figuring out what you're saying along the way. And hopefully, these phrases today will help you do that and just keep the conversation going when you're speaking German.
If it's either just to buy you a little bit of more time to figure out the dative case or it will give you the chance to ask for that one word that you're missing to complete your German sentence.
Also, danke fürs Zuhören, hoffentlich bis bald und happy coffee-breaking!
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