Maria Strauß goes to the bank to withdraw some money. She tries to give her details to Herr Klein behind the counter, but he needs to be certain how to spell her name. How does he ask her to do this?
Conversation 8: Die Bank
Maria Strauß Guten Morgen. Mein Name ist Maria Strauß.
Herr Klein Wie buchstabiert man das?
Maria Strauß Das buchstabiert man: großes s, t, r, a, u, scharfes s.
Herr Klein Bitte wiederholen Sie das, langsam.
Maria Strauß Großes s, t, r, a, u, scharfes s.
Glossary
die Bank the bank
Wie buchstabiert man das? How do you spell that?
Das buchstabiert man... It's spelt...
scharfes s "scharfes s" (literally "sharp s") is the name for the "ß" symbol. It sounds exactly like the "ss" sound.
Bitte wiederholen Sie das, langsam Could you repeat that, slowly?
The pronoun "man" equates to "on" in French, in that it is used when talking about what people in general do - i.e. "one", "you", "they" etc. It takes the third person singular ("er/sie/es") verb endings.
I didn't quite catch that!
There are a number of other useful phrases which you can use if you haven't quite understood and would like somebody to repeat something:
Could you repeat that?
Wie bitte?
("What did you say?")
Noch mal langsam bitte!
("Say that again please, slowly.")
Bitte wiederholen Sie das, langsam.
("Could you repeat that slowly?")
