Some German words you NEED to know
germanwords.htm
There are only a few
German words you need to know about.
You WILL run across them.
The information on this page was taken from several sources. Sources included past articles in BMW MOA ON magazine, from a posting by Joe 'Cuda' on 20 January 2001 to the Airheads LIST, and some of my own input.....and from corrections supplied to me by Hans-Jürgen of Germany.
I have attempted to use ASCII code to show the
way the German's might show these words in PRINT. If they
look totally weird, and maybe print something not like a German
letter, well, you know how computers are....
AUF
You may see this on your fuel tank petcocks. It does NOT
MEAN OFF, it means ON!!
BMW
GmbH is often translated by Americans as BMW
Company. It is not exactly so. BMW stands for
Bayerische Motorenwerke. We all translate that to mean
Bavarian Motor Works. GmbH means Gesellschaft mit
beschränker Haftung....a company with limited liability....sort
of the way LLC or Corporation is used. BMW
AG stands for Aktiengesellschaft....meaning that it
is a company that issued shares of stock.
Bitte, Danke Please, thank you...and bitte also means You Are Welcome. Bitte comes from bitten,' to ask for'. Joe explained about dankeshoooon (pronunciation) to mean Thank ya kindly. from schön, which means pretty.
Bremse brake
The F
dot (or, Z
marking, 1981+ bikes) is seen (via spark triggered strobe light
at the timing port near the oil dipstick) by raising the rpm
until the timing no longer continues to advance, this point is
about 2000 rpm on the early stock ignition /5 models, and 3000 on
models after that. There are a number of mechanical
advance versions, so if your /5 maximum occurs at 3000, don't be
alarmed.
Farben colors. color
legends are included, with English translations, on BMW
schematics. NOTE that for paint jobs, HELL
means light and DUNKEL means DARK.
Fernlicht
high beam. Fern meaning something far or being far away.
Getriebe transmission
Gummikuh
this is often seen in conjunction with a description of handling
of old BMW airheads...it means rubber cow.
H
as used in parts catalogs: Hinterrad meaning rear wheel.
Heiß
means HOT
Kalt means COLD.
Kurbelwelle crankshaft
lampe,
licht lampe is light device that shows
or indicates, such as a LAMP BULB, but LICHT means the light
itself.
Links, Rechts, left, right. As marked
on some valve covers, as an example: L, or R
Nockenwell Camshaft
OT
means Top Dead Center for the piston(s), that point, exactly,
when the pistons are fully outwards. OT, in German,
is Oberer Totpunkt, more correctly translated as the top dead
point.
Rad
is wheel, so motorrad is motorized wheel, but wheel can mean
cycle, so hence motor-cycle.
Reifen used for tire
The S
mark is the Static timing point, that is, no rpm or low rpm, and
the S stands for Spaetzündung (minimum advance; that is, late
or retarded). There is a mark for the maximum advance
point it is a dot next to an F on early models, and
a Z on the last models, and is Frühzündung (spark
advanced).
Scheisse feces, but means more
like we would use the word SHIT, especially in exclamatory talk.
Schraube
screw
Speichen wheel spokes
Über means OVER
Unterbrecher (fully: unterbrecherkontakt) literally means under-breaker, or interrupter, and for us it means the mechanical ignition points in the old mechanical points systems. Impulsegeber would be used for the electronic pickup device (Hall element, etc) in the more modern ignitions.
Ventil
valve, as in cylinder head types, also for the valve in the tire
or wheel.
V as used in parts catalogs: Vorderrad, meaning
front wheel
Vorn, often shown as V in parts catalogs means FRONT as an adjective; whilst Vorderansicht is as noun.
The Z marking, 1981+ bikes, is seen (via spark triggered strobe light) by raising the rpm until the timing no longer continues to advance, this point is about 3000 rpm. See F marking
Zeit means time
ZU
You may have seen this, guess where?... and guess what it means?
see very bottom of this page
Zündung
means ignition
Zündkerzen
means spark plugs
Zündzeitpunkte:
ignition points or timing. confusion? see
Unterbrecher and Impulsegeber
For a site for German, English, French, and Spanish tranbslations,
etc.: http://dict.leo.org
You may find that some spellings are slightly
different, where, example ü is shown on
other spellings as ue. Another way of
putting this is that the Germans have different ways of putting
spelling in print form. Example would be flüße which is
the same word for river as fluesse.
EI sounds like EYE; IE sounds like the ee in tree.
That funny looking "B", which is not a B at all, it is printed like ß, is prounounced as if it was SS.
The double dots over a letter are called umlauts, and the effect is to soften the sound of the vowel.
Rev:
01-26-2008: minor clarifications
02/04-2008: edited, updated, thanks to Hans-Jürgen of
Germany
02/29/2008: edited to reflect sources for this article
Return to Technical Articles List
ZU...found on some petcocks. It means CLOSED (in this case, OFF)