One unique feature of the German language is its ability to create extremely long compound nouns. While this can seem daunting at first, it’s simply a matter of breaking down the noun into its component parts to understand its meaning. For example, Busfahrerin (Bus + fahrer + in). The first word here shows the mode of transport, the second the action (fahren = to drive), and finally the female suffix (-in) shows the gender of the driver.
German compound nouns can take one of numerous formats:
1. nouns only: der Milchmann
2. adjective + noun: die Großmutter
3. verb stem + noun: die Waschmaschine
4. Preposition + noun: die Vorlesung
Learning to interpret compound nouns:
Here is an example of a long compound noun in German:
das Fussballweltmeisterschaftsqualifikationsspiel
2. Now let us translate the independent parts:
foot-ball-world-master-ship-qualification-game
3. Now let us translate into English:
World Cup soccer qualifying game!
4. Now try to translate the following compound nouns into English:
die Blumentopferde
die Gutenachtgeschichte
die Rufnummernanzeige
der Organspenderausweis
