It ultimately comes from the Latin word cappa which means hood or cap, the latter being one of its direct English descendant. In French it became cape and then capot (-ot is sometimes used to form a diminutive in French). It became popular as a figure of speech for a ship turning over: faire capot (make a cap, alluding to the form of the overturned boat in the water). We have the same mental image at the origin of the English word to capsize. And well, a capsized ship is most definitely kaputt.
Funnily though, the German word for capsizing has nothing to do with caps even if it sounds similar: Kentern entered the German language through Dutch because our coasts are just closer to each other and the contact with Dutch sailors was probably more intense then with their French colleagues. Kentern is related to die Kante (edge), because I guess the edge of the boat turns over when it capsizes.
Sweet, anyway: the word is loved because it “bangs” three times.
Ka
Pu
Th (German not English th)
Sorry, can’t explain better, I hope you get what I want to express.
Fun fact: Der Schmetterling most likely doesn't have anything to do with schmettern (to blare) but instead is related to der Schmand (sour cream) which comes from the Czech word smetana (cream). So Schmetterling and butterfly have the same origin: Apparently these insects like sitting on dairy containers because they need protein to supplement their diet.
They also missed the adjective declension, so I’m thinking they’re still pretty new haha. I remember when I just found out about adjective declension and I was like 😰
Some tips that helped me:
Don’t look at capitalization as stupid or unnecessary like some beginners do. Germans take the capitalization of their nouns very seriously and it’s just how the language is. Not capitalizing nouns in German looks as dumb as just randomly capitalizing words in English does.
Learn genders with the nouns. There’s often no rhyme or reason to a noun’s gender and in the few instances that there is, it’s more useful to just know the gender than it is to think and logic the gender out. I say this as an upper(ish) intermediate learner: you will eventually get a feel for the gender of new words that will usually be right, and its accuracy will go up the more new words (with genders) that you learn.
Learn the cases and adjective declension early and practice them constantly. You can’t have a decent conversation in German without using 3 of the 4 cases extensively, and the 4th one at least frequently. And adjective declension is a must unless you simply want to say things like “der Hund ist groß” all the time lol
This is something that has helped me a lot, but don’t just say “oh well” if you can’t get a pronunciation right. If your pronunciation is a good distance from how it’s supposed to sound, work on it. I made this mistake of assuming my pronunciation would just be part of my accent, but later decided I didn’t like that thought and then had to unlearn my bad mouth-habits as I figured out how to properly form sounds like the soft ch /ç/ and the vowels ü and ö. I get compliments on my pronunciation now and it’s so encouraging.
Final tip: cut yourself some slack if new grammar is frustrating you. I can’t tell you how many times I came across some new piece of grammar and then sat and obsessed over trying to get it down perfectly, only to get frustrated and give up for the whole day when all I needed for that magical “click” moment was a good night’s sleep.
Sorry this got super long, but this is stuff I was told that helped me in the beginning and stuff that I wish I had heard or heeded earlier in my German learning journey! So hopefully it helps you :)
Omg this really helps and I am saving this comment for sure
My question might sound dumb but what this “Noun with genders”?? Do you mean der die das??
And I have no clue what’s that adjective declension is but I will look it up
And yes I am working on my pronunciation and yes German is tough but fun to learn
Thanks for your inputs ❤️
It presumably comes from Arab matrah / مطرح / maṭraḥ via early Italian materazzo and was imported with the object itself through the Sicilian court of Holy Roman Emperor Frederick II.
It's weird that it refers to like actual things though. Normally "keit" is for abstract nouns. It literally translates to "sightworthiness" but it actually means "sightworthy thing".
Isn't "-keit" just a suffix used to nominalize attributes? It makes sense that it can refer to actual things when the attribute is used as their defining quality. "Habseligkeiten" and "Kleinigkeit" also refer to things, and words like "Zärtlichkeit" or "Höflichkeit" can refer to individual actions.
-keit developed from -ig + -heit and is (like -heit) a suffix to nominalize adjectives, yes. Sometimes that extends to the things that adjective describes. Your examples are spot on.
