Any thoughts on words that exist in the German language but not in the English language?

Answer 1

Gemütlichkeit

Answer 2

Thoughts In German Language

Answer 3

Well, whilst you will have to excuse the spelling of my contribution to this question as I have never seen it written down, I know it exists as I had the chance to ask a German for an exact translation!
My word is 'beklompt'?
Whilst living briefly in Germany [1979] this word was used [or so I thought] to mean 'crazy'!
Fast forward to the year 2001 on a ferry crossing to Eire where I met amongst a group of 'travellers', a German man to whom whilst chatting I was reminded of this word, I took the chance to ask him for an exact translation to English......he told me that it meant in actuality [ha!] '...you have a hole in the sock in your head!' Now I don't know for sure but I am almost certain that there isn't a single English word which would mean the same as the translation he gave me. So if he is correct with his explanation then I would nominate this word as an answer to your question.

so German the phrase 'Du bist beklompt!' [You are Crazy?] I feel cannot be translated in a meaningful way...' You are a hole in your sock in your head! Well! Ain't I just!

Answer 4

There are countless words. See, the thing is that in German you can make up words as you go. You just add two or more words together to form a new word. You will never be able to look them up in a dictionary but everybody knows what they mean. And in many cases they are impossible to translate in just a word or two because they can express complex thoughts or they are very metaphorical.

Answer 5

Gemütlichkeit is great and many others have been mentioned so just an addition (not even to your question but to a reply)
OK one for you is there a word for "Handymast"? means a pole on which antennas for transmitting the signals to mobile phones are mounted - we had a lot of discussions about those here as the telecom companies put them everywhere.

@STYX IMP

I guess you mean "beklopft" in some German dialects also "bekloppt". Meaning exactly what you said - stupid (like you've been knocked on the head too often) klopfen - to knock

Answer 6

Numerous German words are used in English:
We've had, Zeitgeist and Schadenfreude, but there are also Kindergarten, Leitmotiv, Angst, Doppelgänger, Kitsch and Echt-kitsch, Jugendstil and probably a whole lot more.
These are German words for which no acceptable translation can be found in English.
Think about it, the normal word for 'Jugendstil' in English would be 'Art Nouveau', which is French.

Answer 7

You mean, words like "schadenfreude"? This word roughly means taking some comfort in other people's misfortune. Because of the way the German language often combines smaller words to describe something, there are lots of examples like this one.

Answer 8

In idiomatic translation, there is frequently no one-to-one correspondence between the words in their respective source and target languages. For example there is no single English word for 'weltschmerz' or 'zeitgeist'- rather these have to be rendered as phrases. I would speculate that certain 'elemental' words are 1-1 translatable, but as cultures developed and diverged, different emphasis/significance of concepts emerged.

Answer 9

We normally import words from anybody else's language when we don't have anything as good to match it already.

For example 'Zeitgeist', which means spirit of the age. You hear English and American theatre critics using the German word all the time.

Answer 10

Plenty..and I can't even speak German..Feldwebel, Nicht,
Oberst, Portpee, Gefreiter...What a strange question...There would be fewer words that appear in BOTH.

I know these can be translated into English...so can 99% of the language.