Reading supermarket labels

Etiketten im Supermarkt lesen

Recognise a unit price, weight, best-before date, offer and ingredients on a label.

Labels often use short phrases rather than full sentences. Preis pro Kilo gives a unit price, 500 Gramm a weight, and Zutaten the ingredients. Mindestens haltbar bis introduces a best-before date. Read the number together with its unit or date label. Review the weight vocabulary from the quantities lesson. Die Packung means the pack. Wie viel wiegt die Packung? asks its weight; Ist sie im Angebot? asks whether it is on special offer. Sie refers to the feminine noun Packung here.

First identify the label word: Preis, Zutaten or Mindestens haltbar bis. Then read the amount or date that belongs to it. A label fragment does not need a verb to give useful information.

A pack can show both its own price and a price pro Kilo. These describe different quantities. Zutaten is where you find the ingredient names, while Im Angebot identifies an offer.

Write Preis pro Kilo in this unit-price expression, not Preis pro Kilos. Ausgang is a valid German word meaning exit, but it is not the word for ingredients.

Preis: price. Gramm: weight. Zutaten: ingredients. Stück: item count. A date such as 10.09. is day then month.

Read a fictional label containing 500 Gramm, Preis pro Kilo and Zutaten. Explain which part gives weight, which gives a price basis and which introduces the contents.