It has been a while since I last wrote about my WOWs (Word of the Week) so it’s time to unpack my “Wundertüte” (bag of surprises) of English words which have kept me amused over the last weeks.

miffed: verärgert

E.g. Sally was really miffed because she wasn’t invited to the party. (Sally war verärgert, weil sie nicht zur Party engeladen war)

I have a new saying:

Don’t mind me! I’m just having a moment but it’ll pass.

A Moment of Madness

Yesterday I had such a moment! Do you know the game “I went shopping and bought…”?

Well, I went shopping and I didn’t buy 1 butter squash, 2 pears. 3 bread rolls, 4 courgettes and 5 bananas!

That really did happen. I put all of these things in my trolley, paid at the till and drove home. Later I said to my husband that there were some “Brötchen” for our midday sandwiches…or I thought there were! They were nowhere to be found. Then the mystery began!

To most of us hair is very important and can affect our day…especially if you are having “a bad hair day!” How did you survive the Corona time without a trip to the hairdressers? In our household the shaver was rediscovered. Talking about hair raises many issues (it can be a “very hair-raising” topic!)

A pile of hair words

Here are some useful words or phrases to do with the topic hair.

ponytail : Pferdeschwanz sideburns: Koteletten pigtails (bunches): Zöpfe plait (braid): Zopf bun (knot): Haarknoten* curly: lockig wavy: wellig parting: Haarscheitel bald: kahl hair (hairstyle): Frisur greasy: fettig dandruff: Schuppen frizzy: kraus mop of hair: Haarschopf hairline: Haaransatz blow dry: föhnen wig: Perücke split ends: Spliss layered: stufig to lose hair (folically/folicularly challenged): Haare verlieren**

She stood in front of the mirror and did her hair. When she was finished she was shocked to see how many hairs were on the floor. She realised she was losing her hair.

* When I checked the translation for “hair in a bun” I got the answer “Haare in einem Brötchen“! ** not really politically correct.

For my German readers it is obvious what is meant by the expression “Du hast einen Vogel!”, but to an English person this does not make sense when directly translated into “You have a bird!”. In England they really would think you were crazy if you said that.