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Better German Podcast with Susi

Susanne Schilk-BlĂŒmel
Since 09/2023 46 episodes

46 Essential Words for Clothes You Should Know

2025-10-16

Description & Show Notes

🎧Welcome to another episode of the Better German Podcast! In Episode 46, host Susi BlĂŒmel expands your German vocabulary with a focus on clothing words. From shirts and coats to trousers and dresses, you’ll learn the most useful nouns, how their plurals work, and where English and German differ in surprising ways.
Susi also shares practical tips to make these words stick and explains how to practice them in real life. And don’t forget — you can grab the Clothes PDF Guide inside the Better German Community, which is free to join. It's a place for learners to connect, ask questions, and keep growing in German together. đŸ€“

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Summary
This episode of the Better German Podcast takes you through the essentials of German clothing vocabulary. From coats and dresses to trousers and shirts, you’ll learn the most common words, their plural forms, and some differences between clothing items in German and English. Susi applies her effective 20% Theory – 80% Practical approach, sharing examples and practice tips you can start using right away. And, to support your learning, there’s a free Clothes PDF Guide inside the free-to-join Better German community — a space where learners connect, practice, and grow together.✹

Introduction
Welcome to another episode of the Better German Podcast! In today's episode, Susi Blumel is here to help you expand your German vocabulary with a focus on clothes—everything from shirts and trousers to coats and dresses. Whether you're a total beginner or someone who wants to brush up on the basics, Susi walks you through essential nouns, explains their plural forms, and provides practical tips on how to remember and practice these words.

🔎 Key Topics: Clothes in German
  • Why learning clothing vocabulary helps beginners build sentences quickly
  • Core nouns for clothes with plurals and examples, including:
     ▫ die Kleidung (clothes – singular in German)
     ▫ das Hemd / die Hemden (shirt/shirts)
     ▫ die Bluse / die Blusen (blouse/blouses)
     ▫ das T-Shirt / die T-Shirts (T-shirt/T-shirts)
     ▫ der Pullover / die Pullover (sweater/sweaters)
  • Surprising differences: why some words are singular in German but plural in English
  • Tips on pronunciation, plurals, and repeating words to strengthen memory
  • Practice segment: repeat along in English and German for better recall
  • Free Clothes PDF Guide available inside the Better German Community
  • Download the free PDF guide for this episode in the Better German Community — it includes all the examples used in this episode. Grab it, listen along, and start practicing! 
  • Check out this Interactive German Movie Guide with suitable TV shows and movies with subtitles in your language, so you can start using movies to learn right away! Watching German movies and TV shows is great to help you learn German.
  • Listen to All The Episodes Published So Far!

