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26 + 2 GERMAN VERBS IN ACTION | PART 8

Dear Germanee,

wie geht es dir heute? How are you doing today?

Have you read the previous blog post about fahren?

Then welcome, welcome to part 8!

Bist du bereit? Are you ready?

Let’s get to the 7th letter of the German alphabet, which is the beautiful “G”.
We pronounce it like “g” in the English words garden or go.

The g-verb, I wanna introduce you to seems like a simple one, but will turn out as quite complex in its meaning and use.


However, let’s go one step after the other and see how we conjugate the verb gehen:

Verb

basic form

Singular

Plural

ich

I

du

you informal

er/sie/es

he/she/it

wir

we

ihr

you

sie/Sie

they/you formal

gehen

gehe

gehst

geht

gehen

geht

gehen

As you could see, gehen is a regular verb and so only its endings are changing the way you’re already familiar with.
Phew! That’s good news, isn’t it?

The more tricky part is that we use gehen in many different ways.
Literally gehen means to go or to walk.
I think it’ll be best to figure out the other meanings in the following context.

Daniel, Tom, Erhan and Steven are having their own band. They usually meet twice a week for rehearsals. The four of them are a bit tense since they’ll have a concert soon.

STEVEN
Hey Jungs, was geht? Wie geht’s euch? Ich habe Kaffee für alle.
Hi guys, what’s up? How are you doing? I have coffee for everyone.
DANIELWas geht?!? Danke für den Kaffee, aber eyyy…Steven, du bist schon wieder eine halbe Stunde zu spät zur Bandprobe. Das geht gar nicht, Alter!
What’s up?!? Thanks for the coffee, but hey … Steven, you’re again half an hour late for our band rehearsal. That doesn‘t work at all, dude!
STEVENEs tut mir leid, Leute! Wirklich. Meine Oma ist krank und ihr geht es nicht gut. Geht es jetzt los? Ich bin bereit.
I’m sorry, guys! Really. My grandmother is ill and she is not well. Can we start now? I’m ready.
ERHANNix geht los. Unser Micro geht nicht. Ich denke, es ist kaputt.
Nothing starts. Our mic (doesn’t) work. I think, it’s broken.
TOMHey, seid mal cool, Jungs! Kein Stress, bitte. Das Micro geht nicht? Na und?! Erhan singt heute ohne Micro und bis zum Konzert nächste Woche ist alles wieder ok.
Hey, just be cool, boys! No stress, please! The mic isn’t working? So what?! Erhan sings today without mic and till our concert next week everything (will) be ok.
STEVEN
Ich denke, Tom hat Recht. Frieden?
I think, Tom is right. Peace?
DANIEL
Ok, Frieden.
Ok, peace.
ERHAN Ja, Frieden. Und bis nächste Woche geht alles wieder. Übrigens danke für den Kaffee, Steven. Der ist wirklich gut.
Yes, peace. And till next week everything (will) work perfectly. By the way thank you for the coffee, Steven. It is really great.
STEVENOhh … das freut mich. Der Kaffee ist von meiner Oma.
Ohh … my pleasure. The coffee is from my grandmother.
DANIELWaaaas? Ich denke, sie ist krank?!?
Whaaaat? I think, she is ill?!?
ERHANPssst … Ruhe, Daniel! Jungs, jetzt machen wir Musik. Und eins… und zwei … und eins, zwei, drei, vier …
Pssst … quiet, Daniel! Boys, now we’re making music. And one … and two … and one, two, three, four …

Dear Germanee, have you seen in how many ways we use our verb gehen?

Wie geht’s? or Wie geht es dir? /
How are you (doing)? or literally How is it going with you?

Was geht? or Was geht bei dir? /
What’s up? or What’s up with you?

Das geht gar nicht! /
That doesn’t work at all! …to criticize someone or something that you’d find unacceptable.

Geht es jetzt los? or Jetzt geht’s los. /
Do we start now? or Now it starts. …often used as an almost euphoric announcement of anticipation.

Bis nächste Woche geht alles wieder. /
Next week everything will work perfectly well. …is used in a sense of something is or will be possible.

Das Micro geht nicht. /
The microphone doesn’t work. …put anything instead of mic that isn’t working.


The question Wie geht’s dir? is a quite useful phrase and
I’d recommend that you just learn it by heart.
In the contrary to English, asking “How are you?” in German isn’t part of our regular way of greeting. Hence, we take that question more literally and might reply to it purely honest.
So, dear Germanee, if you ask a German Wie geht’s dir?, be prepared that the answer can range from:
“Mir geht’s fantastisch” to “so lala” to “nicht gut” or even “schlecht”.


I hope you’ll always be on the smiling side of the following spectrum ;).



Hab einen wunderbaren Tag and please leave me a quick comment below as I’d love to know: Wie geht’s dir?

deine Tina Heimberg

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26 + 2 GERMAN VERBS IN ACTION | PART 7

Dear Germanee,

wie schön, dass du wieder da bist, so great to have you here again.

Are you curious to learn a German verb starting with “F”?
You’ve seen my previous post about essen, right?

Then, welcome, welcome to part 7!

Bist du bereit? Are you ready?


The f-verb, I want you to learn is … vroom … vrooom … vrooooooooom.

Good news is, knowing the verb fahren, will give you so many new opportunities
to talk in German about your everyday life.
Bad news is, fahren is also one of these slightly irregular verbs:(.
Let’s see:

Verb

basic form

Singular

Plural

ich

I

du

you informal

er/sie/es

he/she/it

wir

we

ihr

you

sie/Sie

they/you formal

fahren

fahre

fährst

fährt

fahren

fahrt

fahren

As you can see, the “a” in fahren changes into an “ä” in second and third person singular. But no worries, the more you practice the more you’ll get used to it.
Apropos practice, let’s have a look how we’d use our new verb fahren in a conversation.

