German/Level I/Kleidung



Lesson I.7: Kleidung

Hello from Berlin!
In every Lesson from 7 - 15 there is going to be a featured German-Speaking city, which will be the theme of the lesson. For 7 - 8 it is Berlin. There will be famous locations in Berlin, for this lesson it's Kurfürstendamm and KaDeWe, the shopping area of Berlin. Also in each lesson there will be facts, so if you ever travel to a German-Speaking country, it'll be like you are a native!

It's Time to Change Time
Berlin's time is GMT+1, meaning they are 6 hours ahead of EST. If it's 2:00pm in New York City, it's 8:00pm (or 20:00) locally. Please note that Germany changes to and from daylight-saving time a few weeks before the U.S., so time differences still vary in March and October.

Tip, Tip, and More Tip
In contrast to many other countries where waiters sometime 'live on the tips,' in German-speaking countries service personnel always receive a regular wage (usually per hour), and the tip is always an extra for good service. Not to give a tip will probably give the waiter the impression that either the service or product were not that good and you are too polite to admit this, but not tipping is not considered 'rude'. If you tip you usually round up, up to 50 Cents for coffee or up to the next 5 euros for lunch, e.g. 2,70 € becomes 3,00 € and 21 € become 25 €. Also, tipping is only expected when you get served, i.e. when the service personnel bring something to your table, so if you pay at a counter – like at McDonald's or Starbucks – you don't tip at all. Only when having a large party, like celebrating your birthday in a restaurant, you do extra tipping. For a night you should pay 30 EUR to 80 EUR per waiter and give it separately to the manager (“für die Bedienung”). In many restaurants it is normal the tip is shared with the kitchen personnel. Paying with credit card or debit card makes tipping difficult, because there is no line on the bill to fill in the tip. Always tip when paying, don't leave money on the table.

Shopping Locations
There are two major shopping locations. The Kurfürstendamm in the old west is lined with boutiques and department stores. It continues eastwards for about three hundred yards where you can visit KaDeWe, the biggest department store in Europe. On the newly-developed Friedrichstraße in the old east, the famous French store Galleries Lafayette is to be found together with a maze of underground shopping malls. Shops are generally open 9am-8pm Monday through Saturday. In the outskirts, most shops close at 4pm on Saturdays.

Shopping
There is a lot to say about shopping, places to shop at, money and items to buy. In this lesson we will cover most of it. There are two major shopping locations in Berlin: Kurfürstendamm and KaDeWe.

Kurfürstendamm

 * Kurfürstendamm


 * Tauentzienstraße


 * Fasanenstraße

The Kurfürstendamm has many boutiques, department stores, etc., which are on Tauentzienstraße and Fasanenstraße, two streets in Kurfürstendamm. Tauentzienstraße has a lot of the department stores, including KaDeWe, which we will get into greater detail later. Fasanenstraße has a lot of the boutiques.

And some of the things you might say or ask while in a clothing store...


 * Können Sie mir helfen, meine Größe zu finden (für dieses ____)?
 * Can you help me find my size (for this ____)?


 * Wo ist die Umkleidekabine?
 * Where is the dressing room?

Section Problems >>

KaDeWe
Another shopping location is das KaDeWe, an upscale department store in Germany. It has six floors, and is also called "the department store of the west" (Kaufhaus des Westens), because it is the largest and most magnificent department store on continental Europe.

Since we already have most of the general shopping phrases and vocabulary down, we are going to get into more detail in the next few sections.

Section Problems>>

Electronics
First is electronics: it might seem a little sparse, but electronics and many other things will be featured in Lesson 12.

Spielt der DVD-Player auch CDs?
 * Does the DVD player also play CDs?

Hat das Mobiltelefon/das Handy eine Digitalkamera?
 * Does the cell phone have a digital camera?

If you look at the word order of this sentence, you will see that you've already learned everything you need to make these sentences, and you, yourself can customize these sentences if you want.

Section Problems>>

Bedding
The bedding section is also quite bare, but that is because it will be discussed further in Lesson 12.

And like always here are some of the things you might say that are related to bedding.


 * Passen die Kopfkissenbezüge auf das Kopfkissen?
 * Does the pillow case fit the pillow?

And with that question there are other variations of it you can ask, like...


 * Passt die Decke auf das Bett?
 * Does the blanket fit the bed?

Section Problems>>

Money
Germany, Austria, Luxemburg, Belgium and Südtirol – in other words: all German speaking regions except Switzerland and Liechtenstein– have given up their former currencies and adopted the Euro as of 1999. Because they are not members of the European Union, Switzerland and Liechtenstein have kept the Swiss Francs. Currently 1 EUR is 1.34 USD.

Now if you were at a shopping center in German like Kurfürstendamm, and you were shopping at a boutique here is some vocabulary you might want to know.

Was kostet das?
 * Was macht das?
 * How much does it cost?


 * Das Hemd kostet 120 Euro.
 * The shirt costs 120 euros.


 * Das kostet 690 Euro.
 * That costs 690 euros (all together).

Note: The word coin (Münze) mostly turns to Stück when a word or number is put together with it.

