A British expat's take on life in Germany
Just like in English, there are plenty of idioms in German that use colours. But, as is typical of language, the translations aren't easy. Often, colour idioms in German are completely different in English and their English translations don't actually include colours. That's the same the other way round, mind: in German, you can't have… Continue reading Making Blue and Travelling Black: Colour-based Idioms in German
I wrote about false friends way back when in a post in 2016. You can read up on it here. In that post, I went over some basic words you might hear in Germany, such as Handy (mobile phone) and Gift (poison). Seen as I haven't wrote a language post in a while, I thought I'd write… Continue reading “Don’t be such a plague!”: A Selection of German False Friends for English Speakers
Last weekend, I headed to Vienna with an old uni friend, Anna. It was the second time I've been to Vienna, with the first time being about 5 years ago during my last year at uni. Trying to sway away from the typical diary-style I usually write in when writing about a place I've been… Continue reading Travelling Tips: Vienna
A few years ago I wrote a blog post about some of the best and funniest things I've heard Germans say in English. You can read them here if you want: Funny Things Germans Say In English. To be fair, I make my fair share of mistakes in German too - the general ones I… Continue reading Funny Things Brits Say in German
I could write pages and pages about German idioms that I learn. There are so many wonderful words and phrases out there. Then again, that's the same for any language - English included, of course. But because of this, I always find it difficult to narrow down idioms for blog posts. Mostly I just go… Continue reading German Idioms Using Body Parts
It is official: I am German! Or, at least, half German. Thankfully, the process of becoming a citizen went relatively quickly and I managed to become a German citizen before Brexit. Phew! Thus, 11th March will now be known as Tag der Deutschen Danheit! After a week of celebrations including German breakfasts, sausages and potato… Continue reading Becoming a German
Tach! The time for Karneval is upon us again so I thought it would be fitting to give you a few words and phrases that you might need to use, or at least understand, if you found yourself celebrating what is known as 'the fifth season' this year. Pretty much every year, I head to… Continue reading “Kölle Alaaf!”: Useful Words and Phrases for the ‘Fifth Season’
You may know German as the language with really long words. Well, that part is true, but what I have noticed over the years is that German also seems to have many words that are simply not literally translatable into English without having to use loads of words to describe exactly what's going on. A… Continue reading “Kokeln” and “herumgurken”: German Verbs with no English Translation
Here are some new German words I've recently discovered, and I want to share them with you to get your linguistic taste buds tingling. If you're learning German, I hope you can learn a word or two from this post. And if not, then I hope you enjoy the post anyway and can still enjoy… Continue reading “Teeth meat” and “Wash street”: Some New German Words
Fancy a little game to guess German names for animals? (Don't worry, German can actually be quite literal sometimes!)
Dan in Deutschland 