{"id":13272,"date":"2021-08-18T21:00:16","date_gmt":"2021-08-18T21:00:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/german\/?p=13272"},"modified":"2021-08-18T12:11:19","modified_gmt":"2021-08-18T12:11:19","slug":"talking-about-ghosts-in-german","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/german\/talking-about-ghosts-in-german\/","title":{"rendered":"Talking About Ghosts In German"},"content":{"rendered":"

Guten Tag! Today\u2019s post is a spooky one, as we\u2019re talking all about ghosts! I\u2019ll give you a variety of vocabulary on the subject throughout the post, and hopefully clear up some of the confusion about the two main words for \u2018ghost\u2019 in German.<\/p>\n

\"ghosts\"

Photo by Tandem X Visuals<\/a> on Unsplash<\/a><\/p><\/div>\n

Geist oder Gespenst?<\/h2>\n

When reading about this subject in German, there are two words you will come across a lot:<\/p>\n

der Geist
\n<\/strong>das Gespenst<\/strong><\/p>\n

Both of these words mean \u2018ghost\u2019<\/strong>, and although they are used interchangeably at times, there is a slight difference between the two:<\/p>\n

Das Gespenst<\/strong> is the classic ghost, spook, or spectre. It is often used in kids\u2019 TV shows and books.<\/p>\n

Der Geist<\/strong>, while also referring to a ghost\/spook\/spectre, is slightly more varied in meaning. For example, it also refers to the spirit in a religious sense (the Holy Spirit in German is der Heiliger Geist<\/strong>), and to a person\u2019s psyche or mindset; a free spirited person would be described as freigeistig<\/strong> in German. The word der Zeitgeist<\/strong> is another example; this word translates to \u2018the spirit of the times\u2019.<\/p>\n

For the sake of keeping things simple: Der Geist encompasses the broader meaning of \u2018spirit\u2019, while das Gespenst is a straight-forward ghost.<\/p>\n

\"ghosts\"

Photo by Stefano Pollio<\/a> on Unsplash<\/a><\/p><\/div>\n

Glaubst du an Gespenster? – Do you believe in ghosts?<\/h2>\n

Although there is no hard evidence to prove the existence of ghosts, lots of people believe in them! Are you one of them? If so, what do you believe? One thing I find interesting is the different beliefs and Aberglauben<\/strong> (superstitions) people have surrounding ghosts and das Leben nach dem Tod<\/strong> (the afterlife). While some believe ghosts are the spirits of dead human beings, others believe they are non-human Lebensformen<\/strong> (lifeforms) that live alongside us. Some ghosts are b\u00f6se<\/strong> (malevolent), whilst others are g\u00fctig\/wohlwollend<\/strong> (benevolent), and some – the worst kind – are demons (der D\u00e4mon<\/strong> – demon). The horror film Insidious<\/em><\/strong> comes to mind! Here is the German trailer for this film:<\/p>\n

INSIDIOUS | Trailer deutsch german [HD] – YouTube<\/a><\/p>\n

Du siehst aus, als h\u00e4ttest du einen Geist gesehen \u2013 You look like you\u2019ve seen a ghost<\/em><\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\"ghosts\"

Photo by Tandem X Visuals<\/a> on Unsplash<\/a><\/p><\/div>\n

Ghost stories<\/h2>\n

Whether you believe in ghosts or not, a good ghost story is always fun to hear and to tell! In German, a ghost story is called die Geistergeschichte, die Gespenstgeschichte,<\/em> or die Spukgeschichte<\/em>, where the word der Spuk<\/em> is the equivalent of the English \u2018spook\u2019.<\/p>\n

To finish, here is a short Spukgeschichte<\/strong> you can listen to in German- auto-generated English subtitles are also available on the video:<\/p>\n

Ich sah etwas, dem ich nachgehen musste! \u2620 Creepypasta german \/ deutsch – YouTube<\/a><\/p>\n

I hope you\u2019ve enjoyed this post, and that it wasn\u2019t too gruselig<\/em> (scary)!!<\/p>\n

Bis bald
\nConstanze<\/p>\n

PS. If you liked this post, you might also like this one: Germany\u2019s Most Famous Witch<\/a><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\"ghosts\"

Guten Tag! Today\u2019s post is a spooky one, as we\u2019re talking all about ghosts! I\u2019ll give you a variety of vocabulary on the subject throughout the post, and hopefully clear up some of the confusion about the two main words for \u2018ghost\u2019 in German. Geist oder Gespenst? When reading about this subject in German, there…<\/p>\n

Continue Reading<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":119,"featured_media":13275,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[34585,95131,457016,551807,376023,551808,3879,298536,13],"class_list":["post-13272","post","type-post","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-language","tag-film-2","tag-german-language","tag-german-vocabulary","tag-ghosts","tag-language","tag-paranormal","tag-religion","tag-short-story","tag-vocabulary"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/german\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13272","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=13272"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/german\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13272\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13281,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/german\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13272\/revisions\/13281"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/german\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13275"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/german\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13272"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/german\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13272"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/german\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13272"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}