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German has sentence tags, hasn’t it? – Tags in German Posted by Sten on Oct 15, 2021
English is a bit (in)famous for its use of sentence tags, those little endings of sentences to indicate that you are looking for agreement or confirmation. It’s nice, isn’t it? German, like many other languages, doesn’t have such tags. But we do ask for confirmation like this, too, of course! So, how does German do…
German Idioms 32: Rainy days! Posted by Sten on Sep 30, 2021
Summer is done, it’s time for der Herbst (autumn/fall)! And what comes with this time of the year? Well, der Regen (rain), of course. So let’s look at a idioms again. Here’s a Sprichwort (n, saying) and a Ausdruck (m, expression) that are related to Regen! For previous posts in the series on German Idioms, please follow this link. Sich regen bringt Segen Literally…
Why Germans Find Dropping Crumbs Annoying: Korinthenkacker! Posted by Sten on Sep 23, 2021
Have you met those people that really care about what’s technically correct, even if it isn’t all that relevant? You know, whether to use a colon or a dash. Or that it’s technically incorrect to write prepositions at the end of sentences. People you generally don’t want to mess with. Oh sorry, people with whom you generally…
How Two Families Escaped to West Germany in a Balloon Posted by Sten on Sep 17, 2021
It’s September 16, 1979. Germany is still separated in East and West. The Berlin wall has stood for almost 20 years. Germans live and grow up in two very different realities. One communist and supervised by the state, the other capitalist and free. Before the wall, things were easier. Many chose to leave their homes…
A German Greeting From the Heart: Moin! Posted by Sten on Sep 13, 2021
We recently covered the curious greeting from Hamburg Hummel, Hummel – mors, mors! But today, we’ll look into one that is perhaps less curious, but it is a lot more popular: Moin! or sometimes also Moin, moin! What does this word mean, where does it come from, where will you hear it? What does moin mean? German knows many greetings…
The Story Behind A Strange German Greeting: Hummel, Hummel! Posted by Sten on Sep 3, 2021
If you’ve wandered the streets of Hamburg, you may have heard a weird greeting. One shouts Hummel Hummel!, and the other will answer mors, mors! And they’ll just move on with their day as if nothing happened. What does that greeting mean, and where does it come from? It’s a cute story, and there is quite some…
How to translate the untranslatable German word Gemeinheit Posted by Sten on Aug 30, 2021
Thanks to our reader Rob Prichard for pointing out that die Gemeinheit is a word that is rather untranslatable in our post on the word Multikulti. Never thought about that one as untranslatable! But let’s find out why, and what you might want to translate it as! What does Gemeinheit mean? A Gemeinheit is a mean thing somebody does to you…