German shopping vocabulary: 300 words
Prices, sizes, clothing and paying — vocabulary for shopping (English, Spanish, French, German, Italian, Portuguese). This page lists 40 of them with their German translations, then lets you practise the full set in either direction with spaced repetition.
English to German: the first 40 words
| English | German | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| shop | Geschäft | A place of business where goods are sold to customers. |
| store | Laden | A retail establishment; in some regions, can also mean a large supermarket. |
| shopping centre | Einkaufszentrum | A large building holding many stores under one roof. |
| supermarket | Supermarkt | A large self-service store selling food and household goods. |
| price | Preis | The amount of payment asked for something. |
| money | Geld | Coins and banknotes used to pay for things. |
| cash | Bargeld | Physical coins and notes, not electronic payment. |
| card | Karte | Payment card (credit, debit, or similar). |
| receipt | Quittung | The printed proof of purchase, not a recipe. |
| change | Wechselgeld | Money handed back after paying, not a change of plan. |
| discount | Rabatt | A reduction from the usual amount you must pay. |
| sale | Ausverkauf | A period of reduced prices, not the act of selling. |
| offer | Angebot | To present something for someone to accept or refuse. |
| free | kostenlos | Costing nothing; not at liberty or without obligation. |
| expensive | teuer | Costing a lot to buy. |
| cheap | billig | Costing little to buy. |
| size | Größe | How large or small something is, such as a garment measurement. |
| big | groß | Of great extent or amount; not little. |
| small | klein | Of little extent or amount; not large. |
| medium | mittel | Between the largest and the smallest; middling in extent. |
| colour | Farbe | The quality of light that makes something look red, yellow or similar. |
| red | rot | Of the shade seen in blood, ripe tomatoes and fire engines. |
| blue | blau | Of the shade of a clear sky or deep sea. |
| green | grün | Of the shade of fresh grass and leaves. |
| black | schwarz | Of the darkest shade, like night with no light at all. |
| white | weiß | Of the shade of fresh snow or milk. |
| clothes | Kleidung | Items worn to cover the body, such as shirts and trousers. |
| shirt | Hemd | A button-up garment, typically formal or semi-formal. |
| t-shirt | T-Shirt | A casual short-sleeved cotton top with no collar or buttons. |
| trousers | Hose | Leg garment extending to the ankle; the plural form is standard. |
| dress | Kleid | A one-piece garment with a skirt, worn mainly by women. |
| skirt | Rock | A garment hanging from the waist down, without separate legs. |
| jacket | Jacke | A short outer garment with sleeves, worn over a shirt. |
| coat | Mantel | A long warm outer garment worn outdoors in cold weather. |
| shoes | Schuhe | Firm outer coverings worn on the feet for walking outdoors. |
| socks | Socken | Soft knitted coverings worn on the feet inside footwear. |
| hat | Hut | A covering worn on the head, often with a brim. |
| gloves | Handschuhe | Coverings for the hands, each with separate sheaths for the fingers. |
| scarf | Schal | A long strip of cloth wrapped around the neck for warmth. |
| belt | Gürtel | A strap worn around the waist to hold up trousers. |
260 more words in the full “Shopping” library, each aligned across seven languages and scheduled for you by spaced repetition. Add it to your account and start drilling English to German in one click.
What to watch out for in German
- 51 of these 300 words are near-identical in English and German (17%) —
T-Shirt,Ring,orange. Those are free; the value of drilling is in the rest. - Accents count. Answers are graded accent-sensitively, so you need
äöüßÄÖÜ— LinguaSwap shows a one-tap keypad for them while you type. - Capitalisation counts. German nouns are capitalised, and answers in German are graded that way —
hausis notHaus. - 300 words carry a usage note in the full library, for the cases where a direct translation would mislead you.
Practise German shopping vocabulary
Words come back just before you would forget them, and every language direction is tracked separately.