Compound words

(a.k.a. Komposita in German) are words composed of two or more separate words. As we already know, the Germans love their compound words. Why else would you get something like Rindfleischetikettierungsüberwachungsaufgabenübertragungsgesetz?

Simpler examples… der Feiertag = die Feier + der Tag die Brotzeit = das Brot + die Zeit das Flugzeug = der Flug + das Zeug

For the above examples, Modifiers (Bestimmungswörter): “die Feier”, “das Brot”, “der Flug” Roots (Grundwörter): “der Tag”, “die Zeit”, “das Zeug”

The gender of the compound word is always based on the root. "Der Feiertag" is masculine like "der Tag"; "die Brotzeit" is feminine like "die Zeit"; "das Flugzeug" is neuter like "das Zeug".

Sometimes, an “s”, “n” or “e” is added to facilitate pronunciation. There are few fixed rules for this, two known ones, however, are: 1. An “s” is always added after “-heit”, “-keit”, “-schaft”, “-tion”, “-ung”. E.g. Kindheitsbilder, Freundschaftsband, Stimmungsschwankung 2. An “n” is sometimes added after words which end with “-e” E.g. Kundenberatung, Chancengleichheit

Other long German compound words… Stahlwarenhandelsgesellschaft Geschwindigkeitsbegrenzungen Betäubungsmittelverschreibungsverordnung

oh god why german...

English- pen

French- Stylo

Italian- penna

German- Kugelschreiber

We just like to make things clear. A “Kugelschreiber” is technically a ballpoint pen:

So the German word isn’t that much longer than the English one. You also can just say “Kuli” if “Kugelschreiber” is too long for you.

A fountain pen is a “Füllfederhalter”. Horribly long for non-native speakers, I know. But don’t worry, my friend! German also offers a way shorter synonym: “Füller”. Beautiful, isn’t it?

And theeeeen there’s this super handy one-syllable term you can use for almost any sort of writing instrument: “Stift”.

Yes, many German words are super long, BUT there are often enough shorter alternatives people just love to ignore so that they can keep shaking their heads over the German language.

…

Once again, all together now: STIFT.

I hope this helped! Nicht verzagen, Germannn fragen. Oder so.

My Favorite German Resources Post!

I’ve been studying German on my own for a while now, so I guess it’s time to share a few resources for anyone who is interested!

Grammar

Spoken Stuff and things to watch

Music

Reading

Blogs

And lastly, here is an online German-English Dictionary (though if someone has a better one, please recommend it to me because I didn’t really look hard for a good quality one)

I'm familiar with a lot of these resources and they're very good! There are also compilations of popular songs for 2012, 2013, and 2014 on youtube if anyone's looking for more recent music, or music in different genres. 

what Germans do while waiting at traffic lights

Name + shape of products = gold

#thanks germany

It gets even better: they have whipped cream filling

PRALL & schokoladig