The German language

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Geschwindigkeitsbegrenzung

(speed limit)

― Joe (Joe), Thursday, 27 July 2006 10:43 (nineteen years ago)

O WRKLK? JA WRKLK!

― weather1ngda1eson (Brian), Thursday, 27 July 2006 10:45 (nineteen years ago)

I don't think there's a language in the world where every letter is pronounced the same way every time

Spanish is pretty much like that. You change the sound of c and g depending on what vowel they're followed by, but that's about it.

― Cathy (Cathy), Thursday, 27 July 2006 10:52 (nineteen years ago)

my favourite german word and one of the only ones I know is wunderbar.

― Cathy (Cathy), Thursday, 27 July 2006 10:54 (nineteen years ago)

Problembar

― DV (dirtyvicar), Thursday, 27 July 2006 11:08 (nineteen years ago)

xpost i keep saying "wonderbra" by accident (which makes it a classic!)

brustwarze
handschuhe
krankenhaus

lieblingsfach
kunst

― ken c (ken c), Thursday, 27 July 2006 11:11 (nineteen years ago)

"doppelgänger" is pretty cool.
(and shouldn't it be : O WRKLCH ? YA WRKLCH !)

― AleXTC (AleXTC), Thursday, 27 July 2006 11:12 (nineteen years ago)

NEIN WAI!

― weather1ngda1eson (Brian), Thursday, 27 July 2006 11:14 (nineteen years ago)

I don't think there's a language in the world where every letter is pronounced the same way every time

mandarin? (but i guess the characters are more like words than letters)

oh and schadenfreude is indeed a good one, and xpost doppelganger

― ken c (ken c), Thursday, 27 July 2006 11:15 (nineteen years ago)

kaputt!

― ken c (ken c), Thursday, 27 July 2006 11:16 (nineteen years ago)

Mein Hund hat keine Nase!

― ken c (ken c), Thursday, 27 July 2006 11:18 (nineteen years ago)

oh and Ayingerbrau!!

― ken c (ken c), Thursday, 27 July 2006 11:20 (nineteen years ago)

You change the sound of c and g depending on what vowel they're followed by, but that's about it.

What about ll? Or j or h in the beginning of the word? Though Spanish vowels are always pronounced the same, I think.

― Tuomas (Tuomas), Thursday, 27 July 2006 11:21 (nineteen years ago)

xxxxxpost

I think you'll find that werkelijk = Dutch and wirklich = German, so

JA WEG

― StanM (StanM), Thursday, 27 July 2006 11:25 (nineteen years ago)

O WRKLCH ? YA WRKLCH ! NCHT MGLCH ! (with an eagle instead)

― AleXTC (AleXTC), Thursday, 27 July 2006 11:25 (nineteen years ago)

Donnerwetter! Mein Gott Im Himmel! Scheiße!!

(See, video games help you learn!)

― Onimo (GerryNemo), Thursday, 27 July 2006 11:28 (nineteen years ago)

rnsthft!

― ken c (ken c), Thursday, 27 July 2006 11:30 (nineteen years ago)

As far as I know, Japanese pronunciation is incredibly faithful to the spelling system.

I agree with Ken that the word Handschuh is a total classic.

Can we hear it for German syntax, please? e.g. Today have I heard that a man who for Germany football played has has in England to come decided.

― Daniel Giraffe (Daniel Giraffe), Thursday, 27 July 2006 11:30 (nineteen years ago)

What about ll? Or j or h in the beginning of the word? Though Spanish vowels are always pronounced the same, I think

yeah, a double l means a different sound to single l, and same with double r. and j and h are the same sound at the beginning of a word as they are within it - h is never pronounced, anyway.

― Cathy (Cathy), Thursday, 27 July 2006 11:42 (nineteen years ago)

I gather Finnish is extremely phonetic which I am sure is nice in theory but how do I learn to pronounce all of those VOOOOOWEEEEELS? Words I know in Finnish already =

KIPPIS - cheers!
Hei - hallo!
Moi moi - bye bye!
KRAPULA - HANGOVER!

Hooray!

