Note: Below is a list of terms that I think would be useful for modelers who don't speak German. Some are fairly familiar, though often mis-pronounced (Wehrmacht and Luftwaffe). I have run this past the contributors, and now I'd like to see if there are other terms I should include.

1. Abteilung (pronounced “ob-tile-ung”): “battalion.”

2. Beute (pronounced “Boy tuh”): literally, “war booty.” Applied to captured vehicles (e.g., Beutepanzer, captured tank).

3. DAK (pronounced “dock”): Deutsches Afrika Korps

4. Das Reich (pronounced “dos Rye-k”): The 2nd SS Panzer Division.
5. Dunkelgelb (pronounced “doon-kell gelb”): “dark yellow” Capitalized because it’s a noun, and all German nouns are capitalized.

6. Fall: “case,” as in Fall weiß (“Case White,” the invasion of Poland in 1940).

7. Fallschirmjäger (pronounced “Fall Sheerm Yayger”): paratroops.

8. FlaK (pronounced like “flock”): a combination of Flug-Abwehr-Kanone (anti-aircraft cannon, usually written as a single word, Flugabwehrkanone) and is usually capitalized. “Flak” is correct only in the English meaning of “we ran into a lot of flak over Schweinfurt.”

9. Funk (“Foonk”): literally “spark.” Applied to any radio or radar device.
10. Halbkettenfahrzeug (“halb ketten far tsoyg”) half tracked vehicle.

11. Kampfgruppe (“compf groop-uh”) a loose term for any ad-hoc combat formation with a specific task, often comprising troops and vehicles from various unrelated units.

12. Kriegsmarine (“creegs marine-uh”): The German Navy in WW II (the military branch, not including the merchant marine).

13. KWK: short for Kraftwagenkanone (“Croft vah-gon kah-no-ne”), literally “fighting vehicle gun” aka tank gun.

14. Lafette (pronounced “lah-fet-uh”): gun platform (actually a French noun taken over whole into German).

15. Leibstandarte (pronounced “lie-b shton dart-uh” like “to lie down” and not like “leeward”). Hitler’s personal bodyguard, eventually the 1st SS Panzer Division.
16. Luftwaffe: accepted in English without italics, but pronounced with a “V” instead of the WW sound. Similar to “Wehrmacht” (VERR macht).

17. Olivgrün (pronounced “o-leave groon”): “olive green” See Dunkelgelb above.

18. Ostketten (the “ost” is pronounced like “Austen, Texas”): “East tracks” Various track width extensions designed to provide greater traction in the ice and snow of the Eastern front.

19. PAK (pronounced “pock”): Panzer Abwehr Kanone (anti-tank gun). Should be all caps.

20. Panzer (pronounced “Ponz her” not “Pans ur”).

21. Porsche (“Porsh-uh,” NOT “Porsch”): Ferdinand Porsche designed numerous tanks for the Wehrmacht, and his company became famous after the car for building sports cars.

22. Pz.Kpfw. abbreviation of Panzerkampfwagen (“Ponz her compf vah gun”): tank (literally “aromored fighting vehicle”)

23. Rundumfeurer (pronounced “roond-oom foy rer): literally “firing all around” An automatic rotating external MG mounted on several different German vehicles.

24. Saukopf (pronounced “zow-kop-f”): “pig’s head” An informal name applied to mantlets on several German assault guns and tank destroyers. The correct term is Topfblende.(literally “oven lid”).

25. Schürzen (pronounced “shoor-tsen”): the protective plates attached to German armor to defend against anti-tank projectiles.

26. Sd.Kfz. abbreviation of Sonderkraftwagen (pronounced “Zawn der croft vah-gun”): halftrack.

27. Selbstfahrlafette (pronounced “zelb-stuh-far lah-fet-uh”): self-propelled gun platform.

28. sPA: schwere Panzerabteilung (pronounced “sh-verr-uh pahn-tser ob-tile-oong”): “heavy tank battalion. The initial “s” is NOT capitalized because it’s not a noun.

