German expressions that don’t exist in English • Hacker News Board

Re: German expressions that don’t exist in English

#71

Post by deanjones » Mon, Dec 30, 2019, 10:39 AM UTC

allendoerfer wrote: post #56

deanjones wrote: post #51

Alternative title: "One language that has different close compounding rules than another language has different compound nouns than that other language". Auf Deutsch: Verscheidenzusammengesetztesgebotesprachen haben verscheide zusammengesetztes Substantive.

To the non-native speakers: "Verscheidenzusammengesetztesgebotesprachen" looks long and German, but is not a German word. Maybe its parts were auto-corrected.

As that great Germanic comedian Mr Arnold Schwarzenegger might have said: "And here are the jokes ..." :-)

Re: German expressions that don’t exist in English

#72

Post by ahartmetz » Mon, Dec 30, 2019, 10:39 AM UTC

lower wrote: post #15

a_bonobo wrote: post #11

I've been struggling to find an equivalent for 'overengineered' in German - there's verschlimmbessern, a portmanteu verb of 'verbessern' (improve) and 'schlimm' (bad), it's what you use when you want to improve something but the end-product is worse. However, German tech (to me!) has a overengineering problem, not a verschlimmbessern problem, there's nothing being improved. Just look at modern German cars, impossible…

I usually say überkompliziert.

That is missing the passive-aggressiveness of "overengineered"... which is probably fine.

Re: German expressions that don’t exist in English

#73

Post by deanjones » Mon, Dec 30, 2019, 10:55 AM UTC

coldtea wrote: post #61

deanjones wrote: post #51

Alternative title: "One language that has different close compounding rules than another language has different compound nouns than that other language". Auf Deutsch: Verscheidenzusammengesetztesgebotesprachen haben verscheide zusammengesetztes Substantive.

> Alternative title: "One language that has different close compounding rules than another language has different compound nouns than that other language". And different cultural and historical sensibilities expressed in those compound nouns - which is the main point of the article one would assume, not the mechanics...

From the article: "the unique wisdom of some of these words, that don't have an exact counterpart in the English language". So the claim is precisely that because English doesn't have single-word translations of these German terms, that the German words somehow encode "unique wisdom", which is obviously BS.

In most cases, close examination reveals that it's unfounded BS. "Aufrichtigkeit" (Sincerity/Honesty) has the same 'literal' meaning as the English "upstanding", as in "an upstanding citizen". "Liebenswürdig" is just "lovable", and so on and so forth.

Re: German expressions that don’t exist in English

#74

Post by iiv » Mon, Dec 30, 2019, 10:58 AM UTC

usr1106 wrote: post #40

EastLondonCoder wrote: post #22

Interestingly enough the words exists in Swedish as well, spelling is a bit different but the meaning is more or less the same: German -> Swedish Wehmot -> vemod Entwicklung -> utveckling Einsam -> ensam Stimmung -> stämmning Entschuldigen -> ursäkta Aufrichtigkeit -> uppriktighet Lebensmut -> livsmod Ursprung -> ursprung Liebenswürdig -> älskvärd Note that Sinneswandel is missing not sure if there is a direct transl…

>Entschuldigen -> ursäkta That's not a direct translation as far as I can see. I'm not a native speaker but I don't think säkt does means anything, opposite to Schuld, which has a clear meaning. The direct translation would be something like avskulda, but that's not a word AFAICS.

Yes, you are correct. The direct translation is "urskulda" which is a Swedish word meaning "justify" or "excuse".

Re: German expressions that don’t exist in English

#75

Post by _glass » Mon, Dec 30, 2019, 11:05 AM UTC

a_bonobo wrote: post #11

I've been struggling to find an equivalent for 'overengineered' in German - there's verschlimmbessern, a portmanteu verb of 'verbessern' (improve) and 'schlimm' (bad), it's what you use when you want to improve something but the end-product is worse. However, German tech (to me!) has a overengineering problem, not a verschlimmbessern problem, there's nothing being improved. Just look at modern German cars, impossible…

I worked once for a German company that used the German version of overengineered quite a lot, and they used 'eierlegende Wollmilchsau' for this, which is analytically not correct, but everybody understood it as overengineered. In general I think you have to give more context, to translate correctly, i.e. depending on context with 'klimbim', 'Spielerei'.

