My wife and I got an earful of German curse words while walking in Cologne and accidentally walked in the bike lane. We didn't know the protocol at the time, but the angry bicyclists sure let us know we were doing SOMETHING that made them mad.
Hope that didn't spoil your experience of Cologne. Simply think about it this way, walking in the bike lane is dangerous and they only wanted to protect you, which is actually very nice.
@@gerdschaffer8924 Excellent point. I don't think you have to curse at the americans though, just say some random german words, in a deep voice, that'll probably have the same effect.
@@b.v.nielsen8714 When they come on a bike (Since they have a reserved lane, they can go pretty fast) they probably don't know you for foreigners, and just thought you were bumbling around in the bike lane by sheer absentmindedness.
Weiß nicht ob es ein deutschlandweites Schimpfwort ist (ich komme aus Italien), aber meine Freunden aus Frankfurt (am Main) haben mir mal "Evolutionsbremse" beigebracht. Also...ziemlich hart hahahah aber finde es immer noch lustig
Ja doch, das ist sehr verbreitet. Auf jeden Fall eine ziemlich harte Bezeichnung, bei der man sich seiner Freundschaft sehr sicher sein sollte, wenn man damit jemanden teasen will. Ich finde das Wort super; auf manche Menschen passt es einfach ganz hervorragend.
In Irish English, one of my dads favourite ones was SHITEHAWK... never heard anyone else use it. We have "clib" for the lump of dung on a cows tail (dangleberry in English!) or clibín as its diminutive. Nyeuck is a localism to Ulster area and surrounding counties, to describe a sniggerer, the qord itself is like quack, and an imitation of the sound of a stifled snigger.
My personal favorite was the title of a song from the German band Megaherz called “Miststück” which I once heard translated as “lousy, good-for-nothing bastard” Just, such a short word for such an involved insult is amazing to me 😂
In the south, we have a put-down that doesn't sound insulting to people who don't know it. We say "Bless your heart." It means you are so dumb. I am trying to remember some more but that is the one I like best.
Ahh curse words, among the first words my grandfather taught me when he felt I was old enough. OF course he didn't exactly tell me what they were and I only found out when the nun who was our German teacher was not all that impressed with my newly expanded vocabulary. My mother and grandmother were equally as unimpressed. But my grandfather enjoyed it...
Curse words just seem to pop up. My oldest child's first clearly spoken word was "shit." Not used randomly, always appropriately in context. Trip and fall, "Shit." Drop a toy, "shit." I guess that's what happens when a kid has a father who was a Marine and is a cop and a mother who is a petty officer in the Coast Guard. The word she felt was a strong insult was to call someone a "Dammit." As in "You're a dammit!" This child's own 5-year old daughter knows all the "adult words," but she is very good at not using them and just calmly telling her a new word she learned is an adult word is usually enough to get her to stop using it. Again, probably a result of having maternal grandparents like she has, plus a mom who is a senior NCO in the Air Force.
When I was a kid in New Jersey we called each other schweinhund all the time, when our grandfather told us what it meant we asked how to say pigface instead. Schweinegesicht. We also said "du bist krank in der kopf". Grandpa wouldn't tell us any real curses. :)
I do not use swear words, yet I find many of them quite funny! "Varnished monkey", for instance, brings up a comical image! Thanks for the information!
Feli, you seem a splendid person! Thanks for doing you and sharing such with the likes of us 😀 On topic now! I was on the edge of my seat for " Heaven Ass and Twine!" but it never showed 😢🤣 I learned of that one though my daughter from a band called Eisbrecher in a song of the same title (in German of course) and not only a cool song but especially fun because of the (to my understanding) archaic "swear". That's all! I hope this found you well.
This video is great! I am sure there are so many more words... Like armchair-farter or pea-counter or frightened rabbit or lazy-fur or spaghetti-fine-cutter....
Well, you certainly can’t shout the insults to another driver here in Germany! Beleidigung! This was a huge shock for me, as a Brit, that you can’t express your impression of someone to them, without risk of being prosecuted…! Apart from that, I‘d like to add to the Weichei/Warmduscher category: Schattenparker! Navibenützer! And I think Pfeiffer is quite funny, as an insult lol
Yes, "bean pole" was a term we use here, but I haven't heard it recently. Maybe that's because most people have put on too many pounds to be called bean poles. Today, our population is better described with the word "curvy". So curvy in fact, people are often spherical.
Your intro makes me curious, would you do a video on Latin influence on German language? Servus weirdly only survived in Germany and not in any of the Romance languages.
