German words are similar to English. German for breakfast, lunch, dinner and dessert? Easy. the first step in learning a word is to recognise the German, when you want to translate from German to English. The second step is to recall the German when you want to translate from English to German.
Breakfast - das Frühstück
How do you remember it is das?
BreakfAst - dAs Frühstück - Remember the capital letter for the noun in German.
The mid-day meal is Mittagessen - (mid day eat) - remember the capital letter for the noun in German
Evening meal - Abendessen - think evening or after eat
Don't muddle it up with dessert which is
dessert - Nachtisch (after table - what goes on the table afterwards, sounds like after dish). Remember the capital letter for German nouns.
I am now working on memory aids for other words used at meal times.
Starter/appetiser
The before the meal food.
Main course
The high point of the meal.
butter
The german word starts with b and looks similar.
beans
The German word starts with b
garlic - like a small knob
mushrooms -
mustard - contains the letter n
onions like a double bell
tasty starts with s like sip or l like lip smacking good
pungent
knife
Don't mess around with a knife said the wife. Messe is knife.
spoon - German word starts with l like lift. Use your spoon to lift your soup.
like and make
make
I was muddling up making and liking. M a c h e n and Magen. (I had to insert spaces because spell check instantly changed the German word to the English word machine.)
The German for make has a ch in the middle. A k is similar to the ch in Scottish loch.
However, the German for like has a g in the middle. Remember 'I think it's magic' - 'I love it' or 'I like it'.
cook
I was mixing up cook and cake. The word for cake ended with n - cooking done and here are cakes.
cake
recipe
I was mixing up recipe and receipt. I am still working on a memory aid.
receipt
Angela Lansbury, author, travel writer and photographer, and English teacher.
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