I . - l L L I Abbreviations AE amerikan.Englisch AmericanEnglish Akk. Akkusativ accusative Adj. Adjektiv adjective Adv. Adverb adverb BE brit.Englisch BritishEnglish dem. demonstrativ demonstrative f feminin feminin Gen. Genitiv genitive indekl. indeklinabel indeclinable Komp. Komparation comparition Konj. Konjunktion conjunction Mod.v. Modalverb modalverb m maskulin masculine n(germancolumn) neutrum neuter n(engl.column) Nomen noun p. Person person PI. PlUral plural Pron. Pronomen pronoun Präp. Präposition preposition 8g. Singular singular v Verb verb V/i. intransitivesVerb intransitiveverb V/refl. reflexivesVerb reflexiveVerb V/t. transitivesVerb transitiveverb rzp. reziprok reciprocal Pronunciation seep.419 LANGENSCHEIDT Basic German Vocabulary A Learner's Dictionary divided into subject categories with examplesentences Edited bythe German as a Foreign Language Department [TI LA NGENSCHEIDT BERLIN.MUNICH .VIENNA .ZURICH .NEWYORK Translation:CarolL.&CharlesJ.James ThespellinginBasicGerman Vocabulary correspondstothe OrthographyReformof1998. © 1991Langenscheidt KG,BerlinandMunich Allrightsreserved.Nopartofthismaterialmaybereproducedinanyform withoutthepermission ofthepublishers. PrintedinGermany .ISBN3-468-49400-9 Contents Whoneedsa"BasicVocabulary"? , VII Whya"BasicVocabulary"? ................................ VII Whyabilingual"BasicVocabulary"? VII WhytheseWords? VIII Howisthe"BasicVocabulary"arranged? , VIII "Langenscheidt'sBasicGermanVocabulary"and"Workbook" , IX Howtoworkwiththe"BasicVocabulary"?..................... X Notes. XI TopicalConcepts 1 TheHumanBeing............................... 1 1.1 TheBody......................................... 1 1.2 Appearance ...................................... 5 1.3 MindandReason.................................. 7 1,4 Character , 12 1.5 PleasantandNeutralEmotions 15 1.6 NegativeEmotions................................. 18 1.7 HealthandIIlness(Seealso:DoctorandHospital5.9)....., 23 1.8 LifeandDeath..................................... 26 2 ActionsandActivities 30 2.1 TheSensesandBodyFunctions ...................... 30 2.2 HygieneandCleanliness , 34 2.3 Doing ........................................... 37 2,4 MovementandRest ................................ 43 2.5 MovingofObjectsandBeings , 49 2.6 GivingandTaking , 51 2.7 HandlingObjectsandBeings , 55 2.8 LearningandKnowledge (Seealso:SchoolandEducation8,4)................... 76 3 LanguageandSpeechIntentions , 85 3.1 General.......................................... 85 3.2 Speech.......................................... 87 3.3 WritingandReading , 91 3,4 Information , 93 3.5 ExpressingOpinions................................ 96 3.6 AcceptanceandRejection ........................... 100 3.7 CertainityandDoubt. ............................... 105 3.8 PositiveEvaluationandNeutrality...................... 112 3.9 NegativeEvaluation ................................ 118 3.10 Wish,Request,Order 120 3.11 CourtesyFormulas,Exclamations,ConversationalFillers ... 124 IV 4 ManandSociety ................................ 126 4.1 Identification...................................... 126 4.2 FamilyandRelatives................................ 128 4.3 SocialTies 134 4.4 Professions. ...................................... 135 4.5 SocialPosition .................................... 140 4.6 PositiveandNeutralSocialBehavior ................... 140 4.7 NegativeSocialBehavior 145 4.8 ContactsandEvents 147 4.9 FateandCoincidence............................... 