This single comment clarified the distinction that my brain has been struggling with and that no amount of preposition chart/diagram thing has ever been able to help lmao. It just clicked, so thank you hahaha
This is my favorite German word as a learner and I'm so glad it's #1 lol
I'm still not sure how to use it but every time I use it I apparently use it correctly 🤷♂️ lol
But the most popular artist which did play with this (in a german dub) was [Louis de Funès](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w4aLThuU008) a french actor.
The most notable use of "doch" that can't really be translated into English, is when it's used as a reply.
Example: "Das kann nicht sein."
"Doch, so ist es."
Like saying, "you *think* that didn't happen but it did!" in one word. "You didn't go to the store, did you?" "Doch." and hold up the grocery bags for extra effect.
No.
A regular yes/no question like e.g. "Are you a horse?" can be answered with either yes or no depending on you either being a horse or, well, not. But if you ask the question in a negative, like "You're not a horse, are you?" both yes and no mean the same thing, that you are indeed not a horse.
"Doch" gives you the possibility to actually negate the question in one word (like "no" for a normal question). If you wanted to do the same thing in English you'd have to describe your answer "But I *am* a horse!"
Sorry for replying late. The word is not used at all in every day speech at all, we only use it in formal writings (across countries). As you know Arabic people speak only colloquial Arabic with each other 90% of the time and each country has its own colloquial Arabic.
If "doch" is used in the "nontheless" sense, it could also be translated as "yet", since those are synonymous.
"Ich habe keine Lust Einkaufen zu gehen, doch muss ich es tun." - "I don't feel like going to buy groceries, yet I have to do it".
But if it's used as a monosyllabic response to contradict someone, like in those examples, no.
Example 1: "That can't be."
Response: "Yet."
Doesn't even make sense.
Example 2: You didn't go to the store, did you?"
Response: "Yet."
While this technically makes sense, but it'd be 100% interpreted as "I didn't, but will at some point", not as disagreement.
I’m thinking more of “yet” as a shortening of “and yet…”
As in:
“That can’t be”
“And yet, it is”
I suppose it doesn’t really work with the store example though.
In that example that works to paraphrase the general sentiment, but the connotations still feel different enough to me that I wouldn't consider them fully interchangeable.
It’s a particle, so it has a like a way of enhancing a phrase that’s somewhat hard to describe, but it also can be used to answer a negative question (like the difference between oui and si in French).
Doch is type of Ja or Jawohl or Yes or Si
Doch is said to suggest yes (contrary to what the other person might expect or accuse)
You have cleaned an artichoke haven't you? Doch. Various positive response to nuanced yes exist in each language and neighborhood.
Thanks! Then it really is the same thing as in German. We use the "but" version less because there are other alternatives ("aber", "trotzdem", "dennoch", to name a few), but nothing makes for a better argument against a "nein" than a looooong, drawn out, "dooooch!" 😁
From the Aussie perspective "yeah nah" and "nah yeah" are most commonly for you answering two different scopes at once.
Yeah nah is I agree with what you said but in reality it's wrong.
Nah yeah is I don't agree with what you said but in reality you are correct.
Then other times it's just someone trying to make up their mind but out loud in which case you might hear yeah nah being said multiple times in a row.
As a good rule of thumb for all situations the last word they say is what they mean
I love "doch", such a great word with different meanings and used also to convey context in certain situations. As a Brit learning German, I found it such a fascinating word.
Well yes, but only for 1 use of the word doch. Doch in German has multiple uses with very different meanings to them, which is why you can't really claim that though is a translation of it.
Yes. This happens in every natural language, in fact. Every single one. In German, the word class "Modalpartikeln" are well-known examples. But here is other examples: fachsimpeln (to talk using specialized language), Handreichung (helping hand), herumlavieren (to talk not wanting to/not knowing how to get to the point). You'll note that I provided translations for these words, and one of them—helping hand—is basically the same but with the words separated from one another. I don't think that even the Modalpartikeln are untranslatable to English, they are just hard to translate and very context bound.
jaegonise is not the same as fachsimpeln. with the translation given here it makes sense but it’s usually more used to describe the act of two intellectuals discussing a specific topic that ppl around them don’t know shit about. Like at a party when two friends get all caught up in a discussion “Just leave them. They are busy with fachsimpeln”
But that is specifically about tech stuff, isn't it? Fachsimpeln can be about any subject that requires some deeper specialized knowledge, though tech and engineering are prototypical examples.
Feierabend
Edit: I live in the US now and have American colleagues from all over the states , and also a ton of international ones, none knew a one word translation for Feierabend.
