1.9 Food and Drinks

Table of Contents

Eating and Drinking in Everyday German

In this chapter you meet the basic language you need for food and drinks in everyday situations. You will learn the most useful nouns, some typical adjectives, and important basic verbs that you will later use for ordering and speaking about what you like or do not like.

Meals and Eating Culture

In German, names of meals are very common in daily conversation. They are all nouns, so they are capitalized.

Typical meals are:

German	Article	English	Typical time context
das Frühstück	das	breakfast	morning
das Mittagessen	das	lunch	midday
das Abendessen	das	dinner / supper	evening
die Mahlzeit	die	meal	general word

Many short expressions use these words. You can say:

German expression	English meaning
Ich frühstücke.	I have breakfast.
Ich esse zu Mittag.	I have lunch.
Ich esse zu Abend.	I have dinner.
Guten Appetit!	Enjoy your meal.

In German, all nouns are capitalized, and each meal name has a fixed article:
das Frühstück, das Mittagessen, das Abendessen, die Mahlzeit.

Basic Food Vocabulary

A1 learners need to know the most common types of food. It is important to learn each noun together with its article. Many food words are used without plural in everyday speech when you talk about an unspecified amount, for example: Ich esse Brot.

Bread, pastries, and basic staples

German	Article	English
das Brot	das	bread
das Brötchen	das	bread roll
die Butter	die	butter
der Käse	der	cheese
die Wurst	die	sausage / cold cuts
das Ei	das	egg
der Reis	der	rice
die Nudeln	die (Pl.)	pasta
die Suppe	die	soup

You can combine these words with simple verbs like essen (to eat) or trinken (to drink) that you know or will learn in other chapters. For example: Ich esse Brot. Ich esse ein Ei.

Fruit and vegetables

Fruit and vegetables are very common in simple dialogues about shopping or eating.

German	Article	English
der Apfel	der	apple
die Banane	die	banana
die Orange	die	orange
die Erdbeere	die	strawberry
die Birne	die	pear
das Obst	das	fruit (general)
die Tomate	die	tomato
die Gurke	die	cucumber
die Kartoffel	die	potato
die Zwiebel	die	onion
das Gemüse	das	vegetables (general)

You will often hear general words like Obst and Gemüse when people talk about healthy eating.

Meat, fish, and vegetarian options

Some very frequent food words in restaurants and homes are:

German	Article	English
das Fleisch	das	meat
das Rindfleisch	das	beef
das Schweinefleisch	das	pork
das Hähnchen	das	chicken (meat)
der Fisch	der	fish
die Wurst	die	sausage
die Salami	die	salami
der Schinken	der	ham
der Salat	der	salad / lettuce
die Pizza	die	pizza

You may also hear simple adjectives that describe food choices, for example:

German	English
vegetarisch	vegetarian
vegan	vegan

These adjectives are often used after the verb sein. For example: Die Pizza ist vegetarisch.

Drinks and Beverages

Drinks are very important vocabulary in all conversations about food and when you are in a café or restaurant. Again, focus on the article and gender of each noun.

Non-alcoholic drinks

German	Article	English
das Wasser	das	water
das Mineralwasser	das	mineral water
der Saft	der	juice
der Orangensaft	der	orange juice
der Apfelsaft	der	apple juice
die Milch	die	milk
der Tee	der	tea
der Kaffee	der	coffee
die Limonade	die	lemonade / soft drink
die Cola	die	cola

When you say what you drink, you typically use: Ich trinke Wasser. Ich trinke Kaffee. You can also say: ein Wasser, einen Kaffee, eine Cola. The detailed grammar for this belongs to the chapters about articles and cases.

Alcoholic drinks

If you are in a restaurant or at a party, you may hear these very common words:

German	Article	English
das Bier	das	beer
der Wein	der	wine
der Weißwein	der	white wine
der Rotwein	der	red wine

For cultural reasons you can understand these words early, but you choose yourself if you use them.

Taste and Food Adjectives

To talk about what you like or do not like, you need adjectives that describe taste. At A1, basic words are enough. These adjectives usually come after the verb sein or before a noun.

