Archive for January, 2012
Die Sendung mit der Maus – The Program with the Mouse Posted by anja on Jan 31, 2012
When searching for German language learning resources online, I discovered this wonderful website: Sachgeschichten aus der Sendung mit der Maus. Sachgeschichten means “non-fictional stories”, and Die Sendung mit der Maus is, I’d say, Germany’s most famous TV program after the crime television series Tatort (english title: Crime Scene), so I am dedicating a whole article…
Getting from A to B in Germany: part 2 of 2 Posted by anja on Jan 21, 2012
In my last post I talked about traveling Germany by train, and I promised to tell you about other ways of getting around. So here we go! A cheaper alternative to train travel is carpooling. There are several websites dedicated to aranging long-distance carpools, the one with the largest community being mitfahrgelegenheit.de. Usually the person…
Weibliche Substantive im Deutschen erkennen: Teil 4 – Detecting German feminine nouns: part 4 Posted by Sandra Rösner on Jan 20, 2012
After we have hashed and rehashed feminine nouns in the last three posts, we finally come to an end of this topic. Remember that all nouns are feminine that refer to: – female human beings (Mutter-mother; Frau-woman, wife; Tochter-daughter; the only exception is “Mädchen”-girl, which is neuter because of the syllable –chen) – female occupations…
Weibliche Substantive im Deutschen erkennen: Teil 3 – Detecting German feminine nouns: part 3 Posted by Sandra Rösner on Jan 18, 2012
Why are some nouns in German masculine, others feminine, and still others neuter? I am probably not the only one who is asking this question. And to make things worse: there isn’t any logical explanation for that. I pondered over that question quite a long time to give you, at least, a more or less…
Weibliche Substantive im Deutschen erkennen: Teil 2 – Detecting German feminine nouns: part 2 Posted by Sandra Rösner on Jan 16, 2012
Last time is was said that all those nouns are feminine, which refer to female humans (die Mutter-mother; die Tante-aunt), female animals (die Stute-mare; die Sau-sow), and female occupations (die Ärztin-phyisician; die Friseurin-haidresser). Let’s have a look now, which nouns are also commonly feminine in German. a) Some names of animal species die Auster…
German characters: Wilhelm Busch Posted by jan on Jan 15, 2012
Today I want to introduce another German character to you. This one is for sure not as bekannt (famous) as Albert Einstein for example. But anyway he made his contribution to German poetry, humor and language. Heinrich Christian Wilhelm Busch was born on April 15th 1832 in Widensahl. He was one of the most influentual…
Getting from A to B in Germany: part 1 of 2 Posted by anja on Jan 14, 2012
What comes to your mind first when you think of Germany? Lederhosen, Bratwurst, Bier, und – Autos? (leather trousers, bratwurst, beer, and – cars?) I bet that most likely you’ve been thinking “cars”. Or “Autobahn” (controlled-access highway). And while I’m not going to get into the leather pants, bratwursts, and beer thing this time, I…