Advent Calendar

German Advent Calendar – Day 24

  “Frohe Weihnachten”   We made it, wohoo – Advent Calendar 2025 is a wrap! Merry Christmas everyone! Frohe Weihnachten. Vielen Dank for being here for the calendar and for all your comments, question and support. I really hope you enjoyed it this year even if I couldn’t do some of the more time intensive staples like the Oracle riddle. I did enjoy it and I might just wing it again next year. I really hope you had some fun with it and learned a few things. For now, have an amazing Christmas, with lots of love presents, good food and may you absolutely own your family in those political dinner table discussions :). Have a great time, wind down and relax. And if you have to work, have some relaxing or inspiring shifts. And if you don’t celebrate Christmas but live in a country that does… enjoy the quiet. The city is never as quiet as around Christmas and it’s kind of fascinating. Anyway, I’ll stop yapping now. Have an amazing Christmas and bis bald.  

German Advent Calendar – Day 23

“Let’s Play”   Hello everyone, Welcome to day number 23 of the Advent Calendar. And today, I have something REALLY special for you, and something you can maybe spend some time over the holidays: Sneak Peek of my New Game   Back in fall, I tried out a new type of quiz for learning noun gender. The basic idea was that you don’t pick the article for a noun, but rather you pick the noun for an article. I’ve described my idea and the added benefits in more detail in that article, so if you want to check it out, you can find it here: German Noun Gender – New Type Of Exercise   The feedback from you was overwhelmingly positive, and I really do think there’s some potential there and so I have made that into a game. And today, you can test it.

German Advent Calendar – Day 22

“Let’s Order” Hello everyone, Welcome to day number 22 of this year’s Advent Calendar. The final stretch. And since it’s Monday again, let’s get active one last time and do a little quiz, this time about Word Order Now, in prior calendars, I’ve often had a word order exercise where I would give you a group of single short sentences that you had to combine into one big one. Which is fun and a great practice but it’s super duper work intensive for me because it really works best if you all get individual feedback for each of your versions. The general problem with word order exercises is that there usually isn’t THE ONE correct solution. Especially once a sentence a moderate length, there can be a DOZEN of correct versions, and the differences are often very fine and highly contextual. That’s hard to capture in an exercise and sadly, AI is not reliable enough to navigate all these subtleties either. But anyway… today, I want to try out a new type of exercise that is basically built around the fact that there’s more than one correct answer.  

German Advent Calendar – Day 21

  “Two Doors with one Day”   Hello everyone, And welcome back to day number 21 of the Advent Calendar. You might have noticed that day 20 was missing and that’s because I was outside running errands pretty much all day yesterday and when I got home I was so tired that I really couldn’t focus. So we’ll get two treats today, essentially. Hooray :) And both of them are nothing special and very special at the same time.

German Advent Calendar – Day 19

“Lore Accuracy” Hello everyone, Day number 19 of the Advent calendar, we’re slowly approaching the final stretch. And behind today’s door is another round of German Language – Myth or Fact We already did one episode toward the beginning of the calendar but there are quite a few stories flowing around out there in the German learning sphere, not all of which are true, so I really wanted to do another one of these. The idea is that I make a claim about the German language and its grammar and you have to decide whether or not this is actually true. If you get it right – well, great. You know that aspect of German well. And if you get it wrong – well great, you just learned something :). And maybe I can even bust one or the other myth that you might have heard somewhere on YouTube or Reddit and you actually think it’s true. Like last time, you’ll be earning angel number points, which is of course an amazing additional benefit. So if you’re ready, let’s jump in.

German Advent Calendar – Day 18

“Bookmark it”   Hello everyone, Willkommen zurück zum Adventskalender, Tag Nummer 18. And behind today’s door are two potentially new addition to everyone’s Bookmark Cemetery That’s right. I have Two websites you can bookmark and then forget about, for such is the fate of recommendations hither, thence, and forevermore. Seriously though, I had collected quite a few recommendations for this Advent calendar, some of which I am not so hot about anymore, but these two are definitely useful each in its own way. And they’re very different in purpose, as well as in style.

German Advent Calendar – Day 17

  “Inferring, Combining, Intuiting, Solving”   Hello everyone, Welcome back to the Advent Calendar, door number 17. And today, it’s time for a bit of activity again with another little Wortschatz-Quiz We’ve already done this type of quiz once this season and I feel like a lot of you enjoyed the format so we’ll do a a second round today. I’ll give you four “orbit words” that all circle around a common core. For example: die Bohne (bean) mahlen (grind) das Koffein (awake) süchtig ( addicted) The word these “orbit” around is der Kaffee. Your task is to find this word and then… ugh.. TYPE IT. Now, the “orbit words” are often a bit on the less known side. That’s kind of the goal of this practice, to see some vocabulary you DON’T know in context. Just that you need to actually figure out the context yourself ;). The main goal though is that you enjoy the puzzling and thinking.

German Advent Calendar – Day 16

“K ein I nteresse?!”   Hello everyone, Welcome back to our Advent Calendar, day number 16. Wohoo! And today, I actually kind of want to talk with you a bit about a topic that many of you are on the fence about but that most of you will not be able to avoid in one way or the other: AI in German Learning I think at this point all of you have at least heard about these new technologies and have at least a cursory idea what they do. What I want to do today is give a little overview of HOW they’re influencing German learning, whether you want it or not, and then, I’d like to do a quick poll to get an idea how you as a community are using the new tools and how you feel about them. And then, I’d of course love to talk more in the comments. My thoughts here ended up quite lengthy, so if you don’t care about this or you don’t have time and instead want to jump right to the poll and the discussion in the comments, you can do that here :) AI in Language Learning – Your Opinions … <a href="https://yourdailygerman.com/my-new-cardgame/">Dive in <span class="meta-nav">→</span></a>

German Advent Calendar – Day 15

“Let Prefix Rain” Hallo ihr alle, Welcome to the third week of the Advent Calendar. Wohoo! Day number 15, Monday. And just like last Monday, we’ll kick the week off with a little exercise. This time, with a quiz about Prefix Versions of “lassen” This is a classic quiz type of the Advent Calendar, and it’s famous for being “the dream crusher”. You go in, thinking you worked hard on your German, and then you score like 30% or something and feel absolutely deflated. I mean… is there a better way to start the week? Sure. But do we care? No! We are learning GERMAN after all. We thrive on hardship and pain! And also, this year’s quiz has more learning value because I have added explanations to each of the answers. I started doing this this year, and definitely takes longer to set up a quiz, but I think it makes a HUGE difference in how valuable the quiz is. After all, the purpose of quizzes in learning is to LEARN, not to SCORE. So yeah… don’t go into this thinking you need to “score” and if you score low, then your German is bad in this particular aspect. … <a href="https://yourdailygerman.com/my-new-cardgame/">Dive in <span class="meta-nav">→</span></a>

German Advent Calendar – Day 14

“Very Helpful Stuff” Hello everyone, Welcome back, Advent Calendar 2025, day number 14, the third Advent actually. And behind today’s door is a resource for German learners that is not only super useful but it’s also completely free. Sounds like a bit like a setup for some kind of twist. But I’m not joking.

