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Duden Redewendungen Wörterbuch Der Deutschen Idiomatik
Duden Redewendungen Wörterbuch Der Deutschen Idiomatik is Duden’s dictionary of German idioms and set phrases: the authoritative reference for the Redewendungen — the figurative expressions — that give the German language its colour, humour and bite.
Idioms are where dictionaries of words run out: their meanings live in the phrase, not the parts, and they carry centuries of imagery — seafaring, farming, soldiering, faith — compressed into everyday speech. This dictionary gathers them, explains them, and shows them at work.
It is made for advanced learners of German, students of German language and literature, translators and interpreters, and native speakers who write and speak professionally — everyone whose German must be not only correct but idiomatic.
Idiomatik is the soul-layer of a language: thousands of set phrases whose meanings no grammar generates and no word-list explains. Duden’s dictionary of Redewendungen is the standard map of that layer for German — expressions collected across the whole language, each given its meaning, its register and tone, and example sentences that show it alive in context. Where an entry can be traced, the dictionary illuminates the image behind the phrase, turning rote learning into understanding: an idiom whose picture you see is an idiom you never forget. For the advanced learner it closes the last and widest gap — the difference between German that is accurate and German that is native in flavour, the difference examiners reward at C1 and C2 and employers hear in the first minute. For translators it is precision equipment: the wrong rendering of an idiom is the loudest error in any text. And for the native speaker it is a quiet pleasure and a professional tool — the authority to consult when a phrase’s exact meaning, spelling or appropriateness is in question. Few references are opened as often, by as many kinds of reader, with as much satisfaction.
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About This Book
This is Duden’s dictionary of German idioms and figurative set phrases (Wörterbuch der deutschen Idiomatik): the language’s Redewendungen collected and explained — meanings, registers, example sentences and, where known, the imagery and origins behind the expressions.
What Readers Will Find
The Idioms of the Whole Language
Set phrases from every domain of German life — everyday talk, literature, journalism, the professions — each explained, so the reader understands not only what an expression means but where it belongs.
Meaning, Register and Example
Entries that distinguish tone — colloquial, humorous, dated, formal — and show each phrase in a real sentence: the information that decides whether an idiom can be used, not merely recognised.
The Pictures Behind the Phrases
Where the imagery of an expression can be explained, the dictionary explains it — the historical and cultural picture that makes an idiom memorable and its meaning unforgettable.
Key Features
Duden authority is the feature: the standard-setter’s own record of the language’s idiom stock. The register guidance is the second — idioms are social acts, and this dictionary keeps its users socially accurate — and the example sentences the third.
Who This Book Is For
It is for advanced learners of German (B2 to C2), students of Germanistik, translators and interpreters, journalists and professional writers, and teachers preparing idiom-rich lessons.
How to Use This Book
Look up every idiom that ambushes you in reading or listening the same day, and note it with its register; idioms learned at the point of need become permanent. Writers should consult it at the editing stage — one apt Redewendung, correctly registered, enlivens a page more than a paragraph of plain correctness. Learners preparing for C1/C2 should work it thematically, mastering the idioms of the domains their examinations favour, always with the example sentences read aloud.
Related Books
A learner-sized idiom collection is Langenscheidt 1000 Deutsche Redensarten. The synonym dictionary is Duden Das Wörterbuch Der Synonyme.
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