151 5 EveryDayLife................................... 155 5.1 HouseandApartment............................... 155 5.2 Furnishings....................................... 160 5.3 BasicCommodities 163 5.4 ClothingandJewelry 168 5.5 Meals,Restaurant.................................. 173 5.6 Groceries,Food 176 5.7 FruitsandVegetables 181 5.8 DrinkingandSmoking............................... 183 5.9 DoctorandHospital 186 6 BusinessandAdministration..................... 190 6.1 General.......................................... 190 6.2 StoresandShopping 191 6.3 MoneyandProperty 201 6.4 Work 207 6.5 Postoffice,Telephone 215 6.6 Authorities,Police 219 6.7 Law 222 7 TheArtsandFieldsofInterest 229 7.1 Theater,Film,FineArts 229 7.2 Music 234 7.3 Media 236 7.4 LeisureActivities 239 7.5 Sports 241 8 PublicLife 245 8.1 GovernmentandPolitics 245 8.2 WarandPeace 255 8.3 ChurchandReligion 260 8.4 SchoolandEducation 264 v 9 Environment 269 9.1 City,Town,Village 269 9.2 Landseape 271 9.3 Nature:General. 274 9.4 Animals 279 9.5 Plants 283 9.6 WeatherandClimate 284 10 TeehnologyandMaterials 288 10.1 Teehnology 288 10.2 Materials 292 11 TravelandTraffie 296 11.1 Travel 296 11.2 StreetTraffie 301 11.3 Vehieles 304 11.4 RaH,Plane,Ship 308 12 Countries andPeople 311 12.1 GeographiealNames 312 12.2 Nationalities,Inhabitants,Languages 313 GeneralConcepts 13 Time 316 13.1 DivisionoftheYear 316 13.2 TheNamesoftheMonths 318 13.3 Weekdays 318 13.4 TimesofDay 319 13.5 CloekTime 320 13.6 OtherConeeptsofTime 321 13.6.1 Nouns 321 13.6.2 Verbs 323 13.6.3 Adjeetives 326 13.6.4 Adverbs 328 13.6.5 Prepositions 333 13.5.6 Conjunetions 334 14 Spatial Coneepts 335 14.1 Nouns 335 14.2 Adjeetives 338 14.3 Adverbs 340 14.4 Prepositions 346 VI 15 QuantityandMeasure 348 15.1 ConceptsofOuantity 348 15.2 CardinalNumbers 354 15.3 MeasurementsandWeights 355 16 OrderandReference 358 16.1 Order,Division 358 16.2 OrdinalNumbers 366 17 WaysandMethods,Comparison 368 17.1 WaysandMethods 368 17.2 Degree,Comparison 369 18 Colors 374 19 Forms 375 20 Cause andEffect 377 21 Condition andChange 381 StructureWords 22 Pronouns 383 22.1 PersonalPronouns 383 22.2 ReflexivePronouns 382 22.3 PossessiveAdjectives 387 22.4 DemonstrativeAdjectives 387 22.5 OuestionPronouns,RelativePronouns 388 22.6 IndefinitePronouns 389 23 Conjunctions 391 24 Adverbs 394 Index 396 Pronunciation 419 VII Who needsa"BasicVocabulary"? Anystudentlearningaforeignlanguagemustmasteracertainvocabulary base before he or she can communicate or read in that language. Acquisition of that basevocabulary requiresstudy,often outside ofthe c1assroomsetting. Langenscheidt's Basic GermanVocabulary is designed to facilitate the acquisition of that core vocabulary in the easiest and most efficient manner possible. It is meant for use by beginning learners with no previousknowledgeoftheGermanlanguage,bymoreadvancedstudents as a review and for test preparation,and by anyone as preparationfor pleasureorbusinesstravelintoaGerman-speakingcountry. Those who have successfully worked through Langenscheidt's Basic GermanVocabulary will havethe necessary knowledge to function and communicateinalleverydaysituationsinGerman. Whya"BasicVocabulary"? TheGerman Language,likeanyotherlanguage,iscomprisedofmillions of words,yet 50% of normalspokenandwrittentextsarecomprisedof only66words.Studentsrightfullyask,whichwords do Ihavetolearnin ordertocarry onaneveryday conversationor