my friend german essay

Essay Curve

Essay on My Best Friend In German – Short & Long Essay Examples

Essay on My Best Friend In German: Having a best friend is a special bond that can bring joy, support, and laughter into our lives. In this essay, we will explore the importance of friendship and the qualities that make someone a best friend. We will also delve into the unique experiences and memories shared with our best friend, highlighting the impact they have on our lives. Join me as we celebrate the beauty of friendship and the cherished moments spent with our closest companion in German.

Table of Contents

My Best Friend In German Essay Writing Tips

1. Begin by introducing your best friend in the first paragraph. Describe their physical appearance, personality traits, and how long you have been friends with them. For example, “Mein bester Freund heißt Max. Er ist groß, hat braune Haare und blaue Augen. Er ist sehr lustig, hilfsbereit und immer für mich da. Wir sind seit der Grundschule beste Freunde.”

2. In the second paragraph, talk about the activities you enjoy doing together. This could include going to the movies, playing sports, or simply hanging out and talking. Explain why these activities are important to your friendship and how they strengthen your bond. For instance, “Wir gehen oft ins Kino oder spielen Fußball zusammen. Diese Aktivitäten helfen uns, unsere Freundschaft zu pflegen und gemeinsame Erinnerungen zu schaffen.”

3. In the third paragraph, discuss the qualities that make your best friend special to you. This could include their loyalty, sense of humor, or ability to always be there for you. Provide specific examples of times when your friend has supported you or made you laugh. For example, “Max ist immer für mich da, wenn ich Probleme habe. Er hört mir zu und gibt mir gute Ratschläge. Außerdem bringt er mich immer zum Lachen, auch in schwierigen Situationen.”

4. In the fourth paragraph, reflect on how your best friend has influenced your life and helped you become a better person. Talk about the lessons you have learned from them and how they have shaped your values and beliefs. Share a personal anecdote that illustrates the impact your friend has had on you. For instance, “Dank Max habe ich gelernt, wie wichtig es ist, ehrlich und loyal zu sein. Er hat mir gezeigt, wie man Probleme löst und immer positiv bleibt, egal was passiert.”

5. Conclude your essay by summarizing the key points you have made about your best friend. Express your gratitude for their friendship and explain why they are so important to you. End with a heartfelt statement that captures the essence of your relationship with your best friend. For example, “Insgesamt bin ich sehr dankbar, dass ich einen so tollen Freund wie Max habe. Er ist wie ein Bruder für mich und ich weiß, dass ich mich immer auf ihn verlassen kann.”

6. Remember to proofread your essay for grammar and spelling errors before submitting it. Make sure your writing flows smoothly and that your ideas are well-organized. Good luck!

Essay on My Best Friend In German in 10 Lines – Examples

1. Mein bester Freund heißt Max. 2. Er ist sehr lustig und immer gut gelaunt. 3. Wir haben viele gemeinsame Interessen, wie Fußball spielen und Filme schauen. 4. Max ist sehr hilfsbereit und immer für mich da, wenn ich ihn brauche. 5. Wir kennen uns schon seit der Grundschule und sind seitdem unzertrennlich. 6. Er ist ein toller Zuhörer und gibt immer gute Ratschläge. 7. Max ist auch sehr sportlich und motiviert mich, aktiv zu bleiben. 8. Wir haben schon viele Abenteuer zusammen erlebt und viele Erinnerungen geschaffen. 9. Er ist wie ein Bruder für mich und ich kann mir ein Leben ohne ihn nicht vorstellen. 10. Ich bin dankbar, dass ich einen so großartigen Freund wie Max habe.

Sample Essay on My Best Friend In German in 100-180 Words

Mein bester Freund heißt Max. Wir kennen uns seit der Grundschule und sind seitdem unzertrennlich. Max ist immer für mich da, wenn ich ihn brauche, und wir haben schon so viele schöne Erinnerungen zusammen gemacht.

Wir teilen viele Interessen miteinander, wie zum Beispiel Fußball spielen, Filme schauen oder einfach nur zusammen abhängen. Max ist ein sehr lustiger und humorvoller Mensch, der mich immer zum Lachen bringt, auch wenn ich mal traurig bin.

Was ich an Max besonders schätze, ist seine Ehrlichkeit und seine Zuverlässigkeit. Ich weiß, dass ich mich immer auf ihn verlassen kann, egal in welcher Situation.

Ich bin sehr dankbar, dass ich einen so tollen Freund wie Max habe und hoffe, dass unsere Freundschaft noch viele Jahre lang bestehen bleibt. Er ist wirklich wie ein Bruder für mich und ich könnte mir ein Leben ohne ihn nicht mehr vorstellen.

Short Essay on My Best Friend In German in 200-500 Words

Mein bester Freund heißt Max und wir kennen uns schon seit der Grundschule. Wir haben viele gemeinsame Interessen und verbringen viel Zeit miteinander. Max ist ein sehr lustiger und hilfsbereiter Mensch, der immer für mich da ist, wenn ich ihn brauche.

Eines der Dinge, die ich an Max am meisten schätze, ist seine Ehrlichkeit. Er sagt immer, was er denkt, auch wenn es manchmal unbequem ist. Das schätze ich sehr an ihm, denn ich weiß, dass ich mich immer auf seine Meinung verlassen kann.

Max ist auch sehr abenteuerlustig und wir haben schon viele aufregende Dinge zusammen erlebt. Egal ob wir zusammen wandern gehen, ins Kino gehen oder einfach nur zu Hause abhängen, mit Max wird es nie langweilig. Er hat immer neue Ideen, wie wir unsere Zeit zusammen verbringen können und ich schätze seine Kreativität sehr.

Ein weiterer Grund, warum Max mein bester Freund ist, ist seine Großzügigkeit. Er ist immer bereit, anderen zu helfen und sein letztes Hemd für sie zu geben. Ich habe schon oft erlebt, wie er sich für andere eingesetzt hat und es macht mich stolz, einen so selbstlosen Freund zu haben.

Max ist auch ein sehr talentierter Musiker und ich bewundere seine Leidenschaft für die Musik. Wir haben schon viele Stunden damit verbracht, gemeinsam zu jammen und neue Songs zu schreiben. Seine Musik inspiriert mich und ich bin froh, dass ich einen Freund habe, der so viel Talent hat.

In schwierigen Zeiten war Max immer an meiner Seite und hat mir Mut zugesprochen. Er hat mir geholfen, schwierige Situationen zu meistern und hat mich immer wieder daran erinnert, dass ich nicht alleine bin. Seine Unterstützung bedeutet mir sehr viel und ich bin dankbar, dass ich einen Freund wie ihn habe.

Insgesamt bin ich sehr glücklich, Max als meinen besten Freund zu haben. Er ist ein wichtiger Teil meines Lebens und ich kann mir nicht vorstellen, ohne ihn zu sein. Ich schätze seine Freundschaft sehr und hoffe, dass wir noch viele Jahre lang beste Freunde bleiben werden.

Essay on My Best Friend In German in 1000-1500 Words

Mein bester Freund

Ein bester Freund ist wie ein Schatz, den man im Leben findet. Er ist jemand, der immer für einen da ist, der einen zum Lachen bringt und einem in schweren Zeiten beisteht. Mein bester Freund heißt Max und wir kennen uns schon seit unserer Kindheit.

Max und ich sind wie zwei Seiten einer Medaille. Wir teilen die gleichen Interessen, den gleichen Humor und haben eine tiefe Verbindung zueinander. Wir haben schon so viele Abenteuer zusammen erlebt, dass es schwer ist, sie alle aufzuzählen. Egal ob wir zusammen auf Reisen gehen, ins Kino gehen oder einfach nur auf der Couch abhängen, mit Max an meiner Seite fühle ich mich immer glücklich und geborgen.

Was Max so besonders macht, ist seine aufrichtige und ehrliche Art. Er ist immer bereit zuzuhören, wenn ich Probleme habe, und gibt mir immer die besten Ratschläge. Er ist ein echter Freund, der mich unterstützt und ermutigt, meine Träume zu verfolgen und mein Bestes zu geben.

Ein weiterer Grund, warum Max mein bester Freund ist, ist seine lustige und abenteuerlustige Persönlichkeit. Mit ihm wird es nie langweilig, denn er hat immer neue Ideen und Pläne, wie wir unsere Zeit zusammen verbringen können. Egal ob wir zusammen wandern gehen, ins Museum gehen oder einfach nur durch die Stadt schlendern, mit Max ist jeder Tag ein neues Abenteuer.

Aber nicht nur in guten Zeiten ist Max für mich da, sondern auch in schlechten Zeiten. Als ich vor ein paar Jahren eine schwere Zeit durchgemacht habe, war er immer an meiner Seite, um mich aufzumuntern und mir Mut zu machen. Er hat mir gezeigt, dass wahre Freundschaft bedeutet, füreinander da zu sein, egal was passiert.

Max ist nicht nur mein bester Freund, sondern auch mein Seelenverwandter. Wir verstehen uns blind und können stundenlang über alles mögliche reden, ohne uns jemals zu langweilen. Er kennt mich besser als jeder andere und akzeptiert mich so, wie ich bin, mit all meinen Fehlern und Macken.

Ich bin so dankbar, dass ich Max in meinem Leben habe. Er ist nicht nur mein bester Freund, sondern auch meine bessere Hälfte, die mich komplett macht. Mit ihm an meiner Seite fühle ich mich unbesiegbar und bereit, alle Herausforderungen des Lebens anzunehmen.

In einer Welt, die oft so schnelllebig und oberflächlich ist, ist es wichtig, wahre Freundschaften zu schätzen und zu pflegen. Max ist für mich mehr als nur ein Freund, er ist wie ein Bruder für mich, der immer an meiner Seite ist, egal was passiert.

Ich hoffe, dass unsere Freundschaft für immer bestehen bleibt und wir noch viele weitere Abenteuer zusammen erleben werden. Denn mit Max an meiner Seite weiß ich, dass ich alles schaffen kann und dass ich niemals alleine bin.

Mein bester Freund Max ist ein Geschenk des Himmels, das ich niemals für selbstverständlich halten werde. Er ist mein Fels in der Brandung, mein Licht in der Dunkelheit und mein größter Schatz. Ich bin so dankbar, dass ich ihn in meinem Leben habe und freue mich auf viele weitere Jahre der Freundschaft und des Glücks mit ihm an meiner Seite.

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50 Useful German Essay Words and Phrases

by  fredo21  

January 9, 2019

2  Comments

Essay-writing is in itself already a difficult endeavor. Now writing an essay in a foreign language like German ---that’s on a different plane of difficulty.  

