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Nivad
Member
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# Posted: 6 May 07 20:59
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As a truck driver I pass germany quite some times and i was wondering...
There are so many places wich start their names with "bad" like eg Bad Kreuznach.
What does that "Bad" stand for? Has it some special meaning?
Grtz
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Bernhard
Member
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# Posted: 6 May 07 21:13
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It is an offical name affix for state approved health resorts ( a spa).
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devish
Member
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# Posted: 6 May 07 21:38
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neet, espetially since in english it means "not good" (wich obviously is not the case of spa's wich are good for you), very funny how languages can have these funny word-games.
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Bernhard
Member
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# Posted: 6 May 07 21:47
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The german "die" is another example. It's simply the definte article (feminine) "the".
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scarlet
Member
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# Posted: 7 May 07 12:51
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Bad="Bath" I think, and in that sense it's very similar to English. In England, for example is the city Bath where there are thermal baths dating back to the Roman occupation of Britain.
And "die" doesn't sound so different from "the" when you pronounce the latter with a long eee sound. My mother who was a linguist told me to read German out loud and often you would hear similarities to English. (BTW I do not know German at all).
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devish
Member
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# Posted: 7 May 07 13:48
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Yes, I agree, german and english are very similar, english infact is a germanic language, they have many similar things. Just like wagon in german is car in english, but the word wagon in inglish is still something similar, just without an engine.
There are more similarities than just the word hamburgher :)))))))))))))))))))
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www.imagografie.ch
Member
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# Posted: 7 May 07 19:13
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yes scarlet is right about the Bad = Bath! the bathroom we call Bad too.
btw, in Switzerland we have the word Bad mostly behind the name of the town. Like 'Leukerbad' or 'Brigerbad'... at least in the area i come from!
what was confuding for me in english compared to german was the word 'gift'! in german it means poison! and if someone gives you a gift...? i first always had a bad feeling about, hehe
@ devish: wagon is only a part of a train. the car is called 'auto' from automobile.
Bunny
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nonkel duvel
Member
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# Posted: 7 May 07 20:08
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Another one :
See (german) is lake (english)
lake (english) is meer (dutch)
Meer (german) is sea (english)
Sea (english) is zee (ducth) (sounds like see)
@ Bunny : correct me if I'm wrong
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devish
Member
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# Posted: 7 May 07 20:14
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@ Bunny: Oh, ok, my bad, I heard it from a friend that studies german, guess we got something wrong !
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scarlet
Member
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# Posted: 7 May 07 20:15
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Bunny,
that's a laugh about "gift"! But here is something even funnier--the Engish word "gift" derives from an old Teutonic word for "the price you pay for a wife" but it also meant "poison"!!! I'm sure some people here will get a lot of humor mileage out of THAT!
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www.imagografie.ch
Member
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# Posted: 7 May 07 20:31
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hehe this one is good scarlet! didn't knew that
nonkel duvel, the german and the english part is right! about the rest: i don't know ;-)
@ devish: my mistake! in Swissgerman we always say auto, in german it is auto or also Wagen.. wagon (with a o) exist also as a word. that means a part of the train. but there i'm not sure if it is german or if it is only here in Switzerland. we talk german here, but there are some differences and a lot of french words in it.
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Oscar_
Moderator
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# Posted: 7 May 07 21:43
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Very interesting topic as I have ever thought the same about "bad".
@Bunny, in Germany they tolk about:
PKW= Personenkraftwagen
LKW= Lastkraftwagen
What is the word "kraft" tells in this word. I thought these words are usen in all the German speaking country's, am I right ?
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Akbar
Member
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# Posted: 7 May 07 21:47
Reply
Like Nonkel said: Lake (english) = meer (dutch), but meer (dutch) is also more (english) :))
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www.imagografie.ch
Member
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# Posted: 7 May 07 21:51
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@oscar_: yes we use those shortwords too. but mostly we say Auto (PKW) and Camion (LKW)...
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Bernhard
Member
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# Posted: 7 May 07 22:18
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Here are some other german words and their english translation:
Art (german) = way,sort, kind (english)
Brief (german) = letter (english)
fast (german) = almost (english)
Gymnasium (german) = grammar school, high school (english)
Handy (german) = mobile phone (english)
Happen (german) = snack (english)
Hose (german) = trousers (english)
Lager (deutsch) = warehaouse, depot (english)
List (german) = trick (english)
Mist (german) = rubbish (english)
Probe (german) = rehersal (english)
Rock (german) = skirt (english)
Roman (german) = novel (english)
Smoking (german) = dinner jacket (english)
Still (german) = quiet (english)
Wall (german) = embankment, rampart (english)
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matz
Member
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# Posted: 8 May 07 13:29
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@bernhard: very interesting, good and entertaining list of words. like that.
well, my american host sisters always got a good laugh from the exit signs on the autobahn (highway): ausfahrt ;-)
btw: english is a - if you count just the words as they would be listed in a dictionary - a 80% romanic and only 20% germanic language.
when it comes to the use of the words however, then it is actually the other way around. the day i'll invite you to my "mansion" (fr: maison) will be very happy indeed, in the meantime you'd have to live with the good old house (ge: haus) ;-)
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devish
Member
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# Posted: 8 May 07 13:48
Reply
Yes matz, one other one is pork and pig, they both refer to the same animal but one (pig) is the live animal, instead pork is the meat of a pig that someone eats.
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Nivad
Member
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# Posted: 8 May 07 21:15
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Thx Bernhard for helping me out...
And I am amazed how a simple question could trigger such an interesting topic :)
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Nivad
Member
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# Posted: 8 May 07 21:23
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Oscar,
If I m not mistaken kraft stands for power, referring to the fact that a pkw or lkw isn't pulled or pushed by an external force.
So we could compare kraftwagen with automobile. Mobile could be replaced with wagen and auto with power.
Another amazing german word is Azubi, short for "Auszubildende". As being a dutch speaking Belgian I thougth it would be something like an actor or at least some sort of artician, however it seems to be a student...
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