29. Sturmartillerie (pronounced “shtoorm artillery”): the collective term for the Sturmgeschütz and other non-tank motorized guns and gun platforms.

30. Sturmgeschütz (pronounced “shtoorm guh-shoots”): “assault gun.” A turretless armored gun platform designed to support infantry.

31. Unternehmen (pronounced “oonter name en”): “operation,” as in Unternehmen Barbarossa (“Operation Barbarossa,” the invasion of the Soviet Union).

32. Waffenamt (pronounced “Vaw-fen Ahmt”): The procurement organization of the Wehrmacht. The full name is Heereswaffenamt.

33. Wehrmacht (pronounced “vair mah-kt”): well-established in English, but frequently mis-transalated as the “army” when in actuality it designated ALL of the German branches of the military. The German army was comprised primarily of the Heer (pronounced like the hair on your head). The Waffen SS were not under the command of the Army, but were under the direction of the Wehrmacht, which was headed by Hitler himself after 1938.

34. Wiking (“vee king”): Literally, “Viking.” The 5th SS Panzer Division, made up originally of volunteers from Scandinavian countries.

35. Zimmerit (pronounced “tsim-err-it”): should be capitalized and in italics; it’s a foreign word, even if familiar to modelers.

Vielen (feelin) Dank (donk) für (fur, as in the type of coat the wife wants) die (dee- if you say both quickly, it sounds like one of the Ramones) Informationen (In-forma-tsyo-nin), mein (mine) Herr (hair, similar to fur, only different).

If I can make some additions and one correction, Bill:

Sd.Kfz. abbreviation of Sonderkraftwagen (pronounced “Zawn der croft vah-gun”): halftrack.

SdKfz doesn't mean halftrack but special purpose vehicle (of which halftracks belong to...)

Also, while not a pronunciation guide, here are some mistakes I see modellers and authors still make:

"FAMO" isn't a half-track or even a big half-track. It's the abbreviation for the maker of the 18-ton SdKfz 9 tractor. In common usage, the tractor would be called the 18-tonner.

Case in point, the 8-ton tractor Sdfkz 7 (recently kitted to the max by both DML and Trumpeter). Do you ever see anyone calling it the Krauss-Maffei? No? Why not? For the same reason one shouldn't call the SdKfz 9 a FAMO. Krauss-Maffei was the main manufacturer for the Sdkfz 7s.

The same applies to the annoyingly ubiquitous term "HANOMAG". This was one of seven makers of the heavy half track SdKfz 251 or officially the Schützenpanzerwagen. The troops called it the SPW or "ess-pay-vay", not the 251 and never the Hanomag.

Hanomag crept into modelling culture because when Tamiya produced their early 70s kit SdKfz 251C, they called it a Hanomag, emblazoned boldly on the boxtop. Now it's stuck in some people's minds.

It's the equivalent of calling all Sherman tanks Chryslers.

Hi,

don't flame me just want to help you with a few things... The German a is a long a so you would pronounce it paack not poock. Umlauts such as ä,ö, and ü are pronounce (and spelled in english where umlauts aer not use) ae, oe, and ue.




Gray

Minor quibbles:

Kfz = Kraftfahrzeug = (Self)powered Vehicle refers to every non-railroad vehicle with an engine. Be it the 25ccm Scooter or the tractor pulling an 18-wheeler

KwK is Kampfwagen-Kanone (Gun for Combat car/Combat vehicle)

German for Foreigners :

While I never understood the difficulties some foreigners like Bavarians or British have with the german language(s), even the 6 year olds speak it around here , there ARE some funny elements in the written language.

German allows to "make new words" by combining existing words and dropping the capitals. So in German the spellings

Panzerabwehrkanone
Flugabwehrkanone
Jagdpanzer

etc. are legal and commonly used. The military has a habbit to break up terms in writing so

Jagdpanzer => Panzer, Jagd (Tankdestroyer => Destroyer, tank)
Mausefalle => Falle, Maus (Mousetrap => Trap, Mice)

Well actually Mousetrap is "Falle, Klapp für Tier, klein, grau" (Trap, sping loaded for animal, small, grey) if you believe military humor.


