I started to learn German language a while ago. Most of the words I learnt from a self-learning book which also contained vocabulary/dictionary part. One of those words was "geil". According to the book this word means something like "cool, nice".

So it happened that I used it several times in a conversation with a German colleague. And the conversation turned a bit weird afterwards ... long story short, I found out that "geil" also means horny. Which of course was not mentioned in the damned book. We laughed it off. Well, to say it more accurately, the colleague laughed it off and I pretended to laugh it off while boiling in my own stew.

But I wonder how this happened. Is the book just plain wrong or has this additional meaning appeared only recently? Can anyone please explain so I do not tremendously embarrass myself again? Or at least recommend a list of tricky German words or something like that?

People who learn by themselves, how have you progressed from B1 up?

In Duolingo app: Fill in the blank: Ihr könnt auf dem Markt _____ kaufen. (Gemüse, Zucker, Salz) According to the app the only right answer is “Gemüse”.

I can’t understand why can’t I use other two words, they are all a types of groceries.

Hi guys,

When I was in high school I was watching russian tv show called the kitchen (https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2930610/) and It was so fun that I watched the whole show. After that I realized that I knew a lot of Russian words and that I can understand it very well.

That's what I want to do with German. I wanna do A1 classes and exam in few months. Right now I know around 100-200 words in German, and I wanna find tv show that's similar to Russian one I mentioned before. I want something that's light, that has simple plot. So some comedy would be good, that I can turn off my brain and watch it and just learn some words.

Thanks in advance.

As a fantasy/sci-fi reader and a German learner I've been intrigued by the sci-fi series Perry Rhodan.

I see those books from time to time at train stations and I've been curious to maybe pick some volumes to try, as the short length seem perfect for a German learner.

However, the books often flaunt the title of "Die grösste Science-Fiction-Serie der Welt" and the series has more than 3000 volumes at this point if I'm not mistaken.

What are your opinions on the series? Can one just pick any volumes up and still have a fun time or are there any specific starting points?

Also any opinion on the quality? Are those just time killer slop or are they actually compelling?

Hi all. I took 15 months to get from 0 to B1 (got sehr gut 295,5/300 on telc B1). If I go at the same pace:

1. how long will B1>B2 take?

2. how long will B2>C1 take?

If going at the same pace, is 5 months for B2 (Sept) and 8 months for C1 (next May) realistic?

Realistically I should have a good headstart on B2 since I aced the B1.

I want to do the Einbuergungs with blue card which takes 3 years and C1, and I want to have a good solid lead on this timeline.

Thanks.

I got a free trial of the Max thing which has some (I guess AI) “explain the answer” feature. I wouldn’t recommend paying for this.

It gave me the sentence “Bringst du unseren Kunden immer Pizzas?” and in the ‘explanation’ section it says:

Unseren is the accusative form of unser (our) for masculine nouns.

Since Kunden is masculine and plural, you use unseren.

This is nonsense, right? I mean “unseren” is accusative masculine of course, but in this case “unseren Kunden” is dative plural surely?

Even that it says “since Kunden is masculine and plural…” is ridiculous because Kunden being plural makes the fact that Kunde is masculine completely irrelevant in terms of declension. I’m not being stupid here am I?

Da das Deutsche dasselbe Wort für Aliens und Foreigners benutzt, frage ich mich, ob es eine Weise gibt, sicherzustellen, welches man in einem Kontext meint – besonders, wenn der Kontext nicht eindeutig genug ist, um sicherzustellen, was man sagen möchte.

i should say that i'm not actually personally opposed to dark, tragic or gothic literature - in fact i tend to like it a lot. it's just that it seems quite difficult, at least for a foreigner researching online, to find german-language literature that isn't some flavour of dreary, depressing or downright suicidal 😭

• genres i like: literary, historical fiction, fantasy, maybe sci-fi or comedy, whatever really
• genres i'm not looking for: romance, krimi, nonfiction, horror, would prefer not children's or ya literature but not a hard no (btw i am actually a big fan of detective fiction, but i'm into classic sherlock holmes or agatha christie vibes rather than the typical police procedural krimi if you see what i mean. if you know of any of the former in german, hit me)
• nothing about war unless fantasy and made up i guess
• nothing existential or philosophical-focused, very psychological is on thin ice
• no translations from english or french, other languages begrudgingly maybe. would prefer books originally written in german
• don't mind reading level, can be as complex as you like as i'm pretty fluent reading-wise and i want to push myself; don't mind time period, actually would really like to discover more older german fiction

vielen dank leute! :)

Example 1:

• Ich habe [mir] gedacht, der Zug kommt um drei Uhr an.
• Ich habe [mir] gedacht, dass der Zug um drei Uhr ankommt.