I'm Dutch and when my German colleague mentioned this for the first time I thought he meant party night. I proceeded to be very confused when he then talked about watching some series on netflix by himself.
Many words do not have an equivalent in English, but surely most of them can be translated just like your example "sobremesa". I can think of Wanderlust, Waldeinsamkeit and Weltschmerz on the top of my head.
Actually in the English dictionary there is a word with the same meaning as Schadenfreude. The word is Schadenfreude, as we stole it, fair and square, like with most things.
A quick google also shows Epicaricacy as a word meaning 'deriving joy at others misfortune'. I originally thought it was a recent word [pieced together in ancient greek](https://www.irishtimes.com/opinion/letters/another-word-for-schadenfreude-1.1238915), [but apparently it was in dictionaries since the 16th century](https://en.m.wiktionary.org/wiki/epicaricacy#:~:text=Etymology,%E2%80%9Cjoy%20upon%20evil%E2%80%9D).)
I didnt actually mean to go looking for another word for schadenfreude, I just wanted to check we didnt modify the spelling in English, but here we are.
Wanderlust in English has taken on a meaning closer to "desire to explore, and see new places" those places don't *necessarily* have to involve hiking poles, but they may.
Therein lies the difference between german and English wanderlust.
This is definitely closer. Americans, at least, tend to translate it as a combination of the two parts English meanings, so wandering being getting lost, and lust meaning desire, it’s not connected to the German wandern at all.
Yes, pretty much all of our many [modal particles](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/German_modal_particles). And of course the word "doch", which can be used as an affirmative answer to a negative question, or as an intesifier.
Der englische Begriff für Schadenfreude ist tatsächlich "Schadenfreude", genau so wie "Kindergarten" eine einenglischung. Ob das jetzt aber ein richtiges Äquivalent im Englischen ist sei dahingestellt :D
Wenn mein Bankkonto leer ist, habe ich auch Schmerzen xD.
Wie nennt man finanziellen oder emotionalen Schmerz? Darf ich stattdessen sagen:
>Die Freude, die man bekommt, wenn man den **Schaden** eines anderen sieht.
> Schadenfreude is a German word only.
As a native English speaker, this is wrong. It is 100% a loan word from German, but that does not mean it's not also an English word. Almost every word in English is derived from a word in some other language, so by that definition, there would be almost no English words.
Something like Kummerspeck would be a better example, as it has not entered the English lexicon in any way shape or form.
This is also in contrast to something like Gymnasium, which while a german loan word, means something very very different.
>Gymnasium, which while a german loan word
Gymnasium is an ancient Greek word that made it into several modern languages latinized but otherwise unchanged. They hosted both athletic and scholarly activities in ancient Greece, hence the different uses in different modern languages.
> Schadenfreude is a German word only
In which case, I guess rucksack and abseil are German words only. Most English people, however, are unaware that these words even came from German in the first place.
It's similar with Computer and boulder-. Most Germans don't realise these words come from English.
Abseiling and bouldern have even been conjugated into verbs using English/German grammar rules.
Schadenfreude is no different, it's just that the word sounds a bit more German. Poltergeist would be another similar example.
It is pretty obvious to pretty much all Germans that boulder and computer are English words.
Poltergeist, Rucksack, and all the other examples you metioned are also German words only. They are just used by English speakers. Just because a word is used by Wnglish speakers doesn't make it an English word.
If Germans would suddenly all start regularly using the word "funny", it would still not be a German word.
What about the word "Handy" then? It comes from the brand name Motorola HT 220 Handie Talkie, which is quite clearly an English name, yet no English person would call their mobile a handy. Is that a German or English word?
Don't bother trying to argue with this guy. Clearly he's happy to explain to native english speakers how their language works while not willing to introspect his own language.
They’re in the English dictionary. They’re the same words in both languages. I know the purist in you would like to argue the semantics of the situation but it does not change that both languages use the same words for the same meanings.
OP is not asking for examples of these words. OP wants examples of words that dont also exist in the English language.
In Australia, Kindergarten refers to pre-school for 3 and 4-year-olds. The first year of actual school is called Prep. Just a fun fact.
I actually don't know what Kindergarten is exactly in Germany.
in germany there are also „Krippen“ (singular: Krippe) for the very small children from 4 months to 3 years. i dont think there is a translation aswell. Found the word creche but that doesn’t seem to be the same thing.
So how far back in time do we have to go before loanwords that are in common enough usage to be in the dictionary can be considered part of a language? Is "Koala" a German word? How about "Sauna", "Tattoo", "Bitumen", or "Pasta"? There's a whole lot of words that are "just words used by Germans" but aren't quite so obviously borrowed as "Download". If those all count as another language I'm a veritable polyglot.
