# German = English



## Whodunit

I found out that—since English is a Germanic language—there are many words that we have to spell alike, and they have the same meaning in both languages, let me suggest some:

We can subdivide some of these words into ...

_landscape_:
edelweiss <--> das Edelweiß
berg <--> der Berg

_culture_:
lederhose <--> die Lederhose
zeitgeist <--> der Zeitgeist
fasching <--> der Fasching

_culinary art_:
schnitzel <--> das Schnitzel
sauerkraut <--> das Sauerkraut
wiener <--> die Wiener

_war_:
blitzkrieg <--> der Blitzkrieg
Nazi <--> der Nazi
lebensraum <--> der Lebensraum

_miscellaneous_:
gesundheit! <--> Gesundheit!
langlauf <--> der Langlauf
ersatz <--> der Ersatz

Can some bilingual natives add some?


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## Ralf

whodunit said:
			
		

> .... Can some bilingual natives add some?


Sure, what about the classics:
kindergarten = der Kindergarten
rucksack = der Rucksack
schmal(t)z = Schmalz

Furthermore I came across the following recently:
weltanschauung (I wonder about the correct English pronounciation)
weltschmerz
kohlrabi

I'm sure I will recall a few more.

Ralf


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## Whodunit

Thanks. Of course, I could have thought of them. Nevertheless, thanks Ralf.


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## Ralf

myself  said:


> ...I'm sure I will recall a few more.


As promised, here are a few more German words I've seen actually used in English texts:

alphorn/alpenhorn 
bratwurst 
ersatz 
festschrift
hamster
hausfrau 
hinterland
jaeger
kapellmeister
kaputt
landsknecht
lebensraum
leitmotif/leitmotiv
luftwaffe
mensch
poltergeist
rollmpos
rinderpest
schadenfreude
sprechgesang
umlaut
weltpolitik
zeitgeist

Ralf


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## Whodunit

Ralf said:
			
		

> As promised, here are a few more German words I've seen actually used in English texts:
> 
> alphorn/alpenhorn
> bratwurst
> ersatz (that's already mine)
> festschrift
> hamster (isn't a real English word)
> hausfrau
> hinterland
> jaeger (I found it only with a capital letter)
> kapellmeister (---"---)
> kaputt (I only know it with ONE t)
> landsknecht (I found it only with a capital letter)
> lebensraum
> leitmotif/leitmotiv
> luftwaffe (I found it only with a capital letter)
> mensch (never heard/seen/ not found)
> poltergeist
> rollmops (without s)
> rinderpest (never heard/seen/not found)
> schadenfreude
> sprechgesang (never heard/seen/not found)
> umlaut
> weltpolitik (never heard/seen/not found)
> zeitgeist (that's already mine)
> 
> Ralf



Good list, thanks.   

I found:

lieder (pl. lieder)
land (pl. länder/lands)


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## gaer

whodunit said:
			
		

> Good list, thanks.
> 
> I found:
> 
> lieder (pl. lieder)
> land (pl. länder/lands)


Just a thought, guys.

I doubt most Americans would know what many of these words mean. If you are interested to know why, I'll try to explain later. It appears I've "blown" my RH. By this, I mean I have seriously over-typed, and my hand is killing me. NOT good. 

Gaer


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## Whodunit

gaer said:
			
		

> Just a thought, guys.
> 
> I doubt most Americans would know what many of these words mean. If you are interested to know why, I'll try to explain later. It appears I've "blown" my RH. By this, I mean I have seriously over-typed, and my hand is killing me. NOT good.
> 
> Gaer



Of course, you HAVE to tell it. BTW, what is RH?


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## mnzrob

I agree that most Americans would not understand the majority of these words. I have only heard a small handful of these words used in english, and mostly it was used in a german context. For example, Luftwaffe would only be used when talking about the german airforce, and a bratwurst refers to a certain type of german sausage. Blitzkrieg is used when talking about the German Army in WWII, Sauerkraut is known as a german food (although this IS used frequently, and is the only name for this food), Schnitzel...I've only heard this when refering to wiener schnitzel. 

