GermanyBeamer
noun · Colloquial · BEE-mer
A video projector — the thing on the ceiling of a meeting room. Entirely ordinary German, and entirely opaque to English speakers, for whom a Beemer is a BMW.
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Germany
German Slang for Everyday Things
7 German slang terms for everyday things, each with its meaning, how it is pronounced and an example of it in use.
Informal names for ordinary things and ordinary activities — the domestic layer of slang that rarely makes phrasebooks but comes up constantly.
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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Handy
noun · Colloquial · HEN-dee
A mobile phone. The standard German word — not slang at all any more, and used in contracts and news bulletins — but it is the country's most famous pseudo-anglicism, and English speakers reliably misparse it.
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Homeoffice
noun · Colloquial · HOHM-off-iss
Working from home, as a state rather than a room: 'ich bin im Homeoffice' means 'I'm working from home today', not 'I am in my study'.
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Schrippe
noun · Regional · SHRIP-uh
A bread roll — but only in Berlin and Brandenburg. Ask for a Schrippe in Munich and you will get a blank look.
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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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Späti
noun · Regional · SHPAY-tee
The late-opening corner shop — beer, cigarettes, crisps, a bottle opener chained to the counter and often a couple of chairs outside. A Berlin institution, and the reason the city's street-drinking culture works.
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