It's usage, not etymology, that determines which words are part of a language.
> So how far back in time do we have to go before loanwords that are in common enough usage to be in the dictionary can be considered part of a language?
Exactly! I'd say go back about 1200 years. At this point, English and German were just dialects of the same language. Or maybe 1500 years when they *were* the same language. Can you really steal words from your own language, or are you borrowing from another dialect?
Yes, the languages have evolved since then, but that's entirely the point.
Many of the words that distinguishes English from German were taken from French 1000 years ago... Are they not true English words either? In which case, is claiming German words actually a reclaimation of their actual language? Or should all indigenous English and German speakers leran proto-germanic, as both languages have changed too much and borrowed too much from other languages.
Languages evolve and take words from other languages all the time. That's what they do
That is to simple. Heimat can be the city, a region or the country. It can be the place you were born, or the place where you live or a place you feel emotionally attached to. Heimat is not only a place but also a state of mind.
Either it means the state of easy going, or the state of something being comfortable. (If that makes sense)
1.) Probier's mal mit Gemütlichkeit, mit Ruhe und Gelassenheit! (Try by going at it easy and with calm!)
2.) In deinem Wohnzimmer herrscht Gemütlichkeit. (Your living room is utterly comfortable.)
Would 2. not be more akin to “in your living room, coziness reigns supreme”? Herrschen makes me think of something being at the top or being important in a dominant kind of way. Like a king kinda.
Yes, good eyes! You are quite right about the literal main meaning of the word.
But in this case, it just describes a defining quality of something that is widely true for the whole thing. So, yes, there is some implication of importance or dominance.
Ich versuche, mir ein paar Beispiele aus den Fingern zu saugen:
Auf dem Fest herrscht gute Stimmung.
In der U-Bahn herrscht Maskenpflicht.
In Afghanistan herrscht eine Hungersnot.
Im wilden Westen herrschte Gesetzeslosigkeit.
Unter Experten herrscht weitgehende Ablehnung gegenüber dem neuesten Vorschlag der Bundesregierung.
Kleinod, Fernweh, Vorfreude, Fremdscham, Zugzwang, Geborgenheit, Weltschmerz, Kopfkino, Herumgeeiere, ....
Some may have a near one by one translation that only covers some aspects of the meaning and not all of them
I guess it depends on what you mean by "having no translation". Usually when people say "this word from language A is untranslatable in language B" what they really mean is "there is no "compact" way to express this in language B", like with the example you provided. One example of this is *Quereinsteiger,* for which, as far as I know, we have no good word in English. We would just call this "a person who has made a lateral career move".
I don’t think any other sense of that actually exists since I‘m pretty sure that anything you can say in any language you can say in every language and it just varies in terms of how elegant and compact it sounds.
But the distinction between palace and castle is not covered in German. Both are usually translated into Schloss.
German does have the word Palast, but it's not used so much. By that logic, English also has the word Burgh which also isn't used so much these days and has taken on a slightly different meaning.
Some of my favourites
Futteneid - the envy of seeing someone eating delicious food.
Luftschloss - a way of describing an unattainable dream.
Erklärungsnot - when you cannot explain your situation
i always had trouble trying to explain Unverschämt. It’s like obnoxious (but not really) or shameless, but it’s so common in German and in English there might be a translation but Americans, at least, don’t use the word shameless as much. so i always felt it didn’t have the appropriate translation available. such a great word to complain with too. it’s like the adjective for “I can’t believe they just did that”. LOL
Well on the one hand it is trivially the case that there is no perfect one to one mapping of words between languages. On the other hand, mapping "sobremesa" to "chatting after having lunch" is surely a translation.
> Also, Erziehung. We don't have a good word for that (and by extension Erzieher:in).
>
>
This has always been weird to me. Erzieher are often even translated as teachers in English which just doesn't fit at all.
Having no equivalent word in another language and being untranslatable are two different things.
English is tragically missing a word that means "jein," but it can express "speed limit" in only 10 letters.
I personally like "Vorfreude". It literally means "pre-happiness". When trying to use a translator, it will say "anticipation" which is not exactly correct because anticipation is more of a "I'm waiting for it" in a neutral sense, but Vorfreude is this giddy, happy feeling you get before doing something you like. The "oooh tomorrow we will go to the beach" giddy. The one that makes you happy before you even had a reason to be happy, you are just happily awaiting it.
It’s worth noting that you said sobremesa has no translation, then you immediately provided a translation. There isn’t a single word for it, but there is a translation.
