Hi there! You are currently browsing as a guest. Why not create an account? Then you get less ads, can thank creators, post feedback, keep a list of your favourites, and more!
Theorist
Original Poster
#1 Old 11th Jan 2011 at 4:46 AM
Default Deutsches Lieblingswort?
(Title: Favorite German Word)

Einige Woerter sind sehr kommisch. Was ist dein lieblings?
(Some words are very strange, what is your favorite?)

Ich weiss nicht. Gift = Poison ist wirklich seltsam! Sheisse ist auch gesagt oft von mir (und andere nicht wissen!)
(I don't know. Gift meaning poison is very weird! Shit is also said often by me (and others don't know!))

Hi I'm Paul!
Advertisement
Lab Assistant
#2 Old 9th Mar 2011 at 9:03 AM
There are really some funny false friends. What the British call "gymnasium" is in German a "Sporthalle", but we got also a type of school called "Gymnasium". This word could you translate best with "high school".

"gift" is another false friend, as you mentionded already. Maybe you want to know the correct German translation for it - it's "Geschenk". And maybe that is kind of interesting: The word "gift" in English has German roots, as there is the word "Mitgift". In English this is a dowry.

What I like most in English are the germanisms you can find nearly everywhere. Examples are kindergarten (even if I leraned this word in school as "kindergarden"), rucksack, poltergeist, sauerkraut, pretzel (this is in German written "Brezel"), wanderlust (this is in German "Fernweh", but wanderlust is, literally translated, to feel like going for a walk), Gesundheit! (what the British people call "Bless you!"), kitsch, in Kanada you even say "Klugscheisser" for a know-it-all (while you write it in German with an "ß" (sharp s), but that I have explained in another thread). There are even more of them, especially in dog races and their commands. Also in other languages like Turkish, Russian or even Japanese we can found German words. One special example is "kaputt", wich can mean "broken" or, if you say "Ich bin total kaputt" it means "I am totally run out of power". Now we can find in some African languages the word "kaupti" meaning the same. My theory about how this can be is the following:
Some German tourists have made a safari tour in Africa and are now exhausted. They make all the others around hear that, just like Germans are. An African heard this word also and told every one in his village, and so the word could spread in African languages.

All these words are my favourites^^

Are you looking for translations of mods or catalogue descriptions?
I am a professional translator and interpreter for English-German and French-German.
Ask me if you need a translation into or from one of these three langauges, I'd love to provide! :)
 
Back to top