Archive for 'Language'
Telling the time in German: Around the clock in 5-minute Steps Posted by Sandra Rösner on Oct 18, 2012
The constant reader of this blog might already know that I set myself to make a thoroughly series on Telling the Time in German. So far, I have explained how to cite full hours and the quarters of an hour (using mechanical clocks), and I explained why we tend to tell the time differently –…
Answers to the reading comprehension – Der Herbst ist da! Posted by jan on Oct 16, 2012
These are the answers to the reading comprehension that I posted a couple of days ago: 1. What did the leaves do before they left their trees? Sie haben sich verfärbt. 2. What is the landscape dominated of? Die Landschaft ist von gelben Stoppelfeldern und bunten Wäldern geprägt. 3. What can you see in the…
Reading comprehension – Der Herbst ist da! Posted by jan on Oct 14, 2012
Today I want to do a little reading comprehension with you. Read the following text and answer the questions afterwards. Try to frame your answers in German. If this is too hard, English will do as well. Use the comment field for your answers. Der Herbst ist da! Vor ein paar Tagen gab es den…
German Comedy: Switch Reloaded (Obersalzberg) Posted by Sandra Rösner on Oct 10, 2012
Some people say that Germans have no sense of humor or that our kind of humor is crude or even offensive. Well, first of all, humor is of course characterized and shaped by culture. This can often cause misunderstandings. I agree that German humor can be quite morbid but that does not imply that we…
Groß- und Kleinschreibung – Upper and lower case Posted by jan on Sep 28, 2012
Dear German learners, recently I came across some sentences that made me smile and let me think of German language…and as well I had to think about you people who are learning the language as foreigners. I guess sometimes upper and lower case might drive you crazy while learning. I can totally understand… But look…
German Comedy Show: Switch Reloaded (Listen, watch, read, and understand) Posted by Sandra Rösner on Sep 26, 2012
Switch Reloaded is one of my favorite Comedy Shows on German Television. I find the show so funny because they exclusively caricature television programs and celebrities, primarily German TV programs and celebs but also American ones. Unfortunately, I haven’t found a version with subtitles, therefore, I you can find the German dialogs and their English…
German word order: Imperatives and Questions Posted by Sandra Rösner on Sep 25, 2012
Imperatives Imperatives are sentences in the command form. Setz dich! – Sit down! (2nd person singular; informal) Setzt euch! – Sit down! (2nd person plural; informal) Setzten Sie sich! – Sit down (2nd person; singular and plural; formal) Hör auf! – Stop that! (2nd person singular; informal) Hört auf! – Stop that! (2nd person plural…