Some more terms:

Jagdpanzer: lit. HunterTank, correct term is Tank Destroyer (Jagd = The Hunt), Often reduced to "Jäger" (Hunter)

Panzerjäger: lit Tank hunter, alternate/official term for Jadgpanzer. Shortcut is Pz.-Jäg

Chef: lit "Chief" used as a reference to the officer in current command. Also used as a term to qualify a vehicle i.e Chefjäger = Tank destroyer of the unit commander. Similar to the -Six used by US. Otoh when the Batallion S3 tells his driver to fetch "Chef 4." then he wants to talk with the Officer commanding the 4. Company.

Spiess: (lit. Spear) but a reference to the Companies highest ranking NCO (Typically a Master Sergeant) that is in charge of all NCO's in the company. Official term is "Kompaniefeldwebel" (Company sergeant).

Sturm: lit. "Storm" but correct is "Assault". A Sturmgeschütz is an Assault gun a Sturmhaubitze is an assault howitzer

Haubitze: Howitzer. Typically with a qualifier like leichte (Light) or schwere (Heavy) and a type like Feld (towed) or Panzer or Sturm (self propelled). So the "leichte Feldhaubitze 18" is the towed 105mm piece while the Sturmhaubitze 42 is the same gun but on the Sturmgeschütz III chassis

schwere Feldhaubitze: Heavy towed howitzer

schwere Panzerhaubitze: Heavy self propelled howitzer

leFh, sFh: Shortcut for the leichte (10.5cm) and schwere (15cm) towed howitzers

Another small yet important addition: "Reich" is never pronounced "Reik", although this version has gained almost official status as a English loanword - I'm no lingusitics expert so I can't say the correct scientific term, but you might try listening to this file on Wikipedia:

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/28/De-Reich-pronunciation.ogg

Many articles on German subjects have spoken words now, so it is always helpful to check for it.

Here's another example, for Panzer:
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/52/De-Panzer-pronunciation.ogg

Best regards,
Philipp

You mean like - Donaudampfschiffahrtsgesellschaftskapitän?

I remember an oldie - Schaufensterpuppen-something or other, but that was thirty years ago.

Anyway, the list has been a long time in coming. I used to bite my tongue when I heard "German speakers" at some of the contests.

A small addition/correction, whatever-
When a German word ends in a "b" it is slightly aspirated, giving it almost (and wholly, dependiong upon where you are) a "p" sound.

Likewise words ending in "d" take on a "t" sound. Even syllables ending in 'd" such as Rindfleisch.

Peter Schweisthal

Hi, Bill,
As a German modeler and long-time reader of English language modeling publications, I've often toyed with the idea of doing just what you now published here, so I'd like to put in my two bits, if I may:

1) In German, consonants at the end of a word or syllable are usually pronounced hard, i.e. b=p, d=t, etc. So, Abteilung would be "up-tie-loong". And the meaning is simply "unit".
3) DAK is not an acronym, so it's "day-ar-car", with the two "r"s being mute.
4) Das Reich: "duss"
5) "doonkle-gelp"
6) Fall: like "hull" with an f at the beginning.
8) FlaK: often spelled Flak, but always pronounced "fluck", just like that 4-letter-word. The prefix "Fla-" meaning AA, so you can have Fla-Waffen (weapons), -Raketen (rockets), -Abteilung, etc.
13) KWK: Kraftwagen = power wagon, so literally, it's a motor vehicle gun, but normally used for tank guns only.
20) Panzer: "pun-tser", as German "z" is always pronounced "ts". Panzer means "armor", and as a prefix, "armored". For example, the Spanish conquistadors were wearing armor breast plate - in German "Brustpanzer".
24) Topf-blende would be "pot mantlet", Blende being akin to English blind.
25) Schürzen: "shirtsen", literally aprons, singular Schürze, "shirtsah".
26) SdKfz: Sonder--Kraft-fahrzeug, special powered vehicle, any motorized vehicle not subject to civilian traffic security standards like max. width, lighting, etc.

