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LEARNING GERMAN

10 beautiful ways to express your love in German

Struggling to ask someone out or find the perfect German pet name? Allow The Local to assist you with these delicate matters of the heart.

Published: 24 January 2020 18:04 CET
Updated: 14 February 2024 09:50 CET
10 beautiful ways to express your love in German
"Only love letters" reads the text of a mailbox in Gießen, Hesse. Photo: picture alliance/dpa | Boris Roessler

Ich liebe dich/ Ich bin in dich verliebt/ Ich hab’ dich lieb

Let’s jump in at the deep end. There are a few different ways to drop the l-bomb in German, and it is important to choose the one which strikes the right note.

Ich liebe dich (I love you) is better suited to a serious, long-term relationship than the colloquial hab’ dich lieb (love you/love ya lots), which can be used not only for your partner but also friends and family. Ich bin in dich verliebt is definitely only for a lover, but it isn’t as serious as Ich liebe dich.

If it feels right to respond with  “I love you too”,  just pop auch into the phrase, for example ich liebe dich auch, ich bin auch in dich verliebt, ich hab’ dich auch lieb.  

Ich bin bis über beide Ohren verliebt

Continuing with bold declarations of love, ich bin bis über beide Ohren verliebt literally means “I am until over both ears in love”. This better translates to “I am head over heels in love”. 

Liebestoll

Ever felt totally consumed by your emotions after being hit by cupid’s arrow? Find it difficult to think about anything else but your other half? In German you would describe yourself as being liebestoll, which means to be crazed by love or love-struck. 

SEE ALSO: German word of the day: Liebestoll

Holding hands in Hamburg

A couple walks holding hands in Hamburg. Photo: picture alliance/dpa/dpa-tmn | Christin Klose

Pet names  

If you’re looking for a cutesy pet name, you have come to the right place. Take your pick from Liebste(r), Mausi, Schatz or Liebling, which all translate to something along the lines of love, sweetie, sweetheart or darling.

If you’d like to try something different for February 14th, Vielliebchen is a slightly dated way to call someone your valentine.

Dein ist mein ganzes Herz

This phrase means yours is my heart alone, yours is my entire heart or your heart is my delight. Much like saying I love you, it is also better suited to an established relationship, rather than a new one. 

Willst du mit mir gehn? 

But how to find someone to say these sickening things to? 

All relationships have to start somewhere. If you feel things are going well with someone and you’d like them to become your partner, how better to ask them than with a simple willst du mit mir gehn?. This literally translates to ‘do you want to go with me?’. 

Ich steh’ auf dich

Another gem for the early days of dating would be ich steh’ auf dich, which simply means “I’m into you”. This is the perfect phrase if you’re looking to make your intentions known without getting too serious. 

Du bist mein Ein und Alles

Another way to make your feelings known to your significant other would be to say du bist mein Ein und Alles. This is the equivalent of ‘you’re my everything’ or ‘you mean the world to me’. Aww.

Liebestöter

On the other hand, if you really hate the idea of love, you might don some Liebestöter or “love/passion killers”.

These large, sometimes knee-covering underpants (think long johns) are worn to keep away potential suitors by simply by being unattractive. 

Hagestolz 

Another way to steer clear of the messy business of love would be to declare yourself a Hagestolz. This term usually describes an old bachelor who has chosen a life of solitude simply because they prefer being alone.

READ ALSO: Why do so many people in Germany live alone?

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GERMAN LANGUAGE

Everything that’s changed in the latest Duden German dictionary

The new Duden dictionary is thicker than ever with an additional 3,000 words in its 29th edition. The reference work, which is out on Tuesday, also includes spelling and grammar changes.

Published: 20 August 2024 12:36 CEST
Everything that's changed in the latest Duden German dictionary

In the four years since the last new edition of the ‘Duden’ German dictionary, the world has seen enormous changes, from the pandemic to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and even changed eating habits.

The dictionary reflects these developments with the inclusion of words such as Coronaleugner (Covid denier), Klimakleber (climate activists who glue themselves to things), Ukrainekrieg (war in Ukraine), Extremwetterereignis (extreme weather event), Deutschlandticket (Germany travel ticket), ChatGPT, and Fleischersatz (meat substitute).

“The Duden is a mirror of its time. These words say something about what has happened in the last three to four years,” editor-in-chief Kathrin Kunkel-Razum told news agency DPA. 

The biggest language changes of the past few years can be seen in the areas of crisis, war and cooking, Kunkel-Razum said.

The Duden also highlights language trends, like Quetschie, a word used to describe the squeezable packets of fruit purees that are sold as snacks for children. The term comes from the word quetschen (to squeeze).

Unsurprisingly, there are also quite a few new borrowed words or expressions from English. These include ‘upskirting,’ ‘catcalling’ and pampern (pampering).

The Duden is the most well-known reference work on German spelling and, as such, regularly deletes words that are no longer used very much.

Three hundred words have been removed from the current edition, Kunkel-Razum said.

READ ALSO: What are the best websites and apps to learn German?

These include words like frigidär (refrigerator), UMTS-Handy (UMTS mobile phone) or Rationalisator, a term used in the GDR to describe an employee with rationalisation tasks.

Kühlschrank (der) is the only word for a fridge now, while Handy (das, and without the UMTS) is the ‘Denglisch’ word for a mobile phone.

The dictionary has also ditched spelling variants for some words. For example, Tunfisch and Spagetti are no longer accepted ways of writing tuna and spaghetti. Only Thunfisch and Spaghetti are correct now.

“Deleting words is much more difficult than adding them,” the linguist said, explaining that it was much harder to prove that a word was rarely used than the other way around.

Deletions can also be reversed, she said. For example, the word Hackenporsche (a jokey description for a shopping trolley) was removed from the previous addition but has now been included again.

“We received complaints that the word was deleted,” said Kunkel-Razum.

The reference work – named after German philologist Konrad Duden – used to be binding until Germany’s 1996 spelling reform. The authority on spelling is now the Council for German Orthography, which publishes an ‘official set of rules’. 

READ ALSO: Denglisch: The English words that will make you sound German

Reference works like Duden then implement these rules which eventually become incorporated in everyday use.

Kunkel-Razum said the new Duden contained the Council’s latest spelling changes that were approved at the end of 2023.

These include the mandatory use of a comma before an extended infinitive.

An extended infinitive is the bit of a sentence that’s in direct relation to the ‘infinitive plus zu‘ construction. So, according to the new rules, this means that you should write: Gisela weiß mit Sicherheit, The Local gelesen zu haben. (Gisela knows for sure that she’s read The Local.)

Here, the extended infinitive is ‘The Local gelesen zu haben’ so the comma goes before that.

The comma used to be compulsory, then it became optional and now it’s compulsory again – don’t you love German?

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