Dalia and Josie are colleagues. Sie arbeiten beide bei Volkswagen. One morning they meet by chance in the tram.

DALIA
Hey Josie, guten Morgen, wie geht’s dir? Fährst du immer mit der Straßenbahn zur Arbeit?
Hey Josie, good morning, how are you? Do you always go to work by tram?
JOSIEDalia, wie schön! Guten Morgen. Normalerweise fahre ich mit dem Auto, aber das ist diese Woche in der Werkstatt. Und du?
Dalia, how nice. Good morning. Usually I go by car, but it’s in the repair shop this week. And you?
DALIAIch fahre meistens mit dem Fahrrad zur Arbeit. Aber heute habe ich später noch einen Termin und da ist die Straßenbahn praktischer.
I mostly ride my bike to work. But today I’ll have an appointment later and therefore the tram is more practical.
JOSIEHach, du Glückliche! Ich fahre auch so gern Fahrrad, aber zur Arbeit ist mein Weg leider zu weit.
Awww … you’re so lucky! I also like cycling so much, but my way to work is unfortunately too far.
DALIAKlar, ich verstehe. Ich liebe Fahrrad fahren auch total. Nächsten Monat fahren ein paar Freunde und ich sogar mit dem Fahrrad in den Urlaub.
Sure, I understand. I also totally love cycling. Next month, a couple of friends and I (will) even ride our bikes to go on holiday.
JOSIE
Wow! Du bist ja sportlich. Wohin fahrt ihr denn?
Wow! You are so sporty. Where (do) you (Plural!) go?
DALIA
Wir fahren zuerst mit dem Zug nach Magdeburg. Von dort fahren wir mit unseren Fahrrädern bis nach Dresden. Und dann fahren wir mit einem Kanu auf der Elbe bis nach Tschechien.
First we go to Magdeburg by train. From there we ride our bikes to Dresden. And then we go by canoe on the Elbe to Czech Republic.
JOSIE Das ist ja toll, Dalia! Ihr fahrt Fahrrad und Kanu bis nach Tschechien. Ich bin im Sommerurlaub meistens faul. Aber jeden Winter fahre ich in Österreich Ski.
That’s so great, Dalia! You (Plural!) ride your bike and canoe as far away as to Czech Republic. I’m mostly lazy in my summer holiday. But every winter, I go skiing in Austria.
DALIAHahaa. Wir zwei sind wirklich sehr verschieden. Ich bin im Winter faul. Ich fahre leider nicht Ski. Brrrrrr … Kälte mag ich gar nicht.
Hahaa. The two of us are really quite different. I am lazy in winter. I don’t ski unfortunately. Brrrrr… and I don’t like the cold at all.
JOSIEOhhh … Dalia, wir sind schon da! Hab einen schönen Tag. Und vielleicht fahren wir bald mal wieder zusammen Straßenbahn.
Oh … Dalia, we’re already there! Have a lovely day. And maybe we (will) soon again go together by tram.

Dear Germanee, have you seen in how many ways we use the verb fahren?

Josie fährt normalerweise mit dem Auto und Dalia mit dem Fahrrad zur Arbeit. /
Josie usually goes to work by car and Dalia by bike.
Aber heute fahren sie beide Straßenbahn. /
But today they both go by tram.
Im Urlaub fährt Dalia Zug, Fahrrad und Kanu. /
On holiday Dalia goes by train, bike and canoe.
Josie fährt im Winterurlaub gern Ski. /
Josie likes skiing on winter holiday.

Und wie fährst du zur Arbeit? Fährst du Auto, Metro, Scooter, Boot oder Fahrrad? /
And how do you go to work? Do you go by car, metro, scooter, boat or bicycle?


The holiday, mentioned in the conversation above between Dalia and Josie, became definitely a trend.
You can cycle all over Germany, following a river or circling lakes. It’s a wonderful way to experience nature and landscapes in its purest. Since there are train stations everywhere, you can easily hop on a train if you feel tired or wanna speed up your journey.
One very popular cycling tour is the Elbe-Rad-Weg.
Dear Germanee, even if you feel like you hate bikes … just tell me you don’t! … please check out that link as it gives you a beautiful impression about the many shades of Germany in terms of culture and nature.

I’ll never forget a conversation I had once with Mohammed, one of my students here in Dubai. Mohammed has learned German to do his masters in Germany. When he returned to Dubai for holiday, after his first two semesters, we met for a coffee. I was very curious to hear about his experiences and how he liked his life in Germany. One of the first things he mentioned was the cycling culture in Germany. He was so amazed by the fact that his professors, but also so many other people in suits are commuting to and from work by bike.
There are cycle paths everywhere in cities and it’s indeed -mostly!- a pleasant way to get from A to B. Often it would be even faster to ride your bike; plus no headache from searching for parking.
I’d dare to claim that bikes have become kind of a status symbol and among the really cool people they replaced cars by far. There are so many different bikes on the market, ranging from cool to comfortable to sporty to elegant, that everyone can find his perfect fit to meet his needs and express his individuality.


Fahrrad fahren is like a life style choice.

In Germany, I ride my bike to the farmers market on Saturday mornings or to a restaurant meeting friends in the evening. I do all my grocery shopping by bike. Radfahren is just part of the everyday life and I love that. It gives me a feeling of being somehow more connected or grounded. Do you understand what I mean?

In Dubai it’s completely the opposite, I love and enjoy Autofahren, while Radfahren is a hobby. When I’m on my way to Al Qudra cycling track, mein Rennrad im Kofferraum, my race bike in the rear trunk, my heart is jumping full of anticipation. Cycling through the desert, exposed to heat and wind, means pure happiness. Just thinking about it, makes me realize how grateful I am to feel home in both life styles.

