Native german speaker here. I have been wondering how difficult it is to learn and understand compound words in German. Also, do you yourself make up your own when needed?
While it’s “clunky” it makes it super easier for a non native speaker to figure out what is meant by it. I personally love how straightforward the language is like ambulance -> krankenwagen (sick car) make sense intuitively.
I make up my own compound words, when I play the game “Codenames”.
How do you even play that game in other languages without compound words?
When I was starting to learn German, I found it quite intimidating, but once I started having a grasp of the language, I found it actually pretty easy. The trick is just being able to recognize the subwords. Take a word like Arbeitsunfähigkeitsbescheinigung: once you know Arbeit and Schein, it already starts being easier to see the meaning.
Fähigkeit would probably also be useful to know for that one.
Yes, we do
