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Beginners’ German: food and drink
Beginners’ German: food and drink

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3 Likes and dislikes

Language: Expressing likes and dislikes

If you want to say what you like to do in German, you just add gern after the verb (you may also hear people say gerne), and the verb (esse, trinke) stays the same. Think of gern as meaning ‘with pleasure’.

Florian isst Fleisch.Florian eats meat.
Florian isst gern Fleisch. Florian likes to eat meat. (lit. ‘Florian eats with pleasure meat.’)
Anna trinkt Kakao.Anna drinks cocoa.
Anna trinkt gern Kakao. Anna likes to drink cocoa.

To say you like it very much, add sehr gern; to say you don’t like something, add nicht gern.

Ich trinke sehr gern Wein.I like (to drink) wine very much.
Er isst nicht gern Gemüse.He doesn’t like (to eat) vegetables.

Activity 8

In this activity you will practise talking about the food and drink you like or dislike.

There are four audio questions below. Each clip is followed by a text prompt to use in your answer. Use these prompts to answer aloud in a full sentence, before playing the model answer. You may want to use the transcript to help you. If you like, you can repeat the exercise, giving your own personal answers instead of the ones suggested.

Figure 6

Question 1:

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Prompt: Sachertorte

Model answer:

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Question 2:

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Prompt: Käse

Model answer:

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Question 3:

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Prompt: Kaffee

Model answer:

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Question 4:

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Prompt: Tee mit Zitrone

Model answer:

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Skills: Recording yourself

To practise and improve your German fluency and pronunciation you can try recording yourself and comparing your way of speaking with that of the speakers you hear in these materials. There are a number of free online recording tools available – you may have recording software on your computer, or you could use a mobile phone. The best approach to this kind of practice is that you do the speaking activities in these materials and record your responses. Then listen again to your response and re-record until you are happy with it. Finally, listen again to the recording in the activity and compare it with your own recording.

Activity 9

Listen to Herr Schuster and Frau Georg talking about what they like to eat and drink. Make some notes about what they each like/dislike, and how much they like/dislike it. You can check the transcript for any wording.

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Answer

überhaupt nicht gern gar nicht gernnicht gerngernsehr gernbesonders gern
Herr SchusterMüsli essenApfelsaft trinkenKäse essen
Frau Georgim Restaurant arbeitenKaffee trinkengriechisch kochen
  • Vokabeln
  • das Gemüse vegetables

Activity 10

Practise what you have learned about expressing likes and dislikes by writing sentences to say what you and other people like or don’t like, using the cues below. Then write a few more sentences about your own personal preferences.

gern nicht so gern
sehr gern nicht gern
besonders gern überhaupt nicht gern

Beispiel

(Thomas/essen) Gemüse ; Obst ; Pfirsiche

Thomas isst nicht gern Gemüse.

Er isst sehr gern Obst.

Er isst besonders gern Pfirsiche.

  • 1. (Frau Meyer/trinken) Saft ; Wein ; Rotwein
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  • 2. (ich/kochen) italienisch ; mexikanisch ; chinesisch
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  • 3. (wir/essen) Weißbrot ; Krustenbrot ; Vollkornbrot
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  • 4. Und Sie … ? Was essen Sie gern? Was trinken Sie gern? Was kochen Sie gern?
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Answer

  1. Frau Meyer trinkt sehr gern Saft. Sie trinkt gern Wein. Sie trinkt überhaupt nicht gern Rotwein.
  2. Ich koche gern italienisch. Ich koche besonders gern mexikanisch. Ich koche nicht so gern chinesisch.
  3. Wir essen nicht gern Weißbrot. Wir essen gern Krustenbrot. Wir essen sehr gern Vollkornbrot.
  4. Make sure your own sentences have the right verb forms: ich esse, ich trinke, ich koche.

Comment

Notice the letter ß in Weißbrot. This is pronounced like s and is used instead of double- s after long vowel sounds in words like Weißbrot (white bread) and Straße (street).

Activity 11

You have come across quite a few words containing ch in the previous activities, such as Milch and Brötchen. This ch should sound like the ‘h’ in ‘human’. Practise your pronunciation as you listen and repeat what you hear in the recording. You may find it useful to record yourself in order to check that you are distinguishing the German ch from the English sounds ‘sh’ and ‘ck’.

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