Resources / Games
Untranslatable German words: the game
German has one word for the weight you put on from eating when you are sad. Guess the meaning of ten words English needs a whole sentence for.
What does the word mean?
A longing for faraway places
Weight from eating when you are sad
Feeling embarrassed for someone else
The end of the working day
To make worse by trying to improve
The fear that time is running out
The perfect reply, thought of too late
A song stuck in your head
Every language packs some ideas into a single word that others need a phrase for. German does it often, because it can join words together freely.
These words are real and used every day, which makes them a great way to sound natural and to start a conversation with German speakers.
More free resources
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German idioms game: tomatoes on your eyes?
A free game with ten everyday German idioms, from Tomaten auf den Augen to Ich verstehe nur Bahnhof. Guess what each one means, then flip the cards.
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German compound words game: what is a hand shoe?
A free game with funny German compound nouns: a hand shoe is a glove and a lazy animal is a sloth. Guess ten words from their literal meaning.
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False friends game: words that trick you
A free game with false friends between English and German, Spanish, Italian, French and Portuguese: words that look the same and mean something else.
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Live classes with a teacher and the same small group, and practice like this between classes.