Don’t you just love idioms? Like ‘the early bird catches the worm’ or ‘a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush’. I was always told that, if you know idioms in a foreign language, you’re fluent (or, alternatively, if you can swear in that language ☺) So, are there any ‘bird’ idioms … Read more
We all love to use idioms, and if we can use some in a foreign language, even better. So here is another German idioms: er hat nicht alle Tassen im Schrank.
Isn’t this a wonderful picture of a head? It can be found in Calne, Wiltshire, UK. It looks like somebody has lost his head – jemand hat seinen Kopf verloren. Other idioms are: seinen Kopf durchsetzen – to get one’s own way den Kopf einziehen – to duck one’s head den Kopf hängen lassen … Read more
I took this picture of a beehive the other day and it reminded me of some idioms and phrases we use with the word ‘Biene’ fleißige Biene – busy bee so fleißig wie eine Biene – as busy as a bee flotte Biene – cutie, ‘nice-looking bird’ or ‘hot chick’ 🙂 Ich wurde von einer Biene … Read more
This week’s ‘Deutsch am Donnerstag – German on Thursday’ is about trees. This short video should be easy enough to watch even for those with only basic German knowledge who won’t understand everything: But here is a more advanced text taken from kidsweb.de about trees and what happens to the leaves in autumn: “Im Herbst … Read more
Yesterday I saw somebody with a black eye, which reminded me how we use idioms differently. In English, people have a black eye but in German they have a blue eye (ein blaues Auge). That gave me the idea for the following slide show. I hope I haven’t forgotten any interesting sentences or phrases … Read more
Many years ago a friend gave me this little jar with chocolate drink as a present. The powder is not designed to be used for a drink. Instead, the jar contains ‘Kakao, durch den Sie andere ziehen können’ – ‘cocoa, through which you can pull others’. That translation, of course, doesn’t make any sense, because … Read more
Having been away for a few days I only just got the chance to read the Christmas edition of the German magazine Stern when the above advert caught my eye. It was advertising the Christmas Day film ‘Der gestiefelte Kater’ (Puss in Boots) with the sentence ‘Haben Sie Weihnachten auch ‘nen (that’s short for ‘einen’) Kater? … Read more
This German idiom ‘wo sich Fuchs und Hase gute Nacht sagen’ has been written especially for Vicky, who said, she lived there 😉 Wo sich fuchs und hase gute nacht sagen from Angelika Davey EDIT: If you don’t want to click the slides, you can now also watch it as a video:
While going for a long walk the other day I suddenly had the idea of introducing German idioms with photos. As I had already taking quite a few pictures that day, the first idiom was an easy choice. Have a look: I thought this is a good example for idioms. Although this time the … Read more
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