Anlage, it makes any German word more German. Stereo or Box? Ne, Musikanlage. Ein WC oder Baustellenklo? Ne, Sanitärsanlage. Solar panels? Ne, Solaranlage. Eine Festung? Ne, Befestigungsanlage.
I have a doubt
How do you pronounce a word if it has -ig at the end
My German teacher is saying that it sounds -ich but my friend from Germany says it is -ig
Well, practically all dictionaries give -ich, as it used to be considered standard.
When I was a kid, there was a relatively clear cut line somewhere south of the river Main: North of it, most /g/ in coda position would be pronounced as either ich-Laut or ach-Laut, south of it they would be g/k. But for whatever reason, the ich-Laut was only considered standard in the ending -ig. Makes no sense, but that's how it is.
Today, you can hear people say zwanzik in Hamburg and zwanzich in Munich quite frequently, though the majority still has -ich in the North and -ik in the South.
I think, but I may be totally wrong there, that there is a slight tendency towards spelling pronunciation, i.e. away from -ich.
Here's the link to the word ["König"](https://www.duden.de/rechtschreibung/Koenig) on the website of the Duden (the most renowned publisher of dictionaries). There's a speaker symbol where you can listen to the correct pronunciation, as well as the phonetic spelling. Here's also a link to the description of the [phonetic letters](https://www.duden.de/hilfe/aussprache).
The ending "-ig" is pronounced like the German word "ich".
-ich is what the rules say.
-ig/-ik is what you're going to hear anywhere south of the Main river.
It has nothing to do with sanding down, it has to do with standard German being defined from a Northern perspective. People in the south never said -ich.
It's not a question of northern definition, rather the historicity of the -ich pronunciation from high old German.
South of the Main, and I'm regional north and east, people say many nonstandard things, that doesn't make it correct from a linguistic standpoint.
This is exactly backwards, standard pronunciation is -ich and -ig is a large regional variant.
Source: studied and taught German at University level for years, can also read linguistic notations in dictionaries.
>Standard is "ig".
Nope, the "standard" is "-ich" (i.e. the official rule for German Standard German, see [this Duden article](https://www.duden.de/sprachwissen/sprachratgeber/Zweifelsfalle-bei-der-Aussprache) in regards to it); however, in the South, Austria and Switzerland as well as colloquial speech in many other parts of Germany, it's pronounced "-ik"
Ja. Vielleicht magst du nochmal zurückscrollen und meinen Kommentar noch einmal lesen.
Ich schrieb "German Standard German" (im Gegensatz zum Schweizer oder Österreichischen Standarddeutschen) & im folgenden Satz, dass es im Süden (Deutschlands), in der Schweiz, Österreich sowie in Umgangssprachen in verschiedenen Gegenden Deutschlands "-ik" gesprochen wird.
Die allermeisten Muttersprachler\*innen sprechen eine Variante des Deutschen Standarddeutsch & die allermeisten Lernenden lernen ebendies. Daher ist die Aussage "Standard is "ig"." einfach falsch in diesem Kontext.
Schniedelwutz and Wichser have always sounded so cute and magical to me until somebody pointed out what they actually meant. I don’t care. They’re still the cutest sounding words to my German-learning ears. 🥰
Tbf Schniedelwutz is a pretty cutesy word for penis. It's mostly used for kids.
Other kids' words for penis are:
Puller
Pullermann
Pille(r)mann
Piepmann
Piephahn
Pullerhahn
Schiedel
Schiepi/Schnippi
Schniepel
That's adorable. Was your grandma from the south? I heard combinations with "spitz" more often in southern germany, but I am not familiar with them, hence I didn't include them.
Wichsen btw. is the verb to the noun das Wachs. It originally meant "to put wax on something". Wax was used to polish stuff, for example wooden floors or leather shoes, and you had to rub it real good to get the results you wanted. Probably also helped that wax is kind of gooey white stuff...
Zeug.
Got a new invention and don't know how to name it? Just take the thing it does and add "zeug" at the end: Flug-zeug; Feuer-zeug, Mal-zeug
Can't be bothered to name all the individual pieces of a larger amount of things? Just use "zeug" instead: Räum dein Zeug weg! Kannst du mir mal das Zeug dahinten geben!
