German food vocabulary
These are the German words about food that come up most often in real speech, ranked by how often they appear in film and TV subtitles. Start with the first ones, such as Essen (food), Kaffee (coffee), Rum (rum), because you will run into them on almost any page about the subject, and the rarer words make more sense once those are familiar.
Words in this list: 30
| # | Word | Pronunciation | Translation | Level |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Essen | /ˈɛsn̩/ | food | A1 |
| 2 | Kaffee | /kaˈfeː/ | coffee | A2 |
| 3 | Rum | /ʁʊm/ | rum | A2 |
| 4 | Bier | /biːɐ̯/ | beer | A2 |
| 5 | Wein | /vaɪ̯n/ | wine | A2 |
| 6 | Tee | /teː/ | tea | A2 |
| 7 | Abendessen | /ˈaːbn̩tˌʔɛsn̩/ | dinner | A2 |
| 8 | Fleisch | /flaɪ̯ʃ/ | meat | B1 |
| 9 | Frühstück | /ˈfʁyːˌʃtʏk/ | breakfast | B1 |
| 10 | Restaurant | /ʁɛstoˈʁɑ̃ː/ | restaurant | B1 |
| 11 | Milch | /mɪlç/ | milk | B1 |
| 12 | Alkohol | /al.koˈhoːl/ | alcohol | B1 |
| 13 | Mittagessen | /ˈmɪtaːkˌʔɛsn̩/ | lunch | B1 |
| 14 | Champagner | /ʃamˈpan.jɐ/ | champagne | B1 |
| 15 | Brot | /bʁoːt/ | bread | B1 |
| 16 | Pizza | /ˈpɪ.t͡sa/ | pizza | B1 |
| 17 | lecker | /ˈlɛ.kɐ/ | delicious | B1 |
| 18 | Käse | /ˈkɛːzə/ | cheese | B1 |
| 19 | Zucker | /ˈt͡sʊ.kɐ/ | sugar | B2 |
| 20 | Tasse | /ˈtasə/ | cup | B2 |
| 21 | Suppe | /ˈzʊpə/ | soup | B2 |
| 22 | Lese | /ˈleːzə/ | vintage | B2 |
| 23 | Schokolade | /ʃo.koˈlaːdə/ | chocolate | B2 |
| 24 | Huhn | /huːn/ | chicken | B2 |
| 25 | Sandwich | /ˈsɛndvɪt͡ʃ/ | sandwich | B2 |
| 26 | Toast | /toːst/ | toast | B2 |
| 27 | Whisky | /ˈvɪski/ | whiskey | B2 |
| 28 | Trank | /tʁaŋk/ | potion | B2 |
| 29 | Kleinigkeit | /ˈklaɪ̯nɪçkaɪ̯t/ | trifle | B2 |
| 30 | Salat | /zaˈlaːt/ | salad | B2 |
How to make these words stick
A list helps you see what matters, but a word only stays after you have met it several times in real sentences and pulled it out of memory yourself. That is how NativeLingo works: it swaps a few of these words into the pages you already read, at your level and in the right form, and then a short daily review asks you to type them back.
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Sources: translations and pronunciation from Wiktionary (wikdict, CC BY-SA 3.0) and ipa-dict (MIT), frequency from OpenSubtitles (FrequencyWords).