Spring ist gesprungen!

… well, not really. Yet. But there is certainly a little something something in the air, if you know what I mean. And I think because of the whole six-months-of-winter in Northern Europe thing, Germans really get into spring in a big way. All with the daffodils and walking in the park in gumboots and [...]

Dedicated to my fellow antipodeans

Ever felt like the deliciousness of something could not be described by the word ‘lecker’? Well, now there’s an alternative from downunder which will really get the message across: “that was bloody lecker!” (and no, it doesn’t mean covered in blood.) NB: Please do not take the offence. I only make the Spaß!

The death of the umlaut? (video)

Jööööö, my musing on the plight of the umlaut. Including proposing a campaign to make umlauted letters part of the alphabet proper! The group can be called LOLCAKAOPULIA (League of the Linguistically Concerned, Also Known As the Organisation for the Promotion of the Advancement of the Umlauted Letters In the Alphabet). I think it’s kind [...]

And speaking of acronyms…

This question ‘bier’s asking…

I was just going through the acronymical suggestions people have thrown my way (danke sehr). While doing so, I thought of another which, since I’ve been in the land of Deutsch, is something I’ve missed like a limb that’s, well, missing: BYO! BYO restaurants are those which allow punters to Bring Your Own alcohol (normally [...]

Duzen, Siezen, What-zen?

  This whole business of having different forms of the personal pronoun ‘you’ is really confusing. Thanks a lot, Germany. Way to make your language even harder to learn. I mean, if there was a hard and fast rule that said exactly when and with whom you are supposed to duzen and siezen, that would [...]

Acronymical (video)

    Miss V, in a follow-up to her prefixation, muses on the lack of convenient acronyms in the German language.

Verbification

Verbs, as the ‘doing words’ of any language, are always the more fun than boring old nouns. Englischers ‘verb’ (or, as I like to say, ‘verbify’) nouns all the time, especially in slang. For example: if the police use a taser gun on someone, that person was ‘tasered’ (or ‘tased’ – as in “Don’t tase [...]

Learning a new language! (video)

Join me observing the habits of the Bloggerus Germanicus, a rare breed of blogger found in Germany, and learning a new language… HTML!

Es tut mir Coke Light

Warning: Fizzy Drink Rant approaching. I have some trouble ordering Coca-cola. You see, it’s just so gosh darned confusing. Not only is there regular Coke, Cherry Coke and Vanilla Coke, but also Coke Light and Coke Zero. (Sidenote: What’s the difference between the last two anyway?) On top of this, where I’m from, Coke Light [...]