To make it easier for you, here in this article, we’ve compiled the most useful German essay phrases. Feel free to use these to add a dash of pizzazz into your essays. It will add just the right amount of flourish into your writing---enough to impress whoever comes across your work!

You can also download these phrases in PDF format by clicking the button below.

Now here’s your list!

What other German vocabulary list would you like to see featured here? Please feel free to leave a message in the comment section and we’ll try our best to accommodate your requests soon!

Once again, you can download your copy of the PDF by subscribing using the button below!

For an easier way to learn German vocabulary, check out German short stories for beginners!

A FUN AND EFFECTIVE WAY TO LEARN GERMAN

• 10 entertaining short stories about everyday themes
• Practice reading and listening with 90+ minutes of audio 
• Learn 1,000+ new German vocabulary effortlessly!

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Thank you for the good writeup. It in fact was a amusement account it. Look advanced to far added agreeable from you! By the way, how can we communicate?

Asking questions are genuinely good thing if you are not understanding anything completely, except this piece of writing provides nice understanding yet.

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Learning Method

Sentence Structure and Word Order in German

German declension: the four grammatical cases in detail, prepositions with dative, accusative, and mixed, learn all about german two-way prepositions: what they are and how to use them, sign up below ... and get instant access to the freebie.

Kostenloser deutscher Aufsatz über Mein bester Freund

Inhaltsverzeichnis:, essay beispiele, 1.) my best pal ( mein bester kumpel ), 2.) meine beste freundin ( meine beste freundin), wortschatz für ihren aufsatz, schlüsselsätze, verbkonjugationen, was macht einen zu einem besten freund, sehen sie sich mein leicht verständliches deutschsprachiges video auf youtube an.

Ihr Deutschlehrer hat Ihnen gesagt, Sie sollen über Ihren besten Freund schreiben, aber Sie haben keine Ahnung, wie Sie das machen sollen. Du hast Glück, denn du hast mich! Ich bin gebürtiger Deutscher und helfe gerne weiter.

Die folgenden Beispiele sind in diesem Format strukturiert:

• Zunächst finden Sie ein Beispiel für einen kurzen Aufsatz in deutscher Sprache. Es zeigt Ihnen, wie Sie Ihre eigene Familie und Freunde beschreiben können. Da jede Familie anders ist, habe ich einige weitere Beispiele geschrieben, aus denen Sie auswählen können.
• Nach dem deutschen Teil folgt ein kursiver Teil, in dem ich Ihnen auf Englisch erzähle, worum es im deutschen Text geht.
• Nach den Beispielen für kurze Aufsätze finden Sie eine Liste deutscher Schlüsselwörter und konjugierter Verben, die ich für Sie bereitgestellt habe, damit Sie sie nicht in einem Wörterbuch nachschlagen müssen.

Foto von Bongawonga

Nach dem. Herzliche Glückwünsche!

Englische Übersetzung:

Mein bester Kumpel heißt Brian. Ich kenne ihn seit wir zusammen im Kindergarten sind. Er wohnt nur ein paar Häuserblocks weiter und wir sehen uns jeden Tag in der Schule, obwohl er jetzt in einer anderen Klasse ist. Aber wir treffen uns auf dem Schulhof, um mit anderen Freunden Fußball zu spielen, oder wir essen zusammen im Speisesaal. Brian ist sehr gut in Mathe und wenn ich mit meinen Hausaufgaben kämpfe, zeigt er mir immer, wie es geht. Ich denke, er ist schon ein ziemlich guter Lehrer. Am Nachmittag spielen wir oft zusammen Minecraft. Das macht immer Spaß, weil wir den gleichen Humor teilen. Er spielt auch Geige im Schulorchester. Ich applaudiere immer besonders laut, wenn sie auf einem Schulfest spielen. Ich hoffe, er zieht nie in eine andere Stadt.

Meine beste Freundin Lisa und ich machen alles zusammen. Wir sind seit Beginn der High School Freunde. Sie ist aus Kalifornien hierher gezogen. Wir haben uns in der Theatergruppe getroffen und festgestellt, dass wir die gleichen Dinge genießen. Wir singen, tanzen, verkleiden und spielen gerne. Wir gehen jetzt jeden Samstag zusammen auf eine Musikschule. Wir wollen Filmstars werden, wenn wir älter sind und gemeinsam durch das Land reisen. Wir haben oft Kleidertauschpartys und laden alle unsere Freunde ein. Dann machen wir Fotos voneinander, nachdem wir uns gegenseitig die Haare gemacht haben. Ich mag Lisa so sehr, weil sie immer weiß, wovon ich spreche und ich weiß, dass ich ihr alles erzählen kann, ohne dass sie mich beurteilt, sogar über den neuen süßen Jungen im Unterricht. Sie ist immer für mich da, wenn ich traurig bin, und ich kann mich auf sie verlassen, wenn ich sie um einen Gefallen bitte.

Teil 5 behandelt das beliebte Thema des Schreibens über Ihren Tagesablauf.

Teil 2 behandelt das beliebte Thema des Schreibens über Ihr Hobby.

Teil 1 behandelt das beliebte Thema der Beschreibung Ihrer eigenen Familie.

Teil 3 behandelt das beliebte Thema des Schreibens über Ihr Haus.

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Die Wahl des Herausgebers

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24 German Essay Phrases

We need to talk about your German essays.

Essay writing is a skill that you can learn in any language.

All you need is to brush up your vocabulary and follow a few simple strategies, and you’ll be well on your way to writing your first masterpiece.

This post will provide you with a list of useful German words and phrases to include in your next essay, plus the different types of German essays, a few writing strategies and even a sample essay at the end. 

German Essay Phrases

General explaining, ordering facts and ideas, demonstrating contrast, expressing your opinion, summarizing and concluding, what are german essays like, the different types of german essays, how to write an essay in german in 4 steps, 1. write down a list of words , 2. do your research, 3. make an outline using transition words, 4. write directly in german, an example of a german essay.

Download: This blog post is available as a convenient and portable PDF that you can take anywhere. Click here to get a copy. (Download)

Let’s start with the words and phrases themselves. As you’ll see, they’re grouped according to how and when you’ll use them. Let’s start off with some that will help you explain your arguments.

1. Weil (Because)

Daniel muss lernen, weil er morgen einen Test hat.

(Daniel has to study because he has a test tomorrow.)

2. Da (Because)

Daniel muss lernen, da er morgen einen Test hat.

3. Denn (Because)

Daniel muss lernen, denn er hat morgen einen Test.

(Daniel has to study because tomorrow he has a test.)

A quick note: Weil, da and denn are generally interchangeable. Keep in mind though that denn requires a different word order.

4. Damit (In order to; So that)

Lisa lernt viel, damit sie den Test besteht.

(Lisa is studying a lot in order to pass the test.)

5. Um (To; In order to)

Lisa lernt viel, um den Test zu bestehen.

(Lisa is studying a lot to pass the test.)

6. Im Grunde (Basically; Fundamentally)

Im Grunde ist Deutsch keine schwierige Sprache.

(Fundamentally, German is not a difficult language.)

7. Eigentlich (Actually)

Eigentlich ist Deutsch nicht so schwierig, wie es scheint.

(Actually, German is not as difficult as it seems.)

8. Ein Beispiel anführen  (To give an example)

Ich möchte ein Beispiel anführen .

(I would like to give an example.)

9. Dieses Beispiel zeigt, dass… (This example shows that…)

Dieses Beispiel zeigt, dass das Lernen einer Fremdsprache beim Reisen viele Vorteile hat.

(This example shows that studying a foreign language has many advantages when traveling.)

10. Erstens… zweitens… (Firstly… secondly…)

Erstens kann man sich auf Reisen besser verständigen und zweitens lernt man viele neue Leute kennen.

(Firstly, you can communicate better while traveling, and secondly, you meet many new people.)

11. Das Wichtigste ist…  (T he most important thing is…)

Das Wichtigste ist , die Angst vor der Sprache zu verlieren.

(The most important thing is to lose your fear of the language.)

12. Außer dem (Furthermore)

Außerdem kann man beim Reisen seine Sprachkenntnisse verbessern.

(Furthermore, you can improve your language knowledge while traveling.)

13. Nicht nur… sondern auch…  (Not only… but also…)

Nicht nur im Unterricht, sondern auch im Alltag kann man viel Deutsch lernen.

(Not only in class, but also in everyday life you can learn a lot of German.)

14. Obwohl (Even though)

Obwohl Anna viel lernt, hat sie Probleme mit der deutschen Grammatik.

(Even though Anna studies a lot, she has problems with German grammar.)

15. Allerdings (However)

Anna lernt gerne Deutsch, allerdings hat sie Probleme mit der Grammatik.

(Anna enjoys studying German; however, she has problems with the grammar.)

16. Trotz   (Despite)

Trotz ihrer Probleme mit der Grammatik lernt Anna gerne Deutsch.

(Despite her problems with German grammar, Anna enjoys studying German.)

17. Im Vergleich zu (In comparison to)

Im Vergleich zu Russisch ist Deutsch eine einfache Sprache.

In comparison to Russian, German is an easy language.

18. Im Gegensatz zu (In contrast to; Unlike)

Im Gegensatz zu Anna lernt Paul gerne neue Vokabeln.

Unlike Anna, Paul enjoys learning new vocabulary.

19. Meiner Meinung nach (In my opinion)

Meiner Meinung nach sollte jeder eine Fremdsprache lernen.

(In my opinion, everybody should study a foreign language.)

20. Ich bin der Ansicht, dass…  (I believe that…)

Ich bin der Ansicht, dass jeder eine Fremdsprache lernen sollte.

(I believe that everybody should study a foreign language.)

21. Ich finde es schade, dass…  (I think it’s a pity that…)

Ich finde es schade, dass die Schulen keine anderen Fremdsprachen unterrichten.

(I think it’s a pity that schools don’t teach other foreign languages.)

22. Alles in Allem (Overall)

Alles in allem ist Deutsch nicht so schwierig, wie es scheint.

(Overall, German isn’t as difficult as it seems.)

23. Im Großen und Ganzen (Overall)

Im Großen und Ganzen ist Deutsch keine schwierige Sprache.

(Overall, German isn’t a difficult language.)

24. Zusammenfassend kann man sagen, dass…  (In summary, it can be said that…)

Zusammenfassend kann man sagen, dass Sprachen beim Reisen sehr hilfreich sein können.

(In summary, it can be said that languages can be very helpful when traveling.)

Ok, let’s get a little deeper into the actual essays themselves. How do they compare to the essays that you’re probably used to writing?

