Shopping: Grammar & Phonics (AQA GCSE German): Revision Note

• In the topic of shopping, three grammar points are especially useful: adjectival agreement, demonstrative adjectives and modal verbs in a shopping context

• Let's look at each in turn

Adjectival agreement

• Adjectives are describing words such as rot (red), teuer (expensive) or schön (beautiful)

• In German, how you use an adjective depends on where it sits in the sentence
  

• After a verb - the adjective does not change its ending and stays in its base form:

  • Die Jacke ist blau. The jacket is blue.

  • Der Rock ist teuer. The skirt is expensive.

  • Das T-Shirt ist schön. The T-shirt is lovely.

• Before a noun - the adjective takes an ending that agrees with the gender, number and case of the noun

• The most common pattern you need for shopping is after the definite article (der / die / das) and after the indefinite article (ein / eine)

After the definite article

• Here are some examples:

  • Der rote Rock gefällt mir gut. I like the red skirt.

  • Ich möchte den roten Rock kaufen. I would like to buy the red skirt.

After the indefinite article

• Here are some examples:

  • Eine blaue Jacke ist sehr schön. A blue jacket is very beautiful.

  • Ich suche eine blaue Jacke. I am looking for a blue jacket.

• Notice that feminine nouns and neuter nouns look the same in nominative and accusative

• Only masculine nouns change in the accusative (from -e to -en after a definite article, from -er to -en after an indefinite article)

Demonstrative adjectives

• Demonstrative adjectives are the words for 'this', 'that', 'these' and 'those'

• In German, dieser / diese / dieses covers all four - context makes clear whether you mean 'this', 'that', 'these' or 'those'

• They follow the same pattern as the definite article, so their endings will already feel familiar

• To use demonstrative adjectives correctly, you need to know the gender of the noun

  • der Rock (masculine) - dieser / diesen

  • die Jacke (feminine) - diese

  • das Hemd (neuter) - dieses

  • any plural noun - diese

Examples in context:

• Ich möchte diesen Rock kaufen. I would like to buy this skirt.

• Wie viel kostet diese Jacke? How much does this jacket cost?

• Dieses Hemd ist zu teuer. This shirt is too expensive.

• Diese Schuhe sind sehr bequem. These shoes are very comfortable.

• Ich kaufe dieses T-Shirt in diesem Geschäft. I am buying this T-shirt in this shop.

Modal verbs

• We have covered modal verbs in previous units - let's look at them in the context of going shopping

• Modal verbs are verbs like can, may, want to and would like to

• They are followed by an infinitive, which goes to the end of the sentence

• Three modals are particularly useful when shopping:

Here is a typical conversation in a clothes shop using the language from this unit:

*Umkleidekabine (changing room) is not on the AQA vocabulary list

Shopping: phonics

• the combination sch is always pronounced as a 'sh' sound, like the English word 'shop'

• It never sounds like 'sk' or two separate sounds 's' + 'ch'
  schön
  schwarz
  Geschäft
  Geschenk
  Schuh