lizenzieren
We all agree that German grammar was made by the devil himself. When it comes to spelling however, my mother’s tongue is far less diabolic. Except for some special cases…
We all agree that German grammar was made by the devil himself. When it comes to spelling however, my mother’s tongue is far less diabolic. Except for some special cases…
We all agree that German grammar was made by the devil himself—and he was not in a good mood. When it comes to spelling, however, the language is far less diabolic. Except for some cases….
Many nations have their nasty delicacies. The French have Roquefort cheese. The Mexicans have fried locusts. The Americans have pineapples on their pizzas. Germans, however, have Mettbrötchen.
Your bargain just got pricier. You drove 120 km for a half-price haircut, then fed your savings to the fuel pump and a roadside bratwurst. That, dear spreadsheet romantics, is a textbook Milchmädchenrechnung!
Imagine you have a very promising date—but instead of being full of anticipation, you feel strangely stressed, almost paralyzed. That’s the kind of anxiety that Germans call “Muffensausen”
Nearly 12 million Germans belong to a fitness club. Many of them demonstrate an iron German discipline, never leaving the gym until they have completed their third set of selfies.
The word generously ignores the fact that the placenta actually bears more resemblance to a steak tartare. Interestingly, the word “placenta” itself is cognate to German “Plätzchen”, meaning small biscuits.
Have you ever heard the cliché of Germans being somewhat uptight? Well, that’s not true across the board. Especially, when it comes to nudity, Germans are stunningly open-minded.
Granted, not everyone in Germany knows this sweet dish – at least if they live north of Swabia where Nonnenfürzle originated from. However, its hilarious name and backstory make it just to good not mention.
Germans use this word to describe something that is downright boring due to its plainness and really doesn’t lure anyone out from behind the stove.
“Dieses Jahr wird Bayern München die Meisterschaft verpassen”—„Pustekuchen! Das wird nicht passieren” (“This year, Bayern Munich will miss the championship”—“Blowcake! That’s not gonna happen”).
The term probably goes back to the fact that in the past, robbers often used this method to try and reach low openings in buildings, such as windows.
German palindromes range from given names (Anna, Otto) to animals (Reittier – “mount”, Uhu – “eagle owl”) to objects (Lagerregal – “Storage rack”, Rotor – “Rotor”) and everything in between.
It is a widely known fact that the German language gives you the opportunity to stack words on top of each other to create genuine lexical monstrosities.
This blog is a love letter to the curiosities of the German language that give it its poetic and, at times, oddly humorous qualities.
The “German Is Weird” book is now available: order here!
