Archive by Author
German Similes To Make You Smile Posted by Constanze on Jun 13, 2018
Guten Tag! After what feels like a lot of grammar and vocabulary posts from me, it’s time for something a little more light-hearted. Today I’d like to bring you a quirky German phrase. The phrase is: grinsen wie ein Honigkuchenpferd. Grinsen wie ein Honigkuchenpferd This phrase translates to ‘To smile like a honey cake horse’…
Ways To Use The German Word ‘Immer’ Posted by Constanze on Jun 6, 2018
Guten Tag! Today I’d like to bring you a seemingly simple, German word that can be used in a variety of ways to mean different things. That word is the German word immer – always. So the basic definition of immer is always: Ja, so ist es immer – Yes, it’s always like…
German Subordinating Conjunctions Posted by Constanze on May 30, 2018
Guten Tag! Today I’m bringing you a simple post on German subordinating conjunctions. If even the name of this makes you yawn, don’t worry – I’m going to keep it simple! German subordinating conjunctions are basically ‘joining words’ such as because, although, and before. In this post I’ll explain what these kinds of joining words…
The German Colour Eigengrau Posted by Constanze on May 23, 2018
When you walk around in pitch dark, you only see black in front of you, right? In German, you see a colour called Eigengrau. Eigengrau, which literally means own grey or intrinsic grey, is the shade of black seen by the eye in complete darkness. On the Hex colour chart, where black is #000000, Eigengrau…
German Surnames & Their Meanings Posted by Constanze on May 16, 2018
If I were to ask you to think of a German surname, what would be the first one to come to mind? Schmidt, maybe? Stein? In this post I will show you some of the most popular German surnames, give you their meanings, and provide some general information about German surnames, too. Let’s get started…
German Kofferwörter (Portmanteau Words) Posted by Constanze on May 9, 2018
Today the topic is all about German Kofferwörter. These are words that mix two or more existing words together to create a new word with a blended meaning. These are what the English call portmanteau words. Examples in English include Brexit (Britain + Exit, to describe Britain exiting the EU), smog (smoke + fog), and…
The German But Posted by Constanze on May 2, 2018
Guten Tag! If I were to ask you the German word for ‘but’ the first one to come into your mind would most likely be ‘aber’. This is indeed the German word for it, and probably the most common one. But have you ever seen the words jedoch, allerdings or nichtsdestotrotz in a sentence? These…