15 GENIUS German words that are MISSING in English! | Feli from Germany
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- Опубліковано 5 тра 2024
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Honey cake horse, ass violin, or cable salad?! 😅 These are only a few of many-in my opinion-genius German words 🇩🇪 that I really miss in English! 🇺🇸 They describe certain things so perfectly and with a touch of humor that I sometimes can't resist and just literally translate them into English and use them in my sentences-leaving the people around me pretty confused usually. 🤷♀️😂 Maybe we can establish these words in the English language together so that I won't be the only weirdo using them in the future? 😁 Let me know which of these words is your favorite in the comments below! ⬇️
20 German words AMERICANS USE all the time! (& their real meaning) ▸ • 20 German words AMERIC...
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0:00 Intro
3:20 Purzelbaum
4:10 Kabelsalat
4:39 Feierabend
5:41 Ohrwurm
6:46 Weichei
7:37 Innerer Schweinehund
9:07 Arschgeige
9:28 Honigkuchenpferd
10:04 verschlimmbessern
11:39 Übergangsjacke
12:26 Torschlusspanik
13:31 fremdschämen
14:19 Schadenfreude
15:14 Schnapsidee
15:51 Eselsbrücke
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ABOUT ME: Hallo, Servus, and welcome to my channel! My name is Felicia (Feli), I'm 27, and I'm a German living in the USA! I was born and raised in Munich, Germany but have been living in Cincinnati, Ohio off and on since 2016. I first came here for an exchange semester during my undergrad at LMU Munich, then I returned for an internship, and then I got my master's degree in Cincinnati. I was lucky enough to win the Green Card lottery and have been a permanent resident since 2019! In my videos, I talk about cultural differences between America and Germany, things I like and dislike about living here, and other experiences that I have made during my time in the States. Let me know what YOU would like to hear about in the comments below. DANKE :)
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Check out my video *_"20 German words AMERICANS USE all the time!"_* ▸ ua-cam.com/video/aZoThD8NIjU/v-deo.html
GUYS! I need your HELP establishing these amazing German words into English so that, in the future, I won't be the only weirdo using them! 😅 Let me know which of these words is your favorite in the comments below! ⬇️
First view
I think any English speaker would understand "cable salad".
But we already use "rat's nest" to describe the same thing.
"Feierabend" Happy Hour is often used in the same way.
Maybe you've never heard "earworm" in English. You haven't been here long enough. It's well known and very common.
Earworm is definitely a German-derived word that's already used in English. Season 9, Episode 10 of the Big Bang Theory TV show is titled "The Earworm Reverberation". Here's a short clip on UA-cam of the show when the word is used: ua-cam.com/video/goD7ckdaNXY/v-deo.html
There's an Eselsbrücke for English spelling: "I before E, except after C". There is an English word in common use for Eselsbrücke. The spelling rule and similar "memory aid" are called a "Mnemonic".
Torschlußpanik = last Minute Panic , according to Bill Watterson´s "Calvin & Hobbes"-Comics. Another Equivalent or Version of "Schnappsidee" is: "Furzidee" ( Fart Idea). 8-P
Englishman living in Germany here. I've managed to introduce my family to the amazingly useful German word "jein". That's a word we need in English!!!
Absolutely :)
So...."nes" or "yo" ? :-D
So basically “yes, but actually no”?
@@Beeza2996 more like "yes and no"
Yo
I want "Holla the wood fairy!" to make a comeback...
I appreciated the bursting hat thread most if you guys know what i mean :D
Holla die Waldfee !! , common one here. So funny when ur drunk 😂
Would translate it as "whoa you serious?! That's some hard stuff / or just "OK, now I'm surprised"
@Dreyarde List of all woodfairies known by name: 1.) Holla 2.) -
My dear mister singing Club!
Mein Arbeitskollege wollte seiner Amerikanischen Frau mal erzählen, dass er einen Muskelkater vom arbeiten hat und hat gesagt:"I have a muscle cat"
Ich hab vorher noch nie so gelacht😂😂
Omg dieses Kopfkino 😂
😀
😂😂😂
hilarious *rofl*
Try "having a tomcat" next.
"Einen Kater haben" in German.
Or a really bad hangover.
,,Doch" is the most important you need
❤️🇩🇪
Definitely 😂☝🏼
Yes
YESSS!
i already missed it :)
"Sondern" auch
"doch" is the best word ever and i stand by that! :D
Its an interesting one. Because it can be used in many different contexts and is kinda difficult to describe all usecases and translations. Which context is your favored one? Its not the objection, is it?
@@madrooky1398 actually, it is. i'm simple like that. :D It's just that I'm a native german speaker and I've grown so used to using it of course, that I sometimes miss it in other languages. Although I also like it as a kind of "filler" word to emphasize ones point.
Nein!
Doch!
Ohhh!
Try to translate that exchange to English!
(for reference: ua-cam.com/video/w4aLThuU008/v-deo.html Even better than the French originall)
@@jeanpilgrim3864 Yemen 💐🇾🇪🌷
Nein
My favorite "donkeybridge" is: "he, she, it - das 's' muss mit" 😂
Good one though!
