Nobody is cringing in Germany, if you pronounce a word wrong. We love when foreigners try to learn our language. Most of the people will react like the german lady.
11:32 as she said, german is a straight forward language, in the opportunity to combine words, they will get a new meaning. it is more a "what you see is what you get" language. for example: english: a turtle german: schildkröte (shield toad) the language is very flexible and allows to add more words to an allready existing, so a new thing can be discribed. I still remember top gear when hammond try to explain a new technology, the "doppelkupplungsgetriebe", and the spelled every single letter, and it seems there is no ending. buuut... the eglish translation is: "double clutch transmission", not quite smaller, just with a spacer in between the words (doppel-double kupplungs-clutch getriebe-transmission).
Right. german is also very descriptive in the nouns. Hand|schuhe: hand shoes = gloves. Glüh|birne: glow pear = lightbulb. Nackt|schnecke: naked snail = slug. But its also easy to recognize the meaning if you can brake the words down into their single parts and if you know the smaller words, you will now the big ones: Verkehr|s|sünder: traffic (binding s) sinner = traffic offender. Streich|holz|schachtel: stroke wood box = matchbox (of course a match is ein Streichholz). Dauer|welle: duration wave = perm. And if you have nouns that are similar things you may find similar parts in them: Auto|bahn: car track/way/path = highway. In fact BAHN is a thing that is much more long than wide and flat. You can also find it in the nouns Aschebahn: ash ~ = cinder track, Rennbahn: running ~= racetrack, Straßenbahn: street~= tram. But also in Tapetenbahn: wallpaper (this one is a composite word too) strip. The word Bahn alone also is the short term of Eisenbahn: iron ~= train.
Dwayne I'm so sorry and kinda feel bad rn. But your reaction on Streichholzschächtelchen was priceless. I laughed so hard I had to pause the video for a moment.
A other question is also why german use capital letters for nouns. It is for prevent confussion. If we didn't use it this sentence could mean: Der gefangene (F)loh. ( the imprisoned flea) Der (G)efangene floh. ( the prisoner escaped) It is just for better understanding for reading.
I have the theory that capitalising nouns improves readability somewhat and thus compensates a bit for longer words that decrease readability somewhat.
@@aphextwin5712 That's not only a theory. It's all about the picture a word creates. With capitals and composite parts it is more recognizable within a fraction of a second. We can process huge amounts of text in a short reading time.
You can bring this to a boil: umfahren Just the way you pronounce the word, gives the meaning. um-fahren - stress the second syllable it means to bypass something. Stress the first one it means to knock someone or something over by driving a car.
English also likes to compose some words. Especially when paired with prepositions. Overrated, Underpants, Insightfull ( even a tripple word), Outstanding, Upsetting, Ongoing, Everybody. Germans just like to expand this concept to the maximum.
I love how good you are in first try! So lovely! And to be honest: No one would write "fünfhundertfünfundfünzig" in our gramma we write every number larger then twelve "zwölf" just as the number. The only things where I see large numbers written in words is on The only place I've seen large numbers written out as words is on vouchers. But only because it has to have both on it, the number as a number and as a word. As with so many things in Germany, whoever thought of this was a bureaucrat. We have also a list with German words, where native German speaker have to look twice before pronouncing. For Example "Brathering" (fried herring) a lot Germans, me included, would pronounce it English, because of the TH 😂 but it ist Brat Hering. And there are a few more of these. For all the lovely Germans reading this: Baumentaster, Altbaucharme, Hoffensterchen, Kreischorverband, Zwergelstern, Rotzeder, Urinsekten, Schreibrand und Nachteilzug 😜😂
Oh man, with these words I'm sitting here like someone who's in their first class of German. Looking at the American woman and Dwayne like "awww, they're so cute, they're doing a really good job" and then I saw your comment and was questioning being born and raised in Germany 😂
Writing out numbers as words only makes sense in handwritten documents to make them somewhat "tamper-proof". It could be easy to change a number, e.g. make a 7 out of a 1, a 8 out of a 3 or add an extra digit, but changing a word (someone else has written) is nearly impossible without leaving any "obvious" traces. But how often do you rely on handwritten documents nowadays?
Zwergelstern was the most difficult. I literally tried for minutes to figure out what a Zwergelstern could be. Sounded like a word that might come from the south of Germany or Austria. 🤔
In the end, english is even more complicated to pronounce correctly since its phonetically way more inconsitant : What If English Were Phonetically Consistent? ua-cam.com/video/A8zWWp0akUU/v-deo.html
Here's a trick for English speakers how to pronounce German ü, phonetically transcribed as [y]. The reason why English speakers have a problem with it is that it is a rounded front vowel, and English has no rounded front vowels in its phonetic inventory. However, you have the e sound [i] as in 'knee'. Now, the [i] sound is formed the same way as ü, the only difference is that you spread your lips. so, say [i] and then start rounding your lips gradually (like you do for an o sound or kissy face) but do not move any of your other articulators (your tongue, height of your palate, etc.)! And, voila, you should arrive at the correct ü pronunciation :) (English basically already mimics this sound, e.g. for French -the English vocabulary is estimated to have French origin between 30% and 45%, so they tried to approximate the [y] sound- musique [myzik] 'music' [mjuːzɪk], English kind of combines [i] and [u] in quick succession, it's close but not the same)
in german you can combin words if this is one think. Streich-Holz-Schachtel(chen) = match-stick-box (and the smaller form) the same is with numbers. we just write fivehundredandfiftyfive :-) but in german grammar it is allowed to use "-" for better reading. And we dont use Streichholzchaschtel without "chen" at the end. you can use it if the box is smaller than normal, but i think they just want to make it a little bit harder in the video.
Morgenstern Abendstern Zwergelstern Sometimes long words causes problems reading when you not know where to separate. Morgen Stern = morning star Abend Stern = evening star Zwerg Elstern = dwarf magpie (bib finch)
Well, all languages have their own fun words. Not sure about "long" words in the English language, but i.e. Welch definitely has them... and without some alcoholic liquids they might be unspeakable for foreigners at all... :) On languages, it depends a bit on the time the words were needed first to find them speakable or not. Take the classic word "window", german "Fenster", french "fenetre" (sorry for the missing accents). The english word might have his roots in "wind oy" (or windy hole) coming back from the viking influences (might be a correct connection since glas windows were created much later than this word), while the german and french word have a close connection. Afaik, many words were first written down by Martin Luther in his work to translate the bible from latin to german (he also created new german words). The connection of words into one new expression is not typical german, but used in many languages; especially in newer terms, but seem to be more atypical in english spoken areas. To give a bit of help: look for maybe known parts of the word, Schlittschuhlaufen has "Schlitt Schuh laufen" - Schlitt might be unknown, but the Schuh is very close to shoe; laufen is also a common term. Running on skating shoes might be a good translation. If we pick the german word again, there are some letters that don't follow normally in germen to create ONE term like "ttsch", a good sign that the first part ends somewhere in between. The double "tt" is maybe the strongest consonant combination in german. So, try to find the syllable (a hard word to detect for a german tongue), and you might get an easier approach.