German Advent Calendar – Day 13

“Break Tradition” Hello everyone, Day 13 of the Advent Calendar and behind this door is… drumroll… The traditional break If you’ve been following the calendar for a while, you probably know that there’s always one day that’s just a plain break, so everyone including me can catch up a bit. Usually, it’s a bit later in the calendar, but I was travelling today and so I decided to do it today :) So yeah… have an amazing day everyone, habt einen tollen Tag, und wir sehen uns morgen.  

German Advent Calendar – Day 12

“German Humor I like” Hello everyone, And welcome to day number 12 of the Advent Calendar. And behind today’s door is An Artist A cartoon artist, to be precise, whose work has heavily inspired how I started out making cartoons for my articles here back when I was still stitching together pencil drawn elements. Today, I want to introduce you to him, because he was such an influence for me, and I still find him funny in a subversive way even after almost 30 years. And if you like cartoons, it might be a nice source to learn  with, at least if you’re B1 or higher.

German Advent Calendar – Day 11

  “Also always”   Hello everyone, Welcome back to day number 11 of the Advent Calendar and behind today’s door is a useful little word combination that doesn’t quite mean what it seems to mean: auch immer One of you actually asked me about this yesterday, because it didn’t make sense in context and that’s when I realized how weird this actually is. And since it’s a somewhat common pattern that also has a variation that’s even more confusing, I decided to share that right away today. So… just based on the parts, auch immer looks like it means also always. or always as well. And it can mean that… Maria kommt immer zu spät. Thomas kommt auch immer zu spät. Maria is always late. Thomas is also always late.   But then, there are sentences like this: Wo auch immer du bist, ich bin hier. And here, thinking of auch as also and immer as always makes NO sense.

Advent Calendar – 10

“Duolingo, but it doesn’t suck” Hello everyone, a bit late today, but welcome back to the German learning Advent Calendar 2025, door number 10. And behind this door is the first recommendation for a language tool for this season. LingoDeer Yeah… I know… LingoDeer, lingopie, langotalk, lingodies, langodas. There are so many apps now that the names start getting confusing. But today, I want to tell you about LingoDeer because it’s basically what Duolingo could be if they took the idea of teaching someone a language seriously.

Advent Calendar – 9

“You know what… you’re good!”   Hello everyone, Welcome back!! Door number 9 of the 2025 Advent Calendar and behind this door is a little vocabulary snack waiting for you that I’m almost sure 90% of you don’t know. There’s words that just fly below the radar, but this one.. this one is a 6th generation stealth jet. Stealth… I wasn’t too sure about stealth, but this is tremendously stealth, I can tell you that. They say it’s so much stealth, they can’t find it, even if they’re looking for it. I don’t know about that. I’ve seen it. It’s hard to see, but I’ve seen it. Very few people see it, but it’s nice when you see it. It’s very nice, in fact. It’s beautiful, frankly. Okay, seriously though, today I want to tell you about…. die Kulanz And before we take a look at it, I actually want to check my hypothesis about how many of you know this, so here’s a little poll:     And now, let’s take a look.  

German Advent Calendar – 8

  “The sum of its parts” Hello everyone, and welcome to door number 8 – the second week of the Advent Calendar is starting. And what better way to kick off the week than with a little bit of activity. A Vocabulary Quiz Today, I want to try out a new type of quiz that might be useful for building vocabulary. I’m curious what you’ll think. Here’s how it works:

German Advent Calendar – Day 7

“Did you mean”   Hello ihr Deutschlerner, I’m a bit late today, but happy second Advent I hope you had or are having a beautiful day. Today, I have a little site improvement for you, but I also have a couple of follow ups from the days prior. First of all, I want to say that I’m REALLY impressed by the poems you wrote about German prefix verbs. They were all really really creative and some were actually really impressive. And I have to say…

German Advent Calendar – Day 6

  “It’s in the cards”   Hello everyone,   and welcome to this year’s German Learning Advent Calendar. Today is Saturday, which is traditionally a “slow” day for the calendar, and it’s also the 6th of December, which means it is Nikolaus-Tag. Nikolaus is a sort of mini Christmas in Germany and many other countries, where kids get some little goodies and coworkers bring self-made Plätzchen to work.And so today is the perfect day for a little Give-Away Hooray!

German Advent Calendar – Day 5

  “Anne, Aufer, Zues”   Hello everyone, And welcome back to this year’s German learning calendar, door number five, and it arguably has the most obscure title so far. I mean… Anne, Aufer, Zues. Looks a bit like it could be names, but it isn’t. What it is is a bit of colloquial German for you that you absolutely won’t find in a textbook, but that you MIGHT come across in real life here and that might be very, very confusing. Let’s look at an actual example and see if you can figure it out :)

German Advent Calendar – Day 4

“Not beating the allegations” Hallo ihr alle, Welcome to day number 4 of this year’s Advent Calendar. And today, I want to talk about a very common stereotype people have about Germans and Germany. Germans “don’t do AC” By AC I mean of course air conditioning and there’s the stereotype that Germans are not really into it. Make sure to stay until the end of the article to find out if it’s true or not, but first…

German Advent Calendar 25 – Day 3

  “If Hmpf was a person”   Hello everyone, Welcome to day 3 of the Advent Calendar, and behind today’s door is… drumroll… a word. der Muffel Looks a bit like muff, which is this sort of fur tube that you can put both hands into in winter. It’s also called der Muffe in German, by the way. The word comes from the French word moufle which just means glove. Anyway,  der Muffel  has nothing to do with keeping your hands warm, but it still is a very useful word especially if you spend your winter in Berlin. We have Muffel aplenty here, muffeling around, spreading their Muffeligkeit. You may even become one. Heck, you probably ARE one, for one thing or another. Like sports, or reading, or taking a shower So what is it?

German Advent Calendar – Day 2

  “Truth or Nah”   Hello everyone, And welcome to day two of this years Advent Calendar and today we’ll do a little quiz about Truths about the German Language Sounds harmless, but you’ll actually have to do some serious thinking. Or some serious knowing. Or some serious guessing. Either way, it’s definitely very serious.

German Advent Calendar – Day 1

  “Same, same, but different” Give me an A! Give me a D! Give me an H! Give me a D! What’s that spell? It spells… oh… uh… Advent Calendar 2025, let’s goooo!! Seriously, welcome to the epic YourDailyGerman German learning Advent Calendar 2025

Advent Calendar 24 – Christmas Poem

“Christmas Poem” ***

Advent Calendar 23 – Fit and Miss

“Fit and Miss” ***

Advent Calendar 22 – Quicktionary

“Quicktionary” ***

Advent Calendar 21 – Compound interest

“Compound Interest” ***

Advent Calendar 20 – Christmas Dinner Essential

“Christmas Dinner Essential” ***

Advent Calendar 19 – Entschleunigung

“Entschleunigung” ***

Advent Calendar 18 – “Family of Two”

  “Family of Two” ***

Advent Calendar 17 – Getting Moot Pilled

“Getting Moot Pilled” ***

Advent Calendar 16 – Prefix To Make

“Prefix to Make” ***

Advent Calendar 15 – Waxing Poetic

“Waxing Poetic” ***

Advent Calendar 14 – That this though!

