Tag Archives: translation
Useful Vocabulary for Everyday Life in Germany Posted by Larissa on Jan 19, 2015
Ein gutes neues Jahr! This post is for the German students of Lindin High School from the USA and their teacher Herr Pac. When I was learning German at school we learnt a lot about German Politik (politics), Geschichte (history) and the Umwelt (environment). Although we could speak a lot about those particular subjects they…
Don’t take things so literally! … Unless you’re speaking German. Posted by Constanze on Aug 13, 2014
You can learn a lot about Germany from its language. There are many nouns in the German language that have very literal meanings to them. Their pattern is that they are made up of two or more separate words put together to form a new word. These are called compound nouns. Some examples are: Das…
Untranslatable German Words: Torschlusspanik! Posted by Constanze on Aug 3, 2014
Guten Tag, and willkommen to another post on untranslatable German words! The word of today is Torschlusspanik. What is the meaning of Torschlusspanik? This is the fear that time is running out. It describes the panic you get when you realise one day that in actual fact, you haven’t done very much with your life…
Translation request: Wirklichkeit, Gestalt, and Gefüge Posted by Constanze on Jul 21, 2014
This post comes from a comment Dirinella left me on one of my recent posts: vielleicht kannst Du (oder andere) helfen, und zwar bei der Übersetzung des deutschen Begriffs “Wirklichkeit”. Das englische “real” trifft es leider überhaupt nicht, denn Wirklichkeit oder “das Wirkliche” sagt nur aus, dass etwas Wirkung hat, auch ohne dabei real sein…
The German culture of cleanliness: Putzfimmel and Kehrwoche Posted by Constanze on Jul 6, 2014
Everyone I know who’s been to Germany has commented on what a clean country it is. Germany is stereotyped as being clean, anyway – although how much of this is a stereotype, and how much of it is the simple truth? There are two words in the German language that suggest Germany has a culture…
Untranslatable German Words: Gemütlichkeit Posted by Constanze on Jun 26, 2014
Guten Tag, and wilkommen to week 3 of my series of posts on ‘untranslatable’ German words! In this series of posts I talk about one or more German words that there is no direct translation for in English. In my first post on this topic, I suggested that the reason for this was to do…
Untranslatable German Words: Teil 2 Posted by Constanze on Jun 20, 2014
Guten Tag, and wilkommen to week 2 of my series of posts on ‘untranslatable’ German words! In this series of posts I talk about one or more German words that there is no direct translation for in English. In my first post on this topic, I suggested that the reason for this was to do…