Unlocking German with Paul Noble: Your key to language success with the bestselling language coach. Paul Noble

be-troon-kurn)

       Catapult Words

      You’re maybe wondering “what on earth can ‘catapult words’ possibly be?”

      Well, catapult words are words that catapult other words. And where do they catapult them to? To the end of the sentence!

      I’ll show you what I mean.

      To begin with, remind me, how would you say “I am”?

      ich bin

      (ikh bin)

      And so how would you say “I am romantic”?

      Ich bin romantisch.

      (ikh bin roe-marn-tish)

      Okay, that was pretty easy. Now, let’s introduce a catapult word and see what it does to this sentence.

      Our first catapult word is “because”, which in German is:

      weil

      (vile)

      Now again, remind me how you would say “I am romantic”?

      Ich bin romantisch.

      (ikh bin roe-marn-tish)

      And what was “because”?

      weil

      (vile)

      Now, if you want to say “because I am romantic” you will quickly discover that “because” acts as a kind of catapult. Don’t believe me?Well, watch…

      “I am romantic” in German is:

      Ich bin romantisch.

      (ikh bin roe-marn-tish)

      But “because I am romantic” in German is:

      weil ich romantisch bin

      (vile ikh roe-marn-tish bin)

      Notice how the “bin” (am) has been catapulted to the end of the sentence?Well, this is what catapult words do – they take a word and throw it all the way to the end of the sentence. But that raises an important question of course: how do we know which word it is in this sentence that should be catapulted?

      Well, it’s very simple, it’s the second one.

      So again, what is “I am romantic” in German?

      Ich bin romantisch.

      (ikh bin roe-marn-tish)

      So the second word in the sentence is “am” / “bin” and so if we want to add “because” / “weil” to this sentence, this is the word that gets catapulted to the end.

      So again, how would you say “because I am romantic”?

      weil ich romantisch bin

      (vile ikh roe-marn-tish bin)

      Now, again, how would you say “I am very romantic”?

      Ich bin sehr romantisch.

      (ikh bin zair roe-marn-tish)

      And how would you say “I am not very romantic”?

      Ich bin nicht sehr romantisch.

      (ikh bin nikht zair roe-marn-tish)

      Now, the second word in this sentence is once again “am” / “bin”. So, remembering to catapult it to the end of the sentence, how would you say “because I am not very romantic”?

      weil ich nicht sehr romantisch bin

      (vile ikh nikht zair roe-marn-tish bin)

      Again, what is “drunk”?

      betrunken

       (be-troon-kurn)

      And “I am drunk”?

      Ich bin betrunken.

       (ikh bin be-troon-kurn)

      So how would you say “because I am drunk”?

      weil ich betrunken bin

       (vile ikh be-troon-kurn bin)

      And how about “because I am very drunk”?

      weil ich sehr betrunken bin

      (vile ikh zair be-troon-kurn bin)

      So, as you can see, when we’ve had a catapult word, such as “weil”, it has picked up the second word and thrown it all the way to the end of the sentence. Let’s have one more go at doing this!

      What is “busy”?

      beschäftigt

      (be-shef-tigt)

      And so how would you say “I am busy”?

      Ich bin beschäftigt.

      (ikh bin be-shef-tigt)

      And “I am very busy”?

      Ich bin sehr beschäftigt.

      (ikh bin zair be-shef-tigt)

      And so how would you say “because I am very busy”?

      weil ich sehr beschäftigt bin

      (vile ikh zair be-shef-tigt bin)

      Excellent!

      So, that’s how catapult words work. There are a number of other catapult words that exist in German but don’t worry because, whenever a catapult word is introduced in this book, I will make sure to let you know that it is one. For the moment though, you only need to know about “because” (weil).

      Now, what is “I would like”?

      ich möchte

       (ikh murkh-ter)

      And how would you say “I would like to do it”?

      Ich möchte es tun.

       (ikh murkh-ter es toon)

      How would you say “I wouldn’t like to do it”?

      Ich möchte es nicht tun.

       (ikh murkh-ter es nikht toon)

      And “I wouldn’t like to do it today”?

      Ich möchte es nicht heute tun.

       (ikh murkh-ter es nikht hoy-ter toon)

      What is “now”?

      jetzt

      (yetst)

      So how would you say “I wouldn’t like to do it now”?

      Ich möchte es nicht jetzt tun.

       (ikh murkh-ter es nikht yetst toon)

      And again, how would you say “I am very busy”?

      Ich bin sehr beschäftigt.

      (ikh bin zair be-shef-tigt)

      And, using our catapult word “weil” (because), how would you say “because I am very busy”?

      weil ich sehr beschäftigt bin

      (vile ikh zair be-shef-tigt bin)

      And so, finally, how would