10 Fabulous German words with no English equivalent

[Klal]

Schadenfreude:


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schadenfreude

Not really "fabulous" but rather uniquely German in that they have a specific word to describe that kind of feeling.

Leave it to the Germans....

[Rudel]

It isn't really a German specificity, all languages with a knack for compound words will behave the same. French would just use a periphrasis (English as well, but to a lesser degree).

[Kazimiera]

'Tis said that "The Greeks had a word for it." Well, so did the Germans. The only one that I couldn't figure out was Kummerspeck. All of them make VERY good sense. Of course, German being an agglutinative language, it can have a single word for almost ANYTHING, e.g.
Unabhaengigkeitsverklaerung . (Sorry, I can't use umlauts here.) The U.S.A. had to use three words for "Declaration of Independence".

You can change your settings and use a German keyboard if you need it. I use an English and German one. I switch between the two when I write in German. It is very handy.

The only thing which gets me every time is that the "y" and "z" are swapped with the German keyboard.

[JoeyGee8688]

Ich jetzt hab' das Torschlusspanik. Ich bin acht und zwanzig jahre alt und hab nicht gemacht. Ich wohne mit dem Eltern, habe keinen Freundin, etc. Fick meinen leben. Of course that makes me a bit of a Backpfeifengesicht

[Kazimiera]

Ich jetzt hab' das Torschlusspanik. Ich bin acht und zwanzig jahre alt und hab nicht gemacht. Ich wohne mit dem Eltern, habe keinen Freundin, etc. Fick meinen leben. Of course that makes me a bit of a Backpfeifengesicht

Ooooh! You need a new translating system.

[Norman]

Ich hab jetzt Torschlusspanik. Ich bin achtundzwanzig Jahre alt und habe nichts gemacht. Ich wohne bei meinen Eltern, habe keine Freundin, etc. und mein leben ist beschissen (we say shitty, not fucked). Natürlich macht mich das zu einer Art Backpfeifengesicht.

füxed

Thanks for your interest

[Prisoner Of Ice]

Grief Bacon

[blogen]

Weltschmerz = világfájdalom

Kummerspeck = no direct equivalent, but the concept exists in an opposite sense: "kikerekedik a boldogságtól"

Torschlusspanik = kapuzárásipánik

Fremdschämen = no any equivalent

Backpfeifengesicht = no direct equivalent

Erklärungsnot = no direct equivalent

Treppenwitz = no direct equivalent

Vergangenheitsbewaeltigung = no any equivalent, the German concept does not make sense in the Hungarian thinking (work with the past is like a mathematical operation with the zero: meaningless, since the object of the operation does not exist. In this situation: anymore.)

Handschuhschneeballwerfer = no direct equivalent, but the fotelforradalmár, foteltábornok, fotel- etc. (armchair-revolutionist, armchair-general, armchair-etc.) is very similary

Allgemeinbildung = általános műveltség

Interesting, but basically the 19th century origin German concepts have Hungarian equivalents only, and the specific 20th century origins (Vergangenheitsbewaeltigung) not. Basically the strong Hungarian-German relations were interrupted in the 20th century.

[JoeyGee8688]

Ooooh! You need a new translating system.

I took German 101 and 102 nearly a decade ago... real basic and elementary courses. I always liked German, and should have kept going with it.

[Norman]

Ah, a couple of subtitled movies and there you go.
I know, these days leisuretime is rare. I for myself want to get into netherlandish.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kqpm...eWKqEnS-Wwv7vf
Don`t know if it works, not available for my country

And without subs
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-TuZrzcOgzg