Tag Archives: German language
My Top Three German Songs of the Decade! Posted by Larissa on Dec 17, 2019
I remember the first time I recognized a German song that I knew the words to. It was in a clothes shop and I started singing along to the music in my head, without realizing that it was in a different language. It is amazing how music can help you learn a different language. Carrying on from…
German Word of the Year 2019 Posted by Constanze on Dec 11, 2019
Guten Tag! Today we will look at the Wort des Jahres in Germany. Each year, the Gesellschaft für deutsche Sprache (GfdS) – The German Language Association – picks a word as their Wort des Jahres – ‘Word of the Year’. This is often a word related to a prominent topic in the country during the…
The Germans on the Germans: North & South Posted by Constanze on Nov 27, 2019
Hallo! Every country has names for people from different regions within that country. In this post we will look at what people from northern Germany call people from southern Germany, and vice-versa (for a post on east and west Germany, click here!). *Please note: The point of learning about these words is not to encourage anybody…
Writing ‘The’ In German Gets Account Blocked Posted by Constanze on Nov 20, 2019
Guten Tag! There are many false friends between German and English. False friends are words we recognise in German because they are spelled the same as an English word. They do not, however, mean the same as the English word. Sometimes this mix-up with false friends can lead to confusion, laughter, embarrassment… and sometimes, it…
The Germans on the Germans: East & West Posted by Constanze on Nov 13, 2019
Hallo! Every country has names for people from different regions within that country. Over the next few posts we’ll look at what words Germans have for other Germans, and why. In this post we will look at what people from eastern Germany call people from western Germany, and vice-versa. A follow-up post will look at…
The Austrians on The Germans Posted by Constanze on Oct 30, 2019
Guten Tag! Recently we talked about the word Kraut which, as well as being the German word for ‘herb’, is an offensive term for a German person. In this mini-series, we will look at some words the Swiss, Germans, Bavarian-Germans, and Austrians use to describe one another. Some are meant in a derogatory way, whilst…
Loaded German Words: Kraut Posted by Constanze on Oct 25, 2019
Guten Tag! Recently there was an uproar here in the UK when the official party for the pro-Brexit campaign put out a poster showing a photo of Angela Merkel, accompanied by the words ‘We did not win two world wars to be pushed around by a Kraut’. This was in reference to a phone call…