German Language Blog

Here´s the solution to the quiz I published some days ago. Compare it to yours…

1. How many residents are there approximately in Germany?
About 82,45 Million.

2. Name three rivers in Germany!
Rhein, Donau, Elbe, Neckar, Spree…

3. How many “Bundesländer” are there in Germany? Name three of them, including their capitals.
There are 16 Bundesländer. For example Bayern (München), Niedersachsen (Hannover), Nordrhein-Westfalen (Düsseldorf), Thüringen (Erfurt), Baden-Württemberg (Stuttgart), Sachsen (Dresden), Schleswig-Holstein (Kiel)…

4. What is the name of the highest mountain in Germany?
Zugspitze

5. Who is currently Bundeskanzler/in of Germany?
Angela Merkel

6. Name three neighboring countries of Germany!
France, Denmark, Poland, Austria, Switzerland, Netherlands…

7. The first republic with a democratic constitution was proclaimed in 1918. What was its name?
Weimarer Republik.

8. What was the name of the party that ruled between 1933 and 1945?
NSDAP (Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei)

9. What happened on the 8th of May, 1945?
It was the end of World War 2 in Europe.

10. What does DDR mean?
Deutsche Demokratische Republik.

11. When was the German reunification?
In 1990. The fall of the Berlin wall took place in 1989.

12. Which right is protected by Artikel 1 of the German constitution?
The dignity of humans.

13. Which political parties are currently represented in the German Bundestag? Name at least three of them.
CDU, CSU, SPD, Grüne, FDP, Linkspartei.PDS

14. Germany has some important universities. Name three of them!
Heidelberg, Münster, Göttingen…

15. Name one nationwide newspaper and one public TV channel!
Newspapers: “Süddeutsche Zeitung”, “Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung”, “Die Welt”

TV Channels: ARD, ZDF.

16. Name three German actors or actresses!
Muriel Baumeister, Meret Becker, Heike Makatsch, Til Schweiger, Christoph Waltz, Daniel Brühl…well, there are hundreds of others as well

17. Name three German sportspersons!
Michael Schumacher, Oliver Kahn, Dirk Nowitzki, Heike Drechsler…

18. What did Johannes Gutenberg invent?
Printing.

19. There were two pioneers in automotive engineering in Germany. Do you know their names?
Karl Benz and Gottlieb Daimler.

20. Do you know the colours of the German flag? And how are they arranged?
Black, red, gold. In this order from top to bottom.

Hi everyone,

due to the sunny weather over here, I´m in the mood to give you a little quiz about Germany. Test your knowledge about the country! Here we go…

1. How many residents are there approximately in Germany?

2. Name three rivers in Germany!

3. How many “Bundesländer” are there in Germany? Name three of them, including their capitals.

4. What is the name of the highest mountain in Germany?

5. Who is currently Bundeskanzler/in of Germany?

6. Name three neighboring countries of Germany!

7. The first republic with a democratic constitution was proclaimed in 1918. What was its name?

8. What was the name of the party that ruled between 1933 and 1945?

9. What happened on the 8th of May, 1945?

10. What does DDR mean?

11. When was the German reunification?

12. Which right is protected by Artikel 1 of the German constitution?

13. Which political parties are currently represented in the German Bundestag? Name at least three of them.

14. Germany has some important universities. Name three of them!

15. Name one nationwide newspaper and one public TV channel!

16. Name three German actors or actresses!

17. Name three German sportspersons!

18. What did Johannes Gutenberg invent?

19. There were two pioneers in automotive engineering in Germany. Do you know their names?

20. Do you know the colours of the German flag? And how are they arranged?

Try your best and share your solutions in the comment field. I´ll publish some answers in a couple of days…

Is the new pope, Jorge Mario Bergoglio, a cannibal who favors his Argentinian fellow-countrymen as a delicious meal, just like the headline in a German newspaper suggested? Admittedly, I have no idea what kind of diet Francis, the 266^th pontiff of the Roman Catholic Church prefers but I’m pretty sure that he is not after human meat. Why do I float the question whether Pope Francis has designs on humans for supper?

A German newspaper brought forth: “Der neue Papst isst Argentinier”, which means “The new Pope eats Argentines”. Actually, the writer of this newspaper articles wanted to say this: “Der neue Papst ist Argentinier” (“The new Pope is Argentinian”). So, what led to this linguistic accident?

The conjugated forms (2^nd and 3^rd person singular) of the German verbs “sein” (to be) and “essen” (to eat) share one and the same sound chain, that is, “ist” and “isst” are homophones – the pronunciation of both these forms is identical – but orthographically they mean two different things. In order to make sure that you do not walk right into the same trap, I give you an overview of the correct conjugated forms of both the German verbs sein and essen:

As you can see, German shares one and the same form for English “you”, “she”, and “they”, which is “sie” and “Sie”, respectively. When you refer to your immediate counterpart in personal communication make sure to use a CAPITAL letter in formal address.

Unfortunately, the editor’s mistake is irreversible but one thing is for sure: he or she is most probably a laughing stock in the office and definitely among members of the language police. My final remark: Spell-check can save lives!