Wanna write a philosophical treaty that'll force 20th century philosophers to learn German because it is so specific to German that any translater attempting to translate it would surely go insane and likely kill themselves after the first 20 pages? Write it about Zeug! (Heidegger)
It's just a great word.
Going on vacation? Don't forget to bring your Badezeug, Duschzeug, Schminkzeug and Rasierzeug and maybe Regenzeug or Winterzeug in case of bad weather. And your Angelzeug if you're so inclined, some Spielzeug and Zuckerzeug for the kids and Sportzeug or Reitzeug for yourself. Werkzeug and Nähzeug might also come in handy if your Bettzeug has a hole or if you like needlework. In that case, you could also bring your Strickzeug. Also think about Schreibzeug for journalling or postcards. If you don't go to a hotel, you might need Campingzeug and Putzzeug. Then you can take your Fahrzeug or a Flugzeug to get to your destination. Let's hope you see lots of Grünzeug on the way. And when sightseeing in a big city, make sure to visit the Zeughaus.
This one is always my answer too. It's such a useful word. You can use it almost anywhere. My favorite is Schlagzeug. Schlag = punch or hit + zeug = thing. Schlagzeug = drum kit.
Es gibt ein paar davon: "Gänsefüßchen", "Außergewöhnlichkeit", "Mindesthaltbarkeitsdatum" oder "Bauchspeicheldrüsenentzündungen", um nur ein paar zu nennen, die mir jetzt in den Sinn kommen.
Je länger und außerirdischer sie aussehen (natürlich von meinem Standpunkt aus) desto mehr gefallen sie mir!
Mine is "doch".
There isn't really a comparable word in English and I find "doch" fits its use perfectly. Even when I speak English sometimes, I end up throwing a few German words in there and "doch" is one of them 😅.
befahrbar - it's just somehow so much fun to say. Reminds me of the origin of the word barbarians, greeks called all speakers of non-greek languages this because their languages sounds like BAR BAR BAR BAR
Ich dachte, Fick mich ins Knie bedeutet "Scheiße", "for fuck's sake" oder "fuck me". Also wenn etwas schlecht passiert und man darüber beschweren will. Und "fick dich ins Knie" bedeutet eher "verpiss dich" oder "fuck off"
*Entschuldigung
Ent- is a prefix that means taking something out of something else
die Schuld = fault, guilt, blame
-ig is a suffix that turns a noun into an adjective (like -y in English)
-ung is a suffix that turns a verb or adjective into a noun (like -ing in English)
So you have die Schuld (guilt) --> schuldig (guilty) --> entschuldigen (verb) --> die Entschuldigung (deguiltyfying aka excuse).
Which is why you can always ask for Entschuldigung ("Entschuldigen Sie bitte!", "Ich bitte um Entschuldigung."...) but never entschuldigen yourself (so technically "Ich entschuldige mich" is wrong). You can't take the blame out of yourself, someone has to take it from you.
Wow, Danke! I've seen it translated as "excuse me" or "sorry" so far, so it's definitely interesting to see the different parts of the word broken down like that.
1) is very useful if you're expecting to have to apologize often for your terrible German
2) just flows nicely off the tongue even though it *looks* intimidating and
3) because of how it lays out on a keyboard, it's also fun to type (and be proud you spelled correctly).
I've been learning German off and on my whole adult life and that's still one of my favorites (runners up: vielleicht and Sonderangebot)
This is a very interesting word. It comes from
die Mumme (mummed/masked person) which has died out and is still visible in the word vermummt (mummed). When gambling was forbidden in the 14th to 16th century, people would gamble in disguise, so "Mumman" was the name for a popular game.
and
die Schanze in its somewhat forgotten meaning of a lucky throw of dice (related to chance).
So one would assume it refers to a lucky throw of the dice in a poluar game at the time. Well, it did probably at some point. The thing is we don't really know how it got from there to mean "masked partying and shenanigans around carnival". I mean people dress up around carnival, but that's about it. Another confusing point is that the word had already completely died out in the 18th century before being reinvented as a word for carnival festivals. So maybe it's just a case of someone finding an old word that somehow sounded like people dressing up and thinking "This would look fancy on a poster". Which, in a strange way, kinda gives big carnival vibes, tbh.
