The word good in germany

OK, so how do you say Very Good in German? When it comes to praise and appreciation, we have a number of words and phrases to express ourselves. The term “very good” is probably one of the most basic expressions for praise. But due to its pure and basic character, it is also a very solid phrase. If we want to get the same feeling across in German, how would we do it? Luckily, it’s not all that difficult. There’s one literal translation and quite a few other German words and phrases as an alternative.

Sehr Gut – Very Good in German

Translating “very good” to German is actually quite easy. Germans simply use the literal translation “sehr gut.” It’s an expression every German is familiar with, as it’s the phrase used for the best mark in German schools. Elementary schools in Germany usually use a system of six grades from 1 to 6, with 1 being the best, i.e. “very good.”

But the German “very good” is also used in other areas of life. Whether Germans talk about their holidays, new recipes or books they read – when it comes to express highest satisfaction, the phrase “sehr gut” gets used frequently.

Examples

“Wie hat euch das neue Restaurant gefallen?” – “Oh, sehr gut. Mein Steak war ausgezeichnet!”

English Translation: “How did you like the new restaurant?” – “Oh, very good. My steak was excellent!”

“Wie fandest du den neuen Spider Man-Film?” – “Klasse. Die Special Effects waren super und die Schauspieler waren auch sehr gut!”

English Translation: “What did you think of the new Spider Man movie?” – “Great. The special effects were amazing and the actors were very good too!”

“Ich war laufen am Wochenende.” — “Sehr gut. Und, hast du Muskelkater?”

English Translation: “I went running this weekend.” – “Very good. So, are you sore?”

“Wie gefällt dir mein neues Kleid?” – “Sieht sehr gut aus!”

English Translation: “How do you like my new dress?” – “It looks very good!”

If you want to vent your disappointment instead of enthusiasm, it is just as simple in the German language as it is in English. You only have to put a “nicht” in front of the phrase, the German translation for “not.”

Examples

“Wie war das Wetter in eurem Urlaub?” – “Leider nicht sehr gut. Die erste Woche hat es nur geregnet.”

English Translation: “How was the weather during your vacation?” – “Unfortunately, not very good. The first week it rained all the time.”

“Wie fandest du das Musical?” – “Nicht sehr gut. Das Bühnenbild war sehr düster und die Musik hat mir auch nicht gefallen.”

English Translation: “What did you think of the musical?” – “Not very good. The stage design was very gloomy and I didn’t like the music either.”

“Sprichst du Deutsch? – “Ja, aber leider nicht sehr gut.”

English Translation: “Do you speak German? – “Yes, but unfortunately not very good.”

Synonyms for Very Good in German

As in English, there are quite a few other German words to express enthusiasm with. We list a few of these words together with their closest English translations, so you can vary your expression if you want to.

• ausgezeichnet — stellar
• exzellent — excellent
• großartig — great
• hervorragend — superb
• überragend — outstanding
• super — super
• traumhaft — dream-like
• vorzüglich — first-rate
• wirklich gut — really good

Examples

“Meine Pizza war wirklich vorzüglich! Der Boden war nicht zu dick und der Käse war super lecker!”

English Translation: “My pizza was really first-rate! The base was not too thick and the cheese was super tasty!”

“Ich habe eine Gehaltserhöhung bekommen!” – “Hervorragend, herzlichen Glückwunsch!”

English Translation: “I got a pay rise!” – “Excellent, congratulations!”

“Sie hatte einen großen Anteil an diesem Projekt und ihre Arbeitsmoral war überragend!”

English Translation: “She had a huge part in this project and her work ethic was outstanding!”

German Phrases meaning “very good”

Apart from single words, there are also some phrases to express something (or someone) is very good:

• das läuft wie geschnitten Brot — meaning something “sells like sliced bread”, is a huge success
• alles in Butter — literally: “all in butter”, meaning everything is well and safe
• auf Draht sein — “to be on the wire”, stems from a time when telegraphs were the latest invention in communication. Anyone who had access to this modern technology was “on the wire” and well informed about the latest news.
• geht ab wie Schmidts Katze (informal) — “to go off like Schmidt’s cat” means something goes very quick or well

Conclusion

As you could see, it’s really easy to translate very good into German. And we also gave you a few alternative words you can use to voice your appreciation. So that shouldn’t be a problem for you anymore. Which is: “Sehr gut!” 🙂

By Anatoly Liberman

A reader commented on my recent statement that Engl. good and god are unrelated and noted that this statement, in addition to being counterintuitive and undemonstrable, can even lead to schisms. Being a peaceful man, I am very much against all kinds of hostilities. Nor do I think that the history of words should interfere with faith to such an extent as to result in religious wars. But god and good are indeed unrelated, and I decided not to wait for the last Wednesday of November, when my monthly gleanings are due, and to say what is known about the origin of the words in question as early as possible (now people say only to not wait; for me such a split infinitive is worse than a schism).

