Tag Archives: Language
Germany In Different Languages Posted by Constanze on Oct 30, 2017
Allemagne in French. Niemcy in Polish. Germany in English. Deutschland in German. Have you ever noticed how the word ‘Germany’ looks completely different in different languages? Have you ever wondered why that is? Germany has a very central position in Europe. Furthermore, before it became united it was home to many different tribes and states…
German-English Cognates Posted by Constanze on Oct 25, 2017
Guten Tag! In a recent post, Six Reasons To Learn German, I mentioned that German and English are from the same language family – the Indo-European family – which means both languages have taken words from Latin, Greek and French. Because of this, there are numerous cognates (words sharing a common source) that look and sound…
Untranslatable German Words: Verschlimmbesserung Posted by Constanze on Oct 18, 2017
Guten Tag, and welcome to another ‘untranslatable words’ post! This is a series where we look at words unique to the German language, and try to find an equivalent English translation for them. So without further ado, today’s word is: die Verschlimmbesserung. What does die Verschlimmbesserung mean? Die Verschlimmbesserung describes an action that is supposed…
10 German Tongue Twisters Posted by Constanze on Sep 15, 2017
Guten Tag! Today we’re going to look at tongue twisters. In German, tongue twisters are called Zungenbrecher (which literally means ‘tongue breakers’!). Not only will I write the tongue twisters and their translations down for you, but I’ve recorded each one, too, so you can hear exactly how they are meant to be pronounced. Hopefully…
3 Lazy German Words Posted by Constanze on Aug 30, 2017
Guten Tag! Today I’d like to bring you not one, not two, but three ‘untranslatable German words’ for your amusement. These are words that do not have a direct translation in English, and are often rather interesting and/or quirky. It’s rainy and dull here today, and I’m sure many people just want to be at…
The German Schrebergarten Posted by Constanze on Aug 23, 2017
Guten Tag! Today I’d like to talk about a little piece of German culture that you may not know about yet. This post is all about die Schrebergärten. You may recognise the word Gärten as the plural of der Garten (garden), and you’d be right in thinking we’re talking about a kind of garden. So…
5000 New German Words Added To Dictionary Posted by Constanze on Aug 9, 2017
You may have seen articles floating around the past couple of days about how 5,000 new German words have been added to Duden. But what is Duden? And what are the words? Duden is a dictionary of the German language. It was first published by Konrad Duden (hence the name) in 1880, and has just released its…