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Better German Podcast with Susi

Susanne Schilk-Blümel
Since 09/2023 42 episodes

Episode 42 - Improve Your German with Simple Sentences Using Colors

Better German Podcast Episode 42

2025-08-14

Description & Show Notes

In this episode of Better German, Susi Blumel helps you start using color words in real sentences. You’ll learn how to ask, What color is...? and how to answer with simple phrases. You can also get a free PDF with all the examples—available in the Better German Community, a friendly place to learn and practice together. It’s a fun and easy way to start speaking more German!

Hey there, and welcome back to Better German! In this episode, Susi Blumel is making colors in German super easy to talk about. She covers how to ask and answer questions like, “Is the table green?” or “What color is the chair?”—all with simple examples you can use right away. Plus, you’ll hear about a free PDF packed with more sentences for extra practice inside friendly Better German Community if you want more help or someone to practice with. If you want to feel more confident chatting about colors in German, this episode’s for you!

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📚 Summary
In this episode of Better German, host Susi Blumel helps you move from knowing color words to actually using them in German sentences. You’ll learn how to ask questions like, "Welche Farbe hat…?" (What color is...?) and how to answer with phrases like, "Der Tisch ist grün." (The table is green). Whether you’re just starting or building confidence, this episode gives you the tools to talk about colors naturally. You’ll also find out how to access a free PDF with all the examples, available in the Better German Community, where learners connect, practice, and support each other.

👋 Introduction
Welcome back to Better German! In today’s episode, Susi takes what you learned about colors in Episode 40 and brings it to life with real sentence-building practice. You’ll hear how to ask and answer questions about object colors in everyday situations—perfect for sharpening both your speaking and listening skills.
You’ll also get clear explanations on German sentence structure, tips to practice on your own or with a friend, and an invitation to join the free Better German Community for more support.

🔑 Key Topics Covered
Using Colors in Simple Sentences
▫️ Say full phrases like “Der Tisch ist grün” (The table is green)
▫️ Build confidence using color words in real sentences
Asking “What Color Is It?” in German
▫️ Understand and use the structure “Welche Farbe hat…?”
▫️ See how this question works differently than in English
▫️ Practice with everyday objects: lamp, book, pen, chair, wall, and more
Answering Questions About Color
▫️ Learn how to respond to questions like “Ist das Buch blau?”
▫️ Go beyond ja or nein — answer with full sentences like “Nein, das Buch ist grün.”
Practice Tips and Listener Prompts
▫️ Answer along with Susi using real examples from the episode
▫️ Revisit the free PDF to reinforce vocabulary and sentence structure
▫️ Practice with a friend or inside the Better German Community
Keep Going!
▫️ Listen again until it flows naturally
▫️ Join the Community for extra support, live lessons, and connection
▫️ If you’re enjoying the podcast, rate and share it!

🎧Related Episodes 
  • Don’t forget to download your free PDF with all the examples from this episode—available in the Better German Community! 
  • 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. In this guide, you will find 
  • Listen to All The Episodes Published So Far!

