“Wonder candle” and “Lamp fever”: Some New German Words

I haven't done one of these posts in a long time, so I thought it was time for one. It's going to be short and sweet, but nevertheless you'll hopefully leave this blog knowing a new word or seven! Here are some of the words I've written down along my German journey that are worth…

10 Food Idioms in English

I write a lot about the German language in my blog, but whilst reading an article the other day and seeing the phrase "He was egged on", it occurred to me how much fun the English language can be, too. To a non-native, you might look at the egg-sentence and wonder what the hell happened…

You can take the man out of Britain…

... but you can't take the Britain out of the man. I've been in Frankfurt for over two years now. There are many things I've had to get used to living here, but there are some things, bar my slight British twang in my German accent, that would make anybody notice a mile away that I'm…

August 2016 in pictures

It's been a relatively quiet month, but still with a few trips, including my favourite German city - Hannover! I'll just get straight to it: here is August 2016 in pictures.

“You’ve got a pickle on your face”: Some common false friends in German

False friends. Aren't they fun? They either make you sound daft when you're speaking (in this case) German, or make Germans sound daft when they're speaking English. In this post, I'm going to tell you some simple and common false friends which you may come across and may lead you to confusion. Smoking Translation: tuxedo This…

June 2016 in pictures

  What an... interesting month June has been. But, they say a picture says a thousand words. So here goes:

German: The aggressive language

If you can't speak German, there's a chance you might think of it as an aggressive language. You may think it sounds aggressive because you make links to certain people from the past, but, funnily enough, no, it's not an aggressive language. You could easily make English sound aggressive, for example - it just depends…

Fun German words: From “Belly speakers” to “sitting giants”

If you're up-to-date with my blog, you'll know I love the German language (kind of helps when you're living in Germany, I guess). Throughout my day-to-day life I come across wonderful words and phrases that sometimes throw me off in a conversation, or just make me laugh a little too much. Being the geek that…

“Musician bones” and “muscle hangovers”: Fun ways to say stuff about the body in German

To start off this post, I think it's worth saying a little thank you to the Facebook page "Learn useless German" for sharing one of my language-related blogs - much appreciated! Anyway, in the meantime I've been writing down funny words and phrases I've been learning (or reminded about), and I noticed a trend with certain…

“We have to pull out that tooth”: German Idioms Part III

I've said it many times and I'll say it many more times again - I love German. Here are some more idioms as to why I love it! Kleine Sünden bestraft der liebe Gott sofort. Literally: "The lovely God punishes small sins immediately". Translation: "Karma". Where we'd probably simply say "karma" (plus perhaps "'s a…