Archive for 'Literature'
German Library Vocabulary Posted by Constanze on Oct 13, 2021
Guten Tag! Today’s post is all about German library vocabulary. Did you know that Transparent Language Online is available in many libraries all around the world? Perhaps you’re reading this post from a library right now! In this post we’ll look at German vocabulary related to libraries, and I’ll tell you a little about one…
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…
Two of the Longest Words in German Posted by Larissa on Jan 22, 2019
As an English speaker we are used to short, simple words, which means it can be quite intimidating when reading German words that are three times as long as what they are in English! Here’s a post with two of the longest German words, what they mean, and some tips on helping you decipher those…
A Unique German Way To Say It’s Snowing Posted by Constanze on Feb 7, 2018
Guten Tag! Is it snowing where you live? For me, there’s nothing better than that moment of seeing snow outside and exclaiming Es schneit! to whoever will listen. Today I’d like to give you a very different way of saying ‘It’s snowing’ in German. Frau Holle schüttelt ihre Betten aus A unique way of saying…
“i bims!” The Youth Word of the Year 2017 Posted by Sten on Nov 28, 2017
About a week and a half ago, Langenscheidt, publisher of dictionaries and other language-related works, announced the Jugendwort des Jahres 2017 (Youth Word of the Year 2017). Let’s explore! I bims! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q1UZLS4hqhs The Jugendwort des Jahres 2017 is i bims. What does THAT mean? In the video above, you can see it. It is meant satirically, and comes from ich bin’s! (It’s me!), which can be…
5000 New German Words Added To Dictionary Posted by Constanze on Aug 9, 2017
You may have seen articles floating around the past couple of days about how 5,000 new German words have been added to Duden. But what is Duden? And what are the words? Duden is a dictionary of the German language. It was first published by Konrad Duden (hence the name) in 1880, and has just released its…
Fairytales in German Posted by Larissa on Apr 18, 2017
German fairytales (Märchen) fascinate me as they are so gruselig (scary)! In English to end a fairytale you would say “And they lived happily ever after…”, whereas in German you would say “und wenn sie nicht gestorben sind, dann leben sie noch heute“, which translates to “and if they haven’t died, then they are still…