Even though in the vocabulary we list the 1, 2, 5, 10, 100 Euro there are more Euro notes. The twenty, fifty, two hundred, and five hundred Euro notes are the ones we didn't list, also there are cent coins.

German Math
In written German, a comma is used (e. g. in prices) where we would put a decimal point in English. Thus € 5,49 (or 5,49 €) means five euros and forty-nine cents. When a price ends in a round number of euros, it is most commonly written as € 5,- etc. The reverse is also true. Where as English uses a comma to split up large numbers, German uses a dot. So "€ 6.945" means sechs tausend neunhundertfünfundvierzig (six thousand nine hundred and forty-five) euros - not six point nine four five euros.

Clothing
Section Answers >>

Describing Clothes
Here are some of the words you can use when you are describing clothes:

To say I like something or not, for clothing, it's...

I like it!

Er/Sie/Es gefällt mir!

I don't like it!

Er/Sie/Es gefällt mir nicht!

Now if you try something on or you're looking for a soft shirt with a tight fit, you find it, feel it, try it on, but it's fairly expensive you might say this...

In English: ''The shirt looks great! The shirt feels soft, fits tight. The shirt is very comfortable. How much does it cost? Oh no! The shirt is expensive! 55 euros is a little too much for me.''

In German: ''Das Hemd sieht prima aus! Das Hemd fühlt sich weich an, es sitzt eng. Das Hemd ist sehr bequem. Wieviel kostet es? Oh nein! Das Hemd ist teuer! 55 Euro sind mir ein bisschen zuviel.''

The phrases to describe the shirt were...

The shirt looks great.

Das Hemd sieht prima aus.

The shirt feels soft.

Das Hemd fühlt sich weich an.

The shirt fits tight.

Das Hemd sitzt eng.

Now, the bold words are verbs that are one part in describing how the shirt is. The other half of describing it is the adjectives like soft, tight, great, etc. And as you can see the verb "looks" is separable, but we will get into that later.

Clothing-Related Verbs
And now getting into verbs - here are some of the verbs, and also some of these are Separable-Prefix Verbs, like aussehen, anprobieren, and anhaben. But we will study those in more detail later. Also we will be learning about "tragen".

Separable Prefix Verbs
Many German verbs change their meaning by adding prefixs, which are often preposition such as ab-, an-, auf-, aus-, bei-, ein-, mit-, vor-, or zu-.The verbs anhaben (to wear) and aussehen (to look) are both verbs with separable (trennbar) prefixes. That is, when used next to the subject pronoun, the prefix is separated from the verb and put at the end of the sentence or clause. Or, better put, In the present tense and imperative, the prefix is separated from the infinitive stem.

Examples:

"Ich habe einen Mantel an." ("I'm wearing a coat." Or, more literally translated, "I have a coat on.")

"Was hast du an?" ("What are you wearing?" or "What do you have on?")

However, when the separable-prefix verb is put at the end of the sentence, such as when used with a modal verb, the verb in question and its prefix are not separated.

Examples:

"Du willst einen Mantel anhaben." ("You want to wear a coat.")

"Willst du eine Bluse anhaben?" ("Do you want to wear a blouse?")

Section Problems >>

Tragen
Instead of "anhaben" the verb "tragen" is often used. The sentences from above would then be:

"Ich trage einen Mantel." ("I'm wearing a coat." ) "Was trägst du?" ("What are you wearing?") "Du willst einen Mantel tragen." ("You want to wear a coat.") "Willst du eine Bluse tragen?" ("Do you want to wear a blouse?")

The verb "tragen" has two meanings: "to wear" and "to carry". So if someone says "Ich trage Schuhe" only the context will tell you whether the person is carrying the shoes in his hands or actually wearing them. Tragen is a different kind of irregular verb -- one that not only changes at the end of the word, but also changes internally. Notice that the vowel in tragen's second and third-person forms changes from an a into an ä. Other verbs with similar conjugation patterns include fahren, graben, schaffen, and waschen.

Colors
Color are also another great way to describe clothes like Das rote Hemd passt gut.which means The red shirt fits well.

Read the following paragraph, try to find the words described to have a color.

''Wir fahren in den Schwarzwald. Ich habe ein grünes Hemd getragen. Die Reise war lang. Es begann kälter zu werden und abzukühlen. Ich hörte Musik auf meinem braunen iPod. Ich bin schließlich eingeschlafen. Als ich aufwachte, sah ich den blauen Himmel und den weißen Schnee.''

If you found 5 words you are right.

Schwarz which means black (the Schwarzwald (Black Forest) is a wooded mountain range)

Grünes Hemd which is a green shirt.

Brauner iPod which is a brown iPod.

Blauer Himmel which is blue sky.

And weißer Schnee which is white snow.

And now for the actual colors...

Red               "Rot" Blue              "Blau" Green             "Grün" Orange            "Orange" Violet            "Violett" Yellow            "Gelb" Brown             "Braun" Indigo            "Indigo" Gray              "Grau" Black             "Schwarz" White             "Weiß"

Section Problems >>