How a normal Mexican American misunderstands via conversations with actual Germans…say you got an avocado… Now add salt, its a saltiavocado. Add vinegar, its a saltyvinegaravocado. Now step on it while running and you just “slippedonavinegaravocado” or you had an “avocadoslip”.
I call bullshit. Bullshit doesn’t come.
Say you got a pen … Now add apple, it’s a applepen. Say you got a pen … Now add pineapple, you got pineapplepen.
Meanwhile there is many words that are just two words in english instead of a compound word.
Lets take a typical example for “business” compound-words:
IT-Sicherheitsdienstleister -> IT security service provider.
I don’t know about German, but in Swedish it looks really messy if you sunder your compound words. In general I think people know what you mean regardless, but you can end up with peculiar double meanings. There are plenty of signs, notes, and what have you that people have posted online for a laugh.
Off the top of my head
- Gå lättpackad i fjällen
- Travel lightly (as in luggage) in the mountains
- Gå lätt packad i fjällen
- Travel slightly intoxicated in the mountains
- Sjukgymnast
- Physiotherapist
- Sjuk gymnast
- Diseased/Sick gymnast
- Addendum. Sjuk could also be used as an emphasizer just like in English. Think “bro that’s a sick outfit” kind of thing, so it could be read as “awesome gymnast”
- Årets sista svenskodlade tulpaner
- The last Swedish-grown tulips of the year
- Årets sista svensk odlade tulpaner
- The last Swede of the year cultivated tulips
It’s also worth noting that the tones can be different, so if you “hear” the words as you read them, then “lättpackad” and “lätt packad” sounds different.
That’s very interesting that sick/sjuk have the same slang meaning, thanks.
English has large compounds like this too, we just usually add spaces and/or hyphens so it doesn’t look quite as extreme when written out.
