German language learners may find themselves pleasantly surprised with the amount of similarity between some of their new German words and their English equivalents. For instance, das Buch (the book) should be easy to remember (though it may be not so easy to pronounce that /ch/ sound, admittedly) and it doesn’t take much imagination to figure out what die Butter means. The challenge for these words lies in mastering the German pronunciation and forcing oneself not to say “dee budder” or “das book.”
Learners can also take heart in the fact that through the years of contact with one another, English has borrowed quite a few phrases and words from its cousin German. Below we’ve listed a few of our favorites and point out some differences in pronunciation between the Anglicized version and das Original (with a /g/ like gate not gesture!).
The first category, as is typical with borrowings, is food and drink. Thanks to the spread of German cuisine, these German phrases should already be familiar to you.
German - German borrowed into English
(die) Brezel - Pretzel - The spelling and pronunciation differ slightly, but you should have no problem figuring out what to order with your stein (stein) of bier (beer) at Oktoberfest.
(das) Gummibärchen- Gummy Bears - Haribo fans know this well: Germany is the origin of the Gummy Bear.
(das) Müsli - Muesli - The vowel is a bit different in German: no /y/ sound and push your lips forward on /u/. Originally from Swiss German.
(die) Nudel - Noodle
(die) Delikatessen - delicatessen - Note that the meaning is a bit different in German. Delikatessen are fine foods, or delicacies, not what Americans think of as deli food. The German word was borrowed from French.
German borrowing goes far beyond the kitchen as well. Below are some more that you might or might not know:
(die) Angst - angst - The vowel changes to a more open /a/ as in father
(der) Blinker - blinker (i.e. turn signal)
kaputt - kaput - just a small spelling change and don’t reduce the first vowel to /ә/ in German
(der) Zeitgest - zeitgeist
die Schadenfreude - schadenfreude (i.e. pleasure derived from another’s misfortune) - in German, don’t forget to pronounce the final vowel as /uh/
der Poltergeist - poltergeist, lit. noisy ghost
There are many many more, in particular in specific terminology used in philosophy, economics, and the military. Take it as an incentive to learn German. The grammar may give you a headache, but borrowed words from German to English and vice versa will help you along the way.
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