Was isst du gern? 🥑

October 9, 2022November 10, 2022 Roslyn Green Quizzes, Vocabulary Beginner Learners, Deutsch als Fremdsprache, Essen, Food, Quizzes, Year 8 German

What do you like to eat?

Posted by Roslyn Green in October 2022

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Worksheet: Was isst du gern?

Key Verbs

Simple Sentences:

Ich esse gern Schokolade. → I like eating chocolate.
Esst ihr gern Suppe? → Do you like eating soup?
Wann isst du Frühstück? → When do you eat breakfast?

Key Verb: essen – to eat

Note: The verb essen is a vowel-changing verb. This means that for du and er/sie/es, the stem vowel changes from e to i.

ich esse

du isst

er / sie / es isst

wir essen

ihr esst

sie essen

Simple Sentences

Ich trinke gern Mineralwasser. – I like drinking mineral water.
Trinkst du lieber Tee oder Kaffee? – Do you prefer to drink tea or coffee?
Er trinkt keine Milch. – He doesn’t drink milk.

Key Verb: trinken – to drink

Note: The verb trinken is completely regular in the present tense.

ich trinke

du trinkst

er / sie / es trinkt

wir trinken

ihr trinkt

sie trinken

Simple Sentences

Ich mag gern Süßigkeiten. – I like sweets.
Was magst du lieber auf deinem Brot, Käse oder Schinken? – What do you prefer on your bread, cheese or ham?
Er mag am liebsten Vollkornbrot. – He likes wholemeal bread best.

Key Verb: mögen – to like

Note: The verb mögen is irregular in both its stem and its endings. So you need to learn the conjugation by heart. Notice in particular that there is no -t ending on the er / sie / es person.

ich mag

du magst

er / sie / es mag

wir mögen

ihr mögt

sie mögen

Questions and Answers

Frühstück | Breakfast

Question / Frage:

Was isst du zum Frühstück? – What do you eat for breakfast?

Answer / Antwort:

Normalerweise esse ich Müsli mit Joghurt und Milch. Ich trinke immer eine Tasse Kaffee. – Usually I eat muesli with yoghurt or milk. I always drink a cup of coffee.

So früh am Morgen esse ich lieber nicht. – I prefer not to eat so early in the morning.

Mittagessen | Lunch

Question / Frage:

Was isst du zu Mittag? / Was isst du zum Mittagessen? – What do you eat for lunch?

Answer / Antwort:

Zu Mittag esse ich ein Brötchen oder ein Sandwich.– I eat a bread roll or a sandwich for lunch.

Abendessen | Dinner

Question / Frage:

Was esst ihr zu Abend? / Was esst ihr zum Abendessen? – What do you eat for dinner? (referring here to more than one person)

Answer / Antwort:

Zum Abendessen essen wir gern Hähnchen, Nudeln oder Pizza. – We like to eat chicken, pasta or pizza for dinner.

Quizzes and Activities

A Pin and Label Quiz with Speaking Clues: Deutsches Essen A-Z | German Food A-Z

Actually, there isn’t a food for every letter. It was hard to fit 26 pictures on the screen. All the same, this is an easy way to learn many key nouns for food. The pins are colour-coded: masculine | feminine | neuter. So you will learn the genders as well.

Quiz: Was isst du zum Frühstück? | What do you eat for breakfast?

First, revise your memory for breakfast foods. The letter labels are colour-coded according to noun gender: masculine | feminine | neuter.

Then practise using the correct wording for asking and answering questions about breakfast.

Worksheet: This quiz reworked as a PDF

Quiz: Was isst du zu Mittag? | Was isst du zu Abend?

Learn the names of some essential lunch and dinner foods. The letter labels are colour-coded according to noun gender: masculine | feminine | neuter | plural.

Then focus on the conjugation of the verb mögen and practise using the correct wording for asking and answering questions about lunch and dinner.

Verb Quizzes 📖

September 26, 2022November 10, 2022 Roslyn Green Deutsch als Fremdsprache, German as a Foreign Language, Quizzes, Verbs Future Tense, haben, kommen, Modal Verbs, Present Tense, Regular Conjugation, sein, sprechen, Verbs, Vowel-Changing Verbs, werden, wohnen

Essential Verb Practice

Posted by Roslyn Green in September 2022

The quizzes below provide practice with conjugating essential verbs, mastering regular conjugation, tackling the vowel-changing verbs, using the modal verbs, and finally, constructing four types of sentences.

Quiz: Conjugating and using sein – the verb to be

Learn the conjugation of this crucial verb and practise using it correctly in sentences.

Quiz: Conjugating and using haben – the verb to have

Learn the conjugation of this crucial verb and practise using it correctly in sentences.

Quiz: Two Important Verbs: haben (to have) and sein (to be)

Revisit the conjugation of both haben and sein and use the verbs in sentences.

Quiz: Using Three Verbs – kommen, wohnen and sprechen

Revise your knowledge of these three important verbs.

Quiz: Regular Verbs and Their Endings

Master the regular endings so that you can use thousands of verbs and nail every one.

Explanation: Regular Verb Conjugation

Crossword: Regular Verbs in German

Practise the regular endings of wohnen, kommen, machen, spielen and finden.

Explanation: Regular Verb Conjugation

Quiz: A Predictable Pattern: The Vowel-Changing Verbs

Practise using verbs like fahren, schlafen and lesen, which have a sneaky little mutated vowel in their stem.

Explanation: Vowel-Changing Verbs

Quiz: Conjugating werden and using it as a stand-alone verb

This quiz will allow to practise the conjugation of werden in both a conjugation table and in example sentences.

