EDIT 2024: Sadly, Franz Beckenbauer died on the 7th January 2024. Today I thought we look at a different type of famous German, not an artist or author or inventor, but a former football player. And as it’s his birthday today it’s only fitting that we talk about Franz Beckenbauer, or ‘der Kaiser’ (the emperor), … Read more
Image credit: Elke Wetzig German stage and TV actor Willy Millowitsch was born on the 8th January 1909. He had his own theatre, the Volkstheater Millowitsch in Cologne (now in the hands of his son Peter). For non Germans he was probably most known for his part in ‘National Lampoon’s European Vacation’ (German title ‘Hilfe, die … Read more
This month Germany is celebrating the 500th anniversary of Martin Luther’s reformation. Reformation Day is on the 31st October, the day, when in 1517 Luther nailed 95 theses onto the door of the castle church in Wittenberg. If you want to read them, they can be found here in German and here in English, but in … Read more
You probably know some famous film quotes and maybe even like using them in conversation. But what about those quotes in German? Here are 10 of them. Do you know the original sentences? “Ich bin Spartacus!” “Ich seh dir in die Augen, Kleines!” “Na los doch, make my day!” “Ich komme wieder” “Guten Morgen … und … 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
That’s not a quote from somebody famous, it’s what my English teacher said to my mum 1975 when I changed schools. Up until then I had no interest in English or any other foreign language. ‘I live in Germany, why do I need to speak another language’ was my attitude. At that time I would have … Read more
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