American here who studied German for eight years, graduated with a minor in German, and lived there for one year:
I’m not sure how to properly translate this children’s book.
The long word breaks into easily-understood pieces:
“help-ability-extinguish-group-travel-thing”
But in order to get a proper concept back out of it you need to know what order the pieces go together in and I don’t know that.
travel-thing is a vehicle.
help-ability is emergency services
Beyond that I have to guess — Is group-travel-thing a crew vehicle, making this a crew vehicle for extinguishing?
Or maybe extinguish-group is a fire crew and this is a vehicle for fire crews?
Either way I feel like the author is using a lot more word-parts than they should have to for what is (clearly in the picture) better described as a pump truck.
I had to look it up, it’s the technical term for a certain firefighting vehicle.
In particular, what distinguishes it from a normal crew firefighting vehicle (Löschgruppenfahrzeug) is its equipment for “Technische Hilfeleistung” (technical help-providing) which basically means it carries equipment beyond basic extinguishing agents. If you’re physically stuck in your car after a crash, a Hilfeleistungslöschgruppenfahrzeug has to arrive to cut open the doors.
A Hilfeleistungslöschgruppenfahrzeug
A (small) Löschgruppenfahrzeug. Note that it only contains firefighting equipment.
No, that’s actually the official term for a very specific type of vehicle. It’s a hybrid between a Löschgruppenfahrzeug (a multipurpose firefighting vehicle) and a Rüstwagen (which carries equipment for light non-firefighting purposes).
People who actually deal with them just say “HLF”.
The other commenters have already explained it diligently, but I wanted to hop on for something related.
As a German speaker, it actually irritates me a little, that English doesn’t agglutinate. Let’s take the word “gum ball machine”.
Which is it? It’s a machine. So are “gum” and “ball” descriptors of “machine”? Well no, they’re all nouns. But they’re not all subjects or objects of a sentence. They’re one subject together. But they’re not written together.
If I had a red gum ball machine, is it a red machine made out of gum that produces balls? Ok, it can also be spelt gumball machine. But that’s still multiple words per concept.
I like my nouns to be one word if it’s one thing and one subject.
“Gumball” is the only correct spelling; “gum ball” is incorrect. So the gum and ball are at least connected. But you’re right about “red gumball machine.” The gumballs or machine might be what’s red.
Ah thanks, I googled it quickly and it gave me both (as titles on webpages, not like in a dictionary). But with the number of spelling mistakes on shopping sites, I shouldn’t have trusted the titles alone :)
Come on, I know there’s Germans about. What the hell does it say lol? Here’s what Claude says:
So I am guessing “Hilfeleistungslöschgruppenfahrzeug” is “rescue and firefighting group vehicle?”
American here who studied German for eight years, graduated with a minor in German, and lived there for one year:
I’m not sure how to properly translate this children’s book.
The long word breaks into easily-understood pieces:
“help-ability-extinguish-group-travel-thing”
But in order to get a proper concept back out of it you need to know what order the pieces go together in and I don’t know that.
travel-thing is a vehicle.
help-ability is emergency services
Beyond that I have to guess — Is group-travel-thing a crew vehicle, making this a crew vehicle for extinguishing?
Or maybe extinguish-group is a fire crew and this is a vehicle for fire crews?
Either way I feel like the author is using a lot more word-parts than they should have to for what is (clearly in the picture) better described as a pump truck.
I had to look it up, it’s the technical term for a certain firefighting vehicle.
In particular, what distinguishes it from a normal crew firefighting vehicle (Löschgruppenfahrzeug) is its equipment for “Technische Hilfeleistung” (technical help-providing) which basically means it carries equipment beyond basic extinguishing agents. If you’re physically stuck in your car after a crash, a Hilfeleistungslöschgruppenfahrzeug has to arrive to cut open the doors.
A Hilfeleistungslöschgruppenfahrzeug
A (small) Löschgruppenfahrzeug. Note that it only contains firefighting equipment.
No, that’s actually the official term for a very specific type of vehicle. It’s a hybrid between a Löschgruppenfahrzeug (a multipurpose firefighting vehicle) and a Rüstwagen (which carries equipment for light non-firefighting purposes).
People who actually deal with them just say “HLF”.
Gut Wehr!
Full disclosure to avoid claiming false valor: I’m not a firefighter; my girlfriend used to work for a special purpose vehicle company.
Any reason you didn’t stay in Germany?
It was a study-abroad year and the year ended. I never had the permission to stay and work.
Do you think you would have given the opportunity?
At the time, no. It wasn’t in my plans at all. Now I think about it sometimes.
Yeah, I’ve been considering it myself lol
Its more like “assistance for firefighting group vehicle”.
Probably a "supporting firefighter group vehicle“ to be exact.
Edit: this word is kind of bizarre, because it is a composition of 3 compound words which each are compound words themselves.
Hilfe-leistung (Help Giving = Support) Lösch-Gruppe (Extinguishing Group = Firefighters) Fahr-zeug (Drive Thing = Vehicle)
Yeah, that’s even better. Translating these kind of words is quite hard.
The other commenters have already explained it diligently, but I wanted to hop on for something related.
As a German speaker, it actually irritates me a little, that English doesn’t agglutinate. Let’s take the word “gum ball machine”.
Which is it? It’s a machine. So are “gum” and “ball” descriptors of “machine”? Well no, they’re all nouns. But they’re not all subjects or objects of a sentence. They’re one subject together. But they’re not written together.
If I had a red gum ball machine, is it a red machine made out of gum that produces balls? Ok, it can also be spelt gumball machine. But that’s still multiple words per concept.
I like my nouns to be one word if it’s one thing and one subject.
“Gumball” is the only correct spelling; “gum ball” is incorrect. So the gum and ball are at least connected. But you’re right about “red gumball machine.” The gumballs or machine might be what’s red.
Ah thanks, I googled it quickly and it gave me both (as titles on webpages, not like in a dictionary). But with the number of spelling mistakes on shopping sites, I shouldn’t have trusted the titles alone :)