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Archive for 'Grammar'

What’s up with those h’s? The Dehnungs-h Posted by on Dec 8, 2017

If you studied German, you have probably come across irregularities that really make you wonder why they exist. As a German growing up with the language, I never really questioned it… Until I saw the dehnungs-e. For example, you write Soest, but you say Soost, so you elongate the o and mute the e. Odd! Though when looking into it, I…

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“i bims!” The Youth Word of the Year 2017 Posted by 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…

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Separable And Inseparable German Prefixes Posted by on May 10, 2017

I wrote a post recently about verbs that change their meanings when you add prefixes to them. These can be very confusing for language learners, as they think they recognise a verb when it actually means something totally different. The post led to a question about whether a particular prefix made the verb separable or…

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How To Use The Umlaut RIGHT Posted by on Nov 30, 2016

Umlaut Keyboard

The Umlaut is  used a lot in German. The a, o, and u become ä, ö, and ü. They sound different, and give words a different meaning. When do you use it though? And how? How do you pronounce them? Any exceptions? You read it all here! Why Umlaut? First of all to avoid confusion: In German, Umlaut has two meanings: it refers to the letters ä, ö…

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The Curiosity of the Plural of “das Wort” Posted by on Nov 8, 2016

This post is about the German word “das Wort”. What’s the plural? No, not bird! The plural is Wörter. Sounds right. And Worte. Sounds right. Wait, what? Which one is correct? Is there another form? What’s going on here? Let’s find out! What does the Duden say? The Duden, a prestigious German Wörterbuch (dictionary) gives the following explanation about the plural…

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German and its beloved Silbenwörter Posted by on Nov 3, 2016

We all like abbreviating things. From texting shortcuts to internet abbreviations, from names to government departments. There are differences in how we abbreviate, though. We Germans have a pretty interesting take on it! Germans like abbreviating stuff. Understandable, as German words can become really long sometimes. Especially for words that are used a lot in…

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The Beginner’s Guide to German Posted by on Oct 11, 2016

If you’re a fan of this blog, you’ll love our new Beginner’s Guide to German. Here on the German blog, we post a variety of content for learners of all levels. For the beginners among us who haven’t combed through our archives, you may be missing some of our older, but extremely useful introductory content…

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