Try making up your own compound words. Its easy. Germans will - more often than not - understand words that you invernted. How cool is that.

Die Deutsche Sprache ist eine der schönsten Sprachen die ich gelernt habe. Ich wollte diese Sprache seit Ewigkeit lernen um die originalen Texte von Hegel, Schopenhauer, Schiller, Kant، Horkheimer..etc Lesen zu können. Jetzt bin froh und stolz darauf, dass ich die Gelegenheit hatte, diese Sprache zu lernen. Nice video 👍 peace ✌️

I've been telling people for years: German, if not truly an easy language itself, is much, much easier to learn than English, French, Spanish, or many other common European languages. It's fairly logical. It's very easy to read and write (eff you, French and English!). It's beautiful and useful (more than 132 million people speak German and it''s a solid gateway for other languages, such as Dutch, Swedisch, danish etc.). The main difference to English, which is unjustifiably considered the lingua franca, is the beginning. English lulls you very soon into a false sense of accomplishment, but the more you learn, the more you realise that it's becoming more and more complicated. German puts you in front of a huge mountain right away, which you'll believe never to conquere (hence the common misconception of being a difficult language), but soon you'll find yourself speaking it, without understanding how you came so far :)

Just started learning German two weeks ago and came across your channel. Thanks for putting this kind of stuff out, I'm going through babbel at the moment but these videos are helping a lot.

Hallo Jenna, alles Gute und viel Glück im neuen Jahr ! Hier ein paar Ideen: Feuerzeug = fire thing = cigarette lighter Steinzeug = stone thing(s) = pottery Werkzeug = work thing = tool Spielzeug = play thing = toy Zaumzeug = bridle things = harness Leuchtturm = illuminating tower = light house Gehweg = going way = sidewalk, pavement Radweg = wheel/cycle way = bicycle lane Heckenschere = hedge shears (so it's the same except for the space) Nagelschere = nail scissors Regenschirm = rain shield = umbrella Dachrinne = roof gutter Schallplatte = sound disk = (vinyl) record Kronleuchter = crown illumination = lustre or chandellier Landungssteg / Landungsbrücke = landing bridge Kühlschrank = cool cabinet = refridgerator Rollladen = roller blind ; (mind the three consecutive L) Wendeltreppe = wound stairs = spiral staircase Müllauto = garbage truck = bin lorry naseweis = nose knows = nosy, curious neugierig = new greedy = curious Teigrolle = rolling pin for dough Nudelholz = noodle wood = rolling pin for dough Löffelbagger = spoon digger = excavator Schubkarre = pushcart (for some reason the English seem to have forgotten the separating space)

I’m Ghanaian living in Germany. I learnt German in 2 months. No school. Just KZfaq, Mondly app und Google Translator….8 hrs a day 😅

My favorite German word is baumschule - tree school aka nursery ( plants, trees shrubs etc)

One little correction: While "Zeug" literally translates to "stuff" in modern German, it also has a more archaic meaning which isn’t used anymore, but which is at the root of all the compound words you have used (Flugzeug, Spielzeug, Schlagzeug, Rüstzeug,, Zaumzeug, Fahrzeug, Zeugwart, etc.). It’s not straight forward to translate, but I guess it‘s somewhere in between "equipment" and "tool". Also, while "bacon" is a possible translation for "Speck", it is not the most common one. In fact, that is a rare usage for the word. Typically, it’s better translated as "body fat". So all of a sudden "Kummerspeck" isn’t as weird anymore.

