Hello everyone,
and welcome. I know most of you are waiting for part 3 of our mini series on word order and I wanted to do it but then someone suggested a topic and the idea was so great I knew instantly that would be the next post. So get ready for… drum roll please….. brrrrrrrrrrr dishhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh
Style Special – animal movements
Tadahahhhh. If this isn’t useful, then I don’t know what is. So let’s start right with the wiggling dolphins make to move forward which in German is called…
Okay no I’m kidding of course. We won’t talk about animal movements today. I have a little surprise for you.
Last summer I reviewed a language learning website called FluentU. They are offering real life, authentic video content. And the awesome thing is…. they add subtitles. And the awesome thing about that is… it’s not just subtitles. It’s subtitles with a dictionary built in so you can hover over every word and get a translation as well as a bit of background if needed. And the awesome things about THAT is that the player automatically stops.
So it’s basically a tool that let’s you study with real people and real language even if you’re not that advanced yet.
Here’s the webpage
And here’s the review of last summer:
Now, why am I bringing this up?
Because they’re working on an iPhone app and they’re looking for you! As beta testers.
They’re offering 10 free beta accounts and the only condition is that you’re willing to actually spent some time with the software and give some feedback if needed, And you need an iPhone of course.
If you’re now like “Hell yeah, I want to try that out” then here’s what you have to do
Leave a comment with your favorite German word and maybe a little
bit about why you like it so much. The 5 words that get the highest
number of likes will get an account. I’ll randomly pick the other 5.
(I’ll leave that open till Wednesday)
Oh and make sure to leave your e-mail so I can contact you. Oh and another thing… if you were lucky enough to get a beta invite last summer I’d be fair to give others a chance. You can still leave your favorite German word though because I’m kind of curious :).
So, that’s already it. And just in case you are wondering what the movement of the dolphin is called… I have absolutely idea.
Ich wünsche euch einen super Start in die Woche und wir sehen uns später mit… word order.
Bis dann
Oh by the way, just in case you’re wondering… this post in NOT sponsored. I just do it for the goodies I get to hand out :)
Thank You for sharing such a nice and informative blog and your knowledge with us. People often say that German is one of the most difficult languages for English speakers to learn and they’re right! Learning how to speak German can be quite difficult, especially for those who aren’t yet fluent in other foreign languages. In fact, learning German is well worth the pain and effort.
The textlink you were trying to post is broken …
Thanks for sharing such a nice blog and your knowledge with us. Learned a lot from it. Loved it.
Freut mich!! Liebe Grüße.
My favorite German word is Arschgeige. The world is full of ass fiddles.
Haha…. yeah, it is. My employer comes to mind.
Vielen Dank Emmanuel!
Ich glaube, dass mein Lieblingswort auf Deutsch Kuddelmuddel ist, weil es meiner Meinung nach sehr Deutsch klingt, aber auch noch irgendwie süß,
und das finde ich sehr selten bei den deutschen Wörter.
nicht zu sagen, dass das Deutsch ganz schlecht ist ;) Offensichtlich macht es mir viel Spaß, zu lernen, und zu sprechen!
Ja, das klingt wirklich süß. Wie kleine Hobbits die ihr Zimmer aufräumen. Ein paar kleine Korrekturen:
– Nicht zu sagen…
Das versteht man nur, wenn man Englisch kennt. In “clunky” Deutsch braucht man dafür ein paar mehr Wörter
– Das soll nicht heißen,….
– … dass Deutsch ganz schlecht ist. (ohne “das”… kein Artikel)
– Offensichtlich macht es mir viel Spaß, es zu lernen und zu sprechen.
(das erste “es” bezieht sich auf den letzten “zu”-Satz. Es ist eine Art Dummy und nur da weil man ein Subjekt im Satz braucht. Das zweite “es” bezieht sich auf “Deutsch”.
Okay, ich dachte schon bei “dass das Deutsch” aber eine Freundin von mir hat mich einmal hier korrigiert, und gesagt, dass es immer mit dem “das” sein muss, obwohl mir es ziemlich holprig klingt.
Andernfalls habe ich jetzt einen guten Ausdruck dazu, wenn ich etwas “not to say”-mäßig sagen will, und der letzte Fehler war nur, dass ich manchmal sinnlos bin :P
Ich trinke zu viel, und denke zu wenig…
Nochmal eine kleine Korrektur:
– Andernfalls habe ich jetzt…
Das funktioniert nicht. Es heißt nicht das, was du denkst, was es heißt. “Andernfalls” drückt aus: “If what I stated before is not the reality then”. So ziemlich genau so wie “sonst”.
