German beginners

A case of German cases

Cases. Latin has lots. German has 4, but most people only really use 3 of them. English has one and a half! Learn the German basics here

All Quiet on the Western Front

All Quiet on the Western Front translates as "Im Westen nichts Neues", which is a gift for a German language teacher...

Some seasonal German words

Learning German? Here are some advanced words and phrases to spice up your seasonal conversation: wichteln, Silvestermuffel, Guten Rutsch...

Three famous Dietrichs

When studying a language, it is just as important to learn about the culture as how to construct sentences. Three Dietrichs for starters...

The rendering of names into French

What links Tom Onks and André Blanc? Do wonder how much of a comedy accent you should put on when pronouncing your own name? If so, read on.

False friends

German and English are sister languages, but beware - there are some false friends. Sometimes amusing, sometimes dangerous. Read on...

A brief introduction to linguistics

A very brief introduction to Linguistics. How to pronounce the 'ch' sound in German and other insights into back and front vowels

German time and times

When learning German, you quickly realise that our Teutonic cousins are kind of obsessed with time. But how do we say "time" in German?

Guten Rutsch!

Happy New Year in German: "Gutes neues Jahr" is the proper way to say it. What people actually say, however, is “Guten Rutsch”...

36 Skipping the adjectives

When reading for gist, we do not need to understand every word of the text. Skipping past adjectives/adverbs is a good short-cut

17 The 3 German "werdens"

There are three ways in which the verb werden can be used in German, all equally useful: Photo source: Christian Lue, via Unsplash 1. To...

German unwords and staircase jokes

1. Weltschmerz “Feeling like you have the weight of the word upon your shoulders.” Twelve words in English; one word in German:...