2025-07-16 German vocabulary for summer clothes | A Coffee Break with Thomas
While we're working on our next podcast series to help you improve your German, here’s a short mini-lesson to keep your German fresh! In today’s episode, we’re joined by Thomas from the Coffee Break German team. We'll be exploring useful German vocabulary for talking about summer clothes, perfect for the sunny season! ☀️ We’ll also look at key phrases to help you when shopping and describing what you are wearing. To continue improving your German skills, why not explore more content like this and subscribe to the Coffee Break German newsletter to receive regular free mini-lessons directly to your inbox? Simply visit coffeebreaklanguages.com/german/ and discover more.🎯 Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Willkommen, willkommen bei Coffee Break German. Ich heiße Thomas and I am back with a new short episode to help you improve your German. Over the last few weeks we have been very busy with producing and publishing scenes from the Coffee Break German Cafe, our new course for advanced German learners. But now, with the new course finished and summer here, I am ready for the beach and for some holidays. If you are too, join me today for some summer vocabulary and of course a little bit of German grammar. There is quite the difference in between summer and winter in both Scotland and in Germany. For me this means I have a box full of summer Klamotten, summer clothes that is packed away bis Mindestens Mai. But I also have a box for winter Klamotten that I normally want to leave until November but in reality get out at some point during September. But let's not talk about winter Klamotten now, las uns lieber über Sommer Klamotten reden. Here are some possible examples of summer clothes. I will say them once and then give you a little bit of time to repeat them before I say the Englisch. Also, los geht's. Die kurze Hose. Die kurze Hose are short trousers. Die knielange Hose. Die knielange Hose are knee length or Bermuda shorts. Das Hawaii Hemd. Das Hawaiian Shirt. Das Sommerkleid. Das Sommerkleid is a summer dress. And last, der Sonnenhut. Der Sonnenhut a sun hat. Now it is one thing to know these words but another to use them in a sentence. Like for example, I still need a Hawaiian shirt. Ich brauche noch ein Hawaii Hemd. Or have you seen my Bermuda shorts? Hast du meine knielange Hose gesehen? For a lot of these sentences using verbs like brauchen, kaufen, sehen, you need the accusative case in German. For you as a German learner, that's great news because it's only with the masculine nouns that there's a change in the definite and indefinite articles in the accusative. So for our definite article, der becomes den and for the indefinite article masculine, ein becomes einen. And that also applies for possessive pronouns like mein, dein or sein. So for example, mein in the nominative changes to meinen in the accusative for masculine. The feminine, neuter and plural articles are all the same in the accusative and in the nominative. So no changes there. To give you an example, I would say, kannst du einen Sonnenhut einpacken? So can you pack a sun hat? And it's einen Sonnenhut because it's der Sonnenhut. But it would be, ich trage lieber eine kurze Hose. Because it's die Hose, it's feminine. So there's no change to eine from the nominative in the accusative. It's still eine. So with this knowledge, mit diesem Wissen, it should already be a little bit easier to form those sentences. However, once you start thinking about cases and genders, it's also good to know what happens with compound nouns, which the German language is really famous for. I personally love the way that German just joins together these different words to make one long word. For example, we saw das Sommerkleid. And that is just really made up of the two words, der Sommer and das Kleid. Important here is that the compound nouns always take the gender of the last word added. So as we just saw, it was das Sommerkleid. And that is because it's das Kleid. So the last noun added to that list of nouns determines the gender for that compound noun. Alles klar. So today we learned some new vocabulary. We had a look at how we use it in a sentence, specifically when we have to use the accusative, and how to describe specific things by adding different words together. With that combined knowledge, can you now translate the following sentences into German? I will say the English sentence, then give you a few seconds to think about the German translation, and then we'll look at it together. Also, hier ist der erste Satz. I want to buy a sun hat. How do you say that in German? Gut gemacht. So I want to buy a new sun hat. Ich will einen Sonnenhut kaufen. Because it's der Sonnenhut, we have to change ein from einen in the accusative. Ich will einen How about this sentence? Can you see my shorts? Wunderbar. Kannst du meine kurze Hose sehen? Okay, perfekt gemacht. So we learned kürze Hose earlier for shorts, and it's feminine, so it's still meine, just like in the nominative. Kannst du meine kurze Hose sehen? Ein letzter Satz. I take the blue summer dress. Optimal. Gut gemacht. So I take. Ich nehme. And then it's das Kleid, so it's neuter, so we don't need to change the article for the accusative, we just say, ich nehme das blaue Sommerkleid. Großartig. I hope you enjoyed this short exercise and are now ready for summer, or at least for some Sommerklamotten. If you are looking for more translation exercises or longer, more detailed explanations about the accusative case and its implications, then head over to coffeebreak.tv, where you can find a whole range of videos to practice and improve all aspects of the German language. Thank you very much for joining me today. Vielen, vielen Dank. And also thank you if you have already subscribed to this channel. If you would rather read than listen to our weekly dose of German, then head over to coffeebreaklanguages.com slash German and sign up for our free weekly newsletter from the Coffee Break German team. Also, das war's von mir, einen wunderschönen Sommer und hoffentlich bis bald. Happy coffee breaking! You have been listening to a Coffee Break Languages production for the Radio Lingua Network. Copyright 2025, Radio Lingua Ltd. Recording copyright 2025, Radio Lingua Ltd. All rights reserved.
