Practice makes perfect – Übung macht den Meister

Practice makes perfect –

American slang = Dude.

This means in plain language;

“Forget it mate, I’m not going to sniff those dirty underpants!“

 

NOTE: Business English etc.
can be found below the translation exercises.

Translate the Text: Übersetzen:

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

Welche Farbe hat ihr Rucksack?

Ist Ihr Koffer schwarz oder grau?

Ist Ihr Rucksack rot oder lila?

Ist Ihr Rucksack auch grau?

Mein Koffer ist nicht schwer..

Welche Farbe hat Ihr Kopfkissen?

Ich suche meine Kamera.

Mein Wörterbuch ist nicht im Koffer.

Ich habe einen Laptop im Koffer.

Mein Laptop ist wirklich schwer.

Ist Ihre Kamer aim Koffer?

Öffnen Sie Ihre Wasser flasche bitte?

Oh nein, meine Brille ist im Koffer.

Offnen Sie Ihren Laptopo bitte?

Oh nein, ich brauche jetzt mein Wörterbuch!

Die Touristen müssen Berlin besuchen.

Können die Touristen den Bus nach Frankfurt nehmen?

Die Touristen müssen den Bus bis zum Hotel nehmen.

 

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Business English Word of the Week:

Geschäftsenglisch Wort der Woche:

Project Manager – Projektmanager

Sample Sentence:

“The project manager is the individual responsible for delivering the project. The individual leads and manages the project team, with authority and responsibility from the project board, to run the project on a day-to-day basis.”

 

Law English word of the Week:

Recht Englisch Wort der Woche:

NIMBY (Not In My Back Yard) NOTE: There will be a Blog about this slang word.

Sample Sentence:

NIMBY an acronym for the phrase “not in my back yard“, is a characterization of opposition byNIMFYE – “Not in my front yard either” – Auch nicht vor meiner Haustür; “NIMFOS” – “Not in my field of sight” – Nicht in meinem Sichtbereich; QUIMBY residents to proposed developments in their local area, …

 

Vocabulary for Contracts:

Wortschatz für Verträge:

Compensation 1. The ground to seal the ground 2. The beauty of landscape 3. Nature re-naturing – Orchards – bio-diversity – hedges – the topsoil is not blown away – animal corridors – ponds flood defences natural mound.

Sample Sentence:

“A provision must be made within any contract dealing with the decommissioning of a project that sufficient funds must be retained within a special bank account in the case of a claim being made against the company or for the cost of re-naturing, clear up – pollution – oil spillage etc.“

 

Vocabulary for Negotiations:

Wortschatz für Verhandlungen:

Local Pressure Group = Lokale Interessengruppe

Sample Sentence:

“Quite often when a company is involved in a construction project they will come across a Local Pressure Group who are radically opposed to the project for one reason or another.”

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Your fingers don’t FING either…

 

Word of the day: Wort des Tages:

To Procrastinate – procrastination = Aufschieben to put off what you need to do today and to leave it until another day. To delay or postpone action; put off doing something.

Sample Sentence:

“There is a great temptation to procrastinate until the power struggle plays itself out.”

 “Someday I’ll get round to it!” (If the task is on a list of 27 tasks, then I will only ever get to the number 15 or less).

to coax or persuade someone to do or allow something that they initially do not want to do.

Sample Sentence:

Phrase of the day: Satz des Tages:

“The Garden of England” refers to the county of Kent.

The English county of Kent, one of England’s ‘home counties’ (as the counties that surround London are referred to) and is best known as The Garden of England, and with good reason.

Idiom of the day: Redewendung des Tages:

A “sleeping partner” who owns a dormant company and provides a percentage of the company’s capital, but takes no active part in the management.

NOTE: In German “The Silent Partner” = “stiller Gesellschafter“.

 

British English (B.E.) / American English (A.E.) Vocabulary:

Britisches Englisch / Amerikanisches Englisch Wortschatz:

British English  (B.E.) = dual carriageway.

American English (A.E.) = a divided highway.

A dual carriageway has only two lanes and it is NOT a motorway, however, in Germany, a lot of two-lane roads are called Autobahns.

 

Pronunciation tip: Aussprachetipp:

“Gobbling gargoyles gobbled gobbling goblins.”

Try and say this sentence ten times quickly without a mistake.

Versuchen Sie, diesen Satz zehnmal schnell und fehlerfrei zu sagen.

 

False Friends Tip of the Week: Falsche Freunde Tipp der Woche:

German   Translation   False Friend (F.F.)  Meaning of F.F.

fatal         disastrous            fatal                 tödlich, verhängnisvoll

Wit, Wit, Wit Business examples:

Witz, Witz, Witz Geschäftsbeispiele:

“We will spare no expense to save money on this movie.”

Quote by Samuel Goldwyn.

 

Slang word of the day: Slangwort des Tages:

Chav

This is a derogatory (abfällig) British slang word for a young hooligan who normally starts fights and makes trouble. “Chavs” are usually seen as lower class. As I wrote in another blog, I do not use the slang word Chav, but I do use the word, Git, perhaps I should not use this word as it is quite rude and a low-class way of speaking; but when you watch so many British TV programmes and have grown up with this style of language, then it is hard to get rid of it.

A Git

“Git” is a British expression of insult. It’s chav slang to describe a person, usually a man, who is very unpleasant, incompetent, or is also an idiot.

 

Colloquial / Colloquialisms:

Umgangssprache / Umgangssprache:

Cheeky (slang meaning “Frech” in German).

This is used to describe someone’s behaviour. If someone is being “cheeky,” they are being slightly rude or disrespectful but in a charming or amusing way. If you are a “cheeky” child, you are being brash or disrespectful and will probably get into trouble.

Sample Sentence:

“You cheeky monkey!”

“Don’t be cheeky!” (meaning rude = unhöflich / grob / unverschämt in this sentence).

 

Cockney rhyming slang: Cockney Reimender Slang:

Frog (short version) = frog & toad = road.

 

Quote of the week: Zitat der Woche:

“You can’t trust water: Even a straight stick turns crooked in it.“

W. C. Fields.

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