We're back with a new song! Nur ein Wort by Wir sind Helden, a German pop rock band from Berlin is - first of all- a great song, and a great song to learn German, too.

But we also chose its lyrics for the last session of our free German course to make a point: As always, it is important to be aware of which kind of German you're reading, singing, or practicing in some way: Is it everyday German? Is it poetic? Is it archaic?

Why? Because you're most probably going to adopt this style and use it in situations where it might not be that adequate. As a foreign speaker beginning to learn German, it is of course very difficult to judge and to choose the proper learning material, especially when it comes to songs. Here, even modern bands often use plays on words, or just weird wording, either simply because there is a certain rhyme scheme and metrum to follow or because their style expresses some deep underlying meaning. So, of course, you can use any lyrics to study vocabulary, but you shouldn't try to copy the phrasing - unless, well, unless you have some native speaker who assures you to. We did so for the last three songs which we picked carefully because they don't show abstract or poetic wording that would sound strange in everyday situations. There are probably more songs of this kind, but we don't want to withhold the greatest pieces because their lyrics sometimes don't meet these criteria. So what we decided to do (and what we suggest you ask your language buddy to do) is indicate the language level by colour-coding the lyrics. You can get into the details, but most often putting up warning signs which parts not to use is totally sufficient.

Combining translation and colour-coding

As we provide proof-read translations on howwedu.com, the documents themselves usually already contain lots of information concerning language level before they are even colour-coded. When the English is archaic, you are right to conclude that the German is as well. Sometimes, however, when the wording of the English translation sounds a little strange, you might not be sure whether this "level of strangeness" really captures the "level of strangeness" of the German lyrics. Do they sound perhaps more normal? Is there a saying or a certain expression in German that, after all, isn't perhaps strange at all, that I might adopt?

Therefore, we decided to put up some warning signs nevertheless.

What we didn't highlight are phrases like "Meine Mutter ist der Großvater meines Vaters." ("My mother is my father's grandfather.") Without a doubt, it would be strange if anyone's mother would be their father's grandfather - BUT if you wanted to say that in German, this would be the most normal way to do it. We're not indicating whether the meaning is strange, but whether the language used to express a certain meaning is strange.

With this in mind, enjoy the interactive material on this page. At the bottom of the site, you’ll find more neatly layouted translations as pdfs. For more information on how to study best with our resources, click here.