"Why are you putting the words together?" "Because we freaking can!" 😅 No, but you actually can be pretty specific with compund words. You may never heard of something but maybe can guess from the name what its i.e. its use is. And you can actually make words up to describe something and other people will most likely understand. But why exactly it has to be a word instead of a sentence I don't know. But I kinda like it 😊
Like in German, we also connect words in Dutch to a ridiculous lenght. One of the most notorious Dutch words (that every Dutch person knows) is Hottentottententententoonstellingen. Wich means: Exhibitions of tents of the Hottentotten (tribe).
Streichholzschächtelchen is the diminutiv of Streichholzschachtel. There are two different ways to make the diminutiv -chen and -lein and the vowels usually change to the vowels with the dots. Hund (dog) -> Hündchen, Hündlein Kind (child) -> Kindchen, Kindlein Both -lein does not work on all words. Schwein (pig) -> Schweinchen but Schweinlein, never heard of it Katze (cat) -> Kätzchen but never heard of Kätzlein And the diminutive is always neuter so it is das Hündchen, Kätzchen, Kindchen and so on.
3:30 my expression when I saw преподавательница [prepadawat'el'niza] for the first time. 😂 It is the term for a female teacher for adults in russian and memorizing it was a real challenge. I think that happens to you in every language if you start learning it, when you are like "what the hell, how do they even make this sound." 😂 Squirrel is a word I can only pronounce in my head. 😂 Putting words together in german is very usefull, because one needs to stick to a certain word order. "Schlittschuhlaufen" ist a mix of two nouns and one verb, and it can become an object in a sentence that way. Of course one could invent a new word instead but putting some others together will do the job as well.
France still seems to be more into checks. Some years ago (less than 10) I saw someone writing a check at a supermarket and even at a fast food stall. I think it must be at least 2 decades since I had checks.
8:40 I wouldn't even say that one is particularly difficult to say if you can pronounce the ch properly but it's a lot at once if you just get the pronunciation explained to you and have to replicate it then and there. Probably similar to Polish or Czech for us (the few things I know are really easy to say, they just look complicated and aren't as easily remembered as, say, Spanish pronunciation rules).
We connect words in order to create a new thought which has a different meaning than the 2 (or more) words have when standing alone ...that´s the basic concept. For instance Auto fahrt = 1 noun + 1 verb = means "car drives" but put together Autofahrt = means "car trip/road trip by car" or Leben + Mittel = 2 nouns = means "life + resource" but put together Lebensmittel = means "food" That´s why we never - seperate - compound words because seperated you got an other meaning than when put together.
Actually the English word for "Eichhörnchen" "Squirrel" always freaks me out. ;-) By the way, there's nothing cringe about it. Those are really hard words. You do a good job.
The English native speakers might wonder: Why do you have such long words instead of having 2+ words. In German we often use melted together words to describe and form a word as one entity to give it a name. Like some words in English are as well. Matchbox is a good example here. It's a box for matches. So we're kinda similar here and there. We only took it further then the English speakers ;) So in German we have: "Streichholzschachtel" this is actually a melt of 3 words. "streichen" to swipe, "Holz" wood and of cause "Schachtel" or "Schächtelchen" box Cuter or smaller version of the original name comes with a "chen" in the end and vowels turn into umlauts with those dots over it: "Schachtel" becomes "Schächtelchen" for a small box, "Maus" becomes "Mäuschen" when you want to say it's a cute and tiny little mouse, "Haus" becomes "Häuschen" when it's a small house and so on. You name it.
I'm laughing so hard right now, cause, i've been to a fantasy covention several years now and the actors always try to figure out some german words and the word Eichhörnchen became a running Gag. Some actors have been there pretty often and they try to teach each other how to pronounce Eichhörnchen and make a bit of a competition out of it who can pronounce it best 😅😂 . And I think it was 2 years ago, they asked if there is a more difficult word and someone threw the word Streichholzschächtelchen into the room (and yes, we do use the word) and the look on the actors faces was so precious 😂 We do know it's difficult for english speakers to get the ä, ö, ü right and the ch and sch sounds, so, of course we come up with words that have that sound in them. so, don't worry, if you have problems with the pronounciation, it's pretty normal for english speakers. ;)
The word Donaudampfschiffahrtselektrizitätenhauptbetriebswerkbauunterbeamtengesellschaft with 79 letters was declared the longest published word in the German language by the Guinness Book of Records in 1972. The word was the name of a pre-war Viennese association for subordinate officials of the headquarters of the company's electrical department called "Donaudampfschiffahrtsgesellschaft". 😅
Someone said "Dutch" is the link between English and German, and i think this is very true. It´s all about the sounds your mouth does to pronounce it to sound correct. The most difficult to pronounce would be the "Kr", "tz", "ch", and the "Umlaute (ö,ü,ä) ".
The natural sound of Ää [ɛ] is actually part of the English language. Öö and Üü don't have english equivalents, that is true. And ẞß is simply a [s] ...
@@KeesBoons Ironically, using phonetic writing would really help videos like this in making pronounciation clear - the International Phonetic Alphabet was *literally* made for that reason.
As a non-bavarian speech therapist, I got to disagree. (atleast in terms of "unique" german rules, consonants and vocals in the bavarian dialect) Also the bavarian "r" is much more used in other languages, then the hochdeutsch "r".
to give you a short view about the actual differences within Gemran and englisch compared is that the German language is phonetically more consistent than the englisch languge, the German people invented ÖÜÄ and ß as letters to get new signs that fit in the phonetic lag of languages back when the Newspapers were invented as concept. the english language is phoneticallly a jumping and falling lucky ride. just check out alll -ough versions Through, Thorough, bough, brougt or the words By buy, bye - phonetically the same, but different in all posible ways. same goes to there thier they´re ... and fun fact for Germans it is hard to pronounce the English TH - sounds because theses does not exist phonetically in German language.
The biggest differences (i tell them from the german point of view) are probably the huge amount of english vocals and the missing of the "knacklaut" (mostly known as "glottisschlag" which means "glottal stop"). This "knacklaut" is used when (inside a single word) a syllabe starts with a vocal after another one ended with a consonant. The second part is one of the reasons, that german often is referred as a "aggressive/commanding" language. Another reason for that might be the "Auslautverhärtung" ("final hardening") which means, that we use plosives (basically g, k, t, d, b, p) in a "harder" way (wont go into anatomic stuff, but lets say its d=t, g=k and b=p) if its at the end of any syllabe. Im only a speech therapist and no phonetic/phonologic/linguistic doctor or expert, but these things were referred as "basics" to me, back when i learned it.
Hi! Funny video. "Squirrel" is more difficult in american english. The way you say it, it`s easier! Intereresting, that english speaking people in general often are switching between the pronunciation of the letters "i" and "e". In german it is always the same.