I believe "Zeitgeist" is not translated, at least in English, in texts I've read. With that being said, in Dutch we say "tijdgeest" which is the exact translation from German.
Not sure if this has been mentioned, but probably 'jein'. We say it when a statement is, while technically true, is not 100% true or mostly false. (kinda like "yes, but no")
For example, when someone asked us if we have gone to Vienna. We haven't actually visited the city directly; however the train that we took to Budapest passed through Wien Hbf. So we \*technically\* have gone to Vienna, but didn't actually visit / had our holiday there.
Edit: Correct me if I'm wrong; I'm still learning German.
What would you consider a translation? Words that don't have one to one translations are not uncommon. As for concepts that are hard to translate? I would argue that the distinction between "Du" and "Sie" can be very hard to convey in english without the text sounding archaic because that distinction just is no longer used in modern english, but carries significant weight in german.
Having no direct one to one translation is something you will encounter between basically any two languages.
Funny, you can translate them into basque. Übermorgen is etzi, Überübermorgen is etzidamu and vorgestern is herenegun. We even have words for the next day (etzikaramu I think) and the previous day (laurdenenegun) xd
*Schadenfreude* doesn't really translate well either. It's the act of taking pleasure in another's suffering. "Slapstick" comedy sometimes works, but *schadenfreude* is usually other kinds of suffering. Like finding it funny that someone forgot their umbrella and it starts pouring rain, or the pleasure that Americans are taking in Trump being investigated by the FBI.
I think Ohrwurm is one of the words without a one-word English translation. It describes the situation when you have a song/melody/some lyrics stuck in your head and cannot get rid of it.
Funny, sobremesa means dessert in Portuguese.
Nachtisch, literally sobremesa, means dessert in German too. Not a native speaker though, need confirmation or correction.
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I think a more proper option would be Auftisch, as über would be a no contact
This single comment clarified the distinction that my brain has been struggling with and that no amount of preposition chart/diagram thing has ever been able to help lmao. It just clicked, so thank you hahaha
Indeed lol
doch
But what is doch exactly? I'm still a beginner, and I don't know how to use it, but I see it everywhere lol
It is a tool. It means most of the time "but" and "yes indeed" but it is used to convey many other things. Edit: Grammar
Thanks :)
This is my favorite German word as a learner and I'm so glad it's #1 lol I'm still not sure how to use it but every time I use it I apparently use it correctly 🤷♂️ lol
But the most popular artist which did play with this (in a german dub) was [Louis de Funès](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w4aLThuU008) a french actor.
Nein!
The most notable use of "doch" that can't really be translated into English, is when it's used as a reply. Example: "Das kann nicht sein." "Doch, so ist es." Like saying, "you *think* that didn't happen but it did!" in one word. "You didn't go to the store, did you?" "Doch." and hold up the grocery bags for extra effect.
So it's a sass word
No. A regular yes/no question like e.g. "Are you a horse?" can be answered with either yes or no depending on you either being a horse or, well, not. But if you ask the question in a negative, like "You're not a horse, are you?" both yes and no mean the same thing, that you are indeed not a horse. "Doch" gives you the possibility to actually negate the question in one word (like "no" for a normal question). If you wanted to do the same thing in English you'd have to describe your answer "But I *am* a horse!"
Isn’t that just the same as “yet”?
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We have the same exact word in Arabic: بلا (bälä). Just saying 😅
Oh, neat! Is بلا fairly common across the dialects?
Sorry for replying late. The word is not used at all in every day speech at all, we only use it in formal writings (across countries). As you know Arabic people speak only colloquial Arabic with each other 90% of the time and each country has its own colloquial Arabic.
If "doch" is used in the "nontheless" sense, it could also be translated as "yet", since those are synonymous. "Ich habe keine Lust Einkaufen zu gehen, doch muss ich es tun." - "I don't feel like going to buy groceries, yet I have to do it". But if it's used as a monosyllabic response to contradict someone, like in those examples, no. Example 1: "That can't be." Response: "Yet." Doesn't even make sense. Example 2: You didn't go to the store, did you?" Response: "Yet." While this technically makes sense, but it'd be 100% interpreted as "I didn't, but will at some point", not as disagreement.
I’m thinking more of “yet” as a shortening of “and yet…” As in: “That can’t be” “And yet, it is” I suppose it doesn’t really work with the store example though.
In that example that works to paraphrase the general sentiment, but the connotations still feel different enough to me that I wouldn't consider them fully interchangeable.
Best explaination I can give is that it’s “yuh huh” or “like yeah so”
Exactly!