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Transcript

Now, there is an interesting thing that is actually very confusing to my students who learn English In English, everything that has legs, is plural. In English, everything that has legs, is plural. So trousers and, pajamas and shorts and pants, and jeans, these are all plural. The logic is probably that there is more than one leg, so everything that has two legs is plural, I guess. now in German this is not the case. This is one object, so it is one thing and there is no plural. Welcome to the Better German podcast. I am Susi BlĂŒmel, a German teacher and founder of Better German. This podcast helps to learn German in a simple and clear way. With useful words, clear sentence structures, pronunciation, and real life topics from daily life and culture. You'll also get tips for learning German and understanding how the language actually works. And when you're ready, we have a free community and courses to support you even more. Hello! Welcome to the next Better German episode. This is episode 46, I think already we're getting close to 50. I'm excited and in this episode we're going to cover some words or words about clothes, like shirt, trousers and so on. These are very basic words. They can come in very handy if you want to go shopping while you are visiting a German speaking country. And also, what I'm trying to make sure when you follow the podcast, is I'm trying to give you really a vocabulary because the first thing when you want to learn German is you need to really focus on your vocabulary By the way, everything that I say that is true for a total beginner is probably true for you. I'm just going to go out and say that because when you cannot speak, no matter how many lessons you've had, no matter how many grammar rules you've learned and know how to apply, when you cannot speak, everything that I say that is true for how I teach, everything I say is true for a beginner, is true for you. That doesn't mean that everything you've learned is in vain, but the way how you will start speaking is to just go through what I do with beginners. Because when I teach German, I make people speak and say German things right from the first lesson. After the first lesson, they know about 20 sentences and they can say them, and after a few more lessons, they'll have the first conversation. And that way people learn how to speak relatively fast. What happens if somebody who's already had German lessons does the same thing is that sometimes, very often there is a point after, I don't know, a few months where it just like kicks in and then you can actually start using those grammar rules and so on as well. Okay, good. So when you start learning German or when you want to like focus on actually learning to speak German, what you need to do is you need to focus on vocabulary. By the way, this is true for every language. So you need to learn a lot of vocabulary. You need to learn a few hundred words before you, worry about much else. The first type of words, or the most important one right at the beginning is nouns. You need to learn how to name the things around you, and that's why I try to do a lot of episodes with vocabulary. Okay, good. So how are you going to do this? I'm going to say it in English. You're going to repeat it and, I'm also going to tell you the plural right after that. So, you can get used to that. So I'll say it, you'll repeat it. I'm going to always start with the English one and it's a good thing if you also repeat the English one and it kind of helps you learning that if you say the English word and then the German word, right after each other. It is something that I find in my experience very helpful. So, repeat after me, "Clothes." " Die Kleidung" Now, let me say something to this. So clothes is a plural word, and it only exists in plural. I mean, there is a cloth, but that's technically not the same thing. Not really the singular, and in German, "die  kleidung" is a word that doesn't have any plural. So, if you say in English, "The clothes are on the floor." in German you would use the plural because "clothes" is a, plural. plural word. In German you would say the same sentence. I, now I have to laugh about myself, So by the way, when that happens to you and you can't say the word, yeah, just laugh it off and try it again. So, " Die Kleidung ist auf dem Boden" would be the translation of that sentence, and you use "ist" because, " Die Kleidung" is always singular. So it's like "air" in German. You, there is no singular or plural of this word. There's just a singular version. Good. So I'm going to say it one more time. " Clothes - "Die Kleidung." "Shirt" "Das Hemd" Now, that is in the sense of like a business shirt, something with a collar " Shirts." " Die Hemden" However, I want to tell you that's something I don't even have on my list. In German, we use the word shirt, the English Word "Shirt," basically for a t-shirt or a top as well. So in this case, and I'm pretty sure you can use that in English as well, so you can also say "Shirt" in the sense of like T-shirt or top shirt, "Das Shirt." "Shirts." "Die Shirts." I'm going to add that to that list. Okay. "Blouse," "Die Bluse" "Die   Bluse" " Blouses" "Die blusen" "Die Blusen" By the way, if this is the first time you're listening to the podcast, there is an episode I did about the plural, if you want to hear more about that. I'm not sure which number that is. I'm going to link it in the show notes though. but a very short story in German there is a few ways of how the plural is formed and there is no real way for the most part of telling how it is. So what you do is you learn it when you learn the word and how you do that, and it is super simple, is you just repeat it like we are doing it now, and that makes it very easy to remember that. And then also you practice it. When you