My new favorite is knabberzueg. Nibble stuff=snacks 😂

Ach Jenna, wie süß ist das denn....so habe ich meine Muttersprache noch nie betrachtet. Und Du hast natürlich recht! Trotzdem Du krank bist strahlst Du solch eine ansteckende Fröhlichkeit aus, einfach wunderbar

As an American living in Bavaria Germany in a small town, it was hard for me at first because most of the people spoke Bairisch which is a Bavarian slang!! We had a bakery in our house and the elderly people would say instead of brot.. laib. Instead of Brötchen.. Semmel. In German you would say auf Wiedersehen in Bavaria Servus or pfui Gott. Living here for 28 years I speak German with a Bavarian accent.😊

Schlafzeug = the thing you are sleeping in Zeugwart = the person that takes care of things But I think there are some more: Hindernis = the thing that hinders you to achieve something Wildnis = the thing where it's wild Geheimnis = the thing that is secret Bildnis = the thing that is a picture

love this video, thanks for new year motivation:)

That's a clever and great way to memorise the vocabulary 😃😃😃 I think the Grammar is the most hardest topic in German language, especially for English speakers

I would translate Zeug rather with its a bit older meaning of equipment or gear in the case if those compound words. See also for instance "Zeughaus".

Yes it is! I learned it when I only was 1 year old! Kinderleicht! 😅

I'm watching this while being sick, too. Where on earth do you get the amount of energy from? It's admirable :)

Is easy because we can combine almost all words to new ones. That makes German so interesting .

actually the word dust sucker sounds amazing in English, I might need to make an addition to my vast list of frequently used anglicism.

There is also Dingsbums for all things you forgot the name for ore what I as german use frome time to time, I build my one word wich discribe the thing. You can do so as german is modular. An other thing wich might help reading as noob is exchange some letters, like d with th. Ding to thing. there are other letters as well. Both languages have the same root .

Hey Jenna, I love your enthusiasm a lot. Wirklich sehr liebenswert.

The most problem to learn german is, if a german native speaker notice that you speak not well german, he switches to english. ... and you will think, how can i learn german, if they speak english to me? 😎

Frohes Neues Jahr! Tolles Video! :)

As a German native speaker, I love watching these videos, because they shed light on the etymology of some of these words. For example "Durchfall", it's just falling through. 😂😂 I always thought a pediatrician was a foot doctor, because per pedes = on foot in Latin.

Jenna verbreitet auch gute Laune, selbst wenn sie grad selber krank ist. Motivation für den Tag :-) Großartig!

German is just a modular - or lego - language. We have words for something and if we don't, we just put words we have together.

I had an online class with my German tutor yesterday and she mentioned the word "Beilagen" .. I asked what is that, she explained it meant side dishes, and then I thought.. "of course that is how they say it"

How are you doing this? An energetic video and somehow you managed to look younger than ever. Must be the lightning and the camera. I love to see a video that puts my mother language in such a positive light! In recent times, most videos I saw were more the opposite...

My mother spoke German. I have only studied it, and read simple passages without looking up some words. She used to transliterate some German words into English. My siblings and I will refer the vacuum cleaner as the dust sucker (which is a description of what the device does! How can a vacuum be dirty, if it is a vacuum?). I always thought house shoes were a synonym for slippers? Slightly off topic, I refer to Christmas Tree ornament hangers as Aufhängern; it's more concise. Here are a few more: Fernsehapparat: a devise that allows the viewer to see someone, or something from afar! Krankhaus Rathaus Hexencchuss

I'm currently learning Dutch which is similar to German, while my aunt was a german teacher in high school. The most struggling part of these germanic languages is the strict fancy word order, like after some connecting words, or if you are talking about events in a specific time, you have always do a word order swap, which is not logical for me as a native Hungarian and a good English speaker. These word order tricks also apply for the present/past perfect tense, or for some negations. The vocabulary hints You mentioned in the video are also in the Hungarian language, like we call the vacuum cleaner also "dust sucker". So that part is really easy. But it's very annoying to local people I think, if I use English word order with Dutch or German words.

I found 59 matches in a german rhyme generator for nouns ending on "-zeug". E.g. bridle, tack, headgear = Zaumzeug tools, tool kit = Werkzeug knitting = Strickzeug stationery, writing materials = Schreibzeug make-up (on the board) = Schminkzeug