I don't know if my explanation makes sense. I don't want to say that your examples are not good examples, because they are, but many of them are not used as English words. 
On the other hand, some of these words are yiddish, but I don't know anything about that, so I can't elaborate.

Hopefully Gaer has a better explanation.

Oh, who, I think Gaer meant Right Hand (RH).

Rob


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## Whodunit

Yes, Rob, I know they wouldn't understand many of them, but it's good to see these similarities.


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## Ralf

mnzrob said:
			
		

> I agree that most Americans would not understand the majority of these words. I have only heard a small handful of these words used in english, and mostly it was used in a german context. ...


Before posting my list I looked all of the words comprised up either in the WordReference or the Merriam Webster dictionary. Sure, I'm aware that these words might be limited to some specific contexts and therefore not that frequently used or understood. However, I found all of them in stories or novels by American writers, definitely used light-years away from any German context. For instance "blitzkrieg" is used by John Grisham to describe a desperate chase of some criminals resulting in a fierce attack against an 'apostate' member in "The Firm". Even more German words ("schadenfreude", "leitmotif", "weltanschauung", ...) occur in novels by Preston/Child, frequently used by an almost 'over-educated' character with nearly preternatural features. So "blitzkrieg" might be chosen to deliberately emphasize the violence of the situation described by 'utilizing' the historical connotation of its origin, while the others are to highlight outstanding characteristics by adopting certain peculiarities in vocabulary and speech. Therefore it would be contrary to the writers intensions if anybody would perfectly understand what they were talking about. 

Ralf


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## gaer

I agree that most Americans would not understand the majority of these words. I have only heard a small handful of these words used in english, and mostly it was used in a german context. For example, Luftwaffe would only be used when talking about the german airforce, and a bratwurst refers to a certain type of german sausage. Blitzkrieg is used when talking about the German Army in WWII, Sauerkraut is known as a german food (although this IS used frequently, and is the only name for this food), Schnitzel...I've only heard this when refering to wiener schnitzel. 

The problem with German words in English is this: French has a certain "snob-appeal", and there are many short French phrases that are often used in literature, even popular literature. Books do not have to be about Germany, about war, etc.

But in BE and AE novels, I seldom see words other than "doppelganger" (spelled that way, incorrectly) plus a very few more German words, which I can't remember at the moment.

I have been struggling with a book by Ecco [sp?] (the same man who wrote "The Name of the Rose"), and in this book there is a great deal of French, never translated, but whenever there is anything in German, it is translated.

This is typical. As a result, long before I spent five minutes studying French or German, I could read many short phrases in French, because they are used all the time in books.

Here are the only words mentioned that I knew before studying German:

edelweiss (Because it is the name of a song from "The Sound of Music")
schnitzel
sauerkraut
wiener (pronounced "weener")
Nazi
der Führer
Gesundheit!
angst (but it has a different meaning in English)
bratwurst 
hamster
hinterland
kaputt
leitmotif/leitmotiv (ONLY in music, principally referring to Wagner!!!)
mensch
poltergeist
umlaut (most people don't know what it is though)
lieder (but usually only used by musicians)
land

Gaer


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## gaer

Ralf said:
			
		

> Before posting my list I looked all of the words comprised up either in the WordReference or the Merriam Webster dictionary. Sure, I'm aware that these words might be limited to some specific contexts and therefore not that frequently used or understood. However, I found all of them in stories or novels by American writers, definitely used light-years away from any German context. For instance "blitzkrieg" is used by John Grisham to describe a desperate chase of some criminals resulting in a fierce attack against an 'apostate' member in "The Firm". Even more German words ("schadenfreude", "leitmotif", "weltanschauung", ...) occur in novels by Preston/Child, frequently used by an almost 'over-educated' character with nearly preternatural features. So "blitzkrieg" might be chosen to deliberately emphasize the violence of the situation described by 'utilizing' the historical connotation of its origin, while the others are to highlight outstanding characteristics by adopting certain peculiarities in vocabulary and speech. Therefore it would be contrary to the writers intensions if anybody would perfectly understand what they were talking about.
> 
> Ralf


Ralf, I think you have the right idea. It's very hard for me to judge what is used and not used, because I know all these words. In Italian, the words staccato and crescendo have specific meanings, especially in music, and they both appear a good deal in literature. Blitzkrieg I did not mention because I assumed it would be linked to novels about war, but you see? I was wrong!