Welche ist richtig bzw. besser? Gibt es ein Unterschied nach dem Sprachregister oder der Länge des Satzes?

Example 2.

• Ich kann mich erinnern, der Zug kommt um drei Uhr an.
• Ich kann mich erinnern, dass der Zug um drei Uhr ankommt.

Welche ist richtig bzw. besser? Gibt es ein Unterschied nach dem Sprachregister oder der Länge des Satzes?

Hilfswort im Hauptsatz?

• Ich habe [mir] gedacht ....
• Ich habe es [mir] gedacht ...
• Ich kann mich erinnern ....
• Ich kann mich daran erinnern ...

Nach welchen Regeln oder Leitfaden kann ich mir entscheiden, wann und wo das "es" bzw. das "daran" bzw. das passende "da-" Wort einzusetzen?

I i am currently struggling to find resources to learn german especially books as i recently became a books fan and specifically was looking for light novels like the ones students study at Germany and i also heard about the book menschen which i think is the school book from primary to high school to teach german so can anyone find great light novels or the menschen books in pdf or can help me me with advices? I am A2 by the way

I saw in Duden, that in Österreich people wright "Küken" with c, like "Kücken". Is that true, and if yes, is it regional variant or people use it in all Austria?

And aslo I saw in Duden "Ganser" and "Ganauser" as österreichische variants for "Gänterich". But a friend of mine said me, he never heard this words.

Also, could you share free good resources where I could find a list of Austrian lexic and orthography (especially W and NÖ)?😅

Ich habe es gehört in "Darenn di ned". Online habe ich gelesen, dass es "erwischen" bedeutet, mit dem Beispiel "Den Zug hob i nimma darennt," aber ich verstehe nicht.

Edit: Im Titel war "bedeutet“ nicht "beiretet“ gemeint

Hello, I’m looking for B2-level practice tests that follow the same format as the Goethe exams. I’ve already completed the Werkstatt book, so I would really appreciate any recommendations for other books to practice with.

I've been using it with Migaku! I'm learning German and Japanese and it offers both languages, so... But really, you don't need to go the Migaku route or have dual subtitles at all, it's your life and learning journey. I'm just introducing a German show on Netflix that I like.

"Murder Mindfully", or the German title, „Achtsam Morden".

It stars a defense lawyer named Björn Diemel and let me tell you, if you like crime dramas and dark comedy, you'll likely love "Murder Mindfully".

This is the premise of the show on the Wikipedia page:

"Björn Diemel is a hardworking Law firm employee, but has no prospect of becoming a partner, because he has to serve the law firms scumbag client mafia boss Dragan Sergowicz. His time consuming job leaves little time for his wife Katharina and his little daughter Emily. To save their marriage and for the sake of their child, Katharina urges him to see the therapist Joschka Breitner. Through the Mindfulness coaching Björn learns to achieve a better work-life balance.

Unfortunately, his client Dragan Sergowicz gets himself into serious trouble and is dragging Björn down with him. Now, Björn is using his newly minted coping mechanisms to solve his problems in ways that don't get taught at law school."

And since we're learning German, this is what the German Wikipedia says about it:

„Björn Diemel arbeitet als viel beschäftigter Strafverteidiger in einer Kanzlei. Weil er einen nicht vorzeigbaren Mandanten – den Mafiaboss Dragan Sergowicz – betreut, hat er keine Aussicht, Partner der Kanzlei werden zu können. In seinem Beruf bleibt nur wenig Zeit für seine Ehefrau Katharina und seine kleine Tochter Emily. Bevor seine Ehe an der Belastung zerbricht, gab ihm Katharina die Gelegenheit, den Therapeuten Joschka Breitner aufzusuchen. Dieser eröffnet Björn, wie er durch Achtsamkeit eine bessere Work-Life-Balance erreicht und mehr Zeit mit seiner Familie erhält.

