We'll take a look at the false friends "craft" and "Kraft" and how they got so confusing. And we'll explore the family of "Kraft" a bit and learn cool new words.
Words we'll learn:
die Kraft, kräftig, die Stärke, die Schwerkraft, KFZ,...
By: Emanuel|28 Comments| Updated:
February 17, 2026
Hello everyone,
and welcome to a new episode of False Friends Explained – the series that’s all about false friends. Like Steve. Come on man, I thought we were buds!! You freaking knew I had a crush on her and yet you couldn’t help it but, … anyway, sorry guys… I just feel a bit lonely right now. So, false friends special. And today we’ll talk about
craft vs. die Kraft
Craft is at its heart about skill. Carpentry can be a craft, or pottery, or writing. A craft beer is a beer that was brewed using hand work, skill and experience, and a crafty person is someone who is very smart and cunning. Kraft on the other hand is not as refined.
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German Grammar • Vocabulary • Etymology
Craft vs Kraft – False Friends Explained - Key Questions
They're false friends. "Craft" in English is about skill, dexterity and making things well. "Kraft" in German means strength, power or force, not skill.
No, "Kraft" is used for physical strength but also for abstract forces, energy and technical terms. You'll see it in words like "Kraftwerk" and "Arbeitskraft" and in physics and idioms.
It depends on the context. For trades say "Handwerk". For artsy small work say "Kunsthandwerk". For a master of a craft say "Meister seines Fachs". For hobby supplies say "Bastelbedarfsladen" or "Hobbyladen". For the verb, use "machen" or "per Hand fertigen".
No. Using "Kraft" for "craft" will confuse people because "Kraft" means power, not skill. Stick to the context-specific words above.
"Macht" is power over others or authority. "Kraft" is force or energy. "Stark" and "kräftig" both mean strong but which one you use often comes down to idiom. Use the one that sounds natural in the expression.
Useful ones: "kräftig" strong or hearty, "kraftlos" without energy, "Kraftwerk" power plant, "Kraftakt" strenuous feat, "verkraften" to cope, "bekräftigen" to reaffirm. Also learn compounds like "Windkraft" and "Schwerkraft".
I know this is old, but I just had an insight while looking at a recipe today. One of the ingredients was “Stärkemehl” aka (Stärke). The role of this ingredient is to make the Kartoffelknödel more stiff and rigid. And this is why the same word means both “strength” and “starch”.
I’m using kraft for my atelier which is about craft 100%! I admit i thought i could just replace the letter as if it’s the same anyway, like kraft should be the german version for craft.
After i found the meaning i thought kraft is more relevant due to the values i base my work on and my personal prefference. I’m in the begining stages and i’m hesitating a bit about this word because people feel so good about critizing and they will most probably find it more relevant to believe it’s a mistake compared to a choice!
Since i’m selling furniture under this name i can’t afford this confusion, based on your material kraft has no place in a crafting context and yet many brands use it!!! even though i would love to keep the letter K i would rather stay coherent in my initiative.
Hmm… interesting dillemma. I can totally see that you’d have to explain over and over again why “kraft” is a good fit, and values, but it’s not really the truth, so it’ll wear you out having to say it over and over.
I’d actually say just admitting that it’s a mistake is a better choice. You could spin it in the direction of being honest about your work, too, so people know you’ll do a proper job because you’ll own up to your mistakes and blah blah blah…
I’d keep “Kraft” though. German looking words are trendy in a weird way in the States I feel like. I mean, just take “Uber”… that’s as German as they come. “kraft” starts a conversation (which is better than no conversation) and it is less generic than “craft”.
That said, there’s a condiment brand called Kraft in Germany. So if you ever expand here, you’ll have to compete with them :).
How about “kraftig”? To most it will look like a weird “crafty” and maybe make them think of Scandinavian design.
Anonymous
Just a supposition, that ‘kräftig’ might work in context of action, where one uses his muscles, and ‘stark’ in sense of something being generally strong, not weak.
There’s actually something to that, I think. Still, there’s a lot of overlap.
TimM
“Don’t have enough strength to open the glass”
Meinst du vielleicht “jar”? Ich habe kein “glass” gesehen, das man nur mit Kraft oeffnen kann – ausser ein Fenster, das ein starker Mensch mit einem Stein zwar oeffnen koennte. (Benutzte ich da “Kraft” und “starker” in den richtigen Stellen?)
