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How to say these three terms in German:

  • "@",
  • to tweet and
  • website?
Eller
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Arthur Maverick
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    Could you please provide an example for context? – Arsak Apr 14 '19 at 07:49
  • If you want to spell it, use "At" (et), like in English, or "Affenklammer", "Affenschwanz". – Rudy Velthuis Apr 14 '19 at 20:35
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    for "@" there is an answered question in German. – guidot Apr 15 '19 at 07:12
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    @RudyVelthuis Odd, I only know "Klammeraffe", not "Affenklammer". – sgf Apr 16 '19 at 14:34
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    @sgf: that could be right. But: https://www.dict.cc/german-english/Affenklammer++%40++%5BAt+Zeichen%5D.html – Rudy Velthuis Apr 16 '19 at 18:10
  • @RudyVelthuis Apparently both are: https://www.dict.cc/?s=Klammeraffe – sgf Apr 16 '19 at 18:18
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    There is some confusion about 'website' = 'Webpräsenz', 'Website', because the 'site' part of 'Website' is phonetically close to 'Seite' which actually means page ('web page' is only a part of a website). - And the german term for 'web page' is Webseite. You'll encounter a lot of communications-confusion in Germany arising from this sound-alike - 'Webseiten sind Teil einer Website' = 'web pages are part of a website' – bukwyrm Apr 17 '19 at 06:05

5 Answers5

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  • @: either "at" if referred to the sign, or "an" or "zu" in the meaning of directing something at someone/something.
  • to tweet: either "tweeten" or "twittern". Sometimes the direct translation "zwitschern".
  • website: most commonly used: "Website", "Webseite", or just "Seite"

But in general Germans mostly use the english terms when it comes to IT.

IQV
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miep
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Germans I know use the English 'at' ('et').

peterh
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  • Those i know use 'ad' (not in the english pronounciation of ad ('äd') but with the 'a' from, e.g., 'arm'). If someone spelled out '@' as 'et' in a place where it is not given by context, i'd understand '&' – bukwyrm Apr 17 '19 at 06:12
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All three words are ususally spoken with their english pronounciation.

Except "website":

Millenials usually use the English pronounciation, but some other older people still use the german word "Webseite" (phonetic alphabet: ˈvɛpsaitə ) for that. As @peterh said, some people just use the short term "Seite" given the context of the message is about websites.

paradonym
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  • Minor clarification: I think the last sentence wants to say, some of the Germans says "the seite" part of the word "Webseite", as if we can hear in the German word "Seite" (means "page"). It is differente from the English pronouncation (which would be written roughly as "seit" on the German rules). – peterh Apr 16 '19 at 15:24
  • @peterh, I understood the last sentence like this: Millenials say "website" with English pronounciation, other people (= mostly non millenials) say "Webseite" ˈvɛpsaitə – Iris Apr 17 '19 at 10:27
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@ -- Germans say Englisch "at" [æt] when spelling email addresses

to tweet -- Germans say usually "twittern"[tvitɐn]

website -- Germans understand "Website" without any problems, younger or IT-knowledgeable speakers prefer this term. In the general meaning many Germans also say English "Homepage" to mean the internet presence as a whole, not only the entry page.

HJay
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Besides the "at" that was mentioned already, some people use the term

Klammeraffe

(mind the glotis stop before a in pronunciation).

That's originally the animal that is called spider monkey in English. When used for the "commercial at" or "at symbol", it obviously refers to the long tail; and the letter a of course is seen as a placeholder for Affe (monkey).

Interestingly, in Bulgarian there is a (much more popular than the German Klammeraffe) term

маймунско а / majmunsko a

that translates litterally "monkey a". So, the idea seems to be common in various languages.

Christian Geiselmann
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  • In Dutch, we say "at", but also "apestaart(je)" = "Affenschwanz" = "monkey tail". The "-je" is the suffix for diminutives. Dutch uses diminutives for many things, much more than other languages I know. – Rudy Velthuis Apr 17 '19 at 09:56