Ordering Lunch for the Team in German — Office Vocabulary

After this lesson you can take an order, phone it through and hand it out.

Do this first: Present tense

Ordering Lunch for the Team in German — Office Vocabulary

Taking an order, phoning it through and handing it out is a fixed little script. Learn the phrases and the whole errand runs in German.

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Kulturnotiz

The German office lunch is taken seriously and taken away from the desk — eating at your keyboard is regarded as slightly sad rather than hard-working. Many companies run a Kantine with a hot meal, and colleagues go together at a fixed time. And the splitting is real: an app transfer for €6.80 after a shared order is completely normal and not considered petty.

Common questions

+How do I order two of the same thing?

Use -mal: einmal, zweimal, dreimal Currywurst. It is the standard counter form and sounds more natural than zwei Currywurst.

+How do I ask about dietary requirements?

Isst du vegetarisch? or Hast du Allergien? Both are ordinary, unremarkable questions in a German office — asking is expected rather than intrusive.

+Should I pay for everyone?

Usually not. Ask zusammen oder getrennt? and expect people to want to pay their share, often by instant transfer afterwards. Splitting precisely is the norm, not meanness.

+Which verbs here are separable?

abholen (Ich hole das Essen ab) and anrufen (Ich rufe an). Both conjugate normally and send the prefix to the end of the clause.

Practise these words

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