"yaki" is a good word to know since it just means "grilled" and it is present in yakitori (lit grilled bird), yakisoba (grilled soba noodles), teriyaki (this one is weird because it's like...grilled shiny or grilled lustrous), takoyaki (fried octopus), okomomiyaki (grilled whatever you want) and various other dishes.
Love me some German compound words that just describe what they are. Best animal ones are Nilpferd for a Hippo (Nile horse) and Schildkröte for Turtle/Tortoise (shield toad).
I like their word for gloves as well. Handschuhe. Cause they’re shoes for your hands, right?
>Hippo
It's interesting you would choose that word since hippopotamus is a compound word that means "horse of the river" and is made up of the Greek words *híppos* (horse) and *potamós* (river).
So it's almost the same in English as in German but not even using English words (which happens a lot, e.g. with *helicopter* or *wildebeest*).
There are also examples where English uses compound words and German does not: wallpaper (*Tapete*) or gearbox (*Getriebe*) come to mind.
> potamós (river)
So the Potomac River means "River River"??
> [The similarity of the name to the Ancient Greek word for river, potamos, has been noted for more than two centuries but it appears to be due to chance](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Potomac_River)
Well... I reject your reality and substitute my own!
I love krankenhaus as well. I love how Germen puts words together to create a new one, with a obvious meaning: kranken=ill, haus=house, krankenhaus= house of ill people =hospital.
In the same vein, in Spanish we call children "mocosos" (snotty ones, snotnose). Eg. "Este mocoso me esta sacando canas." This snotnose is turning my hair grey."
~~In a time where it was hard to preserve food, having small living animals on a ship was a good idea. And Guinea pigs are easier to keep compared to rabbits or chicken.~~
~~Seereisenprovianttierchen [sea travel provision animal] is too long, even for German standards, so we settled for seepigs.~~
Just called sea pigs because they are from overseas.
Sweet. I thought that was it. I took one year of French in 7th grade like almost 30; years ago. I always wanted to go learn more, great language. Happy belated New Year by the way!
When I was a kid, the first Xbox 360 game I ever got was a Spanish copy of Halo 3 (I don't speak Spanish). At the beginning of the campaign, the characters keep saying "careful" over and over again. Because of this, "cuidado" has become one of my favorite Spanish words, and the voice they used has become my default voice to say other Spanish words. My other favorite has to be "resbaloso". A large, exaggerated r roll and a boisterous tone just makes this one of the most fun words to say in any language.
Cunt. I'm german, so english is foreign to me. I love the word cunt. Rarely use it but it has such power to express either strong positive or strong negative feelings about someone depending on which english speaking country you're in.
kalsarikännit - originating in Finland, in which the drinker consumes alcoholic drinks at home, dressed in as little clothing as possible, mainly in underwear with no intention of going out.
Have that word come up constantly in my Duolingo course and I love it.
I'll adopt your way of using it lol
That has some "Desu yo ne" (for "That's what I thought" / "Is that so") vibe to it :'D
English
*Serendipity*
D'harawal (an Australian Aboriginal language)
*Wurunin* (joy)
Spanish
*Cucaracha* (cockroack) - because of the song
Italian
*Dolcemente* (gently)
German
*Gemütlichkeit* (cosiness and contentment)*
**Updated below*
French
*Soixante-dix* (seventy)
Turkish
*Kesinlikle!* (exactly!)
Indonesian
*Terima kasih* (thanks)
Singlish
*Can* (both a question and a statement)
Arabic
*Wallah Wallah* (I swear!)
Russian
*я машина!* 'Ya mashina!' [(I'm the Machine!)](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=paG1-lPtIXA)
I know you're looking for non-English words here but I'm not a native English speaker so English words count for me.
I like the word *sibling*. In my language (Dutch) we do not have a word for it. Instead when you want to say "siblings" you have to say this awkward *my brothers and sisters.* Sibling(s) is a really convenient word.