I was born 1968 and I saw my father write checks, but I never had a checkbook myself and I never received a check. When I came of age, we already did everything via bank transfer.
I'm born the same year but I remember using checks in my early 20s - mostly for stuff a little more expensive. Either because it was above the limit of my EC-card which maybe was something like 1000 DM back then or most likely you either had to pay cash or per check in a store. So if you didn't want to walk around with big amounts of cash (like 2000 or 3000 DM) you paid per check.
Its more about pronounciation of things like Th or gh or V or -shire. The r is not always hard rolled. It is soft or swallowed sometimes. Lol we don't say...Schlittschuhlaufen but Simply Eislaufen. They took the longer Words without knowing what we actually use. Lol..just a Year doesn't take you far...and there are regional differences too. Same as i would learn english..id would Sound broken..understandable maybe but not correct. I still struggle with tenses sometimes. Our Sentences are structured: your language but backwards. The Verb is switched. For us it is liked turned around. Sorry i can't explain it better..it's a Grammatik Thing.
There are no big problems with compund words. It might be confusing at first but you can master it in no time. Because they allmost all use the same syllables, very few exceptions. Literal translations: Gloves = Handschuhe = Hand shoes | Hand-schu(h) | Hand-schu-he Light bulb = Glühbirne = Glowing pear | Glüh-bir-ne | Glüh-bir-nen Refrigerator = Kühlschrank = Cooling locker | Kühl-schrank | Kühl-schrän-ke ä=ae; ö = oe, ü = ue, ß = ss (sharp s like snake, former notation also sz [Name: Eszett (ess-zett)]) Hyphenation rules: Rule 1: Word syllables such as "ck", "ch" or "sch" must not be separated. Ra-chen, Ta-sche, Brü-cke etc. (Throat, pocket, bridge) Rule 2: Words with "st" may be separated. Kas-ten, Wüs-te, Wes-te etc. (box, desert, vest) Rule 3: If there are several consonants in a word, the last consonant is separated. sin-gen, ren-nen, Klap-pe, nutz-los, Kat-ze etc. (sing, run, flap, useless, cat) Rule 4: For words with an "h" inside, the words that have an audible "h" are separated before it. In the case of a voiceless "h", this remains on the corresponding part of the word. Audible "h": flie-hen, se-hen, glü-hen etc. (flee, see, glow) Voiceless "h": Fah-ne, Mäh-ne, Boh-ne etc. (flag, mane, bean) Rule 5: Compound words are separated according to their components. Schreib-tisch, Deutsch-buch, Steh-lam-pe, etc. (desk [writing table], German book, floor/standard lamp [Standing lamp]) Here extreme examples: Donaudampfschifffahrtselektrizitätenhauptbetriebswerkbauunterbeamtengesellschaft Do-nau-dampf-schiff-fahrts-e-lek-tri-zi-tät-en-haupt-be-triebs-werk-bau-un-ter-be-am-ten-ge-sell-schaft The "Gesetz zur Übertragung der Aufgaben für die Überwachung der Rinderkennzeichnung und Rindfleischetikettierung", short: Rindfleischetikettierungsüberwachungsaufgabenübertragungsgesetz Rind-fleisch-e-ti-kett-ier-ungs-über-wach-ungs-auf-ga-ben-über-tra-gungs-ge-setz = "Cattle marking and beef labeling supervision duties delegation law"
We are masters of "Snakewords". Some words are buildet from 4 (ore moore) unic Words an whrite it together. Some of these Words are not use often and its hard for Germans too, to say it correctly. P.E. "Bodenseeschifffahrtsgesellschaft" It's build from Bodenssee, wich is a lake in South Germany, Austria and Switzerland (by the way - it's a very beuautifull Spot to travel) , Schiff (ship), Fahrt (drive) and Gesellschaft (company). The special except in this Word are the 3 f. In the past (at my schooltime) you have written it only with 2 f. But it's changed after the "Rechtschreibreform" (right write reform) 😂
the trick is to disect the long words into the components and then speak them separately. Streichholzschächtelchen is much easier Streich-holz-schäch-tel-chen. There is only one way to speak a consonant, not a dozen depending on circumstance as in english. So you can take the words apart and speak every bit separately.
12:56 Yes, if you write out a cheque where you have to write the number 555 out as a word the grammatically correct way, it has to be written out as "Fünfhundertfünfundfünfzig". That is absolutely correct. But even Germans would try to avoid it and just write "555", even in a novel. In general, numbers bigger than twenty can be written as numbers instead of a word. Honestly, if you think German numbers have long names, try French! (And I'm old enough to have written paper cheques, before plastic cards and digital money became a thing.)
Allright you were shocked by Steichholzschächtelchen? This is currently the longest german word: Donaudampfschifffahrtselektrizitätenhauptbetriebswerkbauunterbeamtengesellschaft and it is in the guinness-book of world records.
we write it together as a number but normal just 555 and not like actually written, just a small odd thing from german numbers is u but the singles BEFORE "the tens" so german basicly calls it " Five Hundred Five and fifty"
13:14 "Fünfhundertfünfundfünzig" No, we would just write 555. 😀 P.S.: Yes, back in the days (I'm old enough to remember) we wrote numbers down like this on a check.
It is pronounced Eich-hörn-chen, see, simple ;) Also Rühr-ei, a stirred egg. Streich-holz-schächtel-chen you can also say streich-holz-schachtel Strike wood box little aka matchbox ;)
I work at a doctors office and we do dementia tests. One part of the test is, to put the numbers 209 and 4054 into long words. So zweihundertneun und viertausendvierundfünfzig. And then it switches and you have the long words to be put into numbers, its sechshunderteinundachzig = 681 and zweitausendsiebenundzwanzig = 2027.
Normally we don‘t write such long numbers out. Instead we write 555. But we actually say it like that. The direct translation would be fivehundredfiveandfifty. Greetings from Germany😊
Yo the check thing is weird for us Europeans I guess since we almost never use it. At least not anymore. Me being a German with relatives in the US I know about the weekly payment day which is the friday. That's where Americans are getting payed and thats why they use the word "paycheck". It is literally the check for their weekly payment. (In the US most of the people are getting payed weekly and not monthly) That's also the reason why most of the Americans party on fridays rather than on saturdays because they have all the dosh! 😂 PLUS that's also why streamers on various platfroms are getting the most subs and donations because them Americans got their payments 😎 Chachiiing!