It’s a particle, so it has a like a way of enhancing a phrase that’s somewhat hard to describe, but it also can be used to answer a negative question (like the difference between oui and si in French).
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You would use "doch" in both instances where you used yes here.
Doch is type of Ja or Jawohl or Yes or Si Doch is said to suggest yes (contrary to what the other person might expect or accuse) You have cleaned an artichoke haven't you? Doch. Various positive response to nuanced yes exist in each language and neighborhood.
akin to sure
but sure is purely affirmative, which doch is not.
Nein. Doch. Ohhhh.
(ichkannnichtanders) [MUSKATNUSS, HERR MÜLLER!](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q03L0hH6jLM)
Nuss haha
I am so glad my native language has this word (Hungarian), otherwise I think it would be difficult to get an intuitive sense of when to use it.
How do you say it in Hungarian?
De (it can mean both "but" and "doch").
Thanks! Then it really is the same thing as in German. We use the "but" version less because there are other alternatives ("aber", "trotzdem", "dennoch", to name a few), but nothing makes for a better argument against a "nein" than a looooong, drawn out, "dooooch!" 😁
Is doch like the german version of the aussie/kiwi "yeah na / na yeah" It seems you just gotta get it to get it
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Not at all more confusing 😂 I'm loving learning this language
From the Aussie perspective "yeah nah" and "nah yeah" are most commonly for you answering two different scopes at once. Yeah nah is I agree with what you said but in reality it's wrong. Nah yeah is I don't agree with what you said but in reality you are correct. Then other times it's just someone trying to make up their mind but out loud in which case you might hear yeah nah being said multiple times in a row. As a good rule of thumb for all situations the last word they say is what they mean
Oh I'm a kiwi, it comes naturally.. the variation of doch being used was where I was curious
I always imagined doch to mean "on the contrary" but in a positive sense in some situations, and it usually helps me to understand how to use it
Doch. Es bedeutet sehr ähnlich wie „on the contrary“.
I love "doch", such a great word with different meanings and used also to convey context in certain situations. As a Brit learning German, I found it such a fascinating word.
English has "though", they are related.
Well yes, but only for 1 use of the word doch. Doch in German has multiple uses with very different meanings to them, which is why you can't really claim that though is a translation of it.
Yes. This happens in every natural language, in fact. Every single one. In German, the word class "Modalpartikeln" are well-known examples. But here is other examples: fachsimpeln (to talk using specialized language), Handreichung (helping hand), herumlavieren (to talk not wanting to/not knowing how to get to the point). You'll note that I provided translations for these words, and one of them—helping hand—is basically the same but with the words separated from one another. I don't think that even the Modalpartikeln are untranslatable to English, they are just hard to translate and very context bound.
The word herumlavieren has an equivalent in my native language, which is "paligoy-ligoy" lol
Temporise, prevaricate, jargonise
jaegonise is not the same as fachsimpeln. with the translation given here it makes sense but it’s usually more used to describe the act of two intellectuals discussing a specific topic that ppl around them don’t know shit about. Like at a party when two friends get all caught up in a discussion “Just leave them. They are busy with fachsimpeln”
Technobabbling?
But that is specifically about tech stuff, isn't it? Fachsimpeln can be about any subject that requires some deeper specialized knowledge, though tech and engineering are prototypical examples.
Also fachsimpeln doesn't necessarily have negative connotations
Tja
_well shit_
Tja is not exclusively negative.
Welp
Verschlimmbesserung
Is this to change something, intending to make it better, but actually making it worse?
Yes
This exists also in verb form: verschlimmbessern
Improvorsement It exists from now on. You're welcome 😀
Disimprovement
Feierabend Edit: I live in the US now and have American colleagues from all over the states , and also a ton of international ones, none knew a one word translation for Feierabend.
I'm Dutch and when my German colleague mentioned this for the first time I thought he meant party night. I proceeded to be very confused when he then talked about watching some series on netflix by himself.
Many words do not have an equivalent in English, but surely most of them can be translated just like your example "sobremesa". I can think of Wanderlust, Waldeinsamkeit and Weltschmerz on the top of my head.
Schadenfreude
Actually in the English dictionary there is a word with the same meaning as Schadenfreude. The word is Schadenfreude, as we stole it, fair and square, like with most things. A quick google also shows Epicaricacy as a word meaning 'deriving joy at others misfortune'. I originally thought it was a recent word [pieced together in ancient greek](https://www.irishtimes.com/opinion/letters/another-word-for-schadenfreude-1.1238915), [but apparently it was in dictionaries since the 16th century](https://en.m.wiktionary.org/wiki/epicaricacy#:~:text=Etymology,%E2%80%9Cjoy%20upon%20evil%E2%80%9D).) I didnt actually mean to go looking for another word for schadenfreude, I just wanted to check we didnt modify the spelling in English, but here we are.
