How the German word Schein creates something special

The German word Schein can mean appearance in English, which means it can give an appearance to a piece of paper, making it worth more than a piece of paper would be.

Welcome to the list of compound nouns which seem to be just a piece if paper, but with ‘schein’ added are worth keeping! And because it’s ‘der Schein’ they are all masculine.

  • Angelschein – fishing licence
  • Anmeldeschein – registration form (colloquial for Anmeldeformular)
  • Berechtigungsschein – warrant
  • Bestellschein – order form
  • Busfahrschein – bus ticket
  • Dauerpassierschein – permanent permit
  • Durchfahrtschein – transit ticket
  • Einlieferungsschein – postal receipt
  • Erbschein – certificate of inheritance
  • Einzahlungsschein – paying-in slip
  • Fahrschein – ticket
  • Flugschein – airline ticket
  • Führerschein – driving licence
  • Garantieschein – certificate of guarantee
  • Gepäckschein – luggage receipt
  • Gutschein – voucher
  • Geldschein – bank note
  • Impfschein – vaccination certificate
  • Jagdschein – shooting licence
  • Lieferschein – delivery note
  • Lottoschein – lottery ticket
  • Parkschein – pay and display ticket
  • Schuldschein – IOU (I owe you)
  • Taufschein – baptism certificate
  • Trauschein – marriage certificate
  • Waffenschein – firearms licence

As you can see, lots of pieces of paper which give the appearance of something important 😉

There are a few more German nouns ending in ‘schein’, which aren’t pieces of paper but types of light

  • Fackelschein – torchlight
  • Heiligenschein – halo
  • Kerzenschein – candle light
  • Mondschein – moonlight
  • Sonnenschein – sunshine

How many of all those types of Schein do you have?

I’ll leave you with a saying:

Der Schein trügt.
Appearances are deceptive.

After this long list of German compound nouns ending with ‘schein’, you might be wondering whether there are any/ many that begin with ‘Schein’. Yes, there are, but that’s for another blog post 😃

Pin it now, read it later!

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