6 GERMAN WORDS & PHRASES I WISH WE HAD IN ENGLISH

⤹Everything you want to know is here!⤵︎

Relatively easy and nice words that I love in German- that we do not necessarily have in the English language. I don't think I have mentioned any of these words on my channel before so these are all "new" words/phrases.

When I tell you that "da haben wir den Salat" is a normal phrase in our household... I truly mean it comes out of my mouth at least 2 times a day :p

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00:00 Germans words I wish we had in English
00:40 italki sponsorship
02:16 German compounded words
02:50 Kater: male cat vs hangover
03:31 Dreikäsehoch: three cheese high
04:25 Honigkuchenpferd: honey cake horse
05:37 Reisefieber: travel fever
06:08 die Löffel aufsperren: unlock the spoons
07:23 da haben wir den Salat: there we have the salad
08:33 Thank you for watching!

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[grandmak.]

Hi Hayley, 'Dreikäsehoch' is mostly used for kids with a good portion of self esteem or with an outstanding skill in relation to his or her age.
Hunters call a hare's ears 'Löffel' and because they are so big it means something like 'listen carefully'.

[DanVibesTV]

The best explanation of "Da haben wir den Salat" that I heard was, when you imagine for example a "Kartoffelsalat" - "Potato Salad" or any other salad. It consists of a lot of cut ingredients, mixed together with a dressing, like oil and vinegar. And it is literally impossible or very hard to unmix/unwind the things back to their original state -> Chaos;
That is why we use Salad for other chaotic things like "Kabelsalat", which means "Cable Clutter", or back in the day of cassettes (MCs, VHS aso) there was the "Bandsalat" as well. It means just messed up the tape of those cassettes.

[johnnywalker]

"Die Löffel aufsperren" has a different meaning and has nothing to do with actual spoons. Löffel is the hunter's expression for the long ears auf a hare, and if you picture them, they have a concave shape and that is where the similarity to spoons comes from. There is a similar expression in German "Die Lauscher aufsperren" and Lauscher are in general the ears of a deer. Lauschen means to be very silent/still and hear into the the surroundings, usually by night. So the similarity is the feeding deer, which raises the head and only moves its ears in order to grasp even the slightest noise, that could forewarn some danger. Same thing with a hare, that listens into the night. When used in humans, it means but does not have to, that either someone could have large ears or its more like a threat of a superior (i. e. school of old days or military) where the teacher or superior would pull the students ears, when they were not listening and because of that "the ears have had reason to have stretched". So both above mentioned expressions display some annoyance/threat by the person, who uses it. A father/teacher/superior, who is fed up, with the other either making fun or talking, thus keeping others from listening, or seemingly not getting something, kind of like a last warning (listen closely in Englisch)..
Die gleichen Löffel sind auch beim "Die Löffel abgeben" als einem Euphemismus für Sterben gemeint, in Anlehnung an den beim Jagen getöteten Hasen: "Der hat die Löffel abgegeben". Ähnlich, wenn man am Ende des Essens Messer und Gabel auf dem Teller nebeneinander hinlegt um zu zeigen, dass man fertig ist --> "He has finished (existing)".
BTW: in Farsi (language spoken in Persia and parts of Afghanistan), the name for hare is "chalgusch sahara" or rabbit chalgusch. Chalgusch means "donkey ears". I cannot brake chalgusch further down, but is that not funny?

[Julia-lkjn]

"Kater" for hang-over probably started out as "der Katarrh" = the catarrh. Definitely an older expression when that word was more used for a general feeling of "my internal organs are at war with me".

Which also explains the wonderful word "Muskelkater", literally: the male cat of my muscles, slightly more logically: the hang-over of muscles (that have been worked a bit too hard). That one probably also started out meaning "a catarrh of the muscles."

Either way, it gave us the glorious image of muscles having a hang-over.

Oh, and the word "Kater" is also available as a verb: "Ich bin verkatert" !

[ketamu]

Dreikäsehoch is a small kid... mostly braging around or being smartass 😅 it's not really an insult. I never heard it used for adults.

[rexman]

This is why I love the German language. They have many words and phrases that your head is trying to wrap around logically but expressed so differently. One that I heard is Kummerspeck (literally grief bacon or sorrow bacon). It is weight gained through emotional eating when depressed or unhappy.

[lazyperfectionist]

I think the _real_ brilliance about compound words in German is that, most of the time, you can show one of them to two different German speakers who have never seen it before and they will each instantly know its meaning.

[dianavp]

As a German I honestly can say that your description of "Honigkuchenpferd" ist the best one I've ever heard. So true.😁

[walterh.]

Dreikäsehoch means not only small. It means a child that speaks like someone older and wiser .

[dedeegal]

Ich habe noch niemanden erlebt, der das "Honigkuchenpferd" so gut erklärt hat, wie du 🙂
Perfect!

[rhalleballe]

Actually, "Reisefieber" does NOT mean, that "you are ready to travel" or that you "want to travel just now". Instead, it means the big excitement you feel close to a travel. When your blood pressure raises, you do no sleep well, and you ask yourself things like "do i have all things together, which i need to travel", "do i have my passport, is my passport still valid" etc.pp. That specific excitement is called "Reisefieber".

[karstenvagt]

The English translation for grinsen wie ein Honigkuchenpferd would be grinning like a Cheshire cat

[Durin]

"Salat" is often used for something chaotic or jumbled. Like "Wortsalat" (Wordsalad) or "Kabelsalat" (Cabelsalad).
It tries to coney that something is now in disarray and disorder which will require a lot of effort to sort again.

[stefannilsson]

Not that I know that much German, but "Reisefieber" seems (like many other words that are almost the same between Sweden and Germany) as the Swedish "Resfeber" this in turn means anxiety or being nervous before you take a trip.

[gerdforster]

I think you are spot on with the Salat, it comes from the fact that salads are all mixed together.

Löffel means spoon(s), but it is also the term used by hunters to refer to the ears of hares and rabbits. It kind of trickled back into normal German.

Rewboss made a video about the confusing origins of the term Kater for hangover. I recommend it, it is quite fun.

[DerJarl]

"Dreikäsehoch" is a colloquial and joking term for a small child. It is mostly used when the child is observed to behave in a rebellious or cheeky manner. In 2007, the term was voted the third most beautiful endangered word in the German language.

[juwen]

The thing with the Löffel cames from the Jägersprache (Hunters languages). In Germany hunters uses different words for describing some body parts of animals. I don't know if this is a thing in other languages too, but in this case Löffel describes the long ears of a rabbit.
Greetings from Berlin 😎

[FuelFire]

Your pronunciation of "Honigkuchenpferd" was actually spot on after the first try

[MrHodoAstartes]

The phrases around the "Honigkuchenpferd" refer to a common fair treat of the 19th and early 20th century.
It was literally a honeyed cake shaped as a horse.
The thing about them is that they had a distinctive smile that naturally did not waver. So the meaning is that you smile ceaselessly if you are compared to them.
There are naturally connotations of general enjoyment around sweets and fairs in general, which tint the phrase.

[norbertzillatron]

I think, "Löffel" refers to the ears of rabbits and hares. It probably has its origin in hunting language.