Category: German Language

Cheers and Good Wishes for Almost Any Occasion The origin of the English word “toast” — in the sense of “drink a toast to someone” — has several explanations. According to most sources, a drinking “toast” (a word also used in German) is actually related to roasted bread, aka toast. […]

A common mistake among people learning German is to mix up the words sehr and viel. But these words are far from interchangeable.Wondering when to use sehr and when to use viel? Here are some tips on when to use these much-used words. Definitions of ‘Sehr’ and ‘Viel’ The first […]

In German, wie means “as.”  The word als also means “as.” It’s no wonder so people learning German get confused between the two. Luckily, if you can memorize two simple rules, you can master the difference and continue on your way toward German fluency. The mistake:Wie (adverb/conjunction) is often used instead of als (only a conjunction) and […]

Conjunctions are words that link two sentences. In German, they belong to the group of non-declinable words, which means that they never change, no matter what case you think you should use or what gender a following noun has. However, while in English you might only have one option, in […]

Use these words to describe yourself and others To speak German, you have to know your adjectives. As a reminder, these are the descriptive words used to describe a person, place or thing. In this case, let’s look at adjectives commonly used to describe people, both physically and behaviourally.   […]

You will come across the word “schon” very often. Better get to know it quickly. “Schon” like most other words in German has more than one meaning. I’m sure by now you know the difference between schon (see rest of this article) and schön (beautiful). Although they share a common […]

German, like any other language, has particular words and expressions that can be used in more than one way. These include the short but tricky Wörter known as “particles” or “fillers.” I call them “small words that can cause big problems.” Simple-Looking German Particles That Are Actually Tricky     […]

Regular German verbs follow an easy-to-learn and predictable pattern in both past tenses (simple past, present perfect). Once you learn the pattern for one regular German verb, you know how all German verbs are conjugated in the past.The irregular verbs don’t follow the same rules in the past, but since […]

As you study the German language, you will come across the present perfect tense (Perfeckt), which is also called the compound past tense. It’s used most often in conversation and there are a few rules you need to know in order to form and use it. This lesson will review […]

Although both English and German use the simple past tense (Imperfekt) and the present perfect tense (Perfekt) to talk about past events, there are some major differences in the way each language uses these tenses. Here we will focus on when and how to use each past tense in German.. The […]