Snow and ice

Well, it's winter. There's snow. It's cold.

If you have to park your car outside, then you know what it's like to have ice covered windows.

Germlish: I had to scratch the ice off the windows of my car today morning.

What you want to say =  I had to scrape the ice off my car windows this morning.

 _______________________________________

kratzen = to scrape and to scratch

Scheiben kratzen = scrape ice off the windshield or windscreen (British English). 




heute morgen = this morning


windows of my car = my car windows ---- Keep it Simple


off - 2 Fs ---  Ex: das Licht ausschalten

of - 1 F --- Ex: Ein Freund von mir


Shovel snow = Schnee schippen

Sympathish - another false friend

 False Friends


Sympathisch  is *not* the German word for "sympathetic".
Sympathetic = verstaendnisvoll, mitfuehlend

Er ist sympathisch =  He is nice.

Sympathisch = nice, pleasant, friendly, likeable

Rindfleischetikettierungsüberwachungsaufgabenübertragungsgeset

The long and winding .... ah, words.

English is really a piece of cake!

For a list of long German words and their English meanings click here

Freund, Friend or Bekannte OR boyfriend/girlfriend?

When is a friend a friend, a boyfriend or girlfriend, or only an acquaintance?

Freund & Freudin are used for a close friend as well as boyfriend and girlfriend. Confusing...
To avoid this confusion, the phrase ein Freund von mir / eine Freundin von mir (a friend of mine) makes it clear that this is only a friend and not a romantic partner.

Bekannte is used for acquaintance i.e. people you are not 'close' to.

In English, we tend to use the word friend even for an acquaintance. We use the words boyfriend and girlfriend when we mean a romantic partner. I know, it's still confusing.

*Germlish: My 'friend' plays tennis.

What you want to say - My boyfriend plays tennis.

To make it clear. When you mean your boyfriend or girlfriend then say that in English. Otherwise, we think you mean only a 'friend' i.e. ein Freund von mir.

The plural of friend is friends
Ex: I have a lot of friends that like pizza.

The plural of person is people
Ex: There are two people in the room.


.

Anrede - Frau does not always translate as Mrs.

How do you translate Frau? It can mean woman or wife. 

Mrs. is a married woman. In business, we should not assume that just because you are a woman, you are married. So we use Ms. instead.

Ms. is a neutral form of address (title). It is neutral because it does not tell us if the woman is married or not married.

Use Ms. when you do not know if she is married or not.

You pronounce Ms. like this: MIZ - it sounds like a bee flying. 

Tips

The plural of woman is women

Miss = Fraeulein -  considered outdated and are not used very often especially in business communication.

A period is used after Mr., Mrs., Ms., and Dr. - American English style

A full stop (British English term) is not used. Mr, Mrs, Ms, and Dr - British English style

der Punkt = period (American English) and full stop (British English)

Dear/Hello all and writing email

'Dear or Hello all' is becoming more and more common in business 'mass' email salutations i.e. openings/greetings.

A few things:

• it is informal
• some people write All with a capital letter and some write all with a small letter. There is no set rule ... however, all is a pronoun and some would argue that you don't capitalize it.
• Hello is less formal than dear 

Alternatives that could be used:

Dear colleagues,
Dear co-workers,
Dear team members,

When writing to 2 or 3 people for example:

Hello Sally and Sam,
Dear Dr. Meier, Mr. Smith and Ms. Jones,

Some tips:

Always "begin" a sentence with a capital letter even after a comma! This is how you write in English.

Greetings = hello NOT goodbye - don't use it in your closing/ending.

Proper nouns are capitalized in English! Ex: English, German, Monday, Easter, New York

KISS = Keep It Short and Simple

By + time = no later than - think of it as the deadline. Ex: I need the report by 1:00 p.m.

Until + time = up to that time. Ex: I have until Friday to finish the report.
*use until and NOT 'till in written business English.

For = the length or duration of time. Ex: For 6 years.

Since = a point in time.  Ex: Since 2005.

Trivia = Trivialitäten

Trivia

 The English Alphabet

• The letter 'o' is the oldest letter in the English alphabet; it has been the same shape since about 1300BC.
• 'O' is also the least common letter in English; the most common letter is 'e'.
• The novel Gadsby, written by Ernest Vincent Wright, has over 50,000 words but none of them use the letter 'e'.
• 'Almost' is the longest word in English that has all its letters in alphabetical order.
• The word 'set' has the most definitions of all words in English.
• The word 'four' has four letters; it is the only number in English whose number of letters is the same as its value.

Source: www.oup.com

Wollen, dass ... = to want someone to do something

Germlish = My boss wants that I work longer today.

We don't say *want that in English

wollen, dass =  to want someone to do something.


What you want to say: My boss wants me to work longer.

Remember:
Chef = cook
Chief is a job title e.g. CEO (Chief Executive Officer), Police Chief, Fire Chief

one- stop shopping = einmal hin, alles drin

Word of the day

one-stop shopping 

to shop

to go shopping

Gender Die, Der, Das: German 3 - English 0

And that's why English is a piece cake! ;-)

mit jmdm./etw. umgehen = deal with and/or handle

Germlish = I can't handle with that problem now.

deal with 
handle (no with)

Deal with and handle are often synonyms when referring to difficult people, things or situations.

What you want to say: I can't deal with that problem now.

TGIF!

TGIF! We made it through another work week!

In the USA it's fairly common to say hump day for Wednesday (middle of the work week) and TGIF (Thank God It's Friday) for Friday.

* Don't say: Thanks God it's Friday  ----- no S on thanks

*Remember that the preposition ON is used with days.
On Wednesday, On Friday, and On the weekend in American English but At the weekend in British English.

Ich wuensche dir einen schoenen Tag

Germlish = I wish you a nice day.

What you want to say: Have a nice day.

Those pesky prepositions!

Germlish: I started working with 21.

What you want to say: I started working at 21.

 mit & in = at when you are talking about age

* mit 21 = at 21
* in seinem Alter = at his age