  “That this though” ***

Advent Calendar 13 – The Can of Innocence

  “The Can of Innocence” ***

Advent Calendar 12 – Raw fibre

Advent Calendar 11 – Piece of Cake

“Piece of Cake” ***

Advent Calendar 10 – Location Vocation

“Location Vocation” ***

Advent Calendar 9 – Auf Slang

“Auf Slang” ***

Advent Calendar 8 – Meaning Cloud

  “Meaning Cloud” ***

Advent Calendar 7 – Being Contrarian (in German)

  “Being Contrarian (in German)” ***

Advent Calendar 6 – Owning the Libs

“Owning the Libs” ***

Advent Calendar 5 – Open Mic

  “Open Mic” ***

Advent Calendar 4 – Let them Eat Cake

  “Let them eat cake”

Advent Calendar 3 – Hurtful Practice

“Enter the world of hurt” ***

Advent Calendar 2 – Certainly not certain

“Certainly not certain” ***

Advent Calendar 1 – We’re so back

“It’s so back!” *** OMG, it’s happening! December has started, advent season has started. And those of you who have been with me for  a while already know what that means. But I have to say… this year, it’s not going to be what you expect. It will not be a normal Advent Calendar. It will be an ADVANCE COOLENDER. Hell yeah, lesss gooooooo!! “So does that mean it’ll be an Advent Calendar, after all?!” Yeah… I was just kidding. It’s exactly the same concept, but I really feel like this year’s calendar might be the bestest and most interesting yet. If you’re new to this – during Advent season, I’ll do one little post per day and it’s going to be a great mix of things. There will be quizzes, some nice colloquial nuggets, some useful vocabulary, some common mistakes you might have been making, some German culture stuff, a give-away, a surprise and much more. If you’re subscribed to my newsletter, you’ll get the link to the new post everyday, but you’ll also be able to find the calendar right on the homepage. I’ll put it up there within the next few days. And the best thing is… … <a href="https://yourdailygerman.com/my-new-cardgame/">Dive in <span class="meta-nav">→</span></a>

Advent Calendar 24 – Merry Christmas

  Cherry Mrissmass ***

Advent Calendar 23 – The Chosen One

  “The Chosen One” ***

Advent Calendar 22 – Eating 101

“Eating 101” ***

Advent Calendar 21 – Slangle Bells

  “Slangle Bells” ***

Advent Calendar 20 – Re-Cognate

  “Re-Cognate” ***

Advent Calendar 19 – Home Cinema

“Home Cinema” ***

Advent Calendar 18 – NPCs

“NPCs” ***

Advent Calendar 17 – Break Tradition

“Break Tradition” ***

Advent Calendar 16 – Lyrical Learning

“Lyrical Learning” ***  

Advent Calendar 15 – Guess Express

  “Guess Express”   ***

Advent Calendar 14 – Dürfen goes To Aschram

“dürfen goes to Aschram” ***

Advent Calendar 13 – Riddle Me This

  “Riddle me this” ***

Advent Calendar 12 – Lucky Saliva

  “Lucky Saliva” ***

Advent Calendar 11 – Language Lego

“Language Lego” ***

Advent Calendar 10 – Our Voice

“This is our voice” ***

Advent Calendar 9

  “Grammar Police” ***

Advent Calendar 8 – Animal Spirit

  “Animal Spirit”   ***

Advent Calendar 7

"sich abschminken" is about removing make-up. But it also has an idiomatic meaning that has to do with crushed dreams.

Advent Calendar 6 – Hal-olaus

“Hal, open the grammar door please”   ***

Advent Calendar 5 – Pretending in German

“Pretending in German” ***

Advent Calendar 4 – Preferential Practice

“Preferential Practice” ***

Advent Calendar 3 – “Just asking questions”

“I’m just asking questions” ***

Advent Calendar 2 – Air it out

“Airing it out” ***

Advent Calendar 1 – Not great but it’s a start

“Not great, but it’s a start”   ***

Advent Calendar 24 – Frohe Weihnachten

“Frohe Weihnachten” *** *** Hallo ihr lieben, door number 24, the last door of the Advent Calendar and just like is the tradition, behind this door is… drumroll… Freizeit und ein Danke! Seriously, the stores are still open but I’m from East Germany, and traditionally Christmas is today, on the evening of the 24th, and it’s not a day for working or learning. So yeah… thanks a lot for joining me for the calendar this year and for all your feedback and the comments and all. We’ll do the yearly oracle next week, so stay tuned. But for now, have a relaxed and peaceful Christmas, and if have an argument over dinner… make sure to win :). And if you don’t celebrate, have a few relaxed days, and if you’re in Germany, go outside and enjoy just how quiet and deserted the cities seem. It’s a special mood you don’t get to see except for on Christmas. Oh and for those of you who have to work… I hope you have relaxed shifts and a good flow, and if you work hospitality, then I wish you some relaxed customers and no drama. I’ll probably do some work myself, because I … <a href="https://yourdailygerman.com/my-new-cardgame/">Dive in <span class="meta-nav">→</span></a>

Advent Calendar 23 – “German Nuggets”

“German Nuggets” *** *** Hallo Leute, day 23 of the German Advent Calendar, slowly slowly (or not so slowly)  the Advent season is drawing to a close :). So a few days ago, I did a poll where I asked you for one of the days what you’d like to see in the Advent Calendar. The majority of you voted for the Yearly Oracle. I didn’t expect that, to be honest, and so I asked myself, what would Jesus do. But I didn’t like the answer, so I’ll do something different. Seriously though, this morning when I got up, I was thinking that it’s maybe cooler to do it right around New Years. And that’d also give me a bit more time to think of some int… I mean … to connect to the 5th dimension and channel the oracle. So instead, I’ll do the second place of the poll and that was… drum roll…. A Sneak Peek of my New Project Yes, we already had the card game, and yes, the books are in the works as well, but I had an idea not so long ago and usually it’s best to implement ideas when they’re fresh and then … <a href="https://yourdailygerman.com/my-new-cardgame/">Dive in <span class="meta-nav">→</span></a>

Advent Calendar 22 – Alman is in the Air

“Alman’s in the Air” *** *** Hello everyone, door number 22 of our Advent Calendar, almost Christmas, and behind today’s door is some really nice and funny German Humor Error code: n.a. So have a great day, let me know in the comments how you liked it and I’ll see you tomorrow.                   Nah, I’m kidding. I’m not the biggest fan of German comedy, especially the one that makes it to the mainstream and TV. It’s horrendous. But today, I wanted to tell you about a YouTube channel that actually is kind of funny. I mean… maybe not lmao rofl burst out laughing funny, but at least it’s worth that approving little smile that says “Yes, this was humorous.” So that’s what I wanted to do today, and I will, but before that, I actually wanted to quickly share something I discovered with you that most of you won’t care about but still. Instagram German Influencers are FAKE So over the last year or so, I have noticed that there are more and more “langfluencers” or particularly “Germfluencers” pooping up on i… sorry… I mean popping up on Instagram. And many of … <a href="https://yourdailygerman.com/my-new-cardgame/">Dive in <span class="meta-nav">→</span></a>

Advent Calendar 21 – “Make no mistake”

