Added English to German Word Lookup
 

For those of you who may like to use German words for some realism in you postings and logs I have added a English/German word page to the below web site. I would appreciate it if a German speaking member of the forum would take a look at the page and let me know how bad I butcherd the language.
I have to admit that being at sea for three weeks and only seeing porpuses at 1xTC was to much for me and my crew. To keep them from throwing me overboard I had to Increas TC to give them some action. After changing to higher TC the honorable thing to do was to go back to my web site and change the name from 1 TC group to The Silent Hunter group.
I also added Lt z.s. Gunter Lassak to the memorial list His U-346 was lost in Grid BF27. Last message was under attack while surfaced and crash diving -Presumed lost Feb. 7, 1941. Please. if you know of a lost U-Boot go to the data section of the web site and let me know

Here are some 'errors':
aircraft= Flugzeug (Fluggerät is quite antique)
armed=bewaffnet
bow=in this case it's 'Bug'
captain=Kapitän (Hauptmann would be the army rank)
convoy=Geleitzug
deck=Deck
mates=Kameraden
merchant=Frachtschiff
sonar=Sonar

I think the rest is OK.

Seeing as the term sonar hadn't even been coined in WW2 I don't think...

The correct term would be "Echolot"

Also

Port - Hafen (in the case of a harbour)
Port - Backbord (as in port side of the ship)
Torpedo - Torpedo (Torpedieren refers of the act 'to torpedo')
Choppy - Bewegte See (if referring to choppy seas)
Damage - Schaden (singular) Schäden (plural)
Submerged - Getaucht
Grid - Planquadrat (Gitter means grate)

If you're going to use German words, it's best to stick to nouns, as verbs and adjectives change according to context.

The word Sonar is an American term first used in World War II, it is an acronym for SOund, NAvigation and Ranging. The British also call Sonar, ASDICS, which stands for Anti-Submarine Detection Investigation Committee.

You can say "Gitter" as well IMHO, althoug Planquadrat is more accurate.


EDIT:
sunk=gesunken (NOT: abgesackt)
submerged=getaucht

Thanks, hyperion, those are a help. I do have one question, though:
If that's true, then what is the "Handelschiffe" they use in the ID book?

My crew use Frachter for merchant ?

Hello Sailor Steve,

in my understanding "Handelsschiff" (Plural: "Handelsschiffe") is a more general term. "Frachtschiff" (Plural: "Frachtschiffe") or short "Frachter" is more specific and describes ships which transport cargo or freight. Actually a Tanker can also be a "Handelsschiff" if the Tanker is part of the merchant fleet ("Handelsflotte"), at least according to wikipedia.

Therefore I would say "Frachter" would be more correct, but "Handelsschiff" is understandable enough.

Hope I haven't confused you too much!
Mr. Fleck

No, actually that clears up a lot. Now that I think of it, I see the connection:
Frachtschiff=Freight Ship
Frachter=Freighter
Handelschiff=Handle Ship, or Cargo Ship in general

Thanks

I found one:

South= Sud
Thanks= Danke
East= Ost
West= West

I will go through the others and see.

Not really, an echolot, as the name implies, is a depth sounder which operates somewhat simmilar to the ASDIC. The german word for (passive) sonar would be Hydrophon or perhaps Horchgerät. I'm not sure what the official term used by the Kriegsmarine was.

'Handelsschiff' is right as well, didn't think of that word.

South (noun)='Süden'
East (noun)='Osten'
West (noun)='Westen'

In general imported words from other languages were not desired in Nazi Germany in order to keep the language pure and not "pollute" it with anglicisms, like it is done today. So a "hydrophone" would have been officially a "Hochgerät", a "convoy" was a "Geleitzug" or just "Geleit".
BUT ASDIC remained ASDIC, and radar remainded radar, because there were no German words for that.
Correction: Just found out that "radar" was sometimes called "Funkmessgerät" by the Kriegsmarine, Luftwaffe and Wehrmacht when they referred to their OWN devices. Sorry for the mixup.

Let's go into a little more detail, shall we? Since I studied the stuff I'm in my element :know:

demise: (der) Untergang (figuratively), (der) Niedergang
(the) sinking: (der) Untergang
to sink: sinken (the ship is sinking: Das Schiff sinkt)
to sink: versenken (the ship was sunk: Das Schiff wurde versenkt)
flood (noun): (die) Flut
to flood (verb): fluten
flooded: geflutet
evening: (der) Abend (nouns always with capital letters in German)
home: (das) Heim/Eigenheim (means a house, or one's own house)
to go home: nach Hause fahren/gehen
homeland: (das) Vaterland (especially in wartime)
land: (das) Land (Boden is more like the soil you plant crops on)
to land: anlegen (nautical) landen (air and nautical)
lost: verloren
patrol: (die) Feindfahrt (especially with uboats)
periscope: (das) Sehrohr (Periskop was an angicism and is used today but wasn't used much in WW2)
submerged (condition): getaucht
the boat was submerged: Das Boot war getaucht
to submerge (verb): tauchen
the boat submerged: Das Boot tauchte
he/it submerged: er/es tauchte unter
sunk: gesunken (emphasis on the fact that it's no longer floating. Could also have sunk due to bad weather or faulty welding)
sunk: versenkt (emphasis on the fact that someone helped a little getting the ship below the water)
(water) surface: (die) Wasseroberfläche / (die) Oberfläche
to surface: auftauchen
the boat surfaced: Das Boot tauchte auf
the boat was surfaced: Das Boot war aufgetaucht
torpedo: Torpedo (slang: Aal)
to torpedo: torpedieren
American: Amerikaner (people) amerikanisch (from America)
Italian: Italiener (people) italienisch (from Italy)
British: Briten (people) britisch (from Britain)
English: Engländer (people) englisch (from England)
Atlantic: (der) Atlantik / (der) Atlantische Ozean
bottom (of the sea): (der) Meeresboden
down (direction): nach unten ("abwärts" is also possible, but I don't like it much)
down (location): unten (down on the bottom of the sea: unten auf dem Meeresboden)
*Edit*
Ignore that:
to go down (uboats): tauchen
probably more correct would be:
to go down (uboats / ships): sinken / absaufen
*Edit*
Best German - English database I know can be found at http://dict.leo.org

Sorry to nitpick, but when applied to ships (and probably u-boats) "to go down" usually means "untergehen" or "sinken".
Tauchen would be just "to dive" or "to submerge".

Now that you say it I remember the term "to go down" also from sinking ships as well as crashing aircraft. However I was reasonably sure it could also be used literally. Got me thinking there. I will edit the thread above to avoid any misunderstandings. :) Thanks :up:

We are both wrong.

Osten= der Osten
Sud= der Suden
Westen= der Westen

The above are correct

thanks = der Dank

All courtesy of a english-german dictionary.

And confirmed by my mother, who happens to be German.

When writing "Süden" with an English keyboard might want to use the official way of writing German without "Umlaute". Add an "e" after the "u" to show that you want to write a different letter. The so-called "Umlaute" i.e. "ä", "ö" and "ü" are used for different sounds than "a", "o" and "u". It even can change the meaning of the word if you leave that out, like in "öde/oede" which means "barren" or "dull" and "Ode" which happens to be an "ode" in English :)

So "Süden" would be "Sueden"
"Karl Dönitz" would be "Karl Doenitz"

In naval german, the periscope was almost always referred to by the men as "der Spargel", the asparagus...:know:

What an interesting thread!

Whilst we're talking German and translation in genral, when my boat gets pinged the Hydrophones officer tells me so, and then mutters what sounds like a prayer. Can anyone tell me what he's actually saying?

Many Thanks