Hello everyone,
and welcome to our German Word of the Day. This time we will look at the meaning of the word:
der Faulpelz
The kitten in the hammock is one, I am one when I have a day off and you sure are one as well every now and then… a little… oh no! Let’s not be lazy and just translate – we’ve got a whole post to fill! So let’s have a quick look at the two words Faulpelz consists of. The first one is the word faul. The pronunciation strongly suggests that it is a relative to the English foul as in rotten. This is true but faul has a second meaning in German as it is THE word for …. lazy.
“Oh that is sooooooooo German of you Germans, using the same word for foul and lazy… as if being lazy were automatically bad… you and your damn discipline and stuff”. Well can’t argue with that really, we do use the same word for foul and lazy. But actually it does not feel like it… to me it feels like 2 different words that just happened to be spelled the same.
As far as faul like foul is concerned there is actually another similar word which is faulig. I think that I use faulig a little more often but I guess that depends on the context.
- It smells foul.
- Es riecht faulig.
Es riecht faul. (This sounds very epic though) - Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
- This apple is a bit rotten.
- Dieser Apfel ist faulig.
- Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
Faulig does not mean lazy by the way and I am not sure as to whether people would actually understand what you are trying to say if you accidentally use faulig in a sense of lazy.
The rotten faul is also used in a number of idioms such as:
- Es ist was faul im Staate Dänemark.
- Something is rotten in the state of Denmark. (yeah I am so quotin’ Shakespeare)
- Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
- Das klingt alles ganz gut, aber irgendwas ist da faul.
- It all sounds really good, but there is something fishy goin’ on.
- Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
The noun for the rotten faul is die Fäule or die Fäulnis (the decay or the rot) and the verb is faulen (to rot) or verfaulen (to go bad).
The lazy faul also has a noun and a verb but they are different and must not be mixed up with the ones of the rotten faul. The noun is die Faulheit.
- Lang lebe die Faulheit!
- Long live laziness.
- Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
The verb, yes German does have a verb for to be lazy, is actually a pretty pretty word as far as I am concerned. It is faulenzen. … What’s that? No! I do not agree that it looks like flatulent. How old are you anyway? It’s a nice word period! It contains faul and it contains lenz which is a poetic term for the season Spring.
- Dieses Wochenende werde ich so richtig schön faulenzen.
- This weekend I will not do anything but being totally lazy.
- Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
Knowing faul, all we need to do now is to look at what a Pelz is. And that actually had me go to Google to look for the precise difference between Pelz and Fell. Do you know the difference between pelt and fur by the way? If so it wont matter here as the German difference is … different… damn feels like difference is the word of the day. Anyway, according to Wikipedia, Fell is fur with up to 400 hairs per square centimeter and as soon as it has more it is called Pelz… yeah I know I know … Germans… So Pelz is dense fluffy fur like mink fur and Fell is what a dog or a bear has. Pelz is also the wardrobe. So rich ladys are wearing Pelz. Oh and when your tongue is furry you say pelzig.
So when faul means lazy and Pelz means fluffy fur Faulpelz must mean lazy fluffy fur… which is exactly what the kitten on the picture is. Seriously though, Faulpelz is a nice way of calling someone a lazy person. It’s not all positive so it depends a little how you say it. If for instance you want to talk shit about that one guy in your office to your boss, you use Faulpelz combined with a fake ass concern in your voice and the message will be clear.
- Ja, ja Thomas is manchmal schon ein bisschen ein Faulpelz.
- Yes it is true, I guess one could say that Thomas is kind of a bit lazy every now and then.
- Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
- Du kleiner Faulpelz hast nicht abgewaschen.
- You little piece of laziness did not do the dishes.
- Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
The second example is something a girlfriend might say to her boy… when she is NOT mad. If she is mad she won’t use Faulpelz though, she will use fauler Sack … lazy sack/jerk.
We are almost done with this one… only the grammar is missing. So, the plural of Faulpelz is Faulpelze and yes it does get an extra ‘n’ in third case plural. Faulpelz is a masculine word and thus a very very good example for the randomness of the gender… I really don’t see why it would be masculine ;)….
Anyway, be a Faulpelz every once in a while! It will keep your soul in balance and your mind relaxed.
Hope you liked it and see you next time.
Ja, ja Thomas is manchmal schon ein bisschen ein Faulpelz. – can you explain me why there are two “ein”-s? Or is it in a lesson I have not yet read?
There’s no lesson on this n particular :).
“ein bisschen” is a phrase meaning “a little” and “ein Faulpelz” is the equivalent to “a lazy person”.
In English, you’d throw an “of” in between…
– a little bit of a lazy person
… but in German you don’t need that.
Hope that helps :)
Here are some more English lazy- formations for you. “Lazybones” might be close to Faulpelz. It can range from friendly to derisive. “You are such a lazybones today.” (Could be good). “Get up, you lazybones!” (Certainly bad). A “Lazy Susan” is a spinning tray in the middle of a table to make it easier to share dishes. “Lazy Acres” is some kind of restful place where nobody has to work too hard. (Think of a campground or RV park – It’s not a loud party place, but not a graveyard, either) . La-Z-Boy is an American manufacturer of reclining chairs where you pull the handle (or push a button) and a footrest comes out, you put your feet up, are lazy and watch TV.
Oh wow, “Lazy Susan” is completely new to me :D. Any idea where this name comes from? Thanks for these, they’re great!!
Surely, Susan was thought to be the name of the maid who would be serving the food on the Lazy Susan if it were not conveniently put onto the twiddly thing for the convenience of the eaters.
The influence that German has had on (my native) Czech never ceases to amaze me – and it makes learning German so much fun :D
There are two different words for “lazy” in Czech. One simply means “lazy”, but the other means “rotten” and is used for “lazy” in informal speech. It sounds totally different from “faul”, it’s only the concept that when you’re lazy you’re rotten, that stuck.
Your comparison between Pelz and Fell left me confused with Fels.
It would have been awesome if it meant lazy rock! Not as awesome as Faultier though! :-)
Thanks again!
I don’t know if this is popular or not, as I do not hear it often, but I have heard the word “lazypants” used to call somebody lazy in a nicer way, usually as a noun of address. “Come on, lazypants!” . It certainly sounds juvenile and is a little like, “Liar, liar, pants on fire!”, but it could also be kind of cute. “It looks like lazypants hasn’t done the dishes today.” There may be something to pairing “lazy” with some kind of clothing like “Pelz” or “pants”.
Brilliant :) Thank you
My favourite German word :)