• They have a similar structure to English essays. Remember how English essays have a beginning, middle and end? Good news: German essays contain those same parts. When you’re writing a German essay, you’ll want to include an opening paragraph with your argument, three supporting paragraphs that further your argument and a conclusion. German and English are often surprisingly similar, and essay structure is no exception.
• German essays are more to the point. Although German essays and English essays are structured similarly, German essays—just like German speakers—tend to be more blunt and to the point. You won’t need to dance around your conclusions or obfuscate in German: just say what you mean.
• German punctuation is different. Germans have different rules for punctuation than English speakers. For example, Germans introduce a direct quote with a colon instead of a comma. They use quotes instead of italics for the names of books, movies and newspapers. And they set off relative clauses beginning with dass (that) with a comma, unlike in American English. Understanding these differences between English and German punctuation will ensure you don’t give yourself away as a non-native speaker through punctuation marks alone!

Before you get started on your essay, make sure you know what type of essay you’re going to write. If it’s a school essay, be sure to read and understand the instructions.

Here are a few notes about the most common kinds of essays in German.

• An Erzählung  is a narrative essay that tells a story. Your teacher might give you some keywords or pictures and ask you to create a story around it. An Erlebniserzählung (“experience story”) is about a personal experience and can be written in the first person.
• An Erörterung is an argumentative essay, a writing piece meant to persuade someone to think the way you do. This writing genre requires you to investigate your topic well and provide evidence to prove your point.
• In a Nacherzählung you summarize and recount a book, a film or an article you have read, from an objective perspective. Depending on the essay instructions, you might be asked for your personal opinion in the conclusion.

Are you ready to start writing? Use these four strategies to wow your teachers and write the perfect German essay.

You should look at any new activity as an opportunity to learn and master new vocabulary . Instead of using the same words that you use in your everyday German speech, use this essay as an opportunity to introduce new words into your German lexicon.

Besides, incorporating academic words that help you craft and shape your argument can make your essay sound more professional and polished. So before you start writing, write down a list of the German words you’d like to incorporate in your essay.

As with everything else, you should look at the research portion of the essay-writing process as an opportunity to learn more about Germany—this time, about German culture, history , politics or travel .

Chances are if you’re writing your essay for a language-learning class, you’ll be assigned a topic pertaining to one of these aspects of German life, so use this as a chance to learn more about Deutschland.

For example, Deutsche Welle offers information and resources about German history. Other newspapers such as Berliner Zeitung and Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung offer another perspective on politics and daily life in Germany.

There’s nothing clunkier than an essay that doesn’t flow naturally from one point to the next. Besides, thinking about how your arguments and points interact with each other will help you organize your essay and make sure you get your point across. (Do they support each other? Counter each other? How exactly do they function to further your argument?)

Examples of transition words:

• Vorher (prior)
• zur gleichen Zeit (at the same time)
• dann (then)
• trotzdem (nevertheless)
• noch (still)

Writing an essay in English and then translating it into German often results in stilted, poorly formed sentences and unnatural constructions.

For example, remember that German word order is different from English. If you write “He didn’t read the book,” a one-to-one literal translation would be Er hat gelesen nicht das Buch . But the correct translation is actually  Er hat nicht das Buch gelesen. In this example, translating word for word leads to errors.

There’s another, less tangible reason why it’s not a good idea to write in English and translate to German. Sure, you could just remember that you need to change the word order when translating into German. But isn’t it better to adapt your brain so that German word order seems fluid and natural?

Learning to think and write off-the-cuff in German is an essential step towards fluency, and devising sentences in German, instead of sentences in translation, will help you learn to do that.

One good way to learn to think in a language is to hear it spoken in natural contexts. You can hear German spoken naturally in German language TV shows , movies and YouTube videos .

Listening to German spoken at a natural speed and native accent will help get you thinking in the language in real time. This will help get you to the point where you can come up with your own sentences in German, rather than thinking in English sentences first and then translating them in your head before you speak or write. That will greatly improve your speed and fluency when writing in German.

So, simply start writing the essay in German. Look up any words you’re not sure of and double-check any grammatical constructions that you’re not familiar with. After you finish writing, ask a German-speaking friend to look over the essay to make sure it sounds natural.

Now that we’ve explored strategies and phrases for writing top-notch German essays, let’s take a look at an example.

World War I doesn’t get as much coverage in the States as World War II (where it was more directly involved). But for Europe, World War I was a devastating example of the dangers of modern technological warfare and the horrors of violence.

Let’s take a look at an example opening paragraph and outline of an essay about the effect of World War I on German government and life.

Opening paragraph:

Der Erste Weltkrieg war ein totaler Krieg, der Deutschland völlig veränderte. Dieser Krieg hat 1914 angefangen, und 1918, als der Krieg zu Ende kam, waren die deutsche Gesellschaft, Regierung und Kultur nicht mehr erkennbar. Am Anfang hat der Erste Weltkrieg altväterliche Ideen und Systeme verstärkt. Am Ende hat dieser Krieg dagegen diese altväterlichen Dinge zerstört.

(The First World War was a total war that completely changed Germany. This war began in 1914 and in 1918, when the war came to an end, German society, government and culture were no longer recognizable. At the beginning, the First World War strengthened old-fashioned ideas and systems. However, by the end, this war destroyed these old-fashioned things.)

Notice that this opening paragraph is not very different at all from the first paragraph of an English essay. You can use the same structure you’ve always used to write your German essay, leaving you free to focus on grammar and vocabulary.

Notice also the use of phrases such as Am Anfang (at the beginning) and Dagegen (however). Words like these can help you make a point and counterpoint in your opening paragraph (or anywhere in your essay, for that matter).

I. Am Anfang (at the beginning):

– Dieser Krieg hat Deutschland vereint . (This war united Germany.) – Menschen hatten ein patriotisches Gefühl. (People had a patriotic feeling.) – Menschen dachten, dass der Krieg bald zu Ende kommen würde. (People thought that the war would soon come to an end.)

Notice that these points employ words like dachten (thought). Written German often relies on Präteritum , a form of the past tense that’s rarely used in spoken Deutsch. It’s often called “literary past tense” for this reason. Check out this guide to the Präteritum to include this tense in your essay.

II. Andrerseits (on the other hand):

– Bald gab es kein Essen mehr . (Soon there was no more food.) – Menschen wurden krank und desillusioniert . (People became sick and disillusioned.) – Es gab Proteste und Unruhen. (There was protest and unrest.)

Like in an English essay, your second and third paragraphs can include supporting points or counterpoints that contribute to the overall theme of your piece. The word Andrerseits (on the other hand) is an ideal transition word to show that you’re moving into another section of your essay.

Also notice that this essay will rely on vocabulary words that the average language learner might not have come across in his or her learning. After all, who learns the words for “disillusioned” and “unrest” in their intermediate German class? But don’t be daunted by the fact that your essay might include eclectic vocabulary. Instead, use this as an opportunity for more learning.

III. zum Schluss (in conclusion):

– Der Kaiser hat abgedankt . (The Emperor abdicated.) – Eine Republik wurde geboren. (A Republic was born.) – Die alten Werte waren weg. (The old values were gone.)

Once again, abgedankt (abdicated) is an example of the literary past tense (and an example of a word that you probably haven’t come across in your previous German studies!)

IV. Schließlich (finally)

– Der Erste Weltkrieg hat Deutschland verändert . (The First World War completely changed Germany.)

Again, like in an English essay, you should use this paragraph to summarize your main point.

Feeling a bit more confident about your next German essay now?

Just make a great essay plan, write down some new words and phrases that you want to include and off you go!

By sprinkling these bits of flair into your German essays, you’re sure to make your writing better and more effective.

Enjoy writing!

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Me My friends

Can you describe yourself, your family and your friends? Learn how to give personal details about yourself and reasons for why you do, or don't, get on with your nearest and dearest.

Part of German Speaking

Beschreib deine Freunde – Describe your friends

There are two words for 'friend' in German – der Freund for a male friend and die Freundin for a female friend. When you are asked questions about them, you may need to change the adjective ending .

In questions:

• Hast du einen besten Freund oder eine beste Freundin? – Do you have a best friend?
• Hast du einen guten Freund oder eine gute Freundin? – Do you have a good friend?

In answers:

• Mein guter Freund heißt Stefan. – My good friend is called Stefan.
• Meine beste Freundin heißt Paula. – My best friend is called Paula.

To give a detailed description of your friends, you need to use heißen (to be called), haben (to have) and sein (to be), as well as adjectives, adjectival phrases , conjunctions and intensifiers close intensifier A word that adds ​intensity to another ​adjective, adverb or ​verb, eg 'very'. Intensifiers often have little meaning when used on their own. .

Read this description of a friend and put the correct verb in the blank spaces.

Mein bester Freund _____ Daniel. Er _____ sechzehn und er _____ am vierten achten Geburtstag. Er _____ nicht sehr groß, obwohl er unheimlich große Füße _____. Er _____ kurze glatte rote Haare und blaue Augen. Er _____ immer nett und hilsfbereit, aber manchmal _____ er ein bisschen ungeduldig.

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Mein bester Freund heißt Daniel. Er ist sechzehn und er hat am vierten achten Geburtstag. Er ist nicht sehr groß, obwohl er unheimlich große Füße hat. Er hat kurze glatte rote Haare und blaue Augen. Er ist immer nett und hilsfbereit, aber manchmal ist er ein bisschen ungeduldig.

My best friend is called Daniel. He is 16 and his birthday is on the 4th August (literally: the fourth of the eighth). He is not very big, although he has incredibly big feet. He has short straight ginger hair and green eyes. He is always nice and helpful, but sometimes he is a bit impatient.

Warum verstehst du dich gut mit deinen Freunden? – Why do you get on well with your friends?

To answer this question, use these phrases:

• Ich verstehe mich gut mit meinem Freund, weil... – I get on well with my friend because...
• Ich verstehe mich gut mit meiner Freundin, weil... – I get on well with my friend because...
• Wir verstehen uns gut, weil ... – We get on well because...

Hilfsvokabeln – Helpful vocabulary

er hat Zeit für mich– he has time for me

er hilft mir mit den Hausaufgaben– he helps me with my homework

er ist lustig– he is funny

sie kann gut zuhören– she is a good listener

sie ist immer gut gelaunt– she is always cheerful, good humoured

sie ist sehr nett– she is very nice

wir haben dieselben Interessen– we have the same interests

wir haben viel Spaß miteinander– we have lots of fun together

Examples in use:

• Wir verstehen uns gut, weil wir gern ins Kino gehen. Letzten Samstag haben wir eine Komödie gesehen. Es war wirklich lustig. – We get on well because we like going to the cinema. Last Saturday we saw a comedy. It was really funny.
• Wir verstehen uns gut, weil wir dieselben Interessen haben. Wir singen in einem Chor und im Oktober werden wir im Stadttheater singen. Ich freue mich darauf. – We get on well because we have the same interests. We sing in a choir and in October we will sing in the town theatre. I'm looking forward to it.
• Wir verstehen uns gut, weil wir gern Handball spielen. Es wäre schön , wenn wir öfter gewinnen würden. – We get on well because we like playing handball. It would be nice if we won more often.