Scheibenkleister reminds me of words like "fudge" "frum" "dang nabbit!" -words that are just made-up and Colloquially used to *totally not be swearing*
Besides "Weichei" there is another curse word to express that someone is a weak person or a coward, namely "Lappen" or in former times "Waschlappen". But these words seem to have come out of fashion nowadays.
Du hast keine Tassen im Schrank. This was a funny insult I grew up learning. Translated as, "You don't have any cups in the closet" best means "you have no brain cells in your brain"
May I ask you to use German insults correctly. It's "Du hast wohl nicht mehr alle Tassen im Schrank!". You'd typically say or shout it if someone is doing something quite stupid/unreasonable/dangerous. In english you'd say: Have you lost your mind/brain!? Literally: You haven't got all cups in your cupboard any more.
.. nicht alle Kerzen auf der Torte, ... nicht alle Nadeln an der Tanne, ...nicht alle Latten am Zaun (not all candles on the cake, not all needles on the pine, not all slates on the fence), all are more or less ways to say that the opponents brain is not well equipped.
Ich würde gerne Gerhard Polt auf dem Tennisplatz vorschlagen, aber das geht dann vielleicht einen Tick zu weit ^^ Hämorroidenpritsche 🤣 ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-e2Qpmie5Gd0.html
Number 14 could also mean someone who is “prissy “. Or like to good for others or too good to do something. Like the action you want them to take is beneath them or others are beneath them.
There are also some really funny slang words in German dialects that you can‘t translate (because nowadays it‘s even difficult for native speakers to understand where the words stem from), but they do sound EXTREMELY funny.😂 Since I was born and raised in the Westerwald, my favourite words „Schinnoost“ (for girls) and „Unducht“ (mainly for boys, but also for girls) belong to this region‘s dialect as well.😄 But I know that for example the Hessian dialect has some very similar words (some parts of Hesse actually do belong to the Westerwald, which could be why this is the case😅). And last, but not least, I may present you one of the most difficult words to translate: DÖBBEDRÄDSCH!😂 All the Germans out there reading this comment: I can see how you frown because you have never heard of this one.😂
Why not Sperling? I want to see that show with subtitles. The only thing of Sperling I can find in US are the crossover episodes with the Swedish show Beck.
My favorite German insult comes when I stop at a crosswalk where a family (with young children) or an elderly man have the right-of-way, and the dickwad behind me blares his horn, insinuating, "Panzer vor! Run-down the pedestrian(s)!" Happens nearly every other month.
In high school, the French teacher taught us to twist my German teacher's last name into lederhosen. For that, she twisted my last name into rothund. You didn't mention pompnase (clown nose).
"Leberwurst" (the food) is actually known in some parts of the US as "liver wurst". (In fact, Dana Scully has a "liver wurst sandwich" in one episode of "The X-Files".)
Very entertaining video! Backpfeifengesicht is definitely my favorite of these. One small correction, though: The "Back" part of the word "Backpfeife" has nothing to do with baking. It stems from the word "Backe" (a.k.a. "Wange") which translates to "cheek" in English. The Pfeife/whistle translation is correct. This makes a Backpfeife a slap in the face/on the cheek that hits so hard, the receiver hears the birds whistle (as often visualized in old cartoons etc.). The whole compound meaning is not really affected by this detail, just wanted to clear this up. A Backpfeifengesicht is simply someone who is asking for or looks deserving of such treatment.
Just for those who REALLY want to be fluent in all dialects of German the "Backpfeifengesicht" Feli mentions becomes "Watschengesicht" when you visit Austria. Same meaning though. Just so you know how to properly insult people in all German speaking territories. 😝
Recently I was hanging around some native Mandarin speakers and when they were speaking to one another it sounded to my ears as if they were having a heated disagreement and on the very brink of and headed towards a full blown shouting match fight. They were not. Turns out they were talking naturally and neutrally about just random everyday stuff. They were not angry or hostile, just chatting back and forth. Tonal languages can be very hard to interpret to untrained ears.
Same situation, a friend of mine called with her mother in italian (living in germany) and it sounds really aggressive. But she says it was a normal conversation 😂
I was married to a Cuban woman. Cubans routinely talk loud, especially in Spanish. As it was described to me, if you see a group of Cubans on a street corner seemingly having an argument about to break into a fight, they are actually probably just discussing the weather. True.
