"Schadenfreude" mostly is not a general joy to see other people getting some damage, but most often the "joy to witness instant karma" when people rightfully (and often caused by their own stupidity, clumsiness or even evil intent) experience some bad outcome from their own actions.
Bestes Beispiel ist, den Sprung bei Dirty Dancing im realen Leben nachzumachen. Geht selten gut aus. Vor Allem, wenn die Frau etwas mehr wiegt, als der Mann, der sie auffangen soll ;)
code reviews on pull requests do help a bit, exept everybody is blind or unable to communicate. Then the problem is mostly right in front of the display :P
Favourite donkey bridge: "He, she, it: das s muss mit!" A phrase EVERY student in Germany has heard in english class to remember that for the 3rd person an s is added to the verb.
Lebkuchen (Gingerbread) und Honigkuchen sind auch das selbe. Lediglich unterschiedliche Bezeichnungen. Regional wird es auch einige Unterschiede in der Zubereitung geben, daher ist es so glaube ich mittlerweile unmöglich quasi das Original Rezept zu finden.
@@alicemilne1444 If someone smiles a lot, or very radiantly, German language has it that they smile like a gingerbread horse. "Du strahlst ja wie ein Honigkuchenpferd" "My, you're smiling like a gingerbread horse"
There is one word that she missed, but definitely should be implemented in english (and honestly all of the languages): ÜBERMORGEN which means 'a day after tomorrow' 👍🏼👍🏼
Hi Joel. Nearly all of the words Feli described are, in fact, compound words. A practiced German speaker has no problem dissecting each of them into its individual components, and give you a fairly accurate definition of each. That's what makes German so versatile; the ability to generate a new meaningful word with a specific definition that doesn't require an entry in a dictionary, either online or offline. While English has a similar ability by adding hyphens it is not exaaaaactly the same. The hyphens literally break down the compound word into individual words stuck together by a weak glue. The newly formed hyphenated word doesn't suddenly gain the ability to be recognized as a new concept, nor is it likely to gain such a status easily. Whereas in German any compound word generated on the fly DOES have the potential to become easily known as such if used often enough, or its descriptive nature makes it so useful. It seems that a concept is more easily conveyed when it is recognized as a single, definitive word instead of hyphenated words stuck together. Edit: no, German in fact has fewer individual words with specific definitions, but over the course of history so many of these individual words have been used in certain compound words that describe a concept so well that they have become their own definition. Normal German speakers use an average of 5000-8000 words in their standard vocabulary, while average English speakers will use between 8000 - 10000 words. Well educated German speakers may have a vocabulary of around 35 000 SINGLE words, whereas a well educated English speaker may have between 50 000-100 000 words. English has adopted far more words from other languages, such as French, Latin, or Greek that describe one concept very exactly. However, by doing so it has lost some of its versatility of generating these new conceptual words on the fly. For example, nearly every doctor in English has their own specific term associated with them that are sometimes difficult to grasp if you aren't intimately in tune with the languages they come from. Such as opthamologist for example. While it is used fairly regularly by teens or adults, a kid being exposed to this word for the very first time won't have any clue what it means. An English speaking kid will have to learn the specific word by heart because it probably won't have a grasp of the Latin/Greek origin. Then it might bump into an optometrist and wonder where the difference is in definition. In German, the Augenarzt/Augenärztin, the eye doctor, is inherently defined by Auge = eye, and Arzt/Ärztin = doctor (male/female). Both words are probably the simplest words describing two concepts that even a small kid will have learned, just stuck together firmly. So a German speaking kid will inherently understand this concept just because it understands the simple terms from which the compound word is generated. That applies to the vast majority of German words that have not been adopted from other language. They all boil down to very simple words everybody understands. While the specificity in English is much higher, the general understanding of terms in German easily beats English words. What is better? Huh, you decide.
Ear worm has definitely been a thing in the UK, for me, for as long as I can remember. I don't remember using it as a kid specifically but certainly since my 20's (I'm 41 now).
And there we have one again, 'Eselsbrücke' in Dutch would be 'ezelsbruggetje' 🙂 It again goes to show the German and Dutch common ancestry 🙂 I also have to agree with some of the other commenters that you don't really look like your normal self in this video.
I‘m german and started learning dutch on duolingo weeks ago and I love how close to german this language is! Sadly there is no german to dutch course, so I have to do it with english instead, which is obviously a bit more difficult. Ein Umweg, naja. Ik spreek en beetje Nederlands haha
not really surprising when you look at a map, since they are so close to eatch other and europe had quite an interesting history in the last few hundred years. Even now or the next generation language evolves all the time for many reasons.Comment section in a houndred years mays not be speaking english.
Fun Fact: „Verschlimmbessern“ is actually a merger of two words that was invented in German slang and then made its way into everyday usage because it’s so genius. It’s the merger of the words „verschlimmern“ and „verbessern“ (to make worse and to make better) and since both words start with „ver…“ you can just merge the second parts to one word. I find that very efficient.
"Arschgeige" goes back to Martin Luther, it was his name for Catholic Cardinals, joining the word for bad Guys, "Ass" with the violin, suggesting that the pope plays the cardinals like violins.
My favourite "donkey bridge" is : "Mein Vater Erklät Mir Jeden Sonntag Unsere Neun Planeten" which means "my father explains to me every sunday our nine planets." The reason for this is the first letter of every word is the first letter of our planets in our solar system starting with mercury... MVEMJSUNP unfortunately it doesnt work anymore.
6:37 You usually combine "Weichei" with different pseudo -insults to show, that you should not take it to serious. "Warmduscher" (warm showerer) is one of those, other examples are "Bausparer" (someone, who saves up to build a house), Schönwetterzelter (someone, who camps in nice weather) and "Schattenparker" (someone, who parks in the shadow, to keep the car cool n the summer). Yes, all of those are indeed quite normal - unless you are a really, really tough person - like myself. I stopped being a "Bausparer", used my safed money for a camper and once again, I am going to set up my tent in the arctic, where nice weather is a rare thing and where I use freezing cold seawater to wash myself. Therefore, I might still be a "Weichei", but none of the other stuff.
I agree with Feli , but now it`s the end of the day (Feierabend) or it`s over , many German parents say to their children, either if they`ve something stupid, or if they should stop playing to go to bed at night.😉
As of spring 2017, the Duden corpus has a volume of just under 23 million words (basic forms)." The Duden corpus is an electronic database that has existed since 1995, is constantly being expanded, and so far contains about four billion word examples. It contains very large quantities of journalistic articles, literature, as well as factual, technical, and usage texts. The Duden editorial staff regularly combs through it to find out which new words might be candidates for inclusion in the dictionary, how they are spelled, and what their grammatical gender is. Basic forms are the infinitive for verbs and the nominative singular for nouns. That means promise and promised are not counted as two words, and neither are dog and dogs. The average use is far less: The twenty-seventh edition of the spelling lexicon contains only 145,000 words, although it has been expanded by 5,000 new entries compared to the previous version of 2013 - including tindern, Lügenpresse, Tikitaka and Fake News Have fun learing German :o)
To refer to the donkeybridge: Yes, I should have posted this to the video of Feli, but here is my favorite: There are Stalagmiten and Stalagtiten. (stalagmite and stalactite) But which one is hanging and which one is pilig up? So here is the hint: Womans breasts in very very slang word are also called Titten. And Titten are hanging … so uhm - oh - yes … 🤣
Tom and his friends stayed at the pub all evening. When the pub was closed at night, Tom came up with the "Schnapsidee" to put a ladder on his girlfriend's window and climb in there at night. But when he put the ladder against the wall of the house, the friends made so much noise that the girlfriend's parents woke up. When Tom reached the top of the ladder, his friend's mother was already waiting for him there. He did not manage to secretly get into his girlfriend's room.
