I love the German word verbesserungsbedürftig, meaning in need of improvement. I’m not German, but thought this was a cracking word.
I love the German word verbesserungsbedürftig, meaning in need of improvement. I’m not German, but thought this was a cracking word.
The longest officially used German word was:
Rindfleischetikettierungsüberwachungsaufgabenübertragungsgesetz
(63 letters)
Translation:
This was the name of a law in the German state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern. It referred to the delegation of tasks related to monitoring beef labeling, especially relevant during the BSE (mad cow disease) crisis. The law was abolished in 2013.
But German allows theoretically endless compound words. A classic (but not officially used) example is:
Donaudampfschifffahrtselektrizitätenhauptbetriebswerkbauunterbeamtengesellschaft
(80 letters)
Translation:
This is a joke word created to illustrate how German compounds work. It’s not used in real life, but it’s popular in linguistic discussions and trivia.
Dutch can do the same. You can just keep slapping words together. It never ends.
It’s funny how the translation almost always goes back to front
I remember hearing a story of a UN or EU real-time translator working German to English suddenly stopping, the English listeners looking a bit confused, and after another 15 or 20 seconds of hearing the German speaker continue with still no translation, just heard a whispered “the verb, dammit, the verb!” through their headsets.