LANGUAGE CARDS
New words Spotlight — 07 — 2016
False friends 10/2019 Spotlight
New words
Pronunciation
10/2019 SpotlightGrammar 10/2019 Spotlight
Idiom magic
(In)Formal English
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10/2019 SpotlightGlobal English 10/2019 Spotlight
British speaker:
“I was driving to work, but I had to wait for ages at that last
set of traffic lights.”
In South African English, the term “robot” refers to traf-
fic lights. Interestingly, the word was first adopted (über
nehmen) from British English, but it is now no longer used
that way in the UK.
buttocksOn the front of this card, you will find three of the many
informal words used to refer to a person’s buttocks. All of
them can be used fairly safely in polite company and with
children.People who use long and complex words in their speech,
even in everyday conversation, are jokingly said to have
“swallowed (= eaten) a dictionary”. The first English dic-
tionaries were written at the end of the 18th century, and
this idiom was born not long after that.
- That’s something you should know. /
Yo u’re supposed to know that. - I shouldn’t smoke so much.
- Shall we meet at the station at eight o’clock?
Sollen can be translated as “should” or “be supposed to”
when it expresses criticism or a recommendation (sen-
tences 1 and 2). If sollen is used to make a suggestion, the
best translation into British English is “shall” (sentence 3).
- There was a review of his book in the newspaper.
- His book received harsh criticism.
- Literaturkritiker müssen alle Neuerscheinungen rezensieren.
The German noun Kritik can mean a “review” or “critique”
of a work, which is a general and neutral analysis of it. Peo-
ple who write such reviews — who “critique” literary or
other artistic works — are called “critics”. In contrast, the
word “criticism” is often used to mean “negative or disap-
proving (missbilligend) comments about something”.In English, the verb tell can be used in two ways. In the
structure “tell” + someone + noun (sentence 1), the verb
simply means “to give information”. If the verb is fol-
lowed by an infinitive, as in “tell” + someone + “to” + verb
(sentence 2), it expresses an indirect or reported com-
mand.
When a man patronizes (herablassend behandeln) a woman
by explaining something to her — even though she prob-
ably knows more about it than he does — that is called
mansplaining. The word is a combination of “man” +
“explain”.[hed] [hæd]
[pek] [pæk]
[set] [sæt]These words differ somewhat in their vowel (Vokal)
sounds. German speakers often have trouble clearly dis-
tinguishing [e] from [æ] because the German vowel [ɛ:] (as
in Ähre) is similar — somewhere between the two English
sounds.