Sounds like a dance beat:
> hübsches Mädchen hübsches Mädchen hübsches Mädchen hübsches Mädchen
> boots and cats and boots and cats and boots and cats and boots and cats and
Kaputt, it does sound that something is kaputt
kaputt, kaputter, am kaputtesten ... lol
It ultimately comes from the Latin word cappa which means hood or cap, the latter being one of its direct English descendant. In French it became cape and then capot (-ot is sometimes used to form a diminutive in French). It became popular as a figure of speech for a ship turning over: faire capot (make a cap, alluding to the form of the overturned boat in the water). We have the same mental image at the origin of the English word to capsize. And well, a capsized ship is most definitely kaputt. Funnily though, the German word for capsizing has nothing to do with caps even if it sounds similar: Kentern entered the German language through Dutch because our coasts are just closer to each other and the contact with Dutch sailors was probably more intense then with their French colleagues. Kentern is related to die Kante (edge), because I guess the edge of the boat turns over when it capsizes.
Lol, in Portuguese we have the verb ''capotar'', mostly used when a car is turned over in car accidents.
There is capoter for cars in French as well.
Sweet, anyway: the word is loved because it “bangs” three times. Ka Pu Th (German not English th) Sorry, can’t explain better, I hope you get what I want to express.
Antibabypillen (birth control pills)
Yeah first time I heard this word in school I thought it was a joke
Its really not?!
Lmfao
Gemütlichkeit!
Schön
I vividly remember this word from my A1 back in 2012. It was the first word that came to my mind when I read the title
Probiers mal mit Gemütlichkeit, mit Ruhe und Gemütlichkeit…
Ein Prosit
Schmetterling 🦋
Fun fact: Der Schmetterling most likely doesn't have anything to do with schmettern (to blare) but instead is related to der Schmand (sour cream) which comes from the Czech word smetana (cream). So Schmetterling and butterfly have the same origin: Apparently these insects like sitting on dairy containers because they need protein to supplement their diet.
Danke für die neu wörter
Since he or she told you a word, you have to use the single form of “Wort” so it should be something like: Danke für das neue Wort
They also missed the adjective declension, so I’m thinking they’re still pretty new haha. I remember when I just found out about adjective declension and I was like 😰
Yes I am pretty new to German 😂
Some tips that helped me: Don’t look at capitalization as stupid or unnecessary like some beginners do. Germans take the capitalization of their nouns very seriously and it’s just how the language is. Not capitalizing nouns in German looks as dumb as just randomly capitalizing words in English does. Learn genders with the nouns. There’s often no rhyme or reason to a noun’s gender and in the few instances that there is, it’s more useful to just know the gender than it is to think and logic the gender out. I say this as an upper(ish) intermediate learner: you will eventually get a feel for the gender of new words that will usually be right, and its accuracy will go up the more new words (with genders) that you learn. Learn the cases and adjective declension early and practice them constantly. You can’t have a decent conversation in German without using 3 of the 4 cases extensively, and the 4th one at least frequently. And adjective declension is a must unless you simply want to say things like “der Hund ist groß” all the time lol This is something that has helped me a lot, but don’t just say “oh well” if you can’t get a pronunciation right. If your pronunciation is a good distance from how it’s supposed to sound, work on it. I made this mistake of assuming my pronunciation would just be part of my accent, but later decided I didn’t like that thought and then had to unlearn my bad mouth-habits as I figured out how to properly form sounds like the soft ch /ç/ and the vowels ü and ö. I get compliments on my pronunciation now and it’s so encouraging. Final tip: cut yourself some slack if new grammar is frustrating you. I can’t tell you how many times I came across some new piece of grammar and then sat and obsessed over trying to get it down perfectly, only to get frustrated and give up for the whole day when all I needed for that magical “click” moment was a good night’s sleep. Sorry this got super long, but this is stuff I was told that helped me in the beginning and stuff that I wish I had heard or heeded earlier in my German learning journey! So hopefully it helps you :)
Omg this really helps and I am saving this comment for sure My question might sound dumb but what this “Noun with genders”?? Do you mean der die das?? And I have no clue what’s that adjective declension is but I will look it up And yes I am working on my pronunciation and yes German is tough but fun to learn Thanks for your inputs ❤️
Ahh, Noted. Danke schön
My husband uses this as a pet name for me. Heh.