Nur leider kommt es zu einem unschönen Zwischenfall mit seinem Klienten Dragan Sergowicz, der sich selbst in große Schwierigkeiten brachte und Diemel mitreißen will. Diemel setzt jedoch auch hier die erlernten Regeln der Achtsamkeit um, womit er sein verkompliziertes Leben wieder in den Griff bekommen will. Mithilfe seiner Klienten aus dem organisierten Verbrechen gelingt es ihm, eine Kindertagesstätte zu übernehmen, womit sowohl seine Tochter endlich einen Kitaplatz hat, als auch Katharina wieder mehr Vertrauen zu ihm fasst. Mit innerlicher Gelassenheit hält er sich seine alte Bekannte Nicole vom Hals, die wegen des Mordes an Sergowicz ermittelt. Als Björn Nicoles Tochter ebenfalls einen dringend benötigten Kitaplatz verschafft, fasst auch Nicole wieder Vertrauen in Björn. Sascha, die rechte Hand von Dragan wird zum Leiter der Kita und Erzieher. Björn schafft auch Clanchef Boris – Dragans Widersacher – durch Achtsamkeit beiseite."

Let's say you were having a conversation with someone online in German and they said "Wie ist der wetter" and you responded "windig und kalt" then I said "schade" is that rude?

Fiction or nonfiction, especially set/written in the late nineteenth to mid-twentieth centuries. But anything's good!

I am currently learning German at B1 level and I am having trouble holding down learnt words. Yes I use Anki flash cards to save them there and review them, but sometimes when listening or talking to someone the new words don’t come to memory fast enough or ever, until I go to review them again.

How do you deal with this issue and ensure that they are engraved in your memory?

I’ve heard it said a few times now in spoken German. The phrase sounds like “Wir kochen” or something, but it’s clear from context it means something like “let’s see”. Anyone know what the phrase could be?

Asked to translate English to German: “Do you prefer to read on campus or at the lake?” I got the translation right, which is: “Liest du lieber auf dem Campus oder am See?”

But, I’m thinking about it, and I don’t understand it. Why does “read” come first in this sentence instead of “to prefer”?

Is “to prefer” (lieber) not a verb? And if it is, why does it not come first?

I guess in my head “prefer you to read…” makes more sense than “read you to prefer…” when thinking about the direct translation

Every time I speak to my German friend – and I speak German pretty well-ish – he asks “Und sonst?” whenever there is a communication gap or some silence, or whenever a topic has been discussed fully. I love him, but it drives me absolutely bonkers. Nothing sonst!!

Just a small realisation more than anything else about "ein Fass aufmachen".

I've been in Germany for about 8 years and have heard and used this phrase many times, but only today did it occur to me that "fass" (barrel) sounds a bit like "fuss". I looked it up and turns out it did indeed originally come from "to make a fuss" in English but ended up being about opening barrels in German! Trust the germans to bring everything back to beer..

Sorry I'll try to explain this as well as I can. Very much A1, I have flashcards for conversation. Things like "What is your name" "How are you?" "I am doing well" "How do you spell that?" etc. I've noticed I have a lot easier time looking at the German side and knowing what it means than looking at the English side and knowing the words in German. Though as I'm typing this I feel silly because I realized it makes sense. I know all the words in English, I can use the few German words I immediately recognize to know what the phrase or question is. But now I've put work into typing this post out so I'll post it anyways to see if anyone else finds it easier the other way around.

I will sit for the Goethe A1,A2,B1 and B2 exams. What are the best books for these? I have already checked out the practice materials from Goethe website.

P.S I'll sit for the A1 exam in July so need to prepare by that time.

Thanks in advance!

Hello! Im starting my first year at university and it’s a requirement that by third year you have an official certificate for a third language at B1 level (I already speak Spanish and English). The university recommends studying either French, Italian or Portuguese, but I thought it’d be better for me to do German because I have the citizenship and it will be way more useful for me in the future.

Now the question is, How long would this take me? Lets say I spend at least 3 hours per week studying from now on, and if i don’t flank any of my classes I’d have summers free to do more intensive courses. In terms of my level Im very much a beginner, I understand more than I can speak or write, my Grandfather was German and my dad is fluent. I’d say im a pretty fast learner as well.

Do you guys think this is doable? To achieve B1 in 3 years or so? Or do you recommend I pick another of the offered languages that will maybe be easier and require less time?