As German is it so important.❤️🇩🇪 (I am german
@@pantheroathz4734 liebe Grüße 😉🇩🇪
heißt das donkeybridge
das heißt doch eselsbrücke Udn nicht affenbrücke
@@Lorz donkey heißt auch esel, affe heißt auf englisch monkey
My husband once wrote in an English test "All holy times..." for "only once in a blue moon" and his teacher answered "You are on the wood way."
his english was not the yellow from the egg
But German sarcasm is....;))))
I took German as my language credit at university. I always loved how German words just made sense. So many times I would learn a new word and think "well of course that's what it is".
German words can be very descriptive, we just "say things as they are" (Purzelbaum, Kabelsalat). English is more colorful and uses pictures.
Both can be charming but you have to get used to it and learn some examples to get the idea.
Bedient euch - literally 'Serve yourselves' makes so much more sense than 'Help yourselves '
"Eine Schnapsidee" startet nicht selten mit den Worten "Halt mal mein Bier"^^
Yeeesssss!
That’s it 👍👍👍
When did starten become a German verb?
@@bacjac8072 to start+to begin, have the same meaning, in german
Punkt 12 beschreibt Stromberg ganz gut.😂
I thought for sure Hamsterkauf (hamster shopping) would be in the list! It was such a relevant word in 2020.
Imagine a hamster stuffing food on stock in both cheeks, lol. it's so figurative. I like "Hamsterkauf", too.
I thought 2020 made up that word: )
This word discribes 'buying a lot of usual and unusual things in panic moments', like an upcoming war, an electric blackout, a pandemic or an upcoming zombie apocalypse. In 2020, when the covid-19 pandamic begins, people in germay buy a lot of toilet paper, yeast and flour. As a normal person, you can't get any toilet paper. Some buyers filled up the shopping cart with tons of toilet paper. I think, they cook it in tomatosauce or something else. The world is ending and all you need to survive is toilet paper, yeast and flour LOL. I was laughed out because I had long in advance creating an emergency supply for a possible blackout. 2020 was my time to laugh. Everyone rushed into the shops and bought everything they could get. I sat relaxed at home and have had 'Schadenfreude' :)
@@elcomode but a "Hamstekauf" even exist before a long weekend like easter
@@CrazyGamerTV Haha yes, this is also such a panic moment, if you find out 1 or 2 days in advance that the shops have closed for 3 days in a row. Easter and Christmas always come so suddenly. Nobody predicts anything. That's always a big problem here, haha. Many people can't plan in advance for 3 - 4 days and shop early in calm. I have a small emergency supply (mini prepper) and only go shopping once a week. I don't care if people are supposed to "Hamsterkauf".
I'm American but I learned the word "sitzfleisch" years ago and it has since been one of my favorite words. We need it in English!
Whats that mean?
@@davids8214 I believe in English, we'd call it "backbone" rather than glutes - "power to endure or to persevere in an activity; staying power."
- "I was given tasks which required lots of Sitzfleisch, but didn't offer much excitement"
@@EcoFreak13M , " backbone" is more positive - it stands for activity and endurance and perseverance. "Sitzfleisch" in German can also be used in a negative context - it can stand for inactivity, and, e.g., just sitting on your fat ass and waiting for a political scandal to pass, instead of stepping down.
@@lenkacfk7155 i found that "sitzfleisch" is negativly used in about 90% of the cases... I mostly here it after a party when that one last dude doesn't want to go home even though everyone else left and the host wants to go to bed.
@@Far90Cry You guys are not wrong, but there is another meaning simply referring to a thick/fat ass. Like: "I have do go to the gym i gained a ton of Sitzfleisch lately" or "Have you seen that, she got a lot of Sitzfleisch there". And the second one is not necessarily insulting, some guys actually like that. Who am i to judge... :D
I just used the word Augenschmaus, literally an eye-feast. It's cute, isn't it? 😻
Like eye candy.
when joven! I liked to hope i was a bit of an augenschmaus :D my wife certainly is :D
"The Germans do not have a word, which means 'the opposite of what you just said in actually correct'."
"Doch"
Extension: "Aber ja doch!"
Doch!... I think you mean English needs this word and yes I agree. Doch was my favorite German word that I came home with.
English needs a word like "doch". I think the French use "Si" to mean roughly the same thing.
Doch is my favorite German word of all time!
There is an English cognate for "doch". It's though.
It has some similiarites, but is used differently.
I love Kabelsalat as a word! As an amateur audio/sound engineer, I've dealt with a lot of cable salads over the years.
same at my former job as an IT network- and systemadministrator. I hate the Kabelsalat in some serverrooms. nearly hundreds of network cable and only one of them has a Wackelkontakt (wiggle contact / sporadic no contact)
I have called it cable spaghetti, but don't know for sure where it came from.
Every Time i hear some german words translated literally, i notice how weird our language is xD
I've never heard anyone use the word "disimprove", but I do regularly say "autoincorrect" when your phone decides to autocorrect the correct word you entered to an incorrect word.
Ear worm is DEFINITELY a thing in English. The minute you said I was like wait that IS a word in English. It even has a Wikipedia page.
Yeah I thought there was going to be a different meaning. Earworms are very common
I've used it before as well!
It's also fairly old and falling out of favor a bit. It used to be more popular.
Boomer term
I know earworm from Spongebob Squarepants
Ear-worm in English has become a thing and you're right, it is the perfect description of both such a song and the phenomenon of it being stuck in your head.
