Archive for 'Language'
Sayings + Expressions 17: The Senf and the Salat Posted by Sten on Jul 26, 2018
In our series on sayings and expressions, we have gone through many different themes. Today, we will have a look at two food items, that don’t really go together, but work quite complementary in the realm of sayings and expressions. Let’s dive in, and as always, start with the saying! Da haben wir den Salat! Literally…
Big German Travel Phrases Resource Posted by Constanze on Jul 25, 2018
Guten Tag! It’s holiday season and, having just come back from holiday myself, I started thinking about all of the phrases I used to communicate to the locals in different situations. There are many excellent posts in the blog archives on specific areas of holidays, like booking a hotel room in German, or how to…
Untranslatable German Words: Der Saftladen Posted by Sten on Jul 24, 2018
In our series on untranslatable words, we look at words in German that have no direct English equivalent. Today, we look at the curious, but enjoyable Saftladen. What does Saftladen mean? According to the Duden, a Saftladen is a: “schlecht geführter Betrieb; schlecht geführter, schlecht sortierter Laden” (badly managed establishment; badly managed, badly assorted establishment) So basically, a Saftladen Nichtskönner is a place…
German Words You Definitely Don’t Want To Mix Up! Posted by Constanze on Jul 18, 2018
Guten Tag! Making mistakes is a big part of language learning, and often mistakes involve muddling words up – either because they sound similar, because they are the same (but have different meanings), or because they are ‘false friends’ – words that seem like they should mean one thing, but they actually mean another. This…
The difference between das, dass and daß Posted by Sten on Jul 12, 2018
You may have come across the word das. It is the article for neuter nouns, and so it shows up quite a lot. But then there is also dass. And daß? And they all sound the same! What are all these words? Let’s disentangle this Wortsalat (word salad) today! Der Artikel (the article) Das is the most common and straightforward one. It…
German Words You Don’t Want To Mix Up Posted by Constanze on Jul 11, 2018
Guten Tag! Making mistakes is a big part of language learning, and often mistakes involve muddling words up – either because they sound similar, because they are the same (but have different meanings), or because they are ‘false friends’ – words that seem like they should mean one thing, but they actually mean another. This…
The German Subjunctive – Konjunktiv II Posted by Sten on Jul 5, 2018
On this blog, we have explained before how to use tenses in German. But we have not yet looked at a rather peculiar tense in German yet: the Konjunktiv (subjunctive mood)! It comes in two parts, Konjunktiv I and Konjunktiv II. Today, we look at number II! I will tell you what it is, how to use it and in which…