1776: The Explanation of Independence

Germans, operating with a somewhat more limited vocabulary than English speakers,* sometimes have to make do with one word where English speakers would prefer to use two or more to better differentiate between nuanced concepts. Sometimes this difference is fairly minor and maybe slightly comical. For example, where English has tennis rackets, ping-pong paddles, and baseball bats, German has Tennisschläger (tennis-hitters), Pingpongschläger (ping-pong-hitters), and Baseballschläger (baseball-hitters). Now, you could argue that there is a subtle difference between a racket, a paddle, and a bat, but at the end of the day they're all for hitting things. Point goes to Germany.

Other times, it seems like two words might have been a good idea. For example, the German word Erklärung, which means both explanation and declaration. When you go through German customs, you're asked to fill out a Zollerklärung: a customs declaration, or should I say a customs explanation. Fine - customs are a pretty dry subject; nothing to get excited about.

But what about this: "He chased her through the airport, scattering passengers and their suitcases in his wake. Catching her just before she boarded the plane, he took her trembling hand in his, got down on one knee, and explained his love."

Yup, in German, a declaration of love is a Liebeserklärung - an explanation of love. And while I'm sure if you grew up German, a Liebeserklärung is every bit as exciting (or horrifying, as the case may be) as a declaration of love, the word itself seems strangely dispassionate. A declaration of love is romantic and reckless, while an explanation of love seems like it would be accompanied by a lot of graphs and stats.

Oh yeah, she's feelin' it.

* Exact numbers are hard to come by (the prevalence of compound words in German makes it difficult to get a precise count of how many German words there are, plus half of English words are just straight-up stolen from other languages), but the general consensus is that English has a significantly larger vocabulary than German.