What The German Mittwoch Means Posted by Sten on Jul 18, 2019
Yesterday was Mittwoch (Wednesday), the third day of the German week. It’s a Tag (day) that does not even deserve to be called a Tag, Mittwoch simply indicates the middle of the Woche (week). And even that is not true anymore. Why does this day have to suffer so much and be singled out like this? Let’s find out. From Wodan to Jesus…
Untranslatable German Words: 08/15 Posted by Sten on Jul 11, 2019
Untranslatable words can also be a simple array of 4 numbers – 08/15 is a term that has entrenched itself in everyday German. Pun intended. What does 08/15 mean? According to the Duden, 08/15 means “bar jeglicher Originalität, persönlichen Note; auf ein alltäglich gewordenes Muster festgelegt und deshalb Langeweile oder Überdruss erzeugend” (bare of any originality, personal character…
German Sayings + Expressions 22: Heat, Heat, Heat Posted by Sten on Jul 4, 2019
These past few weeks and the upcoming ones have been showing tropische Temperaturen (tropical temperatures) in Germany, with up to 40°C (104°F). Not only time to look for some Sonnencreme (sunscreen) and some Schatten (shade), but also a Sprichwort (saying) and an Ausdruck (expression) that go along with it! As always, let’s start with the Sprichwort. For older posts, please follow this link. Now, let’s…
How or what is a Spitzenkandidat? Posted by Sten on Jun 27, 2019
A significantly higher voter turnout made the European elections held a month ago a success for democracy. But there is one thing: The different leaders cannot agree on which of the Spitzenkandidaten should follow up Jean-Claude Juncker, the current president of the European Commission, the executive organ of the European Union. Let’s talk about that…
The German Word ‘Zeug’ Posted by Constanze on Jun 26, 2019
Guten Tag! Today we’re looking at a very small, but very versatile German word: das Zeug. Simply put, Zeug (das) means thing, or stuff. It is quite common to hear people say things like ‘Was ist das für ein Zeug?’ (‘What kind of thing/stuff is this?’). Zeug can refer to one thing, or several things…
Germany’s Illegal Sustainability Trend Posted by Larissa on Jun 25, 2019
Sustainability is becoming more important everyday as the world becomes more aware of climate change. However in Germany one sustainability trend is actually illegal. Tonnes of food is thrown away every day, mainly from supermarkets because it is past its sell by date, this however doesn’t mean it isn’t edible. Containern – in English “dumpster…
5 More German Placeholders Posted by Constanze on Jun 24, 2019
Guten Tag! We briefly touched on German placeholders in this post, about the words Krimskrams (stuff, junk) and Dingsbums (thingy, thingymajig). Then we looked at German placeholders for names, such as John Doe. A placeholder (der Platzhalter) is a generic word you use in place of a real word. This might be because you can’t…