Tag Archives: German language
Morgen vs. morgen in German Posted by Constanze on Jul 28, 2021

Guten Tag! Something that comes up frequently as a source of confusion for German learners is this: How come in the phrase Guten Morgen, the word Morgen (morning) is capitalised, but the word morgen (tomorrow) on its own is not? Let’s find out. Simply put, the reason the Morgen in Guten Morgen is capitalised is…
Open Water Swimming: German Vocabulary Posted by Constanze on Jul 21, 2021

Guten Tag! Last week, we explored some swimming vocabulary, including the names of different areas of a swimming pool, and types of swimming (breast stroke, front crawl, etc.). This week, we’re taking it outdoors and exploring Freiwasserschwimmen (open water swimming) and the famous Wim Hof Method that involves Eisbaden (ice bathing)! Wer ist Wim Hof?…
German Swimming Vocabulary Posted by Constanze on Jul 14, 2021

Guten Tag! Today we’re going to learn some vocabulary for a popular summer activity: das Schwimmen – Swimming! Swimming vocabulary Firstly, here is the verb schwimmen (to swim) in the present tense: Ich schwimme – I swim/am swimming Du schwimmst – You swim/are swimming (informal, singular) Er/sie/es schwimmt He/she/it swims/is swimming Wir schwimmen – We…
Points In Time In German Posted by Constanze on Jul 7, 2021

Guten Tag! Today we’re going to look at how to talk about different points in time in German. We’ve looked previously at how to tell the time – see this tag for lots of posts on that subject! – but what if you want to talk about something that happened yesterday, last week, or one…
How Different Is Austrian German To German? Posted by Constanze on Jun 23, 2021

When thinking about which other countries speak German, perhaps the most obvious one that springs to mind is Österreich – Austria, Germany’s neighbour, where German is also the national language. But a question learners often have is, how different is Austrian German to German? And will I be able to use my German language skills…
The German Expression ‘Vitamin B’ Posted by Constanze on Jun 16, 2021

Guten Tag! Today we’re going to look at a term that isn’t what it seems in German! The term in question is Vitamin B. What is Vitamin B? In one context, the phrase Vitamin B is exactly what it looks like: the German translation of vitamin B. In German, the word Vitamin is spelt the…
The German Word ‘Volk’ Posted by Constanze on Jun 9, 2021

Guten Tag! We have talked before on the blog about words with loaded meanings/stigma attached to them – such as this post, German words associated with Nazism. Today we’re going to look at another such word in more detail. It’s a very small, simple word, but sometimes even these words have a surprising amount of…