{"id":9682,"date":"2018-03-14T13:46:40","date_gmt":"2018-03-14T13:46:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/german\/?p=9682"},"modified":"2018-03-14T13:46:40","modified_gmt":"2018-03-14T13:46:40","slug":"funny-german-animal-names","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/german\/funny-german-animal-names\/","title":{"rendered":"Funny German Animal Names"},"content":{"rendered":"

Guten Tag! We have talked before on the blog about how \u2018literal\u2019 German words can be. Check out this blog post<\/a>, and this one<\/a>, for some examples. Today I\u2019d like to continue on that theme with a post about animals. You are probably familiar with a few German animals, such as die Katze<\/em> (cat), der Hund<\/em> (dog) and der Hase<\/em> (rabbit). But when you go beyond the common pets, you\u2019ll find that a lot of animals have incredibly literal, often amusing names in the German language!<\/p>\n

In German, a pig<\/strong> is das Schwein<\/strong>. But German has many different kinds of pigs:<\/p>\n

das Stachelschwein<\/strong>
\nPorcupine
\nlit. \u2018spike pig\u2019<\/p>\n

das Wasserschwein<\/strong>
\nCapybara
\nlit. \u2018water pig\u2019<\/p>\n

das Meerschweinchen<\/strong>
\nGuinea pig
\nlit. \u2018little ocean pig\u2019<\/p>\n

das Seeschwein<\/strong>
\nDugong
\nlit. \u2018sea pig\u2019<\/p>\n

der Schweinswal<\/strong>
\nPorpoise
\nlit. \u2018pig whale\u2019<\/p>\n

\"Capybara\"<\/a>

A capybara or ‘water pig’ (Wasserschwein). Photo by tanyadurrant on flickr.com under a CC license (CC BY-ND 2.0)<\/p><\/div>\n

Moving away from pigs, here are some more, interesting German animal names:<\/p>\n

der Seehund<\/strong>
\nSeal
\nlit. \u2018sea dog\u2019<\/p>\n

der Truthahn<\/strong>
\nTurkey
\nlit. \u2018threatening chicken\u2019 (\u2018trut\u2019 from Middle Low German \u2018droten\u2019 meaning \u2018to threaten\u2019)<\/p>\n

die Nacktschnecke<\/strong>
\nSlug
\nlit. \u2018naked snail\u2019<\/p>\n

der Tintenfisch<\/strong>
\nSquid
\nlit. \u2018ink fish\u2019<\/p>\n

die Fledermaus<\/strong>
\nBat
\nlit. \u2018flutter mouse\u2019<\/p>\n

die Schildkr\u00f6<\/span><\/strong>te<\/strong>
\nTortoise
\nlit. \u2018shield toad\u2019<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Slug\"<\/a>

A slug, or ‘naked snail’ (Nacktschnecke). Photo by Jan Kal\u00e1b on flickr.com under a CC license (CC BY-SA 2.0)<\/p><\/div>\n

Right now, you might be thinking that German is a very lazy language when it comes to naming its animals! With some animals, it goes one step further by simply naming a feature or characteristic of the animal and following this up with the word \u2018Tier\u2019 – the German word for ‘animal’: <\/span><\/p>\n

das <\/span><\/strong>Faultier<\/strong>
\nSloth
\nlit. \u2018lazy animal\u2019<\/span><\/p>\n

das <\/span>G<\/span><\/strong>\u00fcrteltier<\/strong>
\nArmadillo
\nlit. \u2018belt animal\u2019<\/span><\/p>\n

das <\/span><\/strong>Murmeltier<\/strong>
\nGroundhog
\nlit. \u2018mumble animal\u2019<\/span><\/p>\n

das <\/span><\/strong>Schnabeltier<\/strong>
\nPlatypus
\nlit. \u2018beak animal\u2019<\/span><\/p>\n

das <\/span><\/strong>Stinktier<\/strong>
\nSkunk
\nlit. \u2018stink animal\u2019<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Sloth!\"<\/a>

A sloth, or ‘lazy animal’ (Faultier). Photo by thornet_ on flickr.com under a CC license (CC BY-SA 2.0)<\/p><\/div>\n

Other German animal names to look out for include der Dachshund,<\/strong> the little German \u2018sausage dog\u2019 whose name actually translates to \u2018badger dog\u2019<\/strong>. You can read all about the Dachshund in this blog post by Larissa.<\/a> The other is der Igel,<\/strong> which often catches people out because it is pronounced like the English word ‘eagle’. Don\u2019t be fooled: an Igel is, in fact, a hedgehog<\/strong>! The German word for eagle<\/strong> is der Adler<\/strong>. <\/span><\/p>\n

I hope you\u2019ve found this interesting! Can you think of any other German animal names with incredibly literal <\/span>and\/or interesting<\/span> translations? Let me know by leaving a comment below.<\/span><\/p>\n

Bis bald!<\/span><\/p>\n

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

Guten Tag! We have talked before on the blog about how \u2018literal\u2019 German words can be. Check out this blog post, and this one, for some examples. Today I\u2019d like to continue on that theme with a post about animals. You are probably familiar with a few German animals, such as die Katze (cat), der…<\/p>\n

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