The ear worm was used in an episode of The Big Bang Theory. The character Sheldon couldn’t get a song out of his head for days and drove everyone mad trying to figure out what it was! Haha
Kummerspeck: literally means "grief bacon," and refers to the extra weight you might put on after a bout of emotional eating.
The concept of "Fuchsteufelswild" is pretty funny. Translated, it means "foxdevilswild" and is said when someone or something upsets you.
best is the bavarian dialect: fuchsdeifeswuid :-)
Ois Oberösterreicher dad i fuxteifiswüd sogn
Und übersetzn in foxdevil wild
Der Moment, wenn dir jemand einen ‚Schönen Feierabend‘ wünscht und du ,Gleichfalls, danke‘ sagst, obwohl du genau weißt, dass die Person noch länger Arbeiten muss.😂
😅
...leider ist es für mich meist anders herum! 😐
🤣
oder umgekehrt, wenn der Kunde einen 'Schönen Feierabend' wünscht und natürlich nix mehr arbeitet. Mein Reflex: Ihnen auch einen schönen Abend.
Der Kellner bringt mir mein Essen im Restaurant und wünscht mir einen guten Appetit.
Mein Gehirn: Danke Ihnen auch! ................
“Fremdschäman” exists in spanish as “Pena ajena”: the embarrasment you experience through someone else’s embarrasment
*fremdschämen. There's also a similar expression in Portuguese: "sentir vergonha alheia".
but fremdschämen can also mean that you are being embarrassed by someones embarrassing action without the actual person being embarrassed. happens a lot in politics lol
@@A-Wa Yeah a former president caused a lot of this... lol
I think "pena" would be used more frequently in the sense of shame in Middle America and some northern South American Countries like Venezuela whereas in other regions the word vergüenza (or just verguenza) is used normally. Pena would there rather translate to sorrow.
@Larryjoe`s Antiidiotikum No, not at all. Hes an old dude, right, but considering hes doing a good job. The question is rather in what state that countries democracy is if the only contender against the former guy, who was an embarrasment for the whole western sphere, is an old dude who often forgets what word comes next. There is no shame in age though, i actually have some respect for that man just for beeing there as it is. He was elected, dont forget about that. Does not mean there is any alignment with policy. As an european i am just glad hes on the diplomatic route in foreign matters, thats worth a lot for the rest of the world. No, the real source of Fremdscham is more the stance of many voters over there that ignorance seems to be a basic right. Otherwise the politic landscape would look different in a country that claims to be "the greatest democracy in history"...
Only two major parties, equally corrupted, and all minor parties together, which are like 50 or more, do not even get 1% of the votes. That makes a seriously ignorant and lazy impression from the voter side in a population of 320 million people.
Its a democracy, you get what you order.
I’ve heard the term “ear worm” on a music analysis channel and now I occasionally use it.
der Ohrwurm 😎😎
Bitte mach doch einen zweiten Teil. Mir fehlt noch die eierlegende Wollmilchsau.
Also das wird sicher spaßig...was damit gemeint ist, wissen nicht mal in Deutschland alle Leute...
@@thisisanabomination7244 sie*innen meinen sie wohl, oder?
Die heißt auf Englisch doch "unicorn". Also nicht etwas, was alle wichtigen Funktionen auf einmal erfüllen kann, (typisch deutsch), sondern etwas, das jeden Wunsch erfüllen kann. Habe ich aber, ehrlich gesagt, erst zweimal gehört.
@Hen nein, kannte alle im Münsterland
Ich sag nach Leo "jack of all trades", aber hab das noch nie woanders gehört.
You forgot "schnabulieren" when you eat a snack with great pleasure :D
Haha, that's a good word! In the U.S. we informally say we "snarfed" something that's particularly decadent and delicious. I wonder if that's a bastardization of "schnabulieren"!! :oD
@@nathan2813 It has the translated meaning of eating sth. with pleasure and leisurely. So it's a bit different, snarfing sth. is more greedy, rushed.
@@TheOneSin7 Kinda like the difference between making love and forking?? :oD
@@nathan2813 schnabulieren comes from a bird picking something up by beak to eat it. So it means just walking by and taking a little bit of food (e.g. a cookie) with two fingers (similar to a beak) and to eat it. With you the word to pick up something means only to take it. Even with big things. To us it is used only with small fingerfood. Cookies, sweets, chips... Ich habe was zum Schnabulieren hingestellt - I put something on the table for "schnabulieren" means I put this kind of things on the table e.g. for to eat during TV.
@@frauantjeshayday-farmen9517 Okay, so it's more like our "food for browsing, nibbling, picking, munching, or snacking," or as you said, "fingerfood". That is, which we'd just call "snacks", or more specifically, "sandwiches", "chips", "popcorn", "candy", or even, god forbid, "veggies" (like raw carrots, cauliflower, or broccoli dipped in dressing).
Haha, and "eating like a bird" in the U.S. also connotes lightly picking or nibbling at some food, like a light and frail bird would do. However, this is misleading, since birds typically gorge themselves with 12-35% of their body weight in food per day! :oD
As strict as the German language can be, it also is one of the most colorful. ^^
Die Sprache der Dichter und Denker./The language of poets and thinkers.