Explanation: werden

Quiz: Using Two Key Modal Verbs

Conjugate können and müssen and use them in sentences.

Explanation: Modal Verbs

Quiz: Four Sentence Patterns for Talking About Everyday Life

Explanations: Present | werden | Perfect | Modal Verbs

Using Capitals in German – With the Help of an Elf 🔠

September 19, 2022November 10, 2022 Roslyn Green German as a Foreign Language, Grammar, Quizzes Capitalisation, Capitals, Dobby Quiz, Grammar, Nouns, Year 7 German

Jump straight to a Dobby quiz

Posted by Roslyn Green in September 2022

der Hauself – the house elf

Dobby is not just a free elf. He is also a noun.

die Nase – the nose

Dobby hat eine lange, spitze Nase. – Dobby has a long, pointy nose.

The parts of his elvish body are common nouns and must be capitalised in German.

das Auge – the eye

Dobby hat auch große Augen. – Dobby also has large eyes.

Common nouns are always capitalised in German, along with all other nouns.

So this is how German capitalisation rules look in an English text:

The young Girl sat in the Courtyard reading a Book. She had a sweet, kindly Face, with dark brown Eyes and long black Hair. To the shy Boy, she seemed almost to glow in the Sunshine.
Although she was in his Class, he scarcely dared to approach her. For one Thing, she was deeply absorbed in her Homework, looking up Words in her Dictionary.
Then suddenly she saw him and gave him a Smile. She was wearing Braces.
“At least her Teeth aren’t perfect,” he thought with Relief. “And she has lots of Freckles on her Nose.“
It was actually those friendly Freckles that finally gave the Boy the Courage to speak.

OK, it’s a sappy English love story in the making, but the noun capitalisation is pure German.

Words Requiring a Capital in German

The names of countries: Deutschland, Neuseeland, Australien, China
The names of languages: Deutsch, Englisch, Chinesisch
The names of cities: Berlin, München, Melbourne
People’s names (but not the first person subject pronoun, ich)
Common nouns relating to everyday concepts and objects: das Handy (mobile phone), der Geburtstag (birthday), die Idee (idea), etc.

A word is always a noun if:

it can have der, die or das placed before it – or any other form of the definite article.
it can have ein, eine or einen placed before it – or any other form of the indefinite article.
it can be possessed, as indicated by a possessive term like mein, dein, etc.
it can be counted – e.g. 20 books, 20 Bücher
it can be described with an adjective – e.g. a free elf, ein freier Elf

A Quiz to Practise German Capitalisation

Quiz: Capitalising Nouns in German – With Dobby’s Help

A short story of Dobby’s life: find the missing capitals (quiz embedded below)

Taming the Vowel-Changing Verbs 🦁

September 12, 2022November 10, 2022 Roslyn Green German as a Foreign Language, Grammar, Quizzes, Verbs Beginner Learners, Deutsch als Fremdsprache, Quizzes, Verben mit Vokalwechsel, Vowel-Changing Verbs, Year 7 German, Year 8 German

Dealing with the Vowel-Changing Verbs in German

Posted by Roslyn Green, September 2022

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Bildlexikon – Picture Dictionary

helfen – to help

Er hilft seinem Freund.

→ He helps his friend.

fahren – to drive, ride, travel

Er fährt gern BMX.

→ He likes riding a BMX.

essen – to eat

Sie isst gern Eis.

→ She likes eating ice cream.

lesen – to read

Das Kind liest mit einer Taschenlampe.

→ The child is reading with a torch.

Non-Conformist Verbs

The vowel-changing verbs in German remind me of children who misbehave, but only at certain predictable times, like toddlers who always throw a tantrum at the supermarket checkout.

If you focus on when these verbs fail to follow the normal rules, you will be able to use them with ease.

These verbs only “break the rules” in the second and third person singular. Otherwise they are utterly regular, predictable and conformist. They retain the normal endings for regular German verbs; they just have that little vowel mutation in their stem in the second and third person singular.

In English we have a couple of verbs that act like this too. For instance, “I say” becomes “he says” (sez); “I do” becomes “she does” (duz).

Below is a short list of some common verbs that are affected by this little quirk, along with a quiz that will help you to tame them.

**Er schläft tief und fest. – He sleeps deeply.**

Vowel Change: a becomes ä in…

tragen – to wear, to carry (du trägst, er/sie/es trägt)
fahren – to drive, to travel (du fährst, er/sie/es fährt)
schlafen – to sleep, (du schläfst, er/sie/es schläft)

Vowel Change: e becomes ie in…

sehen – to see (du siehst, er/sie sieht)
lesen – to read (du liest, er/sie liest)

Vowel Change: e becomes i in…

nehmen – to take (du nimmst, er/sie nimmt)
helfen – to help (du hilfst, er/sie hilft)
essen – to eat (du isst, er/sie isst)
sprechen – to speak (du sprichst, er/sie spricht)

For a longer list of the most useful stem-changing verbs, go to this German website. In German, the term for these verbs is Verben mit Vokalwechsel.

You may also like to watch this simple explanation from Deutschlernen mit Heidi on YouTube.

Online Activities

Quiz: A Predictable Pattern: The Vowel-Changing Verbs

(embedded below ↓)

Audio-Quiz: Am Wochenende mache ich gern nichts

Practise conjugating the vowel-changing verbs in a fairly challenging text about a laid-back teenager. The audio is embedded in the quiz and was kindly recorded by Carolina Seez.