Word of the Day – “wahr”

In this episode:

"Wahr" is the German word for "true" and there are plenty of useful words based on it. Today, we'll take a look at this awesome family. Fact!!

Vocab:   

wahr, die Wahrheit, wahrscheinlich, unwahrscheinlich,...

Hello everyone,

and welcome to our German Word of the Day.
And today we’ll answer the question of what is true.
Because today, we’ll look at the family of

wahr

Some of you probably already know it – wahr is the German word for true.
And even with Cirque-du-Soleil-levels of mind contortion, it’s hard to imagine that those two are related.
And yet, they are!!

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Practice Pronunciation – With (all) Examples

Hello everyone,

and welcome back to your favorite German website … I mean, hopefully.
And today, it’s again time for a new episode of

My New Feature

And this week, my new feature is… drumroll… my 2023 beach body.
Yes, it’s only March, but the Michelangeloian masterpiece is already finished.
Here it is:

.

.

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Writing, Reading, Listening – Your Stories 1

In this episode:

Together, we'll look at a short story of one you and analyze the mistakes. I'll also read and translate it - reading, writing and listening practice in one :)

Hello everyone,

and welcome to … your story of the day :).
Yeay, it is happening.
A couple of weeks ago, I asked you if you’d be interested in a sort of writing practice where you write a short piece about yourself or your life or whatever, and I go through it on the blog and correct mistakes and give a little commentary about style and phrasing.

Many of you seemed to like the idea, and quite a few have already sent me stories, so today, we’ll try it out now :).

Your Stories – Part 1

Now, while I was preparing this, I realized that there are actually quite a few ways to do it. Correct mistakes immediately, or show the full text first? Add English translations? If yes, where? As a block or line by line?
Each option has its own pros and cons. Like … having the mistakes separate means a better flow while reading, but at the same time way more scrolling and searching.
Maybe, there actually is not THE one best way to present this but for today, I have decided to do the following:

  1. I’ll read the corrected text and you can read along, with English translations
  2. I’ll break down the original text and correct and comment sentence by sentence

And today, we’ll have the pretty well written short story of why the reader David learned Chinese as a young man and is learning German only now, so… let’s jump right in.

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Prefix Verbs Explained – “ausziehen”

In this episode:

"ausziehen" means "moving out" and also "taking off clothes". Today, we'll learn why these two meanings make perfect sense, and how to use the verb in German.

Hello everyone,

and welcome to a new episode ofme everyone’s favorite series: Prefix Verbs Explained.
And today, we’ll take a look at the meaning of

ausziehen

Which a normal mind would assume means to pull out. I mean… ziehen means to pull, and aus means out.
But that’s of course not how German prefix verbs work.
There’s pretty much always a twist there. Or like half a dozen twists and turns.
And for all the prefix verbs of ziehen, one of the biggest twists is the meaning of the base verb itself.
If you’ve read my articles on ziehen or einziehen, a lot of this is probably familiar, but repetition is the mother of skill as they say ;).

By the way, the cartoon on the top is actually a sneak peek for two of the cartoons of the book my friend Helen and I are working on.
We are currently trying to finalize the format and design and once that is done, we can do the editing and the final touches. It’s quite a tricky layout to pin down, and we already “fired” one designer. But we’re on it and it’ll be finished eventually :).
We have an info page where you can sign up for a newsletter that is just specific to the book (many of you are already on it).

PrefixVerbs.com (Info-Page for our book)

And if you’re on Instagram, you really should also check out Helen’s page. She’s a German learner herself and she does really lovely cartoons for German expressions and words. Like this one for “verrückt” which I find absolutely genius :)

But now, let’s jump in and learn about ausziehen.

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News – Examples and your experience

In this episode:

I have a new feature, and I have an idea for a series here that I'd love your thoughts on. And some world news for good measure.

Hello everyone,

and welcome to another round of

YourDailyGerman – News

The hottest new series in town. Disney+ is green with envy that they don’t have a series like this.

Seriously though, there will be quite a few episodes like this in the coming months, because I have quite a few new features and things in the pipeline.

Today, I have a new feature and then I had an idea for an article series which I think might be interesting, but I wanted to hear your opinions first.

Let’s start with the new feature…

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