Tag Archives: idioms
Sayings + Expressions 17: The Senf and the Salat Posted by Sten on Jul 26, 2018
In our series on sayings and expressions, we have gone through many different themes. Today, we will have a look at two food items, that don’t really go together, but work quite complementary in the realm of sayings and expressions. Let’s dive in, and as always, start with the saying! Da haben wir den Salat! Literally…
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…
German Sayings Translated Literally (pt1) Posted by Constanze on May 12, 2016
Guten Tag, everyone! Today I want to teach you a bunch of German sayings and expressions. You can buy postcards in Germany that are literal English translations of popular German idioms. Perhaps you’ve seen or bought one of these already, but in case you haven’t, one of these postcards reads: ‘ONLY THE HARD COME IN…
Expressions with the German verb “haben” (to have) Posted by Sandra Rösner on Jun 20, 2012
It is always the right time to learn some new idiomatic expressions. In this post, I discuss the German verb “haben” (to have) and present it in combination with other words. IN the table below you find several idioms that contain the verb “haben”. German Pronunciation English die Gelegenheit haben dee gey-ley-guhn-hayt hah-buhn to…
German Idiomatic Expressions: Rund ums “Ohr”– All about the “ear” Posted by Sandra Rösner on Apr 16, 2012
In my last post I already began to talk about idioms – fixed phrases whose meaning cannot be inferred from the meanings of the individual words. This time I would like to focus on idioms that have to do with the ear because there are many useful German idioms, containing the ‘ear’, that will help…
German Idiomatic Expressions: Becoming competent in no time at all Posted by Sandra Rösner on Apr 13, 2012
Language cuts both ways. On the one hand, language is an open system and allows its users to be creative and to produce as many novel expressions as wished, as long as they make sense. That is, it is not necessary to have ever heard a particular phrase or sentence before in one’s life in…