11:06 I want to use the word ‘Disimprove’ sometime. My mother calls such a situation ‘Uncle Podger’ named after the character who tries to hang a picture.
16:29 Mnemonics (Memory Aid) are actually interesting. We should have more of them. There was one about the planets that was funny: My (Mercury) Very (Venus) Easy (Earth) Method (Mars) Just (Jupiter) Speeds (Saturn) Up (Uranus) Nothing (Neptune).
@@pixelbartus And when Pluto was counted as a planet it was: Mein Vater erklärt mir jeden Sonntag unsere neun Planeten (My Father explains our nine planets to me every Sunday). Or as one of my teachers called it: Mit viel Ernst muss jeder singen und nicht pfeifen.
Well, that was interesting, we have "donkey bridge" in Finnish too, but it means a completely different thing. My dictionary just translated that into "awkward transition from one topic to another". Wondering what the original donkey bridge was. Did they use to make separate bridges for donkeys vs. horses? :)
Donkeys are usually risk averse to unsafe terrain and not easily bullied to do someone elses bidding. So the German meaning being an easily traversable bridge. Not sure, how the Finnish meaning fits into that. Those bridges were usually not very pretty, but more pragmatically built.
I can imagine there is some overlap in the origin of both meanings. In German it is quite common calling someone a donkey when he did something stupid. Its a way to say it without intend to insult. In that sense, as a donkey might seem rather simple minded, the use of donkey bridge makes sense in both ways to me. As an awkward transition might be not the smartest way, or a clumsy way, to change a topic. Same as needing a donkey bridge to memorize to overcome our cognitive limits, but without degrading our selves because it is normal.
Donkeys originally come from Africa and are steppe and desert animals. Even today they are still adapted to dry landscapes. Since they are naturally afraid of large accumulations of water, they also have problems crossing a shallow ford. That's why bridges were often built for these pack animals so that they could easily cross rivers and streams. Even though the ford was so flat that the bridge wasn't actually necessary. A bridge to make it easier, a "Eselsbrücke".
Thumbs up before even watching! I love your reaction videos, and I love Feli. My most beloved Eselsbrücken are, as I'm interested in astronomy: "Mein Vater erklärt mir jeden Sonntag unsere neuen Pläne." (Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, Pluto). "Oh be a fine girl, kiss me right now, sweet" (star classes from brightest to darkest, OBAFKMRS). "Roy G. Biv" (the colors of a rainbow in correct order: red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, violet - Thanks to Neil deGrasse Tyson).
@@FritzPinguin Sounds philosophical, almost like Nietzsche. I excuse for not having mentioned the planetoid belt, but I thought everyone knows where it is, somewhere between the rocks and where it gets really cold. And to avoid any discussions: I know Pluto isn't officially a planet anymore, but they didn't know that when they launched the "New Horizons" probe, and it flew by Pluto, transmitted images, and on the go, discovered two new moons around the no-longer-planet. Honestly, I didn't think it would succeed. But here you can see what can be done by proper engineering. I'd wish they'd do that on earth.
3:15 All of them are compound words. The phenomenon of a single word describing different things also exist in German btw - a good example is the word Schloß which has two entirely different meanings: The first translation is lock, the other one is a bit tricky because English lacks an exact translation - the ones coming closest would be castle or probably palace. Neuschwanstein Castle for example is actually not a castle, it's a Schloß and the German name is actually Schloß Neuschwanstein. The literal translation of the term castle is Burg btw., however Neuschwanstein is not a Burg. In cases like this you have to look at the context to decide which meaning is the correct one.
Der Unterschied zwischen einer Burg und einem Schloss ist vermutlich die Verwendung. Ein Schloss ist ursprünglich der Wohnsitz von Monarchen. Eine Burg hatte eher militärische Zwecke um z.B. den Schutz des Besitzers zu garantieren. Deshalb lagen Burgen ja meistens auch auf einer Anhöhe oder waren von einem Wassergraben umgeben. The difference between a castle and a chateau is probably the use. A castle is originally the residence of monarchs. A castle had more military purposes, e.g. to guarantee the protection of the owner. That's why castles were mostly on a hill or surrounded by a moat.
In Germany we know The Cheshire Cat. Translate "Grinsekatze" from Walt Disney. But we don't say "lächeln wie eine Grinsekatze". But of course it can have the same origin
@@piah.3670 We do say "du bist so eine grinsekatze!" Though - which is mainly used for someone that is smiling in a mischeavous way and already sees his/her schadenfreude that is about to happen for following their advice.
@@ForumcoldiArchon OK. Then it definitely has a different meaning. Grinning like a honey cake horse just means that you can clearly see that someone is happy about something.
@@piah.3670here in the south Grinsekatze was a thing in the 80 or 90s. Nowadays I never hear it someone use😅! But I often say this to my son bc he is smiling like this often! ( and it looks a bit mischievous 😂). But I guess everyone would understand if you use it!
There is lots af sayings in English to represent most if not all these situations. Maybe not in American English but definitely in the England I was dragged up in😊.ive been here in Germany for 10 years and love it here, this is definitely the only video from you that I don't relate to but I do love your content and I love that you keep on learning about other cultures, I'm nearly 40 now and when I went travelling around the world in my 20s it made me a more reasonable minded person and definitely gave me the open minded approach to have a lot of fun with lots of different people. Enjoy your journey and when you come here to Germany you will have a great time at all times of the year. ✌️From a Yorkshire English man living in Dinkelsbühl Germany.
@Ryan Grady. I commented something similar, but also being from Yorkshire, I am seldom stuck for a word. I keep trying to get reaction channels to look at Ripping Yarns episode Eric Olthwaite. It has an example of my Yorkshire pronunciation of French. I also recommend Golden Gordon, which follows on, but no takers yet.
