Most of my meals need to have this requirement, but this expression is only somewhat related to food: a Dreikäsehoch is what you call a small child who is only as tall as three wheels of cheese stacked on top of each other. The expression can also refer to someone’s who’s stingy and doesn’t want to spend any money on anything. This is the nitpicker who is always trying to make everything perfect down to the tiniest of peas: Erbsen means “peas” and Zähler means “tally.” So, an Erbsenzähler is a person who literally counts their peas. “Someone who is obsessed with details and a bit of a control freak.” I think this is pretty self explanatory, and anyone who’s on your bad list can be labeled as such. People who throw snowballs without gloves are pretty hardcore and should therefore be feared, right? That’s exactly the opposite of a Handschuhschneeballwerfer who is, pardon my French, a wimp. Most people tend to throw snowballs with gloves on. Oh, how I was wrong: an Ohrwurm is what happens when you get a song stuck in your head, and you (have to) keep singing it over and over again. The first time I heard this, I thought my friend had an actual worm in his ear that he probably caught during one of his latest backpacking trips. Now, in English, we would probably just say “party time” or “home alone,” but sturmfrei takes it to the next level: it’s basically equivalent to the saying, “When the cat’s away, the mice will play.” 2. “When your parents are away, and you have the whole house to yourself.”
Even though that sounds like a pain, it’s actually refreshing to be able to explain an emotion or situation on a deeper level. Another struggle with learning German in Germany is that there are several words that have no actual English equivalent or proper translation. Firstly, the grammar is – uhm – challenging. Because there’s no point in knowing the words if people can’t understand what you’re saying.I recently moved to the German-speaking part of Switzerland, and as a result, I’ve been trying to pick up German, which is a tricky endeavor. From the very first lesson, our TruAccent® speech engine will help you fine-tune your pronunciation.
The ü sound is made by making a “ooh” sound as in “lure” only with pursed lips, as in Tür (tuer) (door).īy far, the best way to figure out how to pronounce these tricky vowels correctly is to practise and get feedback from native speakers. The ö sound is created by forming the vowel ‘e' as in “her” (without the “r” sound) with forward rounded lips schön (shern) (pretty).
The ä sounds like the short-e sound in English, like in “bet” as in fällen (fêl-en) (to fell ). Some sound like English vowels, but other pronunciations are a little harder to master let’s try to break them down together. These double dots are called umlauts and they signal special vowel sounds. These vowels appear with two dots above them. The vowels that German doesn’t share with English are ä, ö, and ü. While the “ß” (called “scharfes S”) looks tricky, you can make it sound as a “ss.” In words like Buch (book) and Bach (stream), it sounds like the Scottish pronunciation of the “ch” in Loch Ness. In German, the “ch” sounds like the hiss a cat might make in words such as ich (I), mich (me/myself) and Licht (light). Let’s breakdown some of the more difficult sounds. You can use this phonetic knowledge to pronounce long, multi-syllable words that otherwise might be overwhelming.
Why are so many words capitalised in German?īecause German is a much more phonetically consistent language than English, German words almost always sound the way they are spelled. Wondering what’s the deal with all of these capitalised words? Find out on the Rosetta Stone blog. Engage with German at your own pace, and start speaking German from day one. Learn vocabulary in an order that’s tried-and-tested to ensure better understanding of how to communicate effectively in German with Rosetta Stone. Kann ich zahlen, bitte? / Can I have the bill, please? Gibt es ein Restaurant in der Nähe? / Is there a restaurant nearby? Wie komme ich zum Busbahnhof? / How can I get to the bus station? Sprechen Sie Englisch? / Do you speak English? Wo ist die Toilette? / Where is the bathroom? Simple phrases like “How are you?” grease the wheels of daily conversation in most every language, including German. The basic conversational building blocks are a great place to start.