Good has transparent etymology: gather and -gether are related to it. Their root means “fit, suitable.” This circumstance is borne out by numerous cognates in and outside Germanic. That is “good” which has been “fixed,” “assembled,” “put together” in a proper way. By contrast, the origin of god is debatable, which does not mean that we know nothing about its derivation. But before I come to the point, let me say that already long ago the proximity of good and god (in the other Germanic languages the two words also sound alike) gave rise to the conclusion that such a striking similarity in sound cannot be fortuitous. Here are three quotations dated 1589, 1606, and 1637 respectively. I have borrowed them from the book Folk-Etymology by the Reverend A. Smythe Palmer (1883). His etymologies should be treated with caution (though, naturally, he explains why good and god are unrelated), but his collection of examples is excellent. I have partly modernized the spelling of the originals.

“If that opinion were not [that is, if the opinion that god and good are related proved false], who would acknowledge any God? The very Etimologie of the name with us of the North partes of the world declaring plainely the nature of the attribute, which is all one as if we said good [bonus] or a giver of good things.” (1589) “God is that which sometimes Good we nam’d, / Before our English tongue was shorter fram’d.” (1606) “An indifferent man may judge that our name of the most divine power, God, is…derived from Good, the chiefe attribute of God.” (1637)

It could not escape the readers’ notice that I spelled god with low case g. I did it for a reason. The concept of God, of one Supreme Being, was alien to polytheistic religions. The further back we step into the past, the clearer it becomes that at one time people believed in multitudes of beings controlling our fate. Those invisible spirits were revered, worshipped, or propitiated, if you will, to prevent them from making humans ill. Language has preserved multiple traces of that state of mind. Elves possessed arrows and caused back pain (lumbago): their victims were “elf-shot.” Dwarfs, if my etymology of the word dwarf is correct, made people dizzy (“*dwysig”; the asterisk means that such a form has not been attested; the Old English word was dysig, with *w lost before long y), while trolls seem to have made the inhabitants of the earth “droll” (that is, ridiculous, behaving like buffoons, crazy). The situation with the gods (in the plural!) is especially clear. The Greek for “god” is theos. We find the same root in enthusiastic, or “possessed by a god,” which could mean “deranged” or “divinely inspired.” (Engl. enthusiastic is from French; Greek is its ultimate source.) The Germanic gods made one “giddy” (Old Engl. *gydig—a close parallel to enthusiastic). One can see that the spirits above were not thought of as good. The contrary is true.

With the advent of Christianity, dwarfs, trolls, elves, and the pagan gods, along with witches, giants, revenants, and the rest survived in folktales and superstitions. Even before that they descended from their heights and became anthropomorphic. Originally the singular form god did not exist in the Old Germanic languages; only the plural did. Three grammatical genders were distinguished: masculine, feminine, and neuter. The form of the word for “gods” was neuter plural, the most typical choice for designating such multitudes. Some other modern Indo-European words for “god” are unlike god: compare Greek theos, Latin deus, and Slavic bog. It may be that god does not even have a Germanic etymology. Perhaps the early Germanic-speakers borrowed it from the indigenous population of the lands on which we find them in the historical period. However, since in this case the pre-Indo-European substrate that could have lent god to Germanic is beyond reconstruction (substrate being a technical term for a language submerged in the language of later settlers), reference to it by a language historian is tantamount to an admission of final defeat. Hence the many attempts to find an Indo-European cognate of god. Any “thick” dictionary will inform us that god can be compared with two Sanskrit words: one meaning “to invoke,” the other “to pour.” Today most etymologists prefer the second hypothesis and interpret “pour” as “libation” (in the process of sacrifice), but the idea of invocation also has learned supporters.

My opinion does not weigh more than either of those two, but I believe that both conjectures are wrong. The primitive “gods” may have been invoked or sacrificed to, but the main thing about them was that they were feared. That is why I share the idea of Karl Brugmann, a great German scholar, who was active in the 19th and at the beginning of the 20th century. He also found only a Sanskrit word to guide him, namely the adjective ghoras “awful, frightening.” According to him, Greek theos had the same origin. If he had been right, the result would have been illuminating, but, as it turned out, theos is not related to the Sanskrit adjective, and Brugmann’s etymology lost interest in the eyes of his colleagues. Yet even though theos and god do not belong together, it does not follow that god and ghoras should be kept apart. I think they possibly are, but hardly anyone will side with me. Likewise, I am in the absolute minority in my conviction that Slavic bog “god” is related to such English words as bug, bogy(man), and their kin. The inherent weakness of the etymologies cited above—from “invoke,” “pour,” and “frightening”— is (apart from the uncertainty of our word’s Indo-European provenance) that a single putative cognate of the Germanic word turns up so far from Germanic, in the language of Ancient India. A search for a better solution continues. Not long ago god was represented as the sum of the particle g- “that one” and an old root meaning “upward.” There also are several older etymologies that have been rejected as untenable, because they are untenable. Of the four words—theos, deus, bog, and god—only deus poses no problems: it is related to Zeus’s name and refers to a bright sky; here we are dealing with a primitive sky god.