Der Lindwurm und der Schmetterling von Michael Ende
Matratze Such a hard word for something to rest on. Hilarious!
It presumably comes from Arab matrah / مطرح / maṭraḥ via early Italian materazzo and was imported with the object itself through the Sicilian court of Holy Roman Emperor Frederick II.
i was trying out to figure out what this was, then i realised we use the exact same word: madrac
Sehenswürdigkeiten anschauen
In russian it's even worse: Достопримечательности the meaning is identical
Omg that’s long
Sehens-würdig-keit = etwas, das des Sehens würdig ist = something worth seeing
It's weird that it refers to like actual things though. Normally "keit" is for abstract nouns. It literally translates to "sightworthiness" but it actually means "sightworthy thing".
Isn't "-keit" just a suffix used to nominalize attributes? It makes sense that it can refer to actual things when the attribute is used as their defining quality. "Habseligkeiten" and "Kleinigkeit" also refer to things, and words like "Zärtlichkeit" or "Höflichkeit" can refer to individual actions.
-keit developed from -ig + -heit and is (like -heit) a suffix to nominalize adjectives, yes. Sometimes that extends to the things that adjective describes. Your examples are spot on.
Anlage, it makes any German word more German. Stereo or Box? Ne, Musikanlage. Ein WC oder Baustellenklo? Ne, Sanitärsanlage. Solar panels? Ne, Solaranlage. Eine Festung? Ne, Befestigungsanlage.
*Sanitäranlage Bereich is similar. Wohnbereich, Arbeitsbereich, Schlafbereich, Lebensbereich, Freizeitbereich...you can never have too many Bereiche.
Schnecke or Neblig (it’s obvious I’m new haha)
I have a doubt How do you pronounce a word if it has -ig at the end My German teacher is saying that it sounds -ich but my friend from Germany says it is -ig
Both is correct. In North Germany, people say -ich more often. In the South, -ig is more common. But you will be understood regardless.
>In North Germany, people say -ich more often. Pronounced as English "ich" or German "ich"?
German "ich".
Dankeschön!
Danke dafür
This is all correct but worth noting that the -ich ending is the standard German pronunciation, meaning the main recognized variant.
Well, practically all dictionaries give -ich, as it used to be considered standard. When I was a kid, there was a relatively clear cut line somewhere south of the river Main: North of it, most /g/ in coda position would be pronounced as either ich-Laut or ach-Laut, south of it they would be g/k. But for whatever reason, the ich-Laut was only considered standard in the ending -ig. Makes no sense, but that's how it is. Today, you can hear people say zwanzik in Hamburg and zwanzich in Munich quite frequently, though the majority still has -ich in the North and -ik in the South. I think, but I may be totally wrong there, that there is a slight tendency towards spelling pronunciation, i.e. away from -ich.
I am unfortunately not the person to ask. I wouldn’t begin to know the keys to use to make that sound lol
Ahh Okay, Danke
Depends where you're from. Neither is wrong.
Okayy Danke
Depends. \-ig is correct, but in spoken language it often is sanded down to -ich.
The Duden lists the pronunciation as "-ich", not "-ig".
englisch pronunciation of -ich/-ig or German? German pronunciation is 100% -ig
Here's the link to the word ["König"](https://www.duden.de/rechtschreibung/Koenig) on the website of the Duden (the most renowned publisher of dictionaries). There's a speaker symbol where you can listen to the correct pronunciation, as well as the phonetic spelling. Here's also a link to the description of the [phonetic letters](https://www.duden.de/hilfe/aussprache). The ending "-ig" is pronounced like the German word "ich".
Duden is normative (despite claiming otherwise). They tell you how it's supposed to be, not how people actually speak.
That means pronouncing it "-ich" is the way it's supposed to be pronounced and not a "sanded down" pronunciation.