― Bhumibol Adulyadej (Lucretia My Reflection), Thursday, 27 July 2006 12:19 (nineteen years ago)

"krapula" is a great word ! (especially for a french speaking person)

― AleXTC (AleXTC), Thursday, 27 July 2006 12:21 (nineteen years ago)

Arschkalt

― DV (dirtyvicar), Thursday, 27 July 2006 12:31 (nineteen years ago)

Megahammeraffentittengeil

― Colin Meeder (Mert), Thursday, 27 July 2006 12:39 (nineteen years ago)

CRipes, what do these words mean, DV and Colin?

― Daniel Giraffe (Daniel Giraffe), Thursday, 27 July 2006 12:43 (nineteen years ago)

Dreilochstute

― StanM (StanM), Thursday, 27 July 2006 12:48 (nineteen years ago)

(you don't want to know, trust me.) (or, if you do, look it up at Urban Dictionary)

― StanM (StanM), Thursday, 27 July 2006 12:54 (nineteen years ago)

"Cold as hell" and "totally fucking awesome", although they're better taken literally ("asscold" and "mega-hammer-monkey-tits-horney").

Stan oughta be ashamed of himself. I ain't translating THAT.

― Colin Meeder (Mert), Thursday, 27 July 2006 12:58 (nineteen years ago)

drei means three, loch means hole... the mind boggles

― Daniel Giraffe (Daniel Giraffe), Thursday, 27 July 2006 12:59 (nineteen years ago)

"Stute" is mare. Do the math yourself.

― Colin Meeder (Mert), Thursday, 27 July 2006 13:00 (nineteen years ago)

I enjoyed the pun in Bild when I was over in Germany for the World Cup. When Klose scored the winning goal in one game, Bild called him Klosartig (grossartig means great)

― Daniel Giraffe (Daniel Giraffe), Thursday, 27 July 2006 13:00 (nineteen years ago)

genau.

― stop moving. (cis), Thursday, 27 July 2006 13:07 (nineteen years ago)

nippelspanner

― nazi bikini (harbl), Thursday, 27 July 2006 13:11 (nineteen years ago)

I like the way the Germans will make up a word which is required to explain something, if no word already exists. For instance, if you want a "return ticket on the express train", the word you use is "Schnellzugzuschlagschein". Cobbled-together words are just brilliant.

― C J (C J), Thursday, 27 July 2006 13:13 (nineteen years ago)

Das war sehr einsichtig.

― M. White (Miguelito), Thursday, 27 July 2006 13:46 (nineteen years ago)

Vielen Dank!

― C J (C J), Thursday, 27 July 2006 13:52 (nineteen years ago)

Elfenbein = ivory

― StanM (StanM), Thursday, 27 July 2006 14:13 (nineteen years ago)

It's not exactly SO, for example the "e" is "Kaiser" is pronounced differently than in "Freund".

No, the "e" in "freund" is part of the vowel combination "eu", which is always pronounced the same say.

Eliminating the Sz (sorry, I don't know the html code for it), C/D?

― NoTimeBeforeTime (Barry Bruner), Thursday, 27 July 2006 14:43 (nineteen years ago)

same way, rather

― NoTimeBeforeTime (Barry Bruner), Thursday, 27 July 2006 14:44 (nineteen years ago)

I gather Finnish is extremely phonetic which I am sure is nice in theory but how do I learn to pronounce all of those VOOOOOWEEEEELS?

Hääyöaie!

Every teach-yrself-Finnish tape I've ever listened to has had two speakers, one of whom observes the difference between a and ä described in the text of the book and one of whom either says them the same or does the umlaut a bit German. HATE. Plus not aspirating my consonants = no chance, and making the difference between single and doubled letters = only if I speak at three words per minute.

Then I listen to Finnish music and they seem to pronounce a and ä about the same, but it's ok for them because they are on Trendy Fonal Records. Even the ones who aren't.

Do real Germans say glückschmerz? That is a good word. I need to learn German.

― Rebecca (reb), Thursday, 27 July 2006 14:59 (nineteen years ago)

Eierlegendewollmilchsau (although this word gets way overused by lazy writers in product reviews.)