After the conversion to Christianity, a word for “God” became necessary, and it had to belong to the masculine gender. This is indeed what happened: the singular was abstracted from the plural, and the neuter yielded to the masculine. Whatever the etymology of god may be, god and good are not related. I should also say that reference to intuition, if intuition means an undisciplined emotion, should be avoided. Etymology is a study of word history and presupposes a professional look at the development of sounds, grammatical forms, and meaning in many languages. “Intuitively,” deus and theos are two variants of the same word, but they are not. The term folk etymology covers suggestions of the theos-deus and god-good type: the temptation to connect look-alikes is irrepressible, but, unless we choose to remain in pre-scientific etymology, it should be resisted. Although “scientific etymology” stumbles at every step, there is no need to make it limp even more by burdening it with naïve medieval hypotheses. I sincerely hope that no schism will be the result of this post.

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Anatoly Liberman is the author of Word Origins…And How We Know Them as well as An Analytic Dictionary of English Etymology: An Introduction. His column on word origins, The Oxford Etymologist, appears here, each Wednesday. Send your etymology question to [email protected]; he’ll do his best to avoid responding with “origin unknown.”

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

An ersatz good (German: [ɛɐ̯ˈzats]) is a substitute good, especially one that is considered inferior to the good it replaces.^[1] It has particular connotations of wartime usage.

Etymology[edit]

Ersatz is a German word literally meaning substitute or replacement.^[2] Although it is used as an adjective in English, it is a noun in German. In German orthography noun phrases formed are usually represented as a single word, forming compound nouns such as Ersatzteile («spare parts») or Ersatzspieler («substitute player»). While ersatz in English generally means that the substitution is of unsatisfactory or inferior quality compared with the «real thing», in German, there is no such implication: e.g., Ersatzteile ‘spare parts’ is a technical expression without any implication about quality, whereas Kaffeeersatz ‘coffee substitute’ is not made from coffee beans, and is thus inferior. The term for inferior substitute in German would be Surrogat, which is cognate to English word «surrogate».

Historical context[edit]

World War I[edit]

In the opening months of World War I, replacement troops for battle-depleted German infantry units were drawn from lesser-trained Ersatz Corps, which were less effective than the troops they replaced.

Another example of the word’s usage in Germany exists in the German naval construction programs at the beginning of the 20th century. In this context, the phrasing «Ersatz (ship name)» indicates that a new, larger or more capable ship was a replacement for an ageing or lost vessel. Because German practice was not to reveal the name of a new ship until its launch, this meant that the ship was known by its «Ersatz (ship name)» throughout its construction. At the end of World War I, the last three ships of the planned Mackensen class of battlecruisers were redesigned and initially known simply as the Ersatz Yorck class, since the first ship was considered to be a replacement for the lost armored cruiser Yorck.

The Allied naval blockade of Germany limited maritime commerce with Germany, forcing Germany and Austria-Hungary to develop substitutes for products such as chemical compounds and provisions. More than 11,000 ersatz products were sold in Germany during the war. Patents for ersatz products were granted for 6000 varieties of beer, wine and lemonade; 1000 kinds of soup cubes; 837 types of sausage and 511 assortments of coffee.^[3]

Ersatz products developed in Germany and Austria-Hungary during this time included:^[4]

• synthetic rubber Kautschuk produced from petroleum for rubber
• benzene for heating oil (coal gas)
• industrial lubricants made by extracting oils from coal tar and brown-coal slags
• synthetic camphor for imported natural camphor
• nitrate crepe paper made from cellulose for gun cotton
• glycerin from sugar rather than fats
• gypsum-yielded sulphur
• pigeon guano used to make fertilizer
• flowers and weeds processed to make alcohol for ammunition
• rosins and gums extracted from coal derivatives
• tea composed of roasted barley, grasses, wild flowers, ground raspberry leaves or catnip
• coffee substitute using roasted acorns, chicory and beechnuts (stretched with caramel-flavoured raw sugar and beet flower later in the war)
• butter replaced by curdled milk, sugar and food colouring
• cooking oil replaced by a mixture of beets, carrots, turnips and spices
• salad oil was 99 per cent mucilage
• eggs replaced by yellow-coloured corn or potato flour
• ground European beetles (cockchafers) and linden wood replaced fats
• sausage made of water, plant fibres, animal scraps and blood — (the infamous ‘war sausage’ which was equated to ‘a mouthful of sawdust’)
• bouillon cubes made 70-90 per cent of salt rather than meat extract
• wheat flour stretched by adding potato flour and powdered hay
• chocolates and cocoa replaced by ground cocoa shells and mixed pure pepper
• oil and sunflower ‘cakes’ replaced corn and oats as horse feed
• rapeseed, poppy and mustard ‘cakes’ replaced green feed for cattle
• paper, peat, reeds, bulrushes and free-growing stinging nettle fibres replaced cotton in textiles
• wood and paper used for shoe soles

