Category: German Language

    After studying this lesson, you’ll be able to say the days and months, express calendar dates, talk about the seasons and talk about dates and deadlines (Termine) in German.   Luckily, because they are based on Latin, the English and German words for the months are almost identical. […]

1. Da liegt der Hund begraben. (That’s where the dog’s buried.)OK, so maybe after that build-up it’s not fair to start with a saying that’s not about pigs, but at least it’s animal-related. Normally dead dogs are an occasion for sadness and lost childhood innocence, but the Germans use the subject […]

In most cases, German and English capitalization rules are similar or identical. Of course, there are exceptions to every rule. If you want to become proficient in writing German learning these rules is imperative for good grammar. Here is a closer look at the most important differences:1. NOUNS   All […]

Have you ever wondered why the word for girl, das Mädchen, is neuter instead of feminine in the German language? Here’s what Mark Twain had to say on that topic: In German, every noun has a gender, and there is no sense or system in their distribution; so the gender […]

IS IT DASS OR DASS A unique feature of the German alphabet is the ß character. Found in no other language, part of the uniqueness of the ß — aka “eszett” (“s-z”) or “scharfes s” (“sharp s”) — is that, unlike all other German letters, it exists only in the […]

The following are five peculiarities of the German alphabet and its pronunciation that every beginner German student should know about.     ADDITIONAL LETTERS IN THE GERMAN ALPHABET     There are more than twenty-six letters in the German alphabet. Technically speaking the German alphabet has only one additional letter […]

You may have heard that German is a difficult and complex language to learn. This is true to some extent; however, much depends on the way the language is taught, the learner’s natural capacity for languages, and the amount of practice dedicated to it. The following peculiarities of the German […]

Telling time in German requires knowing three basic ingredients: the numbers from 1 to 59, the German words for ‘to’ and ‘after,’ and the fractions ‘quarter’ and ‘half’ (past).HERE’S HOW: Learn or review the German numbers from 1-59.  An hour is divided up like a pie into quarters (viertel) and […]

I must admit it was hard for me let go of certain old spellings when the new German spelling reform first appeared in 1996. In particular I missed and had to get used to the changes of words with the sharp s (ß), such as daß -> dass, bißchen -> […]

One wonderful thing about German spelling is that you basically spell how you hear the word. There are not many exceptions. The only trick is that you need to learn and understand the sounds of German letters, dipthongs, and disgraphs, some which are completely different from English pronounciation. (See The German […]