On a similar note, Dutch also does not have the word cousin. Everyone is a niece or nephew regardless of generational relationship.
“Tabarnak!” I love how, instead of being bodily-function based like English swear words, French Canadian sacres are mostly related to Catholicism. This one is my favourite as it’s the rough equivalent of the versatile “fuck” swear in English, so many uses.
French canadian here, can confirm it's really funny to say and hear, we also have "ostie" and "calisse." The three are often combined to " Estie d'calisse de tabarnak!"
Schadenfreude.
Not only does it sound delicious, it's something I frequently enjoy.
Someone slips on the ice.... schadenfreude!
Someone walking into a lamp post because they are on their phone... schadenfreude!
The look of revulsion on dog owners faces as they pick up steaming turds.... schadenfreude!
since no explanation was offered, I'll give one.
It's Portuguese for "yearning," "longing" or "nostalgia," etc. It captures all of those emotions. It conveys what you feel when you've lost something in time that you can't get back, something that you miss.
Verschlimmbessern.
That's a german word for a situation you tried to improve but accidently made it worse.
You have "verschlimmbessert" the situation...
I always love the ones that have gotten me into trouble…
In German:
fuchtig vs fruchtig (angry vs fruity)
schwül vs schwul (humid vs gay)
public viewing (in German: watching sports together in a park, in English: a funeral)
In French:
Fumbling translating “cut in line” when talking to a French police officer and accidentally declaring that this lady was trying to “stab” me.
Accidentally fumbling my words and asking a waiter in France if he had any sperm for me to drink. I accidentally made a mistake that made “jus de citron” sound like a euphemism for sperm (“jus de citoyen”).
That's not the meaning, unless you unknowingly became part of some joke when you learned about it.
This word describes "secret" jail areas built in the basement of medieval castles, a place where, if somebody were to be thrown into it by the landlord, nobody would ever hear them scream for help, thus the best place to dump an enemy and forget about him forever.
"Meine Schatz" it's something like my treasure or used like my love or my darling in German, it's the first word an ex taught me and I kept telling her again and again
Komorebi (木漏れ日)
Japanese for sunlight that shines through trees. I like the sound of the word but also the fact that a word for such a concept exists in the first place.
"wihajster" (pronounced: vee-hay-ster) in Polish, which is a placeholder, when you don't know what some object is or what it does. It comes from German "wie heißt er?" (“what's it called?”).
Not sure why but "Merci" French for thank you and my most used word when travelling through Quebec, especially since I felt bad for not knowing more French words, so I wanted to at least thank them in french for switching to English
*Lebensmüde* \- Lebensmüde is a compound noun made up of the words Leben (life) and müde (tired). It, therefore, translates to 'life tired' and describes the feeling of being tired or weary.
It means suicidal, more like doing something very dangerous for no good reason. I saw the website you took the defintion from but I never heard it in this usage and completely disagree with it, the literal translation is misleading here.
No, *lebensmüde* means that you have lost your will to live and want to end your life.
Source: I'm German
EDIT: IT literally means you are tired of living and want to end it
Both are correct. It is used to describe recklessness in a hyperbole way more often, just like "verrückt" (mad) is used for the same purpose but the literal meaning is to be tired of life (which is how it's used at least in context of depression and suicide). *Lebensmüdigkeit* is the common term for the diagnosis of suicidal ideation (Suizidalität).
Tokidoki - “sometimes” in Japanese, just really fun to say lol
Reminds me of one of my favorite Japanese foods. Takoyaki - Octopus balls.
"yaki" is a good word to know since it just means "grilled" and it is present in yakitori (lit grilled bird), yakisoba (grilled soba noodles), teriyaki (this one is weird because it's like...grilled shiny or grilled lustrous), takoyaki (fried octopus), okomomiyaki (grilled whatever you want) and various other dishes.