Germany also stretched its supply of petrol with ‘gasohol’ (Benzolspiritus), which by today’s standards would be classed as E25 petrol, consisting of 75% petrol and 25% distilled alcohol, likely ethanol.^{[citation needed]}

World War II[edit]

In World War II, Ersatzbrot (substitute bread) made of potato starch, frequently stretched with extenders such as sawdust, was furnished to soldiers as Kommissbrot, a dark German bread baked from rye and other flours used for military rations,^[5][6] and also to prisoners of war.^[7][8][9] One recipe discovered in the Food Providing Ministry in Berlin, labeled «(Top Secret) Berlin 24.X1 1941», contained 50% bruised rye grain, 20% sliced sugar beets, 20% «tree flour» (sawdust), and 10% minced leaves and straw.^[7]

During the siege of Leningrad, its citizens were given ersatz flour instead of actual wheat flour (of which there was an extremely limited supply then) by the Soviet authorities. The lack of proper food with any nutrition meant that the city residents not only starved but became vulnerable to deadly illnesses and diseases (such as dysentery) owing to their weakened physical conditions.^[10] As a result, the word ersatz entered as a pejorative into Russian and other Slavic languages.

In Britain, this was additionally popularised as an adjective from the experiences of thousands of U.S., British, and other English-speaking combat personnel, primarily airmen, who were captured in the European Theater of Operations during World War II. These Allied prisoners of war were given ersatz goods such as Ersatzkaffee, an inferior Getreidekaffee or «grain coffee» as a coffee substitute by their German captors.

Eastern Bloc[edit]

In the Eastern Bloc, many agricultural goods could not be produced domestically, such as tea, coffee, nuts, and citrus fruits. These were generally imported from abroad with scarce foreign currency reserves, or inferior substitutes were produced domestically. In 1977, the East German coffee crisis resulted in the introduction of many coffee substitutes, which were generally rejected by the population. Replacements for orangeat and succade were made from candied carrot and unripe tomatoes.^[11]

Effectiveness[edit]

When people are asked to choose an ersatz good, they tend to prefer a substitute from the same category as the good they desire to a goal-derived substitute, one that meets the same goal. For instance, a person who desires a gourmet chocolate is more likely to choose another, less expensive chocolate as a substitute than a different kind of dessert or snack. Because such «within-category» substitutes are easier to compare to the desired good, however, those that are inferior are less effective than «cross-category» substitutes that fulfil the same goal. People are more able to notice their inferiority during consumption, which leads them to be less satisfying than goal-derived substitutes from different taxonomic categories.^[12]

During the First World War in Germany and Austria-Hungary, people succumbed to sickness from the consumption of ersatz goods.

In Austria, the term «Vienna sickness» was coined after malnutrition from was linked to a cause of the tuberculosis epidemic (10,000 reported cases)^[13]

In Germany, Princess Blücher suffered from influenza in 1916, suggesting that she was suffering from «ersatz illness». She writes: «everyone is feeling ill from too many chemicals in the hotel food. I don’t believe that Germany will ever be starved out, but she will be poisoned out first with these substitutes.»^[14]

See also[edit]

• Adulterant
• Austerity
• Backstop resources
• Claytons, a word used in Australian and New Zealand English
• Counterfeit
• Giffen good, a good for which there is no ersatz replacement, causing demand to rise with prices

References[edit]

Ever felt a little lost for words when speaking German?

Chances are, you were missing an adjective. You can’t get very far when describing something if you’re limited to only a handful of adjectives, at most.

“He’s a tall, muscular, bald guy…okay, I can say he’s tall…how about ‘bald?’”

That sentence can’t even get off the ground.

But here, with the information in this article, you’ll be able to learn German adjectives and confidently describe pretty much anything you need to, without breaking a sweat. Because 100 German adjectives is a lot!

