Customer Reviews

German Idioms (Barrons)

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I am a high school German teacher. In Henry Strutz's German Idioms I found a wonderful reference book that has provided me as well as my students with the appropriate expressions in German in many subject areas. The 2000 idioms cover a wide range of subjects including the expression that Germans hold their thubms for luck: "den Daumen druecken"- while we cross our fingers. If you are looking for a book that will help you grasp a general knowledge of German, this is not the book for you. The reader with a basic knowledge of German will be able to use the English and German indexes in the back to look up key words to find idioms on specific topics. Sometimes its difficult to know what keyword to look up in order to find an idiom on a specific subject. This is a better book for those who are interested in finding the English equivalents of German idioms, not the other way around. There are many funny idioms that have made learning new vocabulary for my students as well as myself much more enjoyable. The book is definately worth the money.

Arranged alphabetically by relevant word, this book contains some interesting idioms. Some of the idioms have a historical or cultural basis, but this isn't explained, so the curious student would have to follow up in a heavier and more expensive reference work--for example the big "Wahrig" German-to-German unilingual dictionary. For example, "German Idioms" lists "nach Adam Riese" 'according to Adam Riese' as an idiom meaning "exactly" (i.e., as when you're confident you've added a column of figures correctly), but doesn't say who A.R. was; the big Wahrig does this, however briefly. The same goes for "nullachtfuenfzehn" (meaning "no great shakes," Wahrig explains it comes from the standard dimensions of an ordinary German apartment). However, "Lieschen Mueller" is in the idioms book but not in Wahrig. So, I'd say the idioms book is good as a scholarly provocation but not as a scholarly fulfillment; but for that reason alone it's good value for the money and should be amusing for the advanced student of German.

Since German is a very idiomatic language, such a book as "German Idioms" is an extremely useful tool. It makes it much easier to find any idiomatic use of a particular word along with examples.

dont confuse a review of the book (good) with the value of that book on a kindle (i.e. worthless). My experience so far with Kindle language books is they are worthless or at least very awkward to use. Kindle digitization does not handle columns of data or certain formatting codes. BEWARE!

German, as well known, is a very idiomatic language. Thus, one should know how to express himself/herself correctly.
This book give examples for many known idioms and how to use their key words in other sentences.

The book is German alphabetically organised but the index is also English-German-English organised so you can use it bith ways in finding a key word.

The book is in compact size so it is easy to carry inside a pocket.

Just to make it clear...the book is not a German language study book but rather a supplement for German language lovers who wishes to expand their knowledge by learning some useful idioms.

I gave only four stars since the book could have been better writen in the way that some "idioms" are not really idioms but examples of how to use an expression in a sentence...but some could see it as a plus...i just don't.

The book was smaller than I thought it would be. It's a great dictionary of idioms, things are pretty easy to find. I wish that there was some history along with it but otherwise it's a very good book.