@@thorstenkrell6038 und Liebenden. Aber sagen Sie das nicht den Franzosen!
@@thorstenkrell6038 That means something entirely different
I love how the German language has endless creative compound words. I think ass violin is brilliant.😂
The term sounds like something Newbomb Turk would have used in the movie "The Hollywood Knights" in the "Volare" scene...
Another word for the list is Gemuetlichkeit. When I taught German I would explain it as a state of mind that you enter when you are in a cosy environment that just makes you feel good.
I love using Gemütlichkeit. Too bad there’s no appropriate translation to English; but that’s pretty accurate. I’m gonna use it from now on when my friends ask “what are you talking about?”
That’s my favourite one too.
I'd say that was adopted decades ago.
Gemütlichkeit is like the Dutch word "gezelligheid", which is often used by us Dutch people to indicate how English falls short on occasion in describing Dutch culture. Apparently Dutch and Germans have at least this important concept in common! :)
@@twenteeen It's not just the German and the Dutch. In Denmark (and Norway?) it's called 'Hygge' or 'hyggelig' which describes a quite similar concept.
The "innerer Schweinehund" concept is analogous to the English concept of "the monkey on my back" or "the demon on my shoulder."
This almost seems closest to what we call you're inner voice or sometimes people will call it their conscience. It's usually referred to as your conscience when you know that you're doing the wrong thing and you tell yourself to do the right thing. I do think that the inner voice in general can be you telling yourself not to do what you should do, too. At least that's my personal experience.
@@marywood8794 It is more about doing the "right" thing that you should do, for yourself, like doing homework instead of snapchat, or doing sport instead of watching tv.
None of them are bad, but it would be better for yourself to do the other one.
@@Sh1sou That's a good way of explaining it. It sounds like a bit of an anti-procrastination thing the way that you're saying it here.
Oh neat, I didn't even consider that during the video. Good comparison.
I've got the devil on my shoulder! ~
When she started Ohrwurm, I thought to myself she should sing "I'm a barbie girl..." and everybody would feel for the rest of the day what an earworm is.
And what was her suggestion?
My favourite one is "Geborgenheit", it's one of the best feelings you can have - it's a mixture of feeling loved, safe and comfortable, mostly a feeling a loved person can make you feel, so you'd say something like "my boyfriend makes me feel so "geborgen"". 🥰
I've been learning German for a couple of months and I genuinely feel that compared to English German make way more sense.
I agree fully; After only a semester of learning German the rules feel much more rigid and comprehensible(at least, for the 90-95% of the language) than English, even as a native speaker.
hey steven, i am austrian and i think that the english language is way more easy than the german one.
does it make more sense?
no xD
some are just putting 2 words togehter and hope they make sense, hehehehe ^^
ok some do...
have a nice day and think about, der die das :P
@@marcusdietinger5409 i think English is easier but German rules just make sense, besides the grammatical gender. English rules seems really unnecessarily at times. And I feel like German rules always have a purpose. That's why I think it makes more sense at times.
@@stevenbi7495 Oof! After butchering two simple verb tenses, I'm kinda scared how your German are.
@@ronjones-6977 well I'm not good for sure cause I just started
My favorite „Eselsbrücke“ is: „ lose is losing one o; choose is choosing one o“. Can be very helpful sometimes.
Thanks - I will memorize that one!
Definitely missing "Muskelkater" and "doch" as useful words, and "Pissnelke" as a funny word/ insult :D
Love the word, "FeierAbend" - the "off-time" - that wonderful feeling at getting released from your obligations - you are obliged to work, and when for some reason you are not - ah, wonderful -
In Danish (witch in many ways is related to German) we dont say Kabelsalat - we simply call it "Spaghetti" 😃😎
I have heard "spaghetti" also used in English, in the USA, for that mess of tangled wires and cables and cords.
Which might be even more descriptive. I might start using that. Oh, I am german. Tough I like the Kabelsalat, Spaghetti fits it even better. Why only improve english, when we can improve both languages ;)
Funny thing, google translate translated Spaghetti from English to German (and only it that direction between these languages) as "Kabelschläuche" (engl: Cable hose) some years ago. Which led to a greek menu that said "Kabelschläuche mit Calamari" (Cable Hose with Calamari) when all others got Spaghetti. Maybe the german guest there really got cable hose to their calamari (some people would say calamari taste like cable hose though xD)
I like "Spaghetti". However, Kabelsalat is more expressive because it declares the context (the cables, not just any salade or any spaghetti). I also think that Kabelsalat originates from Wurstslat, another German word for a salade of sausage sliced into very long stripes and then shuffled with some sliced pickles.
I call that a 'Rat's nest' of cables.
Honey cake horse would be a great name for a highly affectionate VERY LARGE dog.
Cute! 🤗
The Caucasian Mountain Shepard! 300-400LBS of dog. I would just name it Hugh Mongus.
We use a literary phrase: Cheshire Cat. She should learn it since it’s in Alice
It’s not like it’s Jabberwocky (word salad).
