It's hard to break old habits of speech when you are learning to pronounce words in German that you already knew before, such as many place names. It can take a while to change the pronunciation that you learned a long time ago in your native language. Such may be the case with the capital city of Germany, Berlin.

In English, "Berlin" is pronounced bur-LIN. The first part sounds like "brr," when you are cold, and it's certainly a cold enough place in winter. The second part rhymes with "win" and is the stressed syllable. You probably pronounce it this way already, though if you happen to come from Berlin, Connecticut or Berlin, New Hampshire, you might naturally put slightly more emphasis on the first syllable. Don't do that if you are talking about bur-LIN, Germany!

Ironically, a number of Germans I know, when they are speaking English, mispronounce the English pronunciation of Berlin as BURR-lin. Maybe they're trying to sound more American with the heavy emphasis on the R, but I usually don't have the heart to correct them. In the following video, a male American student says "Berlin" with the American pronunciation, followed by his female native German teacher saying "Berlin" with a proper German pronunciation:

„Wenn ich Urlaub habe, gehe ich nach Berlin... -nach Berlin." Gut.

"When I am on vacation I go to Berlin... -to Berlin." Good.

„Nach Berlin." -„Gehe ich nach Berlin", ja.

"To Berlin." -"I go to Berlin," yes.

Captions 64-65, Deutschkurs in Tübingen - Nebensätze als Satzanfang

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In German, of course, "Berlin" is pronounced very differently. The first syllable sounds like "bear" and the second syllable like "lean": bear-LEAN. Of course, the bear (der Bär) is the symbol of Berlin! The German teacher above is in Southern Germany, but in Northern Germany and especially in Berlin, people tend to emphasize the "i," sounding more like bur-LEEEN :

Aber seit ich in Berlin lebe,

But since I've lived in Berlin,

arbeite ich als Kellnerin und Barista in Cafés.

I've worked as a waitress and barista in cafés.

Caption 16, Berlin - Judith und die „Brezel Bar“

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Das ist tatsächlich ein Hotel in Berlin mit einem ganz verrückten Konzept.

This is, in fact, a hotel in Berlin with a completely crazy concept.

Caption 2, Berlin - Indoor-Camping im „Hüttenpalast“

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Kommst du auch aus Hamburg?

Do you also come from Hamburg?

Nee, aus Berlin.

No, from Berlin.

Captions 33-34, Großstadtrevier - Nicht mit mir - Part 4

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Du kommst gar nicht aus Berlin.

You're not from Berlin at all.

Caption 24, Großstadtrevier - Nicht mit mir - Part 5

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Further Learning
Go to Yabla German and search for videos about Berlin. You can also watch the music video of the song "Berlin" by the 1980s German punk band Ideal. The chorus repeats Ich steh auf Berlin, which means "I like Berlin." It shows a lot of street scenes and demonstrations from the early 1980s West Berlin, when the city was much rougher than it is today!

This week, we'll continue our work on travel vocabulary. The last lesson looked at words related to booking and traveling to a destination, so let's pick up there, and continue with types of accommodation.

When you book a trip, there's the question of both die Hinreise (the outward journey) and die Rückreise (the return journey). Depending on your mode of travel, you may instead talk about die Hinfahrt and die Rückfahrt for bus or train travel, or der Hinflug and der Rückflug for a flight. You can also say die einfache Fahrt for a single ticket, and der Gabelflug for a trip with multiple stops. Most of the time, however, you will be booking a round trip ticket:

Hin- und Rückfahrt kosten fünfzig Euro, und du musst nicht umsteigen.

A round trip costs fifty euros, and you don't have to change trains.

Caption 22, Nicos Weg: Bahnreisen

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Part of planning your trip is selecting accommodation (die Unterkunft), which is generally based on your chosen destination and budget:

Mit Hotel, Jugendherberge und Kapelle ist das achthundert Jahre alte Hospiz heute das Tor ins Innergschlöß.

With a hotel, youth hostel, and chapel, the eight-hundred-year-old former hospice is today the gateway to Innergschlöß.

Captions 26-27, Die letzten Paradiese: Die Schönheit der Alpen 2

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...und vor allen Dingen mit dem Komfort einer Ferienwohnung.

...and, above all else, with the comfort of a vacation home.

Caption 11, Glamping: Camping mit Stil

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Hierzulande hat zwar noch nicht jeder Campingplatz den Glamping-Faktor, aber schon im kommenden Jahr soll es in Deutschland soweit sein.

Here in Germany, admittedly, not every campground has this "glamping" factor, but it should already be available in Germany in the coming year.

Captions 34-35, Glamping: Camping mit Stil

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You will have to choose whether you require ein Einzelzimmer, ein Doppelzimmer, or ein Mehrbettzimmer, which is more often found at youth hostels and may involve bunk beds. At some types of accommodation, you can choose between die Halbpension, which includes breakfast and dinner, and die Vollpension, which includes all meals. More common, however, is a simple Übernachtung mit Frühstück. 

Für ein Einzelzimmer zahlt man siebzig Euro die Nacht.

For a single room you pay seventy euros a night.

Caption 32, Berlin: Indoor-Camping im „Hüttenpalast“

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Inklusive Halbpension, die Ihre Frau selber kocht.

Including half board, which your wife cooks herself.