That also happens between the different german dialects. For me as a bavarian, the "Breissn" from northern germany, when they speak in a "normal tone" for them (I guess), just sound harsh and arrogant for my ears ... (I wonder, how I sound to speakers from other german regions ;-) )
6:25 There is an episode of Star Trek TNG in which members of the crew keep disappearing and any record of their ever existing is also being erased, including the memories of them in the minds of everyone besides Dr. Crusher. It finally gets to the point where Dr. Crusher is the only person left aboard the ship and when there is a loud crash that shakes the entire ship Dr. Crusher activates the viewscreen and sees that not only are the people disappearing, the universe as gone as well. All that is left is a strange mist outside the ship. Dr. Crusher asks "What is that mist?" But in the German dubbing they leave the word "mist" unchanged so now Dr. Crusher is asking, "What is that shit?"
"Eierlegende Wollmilchsau" is for sure no curse or insult. It defines irrealistic wishes for a simple solution of all problems at once: a pig providing us not only with meat but with eggs, wool and milk too.
Agreed. I have to practice a little German between Ukrainian videos. Takes my mind off of Ukraine for just a bit. I tried to take German in high school but they only offered Spanish. So I took 2 1/2 years of Spanish. I thought if I could learn Spanish, I could teach myself German. WRONG! I did attend to classes for spoken German when I was in college and am still trying. Sometimes my phrases come out in part German, part English mixed with a little Spanish. Maybe I should write a new language. Cheers from eastern TN
Scheibenkleister: there was a time when poltical activists used glue with ground up glas to hang posters, the removing of such was a pain in the behind because the glass pieces got stuck in the paper so it will tear. the Scheiben part comes from Fensterscheibe which is window pane and is often shortend to just Scheibe. (if the context is clear as it also means slice)
I don't know, if the therm really relates to actions by political activists. But "Scheibenkleister" was also just a name for the glue, which was originally used to glue a glass window panel into a frame to make a window, before manufacturers started to use silicone based glues. This glue, just like the modern silicone-based ones, is really nasty when you try to remove it and it has been applied just recently. It basically ruined your window, when you made a mistake.
I lived in Germany for eight years (Rheinland-Pfalz). My coworker's mother was German, so we'd talk a bunch of smack to each other all day. My favorite thing to call him, because he always showed up to work grumpy, was Stinkstiefel lol. It drove him nuts, because it was so accurate!
"Ass" in English actually has two meanings: Beside the curse and body part, traditionally (Shakespearean) it means "donkey" ("Esel"). The body part is referred to as "arse", in particular in non-American English (British or Australian).
You should do a part two with BAVARIAN curse words 😁 The Schweinehund could change to Sauhund and Schafskopf is another nice one. Abstauber, Beckenrandschwimmer and Turnbeutelvergesser will be nice to explain. I think this expressions are better than Sitzpinkler. The only one directly concerning Americans is Amerikanerarsch, but maybe you should avoid that one 😉 While falscher Fuchzger or falscher Hund have the same meaning, a gwamperte Sau is more than just obese... Häuslschleicher and Hosenbrunzer will not be understood in many parts of Germany. Finally quote Franz-Josef Strauss with the term Nordlicht, and then take cover from the attack by Olaf Scholz 😎
And then there is the story of the market woman at the Viktualienmarkt in Munich when an Asian-looking person accidentally knocks over some of her produce on her sales table... "Saupreiß, japanischer!"
I found Kotzbrocken interesting because my family (including my parents, grandparents, great-grandparents, etc.) uses kutz(en) (maybe really kotzen) for puke. As in "did you have to kutz?" or "the baby just kutzed". We are of Pennsylvania Dutch (i.e., Pennsylvania German) descent. We have all kinds of Anglicized German in our daily vocabulary.
@@hadassastrahl7794 yes while "verkutzen" means "verschlucken" we often use that for kids: "Hast du dich verkutzt?" is there an english word for that? i can't think of one
Interesting related idea this brought me. Since English isn't your first language(even though, I think you said in other videos, y'all still learn it in school), do any of ours seem weird to y'all when translated into German?
Food for another video. And yes, of course! There are quite a few American/English curse words that make little or no sense when translated into German directly.