Haha, like Marmaduke! :oD
These dogs I always call a pony, even the owners laugh mostly
The first thing that came to my mind when I thought about "donkey bridges" was "Mein Vater erklärt mir jeden Sonntag unsere neun Planeten" (Every Sunday my father explains our nine planets to me) or since Pluto is not a planet anymore "Mein Vater erklärt mir jeden Sonntag unseren Nachthimmel" (Every Sunday my father explains the night sky to me) for the order of the planets.
Ich kannte die neue Version ohne Pluto noch gar nicht. Danke! 😀
The English word for it is mnemonic :)
There is a great German song describing the "Ohrwurm" from the band "wise guys", which in itself is very catchy. And by the way they also have a song called "Denglisch" which also relates to this channel very well.
Guter Tipp.. Good tip... NO! Good hint.
.oh Herr, bitte gib uns unsere Sprache zurück... .. Und mach, dass Microsoft bald wieder kleinweich heißt...
Ja, dass es Kleinweich heeeeiiiiiißt. 😂
I have used the term “earworm” before. I learned it from an episode of Spongebob.
as a singer song writer you do not need a hit, but an earworm
cause that will pay off in the long run decades later still in every ones ear - like Frank Sinatra or Elvis Presley or 80s earworms that need 3 chords to be recogniced like Van Halen's JUMP in the 80s or the Miami Vice Themes and songs and a hundreds of others.
I also frequently use this word. No idea where I learned it, but I’m pretty sure my usage predates Spongebob.
Yeah, I've definitely heard "earworm" before and sometimes use it, but only for those songs that really annoy me. Especially the song I most despise, "We Built This City"... NOOOOOOO!!! I've never heard anyone else say it in conversation though, only in videos.
Same
Same. I learned it from a book and then started using it all the time.
Kabelsalat ≈ rat's nest ≈ a tangled ball, or bunch, of cable or tubing, usually electrical wires
Also, I have used "earworm" a few times. I probably first saw it in print a long time ago. A useful term because I have them all the time.
If you can believe the Merriam-Webster dictionary, "earworm" has been a English word since 1802. The word has become more popular in the last twenty years or so.
In 1802, it was being used in the first sense listed in the dictionary, ie. a pest affecting corn. From what I can see, it came to have the meaning referenced here sometime early this century- and the early references I found mentioned the German ohrwurm, so it looks like it probably came to English via German. So tick that one off the list.
I think it's a bit too soon to tick it off the list since we don't use it too much. I've actually not heard it in the sense of "having a earworm," but just occasionally as a noun for catchy songs.
I quickly learned that Feierabend is the best German word!! "Earworm" is something I have always been familiar with and I would have been surprised if no one knows it. "Schnapsidee"....we have a pretense phrase for that, "Hold my beer, watch this!" hahaha
I fell in love with the phrase "Hold my beer" the second I learned it. You will find German speakers use it from time to time, but I think they adopted it from English in social media. Other than the German "Schnapsidee" the English "Hold my beer" always starts a ridiculous story in my head, and I love it. (BTW: of course there's also a German word for that "story in my head": Kopfkino - Head cinema).
14:16 "Das ist total cringe" is my favorite sentence in the world now
Benutze ich seit Jahren fast jeden Tag 👀
Sadly, German has no real word for "facepalm".
@Lion Muesli At least in written form there's "Kopf -> Tisch"
@@HalfEye79 i is called "fremdschämen" but we dont need a gesture XD
@@officerstan1225
So, the name of the gesture is "fremdschämen", but don't need it?
That is wrong.
That we typically don't a gesture is the reason, we don't have a name for one.
And yes, "facepalm" is the name of that gesture.
I use Cable Salad all the time too. It’s just such a perfect word and I love it. Also around here (northern IL) a lot of people say “ear worm” i thought it was semi normal 😂
I did not often hear "Kabelsalat". We frequently used "Bandsalat" in the age of tape recorders when the transport system produced a ball of tape. I guess "Kabelsatat" has been a transfer of the original "Bandsalat".
Did English speakers ever say "tape salad"?
I think the american equivalent to "Your smiling like a honey cake horse" would be "You look as happy as a pig in $h1t"
And in Swedish the Cable salad is a Skatbo (magpies nest)
Yes, we do actually use the term "earworm" here in America. Maybe it's regional, but the meaning is basically the same.
I've heard this word used in northern Ohio and southern Michigan. I can't recall where I first heard it though. My Dad's dad was originally from Germany though, so his family may have simply kept using it here.
Schadenfreude is my absolute favorite German word that we use in English. It’s nice to have a word to describe a feeling I have almost daily.
Ich liebe "verschlimmbessern" 😁
Das klingt sogar in englisch, korrekt 😁
Übergangsjacke is very relatable! We've got the word 'tussenjas' in Dutch. Which is literally an inbetweenjacket! The meaning is the same as the Übergangsjacke
Thats very funny! "Tussen" as in "tussenjas" is a german slang word for a superficial and self-centered girl :D
heel goed!
I do use the word "earwig" when I get a song stuck in my head. One German word I wish had an English equivalent (especially around election time) is "Backpfeifengesicht."
"Cable salad" is awesome indeed. btw, ever notice this? Put two cables in a drawer, as far apart as possible, not touching at all, then close the drawer... Next time you open the drawer, they have somehow become a Cable salad all by themselves. Happens all the time, can't explain it....