I can absolutely attest to what you said about the German language having more words than English. In other words, from a German's perspective, there seem to be few words in the English language, when compared to German. And therefore English seems to be slightly inaccurate. The same holds true for the English grammar in regards to it's simplicity. The upside of both though, makes it very easy to learn English. But I like the feature of German to be able to convey meaning, just by using a specific sentence structure. For example: A: "Er sagte er wäre vom Mond." B: "Er sagt er ist vom Mond." -> Both translates to: "He said he is from the moon." But the verb "wäre" in 'A' actually expresses uncertainty, regarding the validity of the conveyed information (him being from the moon). While 'B' simply conveys the information, that he said he's from the moon. The German language is filled with stuff like that. Which is why, when you translate English texts to German (for example when subbing English movies or series), you always run into the problem of the German language demanding more information, than what is conveyed with the English language. An easy example would be the Japanese language in comparison. When you speak about a 3rd party in Japanese, you often do not need to convey the sex of said person. But in German, you always use "he" or "she", depending on their gender. Hence, you have a real problem when introducing unknown characters who's identity should remain a mystery, when writing subtitles for Japanese series in German. You are forced to build a way longer sentence, just to keep the gender a secret (especially if you, as subber, don't even know the gender yourself yet). You then have to say "the unknown character" or something along those lines. So yeah, German is very precise. In fact, it's the most precise language I know. (And I do know a few.) On that note, interestingly enough scientists have realized, that there is a direct correlation between the precision, the amount of vocabulary and the grammar of a language as well as the development of the brain of children. It basically "forces" the brain to process more information, faster. Like playing a guitar that has more chords.
You were looking for insults. Sometimes when someone is driving really bad, we say :" Du faehrst ja wie der Weihnachtsmann" or just short Weihnachtsmann. It translates to: " You are driving like Santa Claus"- or just Santa Claus.
Oder «Bandsalat». Etwas, was es heute nicht mehr gibt. Wer noch weiß, was ein Kassettenrekorder ist, kann mit «Bandsalat» etwas anfangen. Or «Bandsalat» (Deepl translates this as "tape spaghetti"). Something that no longer exists today. Who still knows what a tape recorder is, can do something with "Bandsalat"
👍 😂.... Yeah but you need to be very careful with the pen😂. Bc the " Bandsalat" and the " Bleistift" If It was too "durcheinander" could get you a "Kassettenbandabriss.". Which often leaded to new Bandsalat the next time 🎉
One of the problems when writing German as a non German is which words are combined into one, which can have a complete different meaning. One example she uses "Eselsbrücke" to memorise something, but if written as two words "Esels brücke" it would mean a bridge for donkeys when put over a stream or large gap in the ground.
It means both at both times, so it is ambiguuous and needs to be determined by context. Usually really talking about a crossing for donkeys over some sort of stream is the least likely context today :D
There are quide a few words in the English dictionary that a big part of native English speaks actually never heard of. For example the word infinitesimal
Hello Joel. If Feli watched some of your reaction videos on UK or Australia, English outside of US is not so stuck for a word. Also those countries are not so hung up on everything being planned and described in detail. The words "just get cracking" come to mind. Lastly some of the words are ones I do use in UK, like earworm. German composers were not just studied here, but some came here, as did other professionals, since the money was here and also Germany wanted to copy UK in modernising.
one shouldn't forget that renaisance and Baroque arrived late in england, so in reality england was first a backward place before things changed to bring britain in the forefront of global trade and industry. One shouldn't mix up these two periods.
I like the Norwegian therm better for 'Honigkuchenpferd': It's 'it's just his ears preventing , that his smile goes around his head' I think the Norwegian language is more down to earth like the German. Plattdeutsch, mostly spoken in the northern part of Germany.
IMO the main shortcoming of the English language is not that these words are missing but that English does not have a universal diminutive. In German (and Italian) you can just put a certain ending on nouns and turn them into smaller, lesser versions. Quite useful for thinly veiled but not rude insults.
I just love our language...because like "verschlimmbessern", it's not "make it worse" because you make it better...until you notice it's even worse than before. So "verschlimmbessern" and "make it worse" are two different things.
Good choice Joel, very interesting. Schadenfreude certainly has come into use in English. Earworm is used in Canada. English is great for stealing/adopting words from other languages; whereas French goes bonkers with trying to keep its insular purity/external corruption. Have a great week everyone, John in Canada
French doesn't go bonkers with insular purity. That's a myth perpetuated by English speakers who don't know French and who think that the Académie française (AF) controls the language. It doesn't. French has adopted loads of words from other languages. According to a 2018 article in the Figaro newspaper, the current AF dictionary lists (translation below): "... 753 mots sont d'origine italienne, 686 sont d'origine anglaise, 253 mots sont issus de l'espagnol et 224 de l'arabe». Sans oublier les 48 mots provenant du russe, 87 du néerlandais, 41 du persan, 26 du japonais et 31 du tupi-guarani ..." = 753 words of Italian origin, 686 of English origin, 253 words from Spanish and 224 from Arabic - without forgetting the 48 words from Russian, 87 from Dutch, 41 from Persian, 26 from Japanese, and 31 from Tupi-Guarani". I myself grew up speaking French (from France) as well as UK English, and my French cousins and business associates regularly use German words such as "kaput", "kitsch", "kirsch", "ersatz" as well as loads of English words in normal colloquial conversation.
@@alicemilne1444 Hi Alice, maybe French Canada is different than France. Quebec feels linguistically threaten by English Canada. I learned France (Parisienne) French as well. It took awhile to develop an ear for Québécois. I've spent more time in France than in Quebec, but love taking long weekends in Montreal. Quebec City is a gem! Northern France feels like a second home to me. Cheers, John
My favourite "donkey-bridge" I learned in school was to remember the year ancient Rome was founded: "Sieben-fünf-drei, Rom schlüpft aus dem Ei" = "7-5-3, Rome hatches from the egg" 😂 Pretty useless, but it's stuck in my head forever!
But there are also words in English that we don't have in German. One of them is "gloved". For example "The goalie gloved the puck". In German you have to paraphrase it with "The goalie caught the puck with the glove."
with compound word you can basicly describe anything, thats why they are so beautiful that said, i find english much more versatile. german is great for specifics, english is much better in delivering basic information on a broad band, if that makes sense. like if i had to chose id rather speak english in day to day life, but if i was a professor id rather use german
"Make it worse" is not the complete concept of "verschlimmbessern". It is: "Make it worse by trying to improve". Or: ""Verschlimmbessern" happens, when you ignore this advice: Never interfere with a running system.
Nobody can say exactly how many words there are in the German language. According to estimates there are 350,000-500,000. Most of them also have different meanings depending by context.
The easy solution is - learn the German language to express yourself in the most precise way! 😁 Image the following situation - if your in your car, driving on the road and an obstacle appears, for example a pedestrian or a cyclist etc there are to options: Umfahren, means bypass by accordingly turning the steering wheel or: Umfahren, means drive right into the damned thing and ram it into the ground. 😂😂😂😂
As to "innerer Schweinhund", I came across the English terms "one's weaker self / the inner couch potato / your inner demons", likely depending on the situation. I guess, "Fremdschämen" (the noun) is "cringe factor".
Funny, Feli say Honeycake, what ever this is but behind her ist on in Heard shape. But i guess she didnt know this, because we eat Honigkuchen more in the north western part in Germany
Some of these words do indeed exist as translations. Ear worms can also refer to language and learning media which are designed to memorize things. The last item here is called a mnemonic (named after the greek godess for memory) wnich is a technique to aid memory usually using acronyms . To answer the question languages can either have lots of words to describe specific things with the draw back of having to have a very good memory to learn lists and all the conjugations and the appropriate times to use them. Or fewer words with multiple uses and meanings with the draw back of knowing the context it is being used.
