If you work in a large office in Germany, you might have noticed colleagues saying Mahlzeit! An office canteen in Munich. According to Langenscheidt dictionary, the term can be used before or after a meal. Even the phrases 'Time to eat! Plus, can you think of an English word you say to your colleagues each day from around noon to 2.
We didn't think so.
Another German word that can be tricky for native speakers of other languages to wrap their heads around is sympathisch. While it's true that English words such as likeable, friendly and congenial can be used in its place, oftentimes none of these terms manage to truly say what a German speaker strives to communicate when they use it.
German-English dictionary - translation - Langenscheidt
One might describe rapper Sido's appearance here as sympathisch. For instance, by saying you find someone sympathisch jemanden sympathisch finden , you could mean that you feel close to a person in the sense that you trust them or you have a good gut feeling about them. Unfortunately though the English language doesn't make things easy for us; no such word which encapsulates everything that sympathisch means currently exists.
Duden dictionary defines the term as reinforcing a statement and confirming one's previous actions.
Correct translation from English to German at the click of a mouse
Further proof that the English language simply does not have a one-word translation for the expression, according to online dictionary dict. And it's not just limited to social situations - another definition of the word refers to the comfort of a prosperous, middle-class life. One translation offered by dict. But no, that's just not the case. Use of the succinct term depends heavily on context. That's because German speakers use it to contradict a negative question or statement. To round off this list, here's a word that's very specific to German culture; in English it really can only be explained in a few sentences.
Langenscheidt gives one definition for Kehrwoche: The word is also used in a broader sense to convey, for example, a returning week of responsibility for some communal task like cleaning a kitchen. Leave it to the Germans to be so efficient, they even have a word like Kehrwoche which exemplifies their structured behaviour and efficiency.
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8 German words that are impossible to translate into English
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