5.5 Clothing and colours — Epoché
What you will be able to do Name what you are wearing — Das ist meine Hose. , Die Bluse ist sauber. , Diese Jacke hat Knöpfe. — and say which German garment word your English word actually corresponds to: Das Hemd ist schmutzig. Use the German word for trousers, which is singular, together with the other garments German counts differently from English: Ihre Strumpfhose ist grau. , Wo sind meine roten Strümpfe? Say that something fits and that something suits you, with the two different verbs German uses: Passt dieser Anzug? against Der Anzug steht dir. Name the colours and the patterns, including bunt , an everyday German colour word that English renders as colourful or multicoloured , and the colours after a verb: Ihr Rock ist lila. , Dir steht Schwarz. Prerequisites : 5.4 — you need the habit of taking a compound apart, because several of the garments in this lesson are built out of the words for a shoe, a trouser and a suit. Clothing is the field where an English speaker is most likely to be confidently wrong, because the words look familiar and point somewhere else. There is one correspondence to fix before anything else, and this lesson opens with it rather than burying it in a table. After that the field is unusually easy: the garments are mostly compounds, the colours are mostly cognates, and the only real grammar is a pair of verbs that English collapses into one. The one correspondence to fix first English has two words from the same root for two different garments: the one you wear on the top half of your body and the one you wear on the bottom. They are the same word twice, one inherited from Old English and one borrowed from Norse, and English kept both. German kept that root too, but it attached it to neither of those garments. In German it became the word for an apron. So the German word that looks like your upper garment is not a shirt at all, and the German word for a shirt is a separate word that English used to have and lost — it is in Old English, it disappeared in the Middle Ages, and it is now one of the first nouns a German learner meets. The practical consequence is short. Learn the German word for a shirt as a new word, with no English hook. Do not reach for a cognate, because the cognate leads to an apron. And treat the German word for a skirt the same way: it looks like the English word for a large stone, it is unrelated to it, and it means a skirt. Those two words are the first two entries in the list below, and if you fix them now you will never lose an afternoon to them. The ones you already have Read this table once and leave it. None of these is in the list below, and the colours are the largest free gift in the volume. German English — what changed der Schuh shoe — the same word, with the German spelling of the vowel die Wolle wool — the same word, with the German final vowel die Kappe cap — the same Latin root as cap and cape rot red — the same word, with the consonant shifted grün green — the same word, with the vowel fronted blau blue — the same word; English took the French spelling braun brown — the same word, with the German diphthong grau grey — the same word, again with the diphthong gelb yellow — the same root, much shortened weiß white — the same word; the last letter is a voiceless s , written this way after a long vowel or a diphthong Seven colours for nothing is a good morning's work, and the pattern in them is worth naming: where English has a long vowel and a written e , German often has the same vowel written with a diaeresis or a diphthong. Correspondences between cognates are what the first volume of this course is about, though there they were consonants; the colours show the vowels doing the same, and they are the easiest demonstration of it. Word list Fifty words in four groups: what goes on top, what goes underneath, the colours and patterns, and what you do in a fitting room. Every noun carries its article. Garments Word Meaning Notes das Hemd de shirt — a word English had and lost; no cognate to help you Das Hemd ist schmutzig. The shirt is dirty. Hemd ausziehen! Take off your shirt. der Rock de skirt — unrelated to English rock ; it can also mean a man's jacket Ihr Rock ist lila. Her skirt is purple. die Hose de trousers — singular in German ; English uses a plural and needs a pair of Das ist meine Hose. Those are my trousers. Die Hose passt nicht. These trousers don't fit. die Jeans de jeans — borrowed with the English plural, which German then treats as one item Ich trage gern Jeans. I like wearing jeans. die Bluse de blouse — the same French word as yours, with the German ending Die Bluse ist sauber. The blouse is clean. der Pullover de jumper, sweater — borrowed from English, and the everyday German word Dieser Pullover ist warm. This sweater is warm. die Jacke de jacket — the same word without the English diminutive ending Diese Jacke hat Knöpfe. This jacket's got buttons. der Mantel de coat, overcoat — the long one; the same root as English mantle Nimm meinen Mantel. Take my coat. der Anzug de suit — literally the on-pull, from the verb for putting clothes on Passt dieser Anzug? Does this suit fit? Der Anzug steht dir. You look good in that suit. das Kleid de dress — in the plural it means clothes in general, which the singular does not Das Kleid steht Ihnen. The dress looks good on you. der Schal de scarf, shawl — from English shawl , but it means a scarf Mein Schal ist blau. [1] My scarf is blue. die Krawatte de necktie — from the word for a Croatian, after the cavalry who wore them Schöne Krawatte! Nice tie. der Gürtel de belt — the same root as English girdle , which now means something else Wo ist mein Gürtel? [2] Where is my belt? die Mütze de cap, woolly hat — the soft kind, kept apart from the next entry Wo ist Ihre Mütze? [3] Where is your cap? der Hut de hat — the structured kind, with a brim; the same root as English hat Passt der Hut? Does the hat fit well? die Kleidung de clothing — a collective singular, like th