In our German adjectives lesson, before our list, you’ll find the following information on how to use German adjectives:

• German adjectives rules
• German adjectives word order
• German adjective endings and how to conjugate them
• Tips on how to learn German adjectives

Let’s have a look.

Table of Contents

1. A Quick Overview of German Adjectives
2. Top 100 German Adjectives List
3. Add a Few Words and Make Your Meaning More Exact
4. How to Go Beyond German Adjectives Vocab to Total Mastery

1. A Quick Overview of German Adjectives

It’s entirely possible that German adjectives are some of the most complex things in the German language. There’s no getting around the fact that there’s a lot to master.

So how do German adjectives work?

Very briefly, when used in front of a noun, adjectives in German decline, that is, their endings change in order to give extra information about the grammatical function of that noun.

• Ich sehe einen alten Mann.
  I see an old man.

Here, the adjective alt, meaning “old,” takes the ending -en to show that the noun, Mann, is the direct object of the sentence. English doesn’t make this kind of distinction, so it’s a little tricky to get your mind thinking in that way at first.

Fortunately, such changes don’t happen at all when the adjective comes after the noun.

• Meine Mutter ist alt.
  My mother is old.

Same word, no ending. No problem!

In this article, we’ll list out the most important German adjectives you need to know, giving you the root form at first and then declined forms in the sentence. If you haven’t already, check out our information on German cases, and then you can exercise your grammar knowledge by figuring out what case the adjective is in!

One other note before our German adjectives list: German doesn’t distinguish between adjectives and adverbs. So it’s possible to use quite a few of these as adverbs instead; in fact, that’s what we did in a few examples, where the adverb meaning is more easily understandable to you.

2. Top 100 German Adjectives List

1- German Colors Adjectives: Describing Colors

Colors help us distinguish objects from one another, and color words help us communicate with others exactly which one we’re talking about.

1. weiß – white

Ich habe ein weißes Kissen.
I have a white pillow.

2. schwarz – black

Ist dein Auto schwarz?
Is your car black?

3. blau – blue

Sie trägt blaue Jeans.
She’s wearing blue jeans.

4. rot – red

Wo sind meine roten Socken?
Where are my red socks?

5. gelb – yellow

Hast du meine gelben Stiefel gesehen?
Have you seen my yellow boots?

6. grün – green

Er hat mir eine grüne Krawatte gegeben.
He gave me a green tie.

7. braun – brown

Magst du braune Schuhe?
Do you like brown shoes?

8. rosa – pink

Ihre Haare sind rosa.
Her hair is pink.

9. orange – orange (Note that in German, this word is pronounced in the French way, with a nasal A and a ZH sound)

Was für ein schönes oranges Kleid!
What a beautiful orange dress!

10. grau – gray

Der Himmel ist heute grau.
The sky is gray today.

2- German Adjectives for Food: Describing Taste

You’re not limited to just German food when you speak German. Use these words to order what you’d like or insult what you don’t—the choice is yours!

11. scharf – spicy

Indisches Essen ist oft scharf.
Indian food is often spicy.

12. würzig – spicy, with a lot of spices

Das ist zu würzig für mich.
That’s too spicy for me.

13. süß – sweet

Schoko-Eis ist süß.
Chocolate ice cream is sweet.

14. lecker – tasty

Das ist richtig lecker!
That’s really tasty!

15. frisch – fresh

Gibt es hier frische Milch?
Is there fresh milk here?

16. gebraten – fried

Gebratene Eier sind gesund.
Fried eggs are healthy.

17. stinkend – stinky

Magst du stinkenden Tofu?
Do you like stinky tofu?

18. salzig – salty

Das Abendessen war ein bisschen zu salzig.
Dinner was a little too salty.

19. bitter – bitter

Warum ist die Suppe bitter?
Why is the soup bitter?

20. sauer – sour

Die Milch ist schon sauer.
The milk is sour already.

21. roh – raw

Bitte geben Sie mir nichts rohes.
Please don’t give me anything raw.

3- German Adjectives for Personality

People you meet on the street come in all kinds. Everybody has a unique personality, and it’s high time that you started talking about them in German.

22. offen – open-hearted; personable

Er ist definitiv ein offener Mensch.
He’s definitely an open person.

23. tolerant – tolerant (the stress in German is on the last syllable)

Sind die Leute hier tolerant?
Are the people tolerant here?

24. hilfsbereit – helpful; ready to help

Ja, sie sind immer hilfsbereit.
Yes, they’re always ready to help.

25. geduldig – patient

Mein Vater ist nicht geduldig.
My father is not patient.

26. klug – clever

Die Studenten sind sehr klug.
The students are very clever.

27. böse – evil

Die böse Hexe lebt im Wald.
The evil witch lives in the forest.