“Is this… perfectionism” ***   *** Hallo Leute, and welcome to day 21 of this year’s Advent Calendar. And today, I actually would like to … uh… “start a conversation”. Which is influencer speak for ranting about something :). Yes, I’m going to rant again. Seriously though, I want to share some thoughts about a trope in language learning that I find to be… not so helpful maybe. Learn it 100% right I don’t know if this is the best way to phrase it. But let me explain. The perfect example are the German genders and specifically the articles der, die das. And especially as a beginner, you’re likely to hear or read something like this, be it in a textbook, a course or a Youtube video: German Gender is really important and you should really learn it along with the noun. Now there’s nothing wrong with learning the gender alongside with the noun. What I do have a problem with is that teachers and other sources often imply that if you DON’T learn the gender along with the noun you’re making a mistake, because: “It’s really hard to unlearn a mistake.” As if learning something is akin to carving … <a href="https://yourdailygerman.com/my-new-cardgame/">Dive in <span class="meta-nav">→</span></a>

Advent Calendar 20 – All about Asking

“All about asking” *** *** Hello everyone, day20 of our German Learning Advent Calendar, and today, I want to talk a bit about a rather common German word. One of the absolute essential German words even, because without it, we won’t ever get any answers. I’m talking of course about fragen Now, of course you all know what it means, and you probably have used it many times already. But let’s go over the basics real quick anyway, because why not. Feel free to skip it if you want to miss out. fragen – grammar and usage The conjugation is 100% organic, free range, grass fed Irish beef… aka 100% natural, aka 100% regular. ich frage du fragst er/sie/es fragt wir fragen ihr fragt sie fragen And the same goes for the past tense, which would be ich fragte, du fragtest and so on. But fragen is definitely one where people use the spoken past in daily life and that is also super regular. ich habe gefragt… In terms of structure, the person you ask is the direct object, so in German that means it’ll be in Accusative. Ich frage mich, warum du mich fragst. I’m asking myself, why you’re … <a href="https://yourdailygerman.com/my-new-cardgame/">Dive in <span class="meta-nav">→</span></a>

Advent Calendar 19 – Rordr

“The Mystery of Rordr” *** ***   Hallo Adventskalenderisten, and welcome to the final stretch of the epic German Learning Calendar, door number 19. And today, it’s time to get a little active, because behind the cryptic title that sounds like a name of a dwarf in a fantasy novel is actually a little quiz about one of the burning questions about German: “r” or “dr” ? Yeah… it’s so burning, many of you didn’t even have it :). But you actually do have it, because it’s actually a common thing in spoken German and also a common mistake. And I don’t want to talk about grammar today, or what’s a prefix and and what’s a da-word and what’s an adverb. It gets quite messy and none of this really matters, at least not for speaking properly. What we’re trying today is to build some intuition for these things, because that’ll help us much more with sounding idiomatic than a bunch of rules. So… many of you probably remember this from one or the other article here: German tends to be quite “explicit” when it comes to expressing location and spatial relations. And one example is that German really likes … <a href="https://yourdailygerman.com/my-new-cardgame/">Dive in <span class="meta-nav">→</span></a>

Advent Calendar 18 – “Back to the kitchen”

“Back to the kitchen” *** *** Hallo Leute, German Advent Calendar, Day 18, the fourth of Advent, and today we’ll actually pick up a loose thread of the Calendar and complete our look at the slightly sad truth about How (many) posts online are made If you missed the first part or you want to read that again you can find that here: Advent Calendar 15 – Peeking into the kitchen We left after step 3 when we had a list of promising topics for our blog. But now we need to create the actual articles. Ewww, that sounds like a lot of work. Especially because we’re not really interested in writing and in the topics. Because remember… we’re just doing this to market our product. And the topics we collected are based on search metrics, not on what we know or care about. Step 4 – Hire a (cheap) freelance writer So we go back online to Fiverr or Upwork or another of these freelance platforms and we find ourselves a cheap copywriter. There are plenty of English native speakers on these platforms who freelance as content writers, either as a side hustle or as their normal income while … <a href="https://yourdailygerman.com/my-new-cardgame/">Dive in <span class="meta-nav">→</span></a>

Advent Calendar 17 – Breaking News

“Avatar: Blue Respite”     *** Hallo ihr Leute, und willkommen zu Tag 17 von unserem Advent-Kalender. Ein besonderer Tag, denn YourDailyGerman hat heute Geburtstag!! Hurra. An diesem Tag hatte ich damals den WordPress-Blog angefangen. Und das feiern wir mit einer absolut epischen Pause Laaaangweilig!! Im Ernst, es ist eine alte Kalender-Tradition, dass ich einen Tag einfach ausfallen lasse. Das erste mal ist das passiert, weil ich noch in einer Bar gearbeitet habe, und ich habe es einfach nicht geschafft. Und seitdem ist es ein fester Bestandteil des Kalenders, auf den sich viele Stammleser immer extrem freuen. “Aber… wir freuen uns nicht wirk…” STAMMLESER FREUEN SICH EXTREM DRAUF!! Also… heute gibt’s eine Atempause. Habt einen schönen Tag und Abend :). Obwohl… eine kleine Sache gibt es doch. Hi folks, and welcome to day 17 of our Advent Calendar. A special day, because YourDailyGerman has its birthday today. Hooray! On this day, the 17th, I started the WordPress-Blog back in the day.  And we’ll celebrate that with an absolutely epic Break Booooring!! Seriously though, it is an old calendar tradition that I simply skip one day. The first time, this happened, because I was still working at a bar and I … <a href="https://yourdailygerman.com/my-new-cardgame/">Dive in <span class="meta-nav">→</span></a>

Advent Calendar 16 – Game Changer

“Game Changer” *** Hallo ihr alle, German learning Advent Calendar day number 16. And behind today’s door is a something that might be an absolute game changer, at least for those of you who make their own flashcards or vocabulary lists. I definitely was like “Wooooaaaaaaah” when I heard about this – in a freaking TikTok video, no less. Anyways, get ready for an epic Google Sheets Hack for Translation Google Sheets is pretty much Google’s version of Microsoft Excel and like Excel, it has lots of cool functions that 99.9% of people don’t know about. And one of these functions is… drumroll…. Google Sheets can be set to pull in translation directly from Google translate. And here’s how it works. Open a new document, one column is for English and one for German. Put some words or phrases into the side that you want to translate. Now, go to the first cell in the column of the target language and put in the formula for Google Translate The formula is: =GOOGLETRANSLATE([field number of origin] ; “[code for origin languge]” ; “[code for target language]”) In our example, the origin field is A2, so the second field in column A. … <a href="https://yourdailygerman.com/my-new-cardgame/">Dive in <span class="meta-nav">→</span></a>

