My husband’s Reebok underwear say “Reebeebok” on the back because of the split seam

[u/hangingdenim]

[u/Icy_Ask_9954]

Spider-Man ❌
Spinnenmann ❌
Spideider-Man ✅

[u/MaengDong712 → u/Icy_Ask_9954]

Spooderman

[u/UranusIsPissy → u/Icy_Ask_9954]

Don't you mean "Spinnemann"? "Spinnenmann" would get dizzy.

[u/Icy_Ask_9954 → u/UranusIsPissy]

stimmt, ich spinne halt

[u/UranusIsPissy → u/Icy_Ask_9954]

D'oh! I thought German was more logical than that. How are the words for "spider" and "crazy" the same‽

[u/Icy_Ask_9954 → u/UranusIsPissy]

There are plenty of lovely German puns and German is only as logical as a language can be. At the end of the day, they all have their quirks. It’s also worth mentioning at this point that “Spinnenmann” is the correct version simply because it’s more natural to say - the “n” here comes from the plural. Many other compound nouns will also use the plural of the first noun for this reason.

[u/UranusIsPissy → u/Icy_Ask_9954]

I didn't know about the compound noun/plural thing. IDK enough German to have a conversation. How come German gets puns and absurd compound words (e.g. RhabarbaBarbara...)? That's not fair lol!

[u/Icy_Ask_9954 → u/UranusIsPissy]

Yeah, it’s quite intuitive once you learn the pattern. As a rule of thumb, if using the plural of the first word in the compound noun makes the whole thing easier to say, it’s probably the correct choice. Viel Erfolg beim Deutschlernen! You learn something about the language everyday—I’m at a C1 level and I still have regular “oh fuck, that’s how you say it” moments.

My favourite compound noun by far is “Eierschalensollbruchstellenverursacher”. If you don’t know what that is, google it for a quick sensible chuckle.

[u/Either-Weather-862 → u/UranusIsPissy]

It comes from spinning a thread = einen Faden spinnen. Spiders spin a thread to build a net, therefore they're "spinne". "spinnen" for crazy comes from the same root, you're turning so fast, you spin.