Successful Germans at the 2022 Winter Olympics! Posted by Sten on Feb 11, 2022
Currently, the Olympischen Winterspiele (Winter Olympic Games) are in full force. While there is contention around them, and plenty of countries decided not to participate due to a host of reasons, Germany did end up sending a delegation. Here’s how Germany’s been doing so far, and some vocabulary for you to understand the Winterolympiade (Winter Olympics) in…
German ‘Language Police’ And Gender Neutrality Posted by Constanze on Feb 9, 2022
Guten Tag! Recently I wrote about the German Unwort des Jahres (‘Non-word of the year’) 2021, which you can read about here. I mentioned in that post that the runner-up was die Sprachpolizei, which literally means ‘language police’. This word was used in 2021 to defame those who were trying to make the German language…
Anglicism of the Year 2021: Germans Made This English Word! Posted by Sten on Feb 3, 2022
We’ve already talked about the German Wort des Jahres (word of the year) of 2021 and the German Unwort des Jahres (“non”-word of the year) 2021, as well as the Jugendwort des Jahres (youth word of the year). But there’s one more that I would like to discuss – the Anglizismus des Jahres (Anglicism of the year)! Anglizismen are…
10 German Words That Describe Pandemic Life Posted by Constanze on Feb 2, 2022
Guten Tag! As we know, the German language is full of words that are unique, creative, intelligent and fun! Due to its ability to connect several nouns to create one, new compound noun, new words are always popping up in the German language. Today, we’re going to take a look at just some of the…
January 27: Commemorating the Holocaust Posted by Sten on Jan 27, 2022
Today is an important day in history. A großer Tag der Trauer (day of great sadness). On this day, 77 years ago, die Rote Armee (Red Army) liberated the Konzentrationslager (concentration camp) Auschwitz-Birkenau. Nothing could have prepared the Russian soldiers for what they found there. They liberated some 7000 ausgehungerte Überlebende (starved survivors), and found unimaginable amounts of remains of one of…
German Unwort Des Jahres 2021 Posted by Constanze on Jan 26, 2022
At the end of every year, the GfdS (German Language Association) picks a word for its Wort des Jahres (Word of the Year). This is a word/topic that’s been highly discussed and prevalent in German society in the year just gone. You can read about the German Wort des Jahres 2021 here. But another ‘word of the year’ also gets picked…
You Won’t Believe These Crazy German Place Names Posted by Sten on Jan 25, 2022
Every country has some strange Ortsnamen (m, place names). Take American Fork in Utah, or Shitterton in Dorset, UK. And we have our own crazy German place names! Here’s a few that where you can visit and you can take your picture next to the Ortsschild (n, place name sign). Oh, and also how you pronounce them properly…