How would you say these sentences to describe how well you get on with your friends and why? Record and check your answers.

• I get on well with Daniel because we have the same interests.
• We get on well because she always has time for me.
• I get on well with my friend because she helps me with my homework.
• I get on well with my friend because he is nice.
• We get on well because he is a good listener.

Ich verstehe mich gut mit Daniel, weil wir dieselben Interessen haben.– I get on well with Daniel because we have the same interests.

Wir verstehen uns gut, weil sie immer Zeit für mich hat.– We get on well because she always has time for me.

Ich verstehe mich gut mit meiner Freundin, weil sie mir mit den Hausaufgaben hilft.– I get on well with my friend because she helps me with my homework.

Ich verstehe mich gut mit meinem Freund, weil er nett ist.– I get on well with my friend because he is nice.

Wir verstehen uns gut, weil er gut zuhören kann.– We get on well because he is a good listener.

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Meine beste Freundin – My Best Friend German

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Meine beste Freundin English Version below:

My best friend – short story with imagination.

Read this book in English here.

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Introducing Yourself and Your Friends in German

German phrases for dummies.

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Introducing your friends.

Das ist . . . (dâs îsst) (This is . . .)

Das ist meine Freundin (f) / mein Freund (m) . . . (dâs îsst my-ne froyn -dîn / myn froynt) (This is my friend . . .)

If the introductions have been slightly more formal, you express "Nice to meet you" by saying

Freut mich. (froyt mîH) (I'm pleased.)

Mich auch. (mîH owH) (Me, too.)

Talkin' the talk

Frau Berger: Herr Schulte, das ist Frau Lempert. (hêr shûl-tê, dâs îsst frow lêm -pert) (Mr. Schulte, this is Ms. Lempert.)

Herr Schulte: Freut mich. (froyt mîH) (I'm pleased.)

Frau Lempert: Mich auch. ( mîH owH) (Me, too.)

Karin: Michael, das ist meine Freundin Ute. ( mî -Hâ-êl, dâs îsst my -ne froyn -dîn oo -te) (Michael, this is my friend Ute.)

Michael: Hallo Ute. ( hâ -lo oo -te) (Hello, Ute.)

Introductions for special occasions

• Darf ich Ihnen . . . vorstellen? (dârf îH ee -nen . . . fohr -shtêln) (May I introduce you to . . .?)
• Freut mich, Sie kennenzulernen. (froyt mîH, zee kên -nen-tsû- lêr -nen) (I'm pleased to meet you.)
• Meinerseits. ( my -ner- zyts ) / Ganz meinerseits. (gânts my -ner- zyts ) (Likewise.)

Herr Kramer: Guten Abend, Herr Huber! (gûtn ah -bnt, hêr hoo -ber) (Good evening, Mr. Huber!)

Herr Huber: Guten Abend! Herr Kramer. Darf ich Ihnen meine Frau vorstellen? (gûtn ah -bnt! hêr krah -mer. dârf îH ee -nen my -nê frow fohr -shtêln) (Good evening! Mr. Kramer. May I introduce you to my wife?)

Herr Kramer: Guten Abend, Frau Huber! Freut mich sehr, Sie kennenzulernen. (gûtn ah -bnt frow hoo -bêr! froit mîH zehr zee kên -nen-tsû- lêr -nen) (Good evening, Mrs. Huber! Very nice to meet you.)

Frau Huber: Ganz meinerseits, Herr Kramer. (gânts my -ner- zyts , hêr krah -mer) (Likewise, Mr. Kramer.)

Introducing yourself

In German, there are two ways of telling people your name. One of them is

Mein Name ist . . . (myn nah -me îsst) (My name is . . .)

Ich heiße . . . (îH hy -sse) (My name is . . .)

Talkin' the Talk

Herr Hauser: Guten Tag! Ist der Platz noch frei? (gûtn tahgk, îsst dehr plâts nôH fry) (Good day! Is this seat still free?)

Frau Berger: Ja, bitte. (yah, bî -te) (Yes, please.)

Herr Hauser: Vielen Dank. Mein Name ist Max Hauser. ( fee -lên dângk. myn nah -me îsst mâx how -ser) (Thank you very much. My name is Max Hauser.)

Frau Berger: Freut mich. Karin Berger. (froyt mîH. kah -rîn bêr -ger) (I'm pleased. Karin Berger.)

Martin: Hallo, wie heißt Du? ( hâ -lo, vee hysst dû) (Hello, what's your name?)

Susanne: Ich heiße Susanne. Und Du? (îH hy-ssê zoo- zâ -ne. ûnt dû) (My name is Susanne. And you?)

Martin: Martin. Und wer ist das? (mâr-tîn. ûnt vear îsst dâss) (Martin. And who is that?)

Susanne: Das ist meine Freundin Anne. (dâss îsst my -ne froyn -dîn ân -ne) (This is my friend Anne.)

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I was upset my friend was getting married. Then I toppled her wedding cake

“Where does the cake go?” I asked a bow-tied bartender, my voice tight and panicked. I was in my best cocktail dress and heels, trying to keep my grip on a box roughly the size, and weight, of a bear cub.

I’d been late getting ready, late picking up the cake, and now I was late to my friend Stephanie’s wedding . I’d missed the ceremony completely and it was already cocktail hour. I just wanted to get the cake through the crowd and onto the dessert table before the bride noticed.

The bartender pointed me toward the reception tent on the other side of the winery. As I shuffled forward, I grumbled to myself: Why did I have to volunteer to transport the cake? Why, I wondered, was I going to this wedding at all?

Stephanie was my next-door neighbor. Her getting married meant she and her 4-year-old daughter were moving, which meant both my toddler and I were losing our best, and closest, friends. Of course, I knew I was supposed to be happy for Stephanie, who’d finally found true love. And on the outside, I was. I smiled, I celebrated, and I put on heels. But on the inside, I was drooping like a day-old bouquet.

When I eventually placed the box on the dessert table, I sighed with relief. I even gave a wink and two thumbs up to a waiter, who was putting out the last of the silverware. Finally, my task was complete. Maybe now I could find a glass of wine and try to enjoy myself.

But my joy turned to horror when I opened the box and found the cake, a two-tier confection with white buttercream frosting, decorated with greenery, was almost completely horizontal: smushed up against the side of its cardboard box.

I stood, frozen, staring at the cake. Frosting was everywhere, sections of yellow cake popping out. I had the scary thought that somehow, subconsciously, I might have done this on purpose.

It all started when Stephanie began dating her husband-to-be.

She and I sat on my front patio, sharing a bottle of wine and a cheese plate my husband had prepared for us. Our toddlers were taking turns going down a plastic slide.

“There’s just something about him,” my friend said. “I can see myself with him. I think he’s the one.”

I congratulated her, poured more wine, and assured her that her new boyfriend seemed like a great catch. I was genuinely happy for her.

As the months passed, when we’d chat over our garden wall or meet for toddler playdates, Stephanie would mention marriage more and more. I was excited, asking when she thought he was going to propose. I always told her how fun married life could be and was looking forward to watching her be a bride. But eventually, she started mentioning the new home she and her bigger family would need. He wanted more space than her two-bedroom townhome and she wanted a place where they could start fresh together. “Neither his place nor my place — our place,” she told me.

I hated the idea.

Ever since I’d moved into the neighborhood two years before, Stephanie and I had been fast friends. I could always depend on her if I needed a last-minute babysitter and she could always count on me to bring over pizza and dessert on days she had to work late. Whenever one of us unexpectedly ran out of baby wipes, the other was always ready to pass a package over the garden wall.

It meant so much to have a mom friend next door, especially when I felt unsure of my skills as a parent. Stephanie had a teenager as well, so as the more experienced parent, she’d give me valuable advice and introduce me to the best local toddler activities and classes. When I complained about a hard parenting day, she commiserated. It always made me feel better. She was one of the first people I told after I found out I was pregnant with my second, and there were many days when she came over to hold my newborn so I could shower or take a nap.

One day, Stephanie texted me a picture of an engagement ring. “He proposed! I can’t believe it,” she wrote.

I couldn’t believe it either, or maybe I didn’t want to.

After that, things moved fast. Wedding plans were made, a date was set, and soon, Stephanie started packing. Her fiancé had found them a beautiful home in the next city over.

I started dreading the wedding. Stephanie’s friendship had meant so much to me. Without her next door, I didn’t know what I’d do.

On the day of Stephanie’s wedding, I woke up feeling off. I was distracted, thinking about a close friend who had moved out of state in middle school and another friend who had transferred out of our college. People say they’ll keep in touch, but it’s always hard.

I stomped around all morning as I got ready, got the kids dressed and finally picked up the cake. It wasn’t until later that day, when I opened the cake box and found the frosting covering the inside of the box, that I finally snapped out of my mood.

My friend’s wedding cake was splattered like a pie in a “Looney Tunes” cartoon. And it was all my fault.

I was shocked. My friend’s wedding cake was splattered like a pie in a “Looney Tunes” cartoon. And it was all my fault. Had this happened when I turned off the freeway? Had I tilted it too much while walking through the venue? Did the air conditioning not reach my car’s hatchback, causing the cake to simply melt onto itself? I wasn’t sure.

I stood there, frustrated, sad and on the verge of tears. I’d missed my friend’s wedding ceremony, missed her finally saying “I do,” and now I was ruining the reception, delivering a mess of a cake. Stephanie had been there for me, supported and encouraged me often over the last two years, and I’d let her down on her big day. I wanted to step away from the table, get to my car and drive away as fast as I could. But I knew I had to, somehow, try to fix this.

The guests were still at cocktail hour, which meant Stephanie was busy taking photos on the other side of the venue. But I knew I was quickly running out of time.

I gently pulled the cake up and out of the box, letting the top half rest on my forearm as I kept the two layers somewhat together. When a waiter walked by, I shouted, “Get me a knife!” like a surgeon in a medical drama. He handed me a myriad of utensils and I got to work, trying to push the cake right-side up and level the frosting. Another woman, who I later learned was the caterer, offered a pitcher of water. “A wet knife will work better,” she said. She dipped a knife in the water and covered a patch of exposed cake with ease. “Don’t worry, I’ve seen a lot worse,” she said before getting back to preparing the buffet food. 

