Hello everyone,
and welcome to our German Word of the Day. I have to write about noch. Still. I haven’t done it yet. I keep saying “I’ll do it soon.” whenever someone asks for it and then… well…. It is quite a burden, that word. So I figured the easiest way to deal with this is… to talk about something entirely different and forget about the whole thing for another week. And if you are frowning now… well perfect. Because today, we’ll do another Style Special, that is, we’ll look at lot of new vocabulary that we can forget… uhm… I mean… use….. and our subject this time is
Facial expressions
Okay… we’ll not really talk about facial expressions as in what they express… like… anger or surprise. We will look at kind of the tools for that…. at the very basic moves you can do like smiling or blinking. By the way, the German word for facial expressions is die Mimik not to be confused with mimic… they’re false friends… well, actually they are really really good friends, they even work together. They’re just not brothers… but anyway. Let’s get right into it and face what you can do with your … face… yeah… that was lame, I know…
Die Augen
The German word for eye is das Auge and it is one of my favorite German words. Others are Lied , weinen , Tau or Steuerrückerstattung and I really like how they sound. But anyway…
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For English speakers, a good way to connect rümpfen with ‘to wrinkle’ is ‘to rumple’.
Wow, I never heard that one before. I just checked and they might actually be related etymologically.
I checked but not very deep. Maybe not directly related but quite close. I can imagine it seeping across the Channel.
Very good indeed. Interesting and so well explained.
Danke :)
Here’s an idiom with teeth.
He smiled through gritted teeth. Found a translation. gezwungen lächeln [mit zusammengebissenen Zähnen]
We have a saying in English “eyes are the mirror of the soul”. Anything equivalent in German ?
There are several versions:
– Die Augen sind das Fenster/das Tor zur Seele.
– Die Augen sind das Spiegelbild der Seele.
I’m teaching german to refugees. Your site is responsible for so many epiphanies i had about teaching, you wouldn’t believe it. You are helping a lot! I am absolutely loving your work.
Cool. Freut mich, dass es dir hilft und gefällt. Danke für das Feedback!!
Thank you lots! This website is the best as far as learning Deutsch is concerned. Greetings from Mexico :)
Gracias :)… Gruss zurück aus Berlin
Nice snow effect!!. very christmassy!!. :) Though there is no snow in Aachen yet. :(
It’s all WordPress :)…. but I like it too. It’s a pity they shut it off on January 4th already.
No, no, I am the “dumb” one in this case… barely a level B1 and struggling, but not admitting defeat :-)
And you shouldn’t because there is no defeat yet. That’ll come in B2… ;) Kidding. They say that B1 is the hardest part and generally German just takes A LOT of patience and makes you feel like a beginner even if you’re totally able to communicate already… just don’t worry about the mistakes too much. Talk talk talk and purge them one at a time.
The only thing that really is a problem is lack of vocab. If you have that then German compels you to read… read read read… read read read read.. reeeaaaaaad :)
Ich bin die Anonymus Wink :-P
Great topic, and loved the “quizlet” ;-) (methinks that is ein Wink) Thanks!
Haha… ne, das ist “ein Zwinkern”. “Der Wink” in German is a rare word for “a hint”.. but maybe you knew that and I’m just too dumb to read between the lines ;)
Great article as always! :) The two languages seem very similar in categorising facial expressions. A couple of things I thought of: in English, “grin” is just a big smile, so by default it’s positive (you’re grinning because you’re so happy), otherwise it needs an adjective: an “evil grin”, a “manic grin”, a “nasty grin”…
RE: frowning, in English “wrinkling your brow” is generally a synonym, so “die Stirn runzeln” is fine I think. You may “purse your lips”* at the same time, but I think of the frown as being primarily about the forehead/eyebrows. And not all frowns are angry: you could have a puzzled, thoughtful, disappointed, sad, anxious or surprised frown, which changes the mouth and eyes: what they have in common is the forehead wrinkle. Also, I was interested in “puss” as a translation of “Fresse”. I haven’t seen “puss” used much, mainly just in the great expression “sourpuss”. The Free Dictionary online says it’s a Gaelic word, so I guess it’s probably more common in some dialects.
*Do you have a term for “pursing your lips” in German? (Also colourfully called making “a mouth/face like a cat’s bum”. And boy is face like a cat’s bum fun to Google!) It’s closely related to “pouting”, but is angry/irritated rather than sulky/stubborn. Oh and speaking of pouts, how do you say “pout”?
Now, that you say it.. I guess it is the same in German with the “grin”… it is just a big smile and you can find it in many positive contexts too.
As for “to frown”… well, that is really surprising for me. I have never looked up the word in a dictionary but my understanding comes from hearing it (“Put that frown upside down”) and reading it and I really thought it was about the mouth. I was really surprised when I read “Strin runzeln”. So then I went to Google Image Search to check it out and at least there the mouth is a pretty dominant part. But anyway.. I’m not gonna argue with a native speaker and Merriam Webster :)
As for “puss”… I took that right from the dictionary and I have never heard it before. Another translation offered was “kisser” but that seemed a little too related to “kissing” albeit the word probably being somewhat raffish.