– obwohl mir es ziemlich holprig …
Das “es” kommt zuerst. Es ist Subjekt UND es ist das Wort “es”, das langweiligste, leerste Deutsche Wort. Das findet man fast immer ganz vorne. Anstatt “mir” sagt man in diesem Kontext (mit “klingen”) “für mich”. “Mir” ist nicht falsch und ich habe schon Muttersprachler es benutzen hören aber es ist selten.
Mein Lieblingswort ist ‘suchen’. Wieso weiß ich nicht. Es klingt mir einfach schön und ich liebe es zu sprechen. Vielen Dank für alle deine Hilfe. Dieser Blog ist so geil und hilfreich denn du bist so lustig und hilfsbereit. Ich habe viele Leute deinen Blog empfohlen und ich freue mich immer darauf, eine neue Folge zu lesen.
Ein Account für dich weil du schon so lange dabei bist :). Danke für die lieben Worte.
Hier mal ein paar Korrekturen:
– Es klingt mir einfach schön… besser: “Ich mag den Klang”
– Ich liebe es zu sprechen… besser: Ich liebe es, es zu sagen. (das erste “es” ist ein Grammatik-Dummy-Objekt, das zweite steht für das Wort)
– Ich habe vielen Leuten deinen… (“n” für “viele” wegen Fälle und so)
Und das war’s auch schon. Der Rest ist perfekt.
I would propose “Morgenmuffel”. A lot pithier as “not a morning person“.
As someone who wouldn’t be seen dead in a ditch with an iPhone I am not in the competition.
My favorite words are “gern”, “egal” and “doch”. I like them because they’re short and practical and in my mother tongue and English normally I can’t express the same ideas using less words.
My favorite German word is “Einfach”. It’s fun to use it and sounds good while using. So, practically it makes many sentences easy :)
Später. Why? Because später rhymes with gator and so you can say “Später, gator” and come up with some really cool slang from back in the good old days. At least I think it works like that. Hmmmm. How about “Bis später, alligator”? Naw, I like the first one best. It sounds catchier. PS. No I-phone so don’t need app. Thanks, anyway.
Meine Lieblingswort ist bisher “schmuddelwetter”. Ich maag dass es scheint genau meine Gefühle zu bezeichnen, wann das Wetter ist Schmuddel
Ja stimmt. Das Wort passt. In Berlin ist dieses Jahr übrigens der ganze Winter ziemlich “schmuddel” (eigentlich sagt man “schmuddelig”)
Naturlich! “Schmuddel” alleine ist nicht gut. Ich bin dumm. Danke.
Ich gefalle Ihren Kolumnen.
Nee, nee…. so wie du das benutzt hast, war das schon ok :). Das war ein Wortspiel. Hier mal eine kleine Korrektur:
– Ich gefalle ihren Kolumnen
Das heißt:
– Your columns like me.
Mit dem Verb “gefallen” ist immer das Objekt, das man mag, das Subjekt.
– Deine Kolumnen gefallen mir.
– Your columns “are pleasing” to me. (lit.)
– I like you columns.
Du musst alles im Kopf einmal umdrehen. Total verwirrend, ich weiß :). Aber am besten wäre sowieso
– Ich mag deine Kolumnen.
“Gefallen” ist “punktueller”, falls das Sinn macht,
Sagen Sie dass Ihren Kolumnen mögen mich nicht dann? :)
Nun mal im Ernst, danke Ihnen für die Erklärung. Ich muss Grammatikpartikel gedenken. Was geht hier? Ist es ein Hauptsatz oder Nebensatz? Dative oder Akusative? Vielen Grammatiklehrstunden spuken mir.
Ich bin dankbar für die Hilfe.
Noch ein paar Korrekturen :)
– Ich muss Grammatikpartikel gedenken.
“Gedenken” ist “denken” im Sinne von “to commemorate”. Wenn du “to think about” sagen willst, dann einfach “denken an”
– Viele( no “n”) Grammatiklehrstunden spuken mich.
Dieses “to spook” ist “Angst machen”. “Spuken” verwendet man nur, um zu beschreiben, was ein Geist macht… rumfliegen, boooo sagen, Bilder von der Wand werfen, Blut aus dem Wasserhahn und so weiter :)
I’ve always loved Ellenbogen. It sounds fun and is fun to say and when you teach kids body parts in German they giggle the most!
And Katzenellenbogen is a real surname.