readatextwrittenforthe averageGermanspeaker? Themagic answerisusually2,000words,i.e.,astudentwhohasmaster edthebasic2,000corevocabularywordshaslearnedthemostimportant wordsused in80% ofallwrittenandoralcommunication. Langenscheidt's "Basic German Vocabulary" contains two times 2,000 words.Thecore2,000wordsarefollowedbyasecondgroupofthe2,000 nextmostfrequentlyusedwordswhichcompriseafurther5%-10%ofall writtenandoralcommunication. The division of the thematically-organized entries into two groups, "1-2,000"and"2,001-4,000",identifiesforthelearnerthosewordswhich should be learned immediately and those which can be reserved for second level learning.Once they have mastered the first 2,000 words, students have the option of increasing their vocabulary over a wide subjectrange,orconcentratingonspecificareasofinterest,suchaslaw, economics,etc. Why abilingual"BasicVocabulary"? Theuseofthetargetlanguagetoteachthelanguageisthenorm inmost programstoday.Usuallyanew word isexplained insimpleGermanand illustratedwithpracticalexamples. Thepracticalteaching situation,however,requiresflexibilityinusingthe native language,especially whendifficult concepts needto be clarified. VIII Therefore,manymonolingualtextbookshavebilingualvocabularylistsor glossaries. Becauseitismeanttobeusedindependentlybythelearnertostudyand review outside class, a text like the Basic Vocabulary must be 100% bilingual.It is not meant to, and should not,replace a regularGerman English/English-Germandictionary whereaIearnercanfind manymore words and definitions, nor a comprehensive grammar text. The Basic Vocabularyisonlymeanttoserveasasupplementforstudyandlearning. Whythesewords? Langenscheidt'sBasicVocabularyselectsthemostimportantwordsfora studenttolearnanduse.TheBasicVocabularyisbasedonevaluationof numerous lists of basicGermanvocabulary published inGermany,Aus tria,Switzerlandandothercountries.Alltheimportantsourcesofinforma tion onwordfrequencyinwritten andspokenGermanwereconsidered. Anexactsourcelistwouldgobeyondthepurposeofthisintroduction.For those interested,we mentionherethevocabularystatistics of Kaeding, Meier,Ortmann,theMannheimerKorpus1and2,the BonnerZeitungs korpus and the minimum vocabulary lists prepared by the Council of Europe,vocabularyforthe"ZertifikatDeutschalsFremdsprache"(Certifi cateofGermanasaForeignLanguage),the"DeutscherVolkshochschul verband"(GermanAdultEducationAssociation)andtheGoetheInstitute. Thechoiceof words was not based onlyonfrequency.Factorssuch as how familiar and useful a word is in everyday conversation were also considered. Langenscheidt's experience in producing dictionaries and teachingmaterialsalsohelped.Thecritical choiceofexamplesentences wasmadebynativespeakersonanoutside ofourregularstaff. How isthe "BasicVoca6ulary"arranged? WordsandexpressionsinLangenscheidt'sBasicVocabularyGermanare arrangedbytopic,notsimplyinalphabeticalorder.Educationalresearch indicatesthattryingtolearnwordsalphabeticallyisnoteffective.Similari ties in orthography lead to confusion and spelling errors.Most impor tantly,wordsareverydifficulttolearnwithoutcontextandtopic.Alphabe tical arrangement can become an obstacleto correct use ina specific thematic situation.Learning basic words insubject areas is easier and moreeffective.Thecontextualrelationshipsamongwordsandthephysi cal proximity of words on the page encourage the development of associationsinmemory.Forallthesereasons,weemphasizelearningin subjectareas.