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German Christmas tale: Der Weihnachtsstern, pt. 2 Posted by Sandra Rösner on Dec 29, 2012
Als Ottar sich darüber klar war, dass es der Stern der Weisen sein musste, den er sah, wurde er so aufgeregt, dass er das Holz einfach fallen ließ, durch die Hoftür hinauslief und die Richtung einschlug, die der Stern wies. Er versuchte, den Kopf so weit wie möglich in den Nacken zu legen und…
German Christmas tale: Der Weihnachtsstern (pt. 1) Posted by Sandra Rösner on Dec 21, 2012
It’s only four days to Christmas and maybe some of you are full of Christmas stress. I’d like to invite you to calm down a little bit by listening to a Christmas tale, of course, in German. The tale is about the star of Bethlehem and the idea what Christmas should really be: a time…
Leise rieselt der Schnee – The snow is fluttering softly? Posted by Sandra Rösner on Dec 20, 2012
It was only last week that I had severe difficulties to get my car from the parking space in front of my house – that high was the snow. After I had tried it a couple of times, I decided to leave the car behind and walk instead. But walking wasn’t easy either. Have you…
German possessive pronouns in the genitive case Posted by Sandra Rösner on Dec 12, 2012
Sometimes, German can be a tough language. This is also true when it comes to possessive pronouns. Possessive pronouns are the parts of speech, which indicate that something or someone belongs to something or someone else. For example, you can say: “This is my brother.” – “Das ist mein Bruder.” “This is your book.” –…
Mein, dein, sein, ihr, etc.: German possessive pronouns in the nominative case Posted by Sandra Rösner on Dec 6, 2012
The ability to change perspectives when we talk with one another is one of the most awesome characteristics of humans. That is, when a speaker uses the word “I” in his or her statements we automatically know that this person is talking of him- or herself and not of one of us. Memorizing German personal…
5 striking features of the Berlin Dialect Posted by Sandra Rösner on Oct 29, 2012
One of the most painful truths for foreign learners of German is that hardly any German speaks his or her mother language as textbooks propagate. To put it crudely, German is a kind of diglossia, which means that various spoken dialects coexist. These dialects can even be that different from the standard language that even…
Telling the time in German: Around the clock in 5-minute steps, part 2 Posted by Sandra Rösner on Oct 23, 2012
This is the continuation of my last post in which I told how to read the time when using mechanical clocks. As a matter of fact, it is often quite difficult to tell the exact time when using mechanical clocks or watches. This is especially true when the big hand of you watch is somewhere…