“Fresse” is a vulgar German term for “face” and it comes from the verb “fressen” which is “to eat” for animals. My cat doesn’t “essen”, my cat “fressen”.
Next… “pursing lips”… what exactly is that :D…
https://www.google.de/search?q=pursing+lips&rlz=1C1DVCJ_enDE430DE443&espv=210&es_sm=93&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ei=NtidUpW6CuThywOcjIDAAw&ved=0CAkQ_AUoAQ&biw=1241&bih=614
I fail to see what those pictures have in common … is it like more about making a duck face or is it about making the lips small?? I checked Leo and they offered
– die Lippen kräuseln (which make NO sense at all because a water surface can kräuseln but not lips
– die Lippen schürzen (which I would understand as making them wet by sucking them inward numerous times)
– den Mund spitzen (which is to make the mouth “pointy”)
But I really can’t tell.
What I can tell though is “to pout” … that would be “schmollen”. No doubt about it :).
https://www.google.de/search?q=schmollmund&rlz=1C1DVCJ_enDE430DE443&espv=210&es_sm=93&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ei=pNmdUtu0A8KmyAPwuYD4BA&ved=0CAkQ_AUoAQ&biw=1241&bih=614#es_sm=93&espv=210&q=schmollen&tbm=isch
And the noun is “Schmollmund”… although that is also often used if a woman has just big lips like Angelina Jolie
Loved this article – these are the sorts of categories I lack a lot of vocabulary for. I also found Jo’s response interesting, as well as her questions. She’s evidently coming from a Brit perspective, so maybe that explains my differences…
I wouldn’t consider “die Stirn runzeln” to be the same as frowning by itself, though if you’re frowning and meaning it (if that makes sense), you’ll definitely give your Stirn some Runzeln. Like you said, I think the defining feature is the mouth, hence :( as the English symbol. You can frown because you’re thinking, but your mouth would still be involved.
“Kisser” is sort of an old-timey slang word for the mouth: “Pow! Right in the kisser!” Not really vulgar, exactly, but it makes you sound like you’re from the ’40s or ’50s or something. I have no idea what the best translation for “Fresse” in a frowny context would be, but “puss” means nothing in the context of facial expressions.
“Purse your lips” just means to press them together and make your mouth look small. I wouldn’t think of the duck face as a great example, but I guess it would count.
Is a “Silberblick” maybe a (slightly) lazy eye?
I don’t think wrinkling your brow is the same as frowning. To me that is more like scowling.
what about a look of finally understanding something, like when your face lights up, it goes from runzeln to……..
Hmmm… I think you just relax all the muscles a little… that would be
– “Ach soooooo” sagte er, und seine Gesichtszüge (facial traits) entspannten sich.
– “Ohhhhhh”, he said and his face relaxed (no idea what to say in English)
But that is not specific for understanding. Does that help :)
I like the expression “lights up” as in, “Her face lit up (with joy/excitement/etc).” It’s not just for understanding, it’s anything that has suddenly happened where someone experiences joy, excitement, etc. At the opposite end, we can also say someone’s expression or face is dark or black or “stormy” or even “black as thunder”, meaning they’re furious (but probably holding it in, not yelling). Does German use light and dark analogies for expressions?
Yes, definitely :)… there is
– die Gesichtszüge erhellen sich/hellen sich auf (brighten up)
– …. klaren sich auf (rarer)
and a lot of variations of that.
Then there is the very common:
– strahlen
which is to “radiate” or emit rays. The sun does it and a happy face does it too.
– Er strahlt über das ganze Gesicht.
In the negative there are also dark analogies… Mainly the verb “verfinstern” and then some other phrasings
– Seine Mine (face) verfinstert sich.
– Er blickt finster (drein).
What also works is “düster” but not “dunkel”. “Dunkel” works for thoughts but not for faces.
There are probably more but those are the ones I can think of right now.
Here can it be leuchtet?
A face can “leuchten”, yes.More the eyes, actually. That sounds like genuine, deep felt joy
Meinst du “Miene”?
(Interessanterweise gibt es im Russischen genau gleiches Wort, “mina”.)
Ops, ja genau… Miene…nicht Mine:)
I would like to understand the meanings of the word heißen.
Thank you for your huge help and I think you’re doing a great job.
“Heißen” is a nice one… I’ll add it to my to do list :)
Ja.. Genau! :)
Mach ich nächstes Jahr irgendwann :)
Tolle Blog-Post!. Das Quiz gefällt mir. Könntest du das, wenn möglich, übliche form für alle zukünftigen Post machen?. Ich wäre dankbar, wenn du eine Post über ‘conjunctive adverbs’ machen könntest.
Ich werd’s versuchen… mit dem Quiz :). Mit conjunctive adverbs meinst du so Sachen wie “trotzdem” und “dann” und so?
great explanation ! vielen Dank ! Lucius
Danke. Freut mich, dass es dir gefallen hat:)