On Saturday my clients had a Konversationskurs, a Conversation Class, entitled German With Cats! We worked through vocabulary on names for cats, the parts of a cat's body, the cat box, how to say “to pet a cat” in German, we talked about how cats take a bath, how they communicate, and expressions in German to do with cats.
Es war sehr lustig.
Es war sehr lustig.
It was really funny.
Es war sehr lustig.
Today you'll learn 10 nouns, verbs, and expressions using cats in German, and of course there's a bonus something at the end.
audio
N.B. While the GermanWithNicole.com Podcast no longer exists, you can still hear all of the audios here on the blog. The audios are available on the blog posts published between August 1, 2021 and October 1, 2024. Viel Spaß beim Hören!
In German a cat is die Katze, plural die Katzen, and any cat is essentially “die Katze,” because that's the generic way to refer to a cat, even if it's a male cat, like mine. My cat, Connor Weasley, yes, he's definitely a Weasley, is then der Kater, plural form die Kater, and if you speak some German already, you may know that der Kater is also a term for a hangover. Ergo the sentence “Ich habe einen Kater” has two meanings.
Here are 2 other names for cats, 5 ways cats communicate, 3 expressions in German which include a cat, and at the end a special bonus.
2 Other Names for Cats:
der Stubentiger, der Stubentiger = the tiger in your living room; fur demon (scherzhaft) der Stubentiger
die Samtpfote, die Samtpfote = lit. the velvet paw, or you might like to translate it as a puddy tat. die Samtpfote
5 Ways Cats Communicate:
One sound cats make is miauen, miauen a cat says Miau in German, and the verb for this is miauen. Das ist logisch.
To hiss is fauchen, fauchen, it has a lot of onomatopoeia, it sounds like hissing: fauchen.
Here's one of my favorite German words: schnurren, schnurren, here is a picture of schnurren, listen to the podcast audio (above) to hear this:
INSERT AUDIO VISUAL
Das ist Schnurren. Das ist Schnurren. That's purring in German, schnurren. On one German website for cat names I found someone had turned the name Ursula into Schnurrsula.
To head-butt is köpfeln, köpfeln, yes that -eln ending is hard, köpfeln, or you can say Köpfchen geben.
Another way in which cats communicate is jemanden um die Beine streichen, jemanden um die Beine streichen, or to rub on someone's legs. Jemanden um die Beine streichen.
3 German Expressions which use Cats:
If you have a sweet tooth in German, that means you are eine Naschkatze, eine Naschkatze, literally a snacking cat, eine Naschkatze.
If you are giving directions to a place which is very nearby, then you would explain to the other person that it is Nur einen Katzensprung entfernt, Nur einen Katzensprung entfernt, it's only a hop, skip, and a jump away, nur einen Katzensprung entfernt.
And if you go shopping in a German-speaking country for catmint or catnip, you will need to ask for die Katzenminze, die Katzenminze, or cat-mint, from what I read Germans use this word for both plants. Die Katzenminze.
Bonus Fun:
Start at the beginning or skip ahead to 0:56.