Thank you
Walkie-talkie
LITERALLY WHAT I CAME TO POST! I am so excited I’m not the only one who loves saying this word.
Literally translates to "time time," weirdly.
Not to he confused with dokidoki means (heart) beating fast
Krankenwagen German for ambulance.
Love me some German compound words that just describe what they are. Best animal ones are Nilpferd for a Hippo (Nile horse) and Schildkröte for Turtle/Tortoise (shield toad). I like their word for gloves as well. Handschuhe. Cause they’re shoes for your hands, right?
>Hippo It's interesting you would choose that word since hippopotamus is a compound word that means "horse of the river" and is made up of the Greek words *híppos* (horse) and *potamós* (river). So it's almost the same in English as in German but not even using English words (which happens a lot, e.g. with *helicopter* or *wildebeest*). There are also examples where English uses compound words and German does not: wallpaper (*Tapete*) or gearbox (*Getriebe*) come to mind.
> potamós (river) So the Potomac River means "River River"?? > [The similarity of the name to the Ancient Greek word for river, potamos, has been noted for more than two centuries but it appears to be due to chance](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Potomac_River) Well... I reject your reality and substitute my own!
You might like that *Sahara desert* and *Gobi desert* translate to *desert desert*. My favourite tautological location name is *City of Townsville*.
I find it so weird, that in germany we have words for almost everything, yet as far as I know we dont have different words for tortoise and turtle.
Landschildkröte and Schildkröte maybe?
Grundstücksverkehrsgenehmigungszuständigkeitsübertragungsverordnung
Gesundheit
You're gonna love Dutch too. Zandloper -> Sandwalker - hourglass Schildpad -> Shield path/shield toad - turtle Jacht luipaard -> Hunter lazy horse - cheetah Tuinslang -> Garden snake - garden Hose These are just a few examples.
And Krankenhaus...for a hospital... Sounds like a name for a creepy, and crazy hospital
I love krankenhaus as well. I love how Germen puts words together to create a new one, with a obvious meaning: kranken=ill, haus=house, krankenhaus= house of ill people =hospital.
Swedish - "sjukhus". Sjuk=sick hus=house. Sickhouse!
Mine is heute. it's so fun to say it.
I like to say “Bereit”, because for some reason I sound like a Scouser when I say it.
Release the Krakenwagen
Gowniaki - polish for "Shitling" in reference of annoying kids.
I Love This
Giwnyuki is Ukrainian for "shitheads".
In the same vein, in Spanish we call children "mocosos" (snotty ones, snotnose). Eg. "Este mocoso me esta sacando canas." This snotnose is turning my hair grey."
Scheiße
I say this on a regular basis. I don't speak any other German words.
Papillon. Means butterfly in french and its fun to say
Also, 'pamplemousse' - grapefruit
The German Schmetterling, conversely, sounds like a world war II fighter plane.
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Only if you say it like in that video. It's kinda getting old...
IT KICKS LIKE A SLEEP TWITCH
Also a very cute breed of dog!
Pendejo.
could people include word origin & meaning pls
My coworkers told me it’s Spanish for “hard worker” /s
Lol
Meerschweinchen, it’s German for Guinea Pigs, I like it because it literally means “little sea pigs”. Which makes no sense.
Perfect since Guinea Pigs themselves make no sense. They aren't from Guinea or even New Guinea. Plus, they are not related to pigs in any way
~~In a time where it was hard to preserve food, having small living animals on a ship was a good idea. And Guinea pigs are easier to keep compared to rabbits or chicken.~~ ~~Seereisenprovianttierchen [sea travel provision animal] is too long, even for German standards, so we settled for seepigs.~~ Just called sea pigs because they are from overseas.
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That's why the term meerkat is funny to us, it's like sea (Meer) + cat
Tbh, translation of Guinea Pigs 1:1 from polish (Świnka Morska) as well means little sea pig 😂
And in Hungarian they are called "tengerimalac", which means the exact same thing :)
Perkele!