German	English	Example in English
lecker	tasty	The soup is tasty.
gut	good	The pizza is good.
salzig	salty	The cheese is salty.
süß	sweet	The cake is sweet.
scharf	spicy / hot	The sauce is spicy.
heiß	hot (temperature)	The tea is hot.
kalt	cold	The water is cold.
frisch	fresh	The bread is fresh.

You can form many simple sentences with these words. For example: Die Suppe ist heiß. Das Eis ist süß und kalt. The verbs that show likes and dislikes will appear in other chapters, so here you only collect the adjectives.

Adjectives like lecker, süß, salzig, heiß, kalt do not change their form after the verb sein in simple sentences:
Die Suppe ist lecker. Der Kaffee ist heiß. Das Eis ist kalt.

Eating and Drinking at Home

Even at A1, you can describe simple actions at home with food. You already know or will learn the verbs essen (to eat) and trinken (to drink), and you combine them with the new nouns from this chapter.

Some very common home related words are:

German	Article	English
die Küche	die	kitchen
der Tisch	der	table
der Teller	der	plate
das Glas	das	glass
die Tasse	die	cup
die Gabel	die	fork
das Messer	das	knife
der Löffel	der	spoon
das Besteck	das	cutlery

You can understand simple sentences such as: Der Teller steht auf dem Tisch. Die Tasse ist in der Küche. The grammar of location and prepositions is part of other chapters, so here you only become familiar with the nouns.

Typical Simple Phrases with Food and Drinks

You will need very simple fixed expressions that use the vocabulary from this chapter. These are formulas that you can memorize.

Common short phrases are:

German	English
Ich habe Hunger.	I am hungry.
Ich habe Durst.	I am thirsty.
Ich esse gern Pizza.	I like eating pizza.
Ich trinke gern Wasser.	I like drinking water.
Noch ein Wasser, bitte.	Another water, please.
Ein Kaffee, bitte.	A coffee, please.
Für mich eine Suppe, bitte.	For me a soup, please.
Die Pizza ist sehr lecker.	The pizza is very tasty.
Das Bier ist kalt.	The beer is cold.

The detailed grammar of gern and sentence structure appears in other chapters, but you already see how food and drink words appear in real sentences.

Learn fixed expressions as complete chunks, for example:
Ich habe Hunger. Ich habe Durst. Ein Wasser, bitte.
They are very frequent and useful in real situations.

New Vocabulary from This Chapter

German	Article	English
das Frühstück	das	breakfast
das Mittagessen	das	lunch
das Abendessen	das	dinner / supper
die Mahlzeit	die	meal
das Brot	das	bread
das Brötchen	das	bread roll
die Butter	die	butter
der Käse	der	cheese
die Wurst	die	sausage / cold cuts
das Ei	das	egg
der Reis	der	rice
die Nudeln	die	pasta
die Suppe	die	soup
der Apfel	der	apple
die Banane	die	banana
die Orange	die	orange
die Erdbeere	die	strawberry
die Birne	die	pear
das Obst	das	fruit (general)
die Tomate	die	tomato
die Gurke	die	cucumber
die Kartoffel	die	potato
die Zwiebel	die	onion
das Gemüse	das	vegetables (general)
das Fleisch	das	meat
das Rindfleisch	das	beef
das Schweinefleisch	das	pork
das Hähnchen	das	chicken (meat)
der Fisch	der	fish
die Salami	die	salami
der Schinken	der	ham
der Salat	der	salad / lettuce
die Pizza	die	pizza
vegetarisch		vegetarian
vegan		vegan
das Wasser	das	water
das Mineralwasser	das	mineral water
der Saft	der	juice
der Orangensaft	der	orange juice
der Apfelsaft	der	apple juice
die Milch	die	milk
der Tee	der	tea
der Kaffee	der	coffee
die Limonade	die	lemonade / soft drink
die Cola	die	cola
das Bier	das	beer
der Wein	der	wine
der Weißwein	der	white wine
der Rotwein	der	red wine
lecker		tasty
gut		good
salzig		salty
süß		sweet
scharf		spicy / hot
heiß		hot (temperature)
kalt		cold
frisch		fresh
die Küche	die	kitchen
der Tisch	der	table
der Teller	der	plate
das Glas	das	glass
die Tasse	die	cup
die Gabel	die	fork
das Messer	das	knife
der Löffel	der	spoon
das Besteck	das	cutlery
Hunger		hunger
Durst		thirst