Looking back at the year | A Coffee Break with Thomas

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Hallo und herzlich willkommen zu einer neuen Folge von Coffee Break German. Es ist soweit. Das Jahr 2025 neigt sich dem Ende zu. Two more weeks and this year is coming to an end. It's exactly this time of the year when you can read one word in German media again and again. Der Jahresrückblick. Let's find out together what that word means and how you can create your own personal little Jahresrückblick.

I feel the end of a year is a natural point to think back about all the things that happened, die schönen Momente, die traurigen und auch die schwierigen. In German, we have an expression to look back at something that is actually inspired by a French word. It is etwas Revue passieren lassen. Or to give you an example sentence. Ich lasse das Jahr Revue passieren. I'm looking back at the year, going through what happened, one memory at a time. It kind of has this context of like chronologically.

going through your memories. And it is also definitely a freeze that you will hear a lot during the time of the year. However, the other word that I mentioned before, der Jahresrückblick, is mentioned a lot more. And it literally means the annual review from das Jahr und der Rückblick. The reason why you hear this word so often is because every December...

you will find TV and radio programs all about looking back at the year. The ZDF, one of Germany's biggest public broadcasters, alone has five different Jahresrückblicke. with well-known presenters and comedians. These Jahresrückblicke really cover everything from politics and sport to music or just funny moments of the year. One of the more popular ones is...

Der satirische Jahresrückblick. A kind of politically satire view on what happened, which will be actually on TV, this Friday, the 19th of December. If you have no plans... Have a look and there will be definitely a lot of interesting and useful language in there. It will probably be not the easiest language, but it will be very entertaining and you will be all caught up with what happened in Germany this year.

Now, since we're on the topic of reflection and we talked about Jahresrückblicke in the media, I also thought it would be a nice idea to learn some useful verbs to look back at your... and create your own little Jahresrückblick. The very first one that comes to my mind is sich erinnern an. To remember something. It's a reflexive verb and it uses the preposition an plus the accusative. For example, I could say, ich erinnere mich sehr gut an deine Geburtstagsparty.

I remember. Ich erinnere mich. And then an deine Geburtstagsparty. Your birthday party. And then we also had sehr gut in there. So very well. So ich erinnere mich sehr gut. An deine Geburtstagsparty. I remember your birthday party very well. If we compare those two sentences, it's very easy to see that it's a lot harder or more complex to say I remember in German because A, it's reflexive.

So you need the reflexive pronoun plus you also need the preposition an and then the accusative case. Okay, so remember sich erinnern an to remember something. The next verb I wanted to talk about. And that is kind of related to Jahresrückblick, is the verb Zurückblicken auf, which means to look back on something. Again, it's a separable verb, but this time the preposition

Auf is used with the accusative again. Ein Beispielsatz. Wir blicken auf unseren Sommerurlaub zurück. So, we look back on our summer holiday. Wir blicken. auf unseren Sommerurlaub zurück. So, several prefix goes to the end. It's not a reflexive verb, so we don't need the reflexive pronoun, but we have the preposition auf and then the accusative case following on to that.

Next up, als nächstes, I have the noun die Erinnerung, the memory. And it's a noun that can be combined with many different verbs forming many different meanings. So let's start with in Erinnerung behalten, to keep something in mind. So this phrase is often used with either gut or schlecht, meaning that you either have a good Wieder ein Beispielsatz. Wir haben die Kreuzfahrt in guter Erinnerung behalten.

the cruise in good memory. But in English we would say we have good memories of the cruise. So one more time. Wir haben die Kreuzfahrt in guter Erinnerung behalten. Another one using Erinnerung would be sich in Erinnerung rufen, which means to recall something. So imagine somebody saying, rufen wir uns nochmal. diesen Mai in Erinnerung. So, this sentence uses the wir imperative. So, it's kind of giving a command, a suggestion, but using wir in the infinitive. So, wir rufen wir uns nochmal.

diesen Mai in Erinnerung. Let's recall this me again. So let's think back. Let's recall what happened in me. Und ich habe noch Ein allerletztes Verb für euch. One final one. And I think that's my favorite one when it comes to Erinnerung. And that's in Erinnerungen schwelgen. And it's the German way. for also agreed word in English and that is to reminisce. Ein Beispiel. Am Ende des Jahres schwelge ich immer in Erinnerungen. So at the end of the year, I always...

Like I always do reminisce. Okay, so in Erinnerungen schwelgen to reminisce. Alles klar. I would say let's go through these expressions one more time. I will say them each once. give you some time to repeat, and then say the second time, including the English translation. Also, los geht's. Sich erinnern an. Sich erinnern an, to remember something. Zurückblicken auf. Zurückblicken auf. In Erinnerung behalten. In Erinnerung behalten, to keep something in mind. Sich in Erinnerung rufen, to recall.

Erinnerungen schwelgen. In Erinnerungen schwelgen to reminisce. We also had at the start etwas Revue passieren lassen. To look back at something. And then, of course, you've heard it a couple of times now as well, der Jahresrückblick, the annual review. So as we come to the end of this episode und auch zum Ende des Jahres, maybe take a little moment for yourself und lass das Jahr Revue passieren.

Think of everything you've learned, everything you've experienced and achieved this year, especially on your journey to learn German. Das war's von mir, Thomas. Und ich wünsche dir im Namen des ganzen Teams eine schöne Weihnachtszeit und einen guten Rutsch ins neue Jahr. Happy Coffee Breaking! You have been listening to a Coffee Break Languages production for the Radiolingua Network. Copyright 2025, Radiolingua Limited. Recording copyright 2025, Radiolingua Limited. All rights reserved.

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