Archive for August, 2018
Is The German Language Sexist? Posted by Constanze on Aug 29, 2018
German has three genders for its nouns: der (masculine), die (feminine) and das (neuter). A common point of confusion amongst German language learners is why each noun has its assigned gender – especially when there is no pattern to it and/or its gender doesn’t appear to make sense. For example, a table in German is…
The Edelweiss And Its Meaning Posted by Constanze on Aug 22, 2018
Guten Tag! Today’s post is all about Edelweiss. I have countless pieces of jewellery from Germany with the Edelweiss on it, but it was only recently that I stopped to wonder: Why, exactly, is the Edelweiss so symbolic of Germany? What does it mean? Why is it everywhere? First of all, it came to my…
Tricky German Pronunciation Part 2 (With Audio) Posted by Constanze on Aug 15, 2018
Guten Tag! This is part 2 of a requested post (please find part 1 here). Following my posts ‘German Words You Don’t Want To Mix Up’ parts 1 and 2, a lot of people were interested in a post with audio clips of words and sounds that look similar, but are very different. Sometimes in…
Let’s Count Insects! – Insektensommer 2018 Posted by Sten on Aug 9, 2018
It is a hot Sommer (summer), an besonderer (exceptional) one. But there is also something not that besonders about this Sommer: In general, more and more Germans say: Es gibt immer weniger Insekten (There are fewer and fewer insects). Some claim that they had to start the Scheibenwischer (windshield wiper) to remove all the Insekten from their Frontscheibe a few years ago. Now, they may have just a single Fleck (spot). Aber…
Tricky German Pronunciation Part 1 (With Audio) Posted by Constanze on Aug 8, 2018
Guten Tag! This is part 1 of a requested post. Following my posts ‘German Words You Don’t Want To Mix Up’ parts 1 and 2, a lot of people were interested in a post with audio clips of words and sounds that look similar, but are very different. Sometimes in German, when we mispronounce a…
7 Ways To Say Sorry In German Posted by Constanze on Aug 1, 2018
Entschuldiging, Verzeihung, Es tut mir Leid, Mein Beileid….. Have you ever noticed how many different ways there are to say ‘sorry’ in German? It might leave you wondering whether there’s any difference between them, and if it’s better to say one over the other. In this post I’m going to explain the different German words…