Untranslatable German Words: der Schickimicki Posted by Sten on May 3, 2018
A friend of mine told me this week: “Schickimicki is one of my favorite German words!” It made me realize, it is quite a cute word! It also made me wonder: How would you accurately translate it to English? It is harder than you might think. Let’s go! Click here for previous posts in this series of…
The German But Posted by Constanze on May 2, 2018
Guten Tag! If I were to ask you the German word for ‘but’ the first one to come into your mind would most likely be ‘aber’. This is indeed the German word for it, and probably the most common one. But have you ever seen the words jedoch, allerdings or nichtsdestotrotz in a sentence? These…
Eine Gute-Nacht-Geschichte Posted by Sten on Apr 30, 2018
If you have Kinder (children), you know what it is like: Ich will noch nicht ins Bett! (I don’t want to go to sleep yet!) Of course, I am talking about Kinder, die noch nicht schlafen wollen (Children that do not yet want to go to sleep). And what do you tell them? A Gute-Nacht-Geschichte (good-night story). Here’s a very short…
The Curiosity of the Word “Der Schnickschnack” Posted by Sten on Apr 26, 2018
You know when you rent a car, you can get all kinds of Versicherungen (insurances) – do you really need them? Or is it just all Schnickschnack? Schnick-what? What is this word? Let’s find out! Click here for previous entries in the series on curious words in German Where does it come from? Der Schnickschnack can easily be translated to…
How To Rate Something In German Posted by Constanze on Apr 25, 2018
Guten Tag! Today I’m going to give you some words and phrases to use if you want to rate or review something in German. This may come in useful if you’re purchasing a product in Germany and want to leave a review, or if you’re buying from a German-speaking website or place and want to…
The Types of Insurance you need in Germany Posted by Larissa on Apr 24, 2018
If you’re thinking about moving to Germany then this a helpful post to let you know what kind of insurance you need for day to day life. It’s also good to learn some new vocabulary about the different types of Versicherungen! Sozialversicherung – Social Insurance This insurance is actually made up of five different insurances…
The Curiosity of the Word “Handy” Posted by Sten on Apr 19, 2018
Last weekend, we looked at the word USB-Stick, a so-called Scheinanglizismus (pseudo-anglicism), an English-looking word, that actually has no, or not the same, meaning in the English language. I thought it would be fun to dive a little deeper into these Scheinanglizismen. Today, we look at the German word Handy. Handy? Yes. Handy. Previous installments of Curious Words The Curiosity…