Let me shower you with lots of ‘Blumen’ words.
The German word for flower is ‘die Blume’ (plural ‘die Blumen’), so every word ending with ‘…blume’ is also feminine. Here are some flowers that, like some of the English words, end in flower:
- die Glockenblume – bellflower
- die Ringelblume – marigold
- die Butterblume – buttercup
- die Kornblume – cornflower
- die Mohnblume – poppy
- die Passionsblume – passionflower
- die Sonnenblume – sunflower
- die Schlüsselblume – primrose
- die Pusteblume – dandelion (when it’s ready to be blown, otherwise it’s ‘der Löwenzahn’)
Other types of ‘Blumen’:
- die Schnittblume – cut flower
- die Topfblume – potted flower
- die Trockenblume – dried flower
- die Plastikblume – plastic flower
- die Lieblingsblume – favourite flower
- die Eisblume – frost pattern
Then there are many words beginning with ‘Blume’. Their gender depends on the rest of the nouns. For example in German there are three words for flower shop/ florist’s shop:
- der Blumenladen
- die Blumenhandlung
- das Blumengeschäft
People who work with flower are
- der Blumenverkäufer/ die Blumenverkäuferin – flower seller
- der Blumenbinder/ die Blumenbinderin – flower arranger
- der Blumendekorateur/ die Blumendekorateurin -floral decorator
- der Blumenhändler/ die Blumenhändlerin – florist
And more compound nouns, all starting with ‘Blumen’
- die Blumenampel – hanging basket
- das Blumenbeet – flower bed
- der Blumendraht – florist wire
- der Blumenduft – flower frangrance
- der Blumendünger – flower fertilizer
- die Blumenerde – potting compost
- das Blumenfest – flower festival
- der Blumengarten – flower garden
- das Blumengesteck – flower arrangement
- der Blumenkasten – flower box/ window box
- der Blumenkorb – flower basket
- das Blumenmuster – floral pattern
- der Blumenstrauß – bouquet/ bunch of flowers
- der Blumentopf – flower/ plant pot
- die Blumenvase – flower vase
- die Blumenwiese – wildflower meadow
- die Blumenzwiebel – bulb
And finally 🙂
- der Blumenkohl – cauliflower
“Etwas durch die Blume sagen” is colloquial and means ‘to say something to somebody in a roundabout way’.
And “danke für die Blumen” can mean literally ‘thanks for the flowers’ (if you have received some), but is also used sarcastically as in ‘thanks for nothing’.
Austrian singer Udo Jürgens had a hit with ‘Vielen Dank für die Blumen’, which became even more famous as the soundtrack of the German version of ‘Tom and Jerry’
I’ll leave you with one final song which you probably know in English.
But did you know, that Joan Baez also sung it in German?
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What can you do with these flower words 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 ☺
Or, if you want to know more about German compound nouns ( and nouns in general) and their gender, check out my online course German gender #1 – German nouns and der, die & das
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