― Colin Meeder (Mert), Thursday, 27 July 2006 17:35 (nineteen years ago)

*"geil" does not just mean horny but can also mean something similar to "cool"
x-post.

― clodia pulchra (emo by proxy), Thursday, 27 July 2006 19:25 (nineteen years ago)

Uh.

― Colin Meeder (Mert), Thursday, 27 July 2006 19:52 (nineteen years ago)

I don't think there's a language in the world where every letter is pronounced the same way every time

mandarin?

Not really! A single character can be pronounced with different inflections depending on the inflection of the character immediately following it.

― c('°c) (Leee), Thursday, 27 July 2006 19:57 (nineteen years ago)

and not Japanese kana, thinking about it: the i-syllable can be used after a syllable ending in e to lengthen it, and the u-syllable after an o-ending syllable lengthens the o, so ke-i-ta-i is pronounced 'k?tai' and kyo-u is pronounced 'ky?'. Also the n-syllable represents an m-sound when it precedes a 'b', e.g. sa-n-bya-ku is pronounced 'sambyaku'.

― stop moving. (cis), Thursday, 27 July 2006 20:34 (nineteen years ago)

Libelle. Tonarmgeraet. Tafeldienst. Kegeln.

― patita (patita), Thursday, 27 July 2006 21:45 (nineteen years ago)

saujud

― ferzaffe (flezaffe), Thursday, 27 July 2006 21:59 (nineteen years ago)

Tohuwabohu (it's German for brouhaha)

Dingsbums (thingummybob)

Genau (popular one!)

― CharlieNo4 (Charlie), Thursday, 27 July 2006 22:45 (nineteen years ago)

das Wolkenkuckucksheim

― Eisbär (llamasfur), Thursday, 27 July 2006 23:01 (nineteen years ago)

Treuhandgesellschaft
GmbH = Gesellschaft mit beschräankter Handlung
Einzelgänger
Personalmangel

― Eisbär (llamasfur), Thursday, 27 July 2006 23:03 (nineteen years ago)

or my favorite -- FREIE FAHRT

― Eisbär (llamasfur), Thursday, 27 July 2006 23:04 (nineteen years ago)

Skipping 530 messages at this point... Click here if you want to load them all.

Ehrgeiz

― oder doch?, Tuesday, 11 February 2020 16:53 (six years ago)

„Schmetterling“ is underrated imo, the word means “little thing” (-ling) that “bats forcefully” (Schmetter-)

― oder doch?, Tuesday, 11 February 2020 17:00 (six years ago)

genau def a hall of famer

new one today which is nice: außergewöhnlich

― ||||||||, Tuesday, 11 February 2020 18:04 (six years ago)

just has a nice rhythm and balance to it, with a satisfying definitive ending

― ||||||||, Tuesday, 11 February 2020 18:04 (six years ago)

rein theoretisch

― seandalai, Tuesday, 11 February 2020 21:17 (six years ago)

two weeks pass...

still enjoying this ish. favourite thing recently are conjunctions that throw the conjugated verb to the end so sentences become this odd parade of unmoored subjects objects times locations with a wee verb popping up at the end to stitch them all together

― ||||||||, Thursday, 27 February 2020 17:15 (six years ago)

like.... Du solltest ‚Gruß Gott‘ sagen wenn du in Österreich bist....... bist my man wyd all the way out there on your own

― ||||||||, Thursday, 27 February 2020 17:23 (six years ago)

two months pass...

|||||||| ist ein Threadnichtaufdemlaufendengehaltenhabender.

I don’t like the guy who coined the phrase, but “Lockerungsdrängler” is a classic German compound imo.