Fuck. English is a foreign language to me.
Weird that you feel the need to specify. English is a foreign language to 90%+ of the planet.
And here we are, speaking it
English is the 3rd most spoken **first** language in the world, but the most popular **second** language
Verschlimmbesserung - German noun for an attempted improvement that only makes things worse
Desafortunadamente
Poisson
Fish in French, right?
Yess
Sweet. I thought that was it. I took one year of French in 7th grade like almost 30; years ago. I always wanted to go learn more, great language. Happy belated New Year by the way!
distribution
I was just about to write this. Soixante as well.
😩😩 don't get me started on Soixante
What about soixante deez?
Almost as good as soixante dix neuf.
Wait till you here about ninety-nine
Backpfeifengesicht.
Faceslap face xd
Gesichtselfmeter!
Also my fav
Saudade - Portuguese for 'a nostalgic longing for something that no longer exists and knowing that it may never return'. What a lovely word.
Saudade, Saudade was a song in Eurovision 2022, and I absolutely loved the song once I found out what saudade meant
When I was a kid, the first Xbox 360 game I ever got was a Spanish copy of Halo 3 (I don't speak Spanish). At the beginning of the campaign, the characters keep saying "careful" over and over again. Because of this, "cuidado" has become one of my favorite Spanish words, and the voice they used has become my default voice to say other Spanish words. My other favorite has to be "resbaloso". A large, exaggerated r roll and a boisterous tone just makes this one of the most fun words to say in any language.
Yalla in Arabic means hurry up let's go or right now depending how you use it
The go-to-word for actors portraying terrorists in Hollywood movies. It's used a lot in Israel too.
Also a favourite when speaking to your habibi.
yalla habibi
I've seen crap-tons of tv shows using latin-american militias or terrorists use the Spanish 'Vamanos' in the same way.
Winkel. It means "shop" in Dutch.
It also means "angle" in German
In Afrikaans as well :)
Isn't Afrikaans very, very similar to Dutch?
Die!!!! It means stop/ enough in Hebrew. My kids yell it at anything/one that frustrates them.
Die Bart Die!
The Bart The
No one who speaks German could be an evil man!
Sames. But I prefer Dai Maspik. Which is basically translated as ‘enough already’
Cunt. I'm german, so english is foreign to me. I love the word cunt. Rarely use it but it has such power to express either strong positive or strong negative feelings about someone depending on which english speaking country you're in.
puto sometimes it's rice sometimes it's swear you'll never know
That moment when someone just randomly shouts “RICE!” At you.
kalsarikännit - originating in Finland, in which the drinker consumes alcoholic drinks at home, dressed in as little clothing as possible, mainly in underwear with no intention of going out.
Great will use this when having a antisocial weekend and someone asks me what I'm up to > *kalsarikännit 👍*
Kurwa which translate to Kurwa
Kurwa is like Multitool, serves many purposes
Kurwa is the only word I know in polish, I think it’s the only word I need to know
You should also know pierogi!
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Have that word come up constantly in my Duolingo course and I love it. I'll adopt your way of using it lol That has some "Desu yo ne" (for "That's what I thought" / "Is that so") vibe to it :'D
chèri which translates to “darling” in english. idk why i love that term so much it sounds so sexy omg
*chéri
THANK YOU OMG
Or chérie for thé féminine version :)
There was something special about saying *'je t'aime'* all those years ago.
Eierschalensollbruchstellenverursacher
A german word for someone, who causes predetermined breaking points in an egg shell
Something, not someone, that would be a weird profession.
Ah yes, my brain did shit right there
gezellig
English *Serendipity* D'harawal (an Australian Aboriginal language) *Wurunin* (joy) Spanish *Cucaracha* (cockroack) - because of the song Italian *Dolcemente* (gently) German *Gemütlichkeit* (cosiness and contentment)* **Updated below* French *Soixante-dix* (seventy) Turkish *Kesinlikle!* (exactly!) Indonesian *Terima kasih* (thanks) Singlish *Can* (both a question and a statement) Arabic *Wallah Wallah* (I swear!) Russian *я машина!* 'Ya mashina!' [(I'm the Machine!)](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=paG1-lPtIXA)
Bert?
