In the spirit of the season, today's newsletter is about expressing joy and happiness with the reflexive verb sich freuen. You may know that the related noun is die Freude, which is the German word for "joy."

For sich freuen, what can get confusing is whether to use the preposition auf or über, and sometimes you don't need either. First, let's take a look at sentences in which a subordinate clause with dass allows the expression of happiness, joy, or contentedness about something that is either happening or has already happened. 

Amy, wir freuen uns total, dass du bei uns bist.

Amy, we're really happy that you're with us.

Caption 68, Cats: Amy singt „Erinnerung“ bei The Voice Kids

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Ich freue mich sehr, dass wir die Eröffnung der Verhandlungen beschließen konnten,

I am very pleased that we were able to decide to begin the negotiations,

Caption 23, Angela Merkel: Gemeinsame Pressekonferenz mit Barack Obama

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This can also happen with the conditional and may involve the conjunction wenn:

Wir würden uns total freuen, wenn ihr beim nächsten Mal zu uns kommt.

We would be very happy if you joined us next time.

Caption 60, SingInKA-Chor: Interview

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Aber ich würde mich auf jeden Fall freuen, sie mal kennenzulernen.

But I would definitely be happy to meet her.

Caption 21, Cassandra Steen: Interview

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Often, however, there is no subordinate clause, and what is happening or has happened is expressed with a noun. In this case, you need the preposition über, which in this case translates to "about." 

Der Tierschutzverein Nied freut sich über jede ernstgemeinte Unterstützung.

The Nied Animal Protection Society is happy about any serious support.

Caption 58, Für Tierfreunde: Tierheim Nied

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Veranstalter Christian Müller freut sich über die hervorragenden Rahmenbedingungen.

Organizer Christian Müller is happy about the outstanding conditions.

Caption 31, Wintersport: Engadin Snow 2009

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With the preposition auf, the meaning of sich freuen changes slightly, because the future is referenced. Therefore, the most common translation of sich auf etwas freuen is "to look forward to something."

Sie freuen sich auf diesen Tag, genauso wie auch ich.

They're looking forward to this day, just like I am, too.

Caption 7, Allessa: Zu Weihnachten wünsch ich mir dich

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Ich freue mich auf deine Nachricht.

I'm looking forward to your message.

Caption 46, Deutsch mit Eylin: Ernährungsformen

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Further Learning
What are you happy about? What are you looking forward to? Construct a few sentences, looking for extra examples on Yabla German if you get stuck. 

You're probably very familiar with the German adjective schön. It's one of the most commonly used words in the German language, as well as one of the first words you encounter when learning to speak German. The crowd-sourced online dictionary dict.cc lists up to 20 possible English translations for schön, although it is usually translated into English as "nice," "beautiful," or "pretty," depending upon the context.

Es gibt viele schöne Lindenalleen in Deutschland.

There are many beautiful linden avenues in Germany.

Caption 2, Deutsch mit Eylin - Bäume

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Es ist ein sehr schönes Land und die Hauptstadt heißt Bern.

It is a very beautiful country, and the capital is called Bern.

Captions 14-15, Deutsch mit Eylin - Denk schnell!

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You are probably also familiar with schön as an adverb directly modifying a verb. In the first case below, schön ("beautiful") modifies aussehen ("looks"), and in the second case, schön ("beautiful") modifies sich machen ("makes herself"):

Lavendel sieht schön aus und duftet natürlich sehr gut.

Lavender looks beautiful and, of course, smells very good.

Caption 25, Deutsch mit Eylin - Kräuter aus meinem Garten

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Wenn Lothar eine Party macht, macht Sabine sich extra schön.

When Lothar has a party, Sabine makes herself extra beautiful.

Captions 4-5, Deutsch mit Eylin - Machen vs. tun

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You may be a bit less familiar, however, with schön as an adverb modifying another adverb, as these are not usually translated literally into English:

Allerdings sind die oft ganz schön teuer.

However, they are often pretty expensive.

Caption 56, Deutsch mit Eylin - Erkältungszeit

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Puh, das war ganz schön streng, fand ich.

Phew, that was really pretty strict, I thought.

Caption 9, Deutsch mit Eylin - Ernährungsformen

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The above construction, ganz schön... followed by an adverb, is common in German. If you translated it literally word for word, you would wind up with something clumsy like "very prettily strict," which doesn't really work. Since the adjective schön is sometimes translated as as "pretty," in the sense of "beautiful," it is convenient to translate the adverb schön as "pretty" too. But while "pretty" and "beautiful" are largely interchangeable when using them as adjectives, the adverb "pretty" has different connotations than the adverb "beautifully." And there is another potential problem with translating the phrase ganz schön as "pretty": In German, the adverbial phrase ganz schön is a strengthening modifier, meaning it makes whatever it is modifying stronger, the equivalent of "quite" or "really quite." Note that the second example above emphasizes ganz schön as a strengthening modifier by translating it as "really pretty."

As a colleague of mine aptly pointed out, ganz schön also "often reflects that there's a bit of surprise or unexpectedness (on someone's behalf, not necessarily the speaker) regarding the extent something is the way it is."
 

