Some words are just better in German. Today I’m going to teach you my personal favorite German words and explain why you should love them, too. If you would like to have a PDF copy of the video script, an mp3 version of the video and a worksheet with answer key to go with this video, you can get that via this link. The worksheet focuses on the formation of compound nouns in German and helps you practice breaking apart long German words and make your own compound nouns.
Compound Nouns That are Greater than the sum of their parts.
die Tollwut - rabies, great rage, but the ‘Toll’ in Tollwut doesn’t mean great, but ‘crazy’. ‘Toll’ is a old word for ‘verrückt’. Tollwut therefore is ‘crazy rage’.
die Nacktschnecke - slug, naked snail
der Zungenbrecher - tongue twister, tongue breaker
das Luftschloss - a dream that will likely never come true, an air castle
das Kopfkino - playing a scenario out in your mind, head cinema
das Drachenfutter - a gift given to a loved one as an apology, dragon feed
das Hüftgold - extra fat around the midsection, hip gold
die französische Krankheit - syphilis, the French disease
die Windpocken - chicken pox, wind pox
der Durchfall - diarrhea, through fall
The “I bet you can’t come up with a one word translation for this” category
der Ohrwurm - ear worm - a song that gets stuck in your head
das Fernweh - the opposite of homesickness, a desire to travel
der Kummerspeck - grief/sadness fat - Many people on the internet think this translates as grief bacon, but they are stretching the meaning a bit. It is more closely related to the word fat, as other translations for “Speck” include “fat” and “lard”.
das Fremdschämen - shame for something someone else has done
die Torschlusspanik - gate closing panic, Torschlusspanik derived from the times where cities had city walls and gates, at a certain time gates were closed overnight. If you came too late, you had to spend the night outside of the city. Nowadays Torschlusspanik describes the fear to miss something important, like marriage or having children.
der Treppenwitz - a joke you come up with when you are walking away from an argument
der Weltschmerz - the melancholic pain you feel when you watch the world and its state.
die Schnapsidee - an idea that you have when you are drunk
verschlimmbessern - to make things worse while trying to make them better, a combination of verbessern (to make better) and verschlimmern (to make worse, exacerbate)
der Kevinismus (Chantalismus) - a person who is perceived to be of lower intelligence, have behavioral problems, or otherwise be unsuccessful, because their parents gave them an un-Germanic sounding name, bonus word “Alpha-Kevin” is someone who is especially dumb.
die Ostalgie - being nostalgic for those things that you had in East Germany
German words that sound like English words that the German word is not.
der Rahmen - frame - I just think it sounds like the noodles predominantly eaten by poor college students in the United States. I’m waiting on someone to make a picture frame out of ramen.
der Muckefuck - a coffee substitute - There is no such thing as a coffee substitute. There is coffee and not coffee. There is no substitute. If you are in the unfortunate situation of being served such a disgraceful drink, you may find yourself also saying “Muckefuck”.
die Fahrt - tee hee. He said fart.
der Fuchs - What kind of an animal is that? A Fuchs?
das Fach - It means compartment or container, but is used to refer to subjects or disciplines in education as a figurative version of the word. I just like it, because it sounds like an English word that it clearly isn’t.
das Schließfach - If you add any word that starts with an “S” to the beginning of a word that sounds like “Fach”, it is objectively funny.
Honorable Mention
die Schießbude - schießen means to shoot, but “Bude” sounds like “Buddha”. Why are they shooting Buddha?
Words that are fun if you know their origin
pendeln - from the noun “Pendel”, which is a pendulum. This verb literally is like swaying back and forth, but translates as “commute” or to travel back and forth from place to place. Cool.
die Notlüge - literally an emergency lie. It is generally translated as a white lie or a lie that doesn’t really do any harm, but is born of necessity.
das Fettnäpfchen - Fett = fat. Näpfchen = saucer. It is a saucer of fat. It is used in a colloquialism “ins Fettnäpfchen treten” which comes from a time when there was a saucer of fat that was kept near the stove. A “Napf” is a container that is usually used to feed animals. A “Näpfchen” is a small version. If you accidentally stepped in it, it would be an awkward encounter the next time you saw the house wife or maid. This phrase, therefore, is used to describe a situation that makes it awkward for the next time you see that person. It is a way of ruining a relationship.
What are your favorite German words? Let me know in the comments below.
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