Online German Lessons
  • Home
  • My German Courses
  • German for Children
  • Payment
  • My Contact
  • My Blog

To Be Finished vs. Ready in German

5/27/2026

0 Comments

 
In German, we have three words for saying "I am finished" vs. "I am ready".
fertig sein:
"Ich bin fertig." - I am finished.
bereit sein:
"Ich bin bereit." - I am ready.
​This expression wants to say that I am simply ready to do something.
soweit sein:
"Ich bin soweit." - I am ready.
"Ich bin in fünf Minuten soweit." - I am going to be ready in five minutes.
​This expression, however, wants to imply that I have finally arrived at the point where I am ready to do something now.
Before, I was not quite ready yet. But now, I am "so far" (soweit) that I am ready.
0 Comments

Invented in Germany

5/16/2026

0 Comments

 
You might be surprised to find out that quite a few inventions actually come from Germany.

German Inventions

Picture of German inventions
0 Comments

The Grammatical Gender of the Word Girl

5/16/2026

0 Comments

 
Photo of a girl for introducing an explanation for the grammatical gender of the word girl in German
Link to The Diminutive

Girl: Its Grammatical Gender in German vs. Its Sex

​For German learners, one of the great mysteries of the German language is the grammatical gender of the word "Mädchen", which means girl. The word is neuter, "das Mädchen", neither feminine nor masculine although its sex is female.
​On the other hand, the grammatical gender of the word for boy, "der Junge", agrees with its biological gender. And in fact, the grammatical gender of a German noun which refers to a person usually matches the person's biological gender: der Vater, die Mutter, der Sohn, die Tochter, der Lehrer, die Lehrerin, etc.
​What's the reason for that seemingly discriminating grammatical gender of the word "Mädchen"? The answer might surprise you.

The Diminutive

It's the diminutive! The diminutive is a form of a noun or name that expresses smallness, intimacy, or endearment. Diminutives are not very common in standard English in comparison with many other languages. Here are a few examples in English: doggy (dog), booklet (book), duckling (duck), kitty (cat), Johnny (John)
​The suffix "-chen" is add to expresse the German diminutive, and in German, applying the diminutive to a noun means you have to change the grammatical gender of the noun to neuter. The word "Mädchen" was originally the diminutive of the antiquated German word "die Maid", which is of course feminine and means young woman. Over time, however, the word "Mädchen" had become the standard word for girl and lost its diminutive meaning. But it is technically still a diminutive, hence its neuter grammatical gender.
Fortunately, the grammatical gender of the word girl in German has nothing to do with the idea that in the distant past, girls were seen as objects by the Germans.
0 Comments

    Christian Rychta

    My name is Christian. I am a native German and a professional language teacher. I teach independently and have specialized in tutoring German one-on-one online.

    Archives

    May 2026

    RSS Feed