Why do we put words together? To express something (briefly and meaningfully) that would take a whole sentence in English, for example. Example: the german word Luftschloss (two words Luft =air, Schloss = castle - literally translatet to Aircastle or castle in the air meaning: A castle in the air is a fantasy, a figment of the imagination. A castle in the air is the term for ideas, plans or wishes that cannot be turned into reality. The word castle in the air is usually meant in a derogatory way. You can say to someone: "These are just castles in the air And so we have a lot of words that describe something briefly and meaningfully. This comes from the time of poets and thinkers or from ancient times to describe something short and sweet, understandable for everyone and meaningful. For this word (Luftschloss) the roots are: In the middle of the 16th century we find the early New High German phrase "ein Schloß inn lufft bawen"(old german writing and pronunciation), which was paraphrased at the time as: "when someone did a deal underhand/thinks of building a whole castle/now writes an echo of how he wants to build the castle/and lets him build a fourfold plan/soon [... ] the fortune [...] is laid down/and he [...] will be seduced/and the main castle must be left there Meaning: If someone makes a trade/deal underhand and intends to earn a whole castle from it, already imagines how he wants to realize the profit, luck runs out soon afterwards and [the deal] doesn't materialize, he then has to write off the hoped-for profit. This phrase gave rise to the determinative compound noun Luftschloss (castle in the air), which was attested from the 17th century. But there are also words which are put together to describe something too expressive. For example, the name of a law (very popular with foreigners to describe the difficulty of the German language). But if you understand how to spell it apart you can deduce what it is for as a foreigner with for example a translator. For example: Rindfleischettiketierungsüberwachungsaufgabenübertragungsgesetz - engl. Law on the Transfer of Tasks for Monitoring Cattle Identification and Beef Labeling Splitted it would be: Rindfleisch Ettiketierung (s) Überwachung (s) Aufgaben Übertragung (s) Gesetzt -- the (s) are only linking the words to one Word. The abbreviation for the book of law should read: RkReÜAÜG as an identifikation code is a draft law from 1999 in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, which was passed in 2000 under the name Law on the Transfer of Tasks for Monitoring Cattle Identification and Beef Labeling. Rindfleischetikettierungsüberwachungsaufgabenübertragungsgesetz" is not part of the basic German vocabulary. So it is wrong to justify the german language as hard from those compound words. by the way: Linguists estimate that the German language has between 300,000 and 500,000 words. The latest edition of the Duden (as of 2020), however, contains 148,000 words. It contains 3,000 new terms. ... The Dudenkorpus, an electronic database, even contains around 18 million entries (as of 2020). This is because it also contains terms from specialist areas such as biology and technology as well as rarely used and outdated words. best regards
You were doing well with "Brötchen", let me help you with "Schlittschuhlaufen"- always try to split words into silbles. Schlitt- Schuh - Lau-fen. Fünfhundert Fünf UND (and) fünfzig
A warm greeting from Germany, thank you for your interest in the German language. Yo brother, German sounds like shredder, but it is probably the most precise language in the world. For every word we have, we have a form for male, female, lifeless, past, present, future, you, I, they, this and so on for every word. So if you mean this, it's a special word suitable for the time and person, sometimes it's not enough to know the pronoun, you also have to transform the word itself into German.
Worcestershire Sauce. I am German, but I grew up with some English.. I did some Student exchanges and I just love to bake and cook. But everytime I listen to different videos everyone says it in a different way. so pleeeeease I would be happy to have a correct pronounciantion :D
The reason we put it together to one word is a problem in German grammar: we distinguish highly between a noun and an adjective, one worde can't be both. If you say "police car" you use the word "police" to better define the word "car". In German a noun can not be used that way, that would make it an adjective /attribute and not longer a noun. Therefore we have to put them all together to one worde "Polizeiauto". And about "Fünfhundertfündundfünzig" is a really hard word even for Germans. Most native speakers struggle with that word as well. And usually only numbers 1-10 are written with letters, higher numbers are written with numbers only. And not rarely we pronounce the numbers seperately, so 555 could be written as "five five five".
Nobody is cringing in Germany, if you pronounce a word wrong. We love when foreigners try to learn our language. Most of the people will react like the german lady.
11:32 as she said, german is a straight forward language, in the opportunity to combine words, they will get a new meaning. it is more a "what you see is what you get" language. for example:
english: a turtle
german: schildkröte (shield toad)
the language is very flexible and allows to add more words to an allready existing, so a new thing can be discribed. I still remember top gear when hammond try to explain a new technology, the "doppelkupplungsgetriebe", and the spelled every single letter, and it seems there is no ending. buuut... the eglish translation is: "double clutch transmission", not quite smaller, just with a spacer in between the words (doppel-double kupplungs-clutch getriebe-transmission).
Right. german is also very descriptive in the nouns. Hand|schuhe: hand shoes = gloves. Glüh|birne: glow pear = lightbulb. Nackt|schnecke: naked snail = slug.
But its also easy to recognize the meaning if you can brake the words down into their single parts and if you know the smaller words, you will now the big ones: Verkehr|s|sünder: traffic (binding s) sinner = traffic offender. Streich|holz|schachtel: stroke wood box = matchbox (of course a match is ein Streichholz). Dauer|welle: duration wave = perm.
And if you have nouns that are similar things you may find similar parts in them: Auto|bahn: car track/way/path = highway. In fact BAHN is a thing that is much more long than wide and flat. You can also find it in the nouns Aschebahn: ash ~ = cinder track, Rennbahn: running ~= racetrack, Straßenbahn: street~= tram. But also in Tapetenbahn: wallpaper (this one is a composite word too) strip. The word Bahn alone also is the short term of Eisenbahn: iron ~= train.
Dwayne I'm so sorry and kinda feel bad rn. But your reaction on Streichholzschächtelchen was priceless. I laughed so hard I had to pause the video for a moment.
Hey props to you, your pronunciation of Eichhörnchen was pretty spot on on your first try
A other question is also why german use capital letters for nouns. It is for prevent confussion.
If we didn't use it this sentence could mean:
Der gefangene (F)loh. ( the imprisoned flea)
Der (G)efangene floh. ( the prisoner escaped)
It is just for better understanding for reading.
I have the theory that capitalising nouns improves readability somewhat and thus compensates a bit for longer words that decrease readability somewhat.
@@aphextwin5712 That's not only a theory. It's all about the picture a word creates. With capitals and composite parts it is more recognizable within a fraction of a second. We can process huge amounts of text in a short reading time.
Capitalization is the difference of „I’ve helped my uncle Jack off a horse“ and „I’ve helped my uncle jack off a horse“ 😂😂😂
You can bring this to a boil:
umfahren
Just the way you pronounce the word, gives the meaning.
um-fahren - stress the second syllable it means to bypass something. Stress the first one it means to knock someone or something over by driving a car.
Check thing is hilarious. And I was on worktrip In USA back 1999 and big bosses had pagers on their belts. Wtf
I love your accent. 😉And i think, you could learn german very fast, because you speak difficult pronounciations quite easy.
English also likes to compose some words. Especially when paired with prepositions. Overrated, Underpants, Insightfull ( even a tripple word), Outstanding, Upsetting, Ongoing, Everybody.
Germans just like to expand this concept to the maximum.