Advent Calendar 15 – A peek into the kitchen

“Peeking into the kitchen (#kindagross)” *** Hallo ihr lieben, and welcome to day 15 of our Advent Calendar. And behind today’s door is actually kind of a little glimpse “into the kitchen”, where lots of German learning content online is prepared. And just like in a normal kitchen… it ain’t pretty Many of you probably kind of low key know at least part of this, but I’m sure most of you are not fully aware of the extent of it. So let’s take a look at How (a lot of) Language Learning Content is made Normally, if someone sets out to explain something, by for example writing an article, we would assume that their goal is to … explain it. Of course, there might also be a financial reason. A journalist for a science magazine for example doesn’t just write because they want to tell us something, they also do it because it’s their job. But you’d usually expect the person writing an explanatory piece to be somewhat knowledgeable in the field and ideally, they also have an innate desire to share their expertise. So someone writing articles about some grammar aspect of the German language should have a passion … <a href="https://yourdailygerman.com/my-new-cardgame/">Dive in <span class="meta-nav">→</span></a>

Advent Calendar 14 – “The Joinoooor”

  “The Joinooooor” ( doesn’t like a full stop, uses all subordinating conjunctions, sees two sentences – connects them, “The book was good. But could be one sentence.”, …)

Advent Calendar 13 – It’s in the Cards

“It’s in the cards” *** Hallo ihr lieben, eigentlich sollte ja gestern Halbzeit-Show sein, aber beide Acts haben abgesagt. Das ist schade, und ihr alle wart sehr enttäuscht und traurig… “Emanuel, eigentlich war ich überhaupt nicht trau…” Ihr wart SEHR TRAURIG!!!! Und ihr habt in den Kommentaren gefragt, ob ihr zumindest ein bisschen Werbung haben könnt. “Emanuel, ich habe alle Kommentare gelesen, und da hat niemand nach Werb….” Ihr habt nach WERBUNG GEFRAGT!! Und deshalb habe ich entschieden, euch heute mein neues Projekt vorzustellen. “Emanuel, du hast noch nicht mal dein Buchprojekt fertig.” Ich werde euch meine neues Projekt vorstellen!!! hi all you good people,  so yesterday originally was supposed to be the half time show, but both acts cancelled. That’s a pity and you all were very disappointed and sad.  “Uh, actually I wasn’t disappointed and sa…” You were really disappointed and sad!!! And you asked me in the comments, if you could have at least a few ads.  “Emanuel, I read all comments and no one asked for ads the…” You ASKED FOR ADS!! And that’s why I have decided to introduce my new project to you. “Emanuel, you haven’t even finished the old book project yet. I … <a href="https://yourdailygerman.com/my-new-cardgame/">Dive in <span class="meta-nav">→</span></a>

Advent Calendar 12- “With you or with you.”

“With you or with you?”

Advent Calendar 11 – The Secret of Chindia

“The Secret of Chindia”

Advent Calendar 10 – Lord of the Flies

“Lord of the flies” ***

Advent Calendar 9 – The family gene

“The Family Gene”

Advent Calendar 8 – It’s beginning to sound a lot like…

  “It’s beginning to sound a lot like Quizmas!” ***

The Meaning of “Korb kriegen”

"einen Korb kriegen" is about asking out your crush and... being REJECTED. It's a really common expression, and today, we'll find out where it comes from.

Vocab: der Korb, einen Korb kriegen

Advent Calendar 6 – An Epic Cognate

“An Epic Cognate”

“scheinen” as “to seem” – A common mistake

English speakers often use "scheinen" as "to seem" but that's not actually how Germans talk. Today, we'll learn what to actually use.

Advent Calendar 2022 – Netflix and Chill

“Netflix and Chill”

Advent Calendar 3 – Jingle Polls

“Rug Poll!”

Advent Calendar 2- “Missfits”

“Fit and Miss”

German Advent Calendar – 2022 Edition (#peakfun)

“The Startening”   EDIT:  I had to clean up my email list and I removed a bunch of addresses that haven’t been active in months.  If you usually hear from me and that stops now, please let me know. I might have accidentally deleted your entry.

German Advent Calendar 24 – Merry Christmas

Yourdailygerman Igotnothing Calendar 000♥♥000   Hallo ihr lieben, 24. Dezember, Adventskalender-Finale. Und wie es Tradition ist, gibt es heute … nix :) Oh well… actually I spent quite a bit of time fixing a big with the “hint” of yesterday’s exercise. That was the weirdest code mistake I have ever seen and I spent a couple of hours going through Javascript, only to finally realize that it’s just a weirdly placed bold-marking. Anyway, this was the Advent Calendar for this year :)! I’ll put up a proper archive of it in the coming days (under the Advent Calendar Archive). There, you can also dig through old calendars if you don’t have enough yet. Advent Calendar Archive (I’ll add this year soon) Thanks a lot for being part of the Advent season and for all your comments and thoughts. We even had some controversy here this year :D. Have a wonderful wonderful Christmas time, eat well, treat yourself well, be nice to others, stay healthy and in a good mood. And learn some German… but only if you’re bored. Liebe Grüße und wir sehen uns nach den Feiertagen.  

German Advent Calendar 23 – A conditional quicky

Yourdailyfailure Advent Calendar “A conditional quickie“ ♥♥♥ + e^π – π + (♥♥♥^♥♥) / ((♥♥*(♥♥♥!-♥))^♥♥♥♥)

German Advent Calendar 22 – Look at this Schmuck

Yourprettygerman Advent Calendar   “Look at this Schmuck“ ♥♥♥*(♥♥^♥♥♥)-♥♥*(sin(♥)^♥♥+cos(♥)^♥♥)

German Advent Calendar 21 – Sneak Peek

  Yourdailygerman – Ad Calendar “Sneak Peek“ ♥[…]♥  

German Advent Calendar 20 – Person of the Year

Yourdailyyoutube Advent Calendar “Person of the Year“   (♥♥♥!-♥)! / ♥♥♥!  

Swearing in German – Day 19

The German word for "to swear" is "fluchen". But to swear has a really odd double meaning and "fluchen" only covers one of them.

Vocab: fluchen, der Fluch, verfluchen

German Advent Calendar 18 – Break it down

Youralmostdailygerman Advent Calendar “Break it Down“ ♥♥♥♥♥♥ ♥♥♥♥♥ ♥♥♥♥ ♥♥ + +

German Advent Calendar 17 – Jeff’s Space Company

Yourdailyslurrrrman Advnt Calllenda “Jeff’s Space Company“ ♥♥^♥♥^♥♥ + (♥-♥)!

German Advent Calendar 16 – Ge-forming

Yourdaily__rman Advent Calendar “Ge-Forming“ ♥♥♥♥^♥♥

Sounding better with Synonyms

ThyDiurnialGerman – Advent Time Table  “Sounding better with Synonyms“ ♥♥♥^♥♥+♥♥♥!

German Advent Calendar 14 – Look at you

Yourdailygerman-namregyliadruoY “Look at you“ ♥♥♥!+♥♥^♥♥♥

German Advent Calendar 13 – Prefix to Give

Yourdailygerman Advent Frustration “Prefix to give“ ♥♥♥^♥♥+♥♥^♥♥

German Advent Calendar 12 – Half Time Show

Yourdailygerman Ad-vent Calendar “Half Time Show (feat. Drake)“ ♥♥♥ x ♥♥♥+♥♥♥

German Advent Calendar 11 – How (not) to sound based

Youdailygerman Based Calendar “How (not) to sound based“ ♥♥♥♥♥ ♥♥♥ ♥♥ ♥  

German Advent Calendar 10 – Talking about your degree

“Talking about your degree“ ♥♥♥♥♥ ♥♥♥ ♥♥

German Advent Calendar 9 – 2 4 1

Yourdailygerman Cryptic Calendar “2 4 1” ♥♥♥♥♥ ♥♥♥♥ ♥

German Advent Calendar 8 – Laying down the Law

Yourdailygerman Advocalendar “Laying down the law“ ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥

Advent Calendar 7 – So fresh and so clean

“So fresh and so clean“ ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥

German Advent Calendar 6 – Quite the Opposite

Yourdailygerman Advent Calendar  “Quite The Opposite“ ♥♥♥♥♥♥

Time of Day in German – Speaking Practice

A short speaking practice for saying the time in German in the informal way (halb, um, viertel vor an so on). AI evaluates your pronunciation and answer.