I was grateful for help from this apparent frosting whisperer, but from the smell of rosemary chicken she was now uncovering, I knew I was running out of time.

Now on my own, and with seconds to finish, I tried my best to smooth the final sections. I even stole greenery from the table centerpieces to cover the hopeless sections. In the end, I had frosting on my hands, on my dress and in my hair, and the cake still leaned slightly to one side — but I thought it looked OK. Almost normal.

When the first wedding guests started arriving at the reception tent, I took that as my cue to head to cocktail hour and find my husband and kids. Together, we walked to our table.

As we mixed in with the other guests, chatted with some of Stephanie’s other friends and eventually found our table, I kind of felt like that cake. I’d been a droopy mess before, but now I felt pieced together and ready for a party.

Sure, I was losing a great neighbor, but at the same time, there was so much to be thankful for, so much to celebrate. Of course I wanted to be there. I wanted to stand tall and celebrate my friend.

In the end, everyone seemed to enjoy the cake, even though it was a little off. When I took a break from dancing to get a slice, it was already gone.

I saw Stephanie outside the next morning. She was on her way to the airport, ready for her honeymoon. When I apologized for the cake, she just laughed and said it wasn’t a big deal. Still, I found myself apologizing again and again. I knew I was sorry about more than just the cake. “When you get back, let me know how I can help you finish packing,” I said, giving her a big hug.

In the past six months since Stephanie moved, I have to admit, we’ve only seen each other a handful of times. Maybe she and I will figure out how to keep in touch better than I have with other friends who have moved. Maybe we won’t. But I’m so lucky I had Stephanie for a next-door neighbor when I did. Now, we might not be as physically close, but I hope we’re friends for a long time.

And while Stephanie said the cake wasn’t a big deal, I still feel bad. Every so often, I wonder about my first thought when I first opened the box, if I really did wreck it on purpose. But the more I think about it, the more I’m sure it was an accident. Things happen: Cakes fall, we run late, friends move. We just have to try to do our best and, when we’re down, hope someone will help build us back up and smooth the edges.

Jillian Pretzel is a California-based writer and mom of two. You can find her on Instagram or at www.jillianpretzel.com .

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7 Ways to Say Friend in German – From Formal to Slang

There are many times when you want to say “friend”. You might be waiting for a friend, express that you’d like to make a friend, or simply want to thank someone with a “Thanks, friend.”

In German we say Freundschaft ist des Lebens Salz — “Friendships are the salt of life”.

Have you ever wondered how to say friend in German? We’ll show you a number of different ways of saying “friend” in German and dive deeper into the different situations in which you use it.

Friend in German at a Glance

All the Ways to Say Friend in German

Freund/Freundin

While Freund refers to the male form, Freundin refers to the female form. Freund/Freundin describes a close friendly relationship with the person.

Be careful, Freund/Freundin can also mean boyfriend or girlfriend. This is most often the case when it’s accompanied by the pronoun mein .

Mein Freund/meine Freundin will often mean “my boyfriend/girlfriend”.

To avoid confusion, use ein Freund for male and eine Freundin for a female. It simply means “a friend” and it will be clear you’re only referring to a platonic friend.

It describes a relationship just as close as Freund/Freundin but is most often used among a younger male demographic.

It is used in an informal context and generally among young people. It is only used between boys and men.

You will know through the context of the conversation whether the person refers to a friend or a work colleague.

The word “alter” is German slang, and is used similarly to how you would use “mate”, “dude”, or “bro” in English. It’s very colloquial and usually only used by younger people.

Bekannter/Bekannte

Fremder/fremde.

Read next: 10 Ways to Say “How Are You” in German and How to Respond

How to say my friend in German?

But as we mentioned, it is usually meant to refer to a romantic partner like a boyfriend or girlfriend. girlfriend.

There are a few ways to introduce your platonic friend to a group of people, without there being any awkward misunderstandings. The most foolproof way is to add say eine Freundin Von Mir , which translates to “a friend of mine”.

Das ist Anja, eine Freundin von mir

That’s Anja, a friend of mine.

Levels of Friendship in German

Not all friends are equally close to us, and the following German adjectives can help you classify your friends from acquaintances to bosom bodies.

Freund is the most common word for saying friend in German and when you are unsure about the formality of the situation, it is your go-to expression. Spice it up by using a fun adjective to further describe the relationship.

Many people think that Germans aren’t the easiest people to befriend. They have a reputation for not being instantly smiley and chatty. But this is just a superficial interpretation. Once you have a German friend, they are yours for life.

Sarah was born and raised in Germany by a French mom and a Polish dad. Languages are her passion and education is her purpose. She splits her life between Germany and Honduras.

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German Essays on My Family: Meine Familie

Learning or Practising German Language? or your tutor asked you to write about your family, or you can say you need to write an essay on My family (Meine Familie) but you have no idea how to do that and where to start?

Well, In this blog post, I have shared some Easy Essays on My Family (Meine Familie) . All the best and keep learning.

Before Start, First we need to discuss some vocabulary related to Family.

The following list includes most of the members of your family tree. Get familiar with these words so you can recognize them:

Read Also: Easy German Essays for Beginners: 8 Examples to Practice Your Language Skills

• der Bruder (dêr brooh -der) ( brother )
• der Cousin (dêr kooh -zen) ( male cousin )
• die Cousine (dee kooh- zeen -e) ( female cousin )
• die Eltern (dee êl -tern) ( parents )
• die Frau (dee frou) ( woman/wife )
• die Geschwister (dee ge- shvis -ter) ( siblings )
• die Großeltern (dee grohs -êl-tern) ( grandparents )
• die Großmutter (dee grohs -moot-er) ( grandmother )
• der Großvater (dêr grohs -fah-ter) ( grandfather )
• der Junge (dêr yoong -e) ( boy )
• die Kinder (dee kin -der) ( children, kids )
• das Mädchen (dâs maid -Hên) ( girl )
• der Mann (dêr mân) ( man/husband )
• die Mutter (dee moot -er) ( mother )
• der Onkel (dêr on -kel) ( uncle )
• die Schwester (dee shvês -ter) ( sister )
• der Sohn (dêr zohn) ( son )
• die Tante (dee tân -te) ( aunt )
• die Tochter (dee toH -ter) ( daughter )
• der Vater (dêr fah -ter) ( father )

Use the following words for the in-laws:

• der Schwager (dêr shvah -ger) ( brother-in-law )
• die Schwägerin (dee shvai -ger-in) ( sister-in-law )
• die Schwiegereltern (dee shvee -ger-êl-tern) ( parents-in-law )
• die Schwiegermutter (dee shvee -ger-moot-er) ( mother-in-law )
• der Schwiegersohn (dêr shvee -ger-zohn) ( son-in-law )
• die Schwiegertochter (dee shvee -ger-toH-ter) ( daughter-in-law )
• der Schwiegervater (dêr shvee -ger-fah-ter) ( father-in-law )

To express the term step-, you use the prefix Stief- with the name of the relative, like in this example: Stiefbruder ( steef- brooh-der) ( step-brother ). The term for a half relative uses the prefix Halb- , so half-sister looks like this: Halbschwester ( hâlp- shvês-ter).

German-speaking children use the following terms to talk about their parents and grandparents:

• die Mama (dee mâ -mâ) ( mom )
• die Mutti (dee moot -ee) ( mommy )
• die Oma (dee oh -mâ) ( grandma )
• der Opa (der oh -pâ) ( grandpa )
• der Papa (dêr pâ -pâ) ( dad )
• der Vati (dêr fâ -tee) ( daddy )

When directly addressing their elders, children leave out the articles dee (dee) ( the ) and der (dêr) ( the ). For example, Mama! Komm her! ( mâ -mâ!! kom hêr!) ( Mom! Come here! )

Read our Complete Vocabulary: Talking about – The Family – in German

Essay One: The Average Family

Meine Familie ist eine kleine Kernfamilie, die zu einer bürgerlichen Familie gehört. Meine Familie besteht aus vier Mitgliedern, einem Vater, einer Mutter, mir und einer kleinen Schwester. Wie andere indische Familien sind wir keine große Familie. Wir leben in Berlin, aber meine Großeltern leben auf dem Land. Zusammen mit meinen Großeltern wird meine Familie eine kleine Familie. Meine Familie ist eine vollständige, positive und glückliche Familie, die mir und meiner Schwester viel Liebe, Wärme und Sicherheit schenkt. Ich fühle mich in meiner Familie so glücklich, dass es auf mich aufpasst und alle meine Bedürfnisse erfüllt. Eine glückliche Familie bietet ihren Mitgliedern die folgenden Vorteile.

Here is what the text is about (this is not a 1-to-1 translation!)

My family is a small nuclear family that belongs to a middle-class family. My family consists of four members, a father, a mother, me and a little sister. Like other Indian families, we are not a big family. We live in Berlin, Germany, but my grandparents live in the countryside. Together with my grandparents, my family becomes a little family together. My family is a complete, positive and happy family, giving me and my sister a lot of love, warmth and security. I feel so happy in my family that it takes care of me and meets all my needs. A happy family offers the following benefits to its members.

Essay Two: The Average Family

If you live with your Mum, Dad, and with your brother or sister. Then use this text to describe your family in your German essay:

Wir sind eine ganz normale Familie. Ich wohne zusammen mit meinen Eltern, meiner kleinen Schwester Lisa und unserer Katze Mick. Meine Großeltern wohnen im gleichen Dorf wie wir. Oma Francis arbeitet noch. Sie ist Krankenschwester. Die Anderen sind schon in Rente. Oma Lydia nimmt sich viel Zeit für mich und geht häufig mit mir Kleider oder Schuhe kaufen. Leider will meine kleine Schwester dann auch immer mit. Mein Vater arbeitet bei einer Bank und fährt am Wochenende gern mit seinem Motorrad. Das findet meine Mutter nicht so gut, da sie meint, dass Motorradfahren so gefährlich ist. Sie sagt, dass ich und meine Schwester auf keinen Fall mitfahren dürfen. Mein Vater versteht das nicht, aber er will sich auch nicht streiten. Nächstes Jahr wollen wir in ein größeres Haus ziehen, weil meine Eltern noch ein Baby bekommen. Ich hoffe, dass wir nicht zu weit weg ziehen, da alle meine Freunde hier in der Nähe wohnen. Meine Tante Clara, die Schwester meiner Mutter, wohnt sogar genau gegenüber. Meine Cousine Barbara kommt deshalb häufig zu Besuch.