― oder doch?, Tuesday, 12 May 2020 17:10 (six years ago)

still plugging away doing a little everyday - less structured since we entered lockdown, mostly because my days are less structured and if I exercise I tend to do it w/my partner so doing podcast course would be considering kinda..... antisocial

been slacking on the speaking lately tho - need to up that def

― megan thee macallan 18 year (||||||||), Wednesday, 13 May 2020 08:00 (six years ago)

been a little difficult to keep the motivation too when there's no potential for a visit to germany on the horizon at least in the short- to medium-term. always found w french that visting france gave my language skills a little turbo boost over any plateaus and so was looking forward to the same from visits to germany this year but........ the rona

― megan thee macallan 18 year (||||||||), Wednesday, 13 May 2020 08:13 (six years ago)

yeah I've had that problem too. I keep meaning to work on my German because I might possibly want to move to Germany when this is over, but that seems very far off and hard to imagine.

― The fillyjonk who believed in pandemics (Lily Dale), Wednesday, 13 May 2020 14:58 (six years ago)

two months pass...

I just saw this anglicised map of Germany and now I can't stop thinking about it pic.twitter.com/nbpAwPXy13
— Marcel Dirsus (@marceldirsus) July 27, 2020

Slot Newswanston!

― L. Prague de Scamp (a passing spacecadet), Monday, 27 July 2020 18:13 (five years ago)

Pretty sure most of those places exist in England.

― Sonny Shamrock (Tom D.), Monday, 27 July 2020 18:40 (five years ago)

two years pass...

Son ellos https://t.co/CPTu3mdG06 pic.twitter.com/k3UmzhQBOh
— common white girl (@PlanetaTamara) June 27, 2022

― xyzzzz__, Thursday, 18 May 2023 10:25 (three years ago)

one month passes...

Don't think there's a proper Germany thread bar this one. Making my way through this rn.

https://jewishcurrents.org/bad-memory-2

― xyzzzz__, Friday, 7 July 2023 09:37 (two years ago)

two months pass...

Phantombildzeichner

― Kizza Me on the Bus (James Redd and the Blecchs), Saturday, 23 September 2023 15:18 (two years ago)

Person who sketches identikit portraits (Phantombilder)

― Kizza Me on the Bus (James Redd and the Blecchs), Saturday, 23 September 2023 15:20 (two years ago)

nine months pass...

Learning German online from the Goethe Institut and the login page URL ends with the word "moodle" which makes me think Moodles is somehow involved.

― Bad Bairns (Boring, Maryland), Saturday, 13 July 2024 23:35 (one year ago)

one month passes...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vergangenheitsbew%C3%A4ltigung

― Defund Phil Collins (Tom D.), Tuesday, 20 August 2024 08:45 (one year ago)

My days of German fluency are long gone, but I still favour Zahlungsmittel and verkehrsgünstig over their English equivalents.

― mike t-diva, Tuesday, 20 August 2024 09:02 (one year ago)

This was fun:
https://www.tagesanzeiger.ch/dialekt-test-wir-wissen-woher-sie-stammen-jetzt-noch-genauer-205060715129

Apparently, I am from Hannover. (I am not from Hannover. I am from Pittsburgh.) My husband was a bit north from where he is from, though (Hamburg).

― This is how the spicy nonsense becomes loose. (doo dah), Sunday, 25 August 2024 17:30 (one year ago)

three months pass...

German compound word of the day (a mere 24 letters): Kundenzufriedenheitsumfrage
It means "customer satisfaction survey", so it's a regular, everyday word.

― giraffe, Thursday, 12 December 2024 08:57 (one year ago)

Not bad, but German children's books can do better than that:

"An good way to learn German is to try reading children's books to familiarise yourself with basic grammar and vocabulary"

German children's book: pic.twitter.com/GENRnrL0vw
— Nic Houghton (@40PercentGerman) December 10, 2024

― Wry & Slobby (Portsmouth Bubblejet), Thursday, 12 December 2024 09:50 (one year ago)

Lol that's like a mega-compound word: Hilfeleistung (assistance, from Hilfe help and Leistung performance), löschen (extinguish), Gruppen (well, groups), Fahrzeug (vehicle). Apparently you can say HLF: three letters :P

― Nabozo, Thursday, 12 December 2024 12:12 (one year ago)

Nice one encountered in the wild re:South Korea: Amtsenthebungsverfahren (impeachment, literally office removal procedure). The h is accentuated.

― Nabozo, Sunday, 15 December 2024 10:03 (one year ago)

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