I hope this has been of a little help - besides, I can recommend the online dictionary "dict.leo.org".

Greetings, Peter

..a better bet than an unwieldy list -where do you stop- might be Tom Houlihan's book 'Kriegsprache' Literally translated as "War Speak," Kriegsprache is a glossary of WWII German military and period specific words, phrases, abbreviations, and Landser slang. Over 7,000 abbreviations and more than 17,500 words and phrases ...

but if you are going to make a list can I suggest you indicate, as Peter has above, the singular & the plural forms - my biggest bug-bear among modellers, writers etc who can't speak German is the use of the letter 's' as if the word was an English word !... Plurals in German hardly ever take the letter 's' ....some very well known words don't have a plural form ..eg Panzer

I can understand why many Americans or English-speakers have problems with our pronounciation but it's really easy once you know the rules. Every word is pronounced the way it is written and the end of a word is always heavily pronounced and not soft. Keep that in mind. Bill's list is already very comprehensive with a lot of good tips on how to pronounce each word. Here are some corrections that I would make, however:

2. Beute (pronounced “Boy teh”)
3. DAK (pronounced “duuuck”, as in duck but stretch the u)
4. Das Reich (pronounced “dos Rye-ch”, the ch is what I have found most non-Germans are having the most trouble with, you have to hear it to know how it is pronounced)
8. FlaK (pronounced like “fluuuuck”, same as the f word but stretch the u)
14. Lafette (pronounced “lah-fet-teh”)
17. Olivgrün (listen to it somewhere online, Umlaute are impossible to explain in writing) front.
22. Pz.Kpfw. abbreviation of Panzerkampfwagen (“Punts uh compf vah gun”, nobody pronounces the r in the middle)
23. Rundumfeurer (pronounced “roond-oom foy yer)
26. Sd.Kfz. abbreviation of Sonderkraftfahrzeug (pronounced “Zawn der croft vahr tsoig”)
27. Selbstfahrlafette (pronounced “zelb-stuh-far lah-fet-uh”): self-propelled gun platform.
28. sPA: schwere Panzerabteilung (pronounced “sh-verr-uh Punts uh uhb-tile-oong”)
33. Wehrmacht (pronounced “vair mah-cht”, again the ch)
34. Wikinger (“vee kinger”) Viking is always Wikinger in German, be it plural or singular, you always have the er at the end. If you see it without the er it's a mistake
35. Zimmerit (pronounced “tsim-err-eat”)

The explanations you provide are excellent. This should be an aide to a lot of modelers!

Sebastian

Here are the plural forms (or singular ones if they are stated as plurals on the list) that can be provided:

1. Abteilungen: plural
2. Beute: both plural and singular
3. No plural possible
4. No plural possible
5. No plural possible
6. Fälle: plural
7. Fallschirmjäger: both plural and singular
8. FlaKs or Flug-Abwehr-Kanonen: plural
9. No plural possible
11. Kampfgruppen: plural
12. No plural possible
13. Kraftwagenkanonen: plural
14. Lafetten: plural
15. Leibstandarten: plural
16. No plural possible
17. No plural possible
18. Ostkette: singular
19. Panzer Abwehr Kanonen: plural
20. Panzer: both plural and singular
21. No plural possible
22. Panzerkampfwägen: plural
23. Rundumfeurer: both plural and singular
24. Sauköpfe: plural
25. Schürze: singular
26. Sonderkraftfahrzeuge: plural
27. Selbstfahrlafetten: plural
28. schwere Panzerabteilungen: plural
29. Sturmartillerie-en: plural
30. Sturmgeschütze: plural
31. Unternehmen: both plural and singular
32. Waffenämter: plural
33. No plural possible
34. Wikinger: both plural and singular
35. No plural possible

Oh my I've gone cross eyed!

Thanks, everyone, keep 'em coming! I have to at some point cut off the list (Tom Houlihan's book Kriegsprache sounds like the ticket for someone who REALLY wants the answers, though I looked it up on Amazon, and it's $26!!), but your input is what I want.