If that happens ,your home is infested by Rainbowstriped Wirenesters..... an elusive rodent that use cables of all color for its nest
Its the work of a little gnome called Pumuckl. You can search for him on yt. There’s proof. 🤔
I think "Fernweh" is also a word that the English language needs to adapt. 😁
distance pain or remote pain, longing for a beautiful place
Yes I've seen this on other lists. Similar words that should be more widely used in English are "ennui" (French origin) and "sonder" (from German and French).
@@elcomode Not necessarily a beatyful place, more like a strong desire to visit/travel a new place.
There is a translation for "Fernweh" in English, "wanderlust". Sounds familiar to us Germans, don't you think?
Cable salad/kablesalat is brilliant! It makes total sense! I’m adopting it.
Your videos prove that knowing two languages is improving the mastery of either one with deepened understanding. A lot of native speakers are not aware of the fact that knowing another language leads them delving deeper into their own language.
We don't live in a country, but in a language. The more languages you speak, the less foreign you are to the world.
übermorgen und vorgestern.
the day after tomorrow and the day before yesterday...
funny thing is those words once existed in english as well (overmorrow and ereyesterday ) but somhow vanished and are archaic/obsolet nowadays
I agree with these! They would extremely useful to use. I wish English had kept their versions around.
Petition to get them back... Who’s with me??
Übermorgen and vorgestern? Weren’t those two minor characters in a play by Shakespeare? 🤣
@@shubinternet 😂😂😂😂😂 I just FELL OVER laughing.
You can even use überübermorgen or vorvorgestern (and more) to name the day after the day after tomorrow. This can be used infinitly ofen.
I’ve heard the term “ear worm” on television (on The Big Bang Theory) and was able to figure out the meaning from the context. I’ve never heard the term used by anyone in real life. I love the term “cable salad” and I intend to use it as often as possible. 😊
Earworm traces back to the 18th century, actually. I recall Jefferson using it in a letter I read somewhere. Just a song or poem you can't get out of your head.
@@magnificentfailure2390 funny but bad here because she needs honest answers. I’ve used “earworm” since college, 40 years ago.
@@fsinjin60 in what way was that dishonest?
Yeah, “cable salad” is definitely a winner. Much better than “rats nest”.
Going forward, I will be trying to use this term instead.
But I will blame ... Errr ... give credit to Felicia ... for the change. ;)
@@normanjohnson9877 apologies. The reply was to MagFail
Feli: I just had the pleasure of viewing your video on “German Genius Words”. At one point you suggested that non-existence of a word in a given language may indicate the non-existence of the CONCEPT of the word in that culture. I have an example for you. I have challenged many native French speakers to tell me the French word for “obvious”.
The usual answer is “Evidement” (which actual translates to “evidently” in English). I explain that “evidemment” implies that there is some degree of EVIDENCE supporting the situation and that something that is OBVIOUS requires no evidence whatsoever. Eventually, they give me a multi word PHRASE that is something like “Even a senile 90 year-old can see that….”. I point out that a phrase is not a word.
Only recently did I meet a Frenchman who, after we discussed it briefly, actually admitted/realized that there IS NO SUCH WORD in French. Many years ago, I spent 5 months in France in a technical capacity. During that time, I wound up in multiple long arguments about the cause of problems that were (to me) clearly obvious, but which (for my local counterpart) had to be examined in detail to identify the cause. This led me to conclude that NOTHING is “obvious” to a Frenchman!
I enjoy languages and I frequently experience “Fremdschamen” (no umlaut on my keyboard) when I hear examples of “the liguistic ability of an American”. I have been told that my accents in German, French, and Flemmish are quite good. This has been reinforced when native speakers answer me at their normal (fast) conversational speed and I have to ask for them to speak more slowly and to apologize for my somewhat limited vocabulary.
With that as background, I have been amazed at your American English accent, given the limited time you have lived in the States coupled with your first living here after the age of 15. A speech therapist friend (whose husband is barely understandable in English due to a strong Spanish accent despite living in the US for MANY years) has suggested that foreigners who arrive after the age of 15 rarely lose their accents.
In your case, I can only occasionally pick up a bit of a German influence in your speech. Quite an accomplishment.
Thank you for many hours of entertaining video that I have had the opportunity to view so far!
Sincerely, Rick from the Pocono’s in Pennsylvania
I love that your Videos are so on point and very true regarding the use of words.
Very awsome. Keep on going!
Living in Denmark next to Germany - we have A LOT of german words.
Some words have a "native danish" (pronunciation) twist to them - but the meaning and sound is almost exactly the same
1) Kabelsalt - > Kabelsalat
2) Feierabend -> Fyraften
3) Übergangsjacke -> Overgangsjakke
A few words that we use - directly from german - even pronunciation
1) Ungefähr
2) Nebengeschäft
@Larryjoe`s Antiidiotikum Danish & German are related and share more words than English. Native Germans can understand (written) Danish quite good.
@@HesseJamez Das ist sehr kool!
@@tommyprotrampx The word "kool" does not exist in Geman language -:) The rest was correct. Another fun fact: We have less trouble to understand the "foreign language" Dutch than the so called Swiss -"German"
yes, and schadenfreude ->skadefryd
And we use schweinhund also I think without changing anything
Kummerspeck is my favorite. It roughly translates to “grief bacon” or “sorrow fat.” This word refers to the emotional eating - and probable weight gain - after a stressful event like a breakup.
