May is a lovely time of year to bring a little seasonality into your German learning. As the days get longer and everything begins to bloom, it’s the perfect moment to explore how the German language reflects this time of year.
If you are a regular reader of my posts, you know that I like making lists with German nouns. As one of the most fascinating features of German is its love of compound nouns – simply putting words together to create new meanings. And in May, you’ll often come across words that begin with “Mai”, the German word for May.
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In this post, I’ve gathered 16 German compound nouns that start with “Mai”.
- der Maiabend – May evening
- die Maiandacht – May devotions (to the Blessed Virgin Mary)
- der Maiaufmarsch – May Day demonstration
- der Maybaum – May pole
- der Maibock – Maibock, a strong German lager
- die Maibowle – German May wine, flavoured with woodruff and often turned into a punch
- der Maifeiertag – Labour Day, May Day
- die Maifliege – (common) mayfly
- das Maiglöckchen (sing)/ die Maiglöckchen (plural) – lilly of the valley
- der Maikäfer – cockchafer/ maybug
- die Erste-Mai-Kundgebung – May 1st rally
- der Maimorgen – May morning
- die Mainacht – May night/ night in May
- der Maipilz/ Mairitterling – St. George’s mushroom
- der Maivogel – scarce fritillary, a butterfly, not a bird
- die Maiwoche – week in May
I also found two German sayings:
- Der April macht die Blumen und der Mai hat den Dank dafür. –
- Alles neu macht der Mai!
In English we just say: April showers bring May flowers.
And an interesting film title: Mai 1943 – Die Zerstörung der Talsperren
You have probably watched it and will recognise it as soon as I give you the English titles. It’s ‘The Dam Busters’
Did you know that? I didn’t.
But I don’t want to finish this post with a war film. I’d rather leave you with a poem, written by Heinrich Heine (1797 – 1856):
Im wunderschönen Monat Mai
Im wunderschönen Monat Mai,
Als alle Knospen sprangen,
Da ist in meinem Herzen
Die Liebe aufgegangen.
Im wunderschönen Monat Mai,
Als alle Vögel sangen,
Da hab ich ihr gestanden
Mein Sehnen und Verlangen.
The composer Robert Schumann (1810 – 1856) set it to music and I’ll leave you with a video of it.
What can you do with these words and sentences to remember them?
You can bookmark this post or make a vocabulary list with them. You can do that with any paper or electronic notebook. Or you could buy my notebook which I designed specially for German vocab learners. It has space for vocabulary lists and sentences. You can even choose one of two colours 😊
