Beginners' German: Food and drink

A useful strategy for memorising nouns is to learn the words in connection with pictures until you can cover the words and name each of the items with its correct article using just the picture.

In the first activity you came across some of the German articles der, die, das (the). Here is how they work:

These articles identify the grammatical gender of a noun. All German nouns have a grammatical gender. They are either masculine, feminine or neuter. Sometimes the gender is predictable, for example the word for man, Mann, is masculine and the word for woman, Frau, is feminine. But this is not true for a lot of nouns. They just happen to be either masculine or feminine or neuter. The article for each gender is different. The German for ‘the’ can be either der, die or das depending on the gender of the noun. Similarly, the German for ‘a/an’ can be ein or eine depending on the gender.

You can also see that all German nouns begin with a capital letter. Note that you may come across articles other than the ones above.

Figure 2

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Photograph of a man and woman having breakfast

Figure 2

Did you notice that none of the interviewees in the audio clip mentioned a cup of tea? Although the couple pictured here are drinking tea, coffee is much more popular at breakfast time. Slices of cold meat or slicing sausage (Aufschnitt, Wurst), ham (Schinken) and cheese (Käse) are also very common breakfast foods, as well as hard-boiled eggs (gekochte Eier) and Marmelade, which is not just marmalade (Orangenmarmelade) but any kind of jam.

Here is a list of German pronouns.

Note that sie with a small ‘s’ means ‘she’ and also ‘they’. Sie with a capital ‘S’ means ‘you’. There are several ways of saying ‘you’ in German (du, ihr and Sie) but Sie is the most useful for talking to German-speaking people when you meet them.

Here is the present tense of the irregular verb essen (to eat) and the regular verb trinken (to drink). You will see that the ending of the verb changes depending on whether it follows ich, du etc. Only the second and third person singular (du and er/sie/es) forms of essen are irregular, with a change in the vowel sound.

You may have heard Frau Vogt say that she liked to eat Vollkornbrötchen (wholemeal rolls). She also said, ‘ Bei uns gibt es verschiedene Brotsorten.’ Over 300 different varieties of bread are produced in Germany, with many regional specialities. These include various types of Schwarzbrot (wholegrain rye bread), crusty bread from the Black Forest (Schwarzwälder Krustenbrot), dark rye bread from Westphalia (Westfälischer Pumpernickel), and many varieties of bread roll (Brötchen), which are known as Schrippen in and around Berlin, Semmeln or Weckerl in southern Germany and Austria, and Rundstücke in northern Germany.

Figure 4

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Photograph of a display of bread and cakes in a café

Figure 4

You might like to try the following strategy for learning new words and phrases:

1. Look at the word or phrase.
2. Check its pronunciation using recordings, if available.
3. Speak it out loud.
4. Cover the text.
5. Speak it out loud again.
6. Write it down from memory.
7. Check your spelling.

If you want a really challenging word to learn, try Frühstücksbüffet!

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’.

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

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.

The three main meals (Hauptmahlzeiten) are das Frühstück, das Mittagessen and das Abendessen. Although some working patterns make it more convenient to have a hot meal in the evening, traditionally the main cooked meal in Germany, Austria and Switzerland is taken at lunchtime, with the evening meal often consisting of bread with a selection of cheeses, cold cooked meats and salads, hence the alternative name of das Abendbrot.

There are many different regional names for snack times between meals (Zwischenmahlzeiten). These include die Brotzeit in Bavaria, die Jause in Austria and das z’Nüni in Switzerland.

In many parts of Germany there is a tradition known as der Frühschoppen, where locals get together in a bar or inn (das Wirtshaus) after church on a Sunday morning for a chat over a glass of beer or wine. As regular customers, they will often have a table (der Stammtisch) which is always reserved for them.

Man is often translated into English as ‘one’. When you are talking about people in general in English, you might say ‘you’, ‘they’ or ‘people’ rather than the formal-sounding ‘one’, but man doesn’t have the same formal ring to it in German. Compare the following sentences, for example:

To talk about what is on offer at certain places, you can combine man with kann:

The verb used with man takes the same verb form as with er/sie/es (e.g. man isst, man kann).

You may be asked Möchten Sie …? (Would you like …?) to establish what you would like. To respond, use the verb form ich möchte (I would like) or wir möchten (we would like).

Möchten Sie etwas zu essen bestellen? Would you like to order something to eat?

As you listen to these expressions in the recordings, pay particular attention to the ö and ch sounds and try to copy them.

Having coffee and cakes (Kaffee und Kuchen) with friends in a café or at home is a very popular way to take a late afternoon break in German-speaking countries. Some cafés specialise in what could be called the fourth meal of the day, serving coffee and a range of delicious cakes, such as cheesecake (Käsekuchen) or Austrian chocolate cake (Sachertorte). When visiting friends in the afternoon you may be offered a cup of coffee (eine Tasse Kaffee) and a piece of cake (ein Stück Kuchen). Notice that in these expressions there is no German equivalent for the English ‘of’.

Figure 9

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Photograph of a Sachertorte cake and a cup of coffee

Figure 9

When you are offered something you tend to say more than just ja and nein, for example ‘yes, please’ (ja, bitte) or ‘no, thank you’ (nein, danke). Danke on its own in this context is usually understood to mean nein, danke.

In the audio clip in Activity 15 you may have noticed that the waitress used bitte schön in two different ways. First she used the phrase as a question: Bitte schön? meaning ‘Yes, please?’ to ask what the customers wanted. Later she said Bitte schön meaning ‘Here you are’ as she served the items.

There is a third situation where Bitte schön commonly occurs: in response to Danke schön it means ‘Don’t mention it’ or ‘You’re welcome’. Listen out for these three uses of Bitte schön and take particular note of the intonation used in each case.

You have heard some of the numbers from 1 to 100 in the recordings. Here are the numbers 1–10 in writing:

The numbers from 11 to 20 are very similar to English:

From 20 onwards, numbers follow a regular pattern:

Note how you say ‘one-and-twenty’ in German rather than ‘twenty-one’.

Figure 11

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Photograph of a snack stand in a busy street. The sign on it says Wiener Würstl

Figure 11

You can buy different sausages, such as Bockwurst, Bratwurst and Currywurst, throughout the German-speaking countries in snack bars (Imbissbuden), and there are over 40 different regional varieties of Bockwurst alone. The sausages may be served in a bread roll (Brötchen), with potato salad (Kartoffelsalat), Sauerkraut or chips (Pommes frites or Fritten), and of course a little mustard (Senf).

Snack bars may be located in a mobile stand, a kiosk or a small shop, and many take the form of a Stehcafé or Stehimbiss, which provides no seating, just a few tall tables that customers can stand at while they eat their snacks. The Austrian Würstlstand pictured here is in Vienna (Wien).

Continue to review numbers until you feel confident to use and understand them. Whenever you see phone numbers, statistics, and so on, try to say the number to yourself in German. Write down some large numbers, record yourself saying them out loud, come back later to listen and write them down, then compare what you’ve written with the original list.

The German and the English languages are very closely related. You will notice this in the large number of words that are either spelled the same, as in Computer, Radio, Taxi or Institution, or where words are very similar in spelling and pronunciation, as in Wein, Glas, Haus, Lampe, trinken.

However, there are also many other cultural parallels which can help you understand written German. Using the example of the wine label you will see that wine labels are very similar in German speaking countries and many other countries, with the items printed in identical positions etc. Such similarities also apply to many other contexts in everyday life. Just think of conventions for signs at train or bus stations, road signs, telephone books, emails etc.

So do trust your instincts and look for connections to support your understanding of the German language.