We (rightly) mock the Dutch and Danes for not speaking properly, but why not the Germans for being scared of spaces?

by SuchSeaworthyShips

39 comments

  1. Because there‘s nothing to mock, only to admire and learn.

    I‘m convinced the spaces in English have been invented by lazy university students to inflate their count of pages and signs.

  2. Why would you need spaces? You are only describing one Thing, so only use one Word.

  4. At least we have rules. You put some words together just like we do like “wristwatch” or “football” but then SOMETIMES (HA!) you just don’t and there is no way for a regular human being to know which one it is. Is it ballsack or is it ball sack and why? Answer me, vile fiend!

  5. No spaces is most efficient. Truely the dutch way of living. 

  6. I’d be a bit more specific there. What kind of *Fussboden*? Is *Verleih* the generic activity or indeed the shop? Furthermore annoying: what kind of *Schleifmaschine*? A manually driven one perhaps?!

    I’d probably correct that to **Holzlaminatfussbodenelektroschleifmaschinenverleihladen**.

    ​

    Edit. I’ve just fed that to DeepL and am deeply impressed o.O

    [https://www.deepl.com/translator#de/en/Holzlaminatfussbodenelektroschleifmaschinenverleihladen](https://www.deepl.com/translator#de/en/Holzlaminatfussbodenelektroschleifmaschinenverleihladen)

  8. To be fair, it’s only you Barry who stand out among Germanic languages and don’t consistenly put all words together, probably because of Fr*nch (🤢) influence.

    Here’s Swedish longest word: nordvästersjökustartilleriflygspaningssimulatoranläggningsmateriel
    underhållsuppföljningssystemdiskussionsinläggsförberedelsearbeten

  9. For what’s it’s worth, I find all three ridiculous for their respective sets of reasons so I’m unsure how to contribute to this debate.

  11. Floorboard *sharpening* machine rental?

    Edit: Ah German is too rusty, Floor sanding machine rental

  12. There’s nothing to mock, it’s just the beauty of composite words.

    Why would you say “exhibition of Khoekhoe residencies” when you can say “hottentottententententoonstelling”?

    English and French were designed for children whose attention span doesn’t reach past four syllables.

  13. Pure German efficiency right here. Why waste time pressing space, or moving your hand slightly when you can just keep writing.

  14. The last time we wanted some space you folks didn’t like that very much

  17. Well, we did overdo it a bit with spaces, didn’t we…with all that Lebensraum bs and all…

  18. Well history told us if we see too much free space, it might be free real estate which would cause Expansion for more Lebensraum

  19. The last time Germany collectively talked about “more space”, I think it wasn’t a most popular thing with our neighbours. 😁

  20. Not scared of spaces, you are scared of long words

    Because if you think about it, it’s a simple and logical rule

    1 thing = 1 word

  21. Rinderkennzeichnungsfleischetikettierungsüberwachungsaufgabenübertragungsgesetz

  22. If you are describing one single thing you should only need one single word. Change my mind.

  23. maybe that’s on what 80 years ago the Germans and Japaneses really bonded over…

  24. What are you talking about we got badass words like “kolddampsatomsabsorbtionsspektrofotometri”

  25. Putting spaces into one word is unnatural, probably necessary for kids or under intelligent people, but still unnatural.

  26. Believe it or not. I succeeded in reading and pronouncing it. Maybe with my french accent though.

  27. It’s simply correct not to interrupt a single term with stupid blanks you imbecile.

    A school bus is a single thing. Why is it two words?

  30. Yup, that’s why Deutsch is the most inferior germanic language. Also their der/die/dem/den/… shit.

  31. Crazy! I actually borrowed a Fußbodenschleifmaschine at this store, like 10 years ago.

  32. english literally does the exact same thing, they only seperate the compounds with spaces (video game, computer program, car wash, etc)

  33. They are not afraid of spaces; on the contrary, they had the courage to fight them and beat them. Finalsolutionapproaching.

  34. Their need for Lebensraum was clearly overcompensation for the lack of Raum in their words.

  35. and the French would instead call this something like

    Verleih von Maschinen zum Schleifen von Böden für Füsse –> location de machines pour poncer les sols pour pieds

    Germanic is more efficient

  38. Because it makes sense to combine words to make a new word.

  39. It’s also really exciting because you have to read until the last word part of the compositum to find out which grammatical gender the word has and which article you should use with it.

    Like a little adventure with a fun discovery at the end for every one of those long words! Fun!

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