EUT: Expressing Quantities of Food and Drink Items

Expressing Quantities of Food and Drink Items

Click to listen to the pronunciation of these terms.

  • die Tüte, die Tüten - the bag
  • die Tafel, die Tafeln - bar
  • die Flasche, die Flaschen - bottle
  • die Dose, die Dosen - can
  • das Glas, die Gläser - glass/jar
  • die Tasse, die Tassen - cup
  • die Packung, die Packungen - pack; packet
  • das Stück, die Stücke - piece
  • die Portion, die Portionen - portion

Rules for expressing quantity in German

Important: Please note that when asking for a quantity "of" something in German, the word for "of" is omitted, so we really just need to say, "two pounds ground meat, please, not two pounds OF ground meat: "Zwei Pfund Hackfleisch, bitte." See the examples below:

ExpressChart1.png

Masculine and neuter nouns, such as das Stück, das Glas, etc. stay singular even if you are talking about more than one. Feminine nouns such as die Flasche, die Portion, etc, however, must be used in the plural. Look carefully at the examples below:

Expresschart2.png

Practice Activity

Fill in the blanks with the appropriate German translation of the words in parenthesis, but remember, some plural amounts are still expressed as singular and no word for OF is needed at all.

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