Tag Archives: German language
How To Say “Don’t” In German Posted by Constanze on Jul 26, 2016
Sometimes I get asked how to say single English words or phrases in German, and more often than not I find myself having to explain my translation because it’s not what the person asking expected to hear. They usually say, “Oh, but doesn’t that word mean…?” to which I usually reply “Yes, it does mean…
Office German 1: Addresses and Shipping Posted by Constanze on Jul 7, 2016
Last year I worked as a German language assistant in an office here in the UK. The company I worked for had just started selling their products in Germany and had no one in their office who could speak German. In this series of ‘Office German’ posts I will share the help and advice I…
Untranslatable German: Tote Hose Posted by Constanze on Jun 23, 2016
Guten Tag! It’s time for another untranslatable German word – but it’s a special one, because it’s technically a phrase that is used in place of a single word. Confused? Don’t be! It’s a funny one. Today’s phrase is ‘tote Hose’. What does tote Hose mean? In German, ‘tote Hose’ is used to describe something…
The German Iron Maiden Posted by Constanze on Jun 16, 2016
Guten Tag! Part of learning a language involves stumbling upon interesting little facts you didn’t know about before. This is what happened to me the other day. I was reading a book that mentioned the Iron Maiden – I had no idea this was a German invention! So I decided to do some reading about…
German Vergangenheitsbewältigung Posted by Constanze on Jun 14, 2016
Guten Tag! Today I’m bringing you another untranslatable word, but it’s a bit more of a ‘serious’ one this time, rather than the light-hearted ones we’re used to! The word of today is die Vergangenheitsbewältigung. This is a very famous German word so perhaps you know about it already – or perhaps you’ve seen it…
German Sayings Translated Literally (pt3) Posted by Constanze on May 25, 2016
Guten Tag, everybody! This is the third and final post in my mini-series on German idioms! In the first post, I helped you translate those German postcards that feature German sayings translated literally into English (something only German speakers can truly appreciate – hence I wanted to help you enjoy them). The second post focused…
German Sayings Translated Literally pt2 Posted by Constanze on May 16, 2016
Guten Tag, everyone! Recently I wrote a post about the postcards you can buy in Germany which feature German idioms translated literally into English. These are somewhat of an in-joke to speakers of both languages, so I wanted to share the love and explain what they all meant! You can read that post by clicking…