We are a very normal family. I live with my parents, my little sister, and our cat Mick. My grandparents live in the same village where we live. Grandma Francis still works. She is a nurse. The others are already retired. Grandma Lydia spends a lot of time with me, and we often go shopping together to look for clothes or shoes. Unfortunately, my little sister wants to come with us as well. My father works in a bank and likes to ride his motorbike on the weekend. My mother does not like that because she thinks it is very dangerous. She says we are never allowed to ride with him on the bike. My father doesn’t understand why, but he doesn’t want to argue with her. Next year, we are going to move into a bigger house because my parents will have another baby. I hope we are not moving too far because all of my friends are here. My aunt Clara even lives opposite to us. Therefore, my cousin Barbara often visits us.

Example Three: A Big Family

If you have a big family, this example may help you with your German essay:

Meine Familie ist sehr groß. Ich habe zwei Schwestern, einen Bruder, drei Tanten, einen Onkel und sechs Cousins. Meine große Schwester hat lange blonde Haare und heißt Laura und eine kleine Schwester heißt Miranda und ist dunkelhaarig. Mein Bruder heißt Fred und trägt eine Brille. Ich verstehe mich gut mit meiner kleinen Schwester und meinem Bruder. Mit meiner großen Schwester streite ich mich oft um den Computer. Mein Vater arbeitet zwar viel, aber am Wochenende hilft er uns immer bei den Hausaufgaben. Meine Mutter backt gerne Torten. Ihre Schokotorten mag ich besonders gerne. In den Ferien besuchen wir häufig meine Großeltern, da sie leider so weit entfernt wohnen. Meine anderen Großeltern, die Eltern meiner Mutter wohnen eine Straße weiter. Das finde ich schön, da wir uns oft sehen können. Außerdem haben sie eine süße Perserkatze, mit der ich immer spiele. Wenn uns meine Cousins besuchen kommen, unternehmen wir meist etwas Besonderes. Letztes Wochenende waren wir alle zusammen im Zoo. Das war lustig, da mein Cousin Ben Angst vor Schlangen hatte. Ich mag meine Familie!

Now, the same story in English:

My family is very big. I have got two sisters, one brother, three aunts, one uncle, and six cousins. My older sister has long blond hair, and her name is Laura. My little sister is called Miranda and has dark hair. My brother’s name is Fred and wears glasses. I get along well with my little sister and my brother. But I argue a lot with my older sister about the computer. Although my father works a lot, he always helps us with homework on the weekend. My mother likes to bake cakes. I especially like her chocolate cake. During the holidays, we often visit my grandparents because they live so far from us. My other grandparents, the parents of my mother, live on the street next to ours. I like that because that way we can see each other a lot. In addition to that, they have a cute Persian cat I always play with. When my cousins visit us, we always do something special together. Last weekend, we went to the zoo together. That was fun because my cousin Ben was afraid of the snake. I like my family!

Read Also:  Learn German Numbers (Deutsche Zählen) and Pronunciation 1 to 999999

Essay Four: A Small Family

If you are living with only one parent, check out this text:

Meine Familie ist sehr klein. Ich lebe zusammen mit meiner Mutter und meinem Bruder. Tanten oder Onkel habe ich nicht. Meinen Vater sehe ich nur in den Sommerferien, da er weit weg wohnt. Meine Oma wohnt gleich nebenan. Sie kūmmert sich nachmittags um mich und meinen Bruder, wenn meine Mutter arbeiten muss. Meine Oma ist schon in Rente. Sie hat frūher mal bei der Post gearbeitet. Mein Opa und meine anderen Großeltern sind leider schon gestorben. Mein Bruder heißt Patrick und ist sehr gut in der Schule. Er ist sehr groß und schlank und hat blonde Locken. Meine Freundin findet ihn sūß. Das verstehe ich gar nicht. Ich mag es aber nicht, wenn er laut Musik hört und es gerade meine Lieblingssendung im Fernsehen gibt. Dafūr geht er immer mit unserem Hund Gassi, so dass ich das nicht tun muss. Ich wūnschte, ich hätte noch eine Schwester, die mir helfen könnte, meine Haare zu frisieren, oder mit der ich die Kleider tauschen könnte. Ich hoffe nur, dass meine Mutter nicht noch mal heiratet.

In English:

My family is very small. I live with my mother and my brother. I have no aunts or uncles. I only see my father during the summer holiday because he lives far away. My grandma lives next door. She looks after me and my brother when my mother has to work. My grandma is already retired. She used to work at a post office. My grandpa and my other grandparents are already dead. My brother’s name is Patrick, and he is doing very well at school. He is very tall and slim and has curly blond hair. My friend thinks he is cute. I cannot understand that at all. But I do not like it when he listens to loud music when my favorite tv show is on. On the other hand, he always walks the dog so that I don’t need to do that. I wish I had a sister who would help me style my hair or who I could swap clothes with. I do hope that my mother is not going to marry again.

Read Also: Easy Sentences you need for Introduce yourself in German

Essay Five: Living with Grandparents

Do you live with your grandparents? Then check out this example if it suits you:

Ich wohne bei meinen Großeltern, da meine Eltern gestorben sind, als ich noch ein Baby war. Wir wohnen in einem großen Haus, und ich habe ein riesiges Zimmer mit meinem eigenen Balkon. Im Sommer mache ich dort immer meine Hausaufgaben. Meine Großeltern sind ganz lieb zu mir. Mein Opa hilft mir immer, mein Fahrrad zu reparieren und meine Oma lädt meine Freunde oft zum Essen ein. Ich habe auch noch einen Onkel, der manchmal am Wochenende vorbeikommt und Architekt ist. Momentan arbeitet er jedoch in Japan für drei Monate. Wir passen solange auf seinen Hund auf, und er hat mir versprochen, mir eine Überraschung aus Japan mitzubringen. Eine Frau hat mein Onkel nicht. Meine Oma sagt immer, er sei mit seiner Arbeit verheiratet. Dann gibt es noch Tante Miriam, die eigentlich keine richtige Tante ist, sondern die beste Freundin meiner Oma. Die beiden kennen sich aber schon so lange, dass sie inzwischen auch zur Familie gehört. Tante Miriam hat viele Enkelkinder und manchmal treffen wir uns alle zusammen im Park. Dann machen wir ein großes Picknick und haben ganz viel Spaß.

And here is what the text is about (Remember, this isn’t a 1-to-1 translation!):

I live with my grandparents because my parents died when I was a baby. We live in a big house, and I have a huge room with my own balcony. In the summertime, I do my homework there. My grandparents are very nice to me. My grandpa always helps me repair my bike, and my grandma often invites my friends for dinner. I also have an uncle who comes around for the weekend from time to time, and he is an architect. At the moment, he is working in Japan for three months, and we are looking after his dog. But he promised me to bring a surprise back from Japan. My uncle has no wife. My grandma always says he is married to his job. Then there is aunt Miriam who is not a real aunt actually but the best friend of my grandma. Since they have known each other for such a long time, she became a member of our family. Aunt Miriam has lots of grandchildren, and sometimes we all meet in the park. Then we have a great picnic and much fun!

If you have any doubt or have some suggestions for us, or even if we missed something to mention in My Family (Meine Familie), Let us know by writing in a comment box. Thanks for reading and sharing with your friends.

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“How I Spent My Summer” in German

• by Deutsch mit Leo
• 5 minute read

How to write an essay “How I spent the summer” in German or just talk about a vacation, what words you may need and what basic rules you should keep in mind – in our today’s article, which will be useful not only for schoolchildren and students, but also for those who return for German courses after the summer break .

So the three summer months have come to an end, many of us are returning to school / university / courses (underline as necessary). In the meantime, we have prepared for you an article designed to simplify life at first.

Today we will talk about how you could spend the summer and repeat the vocabulary on this topic.

Top 5 things to keep in mind!

1.  First of all, the Germans call this period  der Sommer  (summer) or   die Sommerferien  (summer holidays). 

2.  Since we are writing about what has already happened, we will use the past tense or the perfect past (   Präteritum or Perfekt – when to use what  ).  Präteritum , and this is the second form of the verb, is correct in writing and emphasizes the descriptive character.  Perfect , on the other hand , is used more in colloquial speech, and in writing it conveys the shade of a story or conversation.

3.  There is also an important grammatical feature worth remembering:  wenn and als temporary conjunctions  – “ when “.  Wenn  tells us about “when” that happens regularly, several times, every time.  Als  tells about a one-time event in the past.

4.  The essay format involves writing a related text, expressing opinions and wishes, as well as a touch of sincerity, so when you start writing, stock up on a set of cliché expressions and introductory words, a la “  Ich hoffe, dass…  “, “  Ich denke, …  “,”  Hoffentlich “, etc.

5.  It is also necessary to remember the grammatical difference between the questions “  where?  ” and “  Where?  “. “Where?” – WO?  – requires after itself strictly Dativ, and  “Where?” – WOHIN?  – supplemented in  Akkusativ .

Having discussed the main points of writing an essay, let’s move on to the necessary vocabulary.

The most basic:

der Sommer  – summer die Sommerferien  (Pl.) – summer holidays der Urlaub  – holiday die Reise  – trip im Sommer  – summer

When can I go on vacation / holiday:

im Sommer / Herbst / Winter / Frühling  – summer, autumn, winter, spring in den Ferien  – holidays am Wochenende  – weekends letzten Sommer / Monat  – last summer / last month letzte Woche  – last week

letztes Jahr  – last year im letzten Urlaub  – last vacation in den letzten Ferien  – last vacation vor einem Monat  – a month ago vor einer Woche  – a week ago 

How long can you be on vacation / on a trip / on a holiday:

einen Tag  – one day drei Tage  – three days einen Monat  – one month zwei Monate  – two months eine Woche  – a week drei Wochen  – within three weeks  

IMPORTANT!  Intervals require Akkusativ.

Where to spend your holidays / stay ( Wo = Dativ ):

Ich machte Urlaub…  – I was on holiday… Ich war… in Urlaub.  – I was … on holiday in der Stadt  – in the city auf dem Land  – in the village in den Bergen  – in the mountains

am See  – on the lake am Meer    – on the sea im Ausland  – abroad im Ferienlager / Trainingslager  – in the summer / sports camp auf dem Campingplatz  – at the campsite

in der Jugendherberge  – at the student hostel im Hotel  – at the hotel

Where can you go on vacation ( Wohin = Akkusativ ):

Ich bin nach / in … gefahren  – I went to … Ich fuhr / flog / reiste nach … / in …  – I went, flew, traveled to … in die Stadt  – to the city aufs Land  – to the village in die Berge  – to the mountains

zum See  – at the lake an das Meer  – at the sea ins Ausland  – abroad in das Ferienlager / Trainingslager  – at the summer / sports camp auf den Campingplatz  – at the campsite

in die Jugendherberge  – at the student hostel ins Hotel  – at the hotel

What can you ride with :

mit dem Auto  – by car mit dem Zug  – by train mit dem Flugzeug  – by plane mit dem Schiff  – by ship zu Fuß  – on foot 

IMPORTANT  : With transport (to ride something), the construction  mit + Dativ is always used

Common verbs of motion and their three forms:

fahren – fuhr – (ist) gefahren  – ride fliegen  –  flog – (ist)   geflogen    –  fly gehen – ging – (ist)  gegangen  – walk / go 

The full list of irregular verbs can be found here

An example essay:

Die Schüler gehen im Sommer nicht zur Schule. Sie haben 3 Monate lang Sommerferien. Die Kinder müssen nicht früh aufstehen, keine Hausaufgaben machen und nichts für die Schule vorbereiten. Deshalb liebt jeder den Sommerurlaub.

