GermanyAlter
noun, interjection · Informal · AHL-ter
Dude, man — an address term with no reference to age whatsoever. Older than Digga and slightly more mainstream; plenty of forty-year-olds still say it.
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Germany
German Slang for Emotion & Reaction
13 German slang terms for emotion & reaction, each with its meaning, how it is pronounced and an example of it in use.
Surprise, exasperation, delight, disbelief. Often interjections rather than nouns — words that do something rather than name something.
boah
interjection · Colloquial · BOH-ah
The German all-purpose exclamation: awe, exasperation, disgust, disbelief. Length and pitch do all the semantic work — a short flat boah is annoyance, a long rising one is amazement.
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Bock haben
phrase, idiom · Colloquial · BOCK HAH-ben
To fancy something, to be up for it. 'Hast du Bock auf Kino?' — do you fancy the cinema?
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cringe
adjective, noun · Informal · KRINSH — often with a German sh at the end
Embarrassing to witness; second-hand embarrassment. Used as a predicate adjective — 'das ist so cringe' — which is not how English uses the word.
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das ist mir Wurst
idiom · Colloquial · dass ist meer VOORST
I couldn't care less; it's all the same to me. Not rude, not aggressive — just a flat statement of indifference, and far more common in speech than the neutral 'das ist mir egal'.
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der Hammer
noun, adjective · Informal · HAH-mer
Something outstanding: 'das ist der Hammer' is the German for 'that's amazing'. Used bare as an adjective too — 'Der Abend war hammer' — which is grammatically odd and entirely normal in speech.
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Gaudi
noun · Regional · GOW-dee
Fun, a laugh, a good time — Bavarian and Austrian. 'Eine Gaudi' is a specific occasion of fun, not the abstract quality.
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geil
adjective · Informal · GYLE — rhymes with 'mile'
Great, brilliant, fantastic. The default all-purpose German word of approval, and by some distance the most-used slang adjective in the language.
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Use with care
Kater
noun · Colloquial · KAH-ter
A hangover. 'Einen Kater haben' is the set phrase; 'Katerfrühstück' is the greasy breakfast that follows.
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krass
adjective, interjection · Informal · KRAHSS
Extreme, intense, out of the ordinary — and evaluatively neutral. A krasse Party and a krasser Unfall are equally krass; only tone and context tell you whether the speaker approves.
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Schmarrn
noun, interjection · Regional · SHMAR-n
Nonsense, rubbish, tripe. Bavarian and Austrian, and the standard way of dismissing something someone has just said.
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Shitstorm
noun · Colloquial · SHIT-shtorm
A wave of public outrage, almost always online — a company, politician or influencer 'bekommt einen Shitstorm'. Narrower than the English word, which covers any chaotic disaster.
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wallah
interjection · Informal · VAH-lah
I swear; honestly; no joke. An oath used to insist that what you are saying is true, and the single most recognisable item of Kiezdeutsch — the multi-ethnic urban German of Berlin, Hamburg, Duisburg and the Rhine-Ruhr.
+2 more senses