In Bezug auf “Arbeitskraft” und “Lehrkraft”, geht das auch fuer andere Berufe? ZB. “Baukraft” oder “Forschungskraft”?
Ops, ja klar, nicht “glass”. Lustig… meine Praktikantin Dakota hat’s auch nicht bemerkt :) Du hast “stark” und “Kraft” richtig benutzt. Zu deiner Frage… Forschungskraft funktioniert für mich auf jeden Fall, Baukraft klingt komisch. Ich würde sagen, man kann “-kraft” eher nicht generalisiert verwenden. Es ist einfach nicht immer idiomatisch.
For “Kaffee” the idiomatic one for me is without a doubt “stark”. But for “Käse” I’m not sure. So I googled it and found 3000 hits for “kräftger Käse” and “1000 for “starker Käse”. “Kräftiger” is also used by marketing every now and then, so I guess that’s the better pick there but ultimately, both work fine.
Okay so I just did the same search for coffee… I found 5000 for “kräftiger” and 49.000 for “starker”… just thought I’d mention it for completion
Alie
Thank you for the lesson, Emmanuel ! Also woud like to thank people making me able to read this blog thanks to the people who donated extra so people like me, could enjoy a free membership. Vielen Dank!!
Ruth
Kraft ≈ force. Do you know if physicists, engineers and pedants avoid using Kraft in the power and energy senses to avoid the possibility of confusion with force?? Or is it just accepted that Kraft represents different concepts in Atomkraft etc. and Schwerkraft etc.? It’s hurting the tattered remnant of my brain.
“Come into force” would also be reasonable English for “in Kraft treten”.
Power is “Leistung” and energy is “Energie” (potenzielle Energie = potential energy, kinetische Energie = kinetic energy), work is “Arbeit” and momentum is “Impuls”. But the letters you use in formulas are mostly the same as in English. You can generally say that if you have a different SI unit, you will need another name for the physical quantity.
As an American scientist working in Germany, I can tell you my German scientific colleagues do not avoid the use of the word “Kraft” when talking about power and energy in the societal sense. I believe “Kraftwerk” is THE German word for “power plant”. But IMO you could just as well ask why English speakers say “power plant” and not “energy plant” or some other term–is the SI unit important when designating the factory that produces the power/energy/force used by our society? To my knowledge, there is no difference between the English expression “nuclear power” versus ” nuclear energy” when discussing societal energy issues.
I was thinking… if people really wanted to be accurate, they should call it “Stromwerk” because “Strom” is for the general public the word for (running) electric energy. And it’s also part of some related words like “Kohleverstrohmung” (making coal into current) or “Strompreis” (price for electric energy). I don’t think there’s much thought behind “Kraftwerk”. It just happened to become the word. Oh and while we’re at it… “Kraftfahrzeug” (power vessel) is the official (law) word for car.
Athena
Hey, there… Like @Younglink I want to extend a very grateful virtual-hug to the GermanIsEasy community for being generous enough to pay a little extra so that people like me can access this incredible service for free… Your contributions are not being sucked into a void and you’ll always have a very grateful friend in Frankreich!
Francesca Greenoak
As a beginner, I’m finding this material useful and interesting. I couldn’t download the PDF for this one though. The last came through fine. Any hints please.
Oh, looks like something with the pdf creator is actually not working. Damn it. I have to look into that but it might take a few days. Thanks for the feedback, by the way. It’s great to hear that these kinds of articles work for beginners, too, even though the topic might seem a bit random.
Younglink
Just leaving this comment to thank the community of this wonderful blog. Thanks for the free membership :).
BieneMaya
I think for English Stark is more power and Kraft is more strength, even in the more idiomatic expressions. For example, I don’t have the power/authority to respond to this vs I don’t have the strength to respond to the question (I’m tired). I see what you mean though, they just feel right in different expressions and it’s hard to tell why.
Mmm… You could really just about reverse that, though (especially since “Kraft” refers to various types of power or force).
Emanuel, for the example “Ich habe nicht genug Kraft/((Stärke)), um das Glas aufzumachen,” could you just as well say “Ich bin nicht stark genug…” or would that still carry the same oddness of “Stärke” there? Just wondering how much potential overlap in meaning there is between the umlaut-free forms.
To me “stark/Stärke” feels maybe a little more figurative or like a personal characteristic than “Kraft/kräftig” can be, but I’m sure there are all sorts of counterexamples.