Students don’t go to school in the summer. They have a summer vacation that lasts for 3 months. Children don’t have to get up early, do homework, or prepare anything for school. That’s why everyone loves summer vacation.

Ich mag die Sommerferien sehr, weil ich dann viel freie Zeit habe. An hellen Sommermorgen liege ich nie lange im Bett. Nach dem Aufstehen frühstücke ich schön. Dann spiele ich draußen mit meinen Freunden. Und wenn es draußen regnet, spiele ich am Computer oder gehe ins Fitnessstudio. Manchmal gehe ich nachmittags mit meinen Freunden ins Kino oder spiele Basketball im Garten.

I really like summer vacations because of the amount of free time. On bright summer mornings I never lie in bed for a long time. After I get up, I have a delicious breakfast. Then I play outside with my friends. And if it’s raining outside, I play on the computer or go to the gym. Sometimes in the afternoon I go to the movies with my friends or play basketball in the yard.

Jeden Sommer fahre ich aufs Land, um meine Verwandten zu besuchen. Ich helfe im Garten oder kümmere mich um die Hühner und Enten. Im Dorf gehen mein Vater und ich oft fischen. Ich gehe morgens gerne an den Strand, wenn es nicht zu heiß ist. Ich schwimme, sonne mich und spiele mit meinen Freunden am Flussufer.

Every summer I go to the countryside to visit my relatives. I help in the garden or look after the chickens and ducks. In the village, my dad and I often go fishing. I really like going to the beach in the mornings, when it’s not so hot yet. I swim, sunbathe and play with my friends on the riverbank.

Wenn mein Großvater nicht zu beschäftigt ist, gehen wir in den Wald, um Pilze zu sammeln. Abends genieße ich es, am Feuer zu sitzen und Spieße zu kochen, und ich schlafe auch sehr gerne im Zelt.

When my grandfather is not very busy, we go to the woods to pick mushrooms. In the evenings I really like to sit by the fire and cook kebabs, also I very willingly sleep in a tent.

Für mich dauern die Sommerferien nie zu lange. Aber ich freue mich immer, wenn die Schule wieder anfängt und ich alle meine Freunde sehen kann.

For me the summer vacations never last too long. Despite this, I am always happy when school starts again and I can see all my friends.

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My wife isn't 'just' a stepmom to my son. He sees her as his other mom.

• My wife has been in my son's life since he was 6 years old.
• She has taken on a parental role, stepping in whenever I need extra help.
• Even though she's his stepmom, my son considers her his other mom.

After Vice President Kamala Harris announced she was running for president, one criticism lobbed against her was that she is not a parent because she has never given birth to children. But she is the stepmother to her husband Doug Emhoff's two children.

Like Harris, my wife is a stepmother to my son.

I am no longer in a relationship with his father and have been in a new relationship for four years. My wife came into my son's life when he was 6 years old and quickly stepped into a parental role. It was a role she enthusiastically took on.

Although she didn't give birth to my son, my wife is absolutely his second mother.

My son and wife's relationship started friendly

My wife didn't immediately take an authoritative role or force him to treat her like a parent. At first, she was more like a grown-up friend — someone he knew he needed to respect, but someone who would take him on drives to get ice cream or let him pretend to drive her car while I was inside the grocery store.

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I was worried about parenting with another person all the time. As the primary parent, I wasn't used to dividing parenting duties . My wife was aware of that and always deferred to me as the primary parent.

But the bond between my son and my wife was instant. He had never met someone I was dating before, but he liked her immediately.

My wife has taken on more responsibility as a stepmom

Over the last four years, she's taken on more parental responsibility but never tried to act like she was more of a parent than myself or my son's father. She is a bonus mom, someone there to kiss him goodnight , help him with his homework, and love him unconditionally.

During the pandemic, my wife volunteered to take the lead in helping my son with virtual school so I could focus on work. She created a schedule for him, made him lunch, and ensured he kept up with assignments. When the playgrounds opened, she would take him to play, armed with a backpack full of whatever was needed.

I have gone on several overnight trips , leaving the two of them alone together. My son doesn't even call or text me when I'm gone because he's having so much fun hanging out with my wife. I never have to worry about him; I know my wife will make sure he takes a bath and goes to bed on time.

There are days when I will ask her to tag in and do the bedtime routine because I'm working or want a break, and she does it without question. My son knows that if he needs something, he doesn't have to come to me all the time.

Seeing my wife willingly step into a parental role with my son has strengthened our relationship. I knew I loved her almost immediately after we met, but seeing how my son responded to her made me more secure in my decision.

Sometimes, she still refers to him as mine, and I always remind her that she's his mom, too. We do everything as a team: school meetings, performances, birthday parties . Everyone knows us as his two moms, and there's no one else I could imagine doing this with.

My son now sees my wife as the missing piece to our family puzzle. He proudly claims her as his other mom.

"You're my mom too," my son will say when my wife calls herself his stepmom. He made that decision. My wife never wanted to force a close relationship on him, but he pushed for it.

Media has warped the perception of stepmoms

Popular media depictions of stepmoms are largely negative. The common trope is that they're evil.

For example, you have characters like Meredith Blake in the Lindsay Lohan version of "The Parent Trap," the Baroness von Schraeder in " The Sound of Music ," and, of course, the prototype: Cinderella's Evil Stepmother.

These women are always seen as temptresses who come in and seduce the father into marrying them before revealing they intend to get rid of his daughter so that she will be the only woman in his life.

Maybe there are stepmoms out there who fit this description, but by and large, stepmoms are there to be whoever their step kids want them to be.

I know that's exactly the role my wife plays, and my son and I are all the more lucky for it.

Watch: Why one mother fled Texas to keep her child safe

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Guest Essay

The Emotion I Didn’t Expect as a New Parent: Regret

By Miguel Macias

A journalist, audio producer and public radio reporter based in Spain.

This essay is part of How to Live With Regret, a series exploring the nature of regret and the role it plays in all our lives. Read more about this project here .

When friends ask me how I’m feeling 18 months after my daughter was born, I usually tell them that it has been wonderful. Sometimes, though, if I’m feeling particularly confessional, I will smile coyly and say: “Well, this is not the life I wanted. But the life I had before was not the life I wanted, either.” I say it in a cheeky, half-joking way, hoping the gravity of the comment will go unnoticed. But it’s not a joke.

Since my daughter, Olivia, was born, I have cycled through a huge range of emotions. I expect many of them would be familiar to any parent: joy, exhaustion, deep love, confusion, wonder, exasperation, happiness, sadness. But there is another, quieter, emotion that comes up every now and then. It’s a feeling that’s so difficult to talk about, so universally taboo, that I feel nervous expressing it even to the people closest to me: regret.

Since I was a teenager, I knew that I did not want to have kids. I did not budge for decades, and I had quite the battery of reasons for feeling this way, from the emotional to the practical — the biggest one being that there were simply too many things I wanted to accomplish in life, and a baby would surely get in the way.

When I was young I dreamed of becoming a famous filmmaker, traveling the world making documentaries. It hardly seemed like a good way to raise a kid. But I also just never had any interest in babies or kids. Rather, I felt resolved, ironclad in my conviction that I would never be a father.

But things change. I settled down. And at 47, my life didn’t look like the one I had once envisioned for myself. To be clear, I have a lot to be proud of. I do work that I care about as a radio producer and reporter, and I’ve been fairly successful. But I didn’t set the world on fire. I am not traveling the globe chasing major stories and winning Oscars. And over time the reasons I’d held onto for why I did not want to have children slowly faded.

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Tom Cruise Was ‘Protective’ of Gina Gershon While Filming Her First Sex Scene, Even When She ‘Kneed Him’ in the Face: ‘I Just Broke His Nose’

By Zack Sharf

Digital News Director

• Charlie Cox Got a Call From Marvel Boss Kevin Feige ‘Midway Through 2020’ About Daredevil Return — Then He Heard Nothing For Two Years: ‘It’s Definitely Over’ 4 hours ago
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Gina Gershon appeared on “Watch What Happens Live” and was asked by host Andy Cohen if she ever hooked up with Tom Cruise . The two actors starred together in 1988’s “Cocktail,” where Gershon remembered nearly breaking Cruise’s nose during the filming of a sex scene. The moment just so happened to be Gershon’s first time shooting a love scene in a movie. The actor said Cruise “totally” took care of her while filming.

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Gershon, meanwhile, was more of a newcomer to Hollywood movies at the time. Her fame increased in the 1990s with acclaimed performances in “Bound,” which Gershon recently revealed she was told not to do as the movie centered on a lesbian relationship. The actor said on the  “It Happened in Hollywood” podcast that her agents told her specifically that she “can’t play a lesbian” because it would tank her Hollywood career.

“It was a great script and I could tell they were incredible directors, but my agents were like, ‘We will not let you do this movie. You are ruining your career. You will never work again,’” Gershon said, adding that her agents said they could no longer represent her if she took the part.

Watch Gershon’s full appearance on “Watch What Happens Live” in the video below.

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The Price of Perky Boobs

“Look at my boobs and tell me what you think.”

I’m a 20-year-old retail assistant, beseeching an older colleague and close friend, to evaluate my bare breasts in the backroom after hours. Unbuckling my bra, I stand before her, totally exposed. “What are you talking about?” She responds. “They’re fine!” After years of self-critiquing, I wasn’t convinced.

While the perceived ‘perfect’ size of breasts have fluctuated with time, breasts have always been beholden to one immovable standard: perky. Those with breasts that align with this archetype may consider their boobs a source of #freethenipple empowerment. Other women feel a kind of wearied distaste for their tatas; forgoing a bra is inconceivable, and god forbid they go on top. Some have embraced a kind of ‘it-is-what-it-is’ booby ambivalence.

