Tag Archives: Language
The German Word ‘Sitzfleisch’ Posted by Constanze on Oct 31, 2018
Guten Tag! Today I’d like to talk about another ‘untranslatable’ German word, namely: Sitzfleisch. This is a word that has been adopted by the English language, too, and which some think explains the German people’s efficient and productive nature. But before we get into that, let’s look at the word in more detail. Das Sitzfleisch…
Old German Handwriting Posted by Constanze on Oct 10, 2018
When I was young there was an old German poster in my family kitchen that used to drive me insane, because although I knew it was in German, I couldn’t read what was written on it. It looked to me like another language! “It’s because that is old German handwriting”, my mum told me. “Some…
What’s Your Star Sign In German? Posted by Constanze on Sep 14, 2018
Guten Tag! Whether die Astrologie (astrology) interests them or not, most people are aware of what their Sternzeichen (star sign) is. In today’s post, we’ll be looking at the star signs in German! In German, the term das Sternzeichen literally translates to ‘star sign’, but another word for it is das Tierkreiszeichen, which translates to…
Is The German Language Sexist? Posted by Constanze on Aug 29, 2018
German has three genders for its nouns: der (masculine), die (feminine) and das (neuter). A common point of confusion amongst German language learners is why each noun has its assigned gender – especially when there is no pattern to it and/or its gender doesn’t appear to make sense. For example, a table in German is…
Tricky German Pronunciation Part 2 (With Audio) Posted by Constanze on Aug 15, 2018
Guten Tag! This is part 2 of a requested post (please find part 1 here). Following my posts ‘German Words You Don’t Want To Mix Up’ parts 1 and 2, a lot of people were interested in a post with audio clips of words and sounds that look similar, but are very different. Sometimes in…
Tricky German Pronunciation Part 1 (With Audio) Posted by Constanze on Aug 8, 2018
Guten Tag! This is part 1 of a requested post. Following my posts ‘German Words You Don’t Want To Mix Up’ parts 1 and 2, a lot of people were interested in a post with audio clips of words and sounds that look similar, but are very different. Sometimes in German, when we mispronounce a…
7 Ways To Say Sorry In German Posted by Constanze on Aug 1, 2018
Entschuldiging, Verzeihung, Es tut mir Leid, Mein Beileid….. Have you ever noticed how many different ways there are to say ‘sorry’ in German? It might leave you wondering whether there’s any difference between them, and if it’s better to say one over the other. In this post I’m going to explain the different German words…