this post was submitted on 07 Jan 2025
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[–] TheAlbatross@lemmy.blahaj.zone 65 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago) (10 children)

I love how the Germans use zeuge.

Tools? Those are work things. (Werkzeuge)

Airplanes? You know, flying things! (Flugzeuge)

Vehicles? Duh, the driving things! (Fahrzeuge)

Why make new word when two (or six) words will do?

[–] Dunstabzugshaubitze@feddit.org 35 points 4 months ago (1 children)

compoundwords are marvelous <3

[–] miss_demeanour@lemmy.dbzer0.com 37 points 4 months ago (2 children)

coumpoundwordsareamarvelouszeuge.

[–] fallingcats@discuss.tchncs.de 10 points 4 months ago (1 children)

No, compound words are usually just compound nouns. Exactly the same as in English, except the space is missing.

[–] Zwiebel@feddit.org 3 points 4 months ago (1 children)

English does that too sometimes, look at the "closed" compounds:

https://eslforums.com/compound-words/

[–] Dunstabzugshaubitze@feddit.org 5 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago) (1 children)

i really dont like that "compound word" is not a proper compoundword.

i hope my mispelling spreads far enough to remedy this.

[–] Zwiebel@feddit.org 1 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago)

Good point, Küchenentlüftungsschießeinrichtung

It's 3:30 AM and I'm giggling like an asshole

[–] SubArcticTundra@lemmy.ml 13 points 4 months ago (1 children)

To convince someone? Over-thing them. (überzeugen)

[–] superkret@feddit.org 30 points 4 months ago (1 children)

German here. That's an entirely different word, with a different word stem and history, despite being spelled exactly the same.

Also completely unrelated to Zeugen (witnesses) and zeugen (conceive).

[–] SubArcticTundra@lemmy.ml 7 points 4 months ago (1 children)
[–] superkret@feddit.org 9 points 4 months ago

Honestly, I love this language. And I fully understand anyone who hates it.

[–] Asetru@feddit.org 11 points 4 months ago (1 children)

Like... Fire things, green things, bed things, playing things and hundreds of other things. Love it almost as much as animals that are just something-animal. Like bag-animal (marsupial), beak-animal (platypus) or belt-animal (armadillo).

[–] SubArcticTundra@lemmy.ml 3 points 4 months ago

An armadillo is just an Illo with a gun

[–] katkit@lemmy.world 8 points 4 months ago

I think it's fun how Zeug has gone from a technical meaning to a cute one.

The current meaning of Zeug is something like stuff or unimportant things.

It used to mean kit, gear or equipment though, which makes a lot of sense and is still visible in words like Zeugwart (equipment manager of a sports team or army).

With that knowledge, Werkzeug would just be a tool kit.

[–] Atherel@lemmy.dbzer0.com 7 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago)

You can translate Zeug with thing.

Workthingy

Flythingy

Drivethingy

...

[–] syklemil@discuss.tchncs.de 7 points 4 months ago

Same thing in Norwegian with "tøy" (verktøy, fly, kjøretøy, plus fartøy for water-faring vessels) … and then tøy by itself means cloth or clothes (also available through klestøy)

[–] rumschlumpel@feddit.org 4 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago)

Witnesses? They're just ... things. (Zeugen)

[–] 737@lemmy.blahaj.zone 3 points 4 months ago

the base noun is really "Zeug"

[–] TotallynotJessica@lemmy.blahaj.zone 8 points 4 months ago (1 children)

Someone break this word down for me and explain why it's so long 😡

[–] stetech@lemmy.world 15 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago) (1 children)

Someone break this word down for me

Hilfe leistungs lösch gruppen fahrzeug

(technically i’d need to add capitalization and dashes when separating into full nouns)

help giving exterminating groups’ ~~vehicle~~ drive thing (as others in this thread have noted)

Das Hilfeleistungslöschgruppenfahrzeug der Feuerwehr […]

The aid-providing fire-fighting vehicle of the fire department

Es transportiert Feuerwehrleute, Leitern, Werkzeuge, Schläu[che…]

It transports firefighters, ladders, tools, hoses

Not gonna lie, it’s a bit over the top. Feuerwehrfahrzeug (fire dept’s truck) would’ve sufficed IMO. Nobody not working as a firefighter (and arguably not even all of those who do) knows let alone uses that long-form word.

"Feuerwehrfahrzeug" is still too many letters 😮‍💨