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Those stupid (germanized) anglicisms!

greenlighten

I was watching a late night show on German TV the other night and the host was interviewing a famous German actor about his new projects. It was then that he used a verb greenlighten, or to be even more precise a beautiful German past tense form of the verb: gegreenlightet. I am a huge fan of ingenious neologisms but does the German language have to absorb English words only? English words most of which have neat German equivalents. It’s always the same scheme: we take an English word that sounds ‘fancy’ and germanize it by adding appropriate endings. Boring!!

Asides

  • Those of you who speak or are learning German may be familiar with the word satt as in 'Ich bin satt', meaning "I'm full as a bull/stuffed/about to pop". A word you may not be familiar with is sitt, which is satt's liquid equivalent, meaning one's thirst has been quenched. Makes sense to me! Hungrig - satt, durstig - sitt. Are you reading this, English language? los geht's!
  • Ever felt like the deliciousness of something could not be described by the word 'lecker'? Well, now there's an alternative from downunder which will really get the message across: "that was bloody lecker!" (and no, it doesn't mean covered in blood.) NB: Please do not take the offence. I only make the Spaß! los geht's!

Welcome to Miss-Verständnis

Miss Verständnis is all about the fun and often completely nicht zu verstehenden misunderstandings caused by the German language.

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