Learn German with Felix and Franzi

Felix the Frog and Franzi the duck are two lovable characters who bring German to life for young British learners of the language. Check out their antics on this clip:

sprichwort der woche: wenn die katze aus dem haus ist, tanzen die mäuse auf dem tisch

Wenn die Katze aus dem Haus ist, tanzen die Mäuse auf dem Tisch.

I have plenty of experience of this proverb, in its literal sense.

Let's look at it word by word.

Wenn is simply when. A soundalike and lookalike word.

Die Katze is the cat.

Here aus dem Haus means out of the house.

The ist at the end of the first clause means is. So the first clause put together means: When the cat is out of the house.

The second clause begins with a verb: tanzen. This means dance.

Next we have another animal - die Mäuse. The mice.

And finally another preposition plus a place. Auf dem Tisch.  You might remember auf dem means on the: we had auf dem Dach a week or two ago. And Tisch is table.

The second clause means: the mice dance on the table.

The English equivalent of this old German proverb is When the cat's away the mice will play.

I live in an old house with plenty of tiny little gaps in the walls. Mice find it very easy to squeeze in and out of these gaps. A few years back when my dear old ginger cat Ollie died we were quite slow to find a replacement for him. Gradually we noticed increasing numbers of mice scurrying around the house. Gnawing their way through food containers and nibbling little holes into paper packages. As the winter got colder the mice got more numerous, and seemed quite well fed. We even hung Christmas chocolates up from the ceiling so the mice couldn't get at them. We now have a lovely sleek black cat who does an excellent job of keeping the mice at bay. Her name? Mouser!

sprichwort der woche: eine schwalbe macht noch keinen sommer.

junge Nestlinge

I've found another German proverb that makes good sense to me. What I like about it is that it uses everyday language, like many proverbs, and continues with the bird theme I've started. Because I am a bit of a bird brain.

Eine Schwalbe macht noch keinen Sommer.

Eine Schwalbe
OK, the bird in question. Die Schwalbe ist etwa 17 cm lang. Der Rücken ist metallisch glänzend blau-schwarz. Die Unterseite ist rahmweiß. Die Schwalbe verbringt den Sommer in Europa und den Winter in Afrika.

Have you guessed what it is yet? You're right, it's a swallow.

macht 
This is an example of a word where German ch becomes k in English.There are a number of these, including Milch (milk), Buch(book), Koch (cook). Macht means makes.

noch keinen Sommer
You probably know that Sommer means summer. The noch keinen is a little trickier. Literally kein  means not a or none. And here noch is used to mean yet.

The whole proverb then means roughly one swallow makes not yet a summer.

The English equivalent of this proverb is one swallow doesn't make a summer. This wise old saying is generally used to warn people not to get too excited about the smallest hint of good things to come. Swallows usually arrive in Europe when the weather begins to get warmer at the end of spring. They come to Europe to breed and food is plentiful for them during our summer months. After the breeding season they fly with their young to Africa in search of warm weather and food. To find out more about swallows you could read Dear Olly by Michael Morpurgo, the story of a swallow called Hero and his journey of thousands of miles to catch up with his family. Are there any swallows' nests near where you live?

Still not sure how to identify a swallow? Look at this little clip of a female swallow looking after her young.

sprichwort der woche: der spatz in der hand ist besser als die taube auf dem dach

Drei junge Spatzen

Many German proverbs have a direct equivalent in English. Proverbs are short and well known sayings and usually  they are very old and nobody is quite sure about their origin.

Look at this German Sprichwort (proverb).

Der Spatz in der Hand ist besser als die Taube auf dem Dach.

Der Spatz is a common bird in Germany as well as Britain. Small and brown with a cheerful call ,you may already have guessed it is a sparrow. So der Spatz in der Hand is the sparrow in the hand.

The next part of the sentence ist besser als is one of those German phrases that sound very like what they mean in English. Ist  means is; besser means better; and als means than.

Another common bird is die Taube. Visitors to British cities can see dozens of these birds, and Trafalgar Square in London is known for its huge numbers. They are large and grey and their call is like a soft hooting. Yes, eine Taube is a pigeon.

Now we come to auf dem Dach. This simply means on the roof.

So literally our German proverb means The sparrow in the hand is better than the dove on the roof. In English we have a very similar proverb - A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush.

Both proverbs mean roughly the same thing; it is better to have something for certain than to try and get something which may be more valuable if it is out of your reach.



Brauner Bär

This wonderful book by Eric Carle is great for helping children learn the names of colours and animals in German and makes a marvellous resource for a performance poem.
The book can be read aloud and repeated by children as young as seven, and my Year 3 class have thoroughly enjoyed repeating the words and taking on different roles, as well as creating some original artwork for the different creatures in the book.
Take a look at the pictures and see if you can match them up to the words below:
      weißer Hund
      goldener Fisch
      lila Katze
      gelbe Ente
      brauner Bär
      roter Vogel
      blaues Pferd
      grüner Frosch
      schwarzes Schaf