Which of our four seasons do you most look forward to? "das Verhütungsmittel" ( contraceptive) "das Verkehrsamt" ( tourist office). "die Staatspolizei" ( state police) "das Tageslicht" ( daylight) "der Verbesserungsvorschlag" ( suggestion for improvement) "das Landesgeld" ( domestic currency) "der Liebeskummer" ( lover's grief, heart-sickness) "der Glückspilz" ( lucky fellow) "der Gottesdienst" ( church service) "die Jahreszeit" ( season ) : "das Arbeitstier" ( eager beaver workaholic) "der Freundeskreis" ( circle of friends) : "der Bilderrahmen" ( picture frame) "der Geisterfahrer" ( wrong-way driver). "das Schmerzensgeld" ( compensation for pain and suffering). : "die Herzensgüte" ( goodness of heart) "das Friedensabkommen" ( peace agreement) "die Gedankenfreiheit" ( freedom of thought) "der Kettenraucher" ( chain-smoker) "der Tintenkleks" ( inkblot).
: "das Backpfeifengesicht" ( a face that makes you want to slap it) "das Bauernbrot ( farmhouse bread) "das Freudenhaus" ( brothel) : "hundemüde" ( dog-tired) "die Mausefalle" ( mousetrap) "der Pferdestall" ( horse stable) "das Schweinefleisch ( pork) "das Muttersöhnchen" ( mamma's boy) "das Trinkgeld" ( tip). "der Hausbesitzer" ( home-owner) "die Jugendsünde" ( youthful folly) "der Briefträger" ( postman, letter-carrier) "das Gasthaus" ( inn) "der Arbeitgeber" ( employer) "der Arbeitnehmer" ( employee) "der Autofahrer" ( driver) This list of provided cleaning services illustrates some of the possibilities that employ the primary word, Reinigung ("cleaning"):īuilding site clearance and final cleaningĪs some of the above examples show, the two parts of the compound may also have a connecting element ( die Fuge) that can have various forms: Thus a "Sprachschule" is a school that teaches languages. It designates the subset of the category that the primary word defines. The first item "Sprach", is called the "determiner", or "determinative element" ( das Bestimmungswort). It also establishes the gender and the plural form of the compound noun. The second element, "Schule", is called the "primary word" ( das Grundwort), and it designates the larger set (in this case, schools) The basic German compound word, like its English relation, consists of two vocabulary items, although longer chains are possible. ( the Danube Steamship Navigation Company Captain). The Awful German Language to these "curiosities,"Īnd many people are familiar with ones like "der Donaudampfschifffahrtsgesellschaftskapitän" The German penchant for creating complex compound nouns has long been the stuff of comedy. The resulting noun chains in English typically feature spaces or hyphens between the different elements, while
Like English, German also offers the possibility of combining of words, especially nouns. Nouns from verbs with separable or inseparable prefixes, or Inseparable prefixes, and various ways of deriving German can create new words with a variety of tools, including suffixes,