Although the mundane day to day routine sometimes makes us forget all about it, German is in fact way more than the apparent mother tongue of bureaucracy. Some actually use it to communicate on a daily basis – even in a joking or figurative manner. While you might have reasonable doubts about the feasibility of such venture, we’re here to introduce these 10 ingenious idioms from the German vernacular that will instantly elevate your conversational competence and make you question everything you thought you knew about particular farm animals at the same time.
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by Michalina | Stories
photo: Tom
Our fellow blogger Federico is a funny guy. Not only does he share his quirky and witty thoughts on his blog, he has also started a new project that has the Italian Berliner invent a new German word every day for 100 days in a row. Obviously the guy has a fascination with the German language and the fact that our grammar allows us to combine several nouns to one word (which requires a whole sentence to express in English) seems to have been a great inspiration for his new word inventions. Let me tell you one thing up front: They are not actually correct German words and therefore should not be understood as value German lessons such as the words from Days of Deutsch, but they do make so much sense, so maybe the guys from the Duden should consider some of them for inclusion into our vocabulary. Words like Kotzerleichterung (the feeling of relieve after you threw up), Finanzangst (the fear of dealing with the tax officials) and Lieberechenbarkeit (the predictability of someone you love) are so relatable to me and I don’t understand why no-one ever came up with them before. After the jump we have a couple of our favorites of Federico’s new German words. And if you want to hear more of his wit you should tune into tonight’s episode of Off the Record on Flux FM at 22h where he will be a guest of the show.
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by Frank | Stories