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Any Denglish in your English? (8)

I’ve mentioned before that many German speakers know that Handy does not mean mobile phone in English but are there any other Denglish words and phrases that you are using by mistake?

Here is another example that I often hear when people are talking about buildings, houses and homes:

 

Object.  Not the same as the German ‘Objekt’ when talking about a building.  Instead we use the word property.

E.g.  The property has 8 rooms and a large garden.

 

Object as a noun in English refers to a thing (Gegenstand).

E.g.  There are several objects on the table.

 

Have fun learning English!

Louise

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Typical German speaker mistakes in English (26)

I often hear these mistakes made by German speakers who are learning English.

They say:  I’m interested in more informations.

I want more informations.

 

Remember the word information never has an ‘s’ in English and it never has an article.  (We cannot say ‘an information’.)

Corrections:  I’m interested in more information.

I would like more / further information.  (Remember ‘would like’ is more polite than ‘want’.)

 

Have fun learning English!

Louise

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Typical German speaker mistakes in English (25)

I often hear these mistakes made by German speakers who are learning English.

They say:  I am on the row.

This makes no sense in English and is a mistranslation of “Ich bin an der Reihe”.

Correction:  It’s my turn.

Have fun learning English!

Louise

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Typical German speaker mistakes in English (24)

I often hear these mistakes made by German speakers who are learning English.

They say:  I try to learn English since 2 years.

There are a couple of things wrong with this.

Firstly the tense is wrong.  Remember in English when we are talking about an action that started in the past, is true now and will continue into the future we do not use the present tense (as in the example above).

We need the present perfect tense (have/has + 3rd form of the verb) or present perfect continuous (have/has + been + verb + _ing). Because the example is talking about a repetitive action that has taken place regularly over a period of time we would use the continuous form.

Secondly the word since is used with points in time (since January, since yesterday, since Monday) and not with lengths of time.  For that we need to use the word ‘for’.

Correction:  I have been trying to learn English for 2 years.

Have fun learning English!

Louise

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Typical German speaker mistakes in English (23)

I often hear these mistakes made by German speakers who are learning English.

 

They say:  I know him for ages.

 

The tense is wrong in this sentence.

Remember if we are talking about someone we still know now we need to use the present perfect tense here (have/has + 3rd form of the verb) because this is something that started in the past, is still true now and continues into the future.  It is ongoing and unfinished.

Correction:  I have known him for ages.

 

Have fun learning English!

Louise

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Typical German speaker mistakes in English (22)

I often hear these mistakes made by German speakers who are learning English.

They say:  How do you call it?

This is totally understandable to native speakers.  If you say this people will know what you mean but it is incorrect.

Correction:  What’s it called?

Alternatively you can say:  How do you say . . . in English?

What’s the name of . . . in English?

 

Have fun learning English!

Louise

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Typical German speaker mistakes in English (21)

I often hear these mistakes made by German speakers who are learning English.

They say:  That are good news.

Remember in English the word news is an uncountable noun.  That means it is singular and not plural.  It cannot be used with a / an.

Correction:  That is good news.

 

Have fun learning English!

Louise

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Personal vs personnel. When do we use these words?

Let’s be honest, sometimes English can be confusing.  Sometimes when learning English it is easy to mix up words or be unsure when to use them.

I often hear German speakers who are learning English make mistakes with the words ‘personal’ and ‘personnel’.

 

Take a look at the examples below.  Hopefully they will make things clearer for you.

 

Personal is an adjective and describes relating to or belonging to someone.

E.g.  When leaving the train please ensure you take all your personal belongings with you.

It can also be used to talk about the private areas of someone’s life and can include their feelings and relationships.

E.g.  He is stressed at the moment due to several personal problems.

It is also used to describe objects which are designed to be used by just one person.  For example we can talk about a personal computer.

It can also be used to talk about your body and looking after your body in the sense of personal hygiene.

 

Personnel is a noun and is used to describe the people who work for or are employed by an organisation.

 

In a company the people responsible for finding new employees, maintaining records about the employees and perhaps organising training for the employees are members of the Personnel Department.  This department is also sometimes called HR (Human Resources).

 

Have fun learning English!

Louise

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Typical German speaker mistakes in English (20)

I often hear these mistakes made by German speakers who are learning English.

They say:  On Easter I visit my family.

There is a preposition problem here.  Remember we use ‘at’ as the preposition for Easter, Christmas, Carnival.

Correction:  At Easter I visit my family.

Remember, this means every Easter.  It is describing a repeated action or a habit.

Another example could be:  At Christmas we go skiing. (Every year the same.  Repeated action or habit)

If you talking about a one-off action or something planned for a future date we need to use the _ing form.

E.g. At Easter I’m visiting my family.  (It is planned for the next Easter.  It is not necessarily the same every year.)

E.g.  At Christmas I’m going skiing.  (It is planned for the next Christmas.  It is not necessarily the same every year.)

 

Have fun learning English!

Louise

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Any Denglish in your English? (7)

I’ve mentioned before that many German speakers know that Handy does not mean mobile phone in English but are there any other Denglish words and phrases that you are using by mistake?

Here are a few more examples of that I often hear:

Naked snail  (Nacktschnecke).  This is one of my favourite Denglish words / mistranslations.  No, it is not an animal.  A snail cannot be naked.  What you mean to say is slug.

Snow broom / snow brush (Schneebesen.)  No, nothing to do with cooking and kitchens.  If you are talking about food preparation use the words whisk or wire whisk.

Have fun learning English!

Louise