Spelling & Grammar
Reliefpfeiler

Reliefpfeiler

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.

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ß: This letter does not exist in any other language but German. It is even a bit too German for the Swiss, so they never use it ;)

Fußball, Weißwurst, Scheiße: ß is seen in some of the most internationally renowned German words out there.

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Gell: One simple German word replaces any tag question like “isn’t it...”, “haven’t you...” or “weren’t they.”

Gell…?

Many Germans don’t even mind pronouncing the “ll,” smearing the word into something like “ge’” or “ge’ah.”

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Gericht: Am I the only one who finds it strange that Germans use the same word for “dish” as for “law court?”

Gericht

The German language offers a good amount of word pairs that seem completely unrelated to each other but spell exactly the same. “Gericht” is a classic example.

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Lizenzieren (“to license”): The most commonly misspelled word in the German language

Lizenzieren

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….

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Gänsefüßchen ("little goose feet"): I‘m pretty sure that‘s the most adorable word for “quotation marks” in any language

Gänsefüßchen

You won’t believe how complex the topic of quotation marks is until you do what I am doing in this very moment: write a text in a language other than your own.

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Angstschweiß has a record-breaking 8 consonants in a row - no other German word has more

Angstschweiß

The German language is notorious for the humongous amount of consonant you can string together. However, there seams to be a consensus that 8 is the maximum.

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Die Nutella vs. Das Nutella

Nutella

Although Nutella is not a German product, many of my compatriots have an almost cult-like devotion to the spread. It even has a tradition of causing emotional fights at the breakfast table about its true gender.

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German is weird: Fun Facts and Trivia about the German language

This blog is a love letter to the curiosities of the German language that give it its poetic and, at times, oddly humorous qualities.

German Is Weird: Crazy Words von Arschkarte bis Zielwasser - from "ass card" to "aiming water"

The “German Is Weird” book is now available: order here!

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