Beginners' German: Food and drink

# Teil 3

## 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.

## A

In this activity you will practise talking about what kinds of food and drink you like or dislike.

Respond to each question according to the written prompts. You may want to use the transcript to help you. If you wish, repeat the exercise, giving your own personal answers instead of the ones suggested.

Figure 6

Question

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Prompt (a) Sachertorte

Model answer

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Transcript

Question

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Prompt (b) Käse

Model answer

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Question

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Prompt (c) Kaffee

Model answer

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Question

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Prompt (d) Tee mit Zitrone

Model answer

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Question

## 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. 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.

## B

Listen to Herr Schuster and Frau Georg talking about what they like to eat and drink. Then decide which words from the list below would fit the gaps in the six statements to indicate how much they like or dislike certain things. You can then check your answer using the transcript.

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Transcript

gern • nicht gern • sehr gern • gar nicht gern • besonders gern • überhaupt nicht gern

- Herr Schuster
- 1 Ja, ich trinke _________ Apfelsaft.
- 2 Ich esse _________ Käse.
- 3 Müsli esse ich _________ !

- Frau Georg
- 4 Nein, ich trinke _________ Kaffee.
- 5 Ich koche _________ griechisch.
- 6 Ich arbeite _________ im Restaurant.

## C

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

- Vokabeln
- das Gemüse vegetables

Thomas isst nicht gern Gemüse.

Er isst sehr gern Obst.

Er isst besonders gern Pfirsiche.

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

## 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).

## D

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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Transcript

OpenLearn - Beginners' German: Food and drink
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