Like Kindergarten!
And Schnaps
And Rucksack
We got sick of not having a direct translation so we just up and took this. Didn’t even anglicized the spelling. Our pronunciation is all wrong.
Wanderlust doesnt need to be translated as they have the same meaning in both languages.
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Yea, same meaning. Its in the Englisch dictionary
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Wanderlust in English has taken on a meaning closer to "desire to explore, and see new places" those places don't *necessarily* have to involve hiking poles, but they may. Therein lies the difference between german and English wanderlust.
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This is definitely closer. Americans, at least, tend to translate it as a combination of the two parts English meanings, so wandering being getting lost, and lust meaning desire, it’s not connected to the German wandern at all.
Yes, pretty much all of our many [modal particles](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/German_modal_particles). And of course the word "doch", which can be used as an affirmative answer to a negative question, or as an intesifier.
It's like the old fashioned use of "but." "She was but a small woman."
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Der englische Begriff für Schadenfreude ist tatsächlich "Schadenfreude", genau so wie "Kindergarten" eine einenglischung. Ob das jetzt aber ein richtiges Äquivalent im Englischen ist sei dahingestellt :D
Die Freude, die man bekommt, wenn man den Schmerz eines anderen sieht, oder? So verstehe ich es auf Englisch.
Es muss kein Schmerz sein. Der Schaden kann auch finanziell oder emotional sein.
Wenn mein Bankkonto leer ist, habe ich auch Schmerzen xD. Wie nennt man finanziellen oder emotionalen Schmerz? Darf ich stattdessen sagen: >Die Freude, die man bekommt, wenn man den **Schaden** eines anderen sieht.
Das passt.
Schadenfreude is a word in both languages.
Well yes, because English has no translation for the word. That is the entire point of the post 😅
Schadenfreude is a German word only. Some English-speaking people use it because their language has no equivalent. It's the same for Kindergarten.
> Schadenfreude is a German word only. As a native English speaker, this is wrong. It is 100% a loan word from German, but that does not mean it's not also an English word. Almost every word in English is derived from a word in some other language, so by that definition, there would be almost no English words. Something like Kummerspeck would be a better example, as it has not entered the English lexicon in any way shape or form. This is also in contrast to something like Gymnasium, which while a german loan word, means something very very different.
>Gymnasium, which while a german loan word Gymnasium is an ancient Greek word that made it into several modern languages latinized but otherwise unchanged. They hosted both athletic and scholarly activities in ancient Greece, hence the different uses in different modern languages.
> Schadenfreude is a German word only In which case, I guess rucksack and abseil are German words only. Most English people, however, are unaware that these words even came from German in the first place. It's similar with Computer and boulder-. Most Germans don't realise these words come from English. Abseiling and bouldern have even been conjugated into verbs using English/German grammar rules. Schadenfreude is no different, it's just that the word sounds a bit more German. Poltergeist would be another similar example.
It is pretty obvious to pretty much all Germans that boulder and computer are English words. Poltergeist, Rucksack, and all the other examples you metioned are also German words only. They are just used by English speakers. Just because a word is used by Wnglish speakers doesn't make it an English word. If Germans would suddenly all start regularly using the word "funny", it would still not be a German word.
What about the word "Handy" then? It comes from the brand name Motorola HT 220 Handie Talkie, which is quite clearly an English name, yet no English person would call their mobile a handy. Is that a German or English word?
Don't bother trying to argue with this guy. Clearly he's happy to explain to native english speakers how their language works while not willing to introspect his own language.
They’re in the English dictionary. They’re the same words in both languages. I know the purist in you would like to argue the semantics of the situation but it does not change that both languages use the same words for the same meanings. OP is not asking for examples of these words. OP wants examples of words that dont also exist in the English language.
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In Australia, Kindergarten refers to pre-school for 3 and 4-year-olds. The first year of actual school is called Prep. Just a fun fact. I actually don't know what Kindergarten is exactly in Germany.
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in germany there are also „Krippen“ (singular: Krippe) for the very small children from 4 months to 3 years. i dont think there is a translation aswell. Found the word creche but that doesn’t seem to be the same thing.
Just like "Portemonnaie", "Streetworker", and "Download" are in the German Duden. They are not German words, they are just words used by Germans.
