Kapitel Zehn: Fest- und Feiertage

Vokabeln:
·Märchen
·Die Schweiz: geographische Daten

**die Grammatik**

Sprache im Alltag: Urlaub versus Ferien

According to Vorsprung, "German has two separate words for vacation, der Urlaub and die Ferien (pl). Ferien are school-free vacation days that are scheduled into a school year and observed by students and teachers alike (Schulferien, Semesterferien, Weihnachtsferien). German university students have two long vacation breaks: Winterferien from mid-February to mid-April, and Sommerferien from mid-July to mid-October. Urlaub, on the other hand, is active vacation time taken to relax and recuperate from work, and in most instances, to travel. The average German employee gets 31 paid vacation days, or roughly six weeks" (p 438, Lovik, Guy, and Chavez).

Sprache im Alltag: Diminutives

According to Vorsprung, "The Swiss German dialects form diminutives by adding the suffix -li to nouns instead of the standard German -chen and -lein.

Standard
das Bähnchen
das Bähnlein

Schweizerdeutsch
das Bähnli

These diminutives change the gender of the noun to das, and add an umlaut (e.g., die Bahn > das Bähnli.)" (p 440, Lovik, Guy, and Chavez).