Spotlight - 13.2019

LANGUAGE CARDS

New words Spotlight — 07 — 2016

False friends 13/2019 Spotlight

New words

Pronunciation

13/2019 Spotlight

Grammar 13/2019 Spotlight

Idiom magic

(In)Formal English

13/2019 Spotlight

Translation 13/2019 Spotlight 13/2019 Spotlight

13/2019 Spotlight

Global English 13/2019 Spotlight

British speaker:
“Lots of English people go to Australia to celebrate Christ-
mas in the sun.”

In Australian (and New Zealand) English, “Pom” and
“Pommy” are informal words for an English person. They
may be used in an affectionate (herzlich) but also in a
derogatory (abfällig) way.

1. children


2. my partner (wife / husband)

The expressions on the front of this card can be used to

talk about your family in an informal way. The word “kids”

can also refer to children or young people in general; for

example, “Kids these days don’t know what cassettes are.”

To tie something down usually means “to fix it in place
with a rope (Seil) or string (Schnur)”. Idiomatically, though,
the phrase means “to limit a person’s freedom” in a more
abstract sense, or “to make people commit themselves to
something (zu etw. verpflichten)”; for example, “I need to tie
him down to a meeting time.”

1. Even I managed to do it.


2. And you will (manage), too.


3. I saw it on TV — and in the newspaper as well.

Although auch can be translated as “also”, it often sounds
more natural to use “too” or “as well”. If auch is emphasized,
it can be translated as “even” (see sentence 1).

1. She is a doctor at the local hospital.


2. Ich muss meine Medizin einnehmen.

These two words look very similar, but they refer to quite

different things. “Medicine” is either the practice of treat-

ing or preventing disease; or it is a substance used to treat

an illness. A Mediziner(in), on the other hand, is a person

who treats diseases — in other words, a “doctor”.

In English, there are different ways of expressing the Ger-
man pronoun sich. If people look at “each other” or “one
another”, each of them looks at the other one or the others
(sie sehen sich gegenseitig an). If people look at “themselves”,
however, they use a mirror to study their own appearance
(sie sehen sich selbst an).

The verb upcycle is a blend (Mischung) of “up” and “re-

cycle”. It means “using old products, such as clothes or

furniture, to create something new and of higher quality

than the original”. The word has become very popular, as

more people try to cut down on the waste they produce.

Yo u c a n f i n d l o t s o f u p c y c l i n g i d e a s o n t h e i n t e r n e t.

[θʌm] [(nʌmbə]

[(plʌmə] [(slʌmbə]

Note that in the words on the left, the “b” is not pro-

nounced, whereas in the two words on the right, it is.

In some English words in which the root ends in “-mb”, the

“b” is left unspoken. This is most often the case in words of

Germanic or Latin origin.