Tage in Tirol mit Tah

"Mirror mirror on the wall, who's the fairest one of all?" The moment I hear this phrase I am instantly transported back into a land where witches crave beauty, beautiful princesses survive dark forests in gowns, and 7 little men are whistling while they are working. Many of us have been introduced to fairy tales (Märchen in German) either by Disney or through bed times stories. They were an important part of our language education and sometimes other ethical lessons. So while you were listening to fairy tales in English, Austrians had the same experience of course in German! In fact, many of the classics came from two German brothers, the Brothers Grimm (die Brüder Grimm or die Gebrüder Grimm), in the 1800s. Below are a list of a few stories with their English and German titles: Little Red Riding Hood- Rotkäppchen (Little Red Hood) Snow White - Schneewittchen Cinderella - Aschenputtel Sleeping Beauty - Dornröschen (Little Rose Thorn) The Frog Prince - Der Frosc...

Welcome back or welcome for the first time! Glad you’re here and hoping that everyone’s families are safe and healthy during this Corona world crisis. So let’s all make good use of our time and get right into these German adjectives! Last post Adorably Arduous Adjectives (Level: A2)  introduced the idea of German adjectives. Again, this is a level 2 topic because in order to be able to do these adjectives properly, you’ll need to understand a few A1 ideas. Idea #1: Every noun has a gender and it is very important (when you want to build great sentences) to know the gender for each noun’s article.  Articles are the and a/an in the English language, but not in German. The genders for the are masculine (der), feminine (die), and neutral (das). But keep in mind that der , die and das changes depending on idea #2. der Mann – masculine, die Frau – feminine, das Kind – neutral Idea #2: There are 4 cases in German and it affects the articles you use. Let’s take ...

Alliterations have the effect of playfulness, while also giving some hard truths. Adjectives are wonderful and bring bland writing and confusing thoughts to clarity. They can be adorable, but in German, a bit arduous, or rather strenuous, when you are learning to use them correctly. Let’s take a look at a sentence. That is the red ball . In English, you would say “the red ball” but in German it depends. It can be “der rote Ball”, “den roten Ball”, “dem roten Ball”, etc. Why? Because of rules! There are 2 things changing, the article “the” and the adjective “red”. Let’s break this down. First, I like to look at the object, in this situation, the ball. “Ball” is masculine, “der Ball”.  Second, you can look which case (e.g. Nominativ, Akkusativ, Dativ, Genativ) the ball is in the sentence.   In this sentence, what is the subject? Who or what is this sentence about? The ball is the subject, and so we are in the Nominativ case, and therefore, we use "der". Das...

It’s possible for you to learn German!  I’m speaking as someone who’s failed 3 other languages and I wasn’t going to let German be number 4. So far, with lots of determination, friends, classes and Austria itself, I’m finally breaking the curse, and I want to help others learn the language. This blog is hopefully going to give you: useful information about integration into Austria (particularly Innsbruck, Tirol),  great finds from other great German language resources, exercises to help build up those German-Speaking muscles, some encouragement when it feels impossible, and some laughs along the way. With every post there will be an accompanied German exercise! Posts will come every Tuesday.  And so, if this sounds like a fun and helpful place, then I invite you to add this blog into your German learning arsenal and subscribe. Feel free to share with your friends using the share icon to the right of the title!😊 German Exercise for the Week: Übung für Verben u...