Although Fahrrad fahren became more and more popular, many Germans are still so in love with their Auto / car. And Autos play a big role within the German economy. Volkswagen, Opel, Audi, BMW, Mercedes or Porsche are very well known.
Ehmm … did I forget any German car brand?
I think, especially in Dubai, the German Autobahn is something every speed-lover wants to try. Heading from Hamburg to Munich within a few hours is definitely an experience. There is a myth that no speed limits apply to Autobahn.
I am sorry, but THAT IS NOT TRUE.
There are few parts of every Autobahn, usually in more rural and less busy areas, where you can legally take your car to vroom … vroooom … max speed.
And yes. That’s thrilling.

But, if I can choose my favorite drive, I’d prefer a slower pace. Eine Cabrio-Fahrt an einem warmen Sommertag, a trip in a convertible on a warm summer’s day, on one of these countless alleys towards the baltic sea – that’s freedom and heaven in one. The air is filled by a spicy scent of nature and you look up into a tight but light canopy of leaves. The closer you get to the sea the more you’ll smell the salty air and discover the pastel-colored sky. Actually, similar to cycling, you can experience your route with all senses. You see, feel, hear, smell your way.

Auf dem Fahrrad oder im Cabrio – for me, that means fahren.


Hab einen wunderbaren Tag and let me know what fahren means to you!

deine Tina Heimberg

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26 + 2 GERMAN VERBS IN ACTION | PART 6

Dear Germanee,

wie geht es Dir? I hope everything is well at your end.
Today, I’m going to continue with the 6th verb of my 26 + 2 series and so we’re getting to the letter “E”.

Welcome, welcome to part 6!

Bist du bereit? Are you ready?


Have you read the d-post, which introduces you to the verb denken?
No? Not yet? Then, you can find it here: http://26-2-german-verbs-in-action-part-5


The e-verb, I want you to learn is … ta-daaaaaa:

Another essential one, I suppose.
And since essen is such an important and life-saving action, this verb deserves kind of a high-maintenance-treatment.
Let’s see:

Verb

basic form

Singular

Plural

ich

I

du

you informal

er/sie/es

he/she/it

wir

we

ihr

you

sie/Sie

they/you formal

essen

esse

isst

isst

essen

esst

essen

Now, you know, what I mean by high- maintenance, don’t you? As you can see, the verb essen changes its first letter from “e” into “i” in the second and third person singular. That’s something you should just learn by heart. Ich denke, since you’ll use essen quite often, you’ll remember it easily.

Have you actually noted already, how different we pronounce the “e” and “i” in German, compared to English?
While our German “E” is spoken like the “e” in the English word bed, the “I” in German is pronounced like the “ee”-sound in the word beef.
Please, all Germanees out there , would you keep that in mind?

Let’s now practice how you can use the verb essen in action.
Therefore, we’re going back to the Italian restaurant and to Shireen and Lukas, that newly in love couple from the previous post.

Shireen and Lukas ordered Shrimps and Pasta. Shireen had already bred and olive oil since she was starving.

KELLNER
waiter		So, bitte sehr! Hier sind die Shrimps und auch die Pasta. Wer isst was?
There you go. Here are the shrimps and also the pasta. Who eats what?
SHIREENAm besten alles einfach in die Mitte, bitte! Sharing is caring. Wir essen alles zusammen. Oder, Schatz?
The best (will be) everything in the middle, please! Sharing is caring. We eat everything together. Don’t we, darling?
KELLNERPerfekt. Guten Appetit.
Perfect. Enjoy.
LUKASVielen Dank! Wie lecker. Guten Appetit.
Thank you very much. How yummy. Enjoy.
LUKASHey Shireen! Isst du immer allein? Ich denke, sharing is caring und wir essen alles zusammen?
Hey Shireen! Do you always eat alone ? I think, sharing is caring und wir essen everything together?
SHIREEN
Mhhhhm. Uppps! Ach, Lukas … das tut mir wirklich so, so leid. Ich bin immer noch hungrig und ich esse immer sehr schnell.
Mhhhm. Uppps! Ahhh, Lukas … I’m really so, so sorry. I’m still hungry and I always eat very fast.
LUKAS
Najaaa … ich esse einen Shrimp und du isst zehn. Ich esse eine Spaghetti und du isst sie alle. Jetzt bist du satt und ich sehr hungrig.
Mhhmpf … I eat one shrimp and you eat ten. I eat one spaghetti and you eat them all. Now you are full and I am very hungry .
SHIREEN
to the waiter		Entschuldigung, haben Sie vielleicht noch einmal Brot und ein bisschen Olivenöl für uns? Es ist wirklich dringend. Die Liebe meines Lebens verhungert.
Excuse me, do you have maybe again bred and some olive oil for us? It’s really urgent as the love of my life is starving.
LUKASShireen, du bist unglaublich. Ich denke, nächstes Mal essen wir in einem Restaurant mit Buffet. Dann ist alles gut zwischen uns.
Shireen, you are unbelievable. I think, next time we’ll eat in a restaurant with buffet. Then all is good between us.
SHIREENAch, Lukas! Du bist so klug.
Oh, Lukas. You are so smart.

Dear Germanee, hast du jetzt auch Hunger?
Was isst du gern?
Und was isst du nicht gern?
It would be lovely if you could leave me a comment below – in German of course! – about your food favorites and your absolutely no-go-foods.
Ich esse sehr gern … / I like to eat … very much.
Ich esse überhaupt nicht gern … / I do not at all like to eat …

Since I gave you already some insights into the German world of bakeries (26 + 2 GERMAN VERBS IN ACTION | PART 3), I’m now going to talk about the second very serious and absolutely basic essence of the German nutrition, aside from Brot.
Guess what?!