Donaudampfschifffahrtselektrizitätenhauptbetriebswerkbauunterbeamtengesellschaft 😅
@@RikaMagic-px6bkthat’s not a proper word
@@afjo972 I know but it shows how long words can be
Back in the days I needed a little more practising on ‘pedestrian precinct ' 😅
I love how good you are in first try! So lovely! And to be honest: No one would write "fünfhundertfünfundfünzig" in our gramma we write every number larger then twelve "zwölf" just as the number. The only things where I see large numbers written in words is on The only place I've seen large numbers written out as words is on vouchers. But only because it has to have both on it, the number as a number and as a word. As with so many things in Germany, whoever thought of this was a bureaucrat. We have also a list with German words, where native German speaker have to look twice before pronouncing. For Example "Brathering" (fried herring) a lot Germans, me included, would pronounce it English, because of the TH 😂 but it ist Brat Hering. And there are a few more of these.
For all the lovely Germans reading this:
Baumentaster, Altbaucharme, Hoffensterchen, Kreischorverband, Zwergelstern, Rotzeder, Urinsekten, Schreibrand und Nachteilzug 😜😂
Oh man, with these words I'm sitting here like someone who's in their first class of German. Looking at the American woman and Dwayne like "awww, they're so cute, they're doing a really good job" and then I saw your comment and was questioning being born and raised in Germany 😂
Writing out numbers as words only makes sense in handwritten documents to make them somewhat "tamper-proof". It could be easy to change a number, e.g. make a 7 out of a 1, a 8 out of a 3 or add an extra digit, but changing a word (someone else has written) is nearly impossible without leaving any "obvious" traces. But how often do you rely on handwritten documents nowadays?
Zwergelstern was the most difficult. I literally tried for minutes to figure out what a Zwergelstern could be. Sounded like a word that might come from the south of Germany or Austria. 🤔
@@wWvwvV but it is just a beautiful bird 🕊️ 😁
Mit dem Baumentaster hattest du mich😉 den Rest kannte ich.
Eichhörnchen: It's easy for us German potatoes, we have more problems to Pronounce squirrels 😂😂😂
11:32 to say exacly what it is, like "Kolbenrückzugsfeder" is the spring witch pulls back the piston. just count the letters ;o)
As a German is "Massachusetts" horrible for me to pronounce. Also "Squirrel"
In the end, english is even more complicated to pronounce correctly since its phonetically way more inconsitant :
What If English Were Phonetically Consistent?
ua-cam.com/video/A8zWWp0akUU/v-deo.html
Here's a trick for English speakers how to pronounce German ü, phonetically transcribed as [y]. The reason why English speakers have a problem with it is that it is a rounded front vowel, and English has no rounded front vowels in its phonetic inventory. However, you have the e sound [i] as in 'knee'. Now, the [i] sound is formed the same way as ü, the only difference is that you spread your lips. so, say [i] and then start rounding your lips gradually (like you do for an o sound or kissy face) but do not move any of your other articulators (your tongue, height of your palate, etc.)! And, voila, you should arrive at the correct ü pronunciation :) (English basically already mimics this sound, e.g. for French -the English vocabulary is estimated to have French origin between 30% and 45%, so they tried to approximate the [y] sound- musique [myzik] 'music' [mjuːzɪk], English kind of combines [i] and [u] in quick succession, it's close but not the same)
Yes we write 555 fünfhundertfünfundfünfzig.
ever heard of this gearman word: Rindfleischetikettierungsüberwachungsaufgabenübertragungsgesetz ?
Seeing you freak out about Streichholzschächtelchen is the best XD They really like to include a lot of "ch"es in these words.
in german you can combin words if this is one think. Streich-Holz-Schachtel(chen) = match-stick-box (and the smaller form)
the same is with numbers. we just write fivehundredandfiftyfive :-) but in german grammar it is allowed to use "-" for better reading.
And we dont use Streichholzchaschtel without "chen" at the end. you can use it if the box is smaller than normal, but i think they just want to make it a little bit harder in the video.
haha, Stroke-Wood
Well on the Eichhörnchen I feel slightly squirrelly.
Morgenstern
Abendstern
Zwergelstern
Sometimes long words causes problems reading when you not know where to separate.
Morgen Stern = morning star
Abend Stern = evening star
Zwerg Elstern = dwarf magpie (bib finch)
Well, all languages have their own fun words. Not sure about "long" words in the English language, but i.e. Welch definitely has them... and without some alcoholic liquids they might be unspeakable for foreigners at all... :)
On languages, it depends a bit on the time the words were needed first to find them speakable or not. Take the classic word "window", german "Fenster", french "fenetre" (sorry for the missing accents). The english word might have his roots in "wind oy" (or windy hole) coming back from the viking influences (might be a correct connection since glas windows were created much later than this word), while the german and french word have a close connection.
Afaik, many words were first written down by Martin Luther in his work to translate the bible from latin to german (he also created new german words). The connection of words into one new expression is not typical german, but used in many languages; especially in newer terms, but seem to be more atypical in english spoken areas.
To give a bit of help: look for maybe known parts of the word, Schlittschuhlaufen has "Schlitt Schuh laufen" - Schlitt might be unknown, but the Schuh is very close to shoe; laufen is also a common term. Running on skating shoes might be a good translation. If we pick the german word again, there are some letters that don't follow normally in germen to create ONE term like "ttsch", a good sign that the first part ends somewhere in between. The double "tt" is maybe the strongest consonant combination in german. So, try to find the syllable (a hard word to detect for a german tongue), and you might get an easier approach.
"Why are you putting the words together?"
"Because we freaking can!" 😅
No, but you actually can be pretty specific with compund words. You may never heard of something but maybe can guess from the name what its i.e. its use is.
And you can actually make words up to describe something and other people will most likely understand.
But why exactly it has to be a word instead of a sentence I don't know. But I kinda like it 😊
Like in German, we also connect words in Dutch to a ridiculous lenght. One of the most notorious Dutch words (that every Dutch person knows) is Hottentottententententoonstellingen. Wich means: Exhibitions of tents of the Hottentotten (tribe).
Streichholzschächtelchen is the diminutiv of Streichholzschachtel.
There are two different ways to make the diminutiv -chen and -lein and the vowels usually change to the vowels with the dots.
Hund (dog) -> Hündchen, Hündlein
Kind (child) -> Kindchen, Kindlein
Both -lein does not work on all words.
Schwein (pig) -> Schweinchen but Schweinlein, never heard of it
Katze (cat) -> Kätzchen but never heard of Kätzlein
And the diminutive is always neuter so it is das Hündchen, Kätzchen, Kindchen and so on.
Zugführerberufsbekleidung = Workwear for the platoon driver
your pronounciation is very very good - hi from Munich :)
You had good attempts, mate.