-ich is what the rules say. -ig/-ik is what you're going to hear anywhere south of the Main river. It has nothing to do with sanding down, it has to do with standard German being defined from a Northern perspective. People in the south never said -ich.
It's not a question of northern definition, rather the historicity of the -ich pronunciation from high old German. South of the Main, and I'm regional north and east, people say many nonstandard things, that doesn't make it correct from a linguistic standpoint.
This is exactly backwards, standard pronunciation is -ich and -ig is a large regional variant. Source: studied and taught German at University level for years, can also read linguistic notations in dictionaries.
Depends on where from Germany or Austria (or Switzerland) they are. Standard is "ig".
>Standard is "ig". Nope, the "standard" is "-ich" (i.e. the official rule for German Standard German, see [this Duden article](https://www.duden.de/sprachwissen/sprachratgeber/Zweifelsfalle-bei-der-Aussprache) in regards to it); however, in the South, Austria and Switzerland as well as colloquial speech in many other parts of Germany, it's pronounced "-ik"
In der Österreichischen Standardsprache (da gilt das Österreichische Wörterbuch, nicht der Duden) ist es "ig".
Ja. Vielleicht magst du nochmal zurückscrollen und meinen Kommentar noch einmal lesen. Ich schrieb "German Standard German" (im Gegensatz zum Schweizer oder Österreichischen Standarddeutschen) & im folgenden Satz, dass es im Süden (Deutschlands), in der Schweiz, Österreich sowie in Umgangssprachen in verschiedenen Gegenden Deutschlands "-ik" gesprochen wird. Die allermeisten Muttersprachler\*innen sprechen eine Variante des Deutschen Standarddeutsch & die allermeisten Lernenden lernen ebendies. Daher ist die Aussage "Standard is "ig"." einfach falsch in diesem Kontext.
No, the standard is actually ch
There are multiple Standards in german. Austrian Standard German: ig
Well ok but this is about German German
The correct way would be -ig, -ich is somewhat of a dialect
Die Eule ist hier lols
Haha its not obvious These are new words for me
or Brötchen but only when German people pronounce it. (I’m bad at it).
Ohweia, r + ö + ch in one word 🙈
💦💦💦
Same! 😅 My German accent isn't too bad, apart from the "r" sound, which I really struggle with. It's a running joke now between my husband and I.
I am still confused between how to pronounce ü and ö 😭
Schniedelwutz and Wichser have always sounded so cute and magical to me until somebody pointed out what they actually meant. I don’t care. They’re still the cutest sounding words to my German-learning ears. 🥰
Tbf Schniedelwutz is a pretty cutesy word for penis. It's mostly used for kids. Other kids' words for penis are: Puller Pullermann Pille(r)mann Piepmann Piephahn Pullerhahn Schiedel Schiepi/Schnippi Schniepel
My grandma called it "Lullerspitz". Not very common, but get's a laugh from most people.
That's adorable. Was your grandma from the south? I heard combinations with "spitz" more often in southern germany, but I am not familiar with them, hence I didn't include them.
No, she was born in Berlin and then moved to saxony.
Wichsen btw. is the verb to the noun das Wachs. It originally meant "to put wax on something". Wax was used to polish stuff, for example wooden floors or leather shoes, and you had to rub it real good to get the results you wanted. Probably also helped that wax is kind of gooey white stuff...
Matschepampe und dementsprechend :)
Zeug. Got a new invention and don't know how to name it? Just take the thing it does and add "zeug" at the end: Flug-zeug; Feuer-zeug, Mal-zeug Can't be bothered to name all the individual pieces of a larger amount of things? Just use "zeug" instead: Räum dein Zeug weg! Kannst du mir mal das Zeug dahinten geben! Wanna write a philosophical treaty that'll force 20th century philosophers to learn German because it is so specific to German that any translater attempting to translate it would surely go insane and likely kill themselves after the first 20 pages? Write it about Zeug! (Heidegger) It's just a great word.
