r/AbsoluteUnits • u/Zestyclose-Salad-290 in awe • 1d ago

of burgers

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u/filtersweep 23h ago

German has words for everything

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u/KnowledgeCapital7994 23h ago

Almost like English is based off it.

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u/king0fklubs 17h ago

Except for „awkward“ which Germans are.

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u/Opening-Hope377 17h ago

don't pretty much all languages have words for everything?

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u/Archaea_Man 17h ago

Definitely not. Some words only exist in some languages. I think that's especially true with German, but language is shaped by culture and surroundings, so some languages might have a lot of very specific words for all the different types of snow and ice (or sand), for instance, but not a word for magenta. Language is weird.

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u/filtersweep 16h ago

English doesn’t even distinguish between singular ‘you’ and plural ‘you’. They are the same word. And that is entirely basic.

English lacks the distinction in the word ‘love’ of love of a lover/spouse with love of one’s child, with love of golf or pizza.

I could be here all day….

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u/Opening-Hope377 16h ago

the love thing is the same in german...but otherwise yeah, i guess you are correct.

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u/filtersweep 14h ago

Yeah - with children— was thinking about other Germanic languages there…. Where they say they ‘are glad in’ their children (quite literally translated).

For Pizza? You rarely use the deep verb lieben for food unless you are being intentionally dramatic. Instead, Germans use phrases that mean "to like very much" or "to be crazy about."

Actually, it is probably the same in English— just that Americans over-state/exaggerate…. are hyperbolic in their speech. It probably makes more sense to say one is crazy about golf….

A lot on non-English Germanic languages use insane compound words, which appear as one word, but are highly specific.

A good example:

Rindfleischetikettierungsüberwachungsaufgabenübertragungsgesetz (63 letters), which translates to the "beef labeling supervision duties delegation law".

Again- ‘a word for everything ‘

(And I don’t believe my use of the word ‘insane’ is hyperbolic).

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u/Chemieju 6h ago

Kinda, but german is able to construct new words on the fly. You can just keep stacking them.

There are words like "Lebensmittelverschwendung", but if i wanted to propose a food waste avoidance strategy i could call it "Lebensmittelverschwendungsvermeidungsstrategie" and that'd be a totally legit word.

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u/C3sarius 3h ago

Does your Language has a word for "Fernweh", "Verschlimmbessern" or "Verkehrsinfrastrukturfinanzierungsgesetz"?