German Easy Everyday Words

Where can you learn and practise speaking German? 

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You can use German in Germany, Austria and German-speaking parts of Switzerland.  Also Luxembourg, Liechtenstein, and parts of Belgium and Italy.

Flag of Luxembourg.

Flag of Liechtenstein.

 English - German

I am learning German on Duolingo.

I listened to a BBC podcast about how apps can help, and whether you gain more by adding a conversation with a live person or doing that instead. For me, at home alone, or on public transport, the app is a start and a constant practice.

Apparently you can turn off the sounds at the ends of an exercise, which might annoy others at home or in public places such as on a bus or train.

 German - English

A capital letter at the start of a word indicates that it is a noun rather than a verb or adjective.

(Die )Jacke - (the ) jacket 

du - you singular, like tu in French

English - German

Remember to use a capital letter when writing nouns in German.

jacket - Jacke, the jacket is die Jacke, (both die and Jacke end in the letter e)

you singular - tu

(you singular) must - musst (You must use the double ss in German)

Useful English-German websites

duolingo.com

https://wikitravel.org/en/German_phrasebook

translate.google.com

-ends-

Please share links to your favourite posts.

Bottled water in Spanish Speaking Spain and the Canary Islands

 

Spanish - English

agua -water

antes - before

botella - bottle

consumir - consume (literally to consume

Espana (note the mark above the n meaning pronunciation is ny) - Spain

preferemente - preferably

Language misunderstandings

 Duolingo tells me that my friends will 'defraudara' me. Defraud me? Cheat me? That can't be right.

I looked it up with a little help from handy AI. Defrauda means will disappoint.

I wonder what else I am misunderstanding?

I half remember that there are lists of false friends in Wikivoyage. Spanish and Italian and Portuguese have false friends - words which sound similar in two languages but have different meanings. Often they are cognates Let's look at them again.

Useful Websites 

 

Simple Arabic, similar words to English and Hebrew

Arabic is written from right to left, the same as Hebrew. 

The Koran sold on Amazon, showing that the spine is on the right, because the writing goes from right to left.

I remember when I lived in Singapore at a dinner party held by a French Muslim women, an American guest exclaimed in surprise on seeing that Arabic books and pages and writing went from right to left.

"Well, I never knew. Arabic is written right to left, Just like Hebrew!" she exclaimed.

Her French friend from the book group was equally surprised and gasped, "You mean Hebrew writing goes right to left, like Arabic? I never knew that!"

Hebrew and English prayer book, sold on Amazon, showing spine on right and Hebrew writing from right to left like Arabic.

Learning languages is full of delightful surprises, and expansion of one's knowledge of the world, from historical times to the modern day.. 

Here are some similar words, easy for you to recognize, learn, and remember.

Arabic & Hebrew

Two languages for the price of one

English - Arabic - Hebrew

day - Araabic yam - Hebrew yom as in Yom Kippur the day (of) Atonement, which is a fasting day\

friend - Arabic sadiq

night - -Arabic laylah - Hebrew layla pronounced lie-la, laylah tov is good ight, literally night good with the adjective second 

no - la - lo

A few words

THE SAME!

bank - bank

mall - mall

supermarket - supermarket

Arabic - English

ana - I

English - Arabic

I - ana

How useful is Arabic to the traveller? It is one of the six languages of the UN.

Arabic is an official language of these countries:

• Algeria
• Bahrain
• Comoros
• Chad
• Djibouti
• Egypt
• Eritrea
• Gaza and The West Bank
• Iraq
• Israel
• Jordan
• Kuwait
• Lebanon
• Libya
• Mauritania
• Morocco
• Oman
• Pakistan
• Qatar
• Saudi Arabia
• Somaliland
• Sudan
• Syria
• Tunisia
• United Arab Emirates
• Yemen

It is also a national language of:

• Mali
• Somalia
• Senegal

Useful Resources

Basic conversational words and sentences

1 https://preply.com/en/blog/basic-arabic-words/

2 Earworms CD with small print booklet, and online support (from Berlitz - Earworms CDs are no longer available new, Feb 2025, but second hand on ebay. The boxed set is useful if you have a CD player in your car, or want to look at the booklet when travelling by bus or train or revising late at night in a good light.)

3 Wikivoyage Phrasebook arabic 

https://en.wikivoyage.org/wiki/Arabic_phrasebook

The Arabic phrasebook deals with Modern Standard Arabic. See the Egyptian Arabic phrasebook, Jordanian Arabic phrasebook, Moroccan Arabic phrasebook, Lebanese Arabic phrasebook, or Tunisian Arabic phrasebook for Arabic dialects relating to those countries and regions.

http://www.modernstandardarabic.com/cognate-list-of-arabic-and-english-words/

https://forum.language-learners.org/viewtopic.php?t=16218

Translating and mistranslating a Spanish hotel registration form - lost in translation

 

I kept my registration form from a hotel in Spain, Hotel Zenit Coruna, and used it to revise my Spanish vocabulary. I experienced a few surprises, words I had mis-translated in my mind,

1 Datos del viajero looked like dates of the trip. It was not. It was details of the traveller.

2 Segundo apellido was not second name of middle name, meaning second given name. It was second surname or family name. Spanards use their mother's maiden name or family name as a middle name. 