A Happy New Year to you and your family, Jenna! And having a toddler *and* a newborn you'll just have to get used to being sick all the time, I'm afraid...😉 As always a very entertaining and educational video - your views on my country and language always leave me smiling. But I'm not so sure about your general thesis here: whereas your approach to the vocabulary might actually be a real help for expats (especially in connection with our love of compound words) the real pain in the butt has to be the grammar and the gender of our words. I remember (to try) learning french in school many years ago - the vocabulary was never a problem for me, it's just "Fleißarbeit - hard work". But the grammar and the tenses went way beyond my head and I finally gave up and quit learning french (although I still think it's one of the most melodic languages in the world). Maybe if I had the sort of help you're providing here I'd have been more successful. But sadly enough neither YT or you had been invented yet😉😁💛💛

2:29 A lot of these words are based on Latin or Ancient Greek terms (wurden eingedeutscht) dentist/Zahnarzt(tooth doctor): dens is Latin and means tooth gynecologist /Frauenarzt (women's doctor): gyne is woman in Ancient Greek pediatrician/Kinderarzt (children's doctor): pais means child in Ancient Greek veterinarian/Tierarzt (animal doctor): Google says" From Latin veterīnārius (“cattle doctor”) +‎ -an, from veterīnae (“beasts of burden, draught-”), probably from vehō (“to convey, draw”), or from vetus (“old”)." - iirc there was a movement to find German words for Latin and Ancient Greek terms

I learned the German language in 2 Months with the US Army and also a freshh-up on Schwäbisch

These job titles that you mentioned are simply not real English words, but borrowed Latin terms, which are also known in Germany (for example Gynäkologe) but German also has German terms for them.

Feuerzeug, fire-thing - lighter Nachtzeug - nighties (no, there is no Tagzeug) Werkzeug - ein Ding, mit dem man ein Werk verrichtet - a thing with which you complete a work - a tool Schreibzeug - things with which you write - stationery or a desk set

Tolles Video.... 🌻

I was handed the perfect description for the German language: it is the Lego of the languages. You need only a fairly small number of words to build something new on the fly. But in the same way even the most complex sounding compound words can usually be broken down into their simple components again to get the gist of what that ultra-complex looking compound word probably means. Where it might confusing a the German numbers, that are unfortunately completely illogical in their setup ( 21 being einundzwanzig, literally one-and-twenty but 121 being einhinderteinundzwanzig, literally one-hundred-one-and-twenty). As well as the cases, and is grammar in general. But communication is based mostly on the vocabulary. The grammar, spelling, etc comes with time and practice. Sure, if you want to participate in complex philosophical discussions it might be essential to know a bit more than the vocabulary, but for everyday purposes a good grasp of the fairly simple Lego's, err, German simple words is usually sufficient.

ThumsUp to you for this video. I found no matter the language you have to make efforts to learn your set of vocabularies and these combined words that German has are a help here. But it gets clunky with the grammar. It's pure learning and repeating and, most important, speaking in German (or you're preferred 2nd language) with natives without shame and reckoning that you will do mistakes. But that mustn't stop you but it actually helps being corrected by patient and sometimes not so patient natives.

The thing is, that English stick to the Latin or Greece words, but German "translated" them to real German.

You are the beste!😊

my favourite is turtle which is (literally translating) toad in shield :D

coming from a different language family, i always felt these difficuities for most indoeuropean speakers are miniscule compared to ours. most of the indoeuropean languages i encountered with are built on the same logic, have almost the same vocabulary and in general they are very similar, even latin.

I took 2 years of Chinese and it's very similar in these compound words: Airplane= Flying Machine, Pediatrician = Children Doctor, Gynecologist = Woman Doctor, Vacuum Cleaner = Dust Sucking Machine, Dictionary= Word Book, Glove = Hand Cover, Train = Fire Car, Ambulance = First Aid Car, Hospital = Cure House (as apposed to Sick House in German), Hippopotamus = River Horse (German= Nile Horse or River Horse), Typewriter = Word Punching Machine 😅, Razor for Shaving = Mustache/Beard Scraping Knife, Owl = Cat Headed Eagle (they think owls look like cats)😅

Happy seeing☺

Excellent video

Grünzeug - Is also identically with the Hungarian "zöldség" (which I learn atm)

Sooo I've read all the comments and no one suggested my fav -zeug word. It's green stuff = grünzeug = like bushes, grass, salat,.. literally all green stuff 😂

Hahaha, enjoyed much your vividness. I want some of your medication and to know how are you doing when you are not sick. Well explained and so funny . Thx for the laugh.

