Denglish

I thought it was time to introduce you to a new language, or rather to a variant on 2 languages.
Denglish is the mix of Deutsch and English that occurs in every day life here and especially in the work place and in advertising slogans, because English and the use of it is seen as 'cool'. I blame this blog subject entirely on Simon who told me about the word 'gesmuggelt' yesterday - apparently someone had 'gesmuggelt' some heroine, but I guess we should also blame the Germans themselves who insert English words willynilly into their sentences, us Brits wouldn't dream of doing that of course!!

A few grammar pointers to start with:
- if a lot of the words seem to begin with a 'ge' it's because that's the most frequent way of forming the past participle of the verb (sorry, Grammar speak)
- most verbs in their infinitive form (sorry) end in 'en'
- der/die/das = the (but one is masculine, one feminine and one neuter & there is NO logic to it)
- in the past tense as well as starting with a 'ge' a lot of verbs end in 't' or 'et'

trendig - trendy
wellness - wellness breaks are offered everywhere here, bit like a spa break but of course more serious with the emphasis being on recuperation rather than relaxation
upgeloaded - computer-ese
downloaden - more computer-ese (thanks Ian)
shoppen - there is a good German word 'einkaufen' which means to go shopping, but shoppen is used a lot, sounds cool I guess
geschockt - as in 'I was shocked'
chillen - what the cool kids do
das Balance Sheet - obvious
sorry - sorry, there is a proper German word for it (entschuldigung) but everyone seems to say sorry!
gecancellt - past participle of to cancel
gedealt - p.p of to deal
gegooglet - !!
meeten - to have a meeting
billen - to send a bill (to a customer)
aufgepimped - the English & the Yanks use the verb 'pimp' to describe something as being overhauled in an extreme manner, it's been pimped up - here the Germans make it a separable verb (shudder) the 'auf' prefix being the up and the 'ge' making it the past participle...
der Smoking - a tuxedo/dinner jacket
das Handy - mobile phone
ausgeflipped - flipped out (see how the 'ge' is slipped between the 2 parts of the separable verb - makes it look more German huh?
das Casting - casting
gekillt - as in 'he was killed'
eingescannt - to have scanned something
outgesourct - outsourced
joggen - to jog
gejoggt - to have jogged
brunchen - to have brunch
gebruncht - to have brunched
accessen - to get access
fighten - to fight
lunchen - to lunch
gestresst - stressed (thanks Rebecca)
wir haben gejammt -we jammed (thanks Noosh)
finegetuned - fine tuned (thanks RWE)
gekidnapped - kidnapped (thanks to Stefanie - German Teacher)




Then there are the English slogans used by German advertisers, no mixing of the 2 languages just pure insertion of an English phrase into a German sentence:

Come In and Find Out -- Douglas, a parfumerie
Powered by Emotion -- SAT.1 TV channel, although it's been changed to something more German now
We Love To Entertain You -- ProSieben TV channel


And on that note I'll say ciao (which the Germans love to use instead of their own 'tchuss' for goodbye - that's when they're not saying 'byeee') - as I've said before, if you can't beat 'em, join 'em!