So today, we had the joy of a Substitute teacher. Normally in England this is a…. “DOSS” lesson which generally means you don’t learn much. However, not so in Germany… not so!!!

We actually learnt quite a lot today. At first I thought our “SUB” was going very fast, but we all kept up AND she was nice enough to go over the grammar of possessive artikels and akkusativ artikels. I’m still not quite sure what that means, but we have a test on it tomorrow. Needless to say, most of the lesson was on this and it was very technical, but after today, I actually think there is hope for us all. I think our normal teacher would’ve been very proud of us. (I guess we’ll find out on Monday for sure).

Now, I shared previously that Germans like to combine words to make “UBER” long words and to be very precise – today I found out they even have a verb for eating breakfast – “Fruehstuecken” – I guess we call it “Breakfasting” or “to have Breakfast”.

However, today we also learnt how to separate verbs. Apparently, there are specific verbs that have to be chopped up when you put them in a sentence. This gives the effect my husband often says is quite tricky when he’s translating for me and I’m badgering him with questions. He actually needs to listen to the end of the sentence before he knows what to translate. The verbs that are used don’t tell you what is happening until the end. For example….

Aufstehen – to stand up
Ausgehen – to go out
Anrufen – to call/ ring someone

In a sentence….”Ich stehe am Sonntag um 10 Uhr auf”
In English this literally means… “I stand on Sundays at 10am up” Great huh?!?!?

In light of this and for some time now, I’ve been having some really confusing moments with my husband. He speaks really good English but there has been a few things that I’ve just thought… “WHAT?” so I thought I’d just share them, as today the mystery was solved.

My husband often used to say to me….“When do you want to stand up?” or “We stand up here?” Normally, he says the first question when he wants to set the morning alarm and the second when we’re about to get off the train. What he actually meant to say is:
“When do you want to get up?” and “We get off here”

Apparently, “Aufstehen” is used for both getting up in the morning and getting off a train. A bit random but I guess you do often see people sleeping on the morning trains and getting up and getting off all at the same time at their stops. I heard this weekend that this is particularly true in Japan.

So, a little word of warning for these new verbs.
1) If you have someone translating for you -please don’t interrupt – they may tell you the wrong thing.
2) Stand up and Get up are the same thing in German. They’re not being rude!!! Just go right on and “… strut your funky stuff now”.

Tschuss!!