The good thing about German is that by describing and combining words, you can create words yourself the other person is 99% likely to understand. Funny fact..."Gesundheit" does not actually come from wishing health to another person, but to oneself. In the Middle Ages, when someone sneezed, "Gesundheit" (health) was addressed as a plea to God. May he grant you health so you dont get the other persons illness yourself.

But on the other hand there's fire place (instead of Kamin) Hairdresser (instead of Friseur), traffic lights (instead of Ampel). And there are for sure many many more ...

Schuh is something to slip over, thus for feet it is quite directly Slippers, for the Hands Handschuhe, but also eg Kabelschuh which is the flat thing at the end of some electric cables that you can slide over a connection. Fleisch = meat or flesh. i think meat would be the flesh that can be eaten, thus flesh would be better for Zahnfleisch ? Zeug = things and stuff, but also the tools/means to do something, and thus Flugzeug/Fahrzeug is the means to fly/drive. and there is another old meaning: the tools for protecting or fighting, and the Zeughaus is an armory.

Abendrot, Frühstück, Klassenzimmer, Fernseher, Kindergarten, etc. Of course english has also describing words too.

I actually think that learning german as a native english speaker should be neither more difficult nor any easier than learning english as a German. Yet mastering it could proof a lot more difficult due to the various complicated grammar issues. But to be able to have a normal basic conversation? Piece of cake.

Don't forget about the toy-plane ("Spielzeugflugzeug" / "play-stuff-fly-stuff") ;-)

Great job revealing this pattern in the German vocabulary!! However, the German LANGUAGE itself still remains difficult to learn.

The noun declensions and word order become second nature after awhile. You get to where you don't even think about it anymore. You do need to apply some concentrated effort in memorization of charts at first, and then it takes hold.

Keinohrhase, Nichtwohngrundstück, Rohrdämmummantelung, Schallmaueranstreicher Deutsche Bauernregel: Kommt der Regen schräg von vorn, kriegt die Kuh ein nasses Horn.

Zeug is not that equal with thing or stuff, it's more like "tools" or "things/stuff for the purpose of..". Werkzeug = Tool,Toolkit / "Things you need to work" (werken = ~work/~fabricate ; Das Werk = The Factory / Creation/ Work ; Das Kunstwerk = The Artwork), of course we also say "Räum dein Zeug weg" when we mean "clean your room/ put your stuff away" but it derived from putting your tools away/ cleaning up after work. So you will find -zeug in many many German words especially if its the tools needed for crafting or doing something, like Nähzeug (sewing kit/tools), Feuerzeug (Fire-Tool), Fahrzeug (Driving-Tool: car,truck,motorcycle), Flugzeug (Flying-Tool : just for airplane) and so on. You see "-zeug" does more stand for something like Tool/ Tools/ Toolkit rather than thing or stuff. But that does not mean we don't also use it sometimes in a more "stuff-like" way, like "Ist das dein Zeug?" (Is that your stuff", "Das ist echt geiles Zeug" (That' really good stuff, cough cough, inhale), Grünzeug (Green stuff = Plants in general or veggies if talking about food). It also means skill(s)/ability as your skill is also a tool you need for doing thing good. "Du hast einfach nicht das Zeug dazu." (You simply lack skills for doing that/ literally: You have simply not the skills for that) "Ich hab das Zeug dazu, ich kann das." (I have the skills/ability/talent for that, i can do this) So it's not false Zeug also means stuff/things but translating Flugzeug or Feuerzeug to Flying Thing or Fire Thing is semi-false. Zeug is related to the german words zeugen ( to make kids/procreate), erzeugen (to bring in existence, to built, to generate, to produce, to create) especially with Feuerzeug it's clear its the thing that creates/produces (erzeugen) fire. But "zeugen" also has a double meaning! It also means ~shows/gives evidence -> "Er sagt Danke. Das zeugt von guten Manieren" ("He says thanks. That gives/is evidence of good manners") -> bezeugen (to testify/witness/attest) -> Der Zeuge (the witness)

Realiseation moment for me the other month whilst ordering liferando with friends... for 2 years I've been calling Vorspeise "Vorspiel". In restaurants, with friends, my partners family... no one corrected me they all thought it was süß and verry funny! Well jokes on them it is forever more Vorspiel!