I spent several college summers fitting bras at a contemporary lingerie chain—measuring breasts, buckling brassieres and at times, literally lifting flesh into cups—so I have met all these women. I have been them, too. When the pandemic found me in my mid-20s – prompting a massive lifestyle shift and a discovery of disordered eating. I’d moved to the west coast and, without daily walking around New York City, took up running and downloaded Noom, a calorie counter app that promptly capped my daily intake at 1200 calories. (Editor’s note: Research has shown that calorie tracking, including with apps, may contribute to eating disorders.) Within three months, my breasts descended four bra sizes, taking my nipples with them. With that, my boobs entered their new, deflated era, and for the first time, I felt incentivized to confront the issue.

I was not the only one to recently research breast lifts —the number of people searching for them peaked during summer 2021, and has continued to spike each summer since, according to Google Trends. It’s coincided with the arrival of Ozempic , forcing women—and myself—into the same societally-constructed conundrum. Weight loss? We like it. Small, saggy breasts caused by weight loss? Unacceptable. From 2019 to 2023, the American Society of Plastic Surgeons says there was a 30 percent increase in requests for breast lifts (mastopexies)—placing the procedure in direct competition with its more popular sister: implants. “I want my titties pinned back to my shoulders, right where they used to be,” Rihanna revealed in last month’s issue of Interview . “I don’t want implants. I just want a lift.”

New York-based board-certified plastic surgeon Norman Rowe has made his name on the Upper East Side and beyond as a breast expert. In the past year, his requests for lifts have almost tripled—an exponential increase that he says is a result of rampant semaglutide use."

“I get a lot of women who've lost a substantial amount of weight, especially with Ozempic ,” he says. “The more weight someone loses—and the quicker they lose it—the more impact that has on the skin. Body procedures are just going through the roof, 30 percent of our business is now dedicated to face, breast and back lifts.”

When I first consulted with Dr. Rowe for a breast lift , he sketched the anchor-like incision required. He would cut around the areola, down the center of the breast, removing excess skin and raising the nipple so it no longer faces down. This would not create cleavage or add fullness. For that, he emphasized, you need an implant.

“A lift will take care of the sag in the skin, it will take care of the position of the nipple, but it will not address the volume loss of the upper poles of cleavage,” he says. (“Upper poles” is how plastic surgeons refer to the breast tissue above the nipple.) Patients often come in without realizing the limitation of a breast lift, says Dr. Rowe. “There is a misconception among patients of what a lift is. So I figured out the way to ask if they wanted an augmentation or a lift was, ‘Do you want cleavage ?’ Either you want to get bigger and your cleavage to change, or you want to be the same size but get rid of the droopiness.”

I fit into the latter group, or so I thought. Anyone who remembers the 90s will also remember that buxom beauties were not only abundant but considered femininity made manifest. Even if you joined in on the bimbo jokes that shamed the cosmetically enhanced likes of Pamela Anderson and Carmen Electra, their perfectly rounded, perky breasts were still taped to the bedroom walls of your school crush. Anything less than a squeeze-worthy palmful, anything that succumbed to gravity, would be passed over by Playboy editors—relegated instead to the readership of National Geographic.

In the weeks leading up to my surgery, I would debate the pros and cons of implants over and over again. Like Dr. Rowe, I was struggling to understand my expectations. Due to their generally higher placement, my nipples would be raised only an inch. With the removal of skin, my 34D boobs would likely decrease by a half or a whole cup size. Was it worth going through all of this, just for slightly smaller tits with slightly higher nipples? Would I be satisfied with, well, a slight difference?

This was also plaguing Dr. Rowe, who responded to my initial consultation with multiple surgical plans. “One of the key things that I try to ascertain when I'm examining a patient: what are their true expectations and, more importantly, are they realistic for the patient?”

When Dr. Rowe first opened his private practice in 2004, he was routinely implanting 500 and 600cc implants—for reference, one cup size is around 250cc. With larger implants dropping faster, creating sagging, he says women have trended smaller in the last five years. Fat transfer enhancements, popular among those seeking natural-looking breasts, can calcify into hard lumps and be mistaken for cancer during mammography—resulting in additional surgery. The complications and shelf lives associated with implants have also become more well-known : follow-up implant removal or replacement surgeries after 10 years or sooner, and ruptured implants need to be replaced in up to 17.7% percent of patients after 6 or 10 years (the rupture rate after revision augmentation is between 2.9% and 14.7%). Breast implant illness is a controversial topic—it’s a term patients came up with, rather than a medical diagnosis; there’s a lack of data on the topic; and no real agreement about what the symptoms are, though patients tend to name hard-to-track ones, like fatigue, joint pain, brain fog, rash, memory loss—but the FDA and many doctors agree there’s still much to learn, Grant Stevens, the president of the American Society for Aesthetic Plastic Surgery (ASAPS) and a clinical professor of plastic surgery at the Keck School of Medicine of USC, previously told to Allure .

Still, the promise of built-in cleavage was tempting. I wanted to go braless without insecurity. Wear plunging dresses without experimenting with endless sticky cutlets. I didn’t want to tug up my breasts in tight tops. At the same time, I didn’t want to go bigger, and I didn’t want to possibly undergo multiple surgeries on my breasts as I aged. My heart just wasn’t in the implants.

“Whereas I used to do a lot of breast implant mastopexies—where you put in the implants at the same time—today, I'm probably doing a larger number of mastopexies [breast lifts] alone,” he says.

Post-consultation, the options Dr. Rowe offered me were a mastopexy with a small implant or a mastopexy with an internal bra. The internal bra is a lesser-known procedure that originated in the ‘80s, reaching wider awareness more recently, Rowe says, with the help of a rebrand and big marketing push . Originally, the internal bra was a kind of cone shape (picture Madonna) created from a Gore-tex mesh. Over time, there were claims the mesh may have been obscuring mammography, and insurance companies began rejecting claims for mammograms if the patient had an internal bra. That’s where Galaflex came in. A new internal bra material first implemented around 2016, it’s best described as an absorbable mesh sewn into the chest wall.

“Think of it as a hammock,” says Dr. Rowe. “It goes underneath the implant [around existing breast tissue] and keeps it from descending over time. You don't need a full cone because you’re not pulling anything up—but you are protecting the implant from moving down after two years. You have your own sling.”

A lot of breast surgeries rely on skin to hold up an implant or (in the case of a lift-only) breast tissue, Dr. Rowe explained to me, but skin is not capable of bearing weight. Someone who has skin that has been stretched from rapid weight loss is a perfect candidate for an internal bra because that stretching of the skin weakens the layer of collagen that’s usually a built-in structure to prevent descent. But after Galaflex dissolves, in about 1-2 years, “it gets replaced by collagen — which would not have been there otherwise,” says Dr. Rowe, an assessment validated by studies published in the journals Aesthetic Surgery ( in 2022 and 2016) and Plastic and Aesthetic Research . “While the internal bra itself is gone, its impact remains.”

This was enough to convince me to get an internal bra, which starts at $10,000 at Dr. Rowe's practice, making the cost of a breast lift with an internal bra $40,000 and up. While I was assured the results of an internal bra are not permanent—Dr. Rowe said I could expect them to last for at least 10 years—it does make it less likely for the breasts to droop over time. And an internal bra is less likely to interfere with breastfeeding—something that may or may not be in my future—than an implant.

My surgery took around an hour and a half. I was in the clinic by 7:30am, put under general anesthesia, and awake around 11:30am. During the procedure, Dr. Rowe removed excess skin and sewed the gauze to my ribcage, reshaping the remaining skin and tissue to lift my breasts and nipples while reducing the size of my areolas. I was back to my hotel room in a surgical bra by noon. Recovery requires you to wear a surgical bra, day and night, for at least a month — eventually downgrading to a sports bra until around six weeks. A surgical bra is a wireless bralette that closes at the front (so you don’t have to stretch your arms back), and feels very lightweight but also extremely tight. The compression helps with the swelling but also keeps the breasts in their proper place as they heal. I was unable to sleep on my side for around 10 days, and there’s no lifting more than 10 pounds, or working out other than walking, for three weeks. Following that, scar tape or gel on the sutured areas (around the areola, down and under the breast) is an everyday essential for a year.

This dress was impossible for me to wear without a bra before, now they sit perfectly without any support.

The first several days require heavy reliance on another person. For the first 48 hours, my boyfriend lifted and lowered me into bed, dressed me, and brushed my hair and teeth because I couldn’t raise my arms. I was encouraged to walk the next day, and allowed to fly or drive if necessary on the second (I’d traveled to New York City for the surgery, and had booked my flight back home two days later). I had full mobility again by day three or four, but the discomfort should also not be underestimated—specifically with the internal bra. I felt a constant pang and tugging pain on my ribcage that affected even the most basic activities (like lifting groceries or shaving my legs) for the first several weeks.

For the first 24 hours, I was in so much pain that I cried all the way through my post-op appointment the next morning. In the first 24 hours, I was taking a low-dose prescription opiate by itself, which wasn’t enough pain medication, so Dr. Rowe recommended I take it in conjunction with Extra Strength Tylenol. (He compared Tylenol to the main meal, while Oxycodone and Tramadol were a kind of ‘chaser’—supplementing the OTC medication should I need something stronger.) Through my tears, I revealed my new, bruised breasts to Dr. Rowe. Upon inspecting his work, the surgeon concluded he was “very happy” with the results.

“You're trying to make their soul better,” he explains of cosmetic surgery. “While I'm not taking out their appendix, when a patient sees themselves as having a flaw–rightfully so or not–you're trying to correct it. And sometimes to them, it's life and death. Honestly, down deep, I'm a fixer. Seeing a problem and getting a solution, a good solution, it's gratifying.”

I didn’t look at my breasts for the first week—a mostly unconscious choice. For as long as I remember, I have avoided looking at my breasts entirely. Even before my weight loss changed their appearance significantly I always felt unsatisfied with them on a bad day, or ambivalent at best. Eight days after surgery, I unzipped my surgical bra and inspected the result for the first time. Dr. Rowe had reduced the size of my areolas, raised the nipples, and rounded my breasts into two symmetrical mounds. The anchor-shaped incision was sutured with almost invisible stitches. I was looking at boobs I had only seen on screen, or on my most genetically-blessed friends.

I turn away from the mirror. The change might seem slight to some, but to me, mastopexy had made a world of difference. “Tell me what you think,” I say to my boyfriend. “They’re perfect,” he responds. This time, I believed the beholder.

To read more about plastic surgery:

• Breast Lifts Are on the Way Up
• 13 People Get Real About Their Facelifts
• I’m 96 and I’ve Had 3 Facelifts — Here’s What I Learned

Now watch Brooke Shields' 10 Minute Beauty Routine:

Allure Daily Beauty Blast

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