We should add Corobna Speck. Cause a lot of people gained weight. Or Lockdown Speck
@@annkaschu7264 They may use the word Corona Kummerspeck to refer to weight gain due to stress and the lack of exercise 💡
@@annkaschu7264 I read the other day: Corona-Wampe (Big Belly)
It's usually the result of the emotional eating you are mentioning, the eating itself would rather be "Frustfressen".
People don't gain weight after a breakup, they LOSE it... so they look their best when trolling for a NEW honey! (Also perhaps from loss of appetite whilst lamenting the loss of the old one.)
For North, South, East, West we used "Never eat sour watermelon." To remember the order of operations in math we used "Please excuse my dear Aunt Sally (parenthesis, exponent, multiplication, division, addition, subtraction)." Calling them donkey bridges is cuter than calling them mnemonic devices. 😁
Goes way back to the crack of history. Look up "pons assinorum"
When I moved to Hamburg I learned so many new idioms. For example "Fofftein!" (fifteen) instead of Feierabend. I started using it as well, because it sounds so cool.
Turns out it can also mean having a break. Dock workers who were unloading bags of coffee, tea or spices were allowed to skip every fifteenth bag to have a short break.
So "Fofftein machen" can refer to a coffee or cigarette break or nowadays even Feierabend.
Cable tangle = Rat's Nest
Looking happy = Grinning like a possum or looking like the cat that ate the canary
wouldn't the cat who ate a canary look smug ?
from the context i saw it in, i wouldve assumed looking like the cat that ate the canary means looking like you'v been up to something or have misbehaved?
On the TV series Friends I've heard: "you look like you slept with a hanger in your mouth." :) I don't know if it is actually something people say if someone "strahlt wie ein Honigkuchenpferd". :)
I actually love the word Schadenfreude. It's so descriptive and so true.
Native-English speaker here. I have never heard of the word “disimprove”, but I like it. I have heard plenty of people combining words to make a brand new word Because they cannot think of one that already exists that correctly describes what they are thinking of. I cannot think of any example right now.
I barely started watching your video haven't finished but already hit the like button because your videos are always so interesting! Thanks!🙃
Schadenfreude is the sort of word that in almost English now. The exact concept does not translate to any other English word, so I have been using it for nearly 50 years.
Same here.
@@MXB2001 What about `malicious joy` or ` gloating´?
@@howardpope3932 'Rejoicing at someone's misfortune' is also a possibility. :) Incidentally, Danish has the word 'skadefryd' and Swedish 'skadeglädje'. 😎🇩🇰🇸🇪
There is no noun it translates to but „to gloat“ seems to have an aspect of Schadenfreude in it. Incidentally, German lacks a straightforward translation for „to gloat“.
@@raempftl What about "sich ergötzen" for "to gloat"? And the Leo online dictionary translates "Schadenfreude" by "schadenfreude", "malicious joy" , "gloating" and two other words.
#9 verschlimmbessern corresponds to a phrase in Azerbaijani that literally translates to "poking out the eye when fixing the brow" :D
Improveworsening's just made a cruel day so good for me. I've also always loved the German verschlimmbessern but I've never thought about an english translation. And it is so on point funny in English, thanks a lot!
Deine Videos sind wirklich klasse! Du zeigst ein sehr sympathisches Bild von Deutschland. Und ich verbessere mein Englisch durch deine Videos 😉
Vielen Dank!!
In english a tangle of wires, etc. is called a rats nest.
wire spaghetti is another option
clusterf**k
@@butchpedit4871 -That is usually a man-made mess.
Yeah, could be. Normally Rats Nest describes badly tangled head hair.
We used bird's nest when we tangled our fishing line.
Honigkuchenpferd is soooo German-german :D
In Austrian-german the expression is: grinsen wie ein Hutschpferd
meaning to 'smile like a rocking horse'
it originates from traditional rocking horses which usually had a big painted on or carved in smile
I LOVE THIS CHANNEL ITS SO HELPFUL💗✨✨
I have used the word ear worm before, however even though I am an English speaking American. I lived in Germany til I was 8 years old. I love everything about German culture & the country! Thank you for doing these videos!
A perfectionist never finishes a painting. A genius knows when more is less and to stop.
Haha, I don't know if it's genius, but I've discovered in my writing it tends to work better to let a project rest for a few days. THEN I can see it with more of a fresh mind (as other people would) and recognize glaring errors I didn't see in the 500 times I reread it three days earlier! :oD
Art is knowing when to stop. Better is the enemy of good enough.
Ich warte die ganze Zeit auf Milchmädchenrechnung.
@andybode Was bedeutet das?
@@What_Makes_Climate_Tick Milchmädchen = milk maid
Rechnung = calculation, bill
a calculation which seems to be correct on paper, but not in reality. for example, if 2 workers need 1 hour to do the job, 4 workers would need 2 hours for the same job. => false, they need 0,5 hours.
or a oversimplification of a calculation which leaves out many aspects, so it can´t be true at the end
@@Vrig19 or Wikipedia translated to english: Milkmaid calculation is the derisive term for a naive consideration or argumentation that ignores essential aspects and arrives at a plausible but actually incorrect result.
