154 German Words That Don't Translate - Does Not Translate

German Swedish English Chinese Spanish Japanese French Hebrew Russian Finnish Dutch Arabic Polish Norwegian Italian Hindi Korean Turkish Cebuano Hungarian Malagasy Tagalog Icelandic Portuguese Indonesian Bulgarian Mandarin Danish Afrikaans Filipino Greek Cantonese Croatian Esperanto Swiss German Serbo-Croatian Czech Irish

As seen on:

ProductHunt

b3ta

Aufhänger·An idea or event that gets a discussion or conversation started (both in a journalistic and casual context).

Arschgeige·Ass violin.

Unwetter·Literally unweather.

Drachenfutter·Meaning dragon fodder,a peace offering to placate someone. this is the offering German husbands make to their wives when they've stayed out late. A nice box of chocolates, or some flowers, perhaps, to mask the beer fumes.

Schwurbeln·To blather like Sir Humphrey.

Duzen/siezen·Adressing someone with the informal/formal you.

Schreckstoff·Literally scary stuff, the invisible pheromones animals emit in response to fear in order to alert others nearby.

Bedeutungsschwanger·Pregnant with meaning. Usually used in a derogatory manner, synonymous with pretentious.

Dürfen·A verb for being allowed to.

Treppenwitz·The comeback you should have said but it only occurred to you when you left the debate.

Beratungsresistent·Resistant to advice. Means exactly what you think it means.

Original·A well known local person that's unusual, weird or eccentric.

Unterschichtenfernsehen·The kind of TV programs preferred by or targeted at the uneducated and poor.

Kevinismus·A disease; being disadvantaged in life due to being named Kevin.

Hassliebe·A love-hate relationship.

Spruchreif·Describes something that can be officially acted upon or executed.

Fremdschämen·To be ashamed for an embarrassing act of someone else, for example when that someone fails to be embarrassed by it.

verschlimmbessern·To make something worse in an attempt to improve it.

Eierlegende wollmilchsau·Jack-of-all-trades, but literally egg-laying wool-milk-pig.

Beutelschneider·A dodgy salesman who sells subpar wares for an exorbitant price, often using an aggressive sales strategy.

Erklärungsnot (lit. explanation distress)·The pressure of having to explain something (and not being able to do so).

Drachenfutter·German for dragon fodder, a gift or some other form of peace offering used by a husband or boyfriend in order to appease an angry woman or girlfriend.

Pulloverschwein·Pullover-pig. A Northern German colloquialism for a sheep.

Hakenkreuzschmierereien·Daubs/Graffitis of Swastikas.

Verschlimmbesserung·An attempted improvement that makes things worse than they already were.

Schnulze·A predominantly kitschy and sentimental song, play, show or movie. Often used in a derogative context.

Dahergelaufen·Adjective, fromthenceran. Some fromthenceran guy came into my bakery and tried to tell me how to bake. Something like uninvited, unqualified, obnoxious, without renown, but also plain common. Not necessarily a person.

Schenkelklopfer·Literally Thigh-beater means a joke and is named after the reaction of hitting ones thigh with ones hand while laughing, often used ironically for a really bad joke.

Tollkühn·Daring and brave in a foolish/unhealthy kind of way.

Glück/Pech·Good luck/Bad luck.