Denglisch
/ˈdɛŋlɪʃ/
UncommonGerman mixed with English, especially heavy English borrowing in casual German speech.
Often used critically in Germany to describe unnecessary English borrowing in German. Online and in younger communities, it can also be used neutrally or affectionately to describe natural bilingual speech.
Real-world examples4 examples
| # | Example | What it means | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| 01 | ich muss noch mein laptop updaten und dann bin ich ready | A German sentence with two English words inserted naturally: 'laptop' and 'ready'. | reddit, 2023 |
| 02 | german tech companies run on denglisch. every meeting has like 60% english words anyway | In professional tech contexts, English vocabulary has taken over German communication. | x, 2024 |
| 03 | my oma calls anything she doesn't understand 'denglisch' even when it's just normal german | Older generations sometimes label any unfamiliar modern German as English-contaminated. | tiktok, 2024 |
| 04 | grew up in germany but now in the us. my german is full denglisch and i can't stop it | Living in an English-dominant environment has blended languages involuntarily. | reddit, 2023 |
Use it when
- Describing casual German speech that borrows heavily from English.
- Describing a text or conversation that mixes German and English.
- Joking about or critiquing the amount of English in a German sentence.
Do not use it when
- You mean someone speaks both languages fluently but separately.
- You mean standard German with a few loanwords.
Denglisch vs Franglais
Denglisch
Denglisch describes English mixing in German, often in tech or urban contexts.
VS
franglais
Franglais describes English mixing in French, with a longer history of political debate.
Origin and context
The term 'Denglisch' (a blend of Deutsch and Englisch) has been used in German media and public discourse since the 1990s, often critically, to describe the perceived flood of English words into everyday German.
- First seen
- 1990s
- Confidence
- medium
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Use this stable URL to reference the entry.
https://slang.fyi/denglischUpdated: 2026-08-28License: CC BY 4.0