In the past, Germans would say "This is crazy" to express their astonishment. However, young Germans now prefer to say "That’s crazy" or "Das crazy" to convey the same sentiment. This expression has become a popular choice among young people, whether they’re surprised, speechless, or just can’t think of an appropriate answer.<\/p>\n
The term "Das crazy" has its origins in meme and internet culture, particularly in chats and on social media platforms. It’s a humorous and conscious break with the rules of the language, combining the German article "das" with the English word for crazy. Despite sounding incorrect to older ears, this expression has become a staple in young people’s vocabulary.<\/p>\n
According to Nikolas Hoenig, marketing director at PONS Langenscheidt, "The crazy" skillfully embodies the spirit of the times. The publisher has been choosing the youth word of the year since 2008, initially by a jury and since 2020 by an online vote. This year, two million people took part in the vote, with only contributions submitted by young people being taken into account. Offensive, racist, or discriminatory terms are not permitted.<\/p>\n
The voting behavior also reveals interesting trends, with around 88% of visits to the election website made via smartphones. This suggests that the language of young people is created where it is used – on the go, online, and in everyday life. Patricia Kunth, marketing manager and head of the "Youth Word of the Year" campaign, notes that no one captures the spirit of the younger generation as powerfully as the way young people speak.<\/p>\n
The youth word of the year was chosen at the Frankfurt Book Fair, with "The crazy" taking first place with 35.7% of the votes. "Goonen" narrowly lost, with "checkst du" coming in third. "Gooning" is a slang term for excessive, prolonged masturbation, while "checkst du" is a question used to ensure that the other person has understood something correctly, both literally and emotionally.<\/p>\n
Other notable youth words that made it to the ballot include "Digga(h)", a word that has long been a staple in young people’s vocabulary, and "aura", which was named youth word of the year in 2024. "Digga" is derived from "fat" but is not meant in a derogatory way, while "aura" refers to a person’s charisma and can be used in both a positive and negative sense.<\/p>\n
The selection of the youth word of the year highlights the continued dominance of the English language and the trend towards brevity. It also shows how quickly the language is changing, with new terms emerging every year that surprise and reflect the spirit of the times. By choosing the youth word of the year, PONS Langenscheidt aims to represent the language of younger generations and highlight its development.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Introduction to the Youth Word of the Year In the past, Germans would say "This is crazy" to express their astonishment. However, young Germans now prefer to say "That’s crazy" or "Das crazy" to convey the same sentiment. This expression has become a popular choice among young people, whether they’re surprised, speechless, or just can’t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":25789,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[38],"tags":[15826,15829,12105,15827,15828,15831,5695,221,15830],"class_list":{"0":"post-25788","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-lifestyle","8":"tag-dangerously-in-love","9":"tag-frankfurt-book-fair","10":"tag-geist","11":"tag-internet-culture","12":"tag-langenscheidt","13":"tag-masturbation","14":"tag-meme","15":"tag-social-media","16":"tag-teen-escort-company"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nanamedia.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25788","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nanamedia.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nanamedia.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nanamedia.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nanamedia.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25788"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/nanamedia.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25788\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":25790,"href":"https:\/\/nanamedia.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25788\/revisions\/25790"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nanamedia.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/25789"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nanamedia.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25788"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nanamedia.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25788"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nanamedia.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25788"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}