Tag Archives: Language
The Difference Between Wissen & Kennen In German Posted by Constanze on Mar 23, 2022
Guten Tag! As requested by a blog reader, today’s post is going to look at the difference between two verbs that are very similar, but different: wissen (to know) and kennen (to know)! Why are there two verbs for ‘to know’ in German, instead of one? Can they be used interchangeably, or are there distinct…
Hamsterkauf: German Panic Buying! Posted by Constanze on Mar 16, 2022
Guten Tag! Today we’re going to talk about a German word that emerged as a result of the pandemic- or did it? The word in question is der Hamsterkauf. Recently I wrote a post on words that’ve emerged to describe life during the Covid-19 pandemic (die Pandemie: pandemic). You can read this here, if you’re…
German Punctuation Posted by Constanze on Mar 2, 2022
Guten Tag! Today we’re going to look at punctuation in German. This will include the names of different punctuation marks, as well as a few punctuation rules in German and how these differ to the English rules (or not). German Punctuation Firstly, we need to know what we’re dealing with; the word punctuation in German…
How To Express ‘I Don’t Understand’ In German Posted by Constanze on Feb 23, 2022
Guten Tag! Today I’m going to give you some vocabulary and phrases for those times when you don’t understand. Even in our native languages, we sometimes need a person to repeat what they’ve said, so it’s a useful set of vocabulary to have. Comprehension aside, we sometimes say we don’t understand because we need clarification…
German ‘Language Police’ And Gender Neutrality Posted by Constanze on Feb 9, 2022
Guten Tag! Recently I wrote about the German Unwort des Jahres (‘Non-word of the year’) 2021, which you can read about here. I mentioned in that post that the runner-up was die Sprachpolizei, which literally means ‘language police’. This word was used in 2021 to defame those who were trying to make the German language…
10 German Words That Describe Pandemic Life Posted by Constanze on Feb 2, 2022
Guten Tag! As we know, the German language is full of words that are unique, creative, intelligent and fun! Due to its ability to connect several nouns to create one, new compound noun, new words are always popping up in the German language. Today, we’re going to take a look at just some of the…
German Unwort Des Jahres 2021 Posted by Constanze on Jan 26, 2022
At the end of every year, the GfdS (German Language Association) picks a word for its Wort des Jahres (Word of the Year). This is a word/topic that’s been highly discussed and prevalent in German society in the year just gone. You can read about the German Wort des Jahres 2021 here. But another ‘word of the year’ also gets picked…