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You hear the word
Schadenfreude
a
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Schadenfreude - It's a German word. They say it can't be translated correctly to English. I'm a bona fide KRAUT -- my mother tongue is German so I'll tell you what it means In English. Schadenfreude is a word made up of two German nouns: Schaden and Freude.
Pronunciation:
In
German all nouns are capitalized. Schaden begins with 'Sch'.
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In German all nouns are capitalized, no exceptions. That's easy -- the bad news is that German allows anyone to invent new nouns by stringing together an almost unlimited number of them to invent a new word. For example. Elektritzitätswerkleitungsarbeiter would be a legitimate word meaning electric-works-line-worker. I just made up that word here and now and it's copasetic to do that in German. Yes, that makes it goofy and queer. A compound noun such as this is hard to read even for native Krauts. But it's legal in German. Now let's get back to Schadenfreude. |
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The meaning of
faith
Beethoven
mp3:
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Schadenfreude is made up of two nouns, Schaden and Freude. Schaden is dark. Schaden is related to the English word shade (Ger.: Schatten) -- so you suspect it's not going to be brilliant -- it's something ominous. Schaden means damage. It can also mean mischief, harm, physical or mental defect, fault, loss, damage, etc. So you know it's not going to be good news. Freude means happiness. It can also mean enjoyment, gratification, fun, joyousness, glee, happiness, delight, etc. So you know this going to mean good news. So, when you suffer from Schadenfreude you are delighted that someone else is suffering.
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Schadenfreude? |
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German is a phonetic language. Words are
ALMOST
always pronounced as they are spelled.
(Well almost: "Sch" is usually pronounced
as English "sh" as in SHush. An exception applies, and at the risk
of going off on a tangent, I'll tell tell you that "Einstein" has an "SH"
sound in it, not an ST sound... it's not EinSTein as in the English word STone or STupid :) The German
"Stein" means stone. Einstein is pronounced as EinSHtein . Einstein
means "one stone".