… or you make compound words like in German. We do it all the time and no one has to learn them as they are instantly understandable for every native speaker. For instance, the Covid pandemic alone has spawned hundreds of new words like "Impfdrängler" (vaccination-tailgater) for a person that couldn't await to be vaccinated in the initial phase when vaccines were still in low supply.
One little correction: English actually has FAR MORE words than German. German is a rich language, that is true and the absolute number of words in a language is hard to verify because languages develop and change every day. There are however claims that English has 500,000 words with German having about 400,000 words. You'll get how incredible rich English is, when reading Shakespeare, for instance. Example: "Sith thus thou wilt appear, Freedom lives hence, and banishment is here." (Me german, trouble reading Shakespeare despite decades of English training. )
a good "Eselsbrücke" of my childhood: How can you memorize the order of the planets of our solar system? When I was young and Pluto was called a planet: "Mein Vater erklärt mir jeden Sonntag unsere neun Planeten" (my father teaches me every sunday our nine planets) The first letter of each word stands for the first letter of the planet - so it is "Merkur, Venus, Erde, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptun, Pluto" Today - since the poor poor Pluto was degraded to a "trans-neptun object" - the sentence changed to "Mein Vater erklärt mir jeden Sonntag unseren Nachthimmel" (my father teaches me every sunday our night-sky) Or another good sentence, special for guitar-players: How do you memorize the string-tunings of a guitar? You take your guitar and count the strings from top to bottom and say "Eine alte dumme Gans hat Eier" - E A D G H E (in Germany the musical note "H" is what you call "B" and the german "B" is what you call "Bb"...) (the sentence means literally: "an old dumb goose has eggs")
Well, actually we don't have that many words in german. But like many languages with less words and complex-ish grammar, we are allowed to combine them and make new ones. Like Lego (which coincedentally is also a compound word from the danish words "leg" and godt", which means "play well") ;)
A "warmduscher" is not a "normal person", since "warm" in this context means "not cold nor hot". So no temperatures above 50°C (122F) or less than 30°C (85F).
Honestly, I've never heard an english speaking person say 'schadenfreude' but I've heard a looooot of 'earworms' and 'second hand embarrassment'. These are all only 'funny when translated' words, and most of them have an 'equivalent' or similar meaning words in english. The ONLY one I agree with is 'kabelsalat' which is absolutely amazing and needs to be implemented in english.
You look sometimes a bit overwhelmed of the german language. 😅 I think a lot of these words are good examples of the richness of the german language and culture. Well, we had more than 700 years more time. You can do it too! 😄
In Dutch, an ear worm is indeed an insect! There's a myth that it would come inside your ear and split your ear drum; so I see a connection between the meanings. In Latin, Forficula auricularia refers to the insect and has indeed a reference to your hearing ("auricularia").
@@andreapompea3534 In einigen Regionen heißt er Ohrenkneifer, es gibt in Deutschland aber noch ein paar andere regionale Bezeichnungen. Der richtige Name im deutschen ist aber gemeiner Ohrwurm.
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I like that you found the courage to try pronouncing the German words. And you did a great job with it!
"Schadenfreude" mostly is not a general joy to see other people getting some damage, but most often the "joy to witness instant karma" when people rightfully (and often caused by their own stupidity, clumsiness or even evil intent) experience some bad outcome from their own actions.
Bestes Beispiel ist, den Sprung bei Dirty Dancing im realen Leben nachzumachen. Geht selten gut aus. Vor Allem, wenn die Frau etwas mehr wiegt, als der Mann, der sie auffangen soll ;)
#9 "verschlimmbessern" happens in software development too. A lot.
Updates 😢
Yeah every weeks update youtube for example! No clue what they do... But it feels like verschlimmbessern!
code reviews on pull requests do help a bit, exept everybody is blind or unable to communicate. Then the problem is mostly right in front of the display :P
Yes, "verschlimmbessern" is a very important word for describing what most companies do all the time.
The epitome of "verschlimmbessern" is the phrase "New and improved formula!" on any type of product you like.
Favourite donkey bridge:
"He, she, it: das s muss mit!"
A phrase EVERY student in Germany has heard in english class to remember that for the 3rd person an s is added to the verb.
its even almost the same in english: "He, she, it - "s" must fit
You can compound words as you need it…so if you are creative, you can build words and everyone will understand
Exactly 👍 Love it ❤
I would translate "Honigkuchen" into "Gingerbread" - it's not 100% the same thing but very, very closely related.
Yes. And in English they used to make gingerbread men, sort of large stick figures made of gingerbread with sugar icing to make a smiley face.
Lebkuchen (Gingerbread) und Honigkuchen sind auch das selbe. Lediglich unterschiedliche Bezeichnungen. Regional wird es auch einige Unterschiede in der Zubereitung geben, daher ist es so glaube ich mittlerweile unmöglich quasi das Original Rezept zu finden.
@@alicemilne1444 If someone smiles a lot, or very radiantly, German language has it that they smile like a gingerbread horse.
"Du strahlst ja wie ein Honigkuchenpferd"
"My, you're smiling like a gingerbread horse"
@@pfalzgraf7527 Yes, I know.
Earworm is an expression in Australia - I’ve been using it for decades. Maybe it’s not an expression in North America. I know the Brits use it too.
Yes we use it in Britain. Americans should deffo adopt it, it's so descriptive.
@@marktennant7223 I'm English, "Ear worm" has long been part of my vocab.
From North America, totally use ear worm.
I have heard of Earwig but not earworm. 🇬🇧
There is one word that she missed, but definitely should be implemented in english (and honestly all of the languages):
ÜBERMORGEN which means 'a day after tomorrow' 👍🏼👍🏼
und "vorgestern/ vorvorgesrern" 👍
There are overmorrow and ereyesterday, but they're not really used anymore
was expecting to see Backpfeifengesicht but übermorgen as well as überübermorgen and so on wouldve been good as well
Brückentag, Erklärungsnot, Fingerspitzengefühl, Fremdschämen, Geborgenheit, Geschmacksverirrung, innere Schweinehund, Kopfkino, Kummerspeck, Schnapsidee, Torschlusspanik, verschlimmbessern, Zugzwang "have fun hihi" 😬
Ich liebe das Wort “Zugzwang”
@@MsChris2707 haha ja das ist auch gut
Hi Joel.
Nearly all of the words Feli described are, in fact, compound words. A practiced German speaker has no problem dissecting each of them into its individual components, and give you a fairly accurate definition of each.
That's what makes German so versatile; the ability to generate a new meaningful word with a specific definition that doesn't require an entry in a dictionary, either online or offline.
