Learn About the Most Important Features of the German Language

Deep German proverbs inspired by German history:

1. The hand washes the other hand:

The Germans know the following wisdom: “Eine Hand wäscht die andere”, which means that one hand washes the other, which embodies one of the most important postulates of life, which is solidarity, as one person cannot meet all their needs alone. Rather, a person needs the other to complete their life, like the left hand that cannot wash alone, rather, it needs the right hand in order to wash it, and in turn the right hand needs the left hand in order to wash it as well.

Germany understood this principle after the first and second world wars which exhausted it with all its human and economic resources and infrastructure, as Nazi Germany at that time believed in the superiority of its race over all other human races, and understood after the devastation and destruction of World War II that one hand could not wash itself; That is, life cannot be complete unless there are bonds of friendship, love, and common economic and political interests with neighboring countries and peoples of the world.

2. Weeds do not go away:

We have the famous German proverb: “Unkraut Vergeht nicht”, which in its literal translation means that the weed “das Kraut” does not go away, but its significance is much deeper than that. As negative feelings or grudges cannot go away on their own, and to be more precise, cannot go away. Rather, they transform into another form, which can be projected on many things, such as the football game in Europe, which transformed the grudges and tragedies of the Second World War into conflicts on the playing field thus contributing to reducing these hostilities to a minimum.

3. Stupidity and arrogance spring from the same trunk:

Also among the common German proverbs: “Dummheit und Stolz wachsen auf einem Holz”, which means according to the literal translation of the proverb that stupidity and arrogance grow from the same tree, and this proverb is very philosophical in depth, as a stupid person is often self-confident to a great degree that may reach the level of arrogance, which is very true if we want to prove by contradiction because an educated and enlightened person often does not speak with excessive confidence that reaches the point of arrogance because they adopt doubt as a means of thinking, and they know that there is no absolute truth in the universe. Therefore, they do not impose their opinion on anyone or consider themselves the only correct opinion.

4. The last shirt has no pockets:

There is a German proverb close to a well-known Arabic proverb: “das letzte Hemd hat keine Taschen”, and its literal translation is “The last shirt has no pockets.” The meaning of the last shirt here is the shroud that has no pockets, in reference to the human greed for money, prestige, power, and other pleasures of life, and at the end people will not be able to take anything with them to the grave.

The moral dimension present in the German language:

The German language is a beautiful language from a linguistic point of view and also from a moral point of view. As an example of this, we have the verb “sich vergehen|” meaning “to sin”. It is one of the reflexive verbs in the German language, and they are verbs that reflect on the person themselves, such as “bathe” in the Arabic language, which is equivalent to “ washed themselves” in the German language.

There is an aesthetic, linguistic, and ethical aspect to this verb, as the verb “vergehen” in the German language comes with the meaning of “harm”, from which the reflexive verb “sich vergehen” is built, which according to the literal translation means “harm oneself”, and here lies the moral value of this formulation, that committing a sin -even if it is against others- is a sin against oneself first and foremost. It is a wonderful language.

“I have a frog in my throat” is an expression that only exists in German language:

When we suffer from a sore throat and we find ourselves unable to speak well or cannot speak long sentences, and if we do so we cannot complete a long sentence without stopping several times. This case does not have a special expression or sentence in the Arabic language, but it is present in the German language: “Ich habe einen Frosch im Hals”, as “der Frosch” and “die Frösche” mean “frog” and “frogs” respectively, while “der Hals die Hälse” means “throat” and “throats” respectively as well, so the meaning of the whole sentence becomes “I have a frog in my throat” and it is widely used by Germans to express the presence of a severe sore throat that hinders them from speaking.

German vocabulary similarity:

The German language is characterized by the presence of some similar words in terms of the number and arrangement of letters, which are completely different in terms of meaning. The best way to memorize these words is to write them in a horizontal order and compare them, for example:

• We have the word “pig”, which means in the German language “das Schwein”.
• The word “Switzerland” is written in the German language as “der Schweiz”.
• The word “race” in the German language differs from them only by the last letter “der Schweiß”.
• While the word “welding” is written in the German language like the word “race” with the addition of “en” to the end, thus becoming “schweißen”.

Compound words are real fun in learning German:

One of the main joys of the German language is compound words, which are funny and at the same time interesting because they generate within you a love of knowledge by getting to know the story of the origin of the word (etymology) and prompt you to analyze the word into its parts. This also helps you memorize new words faster and take root in your mind in a way that is difficult to forget. We review the following examples:

• The word “place of birth” in the German language is one word “der Geburtsort”, and it originally had two words. The first is “die Geburt”, which means “birth”, while the second word is “der Ort”, which means “place, region, or town”, and we still have the letter “s”, which is the link between these two words.
• The word “mirrored cabinet” is a single word in the German language “der spiegelschrank”. This word is composed of two parts, the first part is the mirror “die Spiegel” and the second part is the cabinet “der Schrank”.
• The word “tower” in the German language means “das Hochhaus” and is made up of two words, the first “hoch”is the adjective “high”, and the second is the word for house “das Haus”.

An example of how to parse German words:

We have the word “outside the country” or “in a foreign country” is one word in the German language “das Ausland”, and it is composed of two parts “das Land” and it means “land or homeland”. The adverb “Aus” has no specific meaning, but in most cases it is used in the sense of “outside”, as in the following examples:

• The word “die Ausfuhr” which means export, i.e., goods take out.
• The word “die Aushang” is literally “hanging outside”, and the real meaning of the word is “announcement”.
• The word “die Auslagen” which means expenses, i.e., anything out of pocket.

How to build a word in German?

There are several techniques that enable us to memorize the vocabulary of the German language. For example, we start with a general word that is used to build many other vocabularies, which is “der Hof.” This word means “hall, space, yard, or court”, and many German words were built from it, the most important of which are:

• The word “der Schulhof” means “schoolyard”. The word “die Schule” alone means “school”.
• The word “der Friedhof” means “cemetery”. The word “der Friede” alone means “peace, relief, or reassurance”, i.e., the yard where people rest in peace. How beautiful is this composition that makes us forget, even for a moment, the pain and sadness associated with the word “cemetery”.
• The word “der Bauernhof” means “farm”. The word “der Bauer” means “the farmer”, so the meaning of the word “der Bauernhof” becomes “the farmer's yard”.

In conclusion:

Despite the great complexity of the German language, some researchers point out the possibility that this complexity may have played a role in the technical, industrial, economic, and administrative renaissance that the country witnessed, especially after World War II. The reason is the effect that language has on the brain at school and childhood stages, as it may work to increase the development of brain neurons.