@@Lisa-ci5tg "Es regnet Hunde und Katzen" in german we actually change the order and put the dogs first :-) i am from austria and we say things like "Es regnet aus Schaffeln/Kübeln" "It is raining out of buckets" or "Es regnet Schusterbuabm" "It is raining cubbler boys"
I didn't know "Lauch" as an insult here in NRW, but one more is "der ist ein (halbes) Hemd", which also describes a skinny man, literally meaning "he is a (half) shirt". Can be used with our without "halbe", but as Feli mentioned, people shouldn't be insulted for their body, the expression itself still sounds funny and can be used either rather funny or pretty insulting. And "Lauch" reminded me of an insult that was used towards policemen (which you shouldn't do as it can get you a charge) back in the days when their uniforms were green, they'd sometimes be called "Schnittlauch" - "chives" - the caption was "grün, hohl und tritt nur gebündelt auf", so "green, hollow and only shows up in bundles". We use the word "hohl" - "hollow" as a synonym to "dumb", referring to a hollow head, so without a brain... 😁
I have to figure out a way to work "pig dog" into everyday conversation. Thanks for making me chuckle today, Feli! I downloaded your app and look forward to using it!
Growing up in Wisconsin many decades ago, I was familiar with "schweinhund" as an (usually joking) insult, even though German was not commonly heard in conversation. There was a lot of German heritage in the area as attested by the many German surnames locally. edit: Now that I think about it, everyone I knew back then knew (and used) the term "scheiß kopf " I don't know if that is in current use in German.
@@blindleader42 You should Google Wisconsin German. ( I too am from Wis) Back in the 1800s, Wis had so many people from German speaking countries, they formed their own language. Wikipedia has a good write up on the differences in their German from normal German. They even had their own Wis. German newspapers
I love our insults. There are so wonderfully creative insults in German. "Einzeller" is one of my favourites. There's so many creative ways to call somebody dumb, it's incredible. The best ones are those who take the insultee a while to even figure out.
We have a German family who visits our church every few years. I could use some of these things out loud in the hallway, have the kids laughing themselves silly, with no risk that anyone else could understand. The parents, of course, would be horrified. I appreciated this video because it did lighten the mood at our home. My wife and I both have studied German, along with Spanish and French (her) and German, Swedish, Norwegian and Danish (me). Your sponsor would be a big hit with me if it could serve any of the Scandinavian languages, but I do think I’ll get a German movie and watch it with my bride (she was my bride in the 1900s). Thank you so very much for what you do. We like you a lot.
When I was in Germany in 1967, I found it interesting that there were so few curse word available. Shweinehund and Dumkopf were about it. Also giving someone the finger or the hand to the elbow had no effect. However, when I got to Italy, they understood those gestures.
Depending on the region, you may not have understood much. My grandmother cursed in the Warmian dialect, my father in Plattdütsch. And if someone calls you "Kujell" or "Tüddelkopp", you have to know what that means in High German. Apart from that, at that time people were rather cautious when swearing/cursing in public.
In Mexico it’s kind of impossible to drive with both hands on the wheel because you’re always waving your left hand out the window. Usually giving the finger.
After watching "Encanto" I learned that there is somewhat of a spanish equivalent to "Scheibenkleister", which is "miercoles" which literally translates into "wednesday" but is also a nice way to avoid saying "mierda".
A few years ago on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, Christoph Waltz quizzed Fallon on the English translations of three German words, each word having two not very difficult choices. Sitzpinkler was one of the words, and one of its English choices (the correct one) even contained the word "sit". Fallon correctly guessed one translation.
These words reminded me of my time in the US Air Force in Germany. Of course the first thing we learned in German was how to order beer and bratwurst and then the cuss words and the insults. There’s some we use that you haven’t mentioned but I’m sure there are quite a few. I absolutely love your channel and learn something every time.
If you want to get more American students to study German, lead with the curse words. If would-be school censors complain, lay out what the curse words are and ask the complainers if those funny words make them feel threatened.
I learned two foreign languages at school. The very first word in both of them was "shit". Not by the teacher, but by classmates or other kids even before the class started
The high school I went to had about a 30% Hispanic student population, so as I took Spanish as my language class, hanging out with my Latino friends I learned a few words they didn't teach us in class.
I had this experience at our exchange with a German class of an french high school. This reminds me of an Englisch/American idiom I always chuckle about: cul de sac, trou de cul is french for asshole, le trou is the hole, guess what the meaning of cul is...
@@kilsestoffel3690 ROFL! So it's literally "ass bag". I've always joked that "cul de sac" is a fancy french term for "dead end"... I guess that's where the "end" comes in!
