Redensarten-Index

I was intending to list a few German idioms such as jemanden auf den Arm nehmen which is the equivalent of the English to pull someone's leg. I decided to enter this as the search phrase in Google and discovered there is a wonderful website for just this sort of search. Redensarten-Index lets you enter words or phrases for your search and when you find an entry you can also get it translated into a choice of languages including English. What I found helpful is the examples of the phrases in use. Redensarten-Index describes itself as Wörterbuch für -Redensarten -Redewendungen -idiomatische Ausdrücke -feste Wortverbindungen.

The home page has quite a few useful links, including one to a quiz with two levels of difficulty. If you need some explanation of Sprichwörter then try die Liste erklärungsbedürftiger Sprichwörter There's also a collection of links for German language sites for learning German (Deutsch als Fremdsprache).

Discussion

For a long time I've been meaning to bring together various lists of expressions that could be useful in discussions or to improve essay style. I was given another list last week so I've brought them together and put them in categories.

• Expressing an opinion
• Agreeing
• Disagreeing
• Querying
• Emphasis
• What it's about
• Other useful expressions

Exercises from Finland

I've just work with some exercises on Michis Übungs-Site and realised I was not as good as I should be with some of the exercises on verbs. It shows I haven't put in enough practice but the really useful thing is it shows some areas where I need to do some revision. If your results in an exercise are a little disappointing don't lose heart but use your mistakes as an incentive for revision or further learning. There's no point in beating yourself up, the whole point about correction is learning to be correct.

The site I was using as a reasonable range of grammatical exercises. Many take the form of supplying the missing word or words in a sentence (Lückentext) but there are also some where you have to put words in the correct order (Zuordung) and others take the form of a simple quiz (Kurzantwort-Quiz). Under the heading Sprache you'll find some exercises on writing letters and on invitations and how to reply. Wortschatz has some thematically organised exercises to test general vocabulary and a useful set on Redewendungen - colloquial expressions.