Shorthand

I use some abbreviations and symbols to make my translations clearer and more informative without taking up too much space. Here are some of ones I might use:

DE

This is an abbreviation of "German." It comes from the word for German in German: "Deutsch."

EN
This is an abbreviation of  "English." It comes from the word for English in English: "English."

words = words

I'll often use the equals sign as shorthand for "means" or "equals" when giving a common English equivalent for a word or phrase in German (in this case, the German will always be on the left). 

• Example: "Handschuh = "Glove"

words =literally= words

Sometimes I'll add "literally" between two equals signs to emphasize that I'm giving a literal translation of a German word. Note the difference between the common definition of "Handschuh" and the literal definition.

• Example: "Handschuh" =literally= "hand shoe"
  (no, seriously. That's how you say glove. Germans!)

If I translate a German sentence into English and preserve the word order, I'll add a "plus sign" + and write =literally+=

• Example: "Mir hat er aber keinen Handschuh gegeben"
  =literally+= "me has he but no glove given"

words =means here= words
Sometimes I'll add "means here" between two equals signs to emphasize that the meaning of a German word in a particular context is different from one of its common dictionary meanings or its literal meaning.

• Example: "extra" =means here= "to go out of your way to do something"

word^

The carrot symbol marks words that are "acting strange". By "acting strange" I mean that they are difficult to translate accurately, yet don't add much content to the statement. Here are some words that often "act strange."

• DE: bloß, denn, doch, eben, eigentlich, halt, ja, mal, noch, nunmal, nun einmal, nur, schon
• EN: just, like

Learning the "strange meanings" of these words is important for making smooth-sounding conversation, but explaining which contexts to use them in is complicated. How complicated? Could you explain to someone the difference between the following phrases?

• "It's not a good idea"
  vs.
•  "It's just^ not a good idea"

You can feel a difference, but it's just too hard to describe this feeling in words. That said, in some contexts, the above listed words don't act strange and, thus, have meanings that are easy to explain, like in the following phrases:

• "There's just one cookie left." (just = only)
• "Oh no! You didn't say goodbye to her? She just left." (just = recently)

I believe that the best way to deal with these strange-acting words is to ignore them while you're still a beginner. If you want to read about them in English, the Wikipedia article does a fine job.

words..

..words

I try to write each line of my lyrics and translations as a standalone phrase, but that's not always possible. Sometimes a phrase is too long and I have to split it up into two smaller phrases over two lines. If I feel that it's difficult to understand one or both of the phrases by themselves, I'll add some little dots to show that they should be read together.

[word]

In my translations, I'll sometimes put a word in brackets to show that this word is nowhere to be found in the original German phrase. The only reason I've added this word in brackets is to make the English translation flow a little better.

y0u, y0ur, y0urs

A "zero" instead of an "o" in one of these words means that it refers to a group of people. In English, the word "you" can mean a single person or a group, but in German, there are separate words for "you" when talking to a single person and "you" when talking to a group. We can be more specific in English, too, with words like "you guys," "yous" and "y'all," but these are non-standard and would make a translation sound strange or regional if I used them all the time.

yov, yovr, yovrs

A "v" instead of an "u" in one of the above words means that it is in polite form. In English, the word "you" can be used when taking to people of every status, but in German, the normal "du" = "you" can take on a special, more polite form: "Sie."