Actually “ich bin nicht stark genug um das Glas aufzumachen” is much more idiomatic than it would be with “kräftig”. That’s what makes it extra complicated that the adjectives do NOT go in line with the nouns. I’d go ahead and say the “umlautfree” version is often the more idiomatic one for the more factual contexts. But it is really messy. I spent some time trying to find some way of making a distinction but I failed.
Yeah, I definitely thought “stark” would be totally normal and idiomatic. Just to check, how about “stark” vs. “Kraft” (so both “umlautfree” versions)? Like:
– Ich habe nicht genug Kraft, um das Glas aufzumachen. – Ich bin nicht stark genug, um das Glas aufzumachen.
Would you say these are equally normal ways to say this?
Definitely. If I had to name a difference then I’d say that the second is more common because it sounds a bit more mundane than “Kraft haben”. But when you compare it to “Ich habe nicht genug Stärke um das Glas aufzumachen” , which sounds suuuper odd, the two are the same.
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I know this is old, but I just had an insight while looking at a recipe today. One of the ingredients was “Stärkemehl” aka (Stärke). The role of this ingredient is to make the Kartoffelknödel more stiff and rigid. And this is why the same word means both “strength” and “starch”.
Exactly :)
I’m using kraft for my atelier which is about craft 100%! I admit i thought i could just replace the letter as if it’s the same anyway, like kraft should be the german version for craft.
After i found the meaning i thought kraft is more relevant due to the values i base my work on and my personal prefference.
I’m in the begining stages and i’m hesitating a bit about this word because people feel so good about critizing and they will most probably find it more relevant to believe it’s a mistake compared to a choice!
Since i’m selling furniture under this name i can’t afford this confusion, based on your material kraft has no place in a crafting context and yet many brands use it!!! even though i would love to keep the letter K i would rather stay coherent in my initiative.
What ar your thoughts on this?
Hmm… interesting dillemma. I can totally see that you’d have to explain over and over again why “kraft” is a good fit, and values, but it’s not really the truth, so it’ll wear you out having to say it over and over.
I’d actually say just admitting that it’s a mistake is a better choice. You could spin it in the direction of being honest about your work, too, so people know you’ll do a proper job because you’ll own up to your mistakes and blah blah blah…
I’d keep “Kraft” though. German looking words are trendy in a weird way in the States I feel like. I mean, just take “Uber”… that’s as German as they come. “kraft” starts a conversation (which is better than no conversation) and it is less generic than “craft”.
That said, there’s a condiment brand called Kraft in Germany. So if you ever expand here, you’ll have to compete with them :).
How about “kraftig”?
To most it will look like a weird “crafty” and maybe make them think of Scandinavian design.
Just a supposition, that ‘kräftig’ might work in context of action, where one uses his muscles, and ‘stark’ in sense of something being generally strong, not weak.
There’s actually something to that, I think. Still, there’s a lot of overlap.
“Don’t have enough strength to open the glass”
Meinst du vielleicht “jar”? Ich habe kein “glass” gesehen, das man nur mit Kraft oeffnen kann – ausser ein Fenster, das ein starker Mensch mit einem Stein zwar oeffnen koennte. (Benutzte ich da “Kraft” und “starker” in den richtigen Stellen?)
In Bezug auf “Arbeitskraft” und “Lehrkraft”, geht das auch fuer andere Berufe? ZB. “Baukraft” oder “Forschungskraft”?
Und danke fuer einen weiteren interessanten Post!
Boah, das ist mir gar nicht aufgefallen… Stimmt, “glass” heißt im Englischen “Becher aus Glas” und auf keinen Fall “Glas mit Deckel.”
Meine Praktikantin hat’s auch nicht gemerkt. Ist wahrscheinlich ein Zeichen, dass man C1 Niveau hat :D
Ops, ja klar, nicht “glass”. Lustig… meine Praktikantin Dakota hat’s auch nicht bemerkt :)
Du hast “stark” und “Kraft” richtig benutzt.
Zu deiner Frage… Forschungskraft funktioniert für mich auf jeden Fall, Baukraft klingt komisch. Ich würde sagen, man kann “-kraft” eher nicht generalisiert verwenden. Es ist einfach nicht immer idiomatisch.
Look at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Force and
https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kraft, in physics its the same, SI unit is N(ewton)
One would say ,, starker Kaffee ” or ,,starker Käse” instead of kräftig?
For “Kaffee” the idiomatic one for me is without a doubt “stark”. But for “Käse” I’m not sure. So I googled it and found 3000 hits for “kräftger Käse” and “1000 for “starker Käse”. “Kräftiger” is also used by marketing every now and then, so I guess that’s the better pick there but ultimately, both work fine.
