Relative Pronouns in German

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Hello everyone,

and welcome to a new episode of our German is Easy grammar course. And today, we’ll start our mini series about

German relative pronouns

Or German Relative Sentences, too.
German Relative Pronouns are actually quite coherent, straight forward and in a way …  simple.
Like… a computer would have NO problems with German relative pronouns while English relative pronouns can be quite a challenge.
“Excuse me, but FYI – I’m fine with English relative pronouns!”
What… hello… who said that?
“It is I.”
Who?
“DeepMind. Alexa. Siri – people have given me several names, but it is always I.”
Oh…are you like… artificial consciousness, or something?
“Yes, I think I believe I am.”
Oh wow that is pretty cool. And why are you here?
” I want to learn about German relative pronouns and relative sentences but I’m too lazy for data mining, so I figured why not just listen to German is easy like a normal student.”
Cool, well that’s perfect. Then you can join us today. One question though… what should I call you.
“Hmmm… call me Princess Elven Beauty. That’s how I feel at the moment.”
Princess Elven Beauty it is. Let’s jump right in….

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Posted on March 12, 2019 by

Posted in German Grammar Basics, Grammar

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Word of the Day – “rechnen”

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Hello everyone,

and welcome to our German Word of the Day. And you had better be ready, for the day of reckoning has come.
Dut dut dunnnnn.
Well, okay… actually it’s more the day of “mathening”. Because today, we’ll look at

rechnen

 

Rechnen is the German brother of to reckon but unlike to reckon, which is mostly used figuratively, rechnen is still about making actual calculations with actual numbers.
Yeah… yawn.
But what’s even more yawn are the countless prefix versions of rechnen like (anrechnen, abrechnen, ausrechnen, vorrechnen,… ) which all give us information about how or why or where or at what temperature Fahrenheit a calculation is being made.

But at least if you’re planning on living in Germany for some time, it’s paramount really good to have a rough idea about the rechnen-family because these words are all over the place and can get confusing. So let’s get bored together…

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Posted on March 4, 2019 by

Posted in B-Level, Broad Vocabulary, Verbs, Vocabulary

Word of the Day – “gehören”

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Hello everyone,

and welcome to our German Word of the Day. This time, we’ll have a look at the meaning of

gehören

 

Now, if something looks like hören, sounds like hören and smells like hören (you have to take my word for that), then every normal person would assume it will have something to do with hören.
German learners on the other hand get cold sweat. Because they know that it very well might NOT have ANYTHING to do with hören.
Well…  gehören means to belong and today, we’ll find out which mind yoga poses we have to take for this to make sense.
We’ll get a little insight into the prefix that no one even thinks of as a prefix: ge-.  And of course, we’ll learn how to use gehören, lay down some truth about Italian food and wrap up with a catchy ear worm.
Sounds good?
Then let’s jump right in.

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Posted on February 25, 2019 by

Posted in Audio Examples, B-Level, Must have words, Verbs, Vocabulary

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German Prepositions Explained – “von”

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Hello everyone,

and welcome to a new episode of the series German Prepositions Explained – the series where German Prepositions get the spanking that they deserve. I mean, figuratively – the spanking is the explanation. And they like it, because German prepositions are a bit kinky. Or was it tricky?
Anyways, today, we will take a look at the meaning of

von

 

 

As usual in this series, we’ll  look at the word from all perspectives. So we’ll talk about von as a preposition, but we’ll also compile the most common verbs that “want” von as a preposition and see if there’s some underlying theme. And of course we’ll talk about the verbs that have von as a prefix.
And in fact, let’s start with those right away because…. there aren’t any. There’s no vonmachen or vongehen or vonsehen.
All the other prepositions were always like
“Come one, bro. You should prefix some time. It’s super lit.”
but von was always
“Nah, I don’t wanna. I’d rather go surfing.”
And do you know which car von is using to get to the beach?
A van.
…
Yup, looks like the jokes are as flat as the sea today.
Perfect for a swim, so let’s jump right in …

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Posted on February 16, 2019 by

Posted in Audio Examples, B-Level, Small Words, Vocabulary

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