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Alex is doing the shopping and cannot find what he needs.
leider is the word Germans reach for whenever there is bad news, and it does a great deal of politeness work: Leider nein is a far softer refusal than a bare Nein. Its opposite, zum Glück, means "luckily". Prices are said without the word for the decimal: 6,80 € is sechs Euro achtzig, never "sechs Komma acht". Note the comma — German uses a comma where English uses a decimal point, and a full stop where English uses a thousands comma, so 1.234,56 € is one thousand two hundred and thirty-four euros fifty-six. The € sign normally follows the number. Watch the two bags in this dialogue. die Tüte is the disposable kind you pay for at the till; der Beutel or die Tasche is the cloth bag you brought with you. Germany charges for single-use bags and has done for years, so the question Brauchen Sie eine Tüte? is really asking whether you want to pay for one. Most people carry a Beutel.
How do I read these pronunciations? See the pronunciation guide.
1. The accusative case
When a noun is the thing being acted on — taken, found, needed, seen — it goes into the accusative, and German marks this on the article. Only the masculine changes: der becomes den. Feminine die, neuter das and plural die are all identical to the nominative. So Der Käse ist gut becomes Ich nehme den Käse, while Das Brot ist frisch becomes Ich nehme das Brot with nothing altered at all. You met this in Lesson 2 with ein becoming einen; this is the same rule with the definite article. Three quarters of the accusative is therefore already done — it is one gender, one word.
2. kein or nicht?
German has two ways of saying no to something, and the choice is mechanical. Use kein to negate a noun that has ein in front of it or no article at all: Ich habe kein Brot, Ich sehe keine Milch. Use nicht for everything else — verbs, adjectives, adverbs, and nouns carrying a definite article: Der Käse ist nicht teuer, Ich nehme den Käse nicht. kein takes exactly the same endings as ein, which means you already know them: kein, keine, keinen. The only place it goes beyond ein is the plural, where ein cannot exist but keine can.
3. es gibt — there is, there are
es gibt covers both "there is" and "there are", never changing for number: Es gibt einen Supermarkt, Es gibt zwei Supermärkte. What it does insist on is the accusative, because gibt is literally "gives" and whatever follows is its object. So it is Es gibt einen Supermarkt with einen, not ein. This catches learners constantly, and it is worth saying aloud a few times until the einen sounds right.
4. Verbs that change their vowel
A group of common verbs alters its stem vowel in the du and er/sie/es forms, and nowhere else. nehmen goes ich nehme, du nimmst, er nimmt. sehen goes ich sehe, du siehst, er sieht. Others you will meet soon: essen (du isst), fahren (du fährst), sprechen (du sprichst), lesen (du liest). The pattern is e to i or ie, and a to ä. The infinitive, the ich form and all the plurals stay regular, so only two forms per verb need remembering.
5. Prices and quantities
Was macht das? or Was kostet das? asks the price; the answer is Das macht sechs Euro achtzig. Quantities work without any word for "of": ein Kilo Äpfel, eine Flasche Wasser, hundert Gramm Käse — the two nouns simply sit together. Note that Euro stays singular after a number, as do Gramm and Kilo: zehn Euro, nicht zehn Euros.
A. Fill in the Blank · Ergänzen Sie
Fill in the blank with the correct article or word.
- 1.Wo finde ich Käse?the (masculine, accusative)
- 2.Ich sehe Milch.no, not any (feminine)
- 3.Heute es leider keine Milch.there is / there are
- 4.Ich habe Beutel.a (masculine, accusative)
B. Multiple Choice · Wählen Sie
Choose the correct German.
- 1.Which is correct for "I'll take the cheese"?
- 2.Which is correct for "I don't have any bread"?
- 3.Which is the correct du form of nehmen?
- 4.Which is correct after es gibt?
C. Word Order · Bilden Sie Sätze
Put the words in the right order.
- 1.Tap tiles below…
- 2.Tap tiles below…
- 3.Tap tiles below…
- 4.Tap tiles below…
D. True or False · Richtig oder falsch
Decide whether each statement about the dialogue is true.
- 1.The cheese is at the back of the shop.
- 2.There is milk today.
- 3.Alex buys a bag.
- 4.Alex buys cheese and bread.
E. Matching · Ordnen Sie zu
Match each question to the answer that fits it.
F. Translation · Übersetzen Sie
Translate between German and English.
- 1.Where do I find the cheese?
- 2.I'll take the bread.
- 3.Heute gibt es leider keine Milch.
- 4.Brauchen Sie eine Tüte?
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Pack fast, and bring a coin
German supermarket checkouts run faster than almost anywhere else, and you are expected to keep up. The cashier will scan at speed and the next customer's shopping will already be arriving, so the technique is to throw everything loose back into the trolley, pay, and then pack properly at the shelf by the window that exists for exactly this. Nobody packs at the till. Bring your own bag, since the disposable ones cost money and there are often none. You will also need a one- or two-euro coin to release a trolley, returned when you chain it back up — and bottles carry a deposit, the Pfand, of eight to twenty-five cents, reclaimed by feeding them into a machine near the entrance that prints a voucher. Leaving a deposit bottle in a public bin is considered wasteful rather than tidy, which is why you will see them left standing neatly beside bins in cities: the convention is to leave them collectable for whoever wants the deposit. And cash still matters — card acceptance has improved sharply but is not universal, and smaller shops and bakeries may still be cash-only.