German Advent Calendar 4 – Getting even

Yourdailygerman Advent Calendar©®™ “Getting even“ ♥♥♥♥

Vocab: quitt , die Quittung

German Advent Calendar 3 – Helicopter Brain

  “Helicopter Brain“ ♥♥♥

Saying the Time in German – Speaking Practice 1

A quick practice for saying the time in German in the "formal" way. An AI will evaluate your pronunciation and your answer.

The Calendar Awakens

“The Calendar Awakens“ It was dormant for ages,  a memory for some, a legend to others, unknown to many. But the prophecies foretold it shall rise again,  and bring fun and FOMO to those who seek to learn German. Today, the prophecies are proven right, for it has returned – the Yourdailygerman Advent Calendar.    So yeah… I’m doing the calendar again.  Hooray!! Every day until Christmas, I’ll post a short (or not so short) article, that has to do with learning German. And I have to say… this year’s calendar is actually the seventh one, which is pretty crazy, and I feel like it might be the most interesting one so far. Like… I’m even going to talk about the legal system.     Seriously though… it’s going to be great! So yeah… during the calendar, you’ll get an email from me every day with the link for the new “door”. And I’ve actually upgraded my email sending plan for this, so all of you will have the email right in time for you morning coffee. Well … except okay… if you’re in Australia, it’s more the noon coffee. Oh, and of course the calendar is FREE again, because … <a href="https://yourdailygerman.com/my-new-cardgame/">Dive in <span class="meta-nav">→</span></a>

Advent Calendar 24 – “Merry Christmas”

“Merry Christmas“

Advent Calendar 23 – Win-ter

“Win-ter“

Advent Calendar 22 – Oracle

“Oracle“

The meaning of “zocken”

"zocken" is a colloquial German word for playing computer games. But its relatives are also useful when you buy overpriced stuff.

Advent Calendar 20 – Lis-Comp

“Lis-Comp“  

Advent Calendar 19 – Console

“Console“

Advent Calendar 18 – Prefix To Stand

“Prefix to Stand“

Advent Calendar 17 – “Quality”

“Quality“

Advent Calendar 16 – “Dayoff”

“Dayoff“

Advent Calendar 15 – Cancelling 101

“Cancelling 101“

Advent Calendar 2020 – “My Unwort”

“And the nominees are“  

Advent Calendar 13- Ety-Hmmmm-ology

“Ety-hmmmm-ology“  

Advent Calendar 12 – “Halftime Show”

“Halftime Show“

Advent Calendar 2020 – Counting Backwards

“Counting Backwards“

Advent Calendar 10 – Stomach this!

“Stomach this!“  

Advent Calendar 9 – Unword Award

“Unword Award“

Advent Calendar 8 – Among Us

“Among us“

Advent Calendar 7 – “Something to chew on”

A quick look at the meaning of "zäh" and how to use it in a sentence

Advent Calendar 6 – Indo-European Exposed

“Indo-European #Exposed“

Advent Calendar 5 – No More Betas

“No more beta“  

Advent Calendar 4 – Let’s Poll

“Let’s poll“

Advent Calendar 3 – German Proteins

"Quark" is a staple you can find in all German stores. It's healthy, tasty and super easy to make. Today, we'll find out all about this weird German cheese.

Advent Calendar 2 – Prefix To Fall

  “Prefix To Fall“

Avdent Calendar 2020 – The beginning

“The Return of the Calendar“

Advent Calendar 2019 – Merry Christmas

“Merry Christmas“

Advent Calendar 2019 – That List Though

  “That List Though”

Advent Calender 2019 – Your Next Year

“Your Next Year”

Advent Calendar 2019 – Contract?!

  “Contract?!”

The meaning(s) of – “bestehen”

A quick look at the various meanings of "bestehen"

Advent Calender 2019 – Prefix To Take

“Prefix to Take”

How Germans use “halt”

Germans use "halt" a lot as a sort of "verbal shrug". But it's also increasingly popular as a premature "excuse" for what they're saying - read more today.

Advent Calendar 2019 – “Ready to Order”

“Ready to Order”

Advent Calendah 2019 – “Proworks”

“Proworks”

Advent Calendar 2019 – The missing Link

“The missing link”

“verteidigen” – German Prefix Verb Calendar

"verteidigen" means "to defend". In this short post, we'll learn why and see how to use it.

Advent Calendar 2019 – “Halftime Show”

  “Halftime Show“

Advent Calendar 2019 – Play with Goethe

“Play with Goethe”

The Meaning of “der Quatsch”

A quick look at the meaning of Quatsch and quatschen.

Advent Calendar 2019 – Misfits

“Misfits“

Advent Calender 2019 – “Tell me more”

  “Tell me more“  

Advent Calendar 2019 – Patience

A quick look at "die Geduld" - the German word for "patience".

German Advent Calender – Contractions

“Contractions“  

Advent Calender 2019 – A new library

“A New Library“

Advent Calender 2019 – Movie Night

“Movie Night“

Advent Calendar 2019 – Prefix To Pull

“Prefix to Pull“

Advent Calender 2019 – Allow

“Allow“

Advent Calender 1 – The Rise of Calender

“The Rise of Calender“

Advent Calendar 2019 – Pictionary

“Pictionary”

Advent Calendar 24 – “The best present”

“The best present“

Advend Calendar 23 – “Raven’s End”

“Raven’s End“

Advent Calendar 22 – “My new App”

  “My new app“

Advent Calendar 21 – “Nailing it at Christmas dinner”

“Nailing it at Christmas dinner“

Advent Calendar 20 – “Recycling”

  Hello everyone, Advent Calendar day ___ , and behind this door is one of the most favorite activities of Germans… recycling. Yes, we love it. We separate our trash into categories and subcategories and put it into color coded containers. Yellow for plastic, green for glass, blue for paper, orange for good mood (this one is always empty), purple for unicorn-related stuff… it’s a complete trash can rainbow in our yards. So today, we’ll do some recycling here and take old content to make a post entirely of old content…. by making a … drumroll please… cartoon slide show. Seriously, most of you know that I usually make a little cartoon for each article. And a while ago I was thinking that it would be kind of cool if you could just flick through them. Either as a little call back or as a sort of thumbnail to the article. I still have to decide how exactly to use them and then I’ll have to do some coding to really integrate it into the archives… haha the archives… sounds like this big stone walled room in the basement of a castle with dusty books… anyways, I eventually decided I’m … <a href="https://yourdailygerman.com/my-new-cardgame/">Dive in <span class="meta-nav">→</span></a>

