Grundlagen: Beruf und Hobby

Learn to talk about your job and hobbies.

In the article series “Grundlagen”, I’ll show you the basics of German. Suitable for beginners (A0-A1). You’ll find exercises at the end of the article.

In the previous post of this series, I showed you how to greet people in German and ask where they come from. Today, you’ll learn how to ask about their job and hobbies in German.

Berufe 👩‍🎓

As in every language, German has plenty of words for professions (Berufe), and you’ll have to learn the ones that you want to talk about. Below, you find some examples, if your profession is missing, make sure to look it up in a dictionary:

Note that most job titles have male and female forms. Most of the time, the female form is created by addingy the letters “-in” to the end of the word. For example:

• der Polizist - die Polizistin

• der Pilot - die Pilotin

However, sometimes the difference between the male and female form is bigger:

• der Arzt - die Ärztin

• der Anwalt - die Anwältin

• der Feuerwehrmann - die Feuerwehrfrau

Hobbys 🎾

People you meet will also want to know what you do in your free time. Do you like to do sports? Play an instrument? Below, you find some leisure time activities:

Similar to English, activities involving sports or instruments are often used with the word “spielen” (to play). For example “Ich spiele gern Fußball” and “Ich spiele gern Gitarre”. If your favorite activity is not shown in the image above, take some time to look up the German word!

Ok, so now you got some vocabulary on your hands. But how can you use it in a full sentence?

Fragen und Antworten ⁉

This is a list of simple questions that you can use to ask about someones’s job and hobbies. Combined with my earlier post on greetings, you should be able to hold a nice conversation! 👍

• Was bist du von Beruf? - Ich bin … von Beruf.

• Wo arbeitest du? - Ich arbeite in / bei…

• Was studierst du? - Ich studiere…

• Wo studierst du? - Ich studiere in…

• Was machst du gern? - Ich … gern.

The second part of each line (e.g. “Ich bin … von Beruf.”) shows you how to answer the question.

This is an example dialogue:

Jonas: Guten Tag, wie heißt du?

Sarah: Hallo! Ich heiße Sarah. Und du?

Jonas: Ich heiße Jonas. Was bist du von Beruf?

Sarah: Ich bin Ingenieurin von Beruf. Ich arbeite bei Siemens in Berlin. Was bist du von Beruf?

Jonas: Ich bin Arzt.

Sarah: Wo arbeitest du?

Jonas: Ich arbeite im Krankenhaus in Berlin. Was machst du gern?

Sarah: Ich spiele gern Gitarre. Und du?

Jonas: Ich lese gern und höre gern Musik.

🎧 Audio-version of the dialogue: slow and fast.

Hausaufgabe 🖊

It’s your turn! The exercises can help you understand and remember the new expressions. Feel free to share your answers in our facebook group, where we check your text and discuss! 💬

Exercise 1: Use the information from the image above to continue this dialogue:

Luisa: Guten Morgen, wie heißt du?

Stefanie: Guten Morgen! Ich heiße Stefanie, und du?

Luisa: 

Exercise 2: What is your favorite activity? Tell us about your hobbies!

That’s it for today. If you liked this newsletter, subscribe to get new articles straight to your email inbox. See you next time,

Rebecca 👋

---

About me 👩‍🏫

I am Rebecca, an enthusiastic language coach since 2016. I love learning languages, and help other people learn them! As a Duolingo Global Ambassador, I regularly host online-events for German, currently exclusively online. I’m also available as private tutor via preply.

Community 🌍

Stay up to date about the events in my facebook-group! This is also the right place for questions and answers about the German language!

Newsletter 💌

With this newsletter, I want to offer material and ideas to everyone who is in the process of learning German. It will contain explanations of grammar and vocabulary, but also information about German culture and proverbs. For advanced topics, I’ll write the newsletter in German, so you can exercise reading German texts. I hope to publish at least once a week.