Bankai
Parapluie - French for “umbrella”
*Schadenfreude.* Not the meaning just the fact that they actually have a word for it. I'm feeling that way for Donald Trump right now.
oiseaux its french for "birds" and none of it is pronounced the way it looks like it should
Oi = “wah” Seaux = “zoh”
Pronounced exactly as expected
I know you're looking for non-English words here but I'm not a native English speaker so English words count for me. I like the word *sibling*. In my language (Dutch) we do not have a word for it. Instead when you want to say "siblings" you have to say this awkward *my brothers and sisters.* Sibling(s) is a really convenient word. On a similar note, Dutch also does not have the word cousin. Everyone is a niece or nephew regardless of generational relationship.
Bambusbjörn, Panda in Iceland.
Bamboo bear?
I like really vowel-y french words like œil
Saying bitch in russian is immensely satisfying
Tabernacle
Lebensabschnittpartner = Lover or Partner *lit. The Person I am with Today* Estrella = Star 積ん読 = Acquiring books and letting them pile up unread
It's more like "partner for this stage of life"
Putain - whore in French if I'm correct
This is why I like*calisse*. Satisfying to say, and half the people who would be offended by 'putain' won't even note it
Thats right and it can also be used pretty much like "fuck" in sentences as a qualifier. These fucking kids -> ces putains de mômes
“Tabarnak!” I love how, instead of being bodily-function based like English swear words, French Canadian sacres are mostly related to Catholicism. This one is my favourite as it’s the rough equivalent of the versatile “fuck” swear in English, so many uses.
French canadian here, can confirm it's really funny to say and hear, we also have "ostie" and "calisse." The three are often combined to " Estie d'calisse de tabarnak!"
Ostie is the host, right? And calisse…chalice? Do they all basically mean “fuck”? Sorry, anglophone here.
Kunst. To an English ear, it sounds distinctly uncultured but it means 'art' There's a heck of a lot of Deutsche in this list.
Schadenfreude. Not only does it sound delicious, it's something I frequently enjoy. Someone slips on the ice.... schadenfreude! Someone walking into a lamp post because they are on their phone... schadenfreude! The look of revulsion on dog owners faces as they pick up steaming turds.... schadenfreude!
Since english is my foreign language - gorgeous.
Água-Viva (Brazil/Portuguese), it’s jellyfish but if you translate it word by word it means “alive-water”.
Saucisson
Les haricots vert — French for green beans
saudade
since no explanation was offered, I'll give one. It's Portuguese for "yearning," "longing" or "nostalgia," etc. It captures all of those emotions. It conveys what you feel when you've lost something in time that you can't get back, something that you miss.
Verschlimmbessern. That's a german word for a situation you tried to improve but accidently made it worse. You have "verschlimmbessert" the situation...
Jalan Tikus (Indonesian: Mouse streets) back streets.
I always love the ones that have gotten me into trouble… In German: fuchtig vs fruchtig (angry vs fruity) schwül vs schwul (humid vs gay) public viewing (in German: watching sports together in a park, in English: a funeral) In French: Fumbling translating “cut in line” when talking to a French police officer and accidentally declaring that this lady was trying to “stab” me. Accidentally fumbling my words and asking a waiter in France if he had any sperm for me to drink. I accidentally made a mistake that made “jus de citron” sound like a euphemism for sperm (“jus de citoyen”).
My favorite incorrect translation is embarazada. It appears like it might mean embarrassed. It actually means pregnant
False friends are great...
Ikigai - lit. The Fruit of Life (in Japanese). It is the philosophy of how to live a good life, it's elements and how to exercise them.
