Lesson 52 · German A1-2

Making Plans with Friends

Sich verabreden

Building a social life is as much a part of settling in Germany as paperwork - inviting someone out, and knowing how to accept or gracefully decline, keeps a conversation moving naturally. This reuses time-telling (Lesson 10) and möchten (Lesson 11) in a social context.

Today's win: invite someone to do something, propose a time, and both accept and decline an invitation politely.

Inviting someone

Hast du morgen Zeit? (Do you have time tomorrow?)
Möchtest du mit mir ins Kino gehen? (Would you like to go to the cinema with me?)
Wollen wir uns treffen? (Shall we meet up? - wollen, Lesson 49)

Proposing a time and place

Wie wäre es um sieben Uhr? (How about seven o'clock?)
Treffen wir uns am Bahnhof? (Shall we meet at the train station? - reusing Lesson 17's vocab)

Accepting

Ja, gerne! (Yes, gladly! - echoes gern from Lesson 21)
Das klingt gut. (That sounds good.)

Declining politely

Leider habe ich keine Zeit. (Unfortunately I don't have time.)
Ich kann leider nicht, aber vielleicht ein anderes Mal? (I can't unfortunately, but maybe another time? - reusing können, aber; Lessons 11, 26)

leider ("unfortunately") is the standard softening word for any decline - dropping it makes a "no" sound noticeably blunter in German than in English.

Try it out loud: invite someone to something with a proposed time, then practice both responses - accepting once, and politely declining once with a reason.

Quick recall check

1. "Do you have time tomorrow?" - Hast du morgen ______?

Show answer
Zeit

2. "Yes, gladly!" - Ja, ______!

Show answer
gerne

3. Which word softens a polite decline ("unfortunately")?

Show answer
leider

4. "How about seven o'clock?" - Wie ______ es um sieben Uhr?

Show answer
wäre

5. "Shall we meet up?" - Wollen wir uns ______?

Show answer
treffen

Primary source

Cross-checked against the Goethe-Institut A1 practice materials.

Want to role-play inviting someone to a specific event? Ask your teaching agent to build the dialogue with you.