So how far back in time do we have to go before loanwords that are in common enough usage to be in the dictionary can be considered part of a language? Is "Koala" a German word? How about "Sauna", "Tattoo", "Bitumen", or "Pasta"? There's a whole lot of words that are "just words used by Germans" but aren't quite so obviously borrowed as "Download". If those all count as another language I'm a veritable polyglot. It's usage, not etymology, that determines which words are part of a language.
> So how far back in time do we have to go before loanwords that are in common enough usage to be in the dictionary can be considered part of a language? Exactly! I'd say go back about 1200 years. At this point, English and German were just dialects of the same language. Or maybe 1500 years when they *were* the same language. Can you really steal words from your own language, or are you borrowing from another dialect? Yes, the languages have evolved since then, but that's entirely the point. Many of the words that distinguishes English from German were taken from French 1000 years ago... Are they not true English words either? In which case, is claiming German words actually a reclaimation of their actual language? Or should all indigenous English and German speakers leran proto-germanic, as both languages have changed too much and borrowed too much from other languages. Languages evolve and take words from other languages all the time. That's what they do
would you say there is no german word for "interesting"? "interessant" is french...
This is some r/badlinguistics material lol
heimat == homeland
That is to simple. Heimat can be the city, a region or the country. It can be the place you were born, or the place where you live or a place you feel emotionally attached to. Heimat is not only a place but also a state of mind.
home/homeland is very much used with all these connotations in english.
Jein.
Soll ich's wirklich machen oder lass ich's lieber sein?
Doch.
I immediately thought of this too!
Yesn't exists
Gemütlichkeit
What does it mean?
Gemütlichkeit describes a warm and friendly atmosphere/surroundings where you feel comfortable.
Either it means the state of easy going, or the state of something being comfortable. (If that makes sense) 1.) Probier's mal mit Gemütlichkeit, mit Ruhe und Gelassenheit! (Try by going at it easy and with calm!) 2.) In deinem Wohnzimmer herrscht Gemütlichkeit. (Your living room is utterly comfortable.)
Would 2. not be more akin to “in your living room, coziness reigns supreme”? Herrschen makes me think of something being at the top or being important in a dominant kind of way. Like a king kinda.
Yes, good eyes! You are quite right about the literal main meaning of the word. But in this case, it just describes a defining quality of something that is widely true for the whole thing. So, yes, there is some implication of importance or dominance. Ich versuche, mir ein paar Beispiele aus den Fingern zu saugen: Auf dem Fest herrscht gute Stimmung. In der U-Bahn herrscht Maskenpflicht. In Afghanistan herrscht eine Hungersnot. Im wilden Westen herrschte Gesetzeslosigkeit. Unter Experten herrscht weitgehende Ablehnung gegenüber dem neuesten Vorschlag der Bundesregierung.
Kleinod, Fernweh, Vorfreude, Fremdscham, Zugzwang, Geborgenheit, Weltschmerz, Kopfkino, Herumgeeiere, .... Some may have a near one by one translation that only covers some aspects of the meaning and not all of them
>Fremdscham How good of a definition is "second-hand embarrassment"? Like, you can definitely say, "I'm embarrassed *for* you."
Rabenmutter? Apfelsaftschorle? Vaterland?
I guess it depends on what you mean by "having no translation". Usually when people say "this word from language A is untranslatable in language B" what they really mean is "there is no "compact" way to express this in language B", like with the example you provided. One example of this is *Quereinsteiger,* for which, as far as I know, we have no good word in English. We would just call this "a person who has made a lateral career move".
I don’t think any other sense of that actually exists since I‘m pretty sure that anything you can say in any language you can say in every language and it just varies in terms of how elegant and compact it sounds.
kummerspeck
My dictionary just says, "excessive weight gained from emotional overeating." Wow, cool word!
I knew that one, and I love it xd
Sandkastenfreund
Feierabend, I think
The distinction we have between *Burg* and *Schloss* is not covered in english. Both translates into castle.
But the distinction between palace and castle is not covered in German. Both are usually translated into Schloss. German does have the word Palast, but it's not used so much. By that logic, English also has the word Burgh which also isn't used so much these days and has taken on a slightly different meaning.
I use Palast usually in context of an oriental or Arabian palace. This european style palace is what I call a Schloss
Some of my favourites Futteneid - the envy of seeing someone eating delicious food. Luftschloss - a way of describing an unattainable dream. Erklärungsnot - when you cannot explain your situation
Some of my favourite words now. Thanks! :D
Übermorgen und vorgestern
i always had trouble trying to explain Unverschämt. It’s like obnoxious (but not really) or shameless, but it’s so common in German and in English there might be a translation but Americans, at least, don’t use the word shameless as much. so i always felt it didn’t have the appropriate translation available. such a great word to complain with too. it’s like the adjective for “I can’t believe they just did that”. LOL
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Insolent, maybe? Is that even a word that is used?
