Unit 1 of intermediate German from online FSI language courses

Here's Unit 1 of the second book (or Unit 13 if counting from the first) of FSI's German language courses. Perfect dialogues if you were supposed to do something at the Ministry of Economic Affairs but suddenly had to go to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs instead.

The text for this unit can be read here:

http://www.pagef30.com/2010/08/unit-1-of-intermediate-german-from-fsi.html

Category:

Education

Tags:

• german
• language
• FSI
• online
• study
• germany

[christopheclugston]

@acidfriend47 The difference is that 'der' is used in the case you are confused about as a relativizer and is the head of the Relative Phrase that will follow.

[refugee3108]

@acidfriend47 Der can mean both, depending on its function. "Er ist der Mann, der Deutsch studiert," means "He's the man who studies German." First "der" is used as an article, meaning "the" and modifying "Mann." It's then used as a relative pronoun, standing in for "der Mann" in the second part of the sentence, just as "who" replaces "the man." In English we use words like who and whom for this function, whereas German uses the corresponding article.

[acidfriend47]

10:49 i'm finding it hard to understand the difference between who and the. " der " means The, then yet again it means who? Doesn't who mean " wer"?