r/mildyinteresting • u/mfbane • 9h ago

humankind hiccups 😅 Germans love their meat raw

Post image
2.4k Upvotes

85% Upvoted

1.8k comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

13

u/Krinder 8h ago

Zwiebelmettwurst translates literally from German to English as "onion minced-meat sausage" or "onion ground-meat sausage."

God I love how literal Germans are with their language

8

u/infojb2 6h ago

Life is easy if you don't need to invent new words

8

u/Krinder 6h ago

When I found out “ambulance” in German translates to literally “sick wagon” I fell in love with the language

5

u/zSplit 6h ago

actually the ambulance you use for an emergency is called Rettungswagen (RTW), with sirens and emergency lights. It translates to "rescue vehicle/car/wagon". then there's the Krankentransportwagen (KTW) which translates to "sick people transportation vehicle" and is used for planned transports.

Krankenwagen is used colloquially but technically correct (no it's not the best kind of correct), albeit a very unspecific word.

2

u/[deleted] 6h ago

[removed] — view removed comment

2

u/Krinder 6h ago

Thank you! Love learning and thank you for what you do Rettungswagen driver!

1

u/ziplin19 6h ago

Yeah but literally everyone calls it Krankenwagen, in the driving license theory exam they also call it Krankenwagen.

1

u/middendt1 6h ago

Well, don't forget the KTW Krankentransportwagen. 

1

u/[deleted] 6h ago

[removed] — view removed comment

1

u/middendt1 6h ago

You need a family car: KTW-4! 

And my favourite: S-RTW aka "Fettzelle".

1

u/AlmightyCurrywurst 5h ago

Calling it slang is insane, it's the normal word for 95% of the population. Just because there's a different word in official communication doesn't make it incorrect

2

u/This_Ruined_Forums 5h ago

You may like this old thread:
https://www.reddit.com/r/German/comments/1jujzh6/funny_translated_german_words/

My favorite remains Feierabend. Celebration evening. The time after your workshift ends.

1

u/RandomUsername78421 5h ago

And hospital is krankenhaus "sick house" and the old fashioned name for nurse was krankenschwester "sick sister".

1

u/Frontdackel 2h ago

Krankenschwester is named that way because a lot of hospitals were run by churches and the nurses were nuns. Ordensschwestern.

1

u/Aggravating-Pace4059 16m ago

It's not really "sick sister" that would be "kranke Schwester", while "Krankenschwester" would be more like "sister of the sick".