Lego block building

So I put in my two cents (or gave my mustard, as the Deutschies say) about German as a modular language.
But that was about verbs. Mmm, yes. Nouns (of the compound variety), in German, are a completely different (and somewhat maligned - by Englischers at least) phenomenon. Mark Twain wrote an essay called “The [...]

Alle meine Entchen, redux (video)

All Germans know and love the Kinderlied ‘Alle Meine Entchen’. I decided to bring it to life with the help of some friends.
The lyrics (so you can sing along, karaoke style):
Alle meine Entchen
schwimmen auf dem See,
schwimmen auf dem See.
Köpfchen unter Wasser,
Schwänzchen in die Höh.
(All my little duckies,
swimming on the lake,
heads down underwater,
tails in the [...]

In celebration of the ‘chen’

Ahhhh, ze Cherman language. What CAN’T it do? Today I was thinking (as you do) about our friendly little suffix, the ‘chen’. Another quirk of Deutsch which allows the speaker to efficiently (who would have guessed!) express the smallness or cuteness of something.
The chen has given us gifts such as Brötchen (bread roll - ‘little [...]

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 [...]

Acronymical (video)

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

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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!

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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 is [...]

Schuldi (abbrev.)

Abbreviations make life so much easier. I mean, why bicycle around when you can bike? Why go to the trouble of saying celluar phone when you can just use your cell?
My good friend Herr Versteh-a-lot (who, like myself, is Deutschily challenged) has introduced me to the “abbrev.” (of course you have to abbreviate ‘abbreviation’!) for [...]

Ja, genau. (video)

Miss V adheres to the German ‘Genauigkeit’ (preciseness) by measuring the EXACT distance from her office to the U-Bahn.

Schlumping around (video)

In case you’re not intimate with Hamburg public transport (and why wouldn’t you be!?), get schlumpified at:

Schlump bei Wikipedia (auf Deutsch)
Hamburg U-Bahn at Wikipedia(in English)

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