Having arrived in Berlin for his conference, Ken McNaught now needs to find his way around in the big city. He knows that his hotel - the "Hotel Ravenna" (marked by an "X" in our diagram) - is in the road called Harbigstrasse which in the Charlottenburg region of Berlin, but he is having trouble finding it.
Whilst in Position 1 on our diagram, standing on the corner of two roads called Waldschulallee and Messedamm, he meets a passer-by (ein Passant) and asks for directions.
Listen to his conversation with the passer-by by clicking either here or on the sound icon at the top of the previous paragraph. You can also click here to find the location of Ken McNaught on a map of Berlin.
wo ist...?---wher is...?
das Hotel---the hotel
entschuldigen Sie bitte---Excuse me please?
Ja, bitte---Another nuance of "bitte"! This time it approximates to "Yes, how may I help?"
wo finde ich...?---"wher can I find...?" The word for "can" is omitted in the German construction.
das Hotel Ravenna---The names of most German hotels follow the word for "hotel".
ach ja, ich weiß oh yes, I know
da gehen Sie bitte...---"You go...". Our old friend "bitte" is added for an extra touch of politeness.
fünfhundert Meter---five hundred metres
geradeaus---"Straight on." Later in the conversation the passer-by will say "immer geradeaus", which equates to "keep straight on" - (literally "always straight on").
die Straße---street; road
rechts---on the right
die nächste Straße rechts---the next road on the right
dann finden Sie...---"Then you will find..." There is no word here for "will" - the present tense can be used in German to translate the immediate future.
auf der rechten Seite "on the right-hand side". In practice this is interchangeable with "rechts".
Wie bitte?---This means "Pardon me?". Never be embarrassed about asking somebody to repeat directions, particularly when you are new to a language!
die nächste rechts---The passer-by does not repeat "Straße" here. As we saw in the previous section, it is clear that the adjective refers back to the feminine noun "street".
viel Spaß---"Enjoy yourself!". The literal meaning is "Much fun!"
