GCSE German: House, Home and Local Area Revision Guide

Key vocabulary

• das Haus — the house
• die Wohnung — the flat/apartment
• das Wohnzimmer — the living room
• das Schlafzimmer — the bedroom
• die Küche — the kitchen
• das Badezimmer — the bathroom
• der Garten — the garden
• die Stadt — the town/city
• das Dorf — the village

Describing your home

Use Es gibt... (there is/are...) to list rooms: In meinem Haus gibt es vier Schlafzimmer und eine Küche. (In my house there are four bedrooms and one kitchen.) Describe rooms with adjectives like groß (big), klein (small), modern and gemütlich (cosy).

Describing your town

Useful phrases include Meine Stadt ist ruhig (My town is quiet), Es gibt viele Geschäfte (There are many shops) and Ich wohne in der Nähe von... (I live near...). To describe advantages and disadvantages, use der Vorteil (advantage) and der Nachteil (disadvantage).

Prepositions of place

Prepositions like neben (next to), zwischen (between), vor (in front of), hinter (behind), auf (on) and unter (under) are used with the dative case when describing a fixed position. For example: Der Stuhl steht neben dem Tisch. (The chair is next to the table.) Die Bank ist zwischen der Post und dem Supermarkt. (The bank is between the post office and the supermarket.)

Common mistakes

• Using the accusative case instead of the dative case after prepositions of fixed position.
• Forgetting that room words like "das Zimmer" are neuter, so they use "das" not "der" or "die".
• Confusing "die Stadt" (town/city) with "das Land" (country/countryside).