28. egoistisch – selfish; egoistic

Sei nicht so egoistisch.
Don’t be so selfish.

29. faul – lazy

Warum musst du immer faul sein?
Why do you have to be so lazy all the time?

30. brav – well-behaved (used for children)

Braves Kind!
Wonderful child!

31. gefährlich – dangerous

Es ist zu gefährlich!
It’s too dangerous!

4- German Adjectives: Feelings & Emotions

A lot of Germans think that just saying “I’m fine” when they ask how you’re doing is a little bit superficial, or even rude. Here’s how you can learn to be more specific and more honest.

32. genervt – annoyed

Warum bist du genervt?
Why are you annoyed?

33. froh – happy

Ich bin immer froh zuhause.
I’m always happy at home.

34. müde – tired

Meine Mutter ist abends immer müde.
My mom is always tired in the evenings.

35. hungrig – hungry

Ich bin hungrig, aber ich will hier nichts essen.
I’m hungry, but I don’t want to eat anything here.

36. traurig – sad

Was für ein trauriger Film!
What a sad movie!

37. gespannt – excited

Seid ihr alle gespannt?
Are you all excited?

38. übel – nauseated; queasy

Mir ist auf einmal übel.
I’m queasy all of a sudden.

39. bequem – comfortable

Dieser Rock ist nicht bequem.
This skirt is not comfortable.

40. wütend – angry; furious

Bitte sei nicht so wütend auf ihn.
Please don’t be so angry with him.

5- German Adjectives for Describing Nationality

Take care in this section. In German, adjectives describing countries are never capitalized, as they are in English. This is one of the biggest giveaways that you might be a non-native German writer!

41. deutsch – German

Deutsches Essen ist nicht sehr bekannt.
German food is not very well-known.

42. französisch – French

Ist er französisch oder kanadisch?
Is he French or Canadian?

43. dänisch – Danish

Die dänische Küste ist kalt.
The Danish coast is cold.

44. ungarisch – Hungarian

Willst du einen ungarischen Film sehen?
Do you want to watch a Hungarian film?

45. chinesisch – Chinese

Chinesische Bücher sind sehr lang.
Chinese books are very long.

46. südafrikanisch – South African

Er spielt für die südafrikanische Mannschaft.
He plays for the South African team.

47. mexikanisch – Mexican

Es gibt nicht so viele mexikanische Restaurants in Europa.
There aren’t many Mexican restaurants in Europe.

48. kanadisch – Canadian

Haben Sie kanadischen Speck?
Do you have Canadian bacon?

6- German Adjectives for Describing Time

Some days pass pretty fast, and others pass pretty slow. These words can be used as adverbs and adjectives without any difference.

49. schnell – fast

Die Züge in Japan sind schnell.
The trains in Japan are fast.

50. langsam – slow

Die Nachrichten sind heute langsam.
The news is slow today.

51. früh – early

Ich muss heute früh schlafen.
I need to sleep early tonight.

52. spät – late

Seien Sie Morgen nicht spät.
Don’t be late tomorrow.

53. pünktlich – punctual; on time

Sie ist immer pünktlich.
She’s always on time.

7- German Adjectives for Describing Appearance (People)

Never be rude when describing others—just be discreet. Hopefully, you can use these words to more accurately describe yourself as well!

54. glatzköpfig – bald

Der Mann war glatzköpfig.
The man was bald.

55. dick – fat

Sie sind ein bisschen dick geworden.
They got a little fatter.

56. dünn – thin

Wieso ist er so dünn?
How is he so thin?

57. reich – rich

Ich möchte nächstes Jahr reich sein.
I want to be rich next year.

58. arm – poor

Warum gibt es immer noch arme Leute?
Why are there still poor people?

59. groß – tall

Sie ist ziemlich groß für ein Mädchen.
She’s pretty tall for a girl.

60. alt – old

Wie alt bist du?
How old are you?

61. jung – young

Der junger Mann hat mir geholfen.
The young man helped me.

62. schön – beautiful

Du bist sehr schön heute!
You’re very beautiful today!

8- German Adjectives for Describing Appearance (Things)

Going shopping in Berlin, comparing your stuff with your friend’s, or just trying to find that one thing you misplaced? These are the essential German adjectives you can’t live without.

63. teuer – expensive

Warum sind sie so teuer?
Why are they so expensive?

64. billig – cheap

Trägst du billige Kleidung?
Do you wear cheap clothes?

65. breit – wide; broad

Die Straße ist nicht breit.
The road is not wide.

66. lang – long

Der Brief ist lang and traurig.
The letter is long and sad.

67. schwer – heavy

Das ist zu schwer, und ich kann es nicht ziehen.
That’s too heavy, and I can’t pull it.