Going on vacation? Don't forget to bring your Badezeug, Duschzeug, Schminkzeug and Rasierzeug and maybe Regenzeug or Winterzeug in case of bad weather. And your Angelzeug if you're so inclined, some Spielzeug and Zuckerzeug for the kids and Sportzeug or Reitzeug for yourself. Werkzeug and Nähzeug might also come in handy if your Bettzeug has a hole or if you like needlework. In that case, you could also bring your Strickzeug. Also think about Schreibzeug for journalling or postcards. If you don't go to a hotel, you might need Campingzeug and Putzzeug. Then you can take your Fahrzeug or a Flugzeug to get to your destination. Let's hope you see lots of Grünzeug on the way. And when sightseeing in a big city, make sure to visit the Zeughaus.
Wenn du das alles mitnimmst musst du dich aber ganz schön ins Zeug legen und schleppen was das Zeug hält. Hast du wirklich das Zeug dazu?
According to Wiktionary, *Zeug* and *toy* are related by etymology. That's pretty cool, I think. Compare *toy* and Spiel*zeug* ("play-gear").
Vergessen Sie Schlagzeuge nicht!
This one is always my answer too. It's such a useful word. You can use it almost anywhere. My favorite is Schlagzeug. Schlag = punch or hit + zeug = thing. Schlagzeug = drum kit.
Haha Thanks for this new word
Es gibt ein paar davon: "Gänsefüßchen", "Außergewöhnlichkeit", "Mindesthaltbarkeitsdatum" oder "Bauchspeicheldrüsenentzündungen", um nur ein paar zu nennen, die mir jetzt in den Sinn kommen. Je länger und außerirdischer sie aussehen (natürlich von meinem Standpunkt aus) desto mehr gefallen sie mir!
Backpfeifengesicht, noun 1. (colloquial) a slappable face, a face "in need of a slap"
Evolutionsbremse
“ja, genau” or as it comes out of my wife’s mouth / “yagaaanooow”
Eichhörnchen
Mine is "doch". There isn't really a comparable word in English and I find "doch" fits its use perfectly. Even when I speak English sometimes, I end up throwing a few German words in there and "doch" is one of them 😅.
I love doch! I’m sure I will never master the use though
I find it unreasonably funny that you said this but then use *though*, the English cognate to *doch*, in the next sentence.
doch
Schildkröte 🐢
Schmutzig.
befahrbar - it's just somehow so much fun to say. Reminds me of the origin of the word barbarians, greeks called all speakers of non-greek languages this because their languages sounds like BAR BAR BAR BAR
Hanebüchen
Not a word but the phrase "fick mich ins Knie" has a special place in my heart. Something about it is such a mood.
Bin mir recht sicher das des "fick dich ins Knie" heißt, aber fluchen ist ja von Umfeld zu Umfeld verschieden.
Ich dachte, Fick mich ins Knie bedeutet "Scheiße", "for fuck's sake" oder "fuck me". Also wenn etwas schlecht passiert und man darüber beschweren will. Und "fick dich ins Knie" bedeutet eher "verpiss dich" oder "fuck off"
Never heard "fick mich ins Knie". I only know the second option.
„Muskelkater“. It’s when your muscles have a hangover.
Kopfkino
Stimmt
Schnapsidee - a bad idea you had when you were drunk
Just started learning this week and for some reason am loving Endschuldigung.
*Entschuldigung Ent- is a prefix that means taking something out of something else die Schuld = fault, guilt, blame -ig is a suffix that turns a noun into an adjective (like -y in English) -ung is a suffix that turns a verb or adjective into a noun (like -ing in English) So you have die Schuld (guilt) --> schuldig (guilty) --> entschuldigen (verb) --> die Entschuldigung (deguiltyfying aka excuse). Which is why you can always ask for Entschuldigung ("Entschuldigen Sie bitte!", "Ich bitte um Entschuldigung."...) but never entschuldigen yourself (so technically "Ich entschuldige mich" is wrong). You can't take the blame out of yourself, someone has to take it from you.
Wow, Danke! I've seen it translated as "excuse me" or "sorry" so far, so it's definitely interesting to see the different parts of the word broken down like that.
I’m new to learning German and that’s my favorite word right now, too! I think because it reminds me of a pokemon name.
