6.4 Der Hauptbahnhof

After his visit to the zoo, Ken McNaught now returns to the new Berlin central station (der Hauptbahnhof), which was opened on 28 May 2006. He goes to the travel centre (das Reisezentrum) to book a ticket to Kassel, a town in the Bundesland of Hesse in the middle of Germany. You can listen to Ken's converation in the travel centre by clicking either here or on the sound icon at the top of the previous paragraph. You can also:

 

der Bahnhof---The station

der Hauptbahnhof---The central station

das Reisezentrum---The travel centre

die Abfahrtstafel---The departure board 

einmal---"One ticket". It literally means "once".

nach Kassel---The preposition "nach" always takes the dative case. You should use it when you are travelling to a town or country - provided that the country is neuter.

einfach...---This means "single" as in a "single ticket". As we have seen earlier, the literal meaning of the word is "simple".

...oder hin und zurück? "...or return?" Literally: "there and back".

die Klasse---class

erster oder zweiter Klasse---This means "first or second class". Note the endings on the ordinal numbers.

die BahnCard---A BahnCard from the German railway company Deutsche Bahn entitles you to substantial reductions on the entire German rail network and on most regional buses for the duration of one year.

die Fahrkarte---The ticket 

ohne---This preposition meaning "without" always takes the accusative case.

halb zehn---This means "half-past nine" and not "half-past ten". See Chapter 8.

ungefähr---approximately

fahren---This means "to go", when you are not travelling by foot. It is an irregular verb.

der Zug---train

pünktlich---punctually 

Fährt der Zug pünktlich?---Is the train on time?

selbstverständlich---of course

das Gleis---This means "platform" when you are asking from which platform a train departs. In fact, "das Gleis" literally means the railway track itself.

von welchem Gleis? from which platform?

der ICE-Zug---An "ICE train". "ICE" stands for InterCity Express.

der RegionalExpress---A "regional express train". This is a stopping train, but it is faster than you might assume.

der Zuschlag---A "supplement". You have to pay a supplementary charge to travel on an ICE train. But as Ken's train is not an ICE, the official informs him that there is no supplement to pay.

direkt---direct; directly 

der Zug fährt direkt---"This is a direct train". Literally: "This train travels directly".

ankommen---This means "to arrive". The verb "ankommen" is a separable verb, a type of verb which will be discussed in detail on Page 6 of this chapter.

Wann kommt der Zug in Kassel an?---When does the train arrive in Kassel?

um elf Uhr dreizehn---at 11:13