Weibliche Substantive im Deutschen erkennen: Teil 3 – Detecting German feminine nouns: part 3 Posted by Sandra Rösner on Jan 18, 2012
Why are some nouns in German masculine, others feminine, and still others neuter? I am probably not the only one who is asking this question. And to make things worse: there isn’t any logical explanation for that. I pondered over that question quite a long time to give you, at least, a more or less…
Weibliche Substantive im Deutschen erkennen: Teil 2 – Detecting German feminine nouns: part 2 Posted by Sandra Rösner on Jan 16, 2012
Last time is was said that all those nouns are feminine, which refer to female humans (die Mutter-mother; die Tante-aunt), female animals (die Stute-mare; die Sau-sow), and female occupations (die Ärztin-phyisician; die Friseurin-haidresser). Let’s have a look now, which nouns are also commonly feminine in German. a) Some names of animal species die Auster…
German characters: Wilhelm Busch Posted by jan on Jan 15, 2012
Today I want to introduce another German character to you. This one is for sure not as bekannt (famous) as Albert Einstein for example. But anyway he made his contribution to German poetry, humor and language. Heinrich Christian Wilhelm Busch was born on April 15th 1832 in Widensahl. He was one of the most influentual…
Getting from A to B in Germany: part 1 of 2 Posted by anja on Jan 14, 2012
What comes to your mind first when you think of Germany? Lederhosen, Bratwurst, Bier, und – Autos? (leather trousers, bratwurst, beer, and – cars?) I bet that most likely you’ve been thinking “cars”. Or “Autobahn” (controlled-access highway). And while I’m not going to get into the leather pants, bratwursts, and beer thing this time, I…
Weibliche Substantive im Deutschen erkennen: Teil 1 – Detecting German feminine nouns: part 1 Posted by Sandra Rösner on Jan 12, 2012
Learning German nouns seems to be quite annoying for foreign learners of German because of the three grammatical genders that German nouns can have. In my previous four posts I thoroughly discussed masculine nouns, and in this post I would like to begin with feminine nouns a) Nouns that denote female humans, female animals…
Wohnen in Deutschland – Housing in Germany Posted by anja on Jan 11, 2012
I grew up in a Einfamilienhaus (one family house). And the one I grew up in was surrounded mostly by one family homes. My grandparents had their own Haus (house), and so did the families of my friends in the neighbourhood. As of 2008, one third of households in Germany is living in one family homes…
Männliche Substantive im Deutschen erkennen: Teil 4 – Detecting German masculine nouns: part 4 Posted by Sandra Rösner on Jan 10, 2012
You are probably done for by my previous three posts because discussing the genders of German nouns is indeed no bed of roses. But the good news is that we are almost through that topic, at least with respect to masculine nouns. Anyway, in this post I exclusively focus on the endings of words, which…