This letter was originally sent to MyA5Letter’s 3-2-1 Deutschlernen subscribers on Sunday, August 23, 2026.
This week’s theme is (unfortunately or hilariously) about visiting the dentist in Germany. I’ve stocked up on some vocabulary to share this week’s Deutschlernen study notes with you, straight from my Bullet Journal’s Daily Log.
At the doctor this week, I gotta describe my problem in German as:
Mein Zahn tut weh. (My tooth hurts.) Meine Backe ist geschwollen. (My cheek is swollen.) Mein Ohr und mein Hals tun auch weh, wenn ich schlucke. (My ear and my throat also hurt when I swallow.)
And here’s what the dentist told me:
Es gibt eine Entzündung mit Ihrem Weisheitszahn. (There’s an inflammation in your wisdom tooth.) (Then pointing at the X-Ray film, she continued) Wir müssen alle vier rausnehmen?! (We need to take out all four?!)
😂😂😂
Let us not discuss how scary my dental issue is, but how actually not so scary speaking German at the dentist this week was. Turns out a lot of German words in this case shares similarities with English vocab: “geschwollen” and “swollen” are nearly identical, “schlucken” isn’t too hard to memorize for “swallow” and “die Weisheit” is literally “wisdom” so “der Weisheitszahn” is a a perfect 1:1 match for “wisdom tooth”.
3-2-1 DEUTSCHLERNEN
3 Mistakes I made (so you don’t have to):
das Rezept: more than just “a recipe”
“das Rezept” can mean two very different things:
- a cooking recipe, or:
- a medical prescription.
Both are important to have 😉, but the second one matters a lot in Germany. For anything beyond the mildest over-the-counter options, you’ll need ein Rezept from a doctor to get the medication at a specialized Apotheke (aka. pharmacy).
FUN FACT: I normally receive a Kassenrezept (the statutory-insurance prescription, traditionally in pink paper), but after this dentist appointment, I instead got an E-Rezept (the digital prescription loaded into my Krankenversicherungskarte!). Look how digital is Germany (or Stuttgart) of late, what! wow!
Backe vs. Wange:
Both translate to “the cheek”, but they’re not perfectly interchangeable.
- die Wange: the standard, neutral word for the cheek as a part of the face. (my doctor did use this word)
- die Backe: the more colloquial word for the cheek and has some additional meanings (like the buttock).
Er küsste sie auf die Wange. (He kissed her on the cheek.)
Das Baby hat Hamsterbacken. (The baby has hamster cheeks / chubby cheeks.)
Either way, I am glad I did learn both words before the dentist appointment and could follow the dialogue when my Ärtztin didn’t say “Backe” back to me😅.
scheinen vs. schneien: Be careful of that letter “n”
- scheinen (to shine) 👉 Die Sonne scheint. (The sun is shining.)
- schneien (to snow) 👉 Es schneit. (It’s snowing.)
Where to place that “n” trips people up constantly and creates wildly different weather.
Unrelated to the doctor’s theme so far of the newsletter, I actually dug up this deadly pattern, while editing a chapter of the upcoming Dear Deutsch Crossword Puzzle Book.
As meine Entzündung (my infection) is healing up well this weekend, I’m back to working on the book’s proofreading and launching with excitement 🤗. I hope to bring the puzzle book to you already in the next Sunday’s newsletter (finger crossed, no launch delay surprises)!
A LITTLE NOTE: Grab the Dear Deutsch E-Book before then, and receive the full 60-puzzle Crossword Book delivered straight to your inbox as a complimentary GIFT 💕.
2 Recommendations:
Stock up on must-know words and phrases for the doctor (and, just in case, the hospital emergency):
Learn these essential language for visiting the doctor in Germany and what to say in an emergency (hopefully you’ll never need the second one, but it’s good you have it ready).
Get a Phrasebook (or Go through the “Deutschtrainer” online resource):
My current read Fluent Forever taught me something I wish I’d known when I restarted learning German three years ago to move to Germany: phrasebooks aren’t just for tourists.
I always underestimated them and skipped them for “proper” textbooks and grammar books, but phrasebooks prioritize what you’ll actually need in real-life situations AND in the moment, fast.
It is harder to come by phrases like “am I under arrest?” (just joking) or “I need a haircut appointment.” in standard dictionaries, or textbooks for beginners, while your move to Germany is already knocking on the doorstep.
Fluent Forever recommends Lonely Planet’s phrasebooks; or my own pick for your Deutschlernen toolkit is Deutsche Welle’s free Deutschtrainer course, covering vocab and phrases for 100 real-life situations.
Whatever your level, stock up — it’s the fastlane to help you feel steady in many real-life German interactions.
1 Idea:
A question for you this week: Do you prefer learning German (or any foreign languages) lesson by lesson, building one grammar rule on top of another in a standard format, OR do you start with the words and phrases you need to communicate right now, and build up the necessary skills along the way?
OH AND DON’T FORGET:
Check out the solutions for Puzzle 3 and Puzzle 4 already HERE: So It’s Been One Year of German Language Journal Challenge!
See you next Sunday — for the crossword book launch! 🎉
Till then, Suani with 💕
P/S: If you want to receive this newsletter straight into your inbox every Sunday, subscribe below and tick on “Special: Weekly 3-2-1 Deutschlernen” checkbox 😉