Tag Archives: dictionary
German Wiedergutmachung (Reparations) Posted by Constanze on Aug 21, 2019
Guten Tag! Today we’re looking at the word die Wiedergutmachung. In 1953, the German government agreed to pay reparations to Holocaust survivors following World War II. This included anyone who was directly victimised by the Nazis in any way (it did not, however, include relatives/descendants of those people, for example). That is what the word…
Two of the Longest Words in German Posted by Larissa on Jan 22, 2019
As an English speaker we are used to short, simple words, which means it can be quite intimidating when reading German words that are three times as long as what they are in English! Here’s a post with two of the longest German words, what they mean, and some tips on helping you decipher those…
Germany’s Youth Word of 2018 Posted by Constanze on Nov 21, 2018
Guten Tag! Every year, the Langenscheidt dictionary selects a word it calls the Jugendwort des Jahres – the Youth Word of the Year. People have the opportunity to vote from a selection of shortlisted teen slang, and then the winner is picked by a jury. The Jugendwort des Jahres for 2018 was revealed recently, so…
5000 New German Words Added To Dictionary Posted by Constanze on Aug 9, 2017
You may have seen articles floating around the past couple of days about how 5,000 new German words have been added to Duden. But what is Duden? And what are the words? Duden is a dictionary of the German language. It was first published by Konrad Duden (hence the name) in 1880, and has just released its…
Germany’s Youth Word of 2016 Posted by Constanze on Nov 30, 2016
Guten Tag! You may remember last year I wrote about the Wort des Jahres (Word of the Year) and the Unwort des Jahres (Un-word of the Year – an offensive/negative word of the year) for 2014. These are published towards the end of each year by the Gesellschaft für deutsche Sprache (GfdS) – the Association…
The Curiosity of the Plural of “das Wort” Posted by Sten on Nov 8, 2016
This post is about the German word “das Wort”. What’s the plural? No, not bird! The plural is Wörter. Sounds right. And Worte. Sounds right. Wait, what? Which one is correct? Is there another form? What’s going on here? Let’s find out! What does the Duden say? The Duden, a prestigious German Wörterbuch (dictionary) gives the following explanation about the plural…