Plenty of German words have made their way into the English language — kindergarten, gesundheit, zeitgeist, kitsch, kaput, poltergeist, angst — just to name a few.  Even words like über, Wunderkind, and Schadenfreude have become trendy among hipsters and urbanites.  This definitely makes learning German vocabulary all the easier for me (grammar is another thing entirely).

But one of my favorite things about the German language is its tendency to build new words by combining other words together.  Even if you haven’t seen or heard a particular word before, you can often decipher the meaning if you know the words within the word.  As a learner of the language, this means your passive vocabulary grows exponentially, and the word combinations often make for fascinating image associations!

Here are a few of my favorite examples:

Handschuhe: hand + shoes = gloves.  I love this word-picture!  All I have to do is think of hands wearing shoes and I will never forget the word for gloves.

Selbstmord: self + murder = suicide.  Okay, so it is not really that pleasant of a word, but the language definitely calls it like it sees it.  No euphemisms here.

fettarme: fat + poor = low-fat.  I love the idea of fat being poor!

Feierabend: celebration + evening = end of the work day/quitting time.  I love this word for its insight into German culture.  At the end of the work day, you don’t just wish someone a good evening — you specifically wish them a good “rest of the day where you don’t have to work.”  And it doesn’t have to be evening either.  Whether someone’s shift ends at 11am or 11pm, you still wish them a “schönen Feierabend.”  The importance of the time spent outside of work is clear.

übermorgen: over + tomorrow = the day after tomorrow.  So much more succinct than the English version, isn’t it?

And those are just a few of the words that tickle me the most.  Do you have favorite words (German or otherwise)?