Miss-A.
Did you know?
From time to time I like to focus on one particular language issue in my post. It was this way with mittels and it’s gonna be like this today.
Today’s issue: erachten für or erachten als?
Well, actually it’s both…
Both forms are correct. Examples:
Jede zusätzliche Aktion auf interparlamentarischer Ebene erachten wir als überaus positiv.
Er kann von diesen [...]
Weltschmerz and other German “Schlagerexports”
Today I came across the word Weltschmerz in an English text and it made me think about other German words that immigrated into English and other languages. Some are pretty obvious and common, like kindergarten, poltergeist or doppelganger. Others are used mostly used in particular fields: gestalt in psychology, zeitgeist in sociology, weltschmerz in philosophy [...]
Westernklamauk & Mysterykrimiserie
There’s something very special about German TV guides. Every time I look up the TV program for the upcoming hours or days, I notice that under the title of every show or film there is an additional line explaining what kind of a show it is. So far so good, it’s not different in other [...]
Otto Normalverbraucher
It’s a funny thing with the name you use for a standard, normal, average person in different countries. Looking at the article on this topic on German Wikipedia, you will notice that especially in English-speaking countries there is a wide range of these so-called placeholder names.
Whereas in most countries it’s just one of the names [...]
Daily deal of the… week?
I’ve already complained a lot before about the way the Germans let the English words pollute their language but I’m still amazed all over again at some really not very well thought of instances of this phenomenon. I constantly come across funny and/or unnecessary translations and weird Germglish mixtures.
My favorite recently: der Daily Deal der [...]
mittels
There are certain tricky and troublesome words that are a nightmare for all learners of a given language. I decided to dedicate a post to this topic from time to time if you don’t mind.
Today’s word: mittels
mit•tels preposition, + Genitive (or Dative), elevated/written language – by means of
What I found particularly confusing about this [...]
Dust bunnies… mice, cats, dogs!?
Somehow I can’t leave the topic of bunnies (well last week it was a rabbit) behind. Researching a bit on the topic of animal idioms, I came across the term dust bunny and found it quite amusing because it turns out that this word some ‘animal touch’ in many languages.
In German for example they are [...]
All Rabbit’s Friends and Relations
A recent conversation with my flatmate inspired to write today’s post. He was then just about to start a new course at the university and I was asking if he was looking forward to meeting new people. However, I used the word Kollegen and was immediately corrected: your co-students are Kommilitonen (fellow students), not Kollegen [...]
batteln ≠ betteln!
Remember my musings about alkoholfrei and jugendfrei? Well, after some break I am finally coming back to linguistic topics today. Again I’m going to write about the englishisation (own neologism) of the German language. I was watching German TV (again! It’s an endless source of inspiration to me!) and there was a casting show for [...]
Le Tête en Friche – My Afternoons with Marguerite or rather My Afternoons with Margueritte!
Le Tête en Friche is a French film directed by Jean Becker and with Gérard Depardieu and Gisèle Casadesus. It’s FilmFest time here in Hamburg, you know, so I’ve been spending quite a lot of time in cinemas recently. That’s why please excuse me another off-topic but I really wanted to share my delight with [...]
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