Here' my review of the Uncovered (Intermediate) courses for Spanish, German, French, Italian or Japanese from Olly Richards at StoryLearning. I’ve been exploring the courses from the inside and here’s the low-down: first in overview, then in depth. Listen up if you are at lower intermediate and looking for the materials - and a method - to help you take your language forward … [Read more...]
How to use German infinitives
In this post we’ll get to grips with German infinitives. What do we actually mean when we talk about the infinitive of a German verb? When do you use the infinitive in German and can you use it on its own as a bare infinitive or do you have to use the zu infinitiv (Infinitiv mit zu)? How similar are German and English here? Eh? Read on! All will be revealed, with lots of … [Read more...]
What to expect from a foreign language tutor (and what not to expect)
What to expect from a foreign language tutor? Well, if you think a tutor can learn the language for you, you’ll be disappointed. That certainly doesn't mean that it's not worth hiring a foreign language tutor, though. Get your expectations right and you'll find, as I have over the years, that a good language tutor can be hugely helpful at key stages on your road to fluency. … [Read more...]
German relative pronouns and relative clauses made clear
German relative pronouns cause some students a headache simply because they haven’t taken time to understand how the relative clause sentence pattern works and what it's for. Don’t make that mistake! In this post, you’ll find a clear explanation with the jargon busted and lots of clear examples. All the way through, we'll highlight what's similar to English. To finish, we’ll … [Read more...]
“Yma o hyd” by Dafydd Iwan and learning Welsh
I write this in the week that the Welsh protest song Yma o hyd by Dafydd Iwan topped the iTunes chart in the United Kingdom off the back of his performance in the stadium before Wales beat Ukraine and qualified for the Fifa World Cup for the first time for sixty-four years. Update 30 Nov '22. Well, Qatar didn't quite work out quite as we'd hoped ... but let's keep singing! … [Read more...]
Café culture in German: words and phrases
The German-speaking lands have a very developed café culture. Let’s look at the German words and phrases that you need for the perfect café experience! During the day, in a German or Austrian café, you’ll typically find a delicious range of Gebäck (das, pl. is the same, pastries), Kuchen (cakes) available and also alcoholic drinks. If a café is Selbst-Bedienung … [Read more...]
Hello and Goodbye in German: quick guide to the key words and phrases
Wondering how to say hello and goodbye in German? In this post you'll find the most useful ways of greeting people and saying farewell in the language. Just like in English, there are variations according to the level of formality and depending on the time of day. Some of the words are used throughout the German-speaking lands but others are associated with particular regions. … [Read more...]
German false friend words alert! (Your ultimate list)
As German learners, we love the hundreds of words that look similar or even identical and mean the same in both German and English. They may be words with a common Germanic root ("cognates" such as the man and der Mann), modern borrowings from one language to the other (the Rucksack, die Party…) or words taken from another language (often French, Greek or Latin like the/der … [Read more...]
How to choose an online language tutor
One-to-one sessions with an online tutor play a large role in my language learning. I’ve clocked up over seven hundred live sessions on Skype or Zoom in a range of languages. In this post you’ll discover the questions that I ask when I’ve pulled up a teacher’s profile and am looking for a good teacher fit. Italki.com is the platform on which I’ve found my … [Read more...]
Must-know German opinion phrases for agreeing and disagreeing
As a beginner in German, it’s a great feeling just to have the most basic exchanges: to say a little about yourself and your surroundings, ask some practical questions. But as you start to improve, you’ll soon want to have more meaningful conversations. You’ll want to share your interests, enthusiasms, likes and dislikes. And to find out about what matters to your conversation … [Read more...]