practice the word, you also practice the plural. It's very simple. So if you want to hear more about that, you can listen to episode 22 and 23. How this works is you can go to bettergerman.info/22 or 23. You will always find all the information there or you justgo to wherever you are listening to this podcast and it will be there as well. Okay, so let's carry on with our beautiful words here. So the next word is "T-shirt," and in German this is "Das T-shirt." The only thing we will, like in English, you would say "T-shirt," "ir," and in German most people will say "das T-shirt" they will not say the "ir," they will "eh," kind of say it. So that's T-shirt. However, I mean, it's an English word, you can obviously say it in English and the plural is the same. Good news. So "the T-shirts" and in German, "die T-shirts" Dann (Then) " Pullover." "Der Pullover." "Der Pullover." " Pullovers," German, "Die Pullover," " Die Pullover" Then you could call it either, it could be a jacket, it could be a parka, or even a sweater when you can open it in the front. All of this in German you can say, is " Die Jacke" " Die Jacke" And the plural is "Die Jacken," " Die Jacken" The only thing you wouldn't call a "Jacke" funny enough, is a dress jacket. So a dress jacket, Now, if I'm using the wrong word, please, everybody who's a native speaker, forgive me, I'm not. So the top of a suit in German is called " Das Sakko" " Das Sakko" And the plural, these, so that would be, I'm not 100% if It is a dress, check it. But anyway, the plural is, "Die Sakkos." "Die Sakkos" Oh yeah, and then one more thing, if you just started listening to the podcast, by the way, insider tip, if you start at the beginning, it's a good idea because I'm building, and there is a lot of things that are harder to follow if you haven't listened to the previous episodes, simply due to the fact that that's the way, how a language is built. However, I'm trying to make them so everybody can listen to them and I'll give you tips on other episodes that are particularly relevant. Another thing, if you're never heard anything before and you're new to learning German, you may want to listen to the episode where I introduce articles and I'm telling you why I keep saying these articles and the, "der die das" and so on. This is episode five. Sometimes people get, very confused about them. No need, it's just a little different language, different to English, and we have them, but there is no need to freak out about them. Just good tip, listen to that episode. Okay, next word. "Coat"  "Der Mantel," "Der Mantel" "Coats" " Die Mantel" "Die Mantel" Next word, "The pants" or "The trousers." Now, there is an interesting thing that is actually very confusing to my students who learn English In English, everything that has legs, is plural. You're probably used to it if English is your native language, particularly. So trousers and, pajamas and shorts and pants, and jeans, these are all plural. The logic is probably that there is more than one leg, so everything that has two legs is plural, I guess. now in German this is not the case. This is one object, so it is one thing and there is no plural. So let's first do the English German. So 'trousers," repeat it after me. " Die Hose " " Die Hose" And then you say in English, for example, "The trousers are blue," and then in German you don't use the German word for "are," but "ist" because it's just one object. So  "Die Hose ist blau" And that's, I'm not going to repeat that for any other words that are like that. I already said those words, so that's true for all of them. Good. So let's just do it one more time. "Trousers," " Die Hose" " Die Hose" "Skirt" "Der Rock." " Der Rock" Now in English, there is no plural of trousers, really. You can say "pairs of trousers." So in German we just have a normal plural. So if you have two pairs of trousers in German, this is "zwei Hosen." So "Pairs of trousers." " Die Hosen" " Die Hosen" Or we often will just say "Die Hosen" " Skirts" " Die Röcke" " Die Röcke" And "Shoes." " Die Schuhe " " Die Schuhe" "Dress" " Das Kleid" " " " Das Kleid" "Dresses" " Die Kleider" " Die Kleider" "Suit." " Der Anzug " " Der Anzug" That is for a suit with pants. In the past it was used mainly for suits that men wear and the plural is "Die AnzĂŒge" " Die AnzĂŒge" Now there is a word, for a suit with a skirt. Most generally, we will now use "Der Anzug" for a suit that is a combination of fitting pants or trousers with fitting jackets and maybe a vest or something with it, and it doesn't matter if it's for a man or for a woman pretty much. But there is a word, "KostĂŒm" " Das KostĂŒm," and that is used pretty much for either something like a combination like that, with a skirt, like a dress skirt with a fitting jacket. I guess you could also use that for a woman, with pants. But it's kind of like, I think the word "das KostĂŒm" in this sense is kind of getting old fashioned. It also means a costume like, for Halloween in in Austria or in Germany, in the German speaking era. The whole Halloween thing is all, does also exist, but it is not the main time of the year when we dress up. The main time of the year when we dress up is "Fasching." "Der Fasching," which would be "Carnival." I've talked a little bit more about this in, the episodes 13 and 16 of the podcast, when I talk about holidays in, in autumn and winter. Anyway, so in this case, "The costume" is also "Das KostĂŒm," "Das KostĂŒm." And the plural for "Das KostĂŒm" is "Die KostĂŒme" Anyway, that's just an aside. It's not on the list. I'm not going to put it on the list. It doesn't really fit there. Good. By the way, if you get the freebie before this episode, there are going to be a few more words. And also if you do the course, I have a, a course that is called German for Beginners and Re-Starters. It's a self-paced course, it's a video course. It has quite