Negation in German

What is the difference between kein and nicht? Are nicht and nein the same thing? And how else can negation be expressed in German? Let’s talk about negation in German.

Over the years, my answer “nein” has often been followed up with a nicht? , so I already managed to completely get confused when what is used. Let’s start by answer on the questions.

Read more

German idioms about lie, nonsense, boasting

Every day we meet lies – lies with bad intentions or to embellish reality. This means that there is also a large group of German idioms about lie, nonsense and boasting. They have a lot in common with the idioms about stupidity and madness that we collected in the previous post.

Expressions in bold are those that are included in the lists of frequently occurring or met me personally in the texts.

Read more

German B1 test DTZ. German letter writing B1 samples. Part 6

In the part 6 there are German letter writing B1 samples for DTZ exam on the topics: solving everyday problems and letters to bureaucratic organizations (town hall, insurance, bank, etc.).

These can be about bills, refusals of subscriptions and closing of contracts, complaints about trains and buses (delays). Letters to banks: credit, account opening/closing. Loss of documents (insurance card, driver’s license). Questions about kindergarten or after-school care.

Read more

10 best online German dictionaries

If you live in Germany, online German dictionaries are a daily necessity. I think that no one remembers paper dictionaries anymore. The choice, however, is not so rich.

German picture description phrases and sequence
Basic German. 4. Time and prepositions of time in German and other grammar posts
Difference between merken and bemerken and other words for memory and notice and other German synonyms
All posts for #New in Germany
Giving direction essay in German. Wegbeschreibung
Idioms in German with meaning stupidity, madness

Read more

Difference between merken and bemerken and other words for memory and notice

The difference between merken and bemerken is at the formal level, in shades of meaning and in other meanings of these words. Additionally, let’s take the words wahrnehmen, erkennen, sich erinnern, einprägen, memorieren.

As you can easily guess, the root of the word comes from Marke – a mark. Hence all the meanings: made a mark – remembered, made a mark – noticed, made a mark (verbal) – that is, made a remark.

Read more