2 ms·

I heard German has more abstract words , is that true?

• kafkaesq 11y ago
  Not necessarily more "abstract", but for various reasons here are more words imbued with double- or multiple meanings. That and there's intrinsically more positional freedom for certain categories of words; e.g. Werdende in the above article is essentially the same word as the verb participle werdend, but placed in a position (that of a nounified adjective) which basically doesn't work in English. The analogous construction in English would be "the becoming" or "the expecting", implicitly referring to a thing or person. Other than lyrical cases ("The Shining"), you pretty much wouldn't use that formulation in English.