Okay so I just did the same search for coffee… I found 5000 for “kräftiger” and 49.000 for “starker”… just thought I’d mention it for completion
Thank you for the lesson, Emmanuel !
Also woud like to thank people making me able to read this blog thanks to the people who donated extra so people like me, could enjoy a free membership. Vielen Dank!!
Kraft ≈ force. Do you know if physicists, engineers and pedants avoid using Kraft in the power and energy senses to avoid the possibility of confusion with force?? Or is it just accepted that Kraft represents different concepts in Atomkraft etc. and Schwerkraft etc.? It’s hurting the tattered remnant of my brain.
“Come into force” would also be reasonable English for “in Kraft treten”.
Power is “Leistung” and energy is “Energie” (potenzielle Energie = potential energy, kinetische Energie = kinetic energy), work is “Arbeit” and momentum is “Impuls”. But the letters you use in formulas are mostly the same as in English. You can generally say that if you have a different SI unit, you will need another name for the physical quantity.
As an American scientist working in Germany, I can tell you my German scientific colleagues do not avoid the use of the word “Kraft” when talking about power and energy in the societal sense. I believe “Kraftwerk” is THE German word for “power plant”. But IMO you could just as well ask why English speakers say “power plant” and not “energy plant” or some other term–is the SI unit important when designating the factory that produces the power/energy/force used by our society? To my knowledge, there is no difference between the English expression “nuclear power” versus ” nuclear energy” when discussing societal energy issues.
I was thinking… if people really wanted to be accurate, they should call it “Stromwerk” because “Strom” is for the general public the word for (running) electric energy. And it’s also part of some related words like “Kohleverstrohmung” (making coal into current) or “Strompreis” (price for electric energy). I don’t think there’s much thought behind “Kraftwerk”. It just happened to become the word.
Oh and while we’re at it… “Kraftfahrzeug” (power vessel) is the official (law) word for car.
Hey, there… Like @Younglink I want to extend a very grateful virtual-hug to the GermanIsEasy community for being generous enough to pay a little extra so that people like me can access this incredible service for free… Your contributions are not being sucked into a void and you’ll always have a very grateful friend in Frankreich!
As a beginner, I’m finding this material useful and interesting. I couldn’t download the PDF for this one though. The last came through fine. Any hints please.
Oh, looks like something with the pdf creator is actually not working. Damn it. I have to look into that but it might take a few days.
Thanks for the feedback, by the way. It’s great to hear that these kinds of articles work for beginners, too, even though the topic might seem a bit random.
Just leaving this comment to thank the community of this wonderful blog. Thanks for the free membership :).
I think for English Stark is more power and Kraft is more strength, even in the more idiomatic expressions. For example, I don’t have the power/authority to respond to this vs I don’t have the strength to respond to the question (I’m tired). I see what you mean though, they just feel right in different expressions and it’s hard to tell why.
Mmm… You could really just about reverse that, though (especially since “Kraft” refers to various types of power or force).
Emanuel, for the example “Ich habe nicht genug Kraft/((Stärke)), um das Glas aufzumachen,” could you just as well say “Ich bin nicht stark genug…” or would that still carry the same oddness of “Stärke” there? Just wondering how much potential overlap in meaning there is between the umlaut-free forms.
To me “stark/Stärke” feels maybe a little more figurative or like a personal characteristic than “Kraft/kräftig” can be, but I’m sure there are all sorts of counterexamples.
Actually “ich bin nicht stark genug um das Glas aufzumachen” is much more idiomatic than it would be with “kräftig”. That’s what makes it extra complicated that the adjectives do NOT go in line with the nouns. I’d go ahead and say the “umlautfree” version is often the more idiomatic one for the more factual contexts. But it is really messy. I spent some time trying to find some way of making a distinction but I failed.
Yeah, I definitely thought “stark” would be totally normal and idiomatic. Just to check, how about “stark” vs. “Kraft” (so both “umlautfree” versions)? Like:
– Ich habe nicht genug Kraft, um das Glas aufzumachen.
– Ich bin nicht stark genug, um das Glas aufzumachen.
Would you say these are equally normal ways to say this?
Definitely. If I had to name a difference then I’d say that the second is more common because it sounds a bit more mundane than “Kraft haben”. But when you compare it to “Ich habe nicht genug Stärke um das Glas aufzumachen” , which sounds suuuper odd, the two are the same.