Q 01/05

What does German Gift mean, a false friend whose old 'present' sense survives only in Mitgift, meaning dowry?

A) Poison

B) Marriage

C) Gratitude

D) Medicine

Answer · why

A) Poison

Poison is what Gift means in modern German, a euphemism that grew out of the sense 'dose' of medicine in Old High German. Dutch keeps both: gift for a...

Q 02/05

Which everyday object do Germans call a Handy, a pseudo-anglicism that no native English speaker would recognise?

A) A remote control

B) A hand towel

C) A mobile phone

D) A pocket torch

Answer · why

C) A mobile phone

A mobile phone is a Handy in Germany, a word no native English speaker would use for it. Germans likewise call a projector a Beamer and a classic car ...

Q 03/05

Which educator coined the word Kindergarten in 1840, a 'children's garden' that English adopted without translating it?

A) Johann Pestalozzi

B) Friedrich Fröbel

C) Rudolf Steiner

D) Wilhelm von Humboldt

Answer · why

B) Friedrich Fröbel

Friedrich Fröbel coined Kindergarten in 1840 for his play institute at Bad Blankenburg, and English simply borrowed the word. Prussia banned kindergar...

Q 04/05

Which two keys trade places on a German keyboard, one of them a letter German uses only in loanwords and names?

A) A and Q

B) W and X

C) M and N

D) Y and Z

Answer · why

D) Y and Z

Y and Z swap places on German keyboards, which gives the layout its name, QWERTZ. Z is far more common in German, while Y turns up only in loanwords a...

Q 05/05

Every word of which class is capitalised in written German, a habit that Danish abolished in 1948?

A) Verbs

B) Nouns

C) Adjectives

D) Pronouns

Answer · why

B) Nouns

Nouns are all capitalised in German, a habit now almost unique to it and its close relative Luxembourgish. English did the same for a while, into the ...