English speakers (mostly USAians and to a somewhat lesser extent, but not that much, Brits) seem to have this weird mental block when it comes to other languages. Even when it comes to very similar languages like German, Dutch and the Scandinavian ones.

Hi Jenna, i hope you are better by now.😅 You could also think about words for food: Bratkartoffel. Or Bread sorts: Weißbrot, Schwarzbrot, Graubrot, Rosinenbrot. Or Soups: Linsensuppe, Erbsensuppe, Bohnensuppe, Kartoffelsuppe, Gemüsesuppe. Or technical things: Schreibmaschine, Bohrmaschine, Waschmaschine, Spülmaschine. Just as some examples. best wishes from Dortmund. 😄

Same thing here in Denmark. We also do compound words. Schlagzeug=Slagtøj Spilzeug=Legetøj Fahtzeug=Fartøj And so on. Vörterbuch=Ordbog The great thing with compound words, is that when learning one word, you actually learn two words.

German snails don't have a shell, they live in a Schneckenhaus ( snail house).

Gute Besserung!

Nacktschnecke - Snail ... You know the other German word "Snegel" ? Hausschuhe - Slippers ... You know the other German word "Schlappen" ? ... There are shoes for outside which are to only slip in. These in Germany are "Slipper". And there are more of these terms.

wir haben auch keinen "Lichter" [außer dem Horst] it is a fire stuff [Feuerzeug],

Hi i been leaning german for well over 2 years i now a have to some time when texting a message to someone i end uo putting a german word in stead of a English eg or i put oder certain word come automatic then i have to think how to spell the English way confusing

On "Kummerspeck", there's an older video by rewboss, who reasons that a more accurate translation would be sth. along the lines of "sober flab".

googled words with Zeug in the end - 818 matches the 1st result🤯 even as a german I'm suprised

Kleo app is great for learning German! Also has three other languages on it!

I lived in Germany in the 1980s, never learned any German but I found that shouting and pointing at things seemed to work - It's true that the Germans repond well to orders.

There is also the term "Zeughaus".

Du hast das natürlichste, süßeste Lächeln ever.

Another example: Kleinkind = small child -> toddler Or Hautausschlag = skin kick out or skin lash out -> skin rash

Kühlschrank, Aufzug, Rechtschreibung, Abendbrot, Tagebuch, Radiergummi,.. es gibt viele Worte, die einfach nur aneinander gereiht werden. Aber auch viele, bei denen es im Englischen auch so ist, wie Wasserfall, Regenbogen, Badezimmer, Gutenachtgeschichte, ...

The German language has two types of words. First, the Umgangssprache, easier to learn and most unterstand it (Frauenarzt) or the Fachsprache ( Gynäkologe) both words are valid and can be used. Most Germans will unterstand both.

I would say that Kummer is more like worry. Have to check LEO later on.

Hi there, german here 🙋‍♂ How about the cabinets or Schränke? Kleiderschrank - Clothes Cabinet - Wardrobe Kühlschrank - cooling cabinet - Fridge / Refridgerator

"Guter Rutsch" has nothing to do with sliding. It is the corruption of a Jewish expression "Rosh", which means New Year. In Yiddish, "A gude Rosch" means a "Happy New Year", but people who didn't understand it turned it into "Einen guten Rutsch".

If English created words like German does, it'd be easier to learn other Germanic languages. For example I'm learning Dutch and the word dictionary is the same as in German. Woordenboek (a "wordsbook"). A verb is werkwoord (a "workword"), a glove is, like German, handschoen (a "handshoe") etc. I'm still a beginner so I still don't know many words.

