{"id":7848,"date":"2016-10-19T08:47:27","date_gmt":"2016-10-19T08:47:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/german\/?p=7848"},"modified":"2016-10-19T08:47:27","modified_gmt":"2016-10-19T08:47:27","slug":"untranslatable-german-words-versemmeln","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/german\/untranslatable-german-words-versemmeln\/","title":{"rendered":"Untranslatable German Words: Versemmeln"},"content":{"rendered":"

Guten Tag! It\u2019s time for another \u2018untranslatable German word\u2019 \u2013 one of those words that, no matter how hard you try, you just can\u2019t find an equally quirky, unusual or downright funny translation for in English! The untranslatable words I’ve shared with you here have mostly been nouns, but this time I’m giving you a verb, and that verb is versemmeln.<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

What does versemmeln mean?<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Versemmeln is a verb meaning \u2018to fail\u2019<\/strong> or \u2018to mess something up\u2019<\/strong> \u2013 and to mess it up in such a way that it can\u2019t be fixed.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

What is the literal translation of versemmeln?<\/strong><\/h3>\n

It literally means \u2018to ‘bread-roll’ or ‘to be bread-rolled\u2019. But what\u2019s bread got to do with anything?!<\/p>\n

\"Basket<\/a>

The verb versemmeln is inspired by these: bread rolls. Photo by rubber_slippers_in_italy on flickr.com under a CC license (CC BY-ND 2.0)<\/p><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

The word Semmel<\/strong> in versemmel<\/strong>n is a German word for bread roll. You may have heard bread rolls called Br\u00f6tchen<\/em> \u2013 the word used varies from region to region. With the word Semmel (or indeed any noun), by adding the prefix \u2018ver\u2019 and the \u2018n\u2019 on the end you can create a verb out of it. The prefix \u2018ver\u2019 is very versatile and has a number of different meanings, but one way it is used is to talk about something that\u2019s gone wrong, and this is the most applicable here.<\/p>\n

Example:
\nIch habe mich ver<\/u>fahren<\/strong> \u2013 I have driven the wrong way (in which the verb fahren<\/strong> means to drive)<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n

Versemmeln<\/strong> means you\u2019ve messed something up in a way that can\u2019t be fixed. Why? Because once you slice a bread roll, you can\u2019t put it back together again!<\/strong> Makes sense, I guess?!<\/em><\/h3>\n<\/blockquote>\n
\"Crumbs\"<\/a>

Once you slice bread, you can’t put it back together again. It has been versemmelt. Photo by simonbleasdale on flickr.com under a CC license (CC BY-ND 2.0)<\/p><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

How would you use the word versemmeln in a sentence?<\/strong><\/h3>\n

The conjugation of this verb in the present tense would look something like this!<\/p>\n

Ich versemm(e)le
\nDu versemmelst
\nEr\/sie\/es versemmelt
\nWir versemmeln
\nIhr versemmelt
\nSie\/sie versemmeln<\/p>\n

Example:<\/u>
\nDu versemmelst deine Pr\u00fcfung \u2013 You\u2019re messing up your exam.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

What\u2019s the nearest English equivalent to versemmeln?<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Anyone got any food-related ways of saying you\u2019ve failed or messed up in English (or any other languages, for that matter)? I\u2019ve found just one, and it\u2019s a phrase: To say someone has \u2018had one\u2019s chips\u2019<\/strong>. This phrase means you\u2019ve completely failed with what you set out to achieve. Do you have any more to add? Leave a message in the comments!<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Hope you\u2019ve enjoyed learning about another brilliantly quirky German word. Perhaps next time you want to tell someone in German how badly they\u2019ve messed up, you can hit them with \u2018Du hast das versemmelt!\u2019 \u2013 \u2018You\u2019ve bread-rolled it!\u2019<\/strong> \ud83d\ude09<\/p>\n

Bis bald!<\/p>\n

Constanze<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\"\"

Guten Tag! It\u2019s time for another \u2018untranslatable German word\u2019 \u2013 one of those words that, no matter how hard you try, you just can\u2019t find an equally quirky, unusual or downright funny translation for in English! The untranslatable words I’ve shared with you here have mostly been nouns, but this time I’m giving you a…<\/p>\n

Continue Reading<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":119,"featured_media":7852,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[30,376024,95131,376023,337679,257573,166,1401],"class_list":["post-7848","post","type-post","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-language","tag-bread","tag-food","tag-german-language","tag-language","tag-untranslatable-german","tag-untranslatable-words","tag-verbs","tag-words"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/german\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7848","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=7848"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/german\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7848\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7856,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/german\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7848\/revisions\/7856"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/german\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7852"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/german\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7848"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/german\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7848"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/german\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7848"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}