… die Kartoffel

I don’t know why German cuisine is so under-rated. Typical German dishes are mostly quite hearty, regional and seasonal. Not that bad, right? Due to hard circumstances German population was facing, in terms of climate and hard work, up to the 1960ies, people really needed that kind of powerful fuel to maintain high caloric intake. I’m sure you’ve heard, how much we Germans love Kartoffeln, our potatoes. Rumor goes that some people out there in the world, even refer to Germans as “Kartoffel”.
Is that really true?!?


Picking the right sort of potato to match a certain dish is almost science. Depending on their texture, they’ll later turn out as of more creamy or crumbly consistency. To differentiate them, our Kartoffeln got beautiful names, such as Annabelle, Sieglinde or Laura. There are more than 2,000 different types out there and in Germany alone grow approximately 210 sorts.

To be honest, the word Kartoffel reminds me of some of the worst moments of my childhood. On Saturdays or Sundays, punctually at noon my mom used to call me resolutely, in her hands an orange plastic bowl which she handed out to me. No further words were needed. If I dared to roll my eyes she raised her hand with the bowl. No further movements were needed. I knew my scary duty: Going down into the cellar to pick Kartoffeln for our weekend lunch.
In the darkest spot of our dark cellar, was a section with a huge heap of potatoes, delivered in autumn and in such a high amount to make sure it’ll feed us for almost all year around. I hated the cellar because of its smell and its scary spiders. I hated the potato heap because of all its disgusting surprises. The further the year went on, my hands felt more and more of those wrinkled, shriveled and sprouted little potato beasts. Some of them just got wither, but others even became muddy and stinky. Just now, the question occurs to me why no one handed me at least a flashlight to make my duty less challenging.
However, I still love potatoes in my pots and on my plate. But of course, essen in Germany is not all about Kartoffeln.

Dear Germanee, I apologize for swooning out so elaborately. Most probably my writing took that potato-direction as I’m in Dubai right now and fresh, young potatoes is definitely something I miss here, especially at this time of the year.
It’s Spargel-Zeit, asparagus season, in Germany. Depending on the weather, Spargel-Zeit goes from late April till beginning of June. Then you can buy delicious white asparagus on every farmers market. With some new potatoes and just a little bit of heated butter, it already makes a wonderful and healthy meal. Oh yeah, I can hear the mumbling of all meat-lovers … and what about Schnitzel?!? Ok, you could – of course – add a Kalbsschnitzel, veal cutlet, to that dish if needed.

However, a trend has appeared few years ago towards German cuisine, with a strong awareness of ethical and environmental issues. The new chefs rely on sustainably grown, regional products to acknowledge the unique tastes of German rooted dishes by combining them with spices and certain ingredients from all around the world which not only results in fantastic flavors, but also reflects and honors the roots of all the “new Germans”.
What I personally like a lot about this movement, aside of the ecology, is the more laid back mentality in these restaurants: You can have exceptional delicious food without a stiff, formal etiquette.
If you’re curious to get a better idea, just check out these restaurants:

In Berlin: https://www.nobelhartundschmutzig.com/en/# oder https://www.ernstberlin.de

In Hannover: https://www.jante-restaurant.de/en/index.html oder https://www.11a-restaurant.de

Ohhh … jetzt habe ich ein bisschen Heimweh und auch Hunger, now I’m feeling a little homesick and hungry too.
In that case comfort-food can lift my spirit. I’ll cook a nice potato-soup, eine Kartoffelsuppe, based on a recipe,
recently revealed by German chancellor Angela Merkel.
Maybe you’ve heard that Mrs Merkel usually keeps private life private. Therefore it was quite a thing when she shared her secret tip how to prepare die perfekte Kartoffelsuppe.

Hab einen wunderbaren Tag and please let me know how did you like die Karoffelsuppe!

deine Tina Heimberg

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26 + 2 GERMAN VERBS IN ACTION | PART 5

Dear Germanee,

In this series, I’d like to give you a powerful introduction into German language by explaining 26 + 2 verbs, following the main-letters of the German alphabet.

Welcome, welcome to part 5!

Bist du bereit? Are you ready?

The next letter in our German alphabet, following the “C” is … bingo! … the “D“.
We pronounce it similarly to English.
In case, you’ve missed the C-post, explaining the verb campen, you can find it here: 26-2-german-verbs-in-action-part-4.

As a popular German example-verb starting with an D, I’d like to introduce you to:

We often use the phrase Ich denke … to express our thoughts, beliefs or opinion.
And also as a question Was denkst du?, to ask another person for his approval, opinion or just to politely include someone in an ongoing conversation.

Now, let’s have a look, how denken – as a regular verb – changes in action:

Verb

basic form

Singular

Plural

ich

I

du

you informal

er/sie/es

he/she/it

wir

we

ihr

you

sie/Sie

they/you formal

denken

denke

denkst

denkt

denken

denkt

denken

Right now, I’m wondering, whether you, dear Germanee, might find these verb-conjugation-tables a bit boring. But otherwise, ich denke, it can be useful for you to get more familiar with and reminded of these ending changes.

I’d like to show you, how denken is used even in a situation, where we’d usually more feel than think.

Shireen and Lukas, newly in love, are having a romantic dinner in an Italian restaurant.