3 Direccion is not directions but address.

4 Fecha is not facts but dates.

5 Firma del viajero is not confirmation of the trip/journey/stay but signature of the traveller. 

Spanish - English

datos - data/ 

detalles - details

direccion - address

direcciones - direcions

fechas - dates

segundo apellido - second surname

viaje - journey

viajero - traveller

https://translate.google.com/

English - Spanish

address - dreccion

data - datos

dates - fechas

details - detalles

directions- direcciones

journey - viaje

Useful Websites

Trasnslate google

https://translate.google.com/

 

Flashcards and trilingual books for learning languages

I bought a set of 11 language cards from OOOZU. 

this weekend I was looking for a background for a zoom meeting with Hapy Birthday in multiple languages. 

Useful Websites

https://chrikarublog.wordpress.com/multilingual-flashcards/

Chineasy

ooozu.com

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Language-Cards-OOOZU-Lightweight-

trilingual Books

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Trilingual-English-Arabic-Illustrated-Vocabulary/

False friends or false cognates or confusing words in Danish and English

 

Danish word	English translation	English word	Danish translation
aktuel	current, relevant	actual	egentlig, reel, faktisk
art	species	art	kunst, håndværk, evne
blanket	form	blanket	tæppe, dyne
brik	pawn, piece	brick	mursten
chef	boss	chef	kok
eventuel	possible, any	eventual	endelig, uundgåelig
delikat	delicious, tasty	delicate	skrøbelig
fabrik	factory	fabric	stof, klæde, tekstil
fyr	pine, fire, lighthouse	fir	ædelgran
gift	poison, married	gift	gave, foræring
sky	cloud	sky	himmel
udenlandsk	foreign	outlandish	mærkelig, sær
branche	line of work	branch	gren, afdeling
hjemmeside	website	homepage	startside
mail	e-mail	mail	post
spotte	mock	spot	få øje på
advokat	lawyer	advocate	fortaler
grine	laugh	grin	smile
rente	interest	rent	husleje
barn	child	barn	lade
konkurrence	competition	concurrence	enighed, overenskomst, samtidighed
kommune	municipality	commune	kollektiv
patetisk	emotional, passionate	pathetic	ynkelig
prægnant	concise	pregnant	gravid
pensel	brush	pencil	blyant
pig	spike	pig	svin
realplan		real plane
novelle	short story	novel	roman
overbærende		overbearing	arrogant, nedladende
saltomortale	somersault	salto mortale	dødsspring
impuls	momentum	impulse	ændring i impuls
harmonika	accordion	harmonica	mundharmonika
klit	dune	clit	klitoris
dog	however	dog	hund
slut	end	slut	tøs
fart	speed	fart	prut
kasserolle	saucepan	casserole
puddersukker	brown sugar	powdered sugar	flormelis
spejder	scout	spider	edderkop
lever	liver	lever	løftestang
harme	to annoy	to harm	skade
teen	the tea	teen	teenager
gold	barren	gold	guld

Useful websites

Holocaust Memorial in Tirana, capital of Albania

 

Holocaust Memorial. Tirana. Albania. Photo by Angela Lansbury. Copyright.

The memorial is in three languages, Albanian, Hebrew, English.

THE ALPHABET EXPLAINED: The origin of every letter, and which countries will help you to be bilingual

I knew some of this about the origin of language. Very effectively presented. The presenter has a lovely, attractive English accent with perfect pronunciation. A pleasure to listen to him.

I have been studying Chinese (Mandarin). Chinese combines the earliest form of writing, pictograms. diagrams of natural objects, with signs representing sounds.

He shows how the modern Roman alphabet was derived over time. 

What he does not explain is how the Cyrillic alphabet was constructed at one point in time by Cyril and his borther. Just like Korean was invented by one person.

He has another video exaplining how German is easy to read if you can see how some letters in German are equivalent to others in English. 

Useing the existing Roman alphabet, the language Esperanto was devised to help Europeans who spoke several langagues, to speak to each other in a commong language which combines parts of each of the main languages, but kept to a regular structure with only 14 rules, quick to learn. 

If you are interested in languages you might be interested in these places:

SINGAPORE

In Singapore the four major official langauges and English Chinese (Mandarin), Malay (which is mostly the same as Indonesian) and Tamil.

Go on the MRT (underground railway) and you will hear announcements in four languages and see signs in four languages.

CANADA

You will hear English in Toronto and French in Montreal but in the capital all government empolyees are required to speak both languages. Most hotel and restaurant staff are also bilingual.

BELGIUM

You will see signs in two languages, French and Flemish (Dutch).

SWITZERLAND

A chance to practice three languages, French, German and Italian.

How to translate to and from other languages

You need to translate other languages even if you have no desire or no confidence

French - English

de - of

la - the (feminine)

montagne - mountain

rue - street

English - French

the (feminine) - la (masculine le)

of - de

Mountain - montagne

street - rue

The square sign top right is the symbol used in both Chinese and Japanese for mouth, in compounds also opening 

Greetings

English - Spanish

Hello - aloha

English - American/colloquial English/familiar to peers

hello - hi

English - German

good day - guten Tag

English - Malay

danger - keep out   -  Bahaya jangan dekat

Danger - keep out

The literal (word by word) Malay reads

Malay - English

bahaya - danger

jangan - don't

dekat - near

GERMAN

bahnhof - station

dorf - (village?)

ende in - ends in

strasse - street

umleitung

Translated into translates a word into many languages.

You might want to translate half a dozen useful words such as

Everyday Greetings, (hello and goodbye), seasonal greetings, (happy birthday, happy Christmas, )  congratulations, condolences, , simple answers (yes, no). 

Question words

who, what, when, where, why

 

Useful Websites

translate google

Translated Into

https://translated-into.com