Archive for 'Language'
Zungenbrecher – Tongue Twister Posted by jan on Aug 24, 2010
Today I want to introduce some German “Zungenbrecher” to you. I guess they exist in many languages but as you want to learn German this might be a funny alternation. Mostly the Zungenbrecher don´t make many sense but help to train pronunciation…and also laugh about the mistakes you make.
“Gute Zeiten, schlechte Zeiten” Posted by Sandra Rösner on Aug 18, 2010
Every day – from Monday to Friday at 7:45 pm – about 4 Million people in Germany turn on their TV sets to watch Germany’s most popular Seifenoper (soap opera) “Gute Zeiten, schlechte Zeiten” (Good times, bad times). I wonder why this show is so successful nowadays because when the first episode was broadcasted on…
Prepositions that require the genitive case Posted by Sandra Rösner on Aug 11, 2010
In my previous post, I explained to you the basic idea of the four German grammar cases. Remember: DOER-noun = nominative (carries out the action) POSSESSION-noun = genitive (belongs to DOER, INSTRUMENT or TARGET) INSTRUMENT-noun = dative (with what the action is carried out) TARGET-noun = accusative (receives the action) Unfortunately, the German language is…
WHO is doing that to WHOM with WHAT and WHOSE is it at all? – The four German cases Posted by Sandra Rösner on Aug 6, 2010
Most learners of German seem to struggle with the language’s grammar cases. In this post I am going to explain why these cases exist and what they mean. The crucial element of every sentence is the verb, since it names a particular action. In this action, there are always specific subjects and objects (nouns) involved…
Lost in translation: The funny Germans Posted by Sandra Rösner on Jul 26, 2010
It is a prevalent belief that we Germans have little or even no sense of humor (Sinn für Humor). Especially British people often suppose that Germans are humourless (humorlos). But why is that? First of all, of course, Germans love to laugh just as any other nation. But humor is always connected with language and…
Mastering German word order II: main clauses Posted by Sandra Rösner on Jul 22, 2010
In my previous post, I explained the word order of a basic German sentence, containing the following grammatical entities: S = subject: ich (I) V = verb: schreibe (am writing) O = object: einen Brief (a letter) T = time: heute (today) L = location: im Büro (at the office) My example sentence was: Ich…
Mastering German word order I: main clauses Posted by Sandra Rösner on Jul 13, 2010
German word order may appear to be very random and confusing for foreign learners. Thus, I want to try to help you to overcome this challenge. To make it as easy as possible for you to follow my explanation, I am going to start with the easiest and most basic sentence structure (containing less information)…