SHIREENWas denkst du, Schatz?
What (are) thinking you, darling?
LUKASDu bist schön, Shireen. Und unser Leben ist schön. Ich bin so glücklich wie noch nie. Und du? Was denkst du?
You are beautiful, Shireen. And our life is beautiful. I’m so happy as never before. And you? What (are) thinking you?
SHIREENIch denke gerade an frisches Brot, Olivenöl, Burrata, Tomaten, Pasta und Shrimps.
I’m thinking of fresh bred, olive oil, burrata, tomatoes, pasta and shrimps.
LUKASWaaas? Wie bitte?!? Oh, mein Gott, Shireen! Ich denke, du bist die unromantischste Person auf der Welt!
What? Pardon?!? Oh my god, Shireen! I think, you are the most unromantic person on earth!
SHIREENHahaaa, Lukas! Du bist so sensibel. Es tut mir wirklich leid, aber ich habe schrecklichen Hunger.
Hahaa, Lukas! You are so sensitive. I’m really sorry, but I have (a) terrible hunger.
LUKAS
to the
waiter		Entschuldigung, haben Sie vielleicht schon Brot und ein bisschen Olivenöl für uns? Es ist wirklich dringend. Die Liebe meines Lebens hier verhungert.
Excuse me, (do) have you maybe bred and a bit olive oil for us? It’s really urgent as the love of my life here is starving.
KELLNER
(waiter)		Aber natürlich! Ich denke, das ist überhaupt kein Problem. Brot und Olivenöl kommen sofort.
Sure! I think, that’s not a problem at all. Bred and olive oil will come immediately.
SHIREEN
+ LUKAS		Super! Vielen Dank.
Great! Many thanks.
SHIREENJetzt habe ich viele schöne Gedanken.
Now have I many nice thoughts.
LUKASAch, ja? Und was denkst du jetzt?
Oh, really? And what (are) think you now?
SHIREENIch denke, wie viel Glück ich habe. Ich habe Brot, Olivenöl und DICH, DICH, DICH.
I think, how much luck I have. I have bred, olive oil and YOU, YOU, YOU.

Ok. Ok, dear Germanee, ich denke, du denkst gerade: OmG, how cheesy! But, believe me, it’s indeed a challenge to stick to these few verbs you’ve learnt from previous posts and create a meaningful dialogue. Ich denke, that genius German, I’m going to tell you about now, would have been more talented to master it;).

Germany – das Land der Dichter und Denker

I’m sure you’ve heard that phrase before: Germany is considered as the country of poets and thinkers, das Land der Dichter und Denker.
Martin Luther, Gotthold Ephraim Lessing, Friedrich Schiller, Alexander von Humboldt, Friedrich Nietzsche, Hermann Hesse, Albert Einstein, just to name a few.
And of course, not to forget:

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
(1782 – 1832)

I have to admit, although I did my masters in German literature, it took me many more years after university to fell in love with our famous Goethe. In fact, I had to travel to the city of Weimar, where Goethe lived most of his time. There I finally understood his true brilliance.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe was a universal genius and a hedonist, who knew how to live life to the fullest. His poems, plays and novels prove only one of his many talents.
The scope of his collected works is up to 143 volumes, which include aside of his literature work, countless essays about scientific subjects, ranging from the theory of colors, his discovery of a small bone at the tip of the upper jaw, being a landscape architect to the morphology of plants.
Shortly after publishing “Die Leiden des jungen Werther”, “The Sorrows of Young Werther”, he became a rock-star of his era. I could probably continue my praises of this outstanding Denker for hours as there would be so many remarkable events and achievement. Right now, it comes to my mind that I should soon write an additional blog post about the brilliant Goethe in the category Kunst & Kultur, art & culture.

Ich denke, das ist ein guter Gedanke to close my today’s post about denken.

But … stop! Didn’t you too stumble about the fact, that all Dichter und Denker, I named above, were men?! No smart German ladies? I can’t leave it like this. Have you ever heard about Hildegard von Bingen, Dorothea Erxleben, Clara Schumann, Hannah Arendt? And of course, there would be many more to name and not least Angela Merkel.

Hab einen wunderbaren Tag und viele schöne Gedanken! / Have a wonderful day and many nice thoughts!

deine Tina Heimberg

P.s.: If you are too curious now to learn a bit more about Goethe and Weimar, please check out this link to a short video by Deutsche Welle: DW Weimar – Goethe, Schiller & Co. https://www.dw.com/en/weimar-goethe-schiller-co/av-18346649

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26 + 2 German Verbs in Action part 4

Dear Germanee,

The third letter of the German alphabet won’t come as a big surprise to you: It’s the C.
Well, we don’t have many words in German starting with a C.
We borrowed most of them from other languages.
If a German word starts with C, we’d pronounce it like a K, i. g. Clown or Camping.

While camping leads me directly to the verb, I’d like you to get in touch with.

The third verb out of 26, the C-verb of my choice is:

Does it look familiar to you?
Yes, you’re right.
We stole it from the English language and just added our German verb-endings. 

Welcome, welcome to part four. Ta-daaaaaaaaa!

Bist du bereit? Are you ready?

Then, let’s have a look how the verb campen changes in action.
Do you recognize these different endings already from part 3-verb backen?

Verb

basic form

Singular

Plural

ich

I

du

you informal

er/sie/es

he/she/it

wir

we

ihr

you

sie/Sie

they/you formal

campen

campe

campst

campt

campen

campt

campen

I believe, there are three different groups of camping people in Germany:

Either youngsters go for camping or families
or die-hard campers of the elder community. 
I have to admit straight away, I don’t belong to any of them;).

Let’s have a closer look,
how we’d use the verb campen in our everyday German.

Imagine, it’s Friday,
weekend just around the corner
and a wonderful summer morning.

Nadja and Carlos bump into their common friend Marie
in front of their university.

