Archive for 'Language'
Mein, dein, sein, ihr, etc.: German possessive pronouns in the nominative case Posted by Sandra Rösner on Dec 6, 2012
The ability to change perspectives when we talk with one another is one of the most awesome characteristics of humans. That is, when a speaker uses the word “I” in his or her statements we automatically know that this person is talking of him- or herself and not of one of us. Memorizing German personal…
Das Unwort des Jahres – faux-pas word of the year Posted by jan on Dec 5, 2012
Today I want to let you know about a strange linguistic thing that happens in Germany every year since 1991. A jury of linguists and journalists regularly nominates the “Unwort des Jahres” (faux-pas word of the year). Understandably you might ask: why? Well, the goal of the action is to achieve a more sensitive way…
Mnemonics – Eselsbrücken Posted by jan on Nov 21, 2012
If you run into problems with a certain word or grammar rule while learning German, maybe one of the following mnemonics might help! But a little German is required to get them anyway… Großschreibung von Nomen: Sei doch schlau und merk dir bloß: Nomen schreibt man immer groß! -ung, -heit, -keit ein Nomen steht bereit. -schaft, -tum…
The most important comma rules in German Posted by jan on Nov 7, 2012
Hi everyone, for being a lazy comma user myself, I will try to show you the most important comma rules in German. Hopefully you will use them more successful than me 🙂 A comma is set… 1. …between main and subordinate clauses – in front of subordinating conjunctions (“dass”, “weil”, etc.) Meine Katze freut sich…
5 striking features of the Berlin Dialect Posted by Sandra Rösner on Oct 29, 2012
One of the most painful truths for foreign learners of German is that hardly any German speaks his or her mother language as textbooks propagate. To put it crudely, German is a kind of diglossia, which means that various spoken dialects coexist. These dialects can even be that different from the standard language that even…
German Numbers 1 – 20 Posted by Transparent Language on Oct 24, 2012
We’ve created this handy little table of German numbers from 1 to 20 for students who are new to learning German. Included is a video with native speaker pronunciation – listen to it several times, and make sure to practice your own pronunciation by speaking the numbers out loud. In the absence of an instructor…
Telling the time in German: Around the clock in 5-minute steps, part 2 Posted by Sandra Rösner on Oct 23, 2012
This is the continuation of my last post in which I told how to read the time when using mechanical clocks. As a matter of fact, it is often quite difficult to tell the exact time when using mechanical clocks or watches. This is especially true when the big hand of you watch is somewhere…