Archive for 'Language'
German School & Childcare Names Posted by Constanze on Sep 16, 2020
Guten Tag! As schools are starting up again, I thought it’d be good to give you a run-down of words used in the German school and childcare system. I hope you find this list useful, and that it will clear up any confusion you may have around some of the names (for example: what’s the…
Find The Fehler! German Proofreading Posted by Constanze on Sep 2, 2020
Guten Tag! Today’s post is a little more interactive than recent ones. We are going to test your German proofreading skills. Are you ready? Let’s get started. In a recent post, I shared an article about illegal ‘Coronapartys’ in Germany. In this post, I will share sentences from that article, but deliberately include Fehler (mistakes)…
The German Language And Coronavirus Posted by Constanze on Aug 24, 2020
Guten Tag! At the time of writing, it has been 5 months since my country (the UK) went into lockdown due to the covid-19 Pandemie (pandemic). A lot has changed during this time, including the language we now use in day-to-day life (everything is ‘socially distanced’, and we talk a lot about ‘the new normal’…
Why Should I Learn German? Posted by Sten on Jul 30, 2020
Why would you learn German? Let’s look at a few reasons why you would want to learn German! These reasons are by no means exhaustive, but it might give you some inspiration! Why should I learn a foreign language at all? There are a plethora of reasons to learn a language besides your mother tongue…
What’s The Difference? Lernen And Lehren In German Posted by Constanze on Jul 29, 2020
Guten Tag! This is the third and final post on the difference between some very closely linked words. These are German words that are either similar in meaning or similar in appearance (or both), which often means they are used incorrectly. This post looks at the words lehren (to teach) and lernen (to learn). We…
Who’s John Doe in Germany? Posted by Sten on Jul 28, 2020
If you don’t want to keep somebody’s name anonymous or if you simply need a placeholder, a common name to use is John Doe for men and Jane Doe for women, or Joe Bloggs or John Smith… There’s quite a list. How do we do it in Germany? The “Example Man” In Germany, we almost…
The Curiosity of the Word “Homeoffice” Posted by Sten on Jul 23, 2020
It’s quarantine time, and so many people are working from home. So you set up your regular office at home – you built yourself a home office! In German, we normally call our office a Büro or Schreibtisch (literally “writing table”). But when working from home, it’s not a Heimbüro, but curiously, a “Homeoffice”. And even if you don’t have…