CARLOSHallo Marie! Guten Morgen. Schön dich zu sehen! Wie geht’s dir denn?
Hello Marie! Good morning. Great to see you! How are you doing?
MARIEHeyyyyy … Nadja! … Carlos! Schön euch zu sehen. Mir geht’s wunderbar.
Das Wetter ist traumhaft und ich habe dieses Wochenende frei.
Heyyyyy … Nadja! … Carlos! Great to see you (plural!). I’m very well. The weather is gorgeous and I’ll be off this weekend.
NADJAOh, wie cool! Du arbeitest am Wochenende nicht?!? Wir haben Tickets
für das Fusion Festival am Wochenende. Komm doch mit!
Carlos, was meinst du?
Oh, that’s cool! You (don’t) work on the weekend not? We have tickets for the Fusion festival this weekend. Just come with us! Carlos, what do you think?
CARLOSNatürlich! Super Idee. Komm mit, Marie! Das Wetter ist so toll und wir campen. Das wird richtig schön.
Sure! Great idea. Come with us, Marie! The weather is so nice and we go for camping. It’ll be awesome.
MARIEWow, ich liebe das Fusion Festival! Und ich campe soooo gern. Aber so spontan? Ihr Zwei seid ja verrückt.
Wow, I love the Fusion festival! And I like camping sooooo much. But, that spontaneous? You two are crazy.
NADJAKomm schon, Marie! Lass uns spontan sein! Wo ist das Problem? Du hast frei. Du liebst das Fusion. Du campst gern. Wir haben genug Platz im Auto…
Come on, Marie! Let us be spontaneous! Where is the problem? You are off. You love the Fusion. You like camping. We are having enough space in the car…
CARLOSMarie, sag einfach JA! Hmmm … aber hast du ein Zelt? Unser Zelt ist leider zu klein für drei Leute.
Marie, just say YES! Hmmm … but (do) have you a tent? Our tent is unfortunately too little for three people.
MARIEOk. Ok. Ok. Leute, ich bin dabei. Ahhhh … und ich freue mich so, so sehr. Ein Zelt ist überhaupt kein Problem. Mein Bruder campt oft mit seiner Familie und er hat ein großes Zelt. Das kann ich ganz sicher haben.
Ok. Ok. Ok. Guys, I’m in. Awww … and I’m looking so, so much forward to it. A tent isn’t a problem at all. My brother often goes camping with his family and he has a big tent. I can have that for sure.
NADJAWohooo – Fusion, wir kommen! Das wird so toll.
Wohooo – Fusion, we’re coming! It’s gonna be so great!
CARLOSSuper, Mädels. Wir starten dann heute Nachmittag gegen drei. Bis dann!
Great, girls. We start then today in the afternoon around three. See you then!

How was it?
I’m sure you understood that these friends talk about their weekend plans. They wanna go to the Fusion festival, a very popular one among fans of electronic music.

There are numerous other festivals for all kind of music in Germany,
from spring time till late summer.
Just to name a few:
Rock am Ring for rock and punk music over three days, with around 90,000 visitors.
Wacken open air for fans of Heavy Metall with about 75,000 guests
or Lollapalooza for rock, rap and punk as well as dance, comedy, fashion and art.
Aside from these kind of huge events, there are smaller and cozier ones too, almost every weekend around the year for every music taste.
If you’re interested in getting some detailed information about all festivals, you can check out this website: https://www.festival-alarm.com

For many Germans – of all ages or stages of life – it’s a must to travel around the country and spend some summer weekends at one of these festivals.
I believe, it’s the full package of fun, joy and music, what makes the experience so unique: Taking a break of normal routines. Enjoying music, live performed by world class stars on several stages. Spending intense hours with your friends, but also with new people you’ve never met before.
Stepping back to the roots of civilization by sleeping in a tent and preparing your morning coffee on a camping stove. Being exposed to nature and weather; unlike Dubai there is no guaranteed sunshine in Germany;).

And what about you?

Campst du gern? / Do you like camping?
Wo campst du? / Where do you go for camping?
Und warst du schon mal bei einem Musik Festival? / And have you ever been at a music festival?

I’d love to know your stories!

Hab einen wunderbaren Tag / Have a wonderful day

… and let me know your camping adventures in the comments below!

Bis bald,

deine Tina Heimberg

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26 + 2 GERMAN VERBS IN ACTION | PART 3

Dear Germanee,

I hope you’ve already had your breakfast today?!?
I’m going to talk about yummy stuff, while introducing you to a German verb starting with B.
We pronounce our B similarly to English (bread or banana).

The second verb out of 26, the B-verb of my choice is:

It comes to you with a bunch of mouth-watering new words. 

Welcome, welcome for part three. Yippeeeee!

Bist du bereit? Are you ready?

As I guess, you have baked something – at least once in your life –
and so you have an idea about the action itself. 

If not, maybe at the end of that lesson, you can’t help and wanna bake something. 

Or if you’re a bit like me, you’ll run to your baker and grab your favorite piece. 

But first, let’s have a look how the verb backen changes in action.
Do you recognize these different endings already from part 2-verb arbeiten?

Verb

basic form

Singular

Plural

ich

I

du

you informal

er/sie/es

he/she/it

wir

we

ihr

you

sie/Sie

they/you formal

backen

backe

backst

backt

backen

backt

backen

To see, how we’d use the verb backen in our everyday German,

I’d like to invite you to meet
Benno, the baker.

Let’s imagine Clara, a Journalist from a local newspaper, interviews Benno,
who runs a popular bakery in a small town, called Neustadt.