a lot of lessons, and you see them with videos and it's very fun actually to do. I'm going to link it also in the show notes. So you have more words in there, but I didn't want to make this podcast too long. So anyway, the last word, "Short" in English has two possible translations in German, or actually two possible ways of saying it, which pretty much mean the same. So we can either say, "Die Short," So again, singular and the plural of that word. So "Pairs of shorts" would be, "Die Shorts." "Die Shorts," Or we just describe it and we just say, " Kurze Hose" which would mean "Short pants" or "Short trousers." So. " Die kurze Hose" " Die kurze Hose" And the plural for that, so pairs of shorts, with this translation would be "Die kurzen Hosen" " Die kurzen Hosen" All right, so as the next step, what we're going to do is, because remember it's 20% theory, 80% practice. So we've done quite a lot of theory. You cannot do all of the practice by listening to a podcast. You will have to actually do it yourself, but I'm going to help you a little bit with the practice. So as the next step we're going to do no more explanations or anything. I am going to say the English word in a video, in a class, I wouldn't actually repeat that now. I would just point to it, but as this is a listening thing, I'm going to say the English word, you're going to repeat it, and then I'm going to say the German word. So we're just going to keep doing that, practicing it a little bit more without the extra chitchat in between. So repeat after me "Clothes" " Die Kleidung" " Die Kleidung" "Shirt" "Das Hemd" " Das Hemd" "Shirts" " Die Hemden" " Blouse" " Die Bluse" " Die Bluse" "Blouses." "Die Blusen" " Die Blusen" "T-shirt." "Das T-shirt," "Das T-shirt," "T shirts" "Die T-shirts." "Die T-shirts" "Pullover." "Der Pullover." "Der Pullover." "Pullovers," "Die Pullover," "Die Pullover" A "jacket" or "parka" or "open sweater," like sweater that is like a jacket, " Die Jacke" "Jackets" or "Parkas" " Die Jacken " " Die Jacken" "Coat." " Der Mantel" "Der Mantel" "Coats." " Die Mantel" " Die Mantel" "Trousers" "Die Hose" "Die Hose" "Pairs of trousers." "Die Hosen" " Die Hosen" "Skirt." "Der Rock." "Der Rock" "Skirts" "Die Röcke" " Die Röcke" "Shoe Der Schuh " Der Schuh" "Shoes." " Die Schuhe" " Die Schuhe" Often we'll also just say, " Die Schue " and the "h" just disappears, " die Schue" "Dress" "Das Kleid." "Das Kleid" "Dresses." " Die Kleider," "Die Kleider." "Suit" " Der Anzug" " Der Anzug" "Suits," " Die Anzuge" " Die Anzuge" "Shorts," "Die Short" "Die Short" "Pairs of shorts," "Die Shorts," "Die Shorts," "Shorts" " Die kurze Hose" " Die kurze Hose" And "Pairs of shorts." " Die kurzen Hosen" "Die kurzen Hosen " All right, so if you really want to know these words and really, really want to be able to remember these words, the next step is to practice them more. So the first thing is I suggest you to do like this last part of listening and repeating until it is easy for you. Until you feel, yeah, now you nailed it and you feel you don't have a problem. Don't worry. I mean, obviously you don't get any feedback, but actually if you keep doing it, and you listen to yourself a little bit, you will figure it out. And if you're not sure, just listen to it again. Say it again. Listen to it again. Say it again. And just keep doing that until you feel yes, now you nailed it and it's not hard for you. Then as the next thing, ideally you do this listening and looking at the sheet at the same time. So definitely get your PDF at bettergerman.info/ 46. So bettergerman.info/46 or just wherever you listen to this podcast. I'm going to link it in the show notes. And then, trying to do it yourself. Just say the words yourself, one after the other, "Die Kleidung" "Das Hemd Die Hemden Die Bluse Die Blusen" until you feel you can do it and you don't hesitate and it's easy for you. That's your first step. That's not all about it, but that's the first step. And then the next step is to practice these in context and in order to help you with that, there is an episode coming up where we do this exact thing. So in episode 50, we're going to actually practice sentences with clothing. If you don't want to wait until that time, maybe, I mean, it depends on when you're listening to the podcast. Maybe the podcast episode is already out, then you can, of course just go to it and, and practice it. However, just to give you a tip, basically you can practice these exactly very, very well with the words from the color episode I'm going to link the color episode as well, and then there is a color sentences episode. So you can use the same patterns in that to also practice these words. So let's give you an outlook of the next episodes. Episode 47, we're going to make adjective sentences, words that describe sentences. We're going to make sentences with words like big, small, fast, slow. I'm not sure if we actually included that particular word. Anyway, so this goes with episode 44, and actually you can also use the words in this episode for the clothes in those sentences. So we're going to put them all together, so you have plenty of practice and that is very good. So episode 48, I'm going to go over this very exact point. If that ever happened to you, it could be very, heartbreaking. It can happen to you that you spend a lot of time learning and then you don't remember it and how come and, and what to do about it, we're going to cover in episode 48, okay? So it was a pleasure talking to you, and I hope you tune in for the next episode. Until then, bye bye. I hope that in today's episode you learn something that gets you one step closer to mastering German. If you found it helpful, it would absolutely mean the world to me. If you could leave a five star review and whenever you're ready for more, just visit bettergerman.info.

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