While English has a similar ability by adding hyphens it is not exaaaaactly the same. The hyphens literally break down the compound word into individual words stuck together by a weak glue. The newly formed hyphenated word doesn't suddenly gain the ability to be recognized as a new concept, nor is it likely to gain such a status easily. Whereas in German any compound word generated on the fly DOES have the potential to become easily known as such if used often enough, or its descriptive nature makes it so useful. It seems that a concept is more easily conveyed when it is recognized as a single, definitive word instead of hyphenated words stuck together.
Edit: no, German in fact has fewer individual words with specific definitions, but over the course of history so many of these individual words have been used in certain compound words that describe a concept so well that they have become their own definition. Normal German speakers use an average of 5000-8000 words in their standard vocabulary, while average English speakers will use between 8000 - 10000 words. Well educated German speakers may have a vocabulary of around 35 000 SINGLE words, whereas a well educated English speaker may have between 50 000-100 000 words.
English has adopted far more words from other languages, such as French, Latin, or Greek that describe one concept very exactly. However, by doing so it has lost some of its versatility of generating these new conceptual words on the fly. For example, nearly every doctor in English has their own specific term associated with them that are sometimes difficult to grasp if you aren't intimately in tune with the languages they come from. Such as opthamologist for example. While it is used fairly regularly by teens or adults, a kid being exposed to this word for the very first time won't have any clue what it means. An English speaking kid will have to learn the specific word by heart because it probably won't have a grasp of the Latin/Greek origin. Then it might bump into an optometrist and wonder where the difference is in definition.
In German, the Augenarzt/Augenärztin, the eye doctor, is inherently defined by Auge = eye, and Arzt/Ärztin = doctor (male/female). Both words are probably the simplest words describing two concepts that even a small kid will have learned, just stuck together firmly. So a German speaking kid will inherently understand this concept just because it understands the simple terms from which the compound word is generated.
That applies to the vast majority of German words that have not been adopted from other language. They all boil down to very simple words everybody understands.
While the specificity in English is much higher, the general understanding of terms in German easily beats English words.
What is better? Huh, you decide.
In Dutch we don't say Arschgeige/Assviolin, we instead say Klootviool/Ball(s)violin😄😄
A^^^^geige it's seems is outdated, I think. I used asshole much more, in German it's the same.
Verschlimmbessern really is such a good word. I probably use it every week.
I just looked it up, because I was interested: English speakers use around 30k to 40k words in everyday life, Germans about 70k to 75k.
Australians use 400 and they're all shortened.
@@leglessinoz 🤣
Verschlimmbesserung is exactly why I have someone else cut my beard.
Ear worm has definitely been a thing in the UK, for me, for as long as I can remember. I don't remember using it as a kid specifically but certainly since my 20's (I'm 41 now).
According to Merriam Webster, it has been adopted in the English language in the 80s, so right around your childhood.
FYI ‘ear worm’ is an expression in UK English. Probably in some places across the pond, too.
And there we have one again, 'Eselsbrücke' in Dutch would be 'ezelsbruggetje' 🙂 It again goes to show the German and Dutch common ancestry 🙂
I also have to agree with some of the other commenters that you don't really look like your normal self in this video.
I‘m german and started learning dutch on duolingo weeks ago and I love how close to german this language is! Sadly there is no german to dutch course, so I have to do it with english instead, which is obviously a bit more difficult. Ein Umweg, naja. Ik spreek en beetje Nederlands haha
not really surprising when you look at a map, since they are so close to eatch other and europe had quite an interesting history in the last few hundred years. Even now or the next generation language evolves all the time for many reasons.Comment section in a houndred years mays not be speaking english.
Honiggkuchen= Lebkuchen= Gingerbread
Fun Fact: „Verschlimmbessern“ is actually a merger of two words that was invented in German slang and then made its way into everyday usage because it’s so genius.
It’s the merger of the words „verschlimmern“ and „verbessern“ (to make worse and to make better) and since both words start with „ver…“ you can just merge the second parts to one word. I find that very efficient.
German words stick together and are stronger than if they were bound by Super Glue.
Apes... I mean... Words together strong in german.
"Arschgeige" goes back to Martin Luther, it was his name for Catholic Cardinals, joining the word for bad Guys, "Ass" with the violin, suggesting that the pope plays the cardinals like violins.
My favourite "donkey bridge" is : "Mein Vater Erklät Mir Jeden Sonntag Unsere Neun Planeten" which means "my father explains to me every sunday our nine planets." The reason for this is the first letter of every word is the first letter of our planets in our solar system starting with mercury... MVEMJSUNP unfortunately it doesnt work anymore.
6:37 You usually combine "Weichei" with different pseudo -insults to show, that you should not take it to serious. "Warmduscher" (warm showerer) is one of those, other examples are "Bausparer" (someone, who saves up to build a house), Schönwetterzelter (someone, who camps in nice weather) and "Schattenparker" (someone, who parks in the shadow, to keep the car cool n the summer).
Yes, all of those are indeed quite normal - unless you are a really, really tough person - like myself. I stopped being a "Bausparer", used my safed money for a camper and once again, I am going to set up my tent in the arctic, where nice weather is a rare thing and where I use freezing cold seawater to wash myself. Therefore, I might still be a "Weichei", but none of the other stuff.
your german pronounciation is quite good.. really impressive
I agree with Feli , but now it`s the end of the day (Feierabend) or it`s over , many German parents say to their children, either if they`ve something stupid, or if they should stop playing to go to bed at night.😉
As of spring 2017, the Duden corpus has a volume of just under 23 million words (basic forms)."
The Duden corpus is an electronic database that has existed since 1995, is constantly being expanded, and so far contains about four billion word examples. It contains very large quantities of journalistic articles, literature, as well as factual, technical, and usage texts. The Duden editorial staff regularly combs through it to find out which new words might be candidates for inclusion in the dictionary, how they are spelled, and what their grammatical gender is.
Basic forms are the infinitive for verbs and the nominative singular for nouns. That means promise and promised are not counted as two words, and neither are dog and dogs.
The average use is far less: The twenty-seventh edition of the spelling lexicon contains only 145,000 words, although it has been expanded by 5,000 new entries compared to the previous version of 2013 - including tindern, Lügenpresse, Tikitaka and Fake News
Have fun learing German :o)
I really like "Geborgenheit" and "Fernweh"...
You definitely should put the original video as a source in the description
To refer to the donkeybridge: Yes, I should have posted this to the video of Feli, but here is my favorite:
There are Stalagmiten and Stalagtiten. (stalagmite and stalactite) But which one is hanging and which one is pilig up? So here is the hint: Womans breasts in very very slang word are also called Titten. And Titten are hanging … so uhm - oh - yes … 🤣
Tom and his friends stayed at the pub all evening. When the pub was closed at night, Tom came up with the "Schnapsidee" to put a ladder on his girlfriend's window and climb in there at night. But when he put the ladder against the wall of the house, the friends made so much noise that the girlfriend's parents woke up. When Tom reached the top of the ladder, his friend's mother was already waiting for him there. He did not manage to secretly get into his girlfriend's room.
For us germans: you wanna look out for Fredl Fesl and his song: Preiss'n Jodler.
It comes in both german and bavarian language ;-)
11:06 I want to use the word ‘Disimprove’ sometime.
