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Saturday, July 2, 2016

How to remember German words for food



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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