Often it is better to turn to others who are not native English speakers to find out about my own language. 

Gaer


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## fijiphil

*Let me caveat this post by saying I am no linguist, just someone with an interest in languages.*

Whodunit, you've got the wrong end of the stick here. These are all words that English has borrowed from German because of a lack of a suitable word in its own vocabulary. These aren't words that demonstrate a common root in some ancestor Germanic language. There are plenty of examples of English words that are also found in languages from Asia (Tsumani), Africa (safari), South Pacific (Tabu/taboo) or South America (Llama). When a language encounters a concept it hasn't come across before, and therefore has no word for, it just borrows a word. Lederhosen. Thankfully never found in English culture and therefore borrowed from German.


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## Whodunit

fijiphil said:
			
		

> *Let me caveat this post by saying I am no linguist, just someone with an interest in languages.*



All of us have this interest.   



> _Whodunit, you've got the wrong end of the stick here. These are all words that English has borrowed from German because of a lack of a suitable word in its own vocabulary. These aren't words that demonstrate a common root in some ancestor Germanic language. There are plenty of examples of English words that are also found in languages from Asia (Tsumani), Africa (safari), South Pacific (Tabu/taboo) or South America (Llama). When a language encounters a concept it hasn't come across before, and therefore has no word for, it just borrows a word. Lederhosen. Thankfully never found in English culture and therefore borrowed from German._



Yes, they're only borrowed words, but I think that's the curiousity of this thread. We use the same words and that's the fact I wanted to have proved in this thread.


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## gaer

whodunit said:
			
		

> All of us have this interest.
> 
> 
> 
> Yes, they're only borrowed words, but I think that's the curiousity of this thread. We use the same words and that's the fact I wanted to have proved in this thread.


Personally, I'm just interested in which words are used in both languages more than where they came from, although the origin also interests me.

English seems to be especially rich in borrowed words, perhaps because English itself seems to have started out as a merging of so many different languages. 

Gaer


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## Whodunit

gaer said:
			
		

> Personally, I'm just interested in which words are used in both languages more than where they came from, although the origin also interests me.
> 
> English seems to be especially rich in borrowed words, perhaps because English itself seems to have started out as a merging of so many different languages.
> 
> Gaer



I think German borrowed more English words than vice versa. And IMO, French borrowed many English words but they're pronouncing the English words in a French way. Only as a comparison: "un rallye (a rallye/eine Rallye)": The German and English versions are completely alike in pronunciation, but the French do pronounce it with a French/German "a". It sounds terrible.


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## Pedja

If you want to see similarities then you should investigate older sources. Modern literature uses modern language which adopted lots of foreign words. 

finfing similar or identical words does not mean same origins of the languages. Actualy it is better chance that words are dopted from one another or both languages adopted it from soem third language. What you should look for are words that have similar roots and similar meaning.


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## Language Translator

As far as I can tell from my website translation, most Computer terms stay the same and possibly any other media / electronic terms


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## elroy

Language Translator said:
			
		

> As far as I can tell from my website translation, most Computer terms stay the same and possibly any other media / electronic terms


 
That's different though.  You're talking about English words used in German, not German words used in English.


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## Language Translator

In the original list



> _landscape_:
> edelweiss <--> das Edelweiß
> berg <--> der Berg
> 
> _culture_:
> lederhose <--> die Lederhose
> zeitgeist <--> der Zeitgeist
> fasching <--> der Fasching
> 
> _culinary art_:
> schnitzel <--> das Schnitzel
> sauerkraut <--> das Sauerkraut
> wiener <--> die Wiener
> 
> _war_:
> blitzkrieg <--> der Blitzkrieg
> Nazi <--> der Nazi
> lebensraum <--> der Lebensraum
> 
> _miscellaneous_:
> gesundheit! <--> Gesundheit!
> langlauf <--> der Langlauf
> ersatz <--> der Ersatz


I've never heard of any of the above used in everyday English except

 schnitzel <--> das Schnitzel
  sauerkraut <--> das Sauerkraut
  wiener <--> die Wiener

(all the above names for the food types imported from Germany so are not translated) and Nazi isn't translated as its the name for a group and Zeitgeist is the only one in the list which is not translated and is not something imported from Germany (i.e. food types / names of places) which we decided not to translate


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## sushius

what about "Kitsch"?


