Tag Archives: Language
20 Motivational Sayings In German Posted by Constanze on Jul 31, 2017
Guten Tag! Ich hoffe, es geht euch gut! 🙂 Sometimes we lack in motivation, be it for our work, chores – and even our language learning. At times it can feel like we’ve hit a wall, like we aren’t good enough, or like our efforts over the months aren’t paying off. But that’s not true…
9 Uses For The German Word Scharf Posted by Constanze on Jul 12, 2017
Sometimes the smallest, simplest of German words can surprise with a multitude of meanings. It’s useful to look at these kinds of words in more detail, so that they don’t confuse so much when read or heard in real life. Today the German word we’re going to look at in more detail is the adjective…
At A Petrol Station: German Vocab Posted by Constanze on Jun 23, 2017
Guten Tag! Inspired by this post on the Greek blog, I thought it would be handy to look at German vocabulary related to petrol stations and driving – as this is something practical, important, and which you will use in day-to-day life in Germany. This is the German road sign for a petrol station…
Separable And Inseparable German Prefixes Posted by Constanze on May 10, 2017
I wrote a post recently about verbs that change their meanings when you add prefixes to them. These can be very confusing for language learners, as they think they recognise a verb when it actually means something totally different. The post led to a question about whether a particular prefix made the verb separable or…
Did America Almost Speak German? Posted by Sten on Apr 29, 2017
You have probably heard of that one Gerücht (rumor): The United States once had a vote that would have decided what the official language of the country was going to be. And only one vote decided whether that was going to be English – or German! The deciding vote was cast by Frederick Muhlenberg. This legend is…
Untranslatable German Words: das Anstandsstück Posted by Constanze on Apr 26, 2017
Hello and welcome to another edition of untranslatable German words, where I bring you the quirkiest, funniest, most unusual words the German language has to offer – and ones that are difficult to find a direct translation for! Today’s word is das Anstandsstück. What does das Anstandsstück mean? Das Anstandsstück refers to the last…
Misleading German Verbs Posted by Constanze on Apr 12, 2017
Guten Tag! A while ago a blog reader called Michael sent this comment in: “an idea for a post… My knowledge of simple vocabulary sometimes lets me guess correctly at more complicated words. Halten/hold. Erhalten/receive. But sometimes knowing the basic word leads you down the wrong path. Erfahren is not about “to drive,” nor aufhören…