My mother calls such a situation ‘Uncle Podger’ named after the character who tries to hang a picture.
I missed the eier legende wollmichsau
Regarding swear words: Pommespanzer / Friestank pretty mean insult against overweight people.
16:29 Mnemonics (Memory Aid) are actually interesting. We should have more of them.
There was one about the planets that was funny: My (Mercury) Very (Venus) Easy (Earth) Method (Mars) Just (Jupiter) Speeds (Saturn) Up (Uranus) Nothing (Neptune).
The german equivalent is: Mein Vater erklärt mir jeden Sonntag unseren Nachthimmel (My father explains me our nightsky every sunday)
@@pixelbartus And when Pluto was counted as a planet it was: Mein Vater erklärt mir jeden Sonntag unsere neun Planeten (My Father explains our nine planets to me every Sunday). Or as one of my teachers called it: Mit viel Ernst muss jeder singen und nicht pfeifen.
Well, that was interesting, we have "donkey bridge" in Finnish too, but it means a completely different thing. My dictionary just translated that into "awkward transition from one topic to another". Wondering what the original donkey bridge was. Did they use to make separate bridges for donkeys vs. horses? :)
Donkeys are usually risk averse to unsafe terrain and not easily bullied to do someone elses bidding. So the German meaning being an easily traversable bridge. Not sure, how the Finnish meaning fits into that. Those bridges were usually not very pretty, but more pragmatically built.
I can imagine there is some overlap in the origin of both meanings. In German it is quite common calling someone a donkey when he did something stupid. Its a way to say it without intend to insult. In that sense, as a donkey might seem rather simple minded, the use of donkey bridge makes sense in both ways to me. As an awkward transition might be not the smartest way, or a clumsy way, to change a topic. Same as needing a donkey bridge to memorize to overcome our cognitive limits, but without degrading our selves because it is normal.
Donkeys originally come from Africa and are steppe and desert animals. Even today they are still adapted to dry landscapes. Since they are naturally afraid of large accumulations of water, they also have problems crossing a shallow ford. That's why bridges were often built for these pack animals so that they could easily cross rivers and streams. Even though the ford was so flat that the bridge wasn't actually necessary. A bridge to make it easier, a "Eselsbrücke".
I like her, she's smart and a lot of fun to listen to. Very educated.
Thumbs up before even watching! I love your reaction videos, and I love Feli.
My most beloved Eselsbrücken are, as I'm interested in astronomy:
"Mein Vater erklärt mir jeden Sonntag unsere neuen Pläne." (Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, Pluto).
"Oh be a fine girl, kiss me right now, sweet" (star classes from brightest to darkest, OBAFKMRS).
"Roy G. Biv" (the colors of a rainbow in correct order: red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, violet - Thanks to Neil deGrasse Tyson).
@@ichbinbluna3504 Äh, ja. My fault, I'm sorry. I added it, thank you.
Man vermehre eines Menschen Plage in sein Unglück nie (Punkt).
@@FritzPinguin Sounds philosophical, almost like Nietzsche. I excuse for not having mentioned the planetoid belt, but I thought everyone knows where it is, somewhere between the rocks and where it gets really cold.
And to avoid any discussions: I know Pluto isn't officially a planet anymore, but they didn't know that when they launched the "New Horizons" probe, and it flew by Pluto, transmitted images, and on the go, discovered two new moons around the no-longer-planet. Honestly, I didn't think it would succeed. But here you can see what can be done by proper engineering. I'd wish they'd do that on earth.
I see a new notification from the channel and I turn into a honey cake horse 🍯 🍰 🐴
For the last one, we call it Ezelsbruggetje in the Netherlands which has the same meaning, Donkeybridge.
Nooit
Op
Zondag
Werken
Never work on Sunday
A somersault/forward roll is also informally known as a ‘roly-poly’ in the UK ..
due to the compound words the number of words in german is almost unlimited because you can create them if needed
3:15 All of them are compound words.
The phenomenon of a single word describing different things also exist in German btw - a good example is the word Schloß which has two entirely different meanings: The first translation is lock, the other one is a bit tricky because English lacks an exact translation - the ones coming closest would be castle or probably palace. Neuschwanstein Castle for example is actually not a castle, it's a Schloß and the German name is actually Schloß Neuschwanstein. The literal translation of the term castle is Burg btw., however Neuschwanstein is not a Burg.
In cases like this you have to look at the context to decide which meaning is the correct one.
Der Unterschied zwischen einer Burg und einem Schloss ist vermutlich die Verwendung. Ein Schloss ist ursprünglich der Wohnsitz von Monarchen. Eine Burg hatte eher militärische Zwecke um z.B. den Schutz des Besitzers zu garantieren. Deshalb lagen Burgen ja meistens auch auf einer Anhöhe oder waren von einem Wassergraben umgeben.
The difference between a castle and a chateau is probably the use. A castle is originally the residence of monarchs. A castle had more military purposes, e.g. to guarantee the protection of the owner. That's why castles were mostly on a hill or surrounded by a moat.
8. We have "smiling like a Cheshire Cat" it's from Alice in Wonderland, perhaps that isn't a US thing?
In Germany we know The Cheshire Cat. Translate "Grinsekatze" from Walt Disney. But we don't say "lächeln wie eine Grinsekatze". But of course it can have the same origin
@@piah.3670 We do say "du bist so eine grinsekatze!" Though - which is mainly used for someone that is smiling in a mischeavous way and already sees his/her schadenfreude that is about to happen for following their advice.
@@ForumcoldiArchon OK. Then it definitely has a different meaning. Grinning like a honey cake horse just means that you can clearly see that someone is happy about something.
@@piah.3670here in the south Grinsekatze was a thing in the 80 or 90s. Nowadays I never hear it someone use😅! But I often say this to my son bc he is smiling like this often! ( and it looks a bit mischievous 😂). But I guess everyone would understand if you use it!
There is lots af sayings in English to represent most if not all these situations. Maybe not in American English but definitely in the England I was dragged up in😊.ive been here in Germany for 10 years and love it here, this is definitely the only video from you that I don't relate to but I do love your content and I love that you keep on learning about other cultures, I'm nearly 40 now and when I went travelling around the world in my 20s it made me a more reasonable minded person and definitely gave me the open minded approach to have a lot of fun with lots of different people. Enjoy your journey and when you come here to Germany you will have a great time at all times of the year. ✌️From a Yorkshire English man living in Dinkelsbühl Germany.
@Ryan Grady. I commented something similar, but also being from Yorkshire, I am seldom stuck for a word. I keep trying to get reaction channels to look at Ripping Yarns episode Eric Olthwaite. It has an example of my Yorkshire pronunciation of French. I also recommend Golden Gordon, which follows on, but no takers yet.
I can absolutely attest to what you said about the German language having more words than English.
In other words, from a German's perspective, there seem to be few words in the English language, when compared to German.
And therefore English seems to be slightly inaccurate. The same holds true for the English grammar in regards to it's simplicity.