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## gaer

Language Translator said:
			
		

> In the original list
> 
> 
> I've never heard of any of the above used in everyday English except
> 
> schnitzel <--> das Schnitzel
> sauerkraut <--> das Sauerkraut
> wiener <--> die Wiener


If by everyday English you are talking about informal conversation, I understand what you mean. However, you might check out some of the words given in an English dictionary. A surprising number are used, for instance "ersatz".


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## Brioche

The systematic night-time bombing of Britain in 1940-41 was known as *The *_*Blitz* _(from Blitzkrieg)

Now blitz is used to mean a "vigorous attack", such as "_The police are planning a *blitz* on drunk drivers this week-end_"

There's a life-style tv show in Australia "Backyard Blitz" where a team of gardners transform a garden in a very short time.

Ersatz is used too = very poor imitation, fake.
_He produces *ersatz emotion*, as false as glycerine tears on a papier-mâché  mask._


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## Maleah

What about "hot chocolate with schlag" (=Schlagsahne, whipped cream)? 
Is that a common expression in English?? (I've read it in a book by Stephen King) Sounds very funny to me, because you wouldn't use the word "Schlag" in German, at least not where I grew up.


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## gaer

Brioche said:
			
		

> The systematic night-time bombing of Britain in 1940-41 was known as *The *_*Blitz* _(from Blitzkrieg)
> 
> Now blitz is used to mean a "vigorous attack", such as "_The police are planning a *blitz* on drunk drivers this week-end_"


Right, and there is also an "advertising blitz", meaning that we are bombarded with a series of ads all by the same company or recommending the same product. 

Gaer


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## badgrammar

I'm joining this a little late, but I agree that most of the words on the original list are only used in very specific context.

But the similarities seem most striking to me when you look at the English words whose spelling has been slightly - but predictably - altered on the road from German to English, and these are some of the most basic of words, without which we could not communicate :  Think, learn, see, feel, eat, go, run, wake, dream, fly, house, bed, bath, love, live, night, light, come, garden, man, wait, there, the, hound, cat, sun, sunshine, heat, cold, rain, snow, cook, bread, flesh, white, red, brown, green, kiss, arm, mouth, hand, neck, and I could think of so many more (how about and, think, so and more, also?  )

Those similarities are what allowed me to quickly pick up a very basic but functional use of German, I found them very helpful (  those, what, very, of, find, helpful).  You do see where all these words come from then, right?


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## gaer

badgrammar said:
			
		

> Those similarities are what allowed me to quickly pick up a very basic but functional use of German, I found them very helpful…


There are certainly many words that are similar. Some are spelled differently but are pronounced almost exactly the same way (house, Haus), and others are close enough to help us recognize them almost immediately.

Question: as you have gained more fluency, do you sometimes think that a German word is immediately obvious simply because you know it so well? 

There are times that I see something in German and think, "That's obvious, it's very close to English". But if I take an extra moment to actually think of the English word, it is not at all the same. I think fluency often creates the illusion that two languages are closer than they really are. 

Gaer


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## *Ginnyminny*

hospital <-> Hospital
 (nicht mehr so gebräuchlich im Deutschen, sagt man aber trotzdem manchmal)


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## rhiannonhelen

If you look back to Old High German and Old English and compare some of their words, their shared origin becomes more evident.  For example, "Geste" in Old High German is now "guest" is modern English.  It's words like this which demonstrate the shared Germanic origin of the two languages.


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## Stormwoken

Actually, "leitmotiv" is often used by the english literature critics, as well


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