Go to the homepage of our German Course Chapter 8: Telephone Calls University of Portsmouth
8.3 Herr Walle Includes sound files!

Click here to listen to the conversation!We move to an office environment for the next three conversations in which a caller attempts to speak to a business partner, only to be unable to do so. Pay close attention to how the callers say that they will ring back, or ask to leave a message.

We will once again encounter some of the characters who we first met in Chapter 1 of our course. Listen to the conversation between the secretary Anna Müller and a business caller by clicking either here or on the sound icon at the top of this paragraph. Click here for a translation of the passage below:

Anna Müller    Telephone    Herr Walle
Anna Müller Schmidt & Co., guten Tag.
Herr Walle Walle, von der Firma Kindt AG, kann ich bitte Herrn Doktor Schmidt sprechen?
Anna Müller Das tut mir Leid. Er ist noch in einer Besprechung. Kann ich Ihnen helfen?
Herr Walle Vielen Dank. Ich rufe später noch mal an. Auf Wiederhören.
Anna Müller Bitte schön. Wiederhören.
  Click here for a translation.

A dancing mobile phone

Co.  This is the abbreviation for the German word for "company". 
die Firma (pl. - Firmen)  company 
AG  An abbreviation for "Aktiengesellschaft". This means a "(public) limited company".
Herrn Doktor Schmidt  When the word for Mr. - "der Herr" - is in the accusative and dative case, it adds an extra "-n", becoming "den Herrn".
sprechen  This means "to speak to". It is an irregular verb.
die Besprechung  meeting
anrufen  This means "to ring up". It is a separable verb.
später later
noch mal  again
Wiederhören  Short for "Auf Wiederhören", which means "Goodbye" on the telephone.

Weiter! Chapter 8.4: Conversation - Herr Döblin


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