The upside of both though, makes it very easy to learn English. But I like the feature of German to be able to convey meaning, just by using a specific sentence structure.
For example:
A: "Er sagte er wäre vom Mond."
B: "Er sagt er ist vom Mond."
-> Both translates to: "He said he is from the moon."
But the verb "wäre" in 'A' actually expresses uncertainty, regarding the validity of the conveyed information (him being from the moon).
While 'B' simply conveys the information, that he said he's from the moon.
The German language is filled with stuff like that. Which is why, when you translate English texts to German (for example when subbing English movies or series), you always run into the problem of the German language demanding more information, than what is conveyed with the English language.
An easy example would be the Japanese language in comparison.
When you speak about a 3rd party in Japanese, you often do not need to convey the sex of said person.
But in German, you always use "he" or "she", depending on their gender. Hence, you have a real problem when introducing unknown characters who's identity should remain a mystery, when writing subtitles for Japanese series in German. You are forced to build a way longer sentence, just to keep the gender a secret (especially if you, as subber, don't even know the gender yourself yet).
You then have to say "the unknown character" or something along those lines.
So yeah, German is very precise. In fact, it's the most precise language I know. (And I do know a few.)
On that note, interestingly enough scientists have realized, that there is a direct correlation between the precision, the amount of vocabulary and the grammar of a language as well as the development of the brain of children. It basically "forces" the brain to process more information, faster. Like playing a guitar that has more chords.
You were looking for insults. Sometimes when someone is driving really bad, we say :" Du faehrst ja wie der Weihnachtsmann" or just short Weihnachtsmann. It translates to: " You are driving like Santa Claus"- or just Santa Claus.
2:48 If the word ‘Word Salad’ exists, then ‘Cable Salad’ should exist too.
Oder «Bandsalat». Etwas, was es heute nicht mehr gibt. Wer noch weiß, was ein Kassettenrekorder ist, kann mit «Bandsalat» etwas anfangen.
Or «Bandsalat» (Deepl translates this as "tape spaghetti"). Something that no longer exists today. Who still knows what a tape recorder is, can do something with "Bandsalat"
@@hallomatti the magical combination between a roller pen and bandsalat :D
👍 😂.... Yeah but you need to be very careful with the pen😂. Bc the " Bandsalat" and the " Bleistift" If It was too "durcheinander" could get you a "Kassettenbandabriss.". Which often leaded to new Bandsalat the next time 🎉
One of the problems when writing German as a non German is which words are combined into one, which can have a complete different meaning. One example she uses "Eselsbrücke" to memorise something, but if written as two words "Esels brücke" it would mean a bridge for donkeys when put over a stream or large gap in the ground.
It means both at both times, so it is ambiguuous and needs to be determined by context. Usually really talking about a crossing for donkeys over some sort of stream is the least likely context today :D
There are quide a few words in the English dictionary that a big part of native English speaks actually never heard of.
For example the word infinitesimal
6:33 I like cold showers. Everyone else is a ‘Warmduscher’ 😂
Hello Joel. If Feli watched some of your reaction videos on UK or Australia, English outside of US is not so stuck for a word. Also those countries are not so hung up on everything being planned and described in detail. The words "just get cracking" come to mind.
Lastly some of the words are ones I do use in UK, like earworm. German composers were not just studied here, but some came here, as did other professionals, since the money was here and also Germany wanted to copy UK in modernising.
one shouldn't forget that renaisance and Baroque arrived late in england, so in reality england was first a backward place before things changed to bring britain in the forefront of global trade and industry. One shouldn't mix up these two periods.
12:56 I’ve heard this situation be described as ‘Coulda woulda shoulda’.
I like the Norwegian therm better for 'Honigkuchenpferd': It's 'it's just his ears preventing , that his smile goes around his head' I think the Norwegian language is more down to earth like the German. Plattdeutsch, mostly spoken in the northern part of Germany.
IMO the main shortcoming of the English language is not that these words are missing but that English does not have a universal diminutive.
In German (and Italian) you can just put a certain ending on nouns and turn them into smaller, lesser versions. Quite useful for thinly veiled but not rude insults.
you should speak more german that sounds so sweet ❤😂
I just love our language...because like "verschlimmbessern", it's not "make it worse" because you make it better...until you notice it's even worse than before. So "verschlimmbessern" and "make it worse" are two different things.
Good choice Joel, very interesting. Schadenfreude certainly has come into use in English. Earworm is used in Canada. English is great for stealing/adopting words from other languages; whereas French goes bonkers with trying to keep its insular purity/external corruption. Have a great week everyone, John in Canada
French doesn't go bonkers with insular purity. That's a myth perpetuated by English speakers who don't know French and who think that the Académie française (AF) controls the language. It doesn't. French has adopted loads of words from other languages. According to a 2018 article in the Figaro newspaper, the current AF dictionary lists (translation below):
"... 753 mots sont d'origine italienne, 686 sont d'origine anglaise, 253 mots sont issus de l'espagnol et 224 de l'arabe». Sans oublier les 48 mots provenant du russe, 87 du néerlandais, 41 du persan, 26 du japonais et 31 du tupi-guarani ..."
=
753 words of Italian origin, 686 of English origin, 253 words from Spanish and 224 from Arabic - without forgetting the 48 words from Russian, 87 from Dutch, 41 from Persian, 26 from Japanese, and 31 from Tupi-Guarani".
I myself grew up speaking French (from France) as well as UK English, and my French cousins and business associates regularly use German words such as "kaput", "kitsch", "kirsch", "ersatz" as well as loads of English words in normal colloquial conversation.
@@alicemilne1444 Hi Alice, maybe French Canada is different than France. Quebec feels linguistically threaten by English Canada. I learned France (Parisienne) French as well. It took awhile to develop an ear for Québécois. I've spent more time in France than in Quebec, but love taking long weekends in Montreal. Quebec City is a gem! Northern France feels like a second home to me. Cheers, John
My favourite "donkey-bridge" I learned in school was to remember the year ancient Rome was founded: "Sieben-fünf-drei, Rom schlüpft aus dem Ei" = "7-5-3, Rome hatches from the egg" 😂 Pretty useless, but it's stuck in my head forever!
"Earworm" is common in Australia. In English we do have the term "word salad". Maybe Feli could use "Wortsalat" now as well.
I’m German, but I’ve never heard that two words : innerer Schweinehund, Torschlusspanik😂
also den inneren Schweinehund sollte ausnahmslos jeder Deutsche kennen, lebst du hinterm Mond?
Most "Schadenfreunde" can referred as "Instant Karma" situations.
"Schnapsidee" is far from being antiquated.
But there are also words in English that we don't have in German. One of them is "gloved". For example "The goalie gloved the puck". In German you have to paraphrase it with "The goalie caught the puck with the glove."
6:17 min.
Balls in English.
Eggs in German.
🤣
with compound word you can basicly describe anything, thats why they are so beautiful
that said, i find english much more versatile. german is great for specifics, english is much better in delivering basic information on a broad band, if that makes sense. like if i had to chose id rather speak english in day to day life, but if i was a professor id rather use german
"Make it worse" is not the complete concept of "verschlimmbessern". It is: "Make it worse by trying to improve". Or: ""Verschlimmbessern" happens, when you ignore this advice: Never interfere with a running system.
