Archive for December, 2011
German tenses in use: Präsens Posted by Sandra Rösner on Dec 12, 2011
The German language has six tenses: Präsens, Präteritum, Perfekt, Plusquamperfekt, Futur I, and Futur II. Unlike English, there aren’t any special continuous forms in German. For starters, let’s have a closer look to the Präsens, which is basically equivalent to the English tenses Simple Present and Present Progressive. You can use the Präsens under four…
A visit to one of Berlin’s Christmas markets Posted by anja on Dec 11, 2011
Although snow hasn’t reached Berlin yet, when you are out in the city you cannot miss that it’s Christmas time. People may have decorated the trees in their front yards with Christmas balls or electric lights. The city itself has also done some spectacular decoration with the help of its electricity supplier: The linden trees…
German ‘sich fügen’ and ‘hinzufügen’ Posted by Sandra Rösner on Dec 7, 2011
I have recognized that some of you try to express the request that ‘other members of Facebook should add you’ while using German. This has always resulted in the phrase “Bitte fügen Sie mich”, which is ineffectual (!) because it literally means: ‘Please, conform me.’. So, I guess you have used Google Translator. Fortunately, I…
German Christmas markets and Advent season Posted by Sandra Rösner on Dec 4, 2011
Today is the zweite Advent (second Sunday in Advent) and there are about only three weeks left to Christmas. So, it is höchste Zeit (hight time) to tell you how Germans spend the Vorweihnachtszeit (pre-Christmas season). In Germany, the official pre-Christmas season starts on the ersten Advent (first Sunday in Advent). Germans render homage to…
Are you really ‘boring’ or just ‘bored’? – Using German “langweilig” correctly Posted by Sandra Rösner on Dec 2, 2011
I have recognized that some of you who practice their German on Facebook try to convey their feeling of boredom by saying: “Ich bin langweilig.” I assume that you simply wanted to express “I am bored.” But what you really said was this: “I am boring.” Whereas English distinguishes the precise meaning of whether you…
German characters: Alexander von Humboldt Posted by jan on Dec 1, 2011
Friedrich Wilhelm Heinrich Alexander von Humboldt was a German Naturwissenschaftler (naturaly scientist) and his fields reached far over European borders. With his complete works, that took more than seven Jahrzehnte (decades), he created a new level of knowledge and reflection regarding the whole world and became a cofounder of geography as a empiric science. Alexander…