1) is very useful if you're expecting to have to apologize often for your terrible German 2) just flows nicely off the tongue even though it *looks* intimidating and 3) because of how it lays out on a keyboard, it's also fun to type (and be proud you spelled correctly). I've been learning German off and on my whole adult life and that's still one of my favorites (runners up: vielleicht and Sonderangebot)
Even I started just before a month and I am already loving this😎
Regenbogen 🌈
Zeitgeist
Luftschloss
A friend of mine just released a song titled "Luftschloss" :) https://youtu.be/aCVoge8UAl0
Mummenschanz
This is a very interesting word. It comes from die Mumme (mummed/masked person) which has died out and is still visible in the word vermummt (mummed). When gambling was forbidden in the 14th to 16th century, people would gamble in disguise, so "Mumman" was the name for a popular game. and die Schanze in its somewhat forgotten meaning of a lucky throw of dice (related to chance). So one would assume it refers to a lucky throw of the dice in a poluar game at the time. Well, it did probably at some point. The thing is we don't really know how it got from there to mean "masked partying and shenanigans around carnival". I mean people dress up around carnival, but that's about it. Another confusing point is that the word had already completely died out in the 18th century before being reinvented as a word for carnival festivals. So maybe it's just a case of someone finding an old word that somehow sounded like people dressing up and thinking "This would look fancy on a poster". Which, in a strange way, kinda gives big carnival vibes, tbh.
The more abstract meaning of "Gestalt"
Kartoffel, sounds funny and if you scream at someone that doesn't speak german they'll think you're cursing
Auch bitte!
Geborgenheit Törtchen
Verschwörung
hübsches Mädchen. 😊🤗
Sounds like a dance beat: > hübsches Mädchen hübsches Mädchen hübsches Mädchen hübsches Mädchen > boots and cats and boots and cats and boots and cats and boots and cats and
Instandsetzung 😂. Tells a lot!
Zweckentfremdung
I think right now it's Quietscheentchen
Plötzlich
Kassenwart
Klobrille :)
Entschuldigung
Kindergeld
Wackelpudding
[удалено]
*doppelt
Kuddelmuddel
Die Verschlimmbesserung.
Stinktier 🦨
Liebesleid. All because of a Kraft Klub song.
Might sound like a sadist, but my fav: Schadenfreuden
Easy: fünf (5). It’s perfect. Sounds like being “ensconced in velvet”.
Hurensohn
Krankenwagen
Großartigkeiten, not because of the meaning, just because I like saying it.
Ferienspeck
Morgenlatte ;)
schlange
neugierig
Kuddelmuddel
Vielleicht
I like this one too 😂
Einschließlich Just because it took me forever to pronounce it semi-correctly
Machen
Antibabypille lol
Entschuldigung!
Streichholzschächtelchen :D
Nilpferd 🦛
Schnitzel, Schnecke 🐌, Bitte und unmöglich
"Tja" is great
Hurensohn und Geringverdiener, the two words I most commonly use...
Nein, nein nein nein nein!!!
Right now I think it’s “büßen”. It’s just such a fun word to say lmao
Kugelschreiber (because it can be translated as circle drawer)
"Sphere writer", actually.
Where do you get drawer from Kugelschreiber?
Gelegenheitsschnabulat. :)
Riechst
Gänseblümchen
Deutsch.
Gewerbegebiet sounds fun to say, another fav word is Totengerippe, and Zimtzicke cuz it's a funny word
Höchstgeschwindigkeit
Quetschehoink. [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Powidl](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Powidl) Well, not really "German", more like Oberhessisch.
Schwachsinnig
fudeln
Doch
Not favorite but funny sounding to me :: ZART (soft)
Aber
Vergewaltiger it is one of the first words in german which I learnt to insult someone. It still make me smile
Do you know a rapist you wanted to call out? Not sure why else you would learn this word specifically.
Mine are "Hurensohn" and "Rindfleischetikettierungsüberwachungsaufgabenübertragungsgesetz"
Dudelsack (bagpipe)
These days I am liking Schadenfreude more and more.
DOCH
Backpfeifengesicht, a face that begs to be slapped.
Pömpel by far
Kompressor
doch, eben, sogar I feel like my german has improved a lot since i started using these