CLARAHallo. Guten Morgen. Ich bin Clara Schreiber und ich arbeite als Journalistin bei Neustadt-News. Und wer bist du?
Hello. Good morning. I am Clara Schreiber and I work as(a) journalist for Neustadt-News. And who are your?
BENNOGuten Morgen, Clara. Mein Name ist Benno Müller. Ich arbeite als Bäcker und ich liebe es.
Good morning, Clara. My name is Benno Müller. I work as(a) baker and I love it.
CLARABenno, der Bäcker. Wie schön! Wie heißt deine Bäckerei?
Benno, the baker. How nice! How (is)called your bakery?
BENNOMeine Bäckerei heißt “Benno’s Backwerk” und ich habe drei Filialen in Neustadt.
My bakery (is)called “Benno’s Bake-factory” and I have three branches in Neustadt.
CLARAWow, drei Filialen! Backst du ganz allein?
Wow, three branches! (Do)bake you all alone?
BENNOOh nein, natürlich backe ich nicht allein. Ich habe ein super Team aus fünf Bäckerinnen und Bäckern.
Oh no, of course bake I not alone. I have a great team of five (female) bakers and (male) bakers.
CLARASuper, Benno! Und was backt ihr hier? Was sind Benno’s Spezialitäten?
Great , Benno. And what (do)bake you here? What are Benno’s specialties?
BENNOWir backen früh am Morgen Brot und Brötchen und dann später auch viele verschiedene Kuchen.
We bake early in the morning bread and rolls and then later also many different cakes.
Meine Kunden lieben unser Dinkelbrot und den saftigen Mohnkuchen. Hier bitte, Clara, probier doch mal!
My customers love our spelt bread and the juicy poppy-seed cake. Here please, Clara, try it!
CLARAMhhhhm … ist das lecker! Alles schmeckt soooo gut. Ich komme auf jeden Fall wieder.
Mhhhm … is that yummy! Everything tastes soooooo good. I (‘ll) come definitely again.

I hope, you could follow the conversation between Clara and Benno.

Isn’t it great, that you understand what they say?

As you could see, the verb backen changes its endings in a regular way, depending on its heroes aka pronouns.

At this point, I can’t miss out on the chance to give you some tasty insights and more vocabulary related to baking.

Have you ever heard someone swooning over
German bakeries?

Just thinking about it, makes me feel awfully sentimental. Especially on a cold winter’s day, when you enter eine Bäckerei and the warm, flavory air embraces you and tells you to forget all your knowledge about calories as well as the danger of white flour and sugar.

It’s just heaven!

Loafs of Brot come in all shapes and in about 3,200 shades of brown. Yes. That’s the official number of registered bread types, according to the German Bread Institute. (https://www.brotinstitut.de) The German Bread Culture has been acknowledged as part of the UNESCO Cultural Heritage.

Don’t laugh here! Brot is very serious business in Germany.

I don’t know about the number of bakeries in other countries. But in Germany, you can find one, even in the smallest village and in a city definitely just around every corner. While in the Arab part of the world people would grab a Zataar-mankheesh or a Shawarma-sandwich – Germans go for Brötchen.

You can buy these rolls, of course in a wide range of flavors, from Rosinenbrötchen – a white milky dough with raisins and nuts – up to multigrain and healthy Roggenbrötchen – similar to rye bread. You can ask the Bäcker for a filling of your taste, such as Butter, Ei, Tomate mit Mozzarella, Salami and / or Käse.

An einem Samstagmorgen, on a Saturday morning, you’d see a queue of Brötchen-buyers in front of every Bäckerei, since frische Brötchen are essential for Frühstück on weekends.

Of course, you can find tons of Torte, Kuchen and any kind of baked sweets in every Bäckerei too.

Each Bäckerei is somehow famous for its specialties in town.

Do you feel hungry now?

I definitely do.

But, let’s just increase your appetite a bit more
by practicing all those tasty new words:

Ich wünsche dir einen schönen Tag und bitte grüß auch deinen Bäcker von mir ;)! /
I wish you a great day and please send my regards also to your baker ;)!

Bis bald,

deine Tina Heimberg

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26 + 2 German Verbs in Action | part 2

Dear Germanee,

In this series, I’d like to give you a powerful introduction into German language by explaining 26 + 2 verbs following the main-letters of the German alphabet.

Welcome, welcome for part 2! Woohoo.

Bist du bereit? Are you ready?

After learning about the most basic verbs sein and haben in part 1, let’s now begin with letter A. In German, we pronounce the A as you’d pronounce the last letter in the name Anna. 

As a popular German example-verb starting with an A, I’d like to introduce you to:

Could you please read it aloud? ar – bei – ten
Again, please: ar – bei – ten

Now, think about any detail you love the most about your work.
Do you smile now?
Great.
Since all good things come in threes, keep on smiling and
say it one more time: ar – bei – ten. Wonderful!

Now we need to combine our action arbeiten with heroes, performing that action:

Verb

basic form

Singular

Plural

ich

I

du

you informal

er/sie/es

he/she/it

wir

we

ihr

you

sie/Sie

they/you formal

arbeiten

arbeite

arbeitest

arbeitet

arbeiten

arbeitet

arbeiten

What happened here?

As you can see, depending on the hero, in other words pro-noun, our verb changes its ending, while the root of the word arbeit(e) remains. These ending-changes apply to every German verb.
Ehmmm, aside from a few exceptions.
But, only a few. I promise.

Let’s now use arbeiten a bit in context.

Igor and Linda are participating at a seminar and having a chat during their coffee-break. Right now they’re talking about their professions, what and where they and their partners work.

