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Tag Archives: books

German Library Vocabulary Posted by on Oct 13, 2021

Guten Tag! Today’s post is all about German library vocabulary. Did you know that Transparent Language Online is available in many libraries all around the world? Perhaps you’re reading this post from a library right now! In this post we’ll look at German vocabulary related to libraries, and I’ll tell you a little about one…

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A Unique German Way To Say It’s Snowing Posted by on Feb 7, 2018

Guten Tag! Is it snowing where you live? For me, there’s nothing better than that moment of seeing snow outside and exclaiming Es schneit! to whoever will listen. Today I’d like to give you a very different way of saying ‘It’s snowing’ in German. Frau Holle schüttelt ihre Betten aus A unique way of saying…

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Fairytales in German Posted by on Apr 18, 2017

German fairytales (Märchen) fascinate me as they are so gruselig (scary)! In English to end a fairytale you would say “And they lived happily ever after…”, whereas in German you would say “und wenn sie nicht gestorben sind, dann leben sie noch heute“, which translates to “and if they haven’t died, then they are still…

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German Children’s Stories 2: Zappelphilipp Posted by on Sep 14, 2016

Guten Tag! Today I’m tying two topics together: An untranslatable word (we haven’t had one of those for a while!) and a classic German children’s story. One of these inspired the other. Want to learn more? The German word I am focusing on today is der Zappelphilipp.   What does der Zappelphilipp mean? A ‘Zappelphilipp’…

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German Children’s Stories 1 Posted by on Jul 22, 2016

Guten Tag! A little while ago somebody requested posts on children’s books and stories. I thought, where better to start than the German books my mum used to read to me as a child! DER STRUWWELPETER Der Struwwelpeter is a very famous German children’s book by Dr. Heinrich Hoffmann. Hoffmann wrote it because he couldn’t…

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Truly Grimm: German Fairytales Posted by on Mar 11, 2016

Guten Tag! Most people will have heard of die Brüder Grimm (the Brothers Grimm) and their Märchen (fairy tales). Perhaps you’ll have read a few of them, or seen the Disney adaptations of these gruesome stories. But who exactly were these famous German brothers, and what is it like reading their fairy tales in German?…

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German Words Associated With Nazism Posted by on Mar 1, 2016

Guten Tag! Have you ever said a word or phrase in all innocence, only to receive shocked gasps from those around you, and be told ‘You can’t say that!’? Or be laughed at because the word you’ve used doesn’t mean what you think it does? Language is ever-changing, and words’ meanings can change over time…

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