10 Cute German Words About Pregnancy Posted by Constanze on May 15, 2017 in Language
I had intended this post to be a straight-forward post on handy German vocabulary related to pregnancies. What I did not anticipate was how many pregnancy-related words are incredibly cute, or incredibly interesting in German. We’ll start with some basic vocabulary before moving onto the fun stuff!
Basic German pregnancy vocabulary:
Foto: jerrylai0208 on flickr.com under a CC license (CC BY-SA 2.0)
die Schwangerschaft – Pregnancy. Ich bin schwanger – I am pregnant.
die Hebamme – Midwife
die Geburt – Birth
der Geburtstermin – Due date
die Kinderklinik – Children’s clinic
der Kinderarzt – Paediatrician. Literally, ‘child doctor’.
Let the language fun begin:
frischgebackene Eltern – freshly baked parents. Foto: hagwall on flickr.com under a CC license (CC by 2.0)
First off, the English expression To have a bun in the oven is Einen Braten in der Röhre haben in German: To have a roast in the oven.
If you’re new parents, you’re called die frischgebackene Eltern in German: Freshly-baked parents.
The German word for the contraceptive pill is die Antibabypille: The anti-baby pill.
Amused? Interested? So let’s move onto my top 10 really awesome words.
Top 10 German pregnancy words:
What does das Fruchtwasser – ‘fruit water’ – mean? Read on to find out. Foto: mahmoud99725 on flickr.com under a CC license (CC BY-SA 2.0)
10.
die Nabelschnur
lit ‚navel cord‘
German word for umbilical cord.
9.
die Muttermilch
lit ‚mother milk‘
German word for breast milk.
8.
die Fehlgeburt
lit ‚loss/fail birth‘
German word for miscarriage.
7.
die Wehen
lit ‚the pains‘ ‚the hurts‘
German word for contractions.
6.
das Stillen
lit ‚the calming‘
German word for breastfeeding.
5.
der Muttermund
lit ‚mother mouth‘
German word for cervix.
4.
der Kaiserschnitt
lit ‚Caesar cut‘
German word for caesarean. Fun fact: The word Kaiser is the German word for Caesar. The word caesarean was named after Julius Caesar, who was allegedly the first person born by caesarean.
3.
die Gebärmutter
lit ‚birth mother‘
German word for womb.
2.
das Fruchtwasser
lit ‚fruit water‘
German word for amniotic fluid.
1.
der Mutterkuchen
lit ‚mother cake‘
German word for placenta.
There you have my top 10 amazing German pregnancy words! One thing that struck me is how many have the word Mutter (mother) in them, and how much softer/less clinical they sound than their English counterparts. These words are proof that German can be a gentle language, too. 🙂 What do you think?
Bis bald!
Constanze
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About the Author: Constanze
Servus! I'm Constanze and I live in the UK. I'm half English and half German, and have been writing about German language and culture on this blog since 2014. I am also a fitness instructor & personal trainer.
Comments:
Alexis Klug:
This was really nice, it’s good to know that the German language doesn’t always sound harsh. Now if only my siblings would understand this and stop spitting and yelling whenever the “speak German” 😐