68. leicht – light

Haben Sie einen leichten Karton?
Do you have a light cardboard box?

69. dick – thick

Das Buch ist dick und schwer.
The book is thick and heavy.

70. eng – narrow

Es gibt wahrscheinlich Spinnen in diesem engen Flur.
There are probably spiders in this narrow corridor.

71. hier – here

Bist du schon hier?
Are you here yet?

72. da – there

Siehst du das Gebäude da?
Do you see that building there?

73. dort – there (far away)

Sie wohnt in den Bergen dort.
She lives in yonder mountains.

74. hell – bright

Das Zimmer ist hell und bequem.
The room is bright and comfortable.

75. dunkel – dark

Warum ist es so dunkel hier?
Why is it so dark here?

9- German Weather Adjectives: Describing Weather

Here are some of the most useful adjectives for talking about weather—always a good icebreaker. We actually have a whole separate resource on weather words, so pop over and check that one out too!

76. windig – windy

Heute ist ein windiger Tag.
Today is a windy day.

77. heiß – hot

Das Wetter heute ist heiß.
The weather today is hot.

78. kalt – cold

Es kann sehr kalt sein in Kanada.
It can be very cold in Canada.

79. sonnig – sunny

Gestern war es schön und sonnig.
Yesterday, it was beautiful and sunny.

80. bewölkt – cloudy

Der Himmel ist immer noch bewölkt.
The sky is still cloudy.

81. neblig – foggy

Es ist immer neblig auf dem Gipfel.
It’s always foggy on the mountain.

82. warm – warm

Heute ist nicht so warm als gestern.
Today is not as warm as yesterday.

10- German Adjectives for Describing Touch

Touch is slightly different than appearance. As we all know, appearances can be deceiving!

83. hart – solid; fixed

Das Glas ist sehr hart.
The glass is very hard.

84. weich – soft; smooth

Das Bett ist weich.
The bed is soft.

85. rutschig – slippery

Pass auf, der Boden ist rutschig.
Be careful, the floor is slippery.

86. brüchig – brittle; fragile

Es ist 2019 und Handys sind immer noch brüchig.
It’s 2019 and phones are still fragile.

87. gefroren – frozen

Ich bin fast gefroren hier draußen.
I’m almost frozen out here.

88. geschmolzen – melted

Ich mag kein geschmolzenes Eis.
I don’t like melted ice cream.

11- German Adjectives for Describing Concepts

Ever tried to explain something to somebody else and they just balk at your attempt? It’s much easier if you can reassure them that it’s easy, or better yet, that it’s related to something they’re already familiar with.

89. wichtig – important

Vergiss nicht, das hier ist sehr wichtig.
Don’t forget, this is very important.

90. populär – popular

Die Zeitschrift ist nicht so populär.
The magazine is not very popular.

91. leicht – easy

Das ist leicht zu verstehen.
This is easy to understand.

92. schwer – difficult

Es ist schwer für mich, Deutsch zu sprechen.
It’s difficult for me to speak German.

93. kompliziert – complicated

Ist Esperanto eine komplizierte Sprache?
Is Esperanto a complicated language?

94. richtig – correct

Was du sagst ist richtig.
What you say is correct.

95. falsch – false

Das war eine falsche Antwort.
That was a wrong (false) answer.

96. praktisch – practical; convenient

Kinokarten übers Handy kaufen zu können ist praktisch.
Buying tickets for the movies using the phone is convenient.

97. identisch – identical

Du hast zwei identische Alternativen.
You have two identical options.

98. unterschiedlich – different

Sind sie überhaupt unterschiedlich?
Are they different at all?

99. genau – exact

Das ist genau was ich sagen wollte.
That’s exactly what I wanted to say.

100. ungefähr – about; roughly

Es gibt ungefähr zweihundert Tiere im Zoo.
There are about two hundred animals in the zoo.

3. Add a Few Words and Make Your Meaning More Exact

As you’ve probably noticed, we didn’t just stick with the bare adjectives. In German, just like English, you can add intensifiers to your adjective to alter the meaning.

One of the most common intensifiers is sehr, or “very.” Wirklich, ganz, and echt fill the same role, though echt is rather informal. All of these simply make any given adjective stronger.

On the other end of the spectrum, you’ll commonly see nicht, meaning “not.” Slap a nicht in front of any adjective, and you’ve got a perfect remedy when you can only remember the opposite. Don’t know how to say “rich?” “Not poor” does the trick in a pinch! See why learning German adjectives and their opposites is a great idea?

4. How to Go Beyond German Adjectives Vocab to Total Mastery

How many different German adjectives can you still recall? Are these important German adjectives already fading from your memory? Go back and have another look, and then maybe again tomorrow. Even better—read the sentences aloud. You’ll find that a lot of these adjectives stick without any effort.

