Free Worksheet: Linguistic Easter Eggs on This Site

The word bureau does exist in English, but it has a narrower meaning than just a regular office. In British English, it’s a type of writing desk or a chest of drawers. Otherwise, bureau usually describes a special administrative unit or government agency — like the American FBI, which stands for Federal Bureau of Investigation. Bureau may also refer to the local branch of a media outlet (as in correspondent’s bureau or the newspaper’s London bureau) and certain commercial agencies (like a credit bureau).

The German word Büro, on the other hand, simply refers to an office in the sense of a workplace (Geschäftsstelle), building (Bürogebäude), or room (Arbeitszimmer). The German word covers some but not all of the English bureau meanings in compounds like Redaktionsbüro (editorial office) or Korrespondenzbüro (correspondent’s bureau). However, Germans generally use other words in reference to government agencies (Bürgeramt, Finanzamt, Einwanderungsbehörde, Arbeitsagentur, etc.).

English and German sometimes share the same idiom nearly word for word; for example, das Rad neu erfinden means to reinvent the wheel.

However, that’s not the case here.

When something happens fast or suddenly, English speakers might say it happened overnight (figuratively, not literally). German has the saying von heute auf morgen, which translates literally — but not properly — to „from today on tomorrow.“ A more accurate translation would be from one day to the next.

English actual and German aktuell: an absolute classic among false friends! German aktuell means English current, whereas English actual means German tatsächlich or eigentlich depending on the sentence.

Um, ack-shoo-uh-lee…

In German, nicht müssen means there’s no obligation: „Du musst nicht sofort zahlen“ means you don't have to pay right away, you can pay later.

German speakers often assume English must works in a similar way, but the reality is a bit more complicated.

Yes, the modal verb must can simply describe an obligation, just like müssen. We often see this in formal language: „All employees must wash hands“ is a command, not an option. But especially in informal usage, must often suggests that the speaker assumes something to be the case or wants it to be so. Example: „You must be tired after all that driving.“ That obviously doesn't mean you're obligated to be tired, just that it seems likely.

It gets worse with must not (mustn't), which is closer to should not than it is to not have to. Compare:

• „I don't have to work tomorrow. The boss has given me the day off.“ = »Ich muss morgen nicht arbeiten. Die Chefin hat mich freigestellt.«
• „I needn't work tomorrow. It’s up to me.“ = »Ich brauche morgen nicht zu arbeiten. Es ist mir überlassen.«
• „I mustn't work tomorrow. I know I'm a workaholic, but it’s my daughter’s birthday!“ = »Ich sollte morgen wirklich nicht arbeiten. Ich weiß, ich bin zwar arbeitssüchtig, aber meine Tochter hat Geburtstag!«

Rule of thumb: If you want to say (nicht) müssen in German, the easy English translation is usually (not) have to rather than must (not).

This one’s pretty simple. In German, we either say 15 Minuten am Tag („15 minutes a day“) or pro Tag („per day“). The logic is basically the same, but the devil is in the details. If translating too literally, we get odd-sounding Denglisch variants like „15 minutes pro day“ or „on the day.“

This is more nuanced: The verbs to collaborate and to cooperate are pretty close in meaning, but they're not quite the same.

When you're working with a partner at eye level, as in our example with the indie artists, to collaborate is usually more accurate. It means „to work jointly with others“ toward a common goal, similar to the German verbs zusammenarbeiten, kollaborieren, mitwirken, and — crucially — also kooperieren.

That last synonym looks a lot like to cooperate, but the English verb implies a different sort of relationship. When you cooperate, it’s often a reluctant partnership, one that’s more one-sided or maybe even against your will. For example, the subject of an investigation might be cooperating with the police, but two business partners working together by mutual agreement would be collaborating on a joint venture.

An exercise bookWas bedeutet der englische Begriff workbook? Definitionen Ei... is what pupils use to write things down in school, at least in British English. It’s got blank pages in it, typically lined or squared. Germans call that an Aufgabenheft. This type of notebook has different names across the English-speaking world: composition book (US), scribbler (Canada), copy book (Ireland), jotter (Scotland), or khata (India).

What we're selling here is something else: workbooks, which are books filled with exercises for you to practice your language skills. (Although we do also sell a cool vocabulary notebook, which is a kind of exercise bookWas bedeutet der englische Begriff workbook? Definitionen Ei....)

So yes, what I'm telling you is that an exercise bookWas bedeutet der englische Begriff workbook? Definitionen Ei... does not have any exercises in it. That would be a workbookWas bedeutet der englische Begriff workbook? Definitionen Ei..., which is not actually for work but for self-study. And a British exercise bookWas bedeutet der englische Begriff workbook? Definitionen Ei... is not the same as a German Übungsbuch, even though exercise (practice) is die Übung and book is das Buch.

Have I mentioned that language is weird?

This is about prepositions. In English, we're curious about something or someone, whereas in German we're neugierig auf jemanden oder etwas.

Why not curious *on or neugierig *über? You might as well ask, „Warum ist die Banane krumm?!“ The answer is buried somewhere deep in the history of the world and its people. It exceeds the scope of this exercise and is, frankly, beyond my pay grade.

There are several words that are uncountable in English but countable in German. Advice is one of them (German: Rat or Ratschlag/Ratschläge). An English speaker will never add an -s to advice or any of these other examples:

• information
• furniture
• progress
• behavior
• homework
• research
• traffic

To count these uncountable nouns, you can add determiners like some furniture or much traffic, or you can use phrases like a piece of information, a bit of progress, a sheet of paper, and so on.

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