In English, the adverb "pretty" is either a strengthening or a weakening modifier, depending upon the context and the way in which it is spoken. If spoken with confidence and the emphasis on the main adverb, it strengthens the main adverb. If spoken with doubt, with the emphasis on "pretty," it weakens the main adverb:

How was your tennis match today?
Pretty good. ("Very good")

How was your tennis match today?
Pretty good. ("fairly good," "okay")

If the text above were printed without the emphasis shown in bold print, with no other context to tell if the person was pleased or not so pleased with the tennis match, you would not be able to say with certainty whether they thought the match went really well or was slightly disappointing. The adverb "pretty" is pretty—no, very—ambiguous. The German adverb ziemlich is similar to the English adverb "pretty," in that it can be either a strengthening or weakening modifier, depending upon the context.

If you are ever translating the adverbial phrase ganz schön to English, it may be generally better to use an English adverb that is unequivocally a strengthening modifier, such as "really," or "quite." There is a certain beauty in the parallel of translating ganz schön into the English adverb "pretty," but you should be certain in that case that it is very clear to potential readers that "pretty" is meant as a strengthening modifier. If the context is ambiguous, using "pretty" can lead to an ambiguous translation!

The same applies vice-versa, should you ever be translating English to German: if the English text is "pretty sure" (in the sense of "somewhat unsure"), then you do not want to translate that to ganz schön sicher, because this translates back to "very sure."

Further Learning
How would you translate Sie ist ganz schön schön—as "She is pretty pretty"? Translating can sometimes be a tricky process: equivalent words in different languages often have subtly different cultural contexts and meanings. Go to Yabla German and search for the adverbial phrase ganz schön to learn different ways that it can be translated according to the different contexts, including into the English adverb "pretty."

Don't be afraid of the difficult-looking words above! It's really quite simple: Homophones are words that sound the same, but have different meanings. Heterographs are homophones that also have different spellings. This can be quite confusing in spoken language, because the only way to tell homophones and heterographs apart is by the context in which they are used. The word "homophone" literally means "sounds the same," whereas the word "heterograph" means "written differently." In German, both nouns are neuter: das Homofon (or das Homophon) and das Heterofon (or das Heterophon).

Note too that in German, regional differences in pronunciation can sometimes make a set of words homophones in one region, but not in another. Let's take a look at some German heterographs today.

Monika aß sehr viel gekochtes Getreide.

Monika ate a lot of cooked grains.

Caption 4, Deutsch mit Eylin - Ernährungsformen

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Wenn die Nahrung knapp wird, begnügt er sich mit Aas.

When food becomes scarce, it makes do with carrion.

Caption 26, Die letzten Paradiese - Schätze der Natur: Südtirol

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It's ironic (and a bit disgusting) that the past tense of "to eat" (aß, from essen) sounds the same as the word for cadaver (das Aas). There's a certain logic, however, in the fact that most animal cadavers in the wild tend to get eaten by scavenger animals. When a homophone pair consists of a verb and a noun, you can construct funny-sounding sentences from them, such as: Er aß das Aas. By the way, only humans are referred to with the verb essen ("to eat"), whereas animals always take the verb fressen ("to devour"). And indeed, fressen also has a heterograph.

Das Pferd frisst gerne Äpfel.

The horse likes eating apples.

Caption 38, Deutsch mit Eylin - Pronomen

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Diese Frist kann verlängert werden,

This deadline can be extended

und zwar wieder nur durch einen einstimmigen Beschluss.

and only—indeed once again—through a unanimous ruling.

Caption 19, Brexit-Votum - Merkel warnt vor Spaltung Europas

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The third-person present tense of "to devour" (fressen) is frisst, and die Frist is a deadline or time limit. Der Pferd frisst Äpfel lieber ohne Frist. Nobody likes to be hurried to eat, right?

Er bot den Frauen ein Abkommen an.

He offered the women a deal.

Caption 55, Märchen - Sagenhaft - Die Weiber von Weinsberg

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Oje, das Boot von Opa Wutz hat kein Benzin mehr.

Uh oh, Grandpa Wutz's boat is out of gas.

Caption 16, Peppa Wutz - Sport

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Thus the past tense of "to offer" (bot, from bieten) is a heterograph of das Boot. Using both words in the same sentence, you can say something like: Das Boot bot uns viele Reisemöglichkeiten.

Wenn diese Temperatur so anhält,

If this temperature continues,

frieren die ganzen Seen in der Umgebung, wie ihr auch hinter mir sehen könnt, komplett zu.

all the lakes in the area will completely freeze over, as you can see behind me.

Captions 6-7, Unterwegs mit Cettina - Schlittschuhlaufen

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In this case, the plural of "lake" (der See) is Seen, and the verb "to see" is sehen. In the above example, both words of this heterograph pair are already in a single sentence.

Further Learning
Take a look at these examples of German homophones on Wikipedia and find some examples of the words used in a real-world context on Yabla German. Then see if you can create some German sentences using both homophones in the same sentence. You are allowed to make silly sentences, of course!