Understanding German adjectives does take time and effort, but rest assured that it will pay off in the long run!

And if you’d like to learn even more, have a look at the other German material we have on this very website: videos, flashcards, and of course our flagship podcast.

Before you go, let us know in the comments which of these German adjectives are your favorite. Are there any adjectives in German you still want to know? We look forward to hearing from you!

Every language (like every culture) can be stereotyped, and German is no exception. There are plenty of jokes about the language, many of which revolve around the same theme: German sounds aggressive, even when describing gentle concepts and using some of the most beautiful German words! This meme pretty much sums it up:

We can’t help but laugh when we see this meme, of which there are plenty of variations. The German language is good fodder for descriptive comedians too — Irish stand up Dylan Moran once said that “the German language sounds like a typewriter eating tinfoil being kicked down the stairs” (ouch.)

But I have to ask — is this stereotype totally fair? OK. Even I, a native German speaker and lover of the German language, can admit that sometimes German words can sound a little angry. But what many people don’t know is that there are far, far more beautiful words in German than harsh ones! Germany has a fantastic literary tradition which is best understood in the original language. Germany is a land of poets, philosophers and thinkers — think of Hannah Arendt, Friedrich Nietzsche and Theodor Adorno. To express great ideas, of course you need a wonderfully expressive language! Thus, there are several German words with deep meaning that sound like music to your ears.

It’s time to give the beautiful German language the second chance it deserves. To start us off, here are 11 aesthetic German words that not only sound good but have a deep and philosophical meaning!

Improving your language skills doesn’t have to be boring… work on your fluency by engaging in meaningful conversation! Tandem is not just a language exchange app, but it’s also a community where our members feel empowered to speak any language, anywhere. It’s a great place to practice all of your German, beautiful words and the more difficult ones.

1. Zeitgeist

German is so great that English speakers needed to import this word into their own language! It describes the prevalent spirit of an era. This word is so beautiful because it explains something in one word when you normally have to use a whole sentence. It’s definitely one of our favorite cool German words!

2. Fernweh

This word is the opposite of homesickness — rather, it is the feeling of desiring a place you have never been to. It’s perfect for when you want to get away and try something new!

3. Wanderlust

Wanderlust is often used in English too. It’s similar to «Fernweh,» but a little different — the desire to travel around, see new places and not stay in one place.

4. Zweisamkeit

Not only does this word sound really nice, but it expresses a feeling of closeness between two (zwei) people. The opposite is «Einsamkeit,» or loneliness. It’s one of the best cute German words to use when talking about someone you love or care for deeply.

5. Luftkuss

«Ein Luftkuss» is the act of blowing someone a kiss through the air 😄

6. Freudentränen

This is the noun we use when we have tears of joy!

7. Frühlingsgefühle

This is a great word used to describe a feeling of excitement for nice weather during the Spring, just as the sun is coming out, the trees are green and the flowers blossom.

8. Verzehren

This is a really versatile and funny German word. It can describe the process of eating, but it can also mean that you desire someone so much you almost want to eat them!

9. Filigran

When something is dainty and delicate, you can call it filigran. A ballerina dances «filigran» across the stage, a bird can fly filigran by moving its wings slowly and carefully.

10. Augenblick

A super short moment; a blink of an eye. Literally translated to English, it is ‘eye-blink’.

11. Geborgenheit

Once this word was actually voted the second most beautiful in the German language, and it is considered impossible to translate! It is a feeling strongly associated with artists, often felt at intensely emotional moments, such as returning home at a long time, or holding someone you love close. It basically means to exist and feel intensely in the moment.

Are you convinced? Do you know any other beautiful German words? Or maybe you are more into funny German words?

Oh, One More Thing…

If you enjoyed learning some of these pretty German words and want to expand your communication to new languages, check out our article on beautiful Japanese words! On the other hand, if you’re interested in learning more German or taking it to the next level, download the Tandem!

Tandem is a unique language learning app that’s helped people around the world gain fluency in over 300 languages. With millions of members, Tandem is the largest global language learning community out there! Tandem lets you connect with native German speakers all over the world, and practice speaking German via text, voice notes, and video calling. Immerse yourself in the German language and culture, and speak your way to fluency, for free!

More of a traveler? Connect with native German speakers ahead of your trip by using the “search by city” Pro feature, or the “near me” Pro feature for when you are already there! Still getting your head around the German language? Use our in-app translation feature to help compose a message or translate an incoming one. Correct your Tandem partner’s message or add a comment to help them learn and progress. Still not sure about German pronunciation? Simply tap on the message you want to hear and choose the “speak” option. Einfach!

Download Tandem and master the German language today!