A few German words have been adopted by the English language and have retained their meaning, such as Kindergarten (kin-der-gâr-ten), Angst (ânkst), kaputt (kâ-poot), Ersatz (êr-zats), Sauerkraut (zou-er-krout), Zeitgeist (tsayt-gayst), and Wanderlust (vân-der-loost).
However, the number of these German words is minimal compared to the number of English words that have made their way into the German language. At times, the combination of English and German makes for somewhat curious linguistic oddities. For example, you may hear das ist total in/out (dâs ist toh-tahl in/out [as in English]) (that’s totally in/out) or Sie können den File downloaden (zee kern-en deyn file [as in English] doun-lohd-en) (You can download the file).
The following is a list of German words that have been borrowed from the English language. Note that they all retain their English pronunciations, with one slight exception: The borrowed verbs are “Germanified,” which simply means they combine the English verb, such as kill or jog, with -en, the German suffix that creates the infinitive form (to kill and to jog).
das Baby
der Boss
das Business
das Catering
die City (downtown)
der Computer
cool
das Design
das Event
Fashion (used without article)
das Fast Food
das Feeling
flirten (to flirt)
der Headhunter
Hi
hip
der Hit
das Hotel
das Internet
das Interview
der Jetlag
der Job
joggen (to jog)
killen (to kill)
klicken (to click)
managen (to manage)
der Manager
das Marketing
das Meeting
Okay
online
outsourcen (to outsource)
die Party
pink
das Shopping
die Shorts
die Show/Talkshow
das Steak
stoppen (to stop)
surfen (to surf waves or the Internet)
das Team
der Thriller
der Tourist
der Trainer
das T-Shirt
der Workshop
Wow
