To Smell a Rat (some more of my song titles)

To Smell a Rat

phrase. If you smell a rat, you begin to suspect or realize that something is wrong in a particular situation, for example, that someone is trying to deceive you or harm you.

Sample Sentence.

“Whenever I hear of a Government department trying to force the general public to adopt an idea or buy a certain thing, then I smell a rat!“

 

Translate the Text: Übersetzen:

Susann, Faten, Rico, Heike, Simone and Frank.

MARKET:

Gern geschehen!

neun, acht, sieben, drei, sechs, eins, zehn, vier, zwei, null.

Das Sandwich kostet neun Euro.

Acht kilo Orangen.

Der Tee kostet sieben Euro!

Zehn kilo Käse bitte.

Ja, der Salat kostet zehn euro.

Acht kilo Tomaten.

Die Pizza kostet vier Dollar.

Der Salat kostet sechs dollar.

PEOPLE:

Changing the Ending

We’ve seen how the words before nouns have different endings in German, like einen Garten or eine Frau. Some nouns change their endings too! ​

There’s a group of masculine nouns that end with ‑e, such as

der Junge or der Name. These nouns add an ‑n to the end when in the accusative.

Der Name ist gut.

​ The name is good.​ ​

Kennst du seinen Namen?

​ Do you know his name?​

Types of People

There are a few different words in German for people!

Menschen are technically humans, human beings, or mankind.​ ​

Leute is a large group of people (and it’s always plural). ​ ​

Person literally means person! You can also use:

Personen refers to a group of people small enough to count.

Wir sind Menschen.

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Sind ihre Eltern Amerikaner?

Meine Katze ist intelligent, aber nicht lustig.

Wir sind Amerikaner.

Seine Eltern sind Amerikaner.

Wir sind sehr intelligent.

Mein Hund ist lustig, aber nicht intelligent.

Meine Eltern sind Deutsche.

Seine Freunde sind nett.

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My song titles that never quite made it:

Those magnificent women in their flying machines

With a little help from my enemies

I heard it through the Glühwein (Timeline – sour grapes)

Jingle Balls

Wild Thingy

God save the Queer

We wish you a Merry Hanukkah

Friday night fever

Monday, Tuesday

Minnesota Dreaming

Pink Submarine

Get off my Shroud

Tiptoe through the Pansies (with me).

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Word of the day: Wort des Tages:

G.P. = General Practitioner (Allgemeinmediziner) – your local doctor. Often in English, we talk about going to see our GP.

Sample Sentence:

“I have an appointment with my GP at 11 O’Clock this morning.”

 

Phrase of the day: Satz des Tages:

“To smell a Rat” means to recognize that something is not as it appears to be or that something dishonest is happening:

Sample Sentence:

“Your husband’s been working quite late with his secretary every night this week – I smell a rat!“

 

Wit, wit, wit

Witz, Witz, Witz

“Last year I went fishing with Salvador Dali. He was using a dotted line, he caught every other fish.” Quote by Steven Wright.

 

Common German / English mix-up:

The tick √ or a cross X = A Tick means YES and a Cross means NO. Only on a voting form does a CROSS X mean the candidate that I am voting for. Fill out any other forms using a Tick √.

 

Confusing Word of the Day:

Verwirrendes Wort des Tages:

Marmelade (German) = Marmalade (B.E.) which is a corruption of the French words Mer Maladie / Mal de mer. This means sickness of the sea.

noun: scurvy

A disease caused by a deficiency of vitamin C, characterized by swollen bleeding gums and the opening of previously healed wounds, which particularly affected poorly nourished sailors until the end of the 18th century.

Oranges have a lot of vitamin C, so if you took oranges and sugar to preserve them, then the sailors got their vitamin C, and so they did not get Scurvy. Oranges and sugar = Marmalade.

Anything else is called Jam = Strawberry jam, Plum Jam, Blueberry jam, Raspberry jam. Marmalade is ONLY made with Oranges.

Marmalade first appeared in the English language in 1480, borrowed from French marmelade which, in turn, came from the Portuguese word marmelada. … In Portuguese, marmelada is a preserve made from quinces and quince cheese.

 

Colloquial / Colloquialisms:

Umgangssprache / Umgangssprache:

Gobbledygook (Gobbledegook = two spellings). This strange English word means Nonsense, Jargon, Gibberish, Drivel, Waffle, Bunkum, Rubbish (Quatsch), and Bunk. To talk Gobbledygook in English (Er spricht Quatsch! oder Quatsch mit Sauce!)

 

Quote of the week: Zitat der Woche:

“You can’t build anything you can’t see.” Andrew Wommack.

 

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