Loanwords are words taken from one language that become part of another language, for example zeitgeist and panzer from German. Learn these and many other German loanwords in Episode 35.
Use the free PDF below to help remember these words:
German Loanword Crossword
I’d add angst to your short and sweet list, which I come across off and on in all kinds of texts. Is uber as an intensifier, e.g. He’s uber cool, of German origin and still in use? I’m looking forward to the French edition of loanwords). Why do you think you (meaning native speakers of English) take an effort to pronounce French words in a French way with all those nasal sounds and completely ‘englishfy’ German words? Probably it’s just my impression.
Hi Elizaveta,
Sorry for the late answer, it was a very crazy week!
Yes, “uber” is an intensifier but I don’t hear it as much as I used to, but that could be because I am not that connected to the world around me or to people’s speech habits.
As for angst (which in English means something more like “anxiety”, whereas in German it means fear), I always encountered almost exclusively in print and rarely if ever in speech.
Here’s another one: the prefix “ur”, which is used to create words referring to the oldest or most primitive example of something. Here are two examples (lifted from Wiktionary):
“Lebanon ultimately remains hostage to the regional ur-conflict over Palestine.”
“Some stories reach deeper, into the most primal and profound truths. “They mirror, in new and original ways, the Ur-myth, the act of creation itself.”
No worries. True, angst means something else in English, it seems more like a term from psychology. Ur is used in slang in Austria as an intensifier too, like urgeil )) – I picked it up while helping teenagers with their English homework in Vienna.
As for why English speakers try to pronounce French loanwords with a French accent, this is an interesting point that I will cover in the next episode!