Re: German expressions that don’t exist in English

#76

Post by [deleted] » Mon, Dec 30, 2019, 11:07 AM UTC

itronitron wrote: post #24

larusso wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What about “vertüftelt”? “tüfteln” means to tinker around. The word means that you bring something into the state of being tinkered together or is complex.

Ingenieurvergnügen

[deleted]

Re: German expressions that don’t exist in English

#77

Post by gherkinnn » Mon, Dec 30, 2019, 11:10 AM UTC

_glass wrote: post #75

a_bonobo wrote: post #11

I've been struggling to find an equivalent for 'overengineered' in German - there's verschlimmbessern, a portmanteu verb of 'verbessern' (improve) and 'schlimm' (bad), it's what you use when you want to improve something but the end-product is worse. However, German tech (to me!) has a overengineering problem, not a verschlimmbessern problem, there's nothing being improved. Just look at modern German cars, impossible…

I worked once for a German company that used the German version of overengineered quite a lot, and they used 'eierlegende Wollmilchsau' for this, which is analytically not correct, but everybody understood it as overengineered. In general I think you have to give more context, to translate correctly, i.e. depending on context with 'klimbim', 'Spielerei'.

Eierlegende Wollmilchsau (egg-laying, wool-bearing, milk-giving pig) is a jack of all trades. It can mean over engineered (F35 anyone?) or simply a way to describe an unit that does not adhere to the I in SOLID.

Re: German expressions that don’t exist in English

#78

Post by progfix » Mon, Dec 30, 2019, 11:13 AM UTC

a_bonobo wrote: post #11

I've been struggling to find an equivalent for 'overengineered' in German - there's verschlimmbessern, a portmanteu verb of 'verbessern' (improve) and 'schlimm' (bad), it's what you use when you want to improve something but the end-product is worse. However, German tech (to me!) has a overengineering problem, not a verschlimmbessern problem, there's nothing being improved. Just look at modern German cars, impossible…

I never heard anyone use it before, but 'überentwickelt', which is the antonym to the commonly used 'unterentwickelt', makes perfectly sense and should be understood by every german speaker.

Re: German expressions that don’t exist in English

#79

Post by goto11 » Mon, Dec 30, 2019, 11:14 AM UTC

coldtea wrote: post #60

jasonjei wrote: post #46

Doesn’t every language have such a thing? What makes German more exceptional than English? Or Chinese more exceptional than English? I’m certain there are expressions that don’t exist in every language, and even if you translated them, they might not translate well due to cultural or linguistic issues (try translating Monty Python to Chinese while keeping British wit and hoping your average Chinese viewer understands…

> Doesn’t every language have such a thing? Not in the same degree. > What makes German more exceptional than English? Different syntax, more abstract terms, and easier to combine terms and create new meanings. > Or Chinese more exceptional than English? Totally different writing system, syntax and sensibility, and a couple of millennia or more of added history.

I will dispute that it is "easier to combine terms and create new meanings" in German than in English. You can combine words to create new words in either language.

Re: German expressions that don’t exist in English

#80

Post by georgeplusplus » Mon, Dec 30, 2019, 11:15 AM UTC

Hermel wrote: post #31

No, these expressions exist in English, they just have a slightly different meaning. And in the case of “Entwicklung”, the English pendant “Development” even has the exact same origin: to unwrap or unfold (the opposite of envelope). There certainly are German expressions that do not exist in English, but this list does not do a good job at collecting them. My personal impression is that German makes it easier to expr…

I dislike when people say “this cannot be translated correctly into your language” as it logically doesn’t make sense. perhaps they mean word for word?

I’m sure any language can conjure up a similar feeling and combination of words. Maybe not a literal translation, but by virtue of being a human construct, any language can be crafted and molded into anything.