Reading Practice: Comprehension and Translation into English - My Neighbourhood

You cannot translate as you read

This module assumes the vocabulary and the grammar. What it teaches is the habit German forces on you and French does not. In German, the important word is often at the end. The verb of a subordinate clause waits there. A separable prefix waits there, ready to change the verb you already translated. So a left-to-right pass, which usually survives in French, will quietly ruin a German sentence. Everything below works on one short paragraph written for this module.

Where the verb goes

English keeps its verb near the subject and leaves it there. German moves it, and the move is grammatical rather than stylistic.

Four things to watch for

Each one appears exactly once in the passage you are about to work on:

Match each phrase to its English

Where is the verb hiding?

Here is the passage, written for this module. Tap the clause whose verb has been pushed to the very end.

• Ich wohne in einer kleinen Stadt neben dem Bahnhof. Es gibt eine Bibliothek und zwei Geschäfte, aber
• kein Schwimmbad
• . Letztes Jahr hat das Kino geschlossen,
• weil es zu wenige Besucher gab
• . Am Wochenende
• kaufe ich mit meiner Mutter in der Innenstadt ein
• , und danach bekommen wir immer ein Eis.

Which verb is not finished?

Same passage. Tap the clause where a small word at the end changes the meaning of the verb.

• Ich wohne in einer kleinen Stadt neben dem Bahnhof. Es gibt eine Bibliothek und zwei Geschäfte, aber
• kein Schwimmbad
• . Letztes Jahr hat das Kino geschlossen,
• weil es zu wenige Besucher gab
• . Am Wochenende
• kaufe ich mit meiner Mutter in der Innenstadt ein
• , und danach bekommen wir immer ein Eis.

Which translation is correct?

How should "danach bekommen wir immer ein Eis" be translated?

• afterwards we always get an ice cream
• afterwards we always become an ice cream
• afterwards we sometimes get an ice cream
• afterwards we got an ice cream

Which would lose marks?

Select the TWO that would cost you marks in a translation.

• Translating bekommen as "become"
• Translating kaufe as "buy" because the ein at the end was missed
• Writing "town centre" rather than "inner city"
• Putting the English verb in its normal English place rather than copying the German order

The words that look helpful

German gives an English speaker a great deal for free, which is why the handful that look free and are not do so much damage. bekommen is to get or receive. To become is werden. das Gift is poison. A gift is das Geschenk. der Chef is the boss. A chef is der Koch. The check that saves you: read your English back. "We become an ice cream" is not something anybody would write, and that is the signal to look the word up rather than trust the resemblance. A false friend is caught by the sentence around it, not by staring at the word.

Order the method

Put the stages of translating a German sentence into a reliable working order.

• Read to the end of the clause before translating any of it
• Find the verb, or verbs: German may put one second and another at the end
• Check whether a separable prefix is sitting at the end of the clause
• Note the small words: kein, immer, zu wenige
• Write a first version that keeps every element
• Reread it as English, and check nothing has been added or lost

In the exam

Three decisions during a German translation. Two of them are about going back rather than pressing on, which is the habit this module is really teaching.

• You reach a comma followed by weil, and you have already translated the first half.
• You translated kaufe as "buy", then noticed an ein sitting at the end of the clause.
• You have written "we become an ice cream" and it looks odd.

Complete the translation

I live in a small town _____ the station. There is a library and two shops, but _____ swimming pool. Last year the cinema _____ because there were too few visitors. At the weekend I _____ in the town centre with my mother, and afterwards we always _____ an ice cream.

Translate it without the cloze

Translate the whole passage into English, without looking back at the cloze. "Ich wohne in einer kleinen Stadt neben dem Bahnhof. Es gibt eine Bibliothek und zwei Geschäfte, aber kein Schwimmbad. Letztes Jahr hat das Kino geschlossen, weil es zu wenige Besucher gab. Am Wochenende kaufe ich mit meiner Mutter in der Innenstadt ein, und danach bekommen wir immer ein Eis."

• Translate every sentence, leaving no gaps, even where a word is uncertain
• Make sure the verb at the end of the weil clause arrives in the right place in your English
• Check the separable prefix has changed the verb it belongs to, and that bekommen has not become "become"
• Read your version back as English, and reword anything you would not actually say