Learn how to say "joke" in German
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Intro |
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| Michael: Why does German use two different words for "joke?" |
| Igor: And how are they different? |
| Michael: At GermanPod101.com, we hear these questions often. Imagine the following situation: Ben Lee tells his friend Gabriel Garcia a joke.. |
| "Chuck Norris counted to infinity... twice." |
| Ben Lee: Chuck Norris zählte bis zur Unendlichkeit ... zwei mal. |
| Dialogue |
| Ben Lee: Chuck Norris zählte bis zur Unendlichkeit ... zwei mal. |
| Gabriel Garcia: Das ist ein guter Witz. |
| Michael: Once more with the English translation. |
| Ben Lee: Chuck Norris zählte bis zur Unendlichkeit ... zwei mal. |
| Michael: "Chuck Norris counted to infinity... twice." |
| Gabriel Garcia: Das ist ein guter Witz. |
| Michael: "That's a good joke." |
Lesson focus |
| Michael: One thing that brings a lot of confusion among German learners is that the German language has two words that can be translated as "joke." Those two words are |
| Igor: Witz und Scherz. |
| Michael: And, to be honest, it's not that easy to distinguish between both of them, especially because German natives seem to use these two as synonyms—but there is one significant difference between them. While one of them can be described as being silly, or also translated as a prank, the other one means a joke as a short story with the intention to make people laugh. |
| But which one is which? |
| [Recall 1] |
| Michael: Well, let's take a closer look at the dialogue. |
| Do you remember how Ben says "Chuck Norris counted to infinity... twice." |
| Igor: Chuck Norris zählte bis zur Unendlichkeit ... zwei mal. |
| Michael: And how Gabriel answers "That's a good joke?" |
| Igor: Das ist ein guter Witz. |
| Michael: Gabriel used the word |
| Igor: Witz |
| Michael: because Ben's story was completely detached from reality, and its only purpose is to make people laugh. So in what kind of situation would we use |
| Igor: Scherz? |
| Michael: Imagine that Ben is coming back from school, and he had an important exam that day. He already told his mother Karen about the test results, and now he is meeting his father Mark and says, |
| Igor: Ich habe die Klausur nicht bestanden. |
| Michael: Meaning "I didn't pass the exam." In this moment, Mark would either get angry or disappointed, but then Ben would add, |
| Igor: Das war ein Scherz, ich war Klassenbester. |
| Michael: Meaning "It was a joke, I was the best in class." |
| This time Ben used the situation to say something potentially funny, for him and Karen, who already knew that Ben passed. |
| [Summary] |
| Michael: In this lesson, we learned that the difference between the two German words for joke is that |
| Igor: Witz |
| Michael: describes a funny story, while |
| Igor: Scherz |
| Michael: is a term for conditional comedy. |
| Something that might help you to remember the difference between these two words is April Fool's Day. The jokes you make on that day are called in German |
| Igor: Aprilscherze |
| Michael: literally "April jokes." You wouldn't tell |
| Igor: Witze |
| Michael: on that day. |
| Expansion/Contrast |
| Michael: These are actually not the only two words for jokes in German. Let's have a look at some other words that can substitute |
| Igor: Scherz und Witz |
| Michael: The first word is |
| Igor: Spaß |
| Michael: meaning literally "fun." But sometimes it's used to emphasize that you're not serious about the thing you just said. For instance, you could say to someone, |
| Igor: Du hast eine Spinne in den Haaren, |
| Michael: meaning "You have a spider in your hair." Leave a short pause and add |
| Igor: Spaß, da ist nichts! |
| Michael: meaning "Joke, there is nothing!" To make it clear, you made a joke. |
| The next word is |
| Igor: Schabernack, one of my favorite words in German. |
| Michael: This also means a practical joke, but one that might bring serious consequences with it. We would refer to Halloween pranks this way. You might also hear the phrase, |
| Igor: Schabernack treiben, |
| Michael: which means "to play jokes." Depending on the region, the word |
| Igor: treiben |
| Michael: might change into |
| Igor: machen |
| Michael: "to make" or |
| Igor: spielen |
| Michael: "to play." |
| Our next word is |
| Igor: Schenkelklopfer, |
| Michael: meaning a "knee-slapper," but Germans slap their hips instead of the knee. Similar to English, this word means a very funny joke. You might also experience people using it in an ironic way, if a joke wasn't funny at all. |
| The next word is |
| Igor: Brüller, |
| Michael: literally meaning "yeller," coming from the verb |
| Igor: brüllen |
| Michael: "to yell." This also means a joke that is so funny that it made you actually yell with laughter. |
| And our last word describes a specific kind of joke based on a play on words, |
| Igor: Kalauer. |
| Michael: One of the most popular "Kalauer" in Germany is |
| Igor: Egal wie dicht du bist, Goethe war dichter, |
| Michael: meaning "It doesn't matter how drunk you are, Goethe was drunker." This is based on the the word |
| Igor: dicht |
| Michael: which literally means "dense," but Germans use it colloquially to describe that someone is drunk. The other word is |
| Igor: Dichter |
| Michael: meaning "poet." The joke behind this play on words is that "poet" adds the suffix "-er" to "dense" making it sound like the word |
| Igor: dichter |
| Michael: also meaning "more dense," or colloquially "drunker." |
| Cultural Insight/Expansion |
| Michael: Jokes are a pretty important part of the German culture. The comedy scene is quite developed in Germany, with stand up comedians selling out stadium shows, and broadcasts such as |
| Igor: NightWash, Quatsch Comedy Club |
| Michael: being very popular on TV. But the tradition of jokes goes way back to the 16th century, when a book was published about the life of |
| Igor: Till Eulenspiegel |
| Michael: who, according to the book, lived in 14th century Germany, and was known for telling jokes to the residents of medieval Germany. His jokes were based on taking idioms literally. The book about his life was a huge bestseller back when it was published, and since then it has become very well known and loved by German children and their parents. |
| Whether or not this was an actual real-life person is hard to say, and there are scientists in Germany trying to find proof of his existence even to this day. However, even if he is only a fictional character, his name will always remain a synonym for the word "joke" in German. You can even find it in German dictionaries if you search for |
| Igor: Eulenspiegel |
| Michael: meaning "joke" or "prank." |
Outro |
| Michael: Do you have any more questions? We're here to answer them! |
| Igor: Tschüsschen! |
| Michael: See you soon!" |
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