{"id":13259,"date":"2021-08-17T10:00:25","date_gmt":"2021-08-17T10:00:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/german\/?p=13259"},"modified":"2021-08-12T10:21:00","modified_gmt":"2021-08-12T10:21:00","slug":"talking-about-the-sixth-sense-in-german","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/german\/talking-about-the-sixth-sense-in-german\/","title":{"rendered":"Talking About The ‘Sixth Sense’ In German"},"content":{"rendered":"

Guten Tag! Last week, I wrote about the five senses (die f\u00fcnf Sinne)<\/em> in German. If you haven\u2019t read that post yet, you can catch up by clicking here<\/a>. Today\u2019s post will continue on the theme of the senses, but focus more on feeling-based senses, often referred to as the ‘sixth sense’ or ‘gut instinct’.<\/p>\n

Expressing how you feel<\/h2>\n

If you took German lessons at school, you may already know a few phrases for expressing how you feel in German:<\/p>\n

Mir ist langweilig<\/strong> \u2013 I am bored
\nIch bin gl\u00fccklich!<\/strong> – I am happy!
\nIch habe Angst<\/strong> \u2013 I am scared
\nMir ist schlecht<\/strong> \u2013 I feel sick<\/p>\n

Boredom, happiness, fear, and sickness are all common feelings \u2013 die Gef\u00fchle<\/strong><\/em> in German.<\/p>\n

But what about those other<\/em><\/strong> feelings that you often can\u2019t explain? Like when you know something is about to happen before it does? Or when you can just tell something is wrong, and it\u2019s later revealed that you were right? Here are a few words you can use in German to talk about this ‘sixth sense’!<\/p>\n

Talking about your ‘sixth sense’ in German<\/h2>\n

der Scharfsinn<\/strong>
\nLiterally \u2018the sharp sense\u2019 (scharf<\/em> is the German word for sharp<\/em>), this word is often translated as \u2018shrewdness\u2019 or \u2018astuteness\u2019 in English. Detectives, investigators, and children all have well-developed Scharfsinn, as these groups of people often see through lies and deception immediately. If someone displays a lot of Scharfsinn, you would call them scharfsinnig.<\/em><\/strong> TV\u2019s Lieutenant Columbo is a great example of someone who is very scharfsinnig!<\/p>\n

\"sixth

Columbo: Master of Scharfsinn! Image by Prawny<\/a> from Pixabay<\/a><\/p><\/div>\n

Das Bauchgef\u00fchl<\/strong>
\nLiterally \u2018the stomach feeling\u2019 (der Bauch<\/em> is the German word for stomach<\/em>), this is the German word for what we\u2019d call a \u2018gut feeling\u2019 or a \u2018hunch\u2019 in English. In a sentence, you might say, \u2018Ich folge meinem Bauchgef\u00fchl\u2019<\/em> \u2013 \u2018I follow my gut instinct\u2019.<\/p>\n

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Photo by Izzie Renee<\/a> on Unsplash<\/a><\/p><\/div>\n

Die Vorahnung<\/strong>
\nThis is the German word for \u2018premonition\u2019. Die Ahnung<\/em> on its own means \u2018idea\u2019 or \u2018notion\u2019, and the prefix vor <\/em>means \u2018before\u2019. To have die Vorahnung<\/em> does not necessarily mean you can see<\/em> disastrous events before they happen. It can also mean you had a feeling or a sense that something would happen (what you might call your intuition – die Intuition<\/em> in German). For instance:<\/p>\n

Sie hatte eine Vorahnung, dass etwas Schlimmes passieren w\u00fcrde<\/strong>
\nShe had a feeling that something bad would happen<\/em><\/p>\n

However, it can absolutely mean you are a bit psychic and had a real premonition. If you type \u2018unheimliche Vorahnungen\u2019<\/em> or \u2018seltsame Vorahnungen\u2019<\/em> into a search engine, it will come up with a bunch of stories that are definitely unheimlich<\/strong><\/em> (creepy)!<\/p>\n

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Photo by \u80e1 \u5353\u4ea8<\/a> on Unsplash<\/a><\/p><\/div>\n

Das Hellsehen<\/strong>
\nThis is the German word for \u2018clairvoyance\u2019. Firstly, don\u2019t be fooled by this false friend!<\/a> Despite its association with the paranormal, it has nothing to do with hell<\/strong> (die H\u00f6lle<\/strong><\/em> in German). The German word \u2018hell\u2019 means \u2018light\u2019 or \u2018bright\u2019, so the word Hellsehen<\/strong><\/em> literally translates to \u2018bright seeing\u2019, ie. the ability to see beyond. A clairvoyant is called der Hellseher<\/em> in German.<\/p>\n

\"sixth

Photo by Jr Korpa<\/a> on Unsplash<\/a><\/p><\/div>\n

Der sechste Sinn<\/strong>
\nThe sixth sense. This is both the name of the sense, and the name of the famous film in German! Like in English, this phrase is either used to describe the ability to see\/feel the presence of ghosts (Geister<\/em> in German), or as a blanket term for any of the above words (die Intuition<\/em>, in other words) – or, as a third definition, to describe die K\u00f6rperwahrnehmung<\/strong><\/em> \u2013 body awareness\/proprioception \u2013 a human’s \u2018official\u2019 sixth sense!<\/p>\n

*<\/p>\n

I hope you’ve enjoyed this post! If you did, you might also like this one:
\nUntranslatable German Words: das Fingerspitzengef\u00fchl<\/a>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Bis bald!
\nConstanze<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\"sixth

Guten Tag! Last week, I wrote about the five senses (die f\u00fcnf Sinne) in German. If you haven\u2019t read that post yet, you can catch up by clicking here. Today\u2019s post will continue on the theme of the senses, but focus more on feeling-based senses, often referred to as the ‘sixth sense’ or ‘gut instinct’…<\/p>\n

Continue Reading<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":119,"featured_media":13240,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[7386,7401,95131,457016,376023,551805,13],"class_list":["post-13259","post","type-post","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-language","tag-emotions","tag-feelings","tag-german-language","tag-german-vocabulary","tag-language","tag-the-senses","tag-vocabulary"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/german\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13259","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/german\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/german\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/german\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/119"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/german\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13259"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/german\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13259\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13262,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/german\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13259\/revisions\/13262"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/german\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13240"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/german\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13259"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/german\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13259"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/german\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13259"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}