IGORIch arbeite als Ingenieur bei Siemens. Sophia, meine Frau, arbeitet auch bei Siemens.
I work as(an)engineer for Siemens. Sophia, my wife, works also for Siemens.
Sie arbeitet als Marketing-Assistentin. Und du, Linda? Wo arbeitest du?
She works as (a) marketing-assistant. And you, Linda? Where (do)work you?
LINDAIch arbeite als Grafik-Designerin bei IBM.
I work as (a) graphic-designer for IBM.
Ahmed, mein Mann, arbeitet auch als Ingenieur. Er arbeitet bei Volkswagen.
Ahmed, my husband, works also as (an) engineer. He works for Volkswagen.
IGOROhhh, wow! Interessant. Wir, Sophia und ich, arbeiten beide in München..
Ohhh, wow! Interesting. We, Sophia and I, work both in Munich.
Arbeitet ihr auch in München?
(Do)work youPlural! also in Munich?
LINDANein. Ich arbeite bei IBM in Dresden und Ahmed bei Volkswagen in Chemnitz.
No. I work for IBM in Dresden and Ahmed for Volkswagen in Chemnitz.

In this short dialogue, you can see how we would use the verb arbeiten and how its endings change, depending on the person it’s related to. When Linda says Ich arbeite… or when Igor speaks about his wife Sophia / sie arbeitet…

You can also learn how arbeiten is used to give more information about your job, what, where and for whom do you work:
Ich arbeite als Ingenieur. Ich arbeite bei Siemens. and Ich arbeite in München.

Now it’s your turn: Please build up your own sentence and answer my question at full length.

Wo arbeitest du?

Ich arbeite als … bei … in …

I’d love to know about you! It would be great if you could write your respond in the comments below.

Vielen Dank! / Thank you very much.

Hab einen schönen Tag und arbeite nicht zu viel! / Have a great day and don’t work too much!

Wishing you a germanful day,

deine Tina Heimberg

P.s.: There are many slang words for arbeiten and one of them, by mere chance, starts with an A too. If someone works really hard or under very tough circumstances, you could use the verb ackern.

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26 + 2 German Verbs in Action | part 1

Dear Germanee,

In this first series, I’d like to give you a powerful introduction into German language by explaining 26 + 2 verbs following the main-letters of the German alphabet.

To exemplify the use of these verbs in our everyday language, you’ll find short dialogues, consistently oriented on naturally spoken German. Followed by short texts, which will be kind of a weird mix of German and English to make sure, that German-Newbies will get the most of it, while advanced German-Speakers will still learn something or might find my texts at least amusing. It’s my ambition, to enable you to absorb a wide range of vocabulary along with these verbs, through dialogues and texts.

Bist du bereit? Are you ready?

But, wait a minute: Does everybody know, what a verb is? I’d dare to claim, that verbs are the most important words in every language. Verbs are the action-words in sentences that describe what a subject is doing. Since we all love action, I assume, I want to challenge you to fall in love with verbs.

Before we begin with letter A, I want you first to get friends with the two most basic verbs, we have in German:

These two are so essential, that they want to remind us of their importance all the time. Like divas who always stand out of the crowd. Our sein- and haben-divas just act more irregular with their heroes, compared to all the other verbs you’re going to learn here. So, just accept their VIP-status and give them what they want: attention!

Verb

basic form

Singular

Plural

ich

I

du

you informal

er/sie/es

he/she/it

wir

we

ihr

you

sie/Sie

they/you formal

sein

bin

bist

ist

sind

seid

sind

haben

habe

hast

hat

haben

habt

haben

As you can see in that table, both verbs change its spelling from slightly to completely different, depending on the acting hero aka pronoun.

Please, do not get scared here! These two behave just exceptional and therefore you should learn them by heart. But, since you’ll use them a lot as a German speaker, they’ll easily stick in your mind and reward you with loads of opportunities to express yourself.

And now, let’s see how to use haben and sein in action:

Jens and Lena meet and chat at Christina’s birthday party. Christina is their common friend.

JENSHi! Ich bin Jens. Ich bin ein Freund von Christina. Und wer bist du?
Hi! I am Jens. I am a friend of Christina. And who are you?
LENAHallo Jens. Freut mich. Ich bin Lena.
Hello Jens. Happy to meet you. I am Lena.
JENSHey, Lena. Freut mich auch. Du bist Christinas Nachbarin, oder?
Hey, Lena. Nice to meet you too. You are Christina’s neighbor, aren’t you?
LENAJa, genau. Jonas, mein Mann, und ich sind Christinas Nachbarn.
Yes, exactly. Jonas, my husband, and I are Christina’s neighbors.
JENSOk, super. Wo ist Jonas? Ist er auch hier?
Ok, great. Where is Jonas? Is he also here?
LENANein, Jonas ist zu Hause. Wir haben zwei Kinder. Sie sind noch klein.
No, Jonas is at home. We have two children. They are still little.
JENSOh, wow! Ihr habt schon Kinder? Cool.
Oh, wow! You have already children? Cool.

Since I translated every line from German into English, you’ll see that both languages have many similarities. But still, please keep in mind that we can’t translate word by word from one language into another. Some phrases you should just learn as a whole.
Aside from that, you’ll discover that word order in German sentences is a bit different. Although, it might sound weird and funny, I keep the German word order for all English translations. I believe, it’ll help you to get quickly familiar with the structure of German language.

Dear Germanee, I hope you enjoyed this little introduction into the world of German verbs.
I’m very curious to learn a little bit more about you.
It would be great, if you could leave me your comment to tell me:

Wer bist du?
Who are you?

and

Wo bist du?
Where are you?

Wishing you a germanful day,

deine Tina Heimberg

P.s. After thinking so intensively about sein and haben, an amazing book came to my mind: TO HAVE OR TO BE? by Erich Fromm, a psychoanalyst and philosopher. He was a German Jew, who emigrated to the US to flee the Nazis in 1933. In his book, Fromm analyzes the differences between having and being within our societies. He points out that we as humans exist more and more in the having-mode while losing our actual true being-mode. He found out that these changes reflect in our behaviors, relationships and even in our languages.

Although, Fromm’s THE ART OF LOVING might be more popular, that one is definitely also an excellent read.

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