To avoid losing the depth and the complete meaning of the words, in the German grammar you will find very often words made from the addition of other words. Zum Beispeil “Fahrrad” that means bicycle: “Fahr” is the act to drive and “Rad” means wheel.

There are a lot of words in German that are easy to memorize because they are logical. For example the word rhinitis. According to the dictionary, rhinitis is a mucosal inflammation of the nose. The German word for that is Nasenschleimhautentzündung and if you split the words “Nase” is nose, “schleim” is mucous membrane and “entzündung” is inflammation.

Here are some words that follow the same rules:

Fußwegübergangen – if you translate the word it is something more or less like the place where you walk to cross the street.

Wochenende – “Woche” = week and “ende” = end à Weekend

Weihnachtsbaum – “ Weihnachts” = Christmas and „baum“ = tree à Christmas tree

Geschirrspülmaschine – „Geschirr“ = dishes, „spül“ = wash and „maschine“ is machine à machine to wash dishes

wiedersehen – „wieder“ = again and „sehen“ is to see à see you again

Gabi