The German language

haha!

ausgezeichnet

todlich verungluckt - learned that in GCSE German class, means "fatally injured in a road accident" (IIRC). Proved very useful on my exchange trip to Nurnberg as a 14 yr old...

Nosebear!

"Handy", which is actually the word for cell phone, which - obviously - is handy, but is not called this in English, despite what they might want to believe.

sehenswuerdigkeiten = sights (i.e. where you go sightseeing) = literally, worthseeingnesses

loving this thread. I think I'm ready to my lifelong German-learning hell next September.

to go back to it, that is

Not forgetting Schaufensterpuppen by Kraftwerk. How much better in German?

hey hurting, i just started learning too. i only have school french, no german, but i'm moving to munich in two months, so i'm cramming. starting with pimsleur tapes, will pick up a textbook in the next week or so. schnell!

You should really look through the deutche welle site linked above. The Deutsch-Interaktiv course is really good and they also have lots of free podcasts, including the news read slowly in German.

ty

I've been taking German evening classes for the past couple of months and they've been fun - usually someone brings a bottle of German wine along - but I don't feel like I've learnt much, partly because I am bad at making time to do the homework and go through my notes, but mainly because the teacher is very easily distracted and usually ends up just talking in English to the one guy of similar age to him. So totally going to check out that site, thanks!

I didn't expect German vowels to be too different to English, but they're really stumping me. They're... higher in the mouth than my native vowels, I think? Like, I can hear that the long E sound is not just English "ay" but almost like "ee" but somehow different to the long I sound, but I can't seem to get my mouth round it at all. So I must have the most English accent ever.

Schornsteinfeger - chimney sweep
add 'in' at the end for female sweeps

srsly tho have degree can help if required

One of the hardest sounds for me to make in German is the "-er" at the end of words, because it's so close to the English but subtly different, and I keep wanting to say it as "airr"

btw, I hate to be a downer and post a holocaust poem, but this is blowing my mind (have side-by-side translation, of course):

Paul Celan - Todesfuge

Schwarze Milch der Frühe wir trinken sie abends
wir trinken sie mittags und morgens wir trinken sie nachts
wir trinken und trinken
wir schaufeln ein Grab in den Lüften da liegt man nicht eng
Ein Mann wohnt im Haus der spielt mit den Schlangen der schreibt
der schreibt wenn es dunkelt nach Deutschland dein goldenes Haar Margarete
er schreibt es und tritt vor das Haus und es blitzen die Sterne er pfeift seine Rüden herbei
er pfeift seine Juden hervor läßt schaufeln ein Grab in der Erde
er befiehlt uns spielt auf nun zum Tanz

Schwarze Milch der Frühe wir trinken dich nachts
wir trinken dich morgens und mittags wir trinken dich abends
wir trinken und trinken
Ein Mann wohnt im Haus der spielt mit den Schlangen der schreibt
der schreibt wenn es dunkelt nach Deutschland dein goldenes Haar Margarete
Dein aschenes Haar Sulamith wir schaufeln ein Grab in den Lüften da liegt man nicht eng

Er ruft stecht tiefer ins Erdreich ihr einen ihr andern singet und spielt
er greift nach dem Eisen im Gurt er schwingts seine Augen sind blau
stecht tiefer die Spaten ihr einen ihr andern spielt weiter zum Tanz auf

Schwarze Milch der Frühe wir trinken dich nachts
wir trinken dich mittags und morgens wir trinken dich abends
wir trinken und trinken
ein Mann wohnt im Haus dein goldenes Haar Margarete
dein aschenes Haar Sulamith er spielt mit den Schlangen
Er ruft spielt süßer den Tod der Tod ist ein Meister aus Deutschland
er ruft streicht dunkler die Geigen dann steigt ihr als Rauch in die Luft
dann habt ihr ein Grab in den Wolken da liegt man nicht eng

Schwarze Milch der Frühe wir trinken dich nachts
wir trinken dich mittags der Tod ist ein Meister aus Deutschland
wir trinken dich abends und morgens wir trinken und trinken
der Tod ist ein Meister aus Deutschland sein Auge ist blau
er trifft dich mit bleierner Kugel er trifft dich genau
ein Mann wohnt im Haus dein goldenes Haar Margarete
er hetzt seine Rüden auf uns er schenkt uns ein Grab in der Luft
er spielt mit den Schlangen und träumet der Tod ist ein Meister aus Deutschland

dein goldenes Haar Margarete
dein aschenes Haar Sulamith

I wonder if I could pronounce German (or French) as well as I do English? Probably. I have the nasty habit of "losing" my own accent if I talk with someone over a long period. :-(

Meine Mutti fragte mir ob ich Rilke kenne. haha My German is soooooo crap.

Glad Hurting 2 posted a poem. German poetry is beautiful, always overlooked against romance language poetry. Brecht had a great gift, viz the just opening of his 1933 poem 'Deutschland'

Deutschland

Mögen andere von ihrer Schande sprechen
ich spreche von der meinen.

O Deutschland, bleiche Mutter!
Wie sitzest du besudelt
Unter den Völkern.
Unter den Befleckten
Fällst du auf.

the translation can only grab the meaning and the rhythm

Let others speak of her shame
I speak of my own.'

O Germany, pale mother!
How soiled you are
As you sit among the peoples.
You flaunt yourself
Among the besmirched.

There's a film called 'Germany, pale mother' where the poem is recited at the start. Utterly beautiful.

