From its literal translation, one can conclude it’s an emotion of happiness and freedom and falls under the category of unique German words. Literal Meaning – “When your parents are away, and you have the whole house to yourself.”Įxplanation – Now, it won’t be wrong to say Sturmfrei is one of the German words for emotions.

And by all standards, it’s contrary to ‘ear worm’ by miles! So the nearest descriptive equivalent I can think of Ohrwurm is keeping grooving and singing along to your favourite song over and again.

The literal translation of Ohrwurm says ‘ear worm’, but it isn’t! Ohrwurm depicts the emotion of loving a song so much that it gets stuck to your head. OhrwurmĮxplanation – This is where it gets strange. So without further ado, let’s discuss German words that don’t translate easily into English. Or that the English translation of these words fails to capture their depth in meaning. I’m talking about German words that don’t exist in English but describe complex human emotions. My inability to pick up the language has to do with complex grammar and the lack of English equivalents for certain German words that I came across. Collectively, one gets the feeling of being surrounded by polyglots! I confess I’m no polyglot myself, though I’m bilingual! I tried my luck learning German words from German-speaking translators working with us but to no avail. And one of the pleasant surprises has been speaking to fellow workers and never knowing what language they might pull out from their bag of languages. During my tenure, I’d discuss languages with translators. I’ve been at Locate Translate for many months now. Working in a translation agency has its benefits – you come across so many languages as translators mumble in multiple tongues.

Simple german words in english