Deutsch Mittelstufe 1
(A2-B1)

Willkommen zu Deutsch, Mittelstufe 1!

This is the third course in the basic German language sequence. This course is roughly the equivalent of the third semester of language study at a college or university.

The Tell Me More language programs German, Level A2 and Level B1, All Skills, form the basis of the following lessons. This course develops your ability to understand German words and expressions and to communicate verbally and in writing. You will speak German confidently with activities designed to perfect your pronunciation and to improve your command of German grammar.

This course equips you to have a social life iin a German-language environment. You will learn German words and expressions useful for planning a trip, discussing the weather, talking over plans for leisure activities such as attending concerts or the theater, inviting a guest for a meal or going out to a restaurant.

Click here for information on how to enter your course.

Begin your course with the TMM language program, German, Intermediate, Level A2, Lektion 8. If you recently completed the My Language Requirement course, German Beginner 2, you may wish to begin your course with Lektion 9 instead.

Lektion 8: Urlaubsplanung

• Practice expressions for renting a vacation apartment,
• Vocabulary: Housing, rooms, furniture,
• Grammar: descriptions with the genitive case or relative clauses,
• Form ordinal numbers as in dates,
• An important idiom: "es gibt" (there is, there are).

Lektion 9: Urlaubsrealität

• Following up on the theme of Lektion 8, in Lektion 9 you will learn how to express your opinions, positive and negative, about your new rented space.
• Vocabulary: Household items and appliances.
• Grammar: The imperative mood: how to tell someone to do something.
• Indirect questions: Word order in indirect questions.

Lektion 10: Wetterbericht

• In this lesson you will review and expand your vocabulary and expressions for talking about the weather and the seasons, including the days of the week and the months.
• You will learn how to express your preferences.
• In the area of grammar, you will learn the future tense, using the auxiliary (helping) verb "werden." When used with an infinitive partner, "werden" means "will" or "shall."
• You will also learn how to form infinitive phrases (as in "It's fun to study German.")

Lektion 11: Sonne und Regen

• In this lesson you will learn more detailed vocabulary and expressions for discussing the weather and the seasons. You will learn how to express positive opinions.
• In the area of grammar, you will learn the simple past tense, also called the narrative past tense. This is an especially important tense for reading, because it is most often used in texts rather than in everyday conversation.
• You will also learn a bit more about how to put longer sentences together without using a conjunction. (German word order takes a while to master - patience and persistence are important here!)
• Finally, you will learn some important verb + preposition combinations. Some examples are "Wir warten auf dich." (We are waiting for you.) and "Er hat Angst vor Spinnen." (He's afraid of spiders.)

Lektion 12: Gäste einladen

• In this lesson you will learn how to invite guests over for a meal, how to discuss what someone likes or does not like to eat and various manners of food preparation. So you will be learning a lot of new vocabulary related to meals and cooking and kitchen items.
• You will review infinitive phrases and expand your use of them.
• You will practice the comparative construction: "as good as, as smart as, as expensive as ...." or "not as good as", etc.
  Auf Deutsch: "so gut wie, so intelligent wie, so teuer wie" oder "nicht so gut wie", usw.

Lektion 13: Zu Tisch

• In this lesson you will expand your ability to talk about household routines and items.
• You will learn how to order events in the past using the past perfect tense, the Plusquamperfekt.
• You will learn the subjunctive of important verbs used to put requests politely and to express hypotheses.
• You will learn how to compose longer sentences using the conjunction "solange" ("as long as").

Lektion 14: Ausgehen

• In this lesson you will learn how to discuss your tastes in film and music and talk about how you spend your free time. You will practice extending an invitation to someone to do something with you that you enjoy.
• You will learn how to express ideas using the terms "jemand" ("someone") and "niemand" ("no one").
• You will review the pattern of the "der-words": the demonstrative pronouns that follow the pattern of "der."
• You will review the subjunctive mood and use it to express hypotheses in sentences using "wenn ... dann" (if ... then).

Lektion 15. Landeskunde.
Words and grammar are only parts of a system of communication … the cultural context is also important. These brief lessons provide an insight into an aspect of German culture.

Lektion 16: Im Konzert

• In this lesson you will expand your vocabulary with terms relating to music and musical instruments.
• You will practice word order with separable-prefix verbs, for example, "ausgehen" (to go out) and "zurückgehen" (to go back).
• You will use the superlative in descriptions: "am besten, am teuersten, am interessantesten ... " (the best, the most expensive, the most interesting ...).

When you have completed Lektion 16, take the Language Achievement Test in Tell Me More. You will find it on your TMM Homepage by clicking the "Tests" tab. This assessment becomes available when you have completed thirty-six hours of practice with Tell Me More.

Congratulations on your new level of proficiency! Let your instructor know whether you want your Language Achievement Test outcome entered on your Certificate of Course Completion.