Quite enjoyed, your Stolpersteinchen. ( Small stumble stones)
This word is very tricky Rinderkennzeichnungsfleischetikettierungsüberwachungsaufgabenübertragungsgesetz
LMAO
DWAYYYNE ... thats so funny to hear you try to speak german mate :)
But you were often close right.... soz for my bad english ;)
In Germany we say "Deutsche Sprache, schwere Sprache"
The longest German word is currently „Donaudampfschifffahrtselektrizitätenhauptbetriebswerkbauunternehmenbeamtengesellschaft“ 😂
I remeber, my Dad write a Check. It was in the 80s, Im 45yo!
... and now try this german word, please: "Donaudampfschiffahrtselektrizitätenhauptbetriebswerkbauunterbeamtengesellschaft" :)
3:30 my expression when I saw преподавательница [prepadawat'el'niza] for the first time. 😂 It is the term for a female teacher for adults in russian and memorizing it was a real challenge. I think that happens to you in every language if you start learning it, when you are like "what the hell, how do they even make this sound." 😂
Squirrel is a word I can only pronounce in my head. 😂
Putting words together in german is very usefull, because one needs to stick to a certain word order. "Schlittschuhlaufen" ist a mix of two nouns and one verb, and it can become an object in a sentence that way. Of course one could invent a new word instead but putting some others together will do the job as well.
France still seems to be more into checks. Some years ago (less than 10) I saw someone writing a check at a supermarket and even at a fast food stall. I think it must be at least 2 decades since I had checks.
February. I mean wtf, no way to pronounce that.
You pronounced the German words, including Eichhörnchen, very well! 👏
In the subtitles, the words are often cut at the wrong places.
555 is written together like it was on the screen! Greetings from Germany
Back to the check thing. in Germany account to account transfer started by imperial law in 1875. Yes we did have an Emperor at that time 😀
We put them together to make place on the paper , or today on the screen!
8:40 I wouldn't even say that one is particularly difficult to say if you can pronounce the ch properly but it's a lot at once if you just get the pronunciation explained to you and have to replicate it then and there. Probably similar to Polish or Czech for us (the few things I know are really easy to say, they just look complicated and aren't as easily remembered as, say, Spanish pronunciation rules).
We connect words in order to create a new thought which has a different meaning than the 2 (or more) words have when standing alone ...that´s the basic concept.
For instance
Auto fahrt = 1 noun + 1 verb = means "car drives"
but put together
Autofahrt = means "car trip/road trip by car"
or
Leben + Mittel = 2 nouns = means "life + resource"
but put together
Lebensmittel = means "food"
That´s why we never - seperate - compound words because seperated you got an other meaning than when put together.
Actually the English word for "Eichhörnchen" "Squirrel" always freaks me out. ;-)
By the way, there's nothing cringe about it. Those are really hard words. You do a good job.
In school i found wastepaperbasket extremely heavy to speak! Greatings from Austria!
Squirrel is only hard to pronunce when you try to pronunce it American English.
Same in Sweden, you have take a third language. Most chose German, I chose Spanish. Then Chinese as a fourth language, but that really didn’t stick. 😊
If you wanna upgrade Eichhörnchen, try the Bavarian way: „Oachkatzerlschwoaf“ (squirrel tail)
4:42 "there's no way they are saying Eichhörnchen in the movie UP for squirrel"
True. They say "Katze" (= cat) instead. ;)
The English native speakers might wonder: Why do you have such long words instead of having 2+ words.
In German we often use melted together words to describe and form a word as one entity to give it a name. Like some words in English are as well. Matchbox is a good example here. It's a box for matches. So we're kinda similar here and there. We only took it further then the English speakers ;)
So in German we have: "Streichholzschachtel" this is actually a melt of 3 words. "streichen" to swipe, "Holz" wood and of cause "Schachtel" or "Schächtelchen" box
Cuter or smaller version of the original name comes with a "chen" in the end and vowels turn into umlauts with those dots over it: "Schachtel" becomes "Schächtelchen" for a small box, "Maus" becomes "Mäuschen" when you want to say it's a cute and tiny little mouse, "Haus" becomes "Häuschen" when it's a small house and so on. You name it.
When it is one concept you combine the words :-)
I have used Streicholzschächtelchen or Streichholzschachtel everytimme in my life. And it is not the longest one we have and use.
I'm laughing so hard right now, cause, i've been to a fantasy covention several years now and the actors always try to figure out some german words and the word Eichhörnchen became a running Gag. Some actors have been there pretty often and they try to teach each other how to pronounce Eichhörnchen and make a bit of a competition out of it who can pronounce it best 😅😂 . And I think it was 2 years ago, they asked if there is a more difficult word and someone threw the word Streichholzschächtelchen into the room (and yes, we do use the word) and the look on the actors faces was so precious 😂 We do know it's difficult for english speakers to get the ä, ö, ü right and the ch and sch sounds, so, of course we come up with words that have that sound in them. so, don't worry, if you have problems with the pronounciation, it's pretty normal for english speakers. ;)
The word Donaudampfschiffahrtselektrizitätenhauptbetriebswerkbauunterbeamtengesellschaft with 79 letters was declared the longest published word in the German language by the Guinness Book of Records in 1972. The word was the name of a pre-war Viennese association for subordinate officials of the headquarters of the company's electrical department called "Donaudampfschiffahrtsgesellschaft". 😅
Someone said "Dutch" is the link between English and German, and i think this is very true. It´s all about the sounds your mouth does to pronounce it to sound correct. The most difficult to pronounce would be the "Kr", "tz", "ch", and the "Umlaute (ö,ü,ä) ".
The natural sound of Ää [ɛ] is actually part of the English language.
Öö and Üü don't have english equivalents, that is true.
And ẞß is simply a [s] ...
@@ClockMaster-mq2hm Actually the ß is a double s, not a single one.
@@KeesBoons I didn't mean the letter s, that's why the brackets. I meant the phonetic consonant sound [s], the voiceless alveolar fricative
@@ClockMaster-mq2hm Sorry, my mistake. I'm not so familiar with using phonetic script.
@@KeesBoons Ironically, using phonetic writing would really help videos like this in making pronounciation clear - the International Phonetic Alphabet was *literally* made for that reason.
Waiting for the REAL difficult German words. Looking at you Bavarian 🐿
As a non-bavarian speech therapist, I got to disagree. (atleast in terms of "unique" german rules, consonants and vocals in the bavarian dialect)
Also the bavarian "r" is much more used in other languages, then the hochdeutsch "r".
to give you a short view about the actual differences within Gemran and englisch compared is that the German language is phonetically more consistent than the englisch languge,
the German people invented ÖÜÄ and ß as letters to get new signs that fit in the phonetic lag of languages back when the Newspapers were invented as concept.
the english language is phoneticallly a jumping and falling lucky ride.
just check out alll -ough versions
Through, Thorough, bough, brougt
or the words By buy, bye - phonetically the same, but different in all posible ways.
same goes to there thier they´re ...
and fun fact for Germans it is hard to pronounce the English TH - sounds because theses does not exist phonetically in German language.
