Archive for October, 2020
Untranslatable German: Feierabend Posted by Sten on Oct 30, 2020
Es ist 17:00. Endlich! Feierabend. (It’s 5 pm. Finally! End of the work day.) Time to go home, or go by the Kneipe (bar) and get a Bier (beer) to relax and wind down. A typical, almost stereotypical German Brauch (tradition). And Feierabend is the untranslatable word here. Let’s look at what it means and what perhaps could be an English…
A German Construction Disaster Comes to A Close Posted by Sten on Oct 29, 2020
Finally! After years and years of delays and billions of euros over budget, Berlin’s new airport BER will finally open this Saturday, October 31. Just so you get an idea of how big a deal this is: The airport was supposed to open in 2007. You read that right, not 2017, but 13 years ago! The…
German History: The White Rose Movement Posted by Constanze on Oct 28, 2020
Guten Tag! It’s been a while since I’ve done a travel/history post, so that’s what today’s post will be about! Today we’re going to München, Germany to learn about Sophie Scholl and Weiße Rose (White Rose), a political movement from 1942. Weiße Rose was started by a group of students at Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität (Ludwig Maximilian University…
German Theater Posted by Larissa on Oct 27, 2020
I have always loved going to the theater. Due to the global pandemic the arts are currently struggling and the last time I went to the theater was last year. I have devoted this post to all of the vocabulary that you would need when going to the theater (or even being in a Theaterstück)…
The German Word ‘Gell’ Posted by Constanze on Oct 21, 2020
Guten Tag! In today’s post, I’m bringing you two German words that are the same, but have different meanings. There are several words like this in German, the difference sometimes being their gender (der Taube – deaf person, and die Taube – pigeon, for example), or that the word ending changes when plural (die Mutter…
Don’t Let It Confuse You! – Stall Posted by Sten on Oct 15, 2020
In this series, we look at words that exist in English, but have a completely different meaning in German, so-called false friends. But we also look at words that sound or look deceivingly similar. Today, we look at a word that really means something else than you might think – Stall! For previous posts in this…
German ‘Mother’ Words Posted by Constanze on Oct 14, 2020
Guten Tag! In a recent post, I looked at the word Muttermal in detail. Whilst researching that post, it occurred to me how many German words start with the word mother – die Mutter. Some have obvious translations, while others are a little more intriguing. Today I thought I’d give you a handful of these…