16 Funny German Nouns

German nouns can be one of several things: They can be extremely long, because unlike English, compound nouns are spelled as one word, and sometimes a noun is a “compound” of many other nouns. But they can also be very funny, especially when we look at their literal translation.

Here are some examples of some funny German nouns:

1. der Geldbeutel 

literal: “the money bag/pouch”       

meaning: the wallet

2. die Lebensmittel

literal: “the life means”                   

meaning: the food

3. das Ausland

literal: “the out country”           

meaning: the foreign country

4. der Weltraum

literal: “the world room/space”   

meaning: outer space

5. der Augapfel

literal: “the eye apple”   

meaning: the eyeball

6. die Ohrfeige

literal: “the ear fig”

meaning: the slap in the face

7. de Purzelbaum

literal: “the tumble tree”

meaning: the somersault

8. die Götterspeise

literal: “the gods’ food”

meaning: the jello

9. der Löwenzahn

literal: “the lion tooth”

meaning: the dandelion

10. die Brotzeit

literal: “the bread time”

meaning: the snack

11. die (Sechskant)Mutter

literal: “the (six edge) mother”

meaning: the hex nut

12. das Eigelb

literal: “the egg yellow”

meaning: the egg yolk

13. der Zebrastreifen

literal: “the zebra strip”

meaning: the crosswalk

14. der Nachtisch

literal: “the after table”

meaning: the dessert

15. die Baumschule

literal: “the tree school”

meaning: the nursery

16. das Frischhaltefolie

literal: “the fresh keeping film/foil”

meaning: the cling wrap

Check out more of our basic German course content.