Ich glaube das kommt eher aus dem Slavischen. Ein Freund der aus Russland stammt, kannte den Begriff auf Russisch ebenfalls mit gleicher Bedeutung
@@carstenjcool In slavischen Sprachen gibt es allerdings viele Begriffe die aus dem Deutschen übernommen und im nachhinein slavisiert wurden. Ein schönes ukrainisches (vermutlich auch russisches Wort) ist zum Beispiel (gesprochen:) "Kartuflani Platzki". Wörtlich Kartoffelplätzchen, tatsächlich Kartoffelpuffer. Im Polnischen gibts das auch "kartoflane placki" (ähnliche Aussprache). Hingegen haben es die Deutschen aus dem italienischen Wort Tartufolo geformt und hieß noch im 18 Jahrhundert Tartuffel. Die meisten Sprachen nahmen den ursprünglich für die Süßkartoffel stehenden aus dem Taino stammenden Begriff Batata in Abwandlung (Potato, Patata, hier steht meist Batata dann tatsächlich für Süßkartoffel) oder eben eine Abwandlung der (deutschen) Kartoffel in ihre Sprache auf, im Spanischen aber auch das Inka (bzw. Quechua) -Wort Papa.
Great video Felicia!
Total sympathisches Video!! Klasse 🙂
Omg, “verschlimmbessern”, there’s a lot of that in business. It may have a name like “our corporate improvement strategy”. I’m using this one tomorrow. And the pigdog one. Perfect.
Verschlimmbessern, e.g. if a manufacturer try to improve a device, but ends up overengineering it (even it's perfectly fine, just for the sake of putting a NEW label on the box)
I would love to see the mirror image of" Denglish" catch on. " Endeutsch" perhaps? I like Feierabend, it would be a good name for a nightclub or pub. " Feli's Feierabend". My current favorite German word is "Kummerspeck" :-)
I have heard several friends use earworm in conversations both in person and on social media as well as use it myself when talking about certain songs that get stuck in your head very easily.
A Canadian here (with a German father). I love these words! They are so descriptive. Especially love #6 and 11. I’ve heard ear worm before but haven’t really heard anyone use it. It’s usually just “I can’t get that song out of my head!” I use the word Schadenfreude sometimes. I think I learned it after reading it in a number of (English) articles. Love all of your videos!
Cable salad sounds freaking perfect. Especially behind some desks I see at work.
I DEFINITELY use earworm 😊😊😊 I just used it today because I had a tiktok song stuck in my head 🤣
U american?
@@paddy5010 yup. Ohioan
I'm Malaysian and I use that term too haha. My german girfriend found it cool that I knew the word
I feel like it’s a commonly know word, that doesn’t get used much.
I started telling everybody in Seattle about Ohrwurm/Earworm starting around 2003. Now when I bring it up, lots of people say "we say that", and seem to have forgotten about the introduction. So it seems to have started spreading.
Donkey bridge = mnemonic (memory aid). Every Good Boy Deserves Fudge for the notes on the lines of a treble staff. FACE for the spaces. M points up, T points down (how to tell stalagmites and stalactites). Using your knuckles and the spaces between them to remember which months have 31 days, etc.
We do have Honigkuchen in Switzerland and it's basically very similar to gingerbread just made with honey. That would actually make sense in terms of it referring to a horse made out of honey cake.
I’ve been using earworm for years. It’s a perfect description of what’s happening in your brain.
Ich finde es super gut, dass du immer so genau alles recherchiert und dich informiert und auch über die Hintergründe der Wörter redest und nicht einfach irgendwas, was du glaubst! Da bringst du uns Deutschen auch noch was bei!😊
genial ! wirklich gut erklärt :) ... explaining what it means to read between the lines how we germans use these worlds ... it cant be *grin* but you did a reall good job, well done !
Sometimes when I try to speak English with friends I wonder what some german words mean in english. Thanks for the Video from Germany =)
I have spoken English all my life and some times get stumped. At home we spoke low German and English mixed together so 🤷.
I still ask my mom sometimes what the English word is for some of the more specific words that don't translate well
My favourite Eselsbrücke: "Welcher Seemann liegt bei Nacht im Bett?" (What sailor lies in bed at night) ... With this you can remember the order of the East Frisian Islands from east to west. Wangerooge, Spiekeroog, Langeoog, Baltrum, Norderney, Juist, Borkum 😂 I live in the northwest, where you learn it already in the 2nd grade.
Beautiful!
7:49 Are you not going to talk about how that looks and sounds almost exactly the same as (somewhat less commonly used) equivalent words in English?! Like, that looks so so close to "inner swine hound" which is basically an exact literal translation, just with slightly less well used words in English.
Definitely been using "earworm" here in Scotland for a quarter century, at least.
Maybe far longer.
I don't remember where (or when) I first heard it, nor when I actually started using the word myself, but it was a very long time ago, for sure.
It's a great word!
Earwworm is recognized here in Canad, also. It means the same, which is a song that is stuck in your head for a period of time, maybe a day, maybe more or less. Dankeschoen, Feli. Keep up the great content.
I used to drive on the Autobahn 14, and there’s a parking by the name Kabelsketal. I ALWAYS read Kabelsalat when I drove past it. ^^
"Cable Salad" I'm totally using that... so good!