German compound words explained with examples thoughtco. It plays well to the german languages prediction for compound nouns and provides hours of fun. Youll learn german compound nouns faster than a flying thing. About 30% of compounds require a connector between the combined words.
We might learn greek compound nouns if we visit the book casing. Download free pdf english books from nouns at easypacelearning. Schott conceived of this book of german portmanteau words, compound multi syllabic behemoths in. The final stem dictates whether the word is a noun or a verb. Compound words exist in many languages, but germans grammar. Plus, like chemical compounds, german compound words can get really complex. The entire book describes extremely long words with their english explanation. The next time you are reading, see what compound nouns you can find. The words which ambush you dressed in comic obviousness. English books for download pdf nouns easypacelearning. This term he notes as meaning independencedeclarations sic, which is perhaps a parchmentsaving way our own declaration of independence could have been titled.
Some german compound nouns can be comprised of many, many nouns. Our favourite compound nouns in european languages british. But one compound noun has proved too much for german bureaucrats, who have decided to ditch what had been celebrated as the longest word in the german tongue. Foreign language, german, noun compounds, elearning 1. You can find many such composites that have become part of german vocabulary. If you stick two of them together, they can take on a whole new meaning. The last noun of the compound word determines its gender. The last word in the compound determines the gender and plural form of the compound noun. Endofterm endoftether worksheet showing german s remarkable capacity to make compound nouns out of virtually nothing. Ever thought, there should be a german word for that. The words which open up whole new worlds of abstract understanding and are already used in english. Mark twain mentions this beast of a word in his book a tramp abroad.
Unabhaengigkeitserklaerungen twains frustrations with learning german are well documented in his book a tramp abroad. However, ausbruchremains a noun, just likeder bruch break. The gender of the compound noun will always be determined by the last noun of the word. Compound nouns in german are nouns made of two or more nouns joined together into one noun. As the formers last stem, brechen, is the verb to break, the final compound word keeps this movement and remains a verb. German nouns have a grammatical gender, as in many related indoeuropean languages. Memorizing the nouns below will give you a good general base of german vocabulary. It is called schottenfreude german words for the human condition and is about very long compound german words. One of my students brought this book to one of our classes. Noun compounds are written together for example, the german word for spy satellite is spionagesatellit. The fascinating world of german compound nouns teaching.
In german you can combine two or more nouns to make a new word with a different meaning. Ben schott, the undisputed king of christmas books, returns. He wasnt wrong the german language is notable for its compound nouns. This is completely different from how we do things in englishwe keep each stem separate.