![\""Former\"](\"https:\/\/farm3.staticflickr.com\/2609\/3690816911_ab1131eb34.jpg\")
<\/a>Lebensmittel. Photo by sludgeulper on Flickr.com under CC BY-SA 2.0<\/p><\/div>\n
There are many nouns in the German language that have very literal meanings to them. Their pattern is that they are made up of two or more separate words put together to form a new word. These are called compound nouns. Some examples are:<\/p>\n
Das Abendrot:<\/strong> Sunset (more specifically: the red sky just after sunset).<\/em> Literal translation: The evening red.<\/em> Die Gehirnersch\u00fctterung:<\/strong> Concussion.<\/em> Literal translation: The head tremor.<\/em><\/p>\n These literal words are useful when learning German because, although you might not know what the actual word for concussion<\/em> is in German, you might recognise the words Gehirn<\/em> (head) and Ersch\u00fctterung <\/em>(shake\/tremor) in some form, so if you saw or heard the word Gehirnersch\u00fctterung, <\/strong>you might be able to guess that this ‘head tremor’ they’re on about is, in fact, concussion. Pretty clever, huh?<\/p>\n There are also words which go a step further, such as:<\/p>\n Die Lebensmittel:<\/strong> Food. Der Nachwuchs:<\/strong> Offspring. Then<\/em> there are some German compound nouns which might have you raising questions about German history or culture:<\/p>\n Der Freitod:<\/strong> Suicide. The fact that the German language uses two distinct words to describe the act of suicide hints at what an advanced language it is. It also leads into questions about religion and secularism in Germany, which might be something you’d want to follow up on if you were interested. So from just one word, you could end up learning about a whole section of German culture!<\/p>\n And finally, when you don\u2019t know what a German word means, you can try to figure it out by its extremely literal nature. So next time you see a very long, confusing-looking German word, don\u2019t panic! Just break it down into its separate nouns, and see if you can figure out what the word means from the combination of those.<\/p>\n Here\u2019s an extremely<\/em> long German noun. Do you recognise any words in it? Can you figure out what it means by breaking it down into smaller words? Or does it just look like a jumbled mess to you?<\/p>\n Rindfleischetikettierungs\u00fcberwachungsaufgaben\u00fcbertragungsgesetz<\/em><\/strong> To finish, two small German words: Bis sp\u00e4ter! (’till next time!)<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" You can learn a lot about Germany from its language. There are many nouns in the German language that have very literal meanings to them. Their pattern is that they are made up of two or more separate words put together to form a new word. These are called compound nouns. Some examples are: Das…<\/p>\n
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\nLiteral translation: The means of life.<\/em>
\nJust in case you don\u2019t know what Lebensmittel is, the word itself tells you: It\u2019s that stuff you need to prevent you from dying. <\/em>You almost want to thank the German language for the clarification.<\/p>\n
\nLiteral translation: The after-growth. <\/em>
\nI don\u2019t really like this word. I come across it all the time for one of my translation jobs, and each time I see it, it bothers me. Although a common German word for a child, I think it is quite \u2018cold\u2019 in that it refers to a child as being nothing more than something that grew out of you – it might as well be referring to a tumour (then again, the English word offspring<\/em> is not exactly affectionate, but perhaps I am desensitised to it)! A similar word is Der Nachkomm<\/em>e<\/em> \u2013 <\/strong>literally, \u2018the one that came afterwards\u2019.<\/strong> Other, much more normal words you can use are Das Baby (the baby) and Das Kind (the child).<\/p>\n
\n<\/em>Literal translation: The free death.<\/em>
\nThere is also another word for suicide in German, namely der Selbstmord<\/strong><\/em>, which literally translates to self-murder. <\/em>Notice that the word Freitod <\/em>uses the word Tod<\/em> (death) as opposed to Selbstmord<\/em>, which uses the word Mord (<\/em>murder). What could this mean? Well, it could be argued that Freitod <\/em>has a sense of liberating freedom to it, as if the suicide in question is a positive thing, and that Selbstmord<\/em> or self-murder<\/em> has a more sinister, negative tone to it. But these words ultimately mean the same thing: Suicide. So why the distinction?
\nThe word Selbstmord<\/em> has its roots in Christianity, and the belief that suicide is a sin, and that only God can choose when you should die. In contrast, Freitod<\/em> is a secular word coined in 1906 by Austrian philosopher Fritz Mauthner.
\nThe word Selbstmord<\/em> is religious in origin, whereas the word Freitod<\/em> is secular, hence the difference between the two.<\/p>\n
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