Archive for October, 2017
Germany In Different Languages Posted by Constanze on Oct 30, 2017
Allemagne in French. Niemcy in Polish. Germany in English. Deutschland in German. Have you ever noticed how the word ‘Germany’ looks completely different in different languages? Have you ever wondered why that is? Germany has a very central position in Europe. Furthermore, before it became united it was home to many different tribes and states…
Swiss National Sports: Hornussen Posted by Sten on Oct 27, 2017
All countries have some sport that has some tradition, or that is extremely popular. The United States, for example, has American football, baseball and basketball. Brazil and Germany have football/soccer, the British have rugby and cricket, the Canadians ice hockey… But what about the Swiss? There are actually three national sports. And I have never…
German-English Cognates Posted by Constanze on Oct 25, 2017
Guten Tag! In a recent post, Six Reasons To Learn German, I mentioned that German and English are from the same language family – the Indo-European family – which means both languages have taken words from Latin, Greek and French. Because of this, there are numerous cognates (words sharing a common source) that look and sound…
Untranslatable German Words: Verschlimmbesserung Posted by Constanze on Oct 18, 2017
Guten Tag, and welcome to another ‘untranslatable words’ post! This is a series where we look at words unique to the German language, and try to find an equivalent English translation for them. So without further ado, today’s word is: die Verschlimmbesserung. What does die Verschlimmbesserung mean? Die Verschlimmbesserung describes an action that is supposed…
Halloween Vocabulary in German Posted by Larissa on Oct 17, 2017
Halloween is just round the corner where everyone gets to dress up and eat their weight in candy. Although Halloween originates from a celtic festival (which is now where Ireland is), Halloween is celebrated all around the world – even in Germany! Here are some keywords to help you get into the Halloween spirit in…
Six Reasons To Learn German Posted by Constanze on Oct 5, 2017
If you’re reading this blog post, it’s safe to assume you’re either a) already learning German, or b) thinking about it. Maybe you have a specific reason to learn German (family, work, etc.) or you’re interested in language learning in general, and are considering German as the language you want to learn. Whatever your reason…