I'm in my 7th year here and i'm fairly fluent in German. There are certain German words that i seem to use whilst speaking English rather than the equivialent English word as they just seem more appropriate.
For example... "Bahnof" is a much better word than "train station" and "kaput" is more effective than "broken". Another one that springs to mind is "achtung", it's just more useful than "attention".
As i work with food and speak German at work, there are foods that i know in German but i'm stumped when i try to think of what they are called in my mother tongue.
I know i'm not the only native English speaker with this trait... anyone got any other examples of German words being more useful than the English version
Very interesting example you give. Kaput as you spell it is the **English** version of the same sounding German word Kaputt, which is probably why you like it
Kaput is actually used a lot in English - in fact, it's in the English dictionary. But I remember using a lot of German words as they were 'better' than English ones for some things: ie. They were shorter and snappier usually.
One that springs to mind is 'genau' for 'exactly'. 'Parkhaus' is another - comes off the tongue easier than 'Multi-storey car park'.
I don't know what you're all talking about - using German words whilst speaking English.---phaaa.... The English language surely has enough suitable words to choose from in any situation........oder?
Even though I live in the French-speaking part of the country, I only use SBB and never CFF. I also find myself using 'bahnhof' when speaking English in the German part of the country, but never 'gare' when in the French speaking part, I always translate it to station (this is despite my French being WAY better than my German).
"Stange"... rather than a pint, Been here way far too long mate. What is it with the Swiss and small beers. "Ein Herr Götli bitte" (yes, i know it might (/IS) be spelt wrong, aye, do i care?) (you get the point aye?)
"Genau" was the very first Swiss German word that made any sense to me, closely followed by "streifen" (i may have the e and the i in the wrong order there, forum pedants >c'mon, carpark?)... thanks to the radio mentioning stories about the Gaza Streifen.
Sheewie- "Doch" doesn't mean of course........it means the opposite really in a sort of Little Britain" Yeah-but-no-but" kind of way. It sort of means "however", "but" etc....
So what have you been agreeing to when other's thought you weren't
I don't think we're really defining doch correctly here. Doch can be used instead of aber, and means "but." However, if you're in a conversation and someone disagrees with you, saying "nein," you can respond with "doch," which means yes in this context. Actually, more like "yes it is" -- rather affirmative. I fail to see the connection to the teenage character in Little Britain's catch phrase.