Archive for June, 2019
How or what is a Spitzenkandidat? Posted by Sten on Jun 27, 2019
A significantly higher voter turnout made the European elections held a month ago a success for democracy. But there is one thing: The different leaders cannot agree on which of the Spitzenkandidaten should follow up Jean-Claude Juncker, the current president of the European Commission, the executive organ of the European Union. Let’s talk about that…
The German Word ‘Zeug’ Posted by Constanze on Jun 26, 2019
Guten Tag! Today we’re looking at a very small, but very versatile German word: das Zeug. Simply put, Zeug (das) means thing, or stuff. It is quite common to hear people say things like ‘Was ist das für ein Zeug?’ (‘What kind of thing/stuff is this?’). Zeug can refer to one thing, or several things…
Germany’s Illegal Sustainability Trend Posted by Larissa on Jun 25, 2019
Sustainability is becoming more important everyday as the world becomes more aware of climate change. However in Germany one sustainability trend is actually illegal. Tonnes of food is thrown away every day, mainly from supermarkets because it is past its sell by date, this however doesn’t mean it isn’t edible. Containern – in English “dumpster…
5 More German Placeholders Posted by Constanze on Jun 24, 2019
Guten Tag! We briefly touched on German placeholders in this post, about the words Krimskrams (stuff, junk) and Dingsbums (thingy, thingymajig). Then we looked at German placeholders for names, such as John Doe. A placeholder (der Platzhalter) is a generic word you use in place of a real word. This might be because you can’t…
Colors in German – How does the grammar work? Posted by Sten on Jun 21, 2019
There is some weird stuff going on with the Grammatik (grammar) of Farben (colors) in German. Sometimes they are capitalized. Sometimes not. What are the rules? And how can you determine what to do? Let’s have a look. Substantivierung As a small reminder, Substantive (nouns) are written with a capital first letter. This is pretty…
German Placeholders: Names Posted by Constanze on Jun 19, 2019
Guten Tag! We briefly touched on German placeholders in this post, about the words Krimskrams (stuff, junk) and Dingsbums (thingy, thingymajig). Now we’re going to look at lots more placeholders in German, starting with German names. A placeholder is a generic word you use in place of a real word. This might be because you…
The Curiosity of the German Word “Koffein” Posted by Sten on Jun 13, 2019
Do you drink Kaffee (coffee)? Whether you drink it because you like the Geschmack (taste), just out of Gewohnheit (habit) or for the Koffein (caffeine), it sure is a very popular Getränk (drink). But wait a second – Kaffee contains Koffein? What’s going on here? Click here for previous entries in the series on curious words in German A Curious History So even though Kaffee is written…