German Language Blog

In one of my last posts I already wrote about school life in the former GDR but how does it look like nowadays?

It has been quite a while that I attended school and I am sure that many things have changed since then but others might still remain the same. For example, some years ago the overall school years differed from Bundesland (federal state) to Bundesland. In some Bundesländer students had to attend school for 13 years – when intending to take the Abitur (high school diploma) – and in other Bundeländer they “only” had to attend school for 12 years – because the period of school years is based on the cultural sovereignty and federal state law of the single federal states of Germany. Meanwhile, the single states of Germany have agreed on introducing a 12-years period, that is, in states where students had to attend school for 13 years (when passing the Abitur), there, they now do also “only” have to attend school for only 12 years.

Former 12-years’ students even used to make fun of students who went to school for 13 years and said that they would not do any school-related things in their 13^th year but instead some kind of acting lessons because they wondered why others had one year more to manage the same amount of subject matter. Their slogan was:

“Zwölf Jahre Schule und ein Jahr Schauspielunttericht.” (Twelve years of schooling and one year drama classes.)

Anyway, let’s come to the point of this post, I would like to share my school experience with you.

Actually, I cannot say that there is something like a typical German school day because how a day is structured is different from school to school. For example, one common thing in German school is the Hofpause (“yard break”), which is usually around noon. By this, it is guaranteed that students take some fresh air and have time to eat their lunch. At my Gymnasium we had those Hofpausen after every second lesson, so at least, three a day. In other schools there was only one Hofpause per day.

A further major difference between German schools and, primarily, US American ones is that classes are always held in/with the same groups. For example, when there are about 100 students in a particular year, they are divided into four major groups, named A, B, C, and D. These groups have constantly lessons together and are never separated. Only in Sekundarstufe II (secondary education II), which is from class 11 onwards, the students of the four (or sometimes more) classes are mixed and have lessons in so-called Kursen (curses).

A third difference between German and American schools is that schools do not have a canteen where the students could have lunch. Usually, students in Germany have to bring their own food, e.g. sandwiches. Nevertheless, some schools have small shops where students can buy soft drinks and, unfortunately, fast food.

Well, that’s all what comes to my mind. When you have any further questions regarding school life in Germany do not hesitate to ask or share with me how a school day looks like in your country, so that I can recognize what differences are there as well.

My former school

Being a native speaker of English learning German you might sooner or later come across German words you seem to be familiar with. Sometimes these words contain the meanings you might give them, but sometime these words can be totally misleading. Those misleading words are called False Friends! False friends in language are words spelled the same or almost the same in German and English but have different meanings. So, always pay attention to words you assume to already know because, at worse, they could trip you up.

False Friends

¹ The German word “See” has two meanings, which are dependent on the article being used. When you put the masculine article “der” before this noun it means lake (der See) but when you put the feminine article before the noun it means sea (die See).

There are, of course, many more of such false friends and it is quite difficult for me to think of and list them all. Maybe you have already come across some “funny” German words that are spelled like words in your native language. I would be happy if you could share them with me and other users…

My last post was about German weak verbs. In addition to the explanation how to conjugate weak verbs in German, I gave you an exercise where you had to fill in the blanks with the correct conjugated forms of the verbs used in the example sentences. Following you find the key to the exercise, the English translations of the sentences, and some further notes to some verb meanings.

1. suchen – to look for: Ich suche das Museum. – I am looking for the museum.

The German word “suchen” has three common English equivalents, these are: to look for, to search, and to seek. So, if you need to know the German meaning of any of the three English verbs you can always opt for German “suchen”.

2. reservieren – to book: Peter reserviert ein Hotelzimmer. – Peter books/is booking a hotel room.

The German verb “reservieren” can either be translated as to reserve or to book (which again can also me translated as “buchen”). Further, in German you do not distinguish between simple and progressive tenses, thus, you can use the German Präsens Tense for both Simple Present and Present Progressive.

3. warten – to wait: Sie (Anne und Stefan) warten auf den Bus. – They are waiting for the bus.

The German sentence “Sie warten auf den Bus” is ambiguous because it can either be translated as “You are waiting for the bus” or as “They are waiting for the bus”. Which meaning this sentence has indeed is only recognizable in the speech situation.

4. mieten – to rent: Ihr mietet ein Auto. – You rent/are renting a car.

5. fragen – to ask: Wir fragen  nach der Adresse. – We ask for the address.

The most common English translation of the German verb “fragen” is to ask, but this German verb can also be translated as to question, which again can be translated as “hinterfragen”, in order to intensify the meaning of ‘asking’.

6. lernen – to learn: Ich lerne Deutsch. – I learn/am learning German.

As mentioned above, the German language does not distinguish between simple and progressive forms. Thus, “Ich lerne Deutsch” can either mean that you are doing it actively at the moment of speaking or it can also mean that this is general, current action. Mind: When you would like to say that ‘you have been learning German for x years now’ you simply use the Präsens tense sentence and insert the particular time that you have learned German, e.g. “Ich lerne (jetzt) seit zwei Jahren Deutsch.” = “I have been learning German for two years (now).”

7. reisen – to travel: Ich reise nach Hamburg. – I travel/am travelling to Hamburg.

8. brauchen –to need: Er braucht ein Taxi. – He needs a taxi.

9. telefonieren – to phone; to call: Du telefonierst mit deiner Mutter. – You are calling your mother.

10. bestellen – to order: Tina bestellt ein Glas Wein. – Tina orders/is ordering a glass of wine.

11. tanzen – to dance: Frau Schmidt, Sie tanzen gut! – Frau Schmidt, you are dancing well!

12. arbeiten – to work: Der Professor arbeitet jeden Tag. – The professor works every day.

In German, we distinguish between male and female job titles. All you have to do to make an occupation feminine is to replace the masculine article “der” with the feminine article “die” and add the ending –in to the masculine form of the noun, e.g. der Lehrer -> die Lehrerin (teacher), der Jounalist -> die Journalistin (journalist), der Verkäufer -> die Verkäuferin (sales assitant).

13. öffnen – to open: Die Professorin öffnet das Fenster. – The (female) professor opens the window.

14. Kosten – to cost Die Pizza kostet nur 5 Euro. – The pizza is just 5 Euros. / The pizza costs just 5 Euros.

The German verb “kosten” has, at least, two English equivalents: to be and to cost, thus, for me as a German, it is still quite tricky when to use one or the other. But to keep things simple, when you would like to ask “How much is that/it?”, the correct German phrase is “Wie viel kostet das?”