this post was submitted on 18 Jan 2026
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Language Learning

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German A1 level Roleplay: experiment topic... Alice calls Hanz and then ..... (lemmy.world)
submitted 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) by dragontamer@lemmy.world to c/languagelearning@sopuli.xyz
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I'm at the level where I must start forming sentences. The best exercise I've found for this is roleplay. So let's make a forum game out of this!!

In character roleplay will be done in German only. Meta-discussion (rules questions, edits, takebacks...) will be done in English only.

Rules:

  1. No AI, make sentences of your own accord. Correct other people's mistakes with your own effort.

  2. Set the topic to sort-by-new. Try to work off the most recent post.

  3. Reply in a thread if you think someone else made a grammar mistake, explain the mistake in English so that we know it is 'out of character's. If making a correction post, please include your rough level (A0, A1, A2, B1, B2, C1, C2, or native).

  4. Wait for either 24 hours before replying to yourself (as the other character), or wait for some human to respond. IE: if two people are logged in at the same time, feel free to keep roleplaying with each other in German.

  5. You may play both roles, as long as you aren't repeatably responding to yourself. (24 hour delay before responding to yourself as per rule #4).

  6. Try to keep the roleplay words to the level of the topic. If A1 is too easy, make a new topic aiming for a higher level.

  7. Start every roleplay with a character name, making it clear 'who is talking'.

Roleplay situation: Alice has just called Hanz, and Hanz has picked up the phone. Alice wants to invite Hanz and hang out over the weekend. Try to figure out the time and schedule of each other in German.

I'll start with

Hanz:Hallo. Ich bin Hanz.

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[–] dragontamer@lemmy.world 2 points 2 days ago

Could you tell me what the English sentence/meaning was that you had in your mind and wanted to translate? If it’s something along the line of “I like going to the theater on weekends, despite Hamilton being too expensive!” then disregard everything below this point.

However, if your intention was something more like: “I’d like to go to the theater this weekend, but Hamilton is too expensive!”, let me know, then I have some additional thoughts on the sentence.

The second paragraph is indeed what I was aiming to say. However, the subjunctive mood ("I'd like to...") is seemingly above-and-beyond A1 or maybe even A2 level. I could of course study subjunctive mood and build such a sentence... but I'd be leaving the bounds of this exercise (A1+ level roleplay).

So my priority is to "Stay within A1, maybe A2-" (meaning not to use the subjunctive mood).

I guess that means I'm "forced" to accept the former (ie: first quoted paragraph) meaning as the true meaning. If only because of the skill-level issue. I'm having enough trouble with simple-past and indicitive as it is!

Hans:

Ich gehe gern in das Theater am Wochenende, obwohl Hamilton zu teuer ist! Hamilton kostet über 500€! Welche Theaterstücke sind billiger?