'bleich' is a quality word

Mutter, ich bin von allem abgetan.

Eine No-Go-Area

I thought loan words tended to be neuter but the only one of those new imports to be neuter is "It Girl". Goodbye, any chance of me guessing at genders of German words!

Thanks for the article, whatever. I'm curious about the proliferation of hyphens in German, not least given that the Germans aren't usually shy when it comes to super-size-pile-up compound nouns. Why Olympia-Stadion and not Olympiastadion, for example?

I am having fun doing this. Just about to finish Pimsleur 1, which is 15 hours of tapes, 30 mins per day. We have not done du, or tenses, but I am surprised at how much progress I feel like I'm making.

I will be finishing level 3 when I move to Germany at the end of September, so I hope I can at least get by, even if I will have to rely on friends for things like arranging utilities/accommodation.

Zahn = tooth, Zahnfleisch = gums [i.e. tooth meat]

Textilfrei = nude.

Frei Körper Kultur = going nude.

FKK is a lot more than that. It's a Weltanschauung.

Nipple = Brustwarze ('breast wart').

I was once told that the literal translation of 'imagination' is 'picture making power'.

xpost: The bolted-on conceptualism is why I love it! Das ist so typisch Deutsch.

Same thing goes, markedly less lovavbly, for Wohngemeinschaft: literally "living community", but actually "flatshare". (But then again, so very much more than "flatshare"...)

That thing about cell phone being "handy" is kind of symptomatic, every other word spoken on german tv these days is a poorly adapted english word. "Jetzt wird das team richtig stark fighten", was the last one I caught.

For some reason the Germans also use the English word "slip" for "undies". My German friend was kinda surprised when I told her that English speakers don't actually use that word for undies.

Then again, I've never understood why the term "WC" is used for toilets in many countries except the English speaking countries, even though it comes from the English words "water closet".

It's a privilege of the English to export these words, and then immediately change them for a lark. All those Americanisms like 'fall' and 'pants' and 'gotten', I think they were ditched here just so we could act all snooty.

gotten?

Americans still say "gotten", don't they?

Yes, but so do English people, nicht wahr?

We most certainly do not!

I do

The past participle of 'got' is 'got' in British English.

I've picked up some American syntax in the last couple of years because I work with Americans and Europeans all day long, but I'm pretty sure I've always said "gotten". Maybe it's a Northern thing?

slip

This is the French word too, which is I'd guess where the Germans borrowed it from. It had never crossed my mind that the French was an English loan-word, since we never use it like that (any more?), but I guess it isn't the most French-looking word.

Getting kind of bummed to be going from a supremely disorganised 10-week German course which was all over the place in terms of level to a year-long beginners' course. I had a quick look at the book used for Level 2 and thought my grasp of some grammatical basics was too weak for it, but now I'm worried that after a year I still won't be any further on.

i have nearly finished level 3 of pimsleur (i guess that's 45 hours of tapes), and picking up some stuff from reading adverts on the u-bahn, cereal boxes, etc., but i definitely need some lessons.

45 hours sounds a lot! Impressive.

ILX German speakers, how big a deal is the difference between "du" and "Sie"?

In my first course (taught by English guy who'd lived in Germany for years) we were all calling each other "du" and using it for a lot of example sentences, etc. In my new course (taught by native German speaker) she was explaining to us that calling someone "du" would be a very big close-buddies-forever sort of deal and that people could talk to each other for years and not use it, which makes me think that as a non-German I am basically never going to get to use it unless someone introduces me to their kids. Is this right? Is it regional or age-dependent?

I'm not the biggest expert on German, but I think that might bit of an exaggeration. I've never heard young people who know each other call each other "Sie". "Sie" is something you use when talking to an elderly person, or when a sales clerk talks to a customer. I.e. it's used when you want show respect for the other person, or when you don't know the other person. I guess it's possible for people to know each other for years and still use "Sie", but then they'd have to be business associates or something like that, i.e. their relationship is formal. If you know someone more informally, I don't think there's nothing wrong with "du", even if you're not bosom buddies or anything.

"You can say you to me" is the bad joke Germans tell in English on this subject.

It's dependent on a LOT of age, social, and regional factors, and is a bit of a trap for the unwary. What you have understood your teacher to say, however, is not true -- so either you misunderstood her or she's at least 50.

It is a question of formality more than familiarity, and you do get a feel for it -- at this point my main problem is recognizing when it would be appropriate for me to offer the "du", but I doubt that this has caused me problems.

Don't duz a German cop, though.

You call people Herr X or Frau Y for far longer in a business relationship than you would do in the UK, I think. E.g. friends of mine set me up with their bank manager to open an account and warned me to call her Frau Schneider, so I was expecting some terrifyingly formal woman, but she was just a regular person. They just use the title more.

Yes, new tutor is probably in her 50s, older than my previous tutor, and definitely a LOT more formal about everything - dresses smartly for classes, very precise and posh English accent, even more so than other Germans I've spoken to of similar age.

Also probably some exaggeration to scare us out of saying "du" to the boss or the mother-in-law on our first day, should we get a job over there or have a German partner, and this latter reason is apparently why about a quarter of the class is there.

These things are good to know, thanks everyone.

I found out yesterday that the German for a non-competitive friendly (football) match is Testspiel. I like that.

This thread ist der Hammer.

The German for pregnancy is Schwangerschaft.