The English words for medical specialists are literal as well, just in Latin or Greek. P(a)ediatrician - child from p(a)edia and trician meaning specilist or studier of. Vet took a more complex journey though, it used to be veterinarius, veterinae meant cattle or beast of burden like cows, horses, donkeys and the arius suffix means someone working with something so a veterinarius was a doctor for livestock. Gyno - women. Ologist - studier of. Dentist - one who works with teeth same logic as pianist or flautist. There are a lot of other cases in English where we have a literal, descriptive name, like plaything and an alternative, toy. Even the words like language, lingual, linguistic literally means the use of the tongue.

My favorite is gummihandschuhe

Flickzeug ((bicycle tire) patching stuff)

All the languages are hard and all the languages are easy. It's both true depending on your approach and attitude.:)

I love how the German language is set up. My favorite word ever is die Fledermaus. I freaking love bats, and I love them even more knowing Germans refer to them as flying mice. It's just so cute

Danke

Donaudampfschifffahrtselektrizitätenhauptbetriebswerkbauunterbeamtengesellschaft 🇩🇪👍🏻 Ich liebe unsere Zusammengesetzten Substantive es macht alles so viel einfacher xDD 😂 UND JA das ist EIN WORT 👍🏻🍻

7:41 Well it depends... see there are "funnier" things people say (at least here in southern austria) sometimes when someone sneezes: one thing is "Schönheit" (weil gesund bist du ja eh) So they wish you to become beautifull instead of healther, reasoning that you are healthy enough. And the other thing i remember from my childhood is "zerreissen solls dich in lauter 1000er" (you shall burst into many _insert largest paper bill of your country here_ ) And according comeback for that was "und du sollst dich nicht bücken können" ->and you shall not be able to bend over (to picke them up) Btw.: about the body, there are a few more that came to my mind during the video: Nasenloch, Brustkorb, Zahnstein

7:33 In Spanish we say salud which literally means health. Yeah, just that. I don't know why English speakers say bless you when someone sneezes.

Check out the language transfer project

German has a fairly large vocabulary even when not counting compound words. That's my biggest hurdle now.

My favourite is „ Adventskranzkerzenglanz“ means adventringcandelshine 😱🙈

Wonder where Nacktschnecke came in your everyday life? On a walk after the rain, in the zoo or somehow connected to the sauna - topic? 😉 All the best zum Jahresfest!!

Funny video. Thumbs up 👍

5:50 it could be a girl, who is naked. German has a lot of words, wich could have more than one meaning. So even native germans with a high education sometimes get into trouvle with the german language. 7:50 we don´t have only a Krankenwagen, but a Rettungswagen, Sanitätskraftwagen, Krankentransporter, Intensivtransporter and more. It can be very specific.

Here are another two from our North German language Plattdeutsch: Plattdeutsch: "Huulbessen", Hochdeutsch: "Heulbesen", übersetzt: "Staubsauger", English: "vacuum cleaner" Plattdeutsch: "Ackersnacker, Ackerschnacker", Hochdeutsch: "Ackersprecher", übersetzt: "Mobiltelefon, Handy", English: "cell phone, mobile phone" Second term was originally coined by north German military staff naming their wired field telephones this way, but today it has been taken over for the more modern mobile phone. Cheers from Schleswig-Holstein

slippers? More like Birkenstocks ^^

Yes words like these are easy indeed, but what you say to the grammar? Because the more I learn about my native language from a foreign language's perspective, the more confusing I find it. I mean, the prepositions, the separable verbs, the double or triple meaning of words! It must be horrible to learn that stuff xD My favourite german words are *Ohrwurm* (earworm - having a song stuck in your head), *Kabelsalat* (cable salad - entangled cables under your desk), *Narrenkasterl* (fool's box - when starring into nothing), *Schenkelklopfer* (thigh knocker - a joke so funny it makes you hit your thighs), and last but not least *Sturmfrei* (stormfree - parents out of house and rdy for partying) Viel Erfolg und Spaß weiterhin beim Lernen wünsch ich :)

I'm a teacher of German and English here in Germany (and I am a native German). Still, I tell all my students that English is actually a much easier language than German 😅 I do still stand by that, but I will use your examples with my 5th graders tomorrow!