The biggest differences (i tell them from the german point of view) are probably the huge amount of english vocals and the missing of the "knacklaut" (mostly known as "glottisschlag" which means "glottal stop"). This "knacklaut" is used when (inside a single word) a syllabe starts with a vocal after another one ended with a consonant.
The second part is one of the reasons, that german often is referred as a "aggressive/commanding" language.
Another reason for that might be the "Auslautverhärtung" ("final hardening") which means, that we use plosives (basically g, k, t, d, b, p) in a "harder" way (wont go into anatomic stuff, but lets say its d=t, g=k and b=p) if its at the end of any syllabe.
Im only a speech therapist and no phonetic/phonologic/linguistic doctor or expert, but these things were referred as "basics" to me, back when i learned it.
ua-cam.com/video/A8zWWp0akUU/v-deo.html 😄
Hi! Funny video. "Squirrel" is more difficult in american english. The way you say it, it`s easier! Intereresting, that english speaking people in general often are switching between the pronunciation of the letters "i" and "e". In german it is always the same.
lol the english translation of Eichhörnchen is Squirrel which is one of the hardest words to pronounce for us german speaking people.
True, got made fun of for not being able to pronounce it lol. But nobody could pronounce Eichhörnchen either :D
I was born 1968 and I saw my father write checks, but I never had a checkbook myself and I never received a check. When I came of age, we already did everything via bank transfer.
I'm born the same year but I remember using checks in my early 20s - mostly for stuff a little more expensive. Either because it was above the limit of my EC-card which maybe was something like 1000 DM back then or most likely you either had to pay cash or per check in a store. So if you didn't want to walk around with big amounts of cash (like 2000 or 3000 DM) you paid per check.
Its more about pronounciation of things like Th or gh or V or -shire. The r is not always hard rolled. It is soft or swallowed sometimes. Lol we don't say...Schlittschuhlaufen but Simply Eislaufen. They took the longer Words without knowing what we actually use. Lol..just a Year doesn't take you far...and there are regional differences too. Same as i would learn english..id would Sound broken..understandable maybe but not correct. I still struggle with tenses sometimes. Our Sentences are structured: your language but backwards. The Verb is switched. For us it is liked turned around. Sorry i can't explain it better..it's a Grammatik Thing.
Eichhörnchen is brilliant, Squirrel is also very hard to pronounce for a german.
There are no big problems with compund words. It might be confusing at first but you can master it in no time. Because they allmost all use the same syllables, very few exceptions.
Literal translations:
Gloves = Handschuhe = Hand shoes | Hand-schu(h) | Hand-schu-he
Light bulb = Glühbirne = Glowing pear | Glüh-bir-ne | Glüh-bir-nen
Refrigerator = Kühlschrank = Cooling locker | Kühl-schrank | Kühl-schrän-ke
ä=ae; ö = oe, ü = ue, ß = ss (sharp s like snake, former notation also sz [Name: Eszett (ess-zett)])
Hyphenation rules:
Rule 1: Word syllables such as "ck", "ch" or "sch" must not be separated.
Ra-chen, Ta-sche, Brü-cke etc. (Throat, pocket, bridge)
Rule 2: Words with "st" may be separated.
Kas-ten, Wüs-te, Wes-te etc. (box, desert, vest)
Rule 3: If there are several consonants in a word, the last consonant is separated.
sin-gen, ren-nen, Klap-pe, nutz-los, Kat-ze etc. (sing, run, flap, useless, cat)
Rule 4: For words with an "h" inside, the words that have an audible "h" are separated before it. In the case of a voiceless "h", this remains on the corresponding part of the word.
Audible "h": flie-hen, se-hen, glü-hen etc. (flee, see, glow)
Voiceless "h": Fah-ne, Mäh-ne, Boh-ne etc. (flag, mane, bean)
Rule 5: Compound words are separated according to their components.
Schreib-tisch, Deutsch-buch, Steh-lam-pe, etc. (desk [writing table], German book, floor/standard lamp [Standing lamp])
Here extreme examples:
Donaudampfschifffahrtselektrizitätenhauptbetriebswerkbauunterbeamtengesellschaft
Do-nau-dampf-schiff-fahrts-e-lek-tri-zi-tät-en-haupt-be-triebs-werk-bau-un-ter-be-am-ten-ge-sell-schaft
The "Gesetz zur Übertragung der Aufgaben für die Überwachung der Rinderkennzeichnung und Rindfleischetikettierung", short: Rindfleischetikettierungsüberwachungsaufgabenübertragungsgesetz
Rind-fleisch-e-ti-kett-ier-ungs-über-wach-ungs-auf-ga-ben-über-tra-gungs-ge-setz = "Cattle marking and beef labeling supervision duties delegation law"
Brötchen, small bread. Mädchen, small girl.
No, a "Maid" it is a young women. So "Mädchen" is a small (very young) woman.
@@laudbubelichtkind8026Like I just wrote? 😊 (I did correct it, guess you caught my mistake right before)
I have one mord german word:
Eierschalensollbruchstellenverursacher. (It is a gadget to behead your egg at breakfast)
We are masters of "Snakewords". Some words are buildet from 4 (ore moore) unic Words an whrite it together. Some of these Words are not use often and its hard for Germans too, to say it correctly.
P.E. "Bodenseeschifffahrtsgesellschaft" It's build from Bodenssee, wich is a lake in South Germany, Austria and Switzerland (by the way - it's a very beuautifull Spot to travel) , Schiff (ship), Fahrt (drive) and Gesellschaft (company).
The special except in this Word are the 3 f. In the past (at my schooltime) you have written it only with 2 f. But it's changed after the "Rechtschreibreform" (right write reform) 😂
the trick is to disect the long words into the components and then speak them separately. Streichholzschächtelchen is much easier Streich-holz-schäch-tel-chen. There is only one way to speak a consonant, not a dozen depending on circumstance as in english. So you can take the words apart and speak every bit separately.
12:56 Yes, if you write out a cheque where you have to write the number 555 out as a word the grammatically correct way, it has to be written out as "Fünfhundertfünfundfünfzig". That is absolutely correct. But even Germans would try to avoid it and just write "555", even in a novel. In general, numbers bigger than twenty can be written as numbers instead of a word. Honestly, if you think German numbers have long names, try French!
(And I'm old enough to have written paper cheques, before plastic cards and digital money became a thing.)
