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

Re: German expressions that don’t exist in English

#91

Post by kaybe » Mon, Dec 30, 2019, 11:49 AM UTC

joezydeco wrote: post #69

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…

Funny thing, I see a lot of software development job listings in German that use 'Entwicklung' as a synonym for 'Developer'.

'Entwickler' (someone or something that does Entwicklung) is the direct translation of 'developer'.

Re: German expressions that don’t exist in English

#92

Post by kaybe » Mon, Dec 30, 2019, 11:54 AM UTC

zmix wrote: post #36

ema wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We don't have a word for it because we don't see it as overengineering, we see it simply as engineering ;) On a more serious note, there is this idea that at their core systems are about accepting inefficiency in order to gain consistency and simplicity. From this perspective us Germans accept inefficiency for consistencies sake but not for simplicity.

> We don't have a word for it because we don't see it as overengineering, we see it simply as engineering ;) Haha! Yes, totally! No German engineer "overengineers". Ever! It's called "refinement", "evolution" and "sophistication". There is no language to criticise engineers in a nation dominated by engineers (and businesspeople). ;)

There is no 'underengineer' either though, is there?

Re: German expressions that don’t exist in English

#93

Post by jfk13 » Mon, Dec 30, 2019, 11:57 AM UTC

superhuzza wrote: post #70

Aufrichtigkeit – Sincerity/Honesty. Literally: To be in an upright posture This sounds pretty similar to 'having a spine'. Its normally used for courage or sticking up for your beliefs.

We can simply use "uprightness" for exactly that meaning in English, too. Or "rectitude".

Re: German expressions that don’t exist in English

#94

Post by tyfon » Mon, Dec 30, 2019, 11:57 AM UTC

iiv wrote: post #74

usr1106 wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>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".

In Norwegian unskyld means i'm sorry which corresponds to german.

Many of these words just change a bit over time like geld/gjeld which is money in German and debt in Norwegian.

Re: German expressions that don’t exist in English

#95

Post by kaybe » Mon, Dec 30, 2019, 11:58 AM UTC

larusso wrote: post #20

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…

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.

That can be used as a compliment. You have this problem that seems impossible to solve, but the resident mechanic is able to magick together a solution, like this.

Re: German expressions that don’t exist in English

#96

Post by terofle » Mon, Dec 30, 2019, 11:59 AM UTC

camillomiller wrote: post #34

As an Italian living in Germany, and as a lover of the German language, I think this is not a good list. It reads like it was put together to fit the author's approach to coaching. Entwicklung, indeed, is the best example of this. It is exactly the same in English. What's really fun about German: as a non native you can get to a point where you create involuntary neologisms by putting together words you already know.…

> I just cant's wrap my head around the rule of writing every substantive with a capital letter though, which I interpret as an annoying need to always circumstantiate a purported objectivity of the perceived reality.

I think this rule actually exists to make reading german texts easier.

IMO reading german without capitalized nouns is a lot harder, because you don’t recognize nouns on first sight.

Re: German expressions that don’t exist in English

#97

Post by [deleted] » Mon, Dec 30, 2019, 12:02 PM UTC

missosoup wrote: post #86

georgeplusplus wrote: post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Some languages are inherently less expressive than others. English is not very expressive and therefore a large number of words phrases and idioms don't have an analogue that makes sense in english. Trying to reduce them to something that makes sense is like trying to explain a joke. It defeats the purpose. Anyone who speaks >1 languages is aware of this.

[deleted]

Re: German expressions that don’t exist in English

#98

Post by zmix » Mon, Dec 30, 2019, 12:03 PM UTC

kaybe wrote: post #92

zmix wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> We don't have a word for it because we don't see it as overengineering, we see it simply as engineering ;) Haha! Yes, totally! No German engineer "overengineers". Ever! It's called "refinement", "evolution" and "sophistication". There is no language to criticise engineers in a nation dominated by engineers (and businesspeople). ;)

There is no 'underengineer' either though, is there?

If one would really want to name the two terms in question, one might say:

* überentwickelt for overengineered (not really used)

* unterentwickelt for underdeveloped (matches the word, even)

"Unterentwickelt" is a term we do not use lightly, since it is a word we often used in elementary school to bully some kids, so that has that smell to it. (Usually you also add a howling sound to that word and give yourself a smack on your forehead ;))

Re: German expressions that don’t exist in English

#99

Post by LeonW » Mon, Dec 30, 2019, 12:06 PM UTC

Another word someone brought up is "Geborgenheit", which translates to comfort or security. Briefly researching the origin it, it seems to come from the terminology around "Burg" (castle), and the feeling of safety and comfort we feel when we're inside one. In my understanding it also has a considerable amount of warmth next to the sense of safety and comfort. Overall, definitely one of my favorite words that I think belongs on this list too!

Re: German expressions that don’t exist in English

#100

Post by jjgreen » Mon, Dec 30, 2019, 12:09 PM UTC

schappim wrote: post #38

tacomonstrous wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ah, but it does have an equivalent in English: it's schadenfreude.

Only because we fairly recently stole it!

Not that recently, it's been used italiced and capitalised for a century, only recently it's been properly absorbed by losing those decorations. In contrast, the French absorb foreign words almost instantly, see the verb "liker" (to like on Facebook) for example.