Mealtime is an important part of any culture! In English, we’d say I am hungry! But in German, hunger is something you have.
You can show that you’re thirsty the same way!
Remember, all nouns in German are capitalized! This is important, since some words that are spelled the same have a different meaning when capitalized. For example, the word essen is different from das Essen.
Wir essen die Suppe.
We eat the soup.
Wir haben das Essen.
We have the food.
Trying different foods will help you learn more about the culture of a country! To talk about what you’re eating, you’ll need the verb essen. Let’s review the conjugation again! Notice that the vowel changes in the du and er / sie / es forms.
essen to eat |
|
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ich I |
esse eat |
du you |
isst eat |
er / sie / es he / she / it |
isst eats |
wir we |
essen eat |
ihr you all |
esst eat |
sie they |
essen eat |
Be careful! The word ist is pronounced the same as isst, but has a very different meaning! In a conversation, the context will help you know which one the speaker means!
Er ist Hans. He is Hans. |
Er isst Hans. He eats Hans. |
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Er isst Suppe. He eats soup. |
Er ist Suppe. He is soup. |