Direct Translations of German Words

Something different: Germany, the land of poets and thinkers. Well, not always, sometimes we are also pretty uncreative, a few examples of direct translations of German words:

• aircraft - fly thing (Flugzeug)
• entrepreneur - under taker (Unternehmer)
• bicycle - drive wheel (Fahrrad)
• unicycle - one wheel (Einrad)
• (watch) television - far view(er) (Fernsehen- Fernseher)
• telescope - far pipe (Fernrohr)
• dictionary - words book (Wörterbuch)
• vehicle - drive thing (Fahrzeug)
• motorist - force driver (Kraftfahrer) [official language]
• zeitgeist - time ghost (Zeitgeist)

A train leader (Zugführer) can be both a train operator ond a platoon commander.

Some words we use are kind of weird:

• citizen - bailer (not quite bailsman) (Bürger) - I don't get why we complain about having to bail out other countries since it is even in our name.
• contract - live in harmony/agree (Vertrag) from vertragen

We are sometimes pretty creative with English words. Guess what the following seemingly English words mean if used in German(answer below the fold):

• Handy
• Public viewing
• Oldtimer 
• Beamer

• cell phone
• public live broadcast of a sports event
• vintage car
• video projector