Advent Calendar 19 – Prefix To Hold

    Hallo Leute, welcome back to our Advent Calendar, door number ___ . And today it’s once again your turn. Yup, we’ll do another exercise. And this time, it is again about vocabulary, specifically … prefix verbs. Yeah, I know your chest wants to burst with excitement. Go ahead, do it! Whether you’re in your car, in the office or in an elevator. Scream it like you’re on an open field. HOORAY!!!! We’ll do the same type of work out that we did a few days ago with gehen, but this time we’ll use the base verb halten. If you haven’t done the first one, here’s the idea: I’ll give you ten sentences in English and you have to find which prefix version of halten is needed for each of them. Of course, if you feel like it, you can also try and translate them, but the main point is finding the right verb in German. Some of them are pretty easy, but there are a few in there that you probably never heard of. So to make it a little bit less frustrati ..    even more more fun, I’ll give you a list of the verbs that … <a href="https://yourdailygerman.com/my-new-cardgame/">Dive in <span class="meta-nav">→</span></a>

Advent Calendar 18 – “Piggy Idioms”

Hello everyone, day ___ of our Advent Calendar and today, we’ll get a little boost for our idiomaticness… wait, idiomaticness… is that even a word? Anyway, today we’ll learn two really really cool and useful idiomatic expressions. And not just any idiomatic expressions but idiomatic expressions involving an animal. And not just any animal, but the pig. And not just any pig but the cute little… okay, actually it’s any pig :). The pig is probably one of the most common animals for expressions all over the world. And the thing they’re most known for, and hence the most common topic for pig-idioms  is their ability to do calculus. Wow, du hast die Stammfunktion wie ein Schwein errechnet. Wow, you calculated that primitive integral like a pig. ▶ Okay…. of course I’m kidding. This is NOT what you’d say in German. I mean, they ARE really good at calculus (I had one do my homework back in the day), but the thing they’re usually associated with is that they’re dirty. And German has a bunch of variations over that theme. Thomas isst wie ein Schwein. Thomas eats like a pig. ▶ Räum mal auf, Alter. Dein Zimmer ist voll der … <a href="https://yourdailygerman.com/my-new-cardgame/">Dive in <span class="meta-nav">→</span></a>

Advent Calendar 17 – Searching for Words

    Hallo ihr lieben, welcome back to our Advent Calendar, and behind door number ____ there is a little Rätsel. A Suchrätsel, to be precise. Some of you probably know the format but for those of you who don’t, let me explain it real quick. Below, you see a box full of letters. Looks pretty random but if you look closer, there are actually words hidden in the box. And not just a few but 18 words, either going left to right or top to bottom (no diagonals, for those who are pros with these puzzles). The goal is to find them all. And not only that… if you find them all and put them in the right order, we’ll actually find out  why Maria couldn’t stop laughing at the Christmas market. You can either print the picture, or you can just take a pen and a piece of paper and write down the words you’ve seen. So… viel Spaß :) Pretty tough, right :). If you want to see the solved version of the puzzle, click here: the solved puzzle. Now all you have to do is make a sentence out of those words. Let me know your solutions … <a href="https://yourdailygerman.com/my-new-cardgame/">Dive in <span class="meta-nav">→</span></a>

Advent Calendar 16 – “Make a wish”

“Make a wish“

Advent Calendar 15 – Together or Not

The German word "zusammen" can be used as a prefix as well as a separate word. And for some verbs, both versions exist and the meanings are slightly different.

Advent Calendar 14 – “The almost family”

Hello everyone, and welcome to day 14 of our Advent Calendar. And those of you who love etymology will love today’s topic as we’ll take a quick look at the family of to fast. Because that’s actually pretty crazy. Here’s an overview: fast – capable of  high speed. fast asleep – NOT about falling asleep fast but about  sleeping firmly. to fast  – not eating. to fasten – making tight, your seatbelt on an airplane for instance fast (German) –  almost. That’s quite an epic scope of meanings, right? Hard to believe that they’re all connected but they actually are. The origin of all of them is the super mega hyper ancient Indo-European root *past-, which carried the idea of “firm, solid”. That is pretty much still the core of the verb to fasten. You make your seatbelt firm, if you will. It also helps with the phrase fast asleep. You’re firmly sleeping. And it can even help with to fast in the sense of not eating. You see, back many centuries, the verb to fast was much more general and meant something like “holding, guarding”, which does tie in with the original core idea of solid, tight, firm. People would use this verb also in a context of self control, “fastening … <a href="https://yourdailygerman.com/my-new-cardgame/">Dive in <span class="meta-nav">→</span></a>

Advent Calendar 13 – “But Belief”

“But Belief“

Advent Calendar 12 – “Idio_s”

“Idio_s“

Advent Calendar 11 – Having a guest

    Ey yo guys, wie geht’s euch :).  Welcome back to our Advent Calendar. And today I’ll actually do something really really really out of character: walking around naked while cooking. No… wait, that’s out of clothes, not out of character. What I’ll really do today is … brace yourselves… !!! publish a guest post!!!  GEEEEEEZZZZ!!! A while back, I got an email from him asking me if I was interested in a guest post. And as always, my first initial thought was “No, I’m not.” Usually, when people offer guest posts it’s because they want to place some links to their product or site in there. Not that there’s something wrong with that. I mean, we all gotta eat, right? But I never felt this would be a good fit for this site. David, however, somehow didn’t seem like the usual freelance guest blog post author and he was really eager to do it. So I was like “Hmm, okay, what do you have in mind?”. He suggested a few topics and one in particular sounded like it could be interesting for you guys… “How to learn German by Yourself”. And so I decided to include it in this advent calendar. … <a href="https://yourdailygerman.com/my-new-cardgame/">Dive in <span class="meta-nav">→</span></a>

Advent Calendar 10 – “To not Confuse to Confuse”

“To not confuse to confuse“

Advent Calendar 9 – In it to win it

“In it to win it“

Advent Calendar 8 – Struckli

“Struckli“

Advent Calendar 7- Goethe’s Wet Dream

“Goethe’s Wet Dream“

Advent Calendar 6 – Of Cones and Taps

  “Of Cones and Taps“

Advent Calendar 5 – The Switch Witch

“The Switch Witch“

Advent Calendar 4 – Who are you?

“Who are you?”

Advent Calendar 3 – “Prefix To Go”

“Prefix to Go“

Which case to use after “wegen”

What's the correct case after the German preposition "wegen"? Books, courses and smartypants teachers say it's Genitive, but reality has a different opinion.

Advent Calender 1 – The Beginning

“Here we go again”

Advent Calendar 24 – “Merry Crossword Puzzle”

Advent calendar 23 – “Grmn Mssngr Tlk”

A quick look at how German chat talk and slang looks like. *spoiler... it looks a lot like English.