Feli, since you asked so nicely, here are some more insults that fit into your collection (but I can't for the life of me get them all translated well, not even with DeepL. Maybe you'll be more successful): Vorwärtseinparker (forward parker) = Someone who behaves in traffic as if they are overwhelmed with the dimensions of their car and/or won their driver's license in a lottery. Sonntagsfahrer (Sunday driver) = well, almost the same as above. Blindschleiche (blindworm/slowworm) = Someone with really bad eyesight. Usually drives Mercedes with a wiggle in the back window, keeps his hat on while driving, and only takes his wife along so someone can hold the map for him while he searches for the gas pedal. Turnbeutelvergesser (gym bag looser(?)) = A Blindschleiche who has forgotten his wife at home. Frauenversteher (misogynist(?)/Women savant (According to DeepL)) = The guy who understands women. After years of intensive study on the subject, I have concluded that there can never be more than one of these at any given time. And finally, not an insult yet, but some kind of mockery: Rennleitung (Race Control) = Traffic police/highway patrol
I can think of: Blitzmerker (lightning catcher, somebody who does not catch something obvious). Angsthase (scared rabbit, somebody who is always scared)
My family and I (UK) use "beanpole" when referring to ein Spargeltarzan; particularly myself, I am a beanpole, and often times complain that when I am trying to buy trousers in the shop I have to chose between the correct length or correct width (but can't have both) because they don't sell "beanpole" sizes. Calling people a "cow" in the UK is also a "polite" insult , and often refers to a self-centred person who stabs people in the back when it suits them; or someone with a generally unpleasant personality, the less couth variant would be a bitch. I've heard arschgeige and backpfeifengesicht before and it made me chuckle to see them pop up in the video
Scheiße!! When I was a kid I had a German uncle, married my favorite aunt, and we both loved baseball. I used to watch it with him and although I never became really conversational in German, man, did my eight year old self learn how to cuss out an umpire! At least you stayed away from the really filthy ones..LOL!!
I think the closest term in English for "lackaffe" would be the British term "toff," which is a derogatory term applied to someone wealthy or upper-class.
The amount of times I've used stupid cow in English because in Britain, at least, its relatively common. My favourite British insults are any where you add the word 'absolute' to an inanimate noun to create something like "you absolute fencepost" or even using 'utter'. "You utter spatula" and they pretty much always mean you're an idiot
While we're on the subject of Swiss German, "Glögglifrosch", composed of "small bell" and "frog", is one of my favourite words. It describes someone who is not particularly bright in the head.
ha ha! Feli, this is one of your best video's yet! i learned spanish with the dirty and insulting words first, which made it much more fun! while i have a fundamental understanding of german language from high school classes, knowing these phrases adds a another dimension to speaking auf deutsch!
1:35 I can't speak for all Americans, but I think most of us watch foreign films in their original language with subtitles. An actors vocal performance is usually the biggest part of their acting.
Subs not dubs! You miss out on so much with dubbed versions. Yeah, your attention has to flick a bit between the subtitles and the shot, but is very much worthwhile. You get to experience the intended performance. Plus, the disjoint between mouth movements and sound supposedly coming out of the actor's mouth is just extremely jarring and ruins immersion. Subs always!
Hi Feli, I just wanted to add two phrases I picked up from my roommate Hartmut while studying in Göttingen in the mid 60s: Armleuchter as a euphemism for asshole, and warmer Bruder as a pejorative reference to a gay man. These may be dated, don't know.
@@skipgilbrech5598 Zum Beispiel wenn sie einen meiner Lehrer nicht mochte, dann meinte sie: "Das ist doch auch ein Armleuchter..." Sie hat nie das Wort "Arschloch" benutzt, immer den Euphemismus :-)
@@eskimoki9630 Mine too. But I don't think 'asshole' is an accurate translation - 'loser' (used as an insult) is more like it. Like " that guy is such a loser".
Arsch mit Ohren reminds me of growing up in Puerto Rico, if you were talking to someone that is seating down and they're not understanding you, or they're mishearing you, you'd ask them to stand up so you can talk to their ass to see if they'd understand 🤣
Lachaffe reminds me of on American phrase. Being that it means “lacquer monkey” and is used to describe someone dressed flashy. You’ve probably heard it before but we often derisively refer to a tuxedo or business suit as a “Monkey suit”.
Na, da kannste aber ruhig noch ein zweites Video hinterher schieben .... das war ja kaum die Spitze des Eisberges. "Sitzpinkler" klingt übrigens noch recht harmlos. Hier oben im Norden wird man schroff Sitzpisser genannt, was gleich nochmal so aggressiv klingt.
But you usually don't use the articles. As you throw the insult at somebody's face, you use either "Du xxx" or "Sie xxx". The "Sie xxx" is actually quite funny and, at least in my opinion, even more insulting, because you start with the formal and polite Sie (who would expect to be insulted after that ?) and then follow that with the insult. 😂