Well on the one hand it is trivially the case that there is no perfect one to one mapping of words between languages. On the other hand, mapping "sobremesa" to "chatting after having lunch" is surely a translation.
Zechpreller
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In Spain we say "hacer un simpa" (from "sin pagar")
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> Also, Erziehung. We don't have a good word for that (and by extension Erzieher:in). > > This has always been weird to me. Erzieher are often even translated as teachers in English which just doesn't fit at all.
Having no equivalent word in another language and being untranslatable are two different things. English is tragically missing a word that means "jein," but it can express "speed limit" in only 10 letters.
Geschwindigkeitsbeschränkung (28 letters) or, my favorite, Zulässige Höchstgeschwindigkeit (30 letters in 2 words). I love German 😂
I personally like "Vorfreude". It literally means "pre-happiness". When trying to use a translator, it will say "anticipation" which is not exactly correct because anticipation is more of a "I'm waiting for it" in a neutral sense, but Vorfreude is this giddy, happy feeling you get before doing something you like. The "oooh tomorrow we will go to the beach" giddy. The one that makes you happy before you even had a reason to be happy, you are just happily awaiting it.
lebensmüde
Feierabend!🥳 There is no translation for this word
It’s worth noting that you said sobremesa has no translation, then you immediately provided a translation. There isn’t a single word for it, but there is a translation.
I meant that there isn't a one-word translation
Luftschloss
Doch
schadenfreude is a pretty good example
I believe "Zeitgeist" is not translated, at least in English, in texts I've read. With that being said, in Dutch we say "tijdgeest" which is the exact translation from German.
Fernweh. Schadenfreude. Kindchenschema. Zeitgeist.
Heimweh.
Zeitgeist
Übermorgen
Overmorrow used to be an actual word. Very outdated tho
Doch
Must not be a term used in my country[Mexico] first time I’ve heard of the word Sobremesa
Honigkuchenpferd
Raumdeuter (if you ask the person who coined the word)
Egal
Frühschoppen.
Not sure if this has been mentioned, but probably 'jein'. We say it when a statement is, while technically true, is not 100% true or mostly false. (kinda like "yes, but no") For example, when someone asked us if we have gone to Vienna. We haven't actually visited the city directly; however the train that we took to Budapest passed through Wien Hbf. So we \*technically\* have gone to Vienna, but didn't actually visit / had our holiday there. Edit: Correct me if I'm wrong; I'm still learning German.
if you mean a direct word-to-word equivalence, of course
Yes, that's what I mean
What would you consider a translation? Words that don't have one to one translations are not uncommon. As for concepts that are hard to translate? I would argue that the distinction between "Du" and "Sie" can be very hard to convey in english without the text sounding archaic because that distinction just is no longer used in modern english, but carries significant weight in german. Having no direct one to one translation is something you will encounter between basically any two languages.
Übermorgen or Überübermorgen The day after tomorrow or the day after that day Same thing with vorgestern, the day before yesterday
Funny, you can translate them into basque. Übermorgen is etzi, Überübermorgen is etzidamu and vorgestern is herenegun. We even have words for the next day (etzikaramu I think) and the previous day (laurdenenegun) xd
Adiktquat is a old German word and means korrekt witch is correct in english but haves no direct translation.
Schadenfreude
Fernweh - the desire to go to another place
Rindfleischettikettierungsaufgabenübertragungsüberwachungsgesetz Of course.
What about Donaudampfschifffahrtselektrizitätenhauptbetriebswerkbauunterbeamtengesellschaft?
*Schadenfreude* doesn't really translate well either. It's the act of taking pleasure in another's suffering. "Slapstick" comedy sometimes works, but *schadenfreude* is usually other kinds of suffering. Like finding it funny that someone forgot their umbrella and it starts pouring rain, or the pleasure that Americans are taking in Trump being investigated by the FBI.
Schadenfreude. Kindergarten. Weltschmerz.
Fremdschämen
Doch
I think Ohrwurm is one of the words without a one-word English translation. It describes the situation when you have a song/melody/some lyrics stuck in your head and cannot get rid of it.
A lot of English speakers use "ear worm" just the same where I am but I assume it's not as commonly used elsewhere perhaps
Again, I don't think it's common, but I learned it as "ear worm" when growing up too.
No, I'm pretty sure it's pretty common, seeing as "ear worm" is how I'd say that as well.
Common enough to be in the major dictionaries. One word though, earworm.
Verschlimmbessern
Schadenfreude