As for pronounciation, we can debate this endlessly (and no flames received or sent!). The two languages have different sound groups. I was a German BA in college, and have traveled there quite a bit, and even taught German for a semester in grad school many years ago. There is no substitute for someone teaching you the sounds and correcting your efforts, but unfortunately, that can't be done yet over the Internet just yet. This feature-in-the-making is my poor effort to help out my fellow modelers.

Probably ought to do one for English for non-English speakers, but it would be hard to pick up all the different, idiosyncratic mistakes for each language. My favorites for German-speakers is Informations (it's never plural in English) and "I have lived here since six years" (a translation of the German "ich wohne hier seit sechs Jahren").

How about some Arabic for all you guys

First off, we write from right to left... and the sounds we have that all westerners have trouble pronouncing...

Hisham

Bill: You're right, there's really hardly any perfect way to teach stuff over the internet: I grew up in San Francisco and like to think my English is somewhat fluent and we Germans do some terrible things when speaking foreign languages, I hear it every day in school.
I think it's great you've decided to take it upon yourself to make a feature and I can imagine a lot of WWII enthusiasts would crave for the information in it.

Hisham: One thing I just can't understand is how you are able to differenciate all your letters (?, forgive my ignorance, I know nothing about the language), to me they look so italic that I just can't tell the difference. It seems like a difficult language but still interesting, it sounds cool too.

Achtung Schpitfeuer! = Attention, Spitfire!

Geez, Slow down. I'm having trouble with the German...

Before I forget, kudos to Bill for starting this topic. I definitely learned a lot today... Cheers.

You've meant Fall: “case,” as in Fall weiß (“Case White,” as in the invasion of Poland in 1939) rrright?

Cheers
Greg

If I remember right, there are also the effects of regional differences. Someone from Berlin might pronounce something slightly differently from someone in Cologne or Munich.

We should vote on which language Bill tackles next. I vote for Japanese!

Good topic, thanks for the thread Bill. My contribution (though not on the pronounciation side): "AfrikaKorps" -- have read that it should be written as one word. Cheers, Tat

Yes, that's true, there are a number of different dialects in German. Bavarian, East-German, Platt-Deutsch, etc. But there is one kind of German that everyone can speak which is considered to be the purest form of German and that is Hochdeutsch. I can't really speak any dialect but I can immitate them and their way to pronounce things and it gets very complicated. The suggestions I've provided above are in Hochdeutsch, however.




Coincidentally, I'm learning Japanese right now and it is not as hard as most people think it is. It's just very different.

As for the dialects:

They are different from the british or US type of dialects. Those are mostly based on different pronounciations, slurring of words etc. but if written would be the same.

German dialects are based on older versions of the language and sometimes (Jiddish, Wendish) are even languages of their own. They have a totally different written form and even an official ISO-code and all. I.e the local "Plattdeutsch" speaken by my father sounds and looks more like Dutch or Afrikaans and is close enough to understand Dutch TV / communicate with Dutch.

Since the late 19th century germans have learned to speak a common dialect and during WWII most people would still speak the old dialects (Today many don't) I have often seen the "auto-switch" to the official dialect if a non-speaker comes in a group (Mother 's side of the family isn't from the region).

The hints of a speakers origin are often in specialist words. Going south you cross the Apfel/Apel (apple) border near Frankfurt and going east the Frikadelle/Bullete (meatball) Border somewhere near Hannover. And in the mining areas the Mottek is a common term but go 100km south and "hand me the Mottek" gets you a blank stare (A Mottek is a big hammer with a long handle)

I've been laughing my *ss off, pock, dok, whoehahahahaha

Is it so hard to just use a translation device and good sense?

Sooooo funny, 60 years later and still problems understanding each other:)


Ein tag komt der Zieg

not that hard , is it?

Hi Pit,

Remember, you are a Flemish speaking Belgian, many German words sound familiar for you (and me), but that's not the case for the English and other language speking people over here.
(I admit,there are words on this list which are so commonly used, that I can hardly imagine that WW2 interested people, no matter the langauge, do not know/understand them.)

Peter