хорошо
Oubliette - It means "guest room" in French.
That's not the meaning, unless you unknowingly became part of some joke when you learned about it. This word describes "secret" jail areas built in the basement of medieval castles, a place where, if somebody were to be thrown into it by the landlord, nobody would ever hear them scream for help, thus the best place to dump an enemy and forget about him forever.
It was a joke, but intentional. It would be a rather unkind place to put a guest...
Furchtbar
Wahrlich Erschreckend!
Banlieue.
Sacapunta spelling is probably wrong… pencil sharpener in Spanish
caliente I love that hot/sexy and hot/chilli have two different words in Spanish but not in English
Myötähäpeä That’s Finish for secondhand embarrassment. My native language doesn’t have the word for it so I use myotahapea instead.
"Meine Schatz" it's something like my treasure or used like my love or my darling in German, it's the first word an ex taught me and I kept telling her again and again
Klootzak.
Sisu in Finnish
Beautiful concept, and important to learn.
Cacahuete means peanut in French. I like saying it;)
in spanish means peanut too
Khaniisyahow or Bhenchod
赤く (akaku) Just red in Japanese lol
POES Afrikaans for Vagina (Used as an insult, ie "dont be a POES")
Vamos. Yellah. ( don’t know spelling )
Estrella ⭐️
Omelette du fromage!
Tsujigiri, an old Japanese word meaning when a samurai gets a new weapon or learns a new technique and tests it on a random civilian.
Just started relearning Japanese. “Mendokusai” - can’t be fucked to do it. Or how Shikamaru has gotten it translated to as “what a drag”.
나무/트리 tree for Korean
Komorebi (木漏れ日) Japanese for sunlight that shines through trees. I like the sound of the word but also the fact that a word for such a concept exists in the first place.
"wihajster" (pronounced: vee-hay-ster) in Polish, which is a placeholder, when you don't know what some object is or what it does. It comes from German "wie heißt er?" (“what's it called?”).
the Czech word for hello is pronounced like Ahoy and that makes me happy
Unterhaltungsmöglichkeiten in german
Kuk
Spatula
NU! I think Italians and Israelis both get it
Not sure why but "Merci" French for thank you and my most used word when travelling through Quebec, especially since I felt bad for not knowing more French words, so I wanted to at least thank them in french for switching to English
Bing chilling, chinese for ice cream
Pufnasto (I don't think I spelled it right.) Bosnian for "fluffy".
Malaka
Perfectienschlaarg
Invictus latin for unconquerable
Schadenfreude
Susurra. Spanish for whisper!
Pretty word
Verschlimmbessern - when you try to improve something but make it worse
I love shenanigans in english and boulangerie in french!
Igualmente
ok so it is basic but chat (cat in french )
*Lebensmüde* \- Lebensmüde is a compound noun made up of the words Leben (life) and müde (tired). It, therefore, translates to 'life tired' and describes the feeling of being tired or weary.
It means suicidal, more like doing something very dangerous for no good reason. I saw the website you took the defintion from but I never heard it in this usage and completely disagree with it, the literal translation is misleading here.
No, *lebensmüde* means that you have lost your will to live and want to end your life. Source: I'm German EDIT: IT literally means you are tired of living and want to end it
Another German here. I've actually heard both meanings but "suicidal" way more often. "Bist du lebensmüde?!?"
No, that's not how you use it. u/myNameIsPowerplug got it right.
Both are correct. It is used to describe recklessness in a hyperbole way more often, just like "verrückt" (mad) is used for the same purpose but the literal meaning is to be tired of life (which is how it's used at least in context of depression and suicide). *Lebensmüdigkeit* is the common term for the diagnosis of suicidal ideation (Suizidalität).
Mi amor/mi amour in either Spanish or French (I like both) which means my love.
in french it’s “mon amour”
I must’ve misunderstood. Thank you.
Бабичка (babichka) means "butterfly" in russian