Caption 54, heute-show Schule, Geschäfte, Urlaub: Leben in Zeiten von Corona

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In Germany, you may also find consider die Pension or das Gästehaus, which are generally smaller and less formal than a hotel. Of course, there is at least one mode of travel that eliminates the question of where to stay:

Mit dem Wohnmobil durch Luxemburg zu fahren bedeutet inzwischen, sich entscheiden zu müssen.

Driving through Luxembourg in a motorhome means having to make decisions these days.

Captions 31-32, Reisebericht: Luxemburg

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Further Learning

In addition to watching travel videos on Yabla German, go to a German booking website and do a casual search for flights and hotels in order to see the vocabulary above used in context. For an even more advanced exercise, have a look at this article on unusual places to stay in Germany. 

Like English, 45% of which comes from French or Latin language sources, German has many French loan words or Gallicisms. If you can learn to recognize words in your native English as having a French origin, there is a fair chance that they are used in German. 

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In last week's lesson, we took a look at some of the more commonly used German words with a French origin. These have obvious French word endings such as -ment, -ion, or -age. This week, let's take a look at some more French-derived words in German that also have English counterparts.

Vor genau sechsundsechzig Jahren befreite die Rote Armee die Überlebenden des Nazi-Vernichtungslagers Auschwitz.

Exactly sixty-six years ago the Red Army liberated the survivors of the Nazi extermination camp Auschwitz.

Captions 1-2, Holocaust-Gedenktag - Gespräch mit jüdischen Schülern

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The German word for "army," die Armee, comes from the French word armée. Note that the German capitalizes the noun as per German grammar rules and has dropped the accented letter E. 

„Die Süßigkeit“ ist etwas Süßes: Gummibär, Kaugummi, Bonbon.

"Candy" is something sweet: a gummy bear, a [piece of] chewing gum, a bonbon.

Caption 6, Deutschkurs in Tübingen - Verben der 3. Kategorie - Part 2

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The German Bonbon can be the masculine der but is most commonly the neuter das. The French bonbon is literally "good good," from what a child might say when they see some candy!

Aktualisieren Sie bitte das Budget.

Please update the budget.

Caption 47, Berufsleben - das Vorstellungsgespräch

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Das Budget is the same word "budget" in French and English as well, though the French and German both render the T silent.

Ein bisschen Weihnachtsdekoration, so Engel... -Dekoration, ja.

A little bit of Christmas decoration, such angels... -Decoration, yes.

Captions 22-23, Unterwegs mit Cettina - auf dem Bruchsaler Weihnachtsmarkt

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The word "decoration" in English is closer to the French décoration, but then most hard C sounds in German utilize the letter K!

Das ist tatsächlich ein Hotel in Berlin mit einem ganz verrückten Konzept.

This is, in fact, a hotel in Berlin with a completely crazy concept.

Caption 2, Berlin - Indoor-Camping im „Hüttenpalast“

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The French word hôtel is spelled with a circumflex accent on the O, and of course pronounced entirely differently.

Ich bin bei der Firma SAC Applikations-Ingenieur.

I am an applications engineer for the company SAC.

Caption 2, Bildverarbeitung - Sirius Advanced Cybernetics in Pforzheim

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The German der Ingenieur provides another fairly rare example of the soft G pronunciation in German. It's spelled nearly the same as the French ingénieur. 

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Further Learning
As a general rule, French words found in German are spelled the same, or nearly the same, as the French words found in English, but are pronounced in a German manner and written according to German grammatical rules—with nouns capitalized, for example. Take a look at this list of Gallicisms in German and go to Yabla German to find other real-world examples of the words used in videos.

One of my favorite German words took me a long time to learn to pronounce and even longer to properly understand. The word beziehungsweise not only has a fairly complex meaning, but it is also so long that in most cases people abbreviate the written form as bzw. 

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Often beziehungsweise is translated simply as "or": 

Einen Wohnwagen beziehungsweise eine Hütte bekommt man ab

You get a trailer or a hut from

fünfundfünfzig Euro.

fifty-five euros.

Caption 33, Berlin - Indoor-Camping im „Hüttenpalast“

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So why not simply say oder ("or") instead of the longer beziehungsweise? One reason is that the latter often goes more in-depth than just saying "or."  You may want to rent either a trailer or a hut, or perhaps both a trailer and hut. Beziehungsweise is thus often translated as "respectively" too:

Sobald beziehungsweise

As soon as, or respectively,

erst wenn der Antrag gemäß Artikel fünfzig

only when the motion in accordance with Article Fifty

der EU-Verträge vorliegt.

of the EU Treaties is submitted.

Captions 17-18, Brexit-Votum - Merkel warnt vor Spaltung Europas

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Sometimes beziehungsweise is used to narrow down a meaning and in this case is translated as "more specifically": 

Damit man dieses Geld auch bekommt,

In order to receive this money,

benötigt man ein Bankkonto beziehungsweise ein Girokonto.

you need a bank account, more specifically a checking account.

Captions 7-8, Eva erklärt - Bankkonten

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Further Learning
So whether you are learning German for fun or (beziehungsweise) for business — perhaps both, right? — this is a good word to have in your active vocabulary. Although it is not usually translated as such, for me it helped to think of the word as the "and/or" that you sometimes see in English. Take a look at examples  of beziehungsweise in context on Yabla German.