Archive for June, 2018
How the Germans cope with their World Cup Elimination Posted by Sten on Jun 29, 2018
On Wednesday, Germany lost the match against South Korea in the Football World Cup in Russia. The Weltmeister (world champion) had high hopes, everybody had faith that they would do a good job. But now, they ended last in their Gruppe (group), and are ausgeschieden (eliminated) already. But how do the Germans cope with this Blamage (humiliation)? Das Spiel The Spiel (game) itself was not…
The German Subjunctive – Let’s Talk Konjunktiv! Posted by Sten on Jun 28, 2018
On this blog, we have explained before how to use tenses in German. But we have not yet looked at a rather peculiar tense in German yet: the Konjunktiv (subjunctive mood)! It comes in two parts, Konjunktiv I and Konjunktiv II. Today, we look at number I! Let’s go! What is the Konjunktiv? Konjunktiv (subjunctive mood) is a word that comes from the…
Body Parts In German – Advanced Posted by Constanze on Jun 27, 2018
Guten Tag! In my last post I took it back to basics and taught you what all of the different body parts are called in German. This is a topic that is always useful, especially if you go to the doctor in Germany, for example. As there are so many different body parts and names…
Untranslatable German Words: Der Nichtskönner Posted by Sten on Jun 26, 2018
What does Nichtskönner mean? The Duden gives us a straightforward definition: “jemand, der sein Fach nicht beherrscht; Stümper” (Someone that has not mastered their discipline; bungler) So that would give us a definition straight away! Done! Well, not quite. Nichtskönner is a word you could hear here and there, whereas bungler is not really used a lot. It…
German Vocabulary Shapes Posted by Larissa on Jun 26, 2018
Sometimes it’s the most simplest of words that you don’t know in a different language, I found myself the other day wondering what a rectangle was in German – which inspired me to write this post! Here’s some easy vocabulary about shapes in German. Let’s start with the basics: Shape(s) …
Body Parts In German – Simple Posted by Constanze on Jun 25, 2018
Guten Tag! Today I’d like to take it back to basics and teach you what all of the different body parts are called in German. This topic is always useful, especially if you go to the doctor in Germany, for example. As there are so many different body parts and names for everything, I’m going…
13 German Superstitions Posted by Constanze on Jun 20, 2018
Guten Tag! Today I thought it’d be fun to look at some superstitions – or Aberglauben – you may come across in Germany. Knowing what these are might help explain any ‘unusual’ behaviour you see in Germany, and help you to avoid making an embarrassing faux-pas yourself! Feel free to add any more German superstitions…