How Do You Deal With Long Words in German?

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How Do You Deal With Long Words in German? Some Words in German Are Very Long, but I Know They Are Two Words That Become One. It Would Be Easier to Read if They Were Written Separately. How Do You Deal With That?

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The more words you know the easier it becomes to seperate long words into the parts they are made of, easening the understanding.

EDIT: If you come across a particular long word that you don’t understand, you could also ask ChatGPT to seperate the word into its pieces, explain each of them and give examples for words that contain each of the parts.

Please seperate the word "Bundesausbildungsförderungsgesetz" 
into the pieces it is made of, explain the meaning of each of this 
pieces and give 10 examples for words containing the pieces each.

The German word **"Bundesausbildungsförderungsgesetz"** is 
a compound word that can be broken down into its components, 
each of which carries a specific meaning. Here's a breakdown:

---

### **Breaking Down the Word**
1. **Bund**  
   - **Meaning**: Federation or federal government.  
   - **Examples of words containing "Bund"**:  
     - Bundesland (federal state)  
     - Bundestag (federal parliament)  
     - Bundeswehr (federal armed forces)  
     - Bundeskanzler (federal chancellor)  
     - Bundesrepublik (federal republic)  
     - Bundesstraße (federal road)  
     - Bundesbank (federal bank)  
     - Bundeshauptstadt (federal capital city)  
     - Bundesminister (federal minister)  
     - Bundesrat (federal council)

2. **Ausbildung**  
   - **Meaning**: Education, training, or apprenticeship.  
   - **Examples of words containing "Ausbildung"**:  
     - Berufsausbildung (vocational training)  
     - Ausbildungsplatz (training position)  
     - Ausbildungsbetrieb (training company)  
     - Ausbildungsdauer (duration of training)  
     - Ausbildungsberuf (training profession)  
     - Ausbildungsordnung (training regulation)  
     - Ausbildungsstätte (training institution)  
     - Ausbildungsnachweis (training certificate)  
     - Ausbildungsziel (training objective)  
     - Ausbildungsvergütung (training remuneration)

3. **Förderung**  
   - **Meaning**: Promotion, support, or funding.  
   - **Examples of words containing "Förderung"**:  
     - Entwicklungsförderung (development support)  
     - Bildungsförderung (educational support)  
     - Wirtschaftsförderung (economic promotion)  
     - Jugendförderung (youth support)  
     - Innovationsförderung (innovation promotion)  
     - Forschungsförderung (research funding)  
     - Kulturförderung (cultural promotion)  
     - Frauenförderung (support for women)  
     - Energieeinsparförderung (energy-saving funding)  
     - Existenzgründungsförderung (start-up promotion)

4. **Gesetz**  
   - **Meaning**: Law or statute.  
   - **Examples of words containing "Gesetz"**:  
     - Arbeitsgesetz (labor law)  
     - Strafgesetz (criminal law)  
     - Bürgergesetz (civil law)  
     - Grundgesetz (basic law/constitution)  
     - Datenschutzgesetz (data protection law)  
     - Verkehrsgesetz (traffic law)  
     - Umweltschutzgesetz (environmental law)  
     - Handelsgesetz (commercial law)  
     - Mietgesetz (rental law)  
     - Baugesetz (construction law)

---

### **Meaning of the Entire Word**
"Bundesausbildungsförderungsgesetz" translates to the 
**"Federal Training Assistance Act"**, which is the legal 
framework governing financial aid for students and trainees
in Germany, commonly referred to as "BAföG."
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Try to recognize each element which makes up the word. The more words you know in German, the easier it is going to get. Long words usually are rarer than short ones and occur in more complicated texts. A similar issue occurs in Dutch by the way which shares a lot with German.

Maybe translating them into English and recognizing patterns in the way they are built like @Obsttorte mentioned would also help.

Contextualizing and pattern recognition is in general the best way to learn new words from the experience I have so far.

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There is nothing to deal with. These are compound words. Several words creating one long word. You will just have to get used to it. I would suggest that you just change your mind set about this. Rather than being overwhelmed by one long word, just imagine the spaces where they would be, were the words written separately and then be happy that you are learning two or three words in one. Now these compound words seem helpful instead of intimidating. Like a two for one deal. You are getting something extra and will recognize the words when they appear separately or in other compound words.

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That’s actually the point. If you don’t have a big vocabulary yet, it is hard to identify the individual words within a compound word. It is similar the other way around. It also takes some time to get used to words written with spaces even though they form a semantical unit if you come from a language like German where those are written together. And it will require some vocabulary knowledge in order to be able to make those links.

However, I agree though that the mindset is important here, indeed. The same with differing syntax or other aspects of a language that don’t exist in ones native language. It becomes way easier if you avoid assuming it to be hard. :slight_smile:

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