7 Germans Words That Sound Inappropriate in English
/Ahh, the German language! With it's famous compound words, umlauts and the guttural ch sound, the German language is not necessarily easiest language in the world to learn. Mark Twain has even written an entire novella about it. Despite it's difficulty to learn, let alone master, there are some amusing aspects to the German language. Over time, we have come across some....interesting....words that sound funny, inappropriate, or both, to an English speaker. The list below highlights some of the more colorful ones we have found. Enjoy!
- Superdick - This one was noted, ironically, on a pack of toilet paper. It technically means super thick, but superdick in English is infinitely more amusing. Before Aaron realized what it meant, he yelled out to me, ''What kind of toilet paper are you buying?!''
- Damit - This word is used fairly often in the German language. It kinds sorta sounds like they are swearing a lot to an English speaker. Alas they are not. This little word is a lowly preposition that means thereby, or with it.
- Fahrt - Any and all of it's cousins, gute Fahrt, Einfahrt, Ausfahrt. It is derived from the word fahren, which means to drive, but in English it sounds, well, more colorful. But thankfully not smelly :)
- Schwanz - Sounds a little bit like a euphemism for a part of the male anatomy. Which it, technically, is. But in German it also means tail. So....I'm just gonna leave that one right there.
- Handy - again, interesting connotation if you are American but in German, it simply means a cell phone. Note that this has been adopted from British English.
- Lust - Nope, this one isn't one of the deadly sins, instead it means delight.
- Schmuck - This one probably did get incorporated from the German language into English, but with the wrong meaning. In German, it means jewelry.
Know of any that we missed? Please be sure to put them in the comments!