Why on earth do you know stuff like that :D
My favourite word is das unumgängliche (I discovered it in Anne Carson’s Nox). She defines it as “overtakelessness” – ‘that which cannot be got round. Cannot be avoided or seen to the back of.’ Somehow this really appeals to me :)
Definitely sounds heavy and epic… and a bit gloomy. I guess it’s the two “u”s in the beginning :)
I just looked this up. Is Arschderwelt one word or three words? Arsch der Welt. My failure if it is three word. Then I will go with my favorite word: katzeklo. For obvious reasons.
Arschderwelt.
I just think its funny. I heard it for the first time in the public swimming pool from a Mom to her son, (I, not really understanding german, heard something like..) “Stop playing over there in the arschderwelt. blah blah blah” Or maybe I just interpreted it like that. I don’t know. I just heard arschderwelt and asked a friend what it meant, and then he showed me this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TiRCDyDXY24 .
(My second favorite word is: katzeklo .)
I love learning German and think it’s a beautiful language (a view unfortunately not shared by many) and yet there are still times when it betrays me, as if I’ve been pulled underwater by a relentless undertoe, unable to surface and quickly feeling the lack of oxygen sucking the life out of me. This is oftentimes the way learning German makes me feel, what with its insufferable word order, unmanageable declinations and never-ending words.
This is why my favorite German word is “bitte.”
Pardon?, Please, You’re Welcome, Go Ahead, Not at All, Here you go, Sure, etc…
The word “bitte” in German feels like that first breath of fresh air after you’ve finally emerged from the water. Not only does it apply in a wide array of situations but it’s one of the few German words that I find easy to pronounce.
My favorite word is flugzeug since it is so fun to say!
My favorite German word is “pudelwohl”. I mean, have you ever seen a Pudel that didn’t look wohl?
The “Pudel” fetched you a beta account :)
Hello! the App sounds really great! I would like to test it since that i´m always trying new ways to improve my German :)
Well my favorite word in German is “Baumschule”! it is not cute? I always thought that sound really great … a school for trees.. hahaha, that in reality is a Plant nursery where you can go and buy your new plants.
Great word… There’s a actually a train station called Baumschulenweg in Berlin.
But where on earth did you pick that up ? So random :)
:) You asked our favorite word! I just remembered that one day in the German class our teacher was collecting words related with the word “schule” and then she told us this one. I really like it and until today still my favorite word!
So probably near this train station in Berlin you can find a wonderful “Baumschule” :)
One account for you. Have fun :)
Hello “German is easy” and hello everyone.
I am following this web site since 2012, last time i have commented about the word “doch” here and it was definitely amazing to completely understand a word …. I have just read the mail about that new app and the need of beta testers for it. I believe this is a great chance for me to get fluent in German because i live in Turkey and we don’t have too many chances to practice. I got so much to say and i am eager to learn new words and language learning techniques everyday. This is my chance i know it and this is the word i love the most nowadays … beziehungsweise …. these are the words which is confusing at first but then suddenly, incredibly usefull … just like “doch” … that is why i like them. They are like those gadgets or spells in video games which gives you life or saves you in a desperate moment …
Have a nice day folks!
Oh I agree.. “beziehungsweise” is really handy :). Ganz viel Spaß mit dem Beta Account und Gruß in die Türkei
woowwwwww !!!! and a huge “YEEEAHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!” like James Hetfield.
danke sehr
hi again,
i am having a real trouble with my e-mail account here. Could you please send me my beta account invitation to this mail address: skymaster80@gmail.com
Thanks in advance for your help and i am really sorry for the mess
No worries… I’ll forward it to the guys from FluentU :)
My favorite German word is “Glück”. I needed speech lessons in kindergarten because usually no one could understand what I was trying to say. But for some reason I said “Glück” whenever I was happy, and my English speaking family made the association and understood. Imagine my surprise when a few years later I was taught some German words, which included my old friend happiness, joy and good luck all rolled into one word (I think it was in a song)
Wait, so you used a German word and you even got the sense correct just by accident :D? That’s really cool.
By the way, in German there’s a verb “glucksen”. It’s onomatopoetic and you can use it to describe gas breaking the surface of a swamp. The most common use however is for babies when they’re really happy. It’s hard to describe. A short guttural burst. I don’t think it’s historically related to “glück” though. Anyway… have fun with the app :)
Sounds like “gurgle,” which is a great English word even though it’s not as good a Lautmalerei as “glucksen.” (Also “burble.”) (Bloop.)