"Massachusetts", "Squirrel" and "Sloths" arw killing me. Cant pronounce tjem correctly for the life of me
Allright you were shocked by Steichholzschächtelchen? This is currently the longest german word: Donaudampfschifffahrtselektrizitätenhauptbetriebswerkbauunterbeamtengesellschaft and it is in the guinness-book of world records.
op plattdüütsch
eekhoornschen- eichhörnchen
brööken - brötchen
Sleddenschuullopen- schlittschulaufen
😊😊
allerbest un goote👍
i think the whole check thing has something to do with tax Evasion xD
The diminutiv "chen" is used for young, small or cute objects or persons - the egyptian deity of the sun, early in the morning ... Ra-chen? 🙂
On Cheks there is the full number written ! Dreitausendachthundertzwölf Euro und Siebenubzwanzig Cent
Did I hear 'Schnitzelhaufen'? Where? I'm coming...
we write it together as a number but normal just 555 and not like actually written, just a small odd thing from german numbers is u but the singles BEFORE "the tens" so german basicly calls it " Five Hundred Five and fifty"
In every language numbers are very long at some point😂
13:14 "Fünfhundertfünfundfünzig"
No, we would just write 555. 😀
P.S.: Yes, back in the days (I'm old enough to remember) we wrote numbers down like this on a check.
It is pronounced Eich-hörn-chen, see, simple ;)
Also Rühr-ei, a stirred egg.
Streich-holz-schächtel-chen you can also say streich-holz-schachtel
Strike wood box little aka matchbox ;)
I work at a doctors office and we do dementia tests. One part of the test is, to put the numbers 209 and 4054 into long words. So zweihundertneun und viertausendvierundfünfzig. And then it switches and you have the long words to be put into numbers, its sechshunderteinundachzig = 681 and zweitausendsiebenundzwanzig = 2027.
She said she can't pronounce O with dots but English have same sound too, they don't just have dedicated letter for it. Like Fur, Skirt etc.
no I am not cringing at all you are actually really good at pronouncing these! it is fun though 😉
4:02 you pronounce it very well!
10:08 "Schnitzelhaufen... is that how you say it?" No, I don't think it is.
German nouns are mostly ambiguous words. They put words together to give you the exact meaning of the word.
Eichhörnchen, or in my dialect, Eichhernla. 🙂
Normally we don‘t write such long numbers out. Instead we write 555. But we actually say it like that. The direct translation would be fivehundredfiveandfifty. Greetings from Germany😊
The longest Word in German :
Donaudampfschifffahrtselektrizitätenhauptbetriebswerkbauunterbeamtengesellschaft 😊😮👇
Feels just fair that the english version of eichhörnchen is the hardest english word to pronounce for german speakers 😊
Yo the check thing is weird for us Europeans I guess since we almost never use it. At least not anymore. Me being a German with relatives in the US I know about the weekly payment day which is the friday. That's where Americans are getting payed and thats why they use the word "paycheck". It is literally the check for their weekly payment. (In the US most of the people are getting payed weekly and not monthly) That's also the reason why most of the Americans party on fridays rather than on saturdays because they have all the dosh! 😂 PLUS that's also why streamers on various platfroms are getting the most subs and donations because them Americans got their payments 😎 Chachiiing!
Why do we put words together? To express something (briefly and meaningfully) that would take a whole sentence in English, for example.
Example: the german word Luftschloss (two words Luft =air, Schloss = castle - literally translatet to Aircastle or castle in the air
meaning: A castle in the air is a fantasy, a figment of the imagination. A castle in the air is the term for ideas, plans or wishes that cannot be turned into reality. The word castle in the air is usually meant in a derogatory way. You can say to someone: "These are just castles in the air
And so we have a lot of words that describe something briefly and meaningfully. This comes from the time of poets and thinkers or from ancient times to describe something short and sweet, understandable for everyone and meaningful.
For this word (Luftschloss) the roots are:
In the middle of the 16th century we find the early New High German phrase "ein Schloß inn lufft bawen"(old german writing and pronunciation), which was paraphrased at the time as:
"when someone did a deal underhand/thinks of building a whole castle/now writes an echo of how he wants to build the castle/and lets him build a fourfold plan/soon [... ] the fortune [...] is laid down/and he [...] will be seduced/and the main castle must be left there
Meaning:
If someone makes a trade/deal underhand and intends to earn a whole castle from it, already imagines how he wants to realize the profit, luck runs out soon afterwards and [the deal] doesn't materialize, he then has to write off the hoped-for profit.
This phrase gave rise to the determinative compound noun Luftschloss (castle in the air), which was attested from the 17th century.
But there are also words which are put together to describe something too expressive. For example, the name of a law (very popular with foreigners to describe the difficulty of the German language). But if you understand how to spell it apart you can deduce what it is for as a foreigner with for example a translator.
For example:
Rindfleischettiketierungsüberwachungsaufgabenübertragungsgesetz - engl. Law on the Transfer of Tasks for Monitoring Cattle Identification and Beef Labeling
Splitted it would be: Rindfleisch Ettiketierung (s) Überwachung (s) Aufgaben Übertragung (s) Gesetzt -- the (s) are only linking the words to one Word. The abbreviation for the book of law should read: RkReÜAÜG as an identifikation code
is a draft law from 1999 in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, which was passed in 2000 under the name Law on the Transfer of Tasks for Monitoring Cattle Identification and Beef Labeling.
Rindfleischetikettierungsüberwachungsaufgabenübertragungsgesetz" is not part of the basic German vocabulary. So it is wrong to justify the german language as hard from those compound words.
by the way:
Linguists estimate that the German language has between 300,000 and 500,000 words. The latest edition of the Duden (as of 2020), however, contains 148,000 words. It contains 3,000 new terms. ... The Dudenkorpus, an electronic database, even contains around 18 million entries (as of 2020). This is because it also contains terms from specialist areas such as biology and technology as well as rarely used and outdated words.
best regards
You were doing well with "Brötchen", let me help you with "Schlittschuhlaufen"- always try to split words into silbles. Schlitt- Schuh - Lau-fen. Fünfhundert Fünf UND (and) fünfzig
Dwayne, Brötchen is a tiny Bread.
A warm greeting from Germany, thank you for your interest in the German language.
Yo brother, German sounds like shredder, but it is probably the most precise language in the world. For every word we have, we have a form for male, female, lifeless, past, present, future, you, I, they, this and so on for every word.
So if you mean this, it's a special word suitable for the time and person, sometimes it's not enough to know the pronoun, you also have to transform the word itself into German.
As for plugging words together: This is normal habit for Germanic languages. English is the exception.
Worcestershire Sauce. I am German, but I grew up with some English.. I did some Student exchanges and I just love to bake and cook. But everytime I listen to different videos everyone says it in a different way. so pleeeeease I would be happy to have a correct pronounciantion :D
505 and 50
Achtmillionenachthundertachtundachzigtausendachthundertachtundachzig
The reason we put it together to one word is a problem in German grammar: we distinguish highly between a noun and an adjective, one worde can't be both. If you say "police car" you use the word "police" to better define the word "car". In German a noun can not be used that way, that would make it an adjective /attribute and not longer a noun. Therefore we have to put them all together to one worde "Polizeiauto".
And about "Fünfhundertfündundfünzig" is a really hard word even for Germans. Most native speakers struggle with that word as well. And usually only numbers 1-10 are written with letters, higher numbers are written with numbers only. And not rarely we pronounce the numbers seperately, so 555 could be written as "five five five".