I think i might start using cablesalad.
Nobody can say exactly how many words there are in the German language. According to estimates there are 350,000-500,000. Most of them also have different meanings depending by context.
The easy solution is - learn the German language to express yourself in the most precise way! 😁
Image the following situation - if your in your car, driving on the road and an obstacle appears, for example a pedestrian or a cyclist etc there are to options:
Umfahren, means bypass by accordingly turning the steering wheel or:
Umfahren, means drive right into the damned thing and ram it into the ground.
😂😂😂😂
As to "innerer Schweinhund", I came across the English terms "one's weaker self / the inner couch potato / your inner demons", likely depending on the situation.
I guess, "Fremdschämen" (the noun) is "cringe factor".
Funny, Feli say Honeycake, what ever this is but behind her ist on in Heard shape. But i guess she didnt know this, because we eat Honigkuchen more in the north western part in Germany
13:40 I think people use it more often than you’d think.
Gute Reaktion aber warum kann man das Original Video nicht verlinken? 😠
Some of these words do indeed exist as translations. Ear worms can also refer to language and learning media which are designed to memorize things. The last item here is called a mnemonic (named after the greek godess for memory) wnich is a technique to aid memory usually using acronyms .
To answer the question languages can either have lots of words to describe specific things with the draw back of having to have a very good memory to learn lists and all the conjugations and the appropriate times to use them. Or fewer words with multiple uses and meanings with the draw back of knowing the context it is being used.
… or you make compound words like in German. We do it all the time and no one has to learn them as they are instantly understandable for every native speaker.
For instance, the Covid pandemic alone has spawned hundreds of new words like "Impfdrängler" (vaccination-tailgater) for a person that couldn't await to be vaccinated in the initial phase when vaccines were still in low supply.
@@hape3862 very much so lewis carol was responsible for creating many portmanteau premorphism words (words which are merged together)
Its more than just acronyms. Its also things like "lefty loosey, righty tighty". At least in Dutch (we also have 'ezelsbruggetjes')
Skipping the Commercial is Ehrenlos.
One little correction: English actually has FAR MORE words than German. German is a rich language, that is true and the absolute number of words in a language is hard to verify because languages develop and change every day. There are however claims that English has 500,000 words with German having about 400,000 words. You'll get how incredible rich English is, when reading Shakespeare, for instance. Example: "Sith thus thou wilt appear, Freedom lives hence, and banishment is here." (Me german, trouble reading Shakespeare despite decades of English training. )
Kopfkino is my best!
Schadenfreude does actually have a direct english translation: epicaricacy (although the word has mostly fallen out of use)
You can have these word. Just invent them. All words are invented.
A nice German word is : a Donaudampfschifffahrtsgesellschafftskapitänsmützenabzeichen
its a Badge.
4:46 We have "earworm" in English. I'm surprised if you're not familiar with it already.
a good "Eselsbrücke" of my childhood:
How can you memorize the order of the planets of our solar system?
When I was young and Pluto was called a planet: "Mein Vater erklärt mir jeden Sonntag unsere neun Planeten" (my father teaches me every sunday our nine planets)
The first letter of each word stands for the first letter of the planet - so it is "Merkur, Venus, Erde, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptun, Pluto"
Today - since the poor poor Pluto was degraded to a "trans-neptun object" - the sentence changed to "Mein Vater erklärt mir jeden Sonntag unseren Nachthimmel" (my father teaches me every sunday our night-sky)
Or another good sentence, special for guitar-players:
How do you memorize the string-tunings of a guitar?
You take your guitar and count the strings from top to bottom and say "Eine alte dumme Gans hat Eier" - E A D G H E (in Germany the musical note "H" is what you call "B" and the german "B" is what you call "Bb"...)
(the sentence means literally: "an old dumb goose has eggs")
The word earworm became more commen in England than the US.
She forgot "Weltschmerz" though.
Well, actually we don't have that many words in german. But like many languages with less words and complex-ish grammar, we are allowed to combine them and make new ones. Like Lego (which coincedentally is also a compound word from the danish words "leg" and godt", which means "play well") ;)
Why do you never link the original video? Seems a little disrespectful...
Yes
true
Warmduscher, AKA milkdrinker
hi german greetings, we have a word for almost everything 😆
When you're German and still learn something
A "warmduscher" is not a "normal person", since "warm" in this context means "not cold nor hot". So no temperatures above 50°C (122F) or less than 30°C (85F).
It technically is a normal person. But not a "cool" one. Or a "hard" or "hard enough" one. Something most people are but usually don't admit.
8:36 she has already made a video about German curse words, definitely check it out, I'm German, too, and they are indeed kinda funny 😂
Das beste Mittel gegen einen Ohrwurm ist übrigens eisgekühlter Bommerlunder ☝️
I (German, moved to Norway in 1999) had to look up "fremdschämen". As it turns out, it's a neologism that was coined after I moved.
English, German, Dutch, Swedish, Danish, Norwegian and Iclandic are Germanic languages and 🎉therefore have the same root.
Honestly, I've never heard an english speaking person say 'schadenfreude' but I've heard a looooot of 'earworms' and 'second hand embarrassment'.
These are all only 'funny when translated' words, and most of them have an 'equivalent' or similar meaning words in english. The ONLY one I agree with is 'kabelsalat' which is absolutely amazing and needs to be implemented in english.
You look sometimes a bit overwhelmed of the german language. 😅
I think a lot of these words are good examples of the richness of the german language and culture. Well, we had more than 700 years more time. You can do it too! 😄
In my opinion she should have included "doch"
In Dutch, an ear worm is indeed an insect! There's a myth that it would come inside your ear and split your ear drum; so I see a connection between the meanings. In Latin, Forficula auricularia refers to the insect and has indeed a reference to your hearing ("auricularia").
In German we also call this insect earworm.
Er heißt auf deutsch aber Ohrenkneifer 😊
@@andreapompea3534 In einigen Regionen heißt er Ohrenkneifer, es gibt in Deutschland aber noch ein paar andere regionale Bezeichnungen. Der richtige Name im deutschen ist aber gemeiner Ohrwurm.
It's so funny. While Feli claims she has no clue what a "Honigkuchen" is....
...a heart-shaped Honigkuchen is hanging right beside her head 😂
Thats a Lebkuchen. (at least in Bavaria and Austria, as an Austrian i also never heard the term "Honigkuchen"
@@anashiedler6926 Was ist mit "Grinsen wie ein Honigkuchenpferd"? Auch nie gehört?
@@hape3862 ich schon...hier im Norden ist der Ausdruck üblich
@@anashiedler6926 Sag deiner Mamma, dess sie an Deppn großzogn hat 😂
@@hape3862 Doch, natürlich, das ist ja das seltsame. Mir gehts da genauso wie Feli. Honigkuchenpferd: Ja, Honigkuchen: Nein.