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Transcript

So the very first way of asking, and that is super simple is you want to ask: "Is the table green?" So, " Ist der Tisch grün?" And then you would reply, "Yes, the table is green." or, "No, the table is not green." Welcome to the Better German podcast. I am Susi Blümel, 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. All right, so welcome to the new podcast episode of Better German. So recently I've had an episode about colors, and I thought I'm going to expand on that and tell you how to speak about colors, make sentences with colors. There is going to be a PDF for this where you can download all the example sentences and you can get it in the Better German community, which is completely free. You can sign up for the Better German community at bettergerman.info/community. And as always, you can get the show notes for this episode at bettergerman.info/42 because is the 42nd episode. You can, find any episode's show notes at bettergerman.info/ and then the number of the episode. Okay, good. So we have episode 42, Sentences About Colors. I already told you one thing the last time, and I'm not going to cover that in detail again. If you want to say something is that color. You just say, "Der Tisch ist grün." "The table is green." Okay, so that one is simple. But, now let's cover questions and answers. So the very first way of asking, and that is super simple. The first one, and we're going to do others later, is you want to ask, " Is the table green?" So "Ist der Tisch grün?" "Is the table green?" And then you would reply, "Yes, the table is green." or, "No, the table is not green." Or you could say, of course: "No, the table is yellow." So let's do that. "Ist der Tisch grün?" "Nein, der Tisch ist gelb." So, "Ist der Tisch grün?" "Is the table green?" "Nein, der Tisch ist gelb." "No, the table is yellow." So let's do a few of those. How we're going to do that is I'm going to say the sentence in English first, and then I'm going to say the German translation and you're going to repeat that. " Is the window white?" "Ist das Fenster weiß?" "No, the window is black." "Nein, das Fenster ist schwarz." "Is the house green?" "Ist das Haus grün?" "No, the house is white." "Nein, das haus ist weiß." "Is the computer black?" "Ist der Computer schwarz?" " Yes, the computer is black." "Ja, der Computer ist schwarz." Is the floor brown?" "Ist der Boden braun?" " No, the floor is beige." " Nein, der Boden ist beige." " Is the couch pink?" "Ist die Couch rosa?" "No, the couch is yellow." "Nein der Couch ist gelb." So these are a few examples. I'm going to put more in the PDF and that's the simple one. And then we have a specialty. In English, if we ask, " What color is the chair?" I say, then as a response, "The chair is blue." And in German, we would say something like, " What color does the chair have?" {Welche Farbe hat der Stuhl?} Except that the way how we ask is a little simpler. The most direct translation would probably be, "What color has the chair?" And then I would usually say, still pretty much as in English, "The chair is blue." {Der Stuhl ist blau.} Also in German I would say, "The chair is blue." {Der Stuhl ist blau.} And that's pretty unique to colors and I haven't found it anywhere else, but— I ask, what color something has and then I reply, "It is blah." So don't put a lot of thought in there. It's an interesting anomaly that is not usual and it's probably not logical, but that's what we say. So let's make a few examples. So I want to say, let's do the one that we just did and with the German translation. "What color is the chair?" "Welche Farbe hat der Stuhl?" We have the word "haben" here. That's, " have." And that is in itself probably an interesting word. I'm going to make an episode about "to have." But here we'll just keep it simple and we just say, "Welche Farbe hat der Stuhl?" " What color does the chair have?" But I won't do the literal translation anymore because you understand that now. So, " What color is the chair?" " Welche Farbe hat der Stuhl?" " The chair is blue." "Der Stuhl ist blau." "What color is the book?" " "Welche Farbe hat das Buch?" " The book is red." "Das Buch ist rot." Next example. "Which color is the lamp?" "Welche Farbe hat die Lampe?" "The lamp is green." "Die Lampe is grun." So, next one, " What color is the pen?" "Welche Farbe hat der Stift?" " The pen is dark blue." "Der Stift ist dunkel blau." "What color is the picture?" " Welche Farbe hat das Bild?" "The picture is green " "Das Bild ist grün." "Which color is the ceiling?" " Farbe hat die Decke?" "The ceiling is white." "Die Decke ist weiß." " What color is the wall?" "Welche Farbe hat die Wand?" "The wall is pink." "Die Wand ist rosa." Okay, cool. So as a last step, I'm going to have more examples in the PDF, and as a last step, I'm going to give you some prompts. So I'm going to ask and you can answer, okay? Try it. If you find it very, very hard, then — I suggest you to do two things. Okay, so if you find this very hard, you can just listen to the podcast again and see how it goes. If you find it very hard, but you haven't listened to the previous episodes before, then I suggest you to do that, and also definitely get that PDF and try it with the PDF, and then you should be able to do it. And I also suggest you to do that and to practice that until it is easier. And the best thing, of course, is get a friend, grab him, make him listen to this thing, make him listen to the podcast or just the episode if he knows a little bit of German, and then practice it together and do it until you can do it easily. So here are a few sentences and you can answer them. I don't care which color, obviously, and always, if it seems hard, go back a step, practice the stuff before until it's very, very easy. It's always a sign that you have gone on too fast, when things become super difficult. I'm giving them to you in portions that you should be able to handle if you practice and if it seems very hard, then there is never a harm in going back and practicing those things. You cannot practice something simple too much. Okay, good. So here are a few examples. "Welche Farbe hat das Buch?" And now you would say "Das Buch ist weiß" — or something like that. Whatever color you want. Ideally, you look around and find one of those things. I'll try to use objects that you would likely have around you. So let's start. "Welche Farbe hat der Stuhl?" Very good! "Welche Farbe hat das Sofa?" Excellent! "Welche Farbe hat der Tisch?" Great! "Welche Farbe hat der Lampe?" Excellent! "Welche Farbe hat der Fußboden?" "Sehr gut." That means "very good." "Welche Farbe hat die Wand?" Great! Okay. So I hope you like that little bit of practice. If you feel you want more exercise, you can head to the Better German Community. It's a growing community, but I posting new things in there regularly and you have other people. So if you want more exercise, then head there. It would be great, and it's definitely going to be the community around the podcast. So if there is any questions you have about the podcast, then head to the community, find the podcast channels and ask them there. You can also engage with other students in there and find somebody to practice. So that's what I created the Better German Community for. Okay, cool. So tune in for the next episode. I am making episodes regularly again now. I have already several recorded, so they will be coming and hear you soon. 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. Bye bye.

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