Advent Calendar 22 – “R or no R”

Advent Calendar 21 – “This one is Toast”

Advent Calendar 20 – “The Chain of Compound”

Advent Calendar 18 – “Wormhole Crumbling”

Hey ho, hey ho, welcome back to our German Advent Calendar. A bit late today but let’s merrily open door 18  and see what  we hswoooooooooshhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh Continue reading… 

Advent Calendar 19 – “What remains”

W… what… what happened? What is that… Where are we? WHEN are we??   Oh my gaaawd… looks like door 18 was a time portal taking us to day 19. Wow… this calendar is getting crazier and crazier. Now you might be like “Wait a minute… I feel like Emanuel is just trying to hide that he skipped one day.” Well, yes, I did skip a day. Is that a crime now?!?! But seriously…  I am SUPER busy at the moment. A few weeks ago, kind of on a hunch, I took this job as a restaurant manager. Not for long, it’s more of a project for a friend to get things organized at that chaotic place. But yeah, the last two weeks were intense and I’ve done several late night shifts already. Don’t get me wrong, I am not complaining :). It’s just … yesterday night I really needed a break and just go out for a few drinks (Raki, this time). And today, the weather was so amazing that I spent the day outside. Anyway, today we’ll talk a bit about what remains when the cake and cookies are eaten. No, I’m not talking about love handles. I am … <a href="https://yourdailygerman.com/my-new-cardgame/">Dive in <span class="meta-nav">→</span></a>

Advent Calendar 17 – “Deutschboden”

Advent Calendar 16 – “Katastrophe vor Weihnachten”

  “Catastrophe before Christmas”

Advent Calendar 15 – “Idioms with Ass”

Advent Calendar 14 – “Prefixes – I’m drawing a line”

“Prefixes – I’m drawing a line!”

Advent Calendar 13 – “The Proverbening”

Advent Calendar 12- “I Broke German”

“broke German”

Vocab: pleite, die Pleite

Advent Calendar 11- Practice “viel” vs “sehr”

A quick exercise about when to use "viel" and when to use "sehr". With audio examples!

Advent Calendar 10 – “Odd Word Out”

“logical, easy, German”

Advent Calendar 9 – “Freeze!”

  “Freeze!”  

Vocab: frieren, gefrieren, erfrieren, einfrieren, zufrieren

“viel” or “sehr” – When to use which

"a lot" has two main translations in German: "viel" and "sehr". But they're not interchangeable. Today, we'll find out when to use which.

Advent Calendar 7 – “Cugly and Lazy”

Advent Calendar 6 – “Oftensity”

“Oftensity”

Advent Calendar 5 – “Choose!”

You reach a door. On it is written “5”. The door appears not to be locked. Do you want to a) open door b) go back

The meaning of “von wegen”

"von wegen" is a really nice colloquial way to express disillusionment or disbelief. We'll find out how to use it today.

Advent Calendar 3 – “German no goes”

Advent Calendar 2 – “Hot Headache Accelerator”

“It’s warm, it’s with sugar and it’s not a zebra.”

Advent Calendar 1 – “Let the games be gin”

“Let the games be gin”

Advent Calendar 24 – “Merry Christmas”

Advent Calendar 23 – “50 Shades of Dumb”

Vocab: der Trottel, der Schwachmat, der Honk, der Depp

Advent Calendar 22 – “Best thing ever?”

Advent Calendar 21 – “Let’s twist again”

Advent Calendar 20 – “All pulled together”

Advent Calendar 19 – “Nihilism”

A quick look at the meaning of "egal" and how to use it in a sentence.

Advent Calendar 18 – “For the players”

Advent Calendar 17 – “How to gain weight fast”

Advent Calendar 16 – “What is short and unfunny?”

Advent Calendar 15 – “8 – t”

A quick look at the meaning of "ach" and its various common phrasings.

Advent Calendar 14 – “Prep School”

Advent Calendar 13 – “Step up 9 – Grease.”

Advent Calendar 12 – “Germeh!”

Today, we'll learn two really common ways to express the idea that something is "Meh!" in German - something you'll need a LOT of you really want to blend in :)

Advent Calendar 11 – “A case for a coffee”

The Meaning of “Klugscheißer”

"know it all" and "smart ass" - we all know one. And in German, they're called "Klugscheißer". And you'll definitely need this word.

Vocab: Klugscheißer, Besserwisser, besserwisserisch

Advent Calendar 9 – “Lord of the Flies”

Advent Calendar 8 – “The Purge – Election Dative”

"mir" and "für mich" roughly mean and the question when to use which largely depends on what's idiomatic for a given context. Today, we'll learn more.

Advent Calendar 7 – “These verbs are pros”

Whoops, wrong image :)

Advent Calendar 6 – “Little spaces make you big”

Hello everyone, and welcome to day 6 of our Advent Calendar, and after yesterday’s theory stuff it’s time for a little leisure. I want to tell you a bit about something that belongs to the German Christmas season like the common cold belongs to winter – you’re lucky to make it through without it. Get ready for… oh no… please noooo Stop it. Go away, song! I want to talk about Plätzchen

How to order German adjectives

In English, there's a clear order for different types adjectives and mixing it up sounds strange. Is it the same order in German? Today, we'll find out.

Advent calendar 4 – “German is dangerous”

Advent Calendar 3 – “Gettin’ snotty wit’ it”

Hello everyone, day 3 of our Advent Calendar, this time with a nice shot of colloquial. Because, god knows… the textbook and course establishment don’t teach you how Germans really speak. So today, we’ll learn one of those colloquial words that – if used at the right time – will really make you sound native. And this one will help you stand your turf if someone starts to forget about politeness. Get ready for pampig ▶ Pampig is based on the noun die Pampe and Pampe is … well… think of the Chicken Curry Maria made recently. That was some proper… oh wait, you can’t know that. Well, then imagine a puddle of mud…. that’s Pampe in there. A thick, greasy, slippery mush. 

Advent Calendar – “1”

Hello everyone, it’s the first of December and that means, it’s the first day of our German is Easy – Advent Calendar From today till Christmas, you’ll get a neat little bit of German every day. Grammar, slang, idioms and other cool stuff. A few weeks ago I asked you to send me your questions and suggestions and you came up with loads of cool topics and ideas. Unfortunately not all were a good fit for the calendar. Some would have been a bit too extensive and for others, I just didn’t have anything to say. Like, “my favorite German comedian?”. I don’t even know what a “German comedian” is. So, I took some of your suggestions, and mixed in some of my own ideas and I think the result is really, really cool and you’ll never want Christmas to come (insert “even more” if you’re a Christmas hater. But wait, there’s more. You don’t only get a cool infusion of German every day, you can also win a little something every day!  From all the comments on the day’s post, I’ll pick one who gets a little surprise that’s related to either learning German or deep sea fracking (haven’t decided that yet). Oh and if … <a href="https://yourdailygerman.com/my-new-cardgame/">Dive in <span class="meta-nav">→</span></a>

Advent Calendar 2 – “Work that order”

Hi everyone, day 2 of our German advent calendar, and this time you need to get active with a nice session of WoW. No, nerds… the other WoW. This one: word order workout Now you’re like “Waiiit, I thought we get surprises. Not work.” but hey … in every advent calendar there are some things you don’t like. Like brittle. Ewwww. I hate that stuff. So put on your yoga pants and get ready for a quick How does it work? We’ve done this kind of exercise before but that’s already a while ago, so let me explain real quick. I’ll give you a few short sentences that are clearly connected by context and you have to join them together. Let’s do an example in English: