German is known for its long words, partially because it builds new words by placing a number of old words together.  To date, selbstverantwortlichkeitsprinzip is the longest word I have run into in my day-to-day life, literally meaning “the principle of self-responsibility.”  But no, I still can’t use it in a sentence.

When I Googled long German words, here are two of the longest I found that are actually in use (there is technically not a “longest” word, since you could essentially go on adding words together forever):

Donaudampfschiffahrtsgesellschaftskapitän, which, literally translated means: Danube (Donau) – steam (Dampf) – ship (Schiff) – trip (fahrt) – company (Gesellschaft) – captain (kapitän).

Rindfleischetikettierungsüberwachungsaufgabenübertragungsgesetz, which, literally translated, means: Cattle (Rind) – meat (Fleisch) – labelling (Etikettierung) – supervision (Überwachung) – duties (Aufgaben) – assignment (Übertragung) – law (Gesetz).

Okay, enough of that.  I am off to enjoy a weekend at the Ost See (otherwise known to the rest of the world as the Baltic Sea).

Tschüss!