If you are one of 42 million Americans with German ancestry, your surname could yield some interesting clues to your family history.
If you research your German immigrant ancestors by these numbers, you’ll find that it adds up to enriched German genealogy.
There are many fun German words. Some are made up of several words and have a different meaning than you might think. Here are some examples of fun German words with explanation.
"@FrenchCSS1: “@BSCSMFLTrips The elegance of German in one image! Via @LangTeachersIre #mfltwitterati #langchat”"
German genealogy expert James Beidler shares practical tips for making it easier to find the origins of your German ancestors.
Dive into millions of church records, immigration documents, gazetteers, maps and more with these top German genealogy websites.
German 101: And You Thought English Was Bad... - School Fails
Learning German? Don't "make an ape of yourself". Speak like a native with these 27 Hilarious Everyday German Idioms and expressions.
Learn about German seasons and weather vocabulary with this list. You will be making small talk in German in no time.
Learning German? Don't "make an ape of yourself". Speak like a native with these 27 Hilarious Everyday German Idioms and expressions.
Want to learn German but don't feel like paying for pricey textbooks? We got you covered with this list of free German textbooks. Viel Spaß!
How Germanic is Great Britain really? Archeologists and geneticists have unveiled surprising revelations about the historical origins of people in the modern United Kingdom -- many of whom have ancestors who once crossed the North Sea.
Start your kid's German language skills off right with this simple numbers worksheet.
Oligarchy, government by the few, especially despotic power exercised by a small and privileged group for corrupt or selfish purposes. Oligarchies in which members of the ruling group are wealthy or exercise their power through their wealth are known as plutocracies.
When you first start learning about German pronunciation, it can be intimidating. There are a lot of myths about the German language. People talk about how difficult and ugly it is, and how different it is from languages like English. But many people don’t realize that English is actually a Germanic language! That’s why so […]
Use this mini English-to-German and German-to-English dictionary as a resource while you learn German.
I'm back with another installment in my series 10 words that English borrowed from… and the focus today is on German! I don't speak a word in German, except for these words that are used in English. I'm sure my pronunciation is completely off, so it's a good thing that you're reading it and not listening to it! 1. NOODLE I had no idea, before writing this post, that "noodle" derives from a German word! The original word has a slightly different spelling: nudel. When I hear the word, I always think of a Chinese or Japanese dish, but I know that's probably just me :) 2. KAPUT It can also be written with a double "t" as in German. The German word actually derives from the French word "capot" so, maybe, this should be listed under 10 words that English borrowed from French? If you don't know what it means, it is "no longer working", "broken". 3. ZEITGEIST The general spirit of an era as in "the new movie really captured the 'zeitgeist' of the 60s". 4. KINDERGARTEN "Kinder" means children and "garten" means, well, "garden" (you didn't see that coming, right?) Here's a video with a brief explanation of how the word found its way into English. 5. HAMBURGER The name of one of the most famous American sandwiches derives from the name of the city of Hamburg in Germany. 6. POODLE, ROTTWEILER, SCHNAUZER If you love dogs, you'll know that these words refer to dog breeds. I had never realized until now that they are all words that come from German. Poodle: it derives from "Pudel", which is short for "Pudelhund". Rottweiler: there is a city in Germany called Rottweil. Schauzer: it derives from "Schnauze", which means snout. 7. ÜBER This word meaning "over, beyond" has been adopted as a prefix in English as in übermodel, überfamous, übercool, and so on. Let me ask you something: are you übertired of hearing people using the prefix "über"? 8. WANDERLUST I love this word, but I don't know if I like it for how it sounds or for what it means. All I can say is that from time to time I'm taken by wanderlust and I wish I could succumb to this strong desire to travel. This word is also an example of how similar English is to German in some occasions. 9. POLTERGEIST Raise your hand if you learned the meaning of this word by watching the 80s movie! In German, "poltern" means "to knock" and "Geist" means "spirit" (as in #3 zeitgeist). And I couldn't resist embedding the original movie trailer from 1982: 10. DOPPELGÄNGER As we're approaching Halloween, I thought I'd finish the list with "Poltergeist" and "Doppelgänger" as I believe you can have students working with these two words to generate many scary stories. "Doppelgänger" refers to a double. It can either be a ghostly one or not, but it usually is the cause of much fear and angst. So, tell me, did you know all of these words? Are there any German words commonly used in English that I should have included? Thanks for reading! Read: 10 words that English borrowed from Japanese Read: 10 words that English borrowed from Spanish Read: 10 words that English borrowed from French Read: 10 words that English borrowed from Portuguese Read: Teacher-authors around the world
a traditional Germans from Russia custard filled cake with a sweet dough
As many of you may already know, the region of the world sometimes referred to as Prussia was both large and diverse, incorporating lands far beyond East & West Prussia. My wife’s family …
Reddig Family Recipe for Kase Knoephla/Knephla ( Cheese Buttons)Anyone who has spent more than 10 minutes...
Learning German? Find out how you can easily avoid the most common German mistakes with these super simple fixes in under 10 minutes!
These translations of common German genealogy terms can be a big help when researching your ancestors.
