In the US, kindergarten marks the entry of children into the formal education system. Held at elementary schools, it is a prepartory year before first grade. In Germany, however, kindergarten is more along the lines of pre-school, giving younger children an opportunity to play and socialize with each other. The term translates literally as "garden for children."

When a lookalike is so convincing that you think you're seeing double, you're probably dealing with a doppelgänger. The idea of doppelgängers has featured in literature for millennia and has fueled an entire section of showbiz with "tribute acts." The German word literally translates as "double goer."

What's better than winning? When it happens at your adversary's expense, it admittedly can fill you will an extra portion of of glee and "schadenfreude." This German concept (literally, "damage joy") refers to happiness about someone else's misfortune. It is a cornerstone of German humor - but be careful how much you laugh about your opponent, because karma might just come back to bite you.

While Mozart was a child prodigy, he and other young geniuses are often referred to in English with the German "wunderkind" ("miracle child"). Many parents may believe their toddler is a "wunderkind" - but the Mozarts, Pascal Blaises and Bobby Fishers of the world truly are in a class of their own.

Not just a popular movie franchise from the 1980s, "poltergeist" actually means "clatter ghost," as in making a racket. Those with a penchant for the supernatural would describe a poltergeist as a ghost that haunts a particular place to establish communication with the real world. However, the German term does not have to be sinister; fairytales in Germany also portray friendly poltergeists.

A repeated theme in music or literature can be referred to as a leitmotif. Translated literally, it means a leading motif or idea. Without this kind of repetition, narratives would largely be aimless and unfocused, melodies pointlessly meandering, and movies would lack a sense of direction. Leitmotifs reward our attention spans and allow creative work to carry meaning and purpose.

With many of the early pioneers in the field of psychology hailing from central Europe, a series of German terms have found their way into everyday parlance in English. Sigmund Freud contributed to the usage of the term "angst," meaning "fear." However, in casual usage, English speakers use angst to refer to existential anxiety, while the non-technical German usage is more banal.

Mostly used as a military term in English, "Blitz" actually means lightning in German. During World War II, the Nazis invented the compound word "Blitzkrieg" (literally, lightening war) to refer to their tact of concentrated and forceful attacks. These kind of strategies would perhaps nowadays be best described as "shock and awe," as "Blitzkrieg" has come to represent Nazi tactics only.

Are you able to predict trends before they go mainstream? If so, then it would appear that you have your finger on the pulse of the "zeitgeist." The most straight-forward translation of this abstract concept is perhaps "spirit of the times," but zeitgeist implies more than just that, referring to the current mood in all realms of culture.

Your boyfriend didn't break up with you, your boss is treating you well, and your bank account is looking better than ever before - yet you feel melancholy. If that's the case, you might be experiencing what the French call "ennui" and Germans "Weltschmerz." The "pain of the world" might be getting to you.

Two Englishmen, Adam Fletcher and Paul Hawkins, recently published their book, "Denglisch for Better Knowers," in which they translate unique German expressions into English. One of the words the authors would love to see adopted in English is "side jump" ("Seitensprung"). In German, it means an extramarital affair. "It's so metaphorical and poetic," Fletcher told DW.

Another German expression that convinced the authors with its lyrical feel is "lazy sock" ("faule Socke"), which is used to describe those without much drive. "There is a certain poetry to the idea of a lazy sock. Socks come in pairs, so no matter how lazy and flawed you are as a person, somewhere out there is someone else who matches perfectly to you. I find that very comforting," Fletcher says.

If someone is considered wimpy or cowardly, he might easily be called a "warm showerer" ("Warmduscher") in German. "The expression makes absolutely no sense because everyone likes warm showers," Fletcher says. "But what I like about it is that you can turn it into a bravery test. Even if you've never skydived, every morning there is a German opportunity to show your bravery in the shower."

Two common stereotypes that haunt Germans are bureaucracy and efficiency. So it's no surprise that there is also a word Germans like to use to insult a typical bureaucrat who's everything but efficient. A "chair farter" ("Sesselpupser") is a person who just sits around all day, not really doing anything at all (except clearing their bodily cavities).

In German, a mental trick for remembering something is called a "donkey bridge" ("Eselsbrücke"). "The English expressions 'mnemonic device' or 'memory aid' don't have the same poetry - they're too scientific - whereas with a donkey bridge you can imagine this little trusty donkey that carries all of the things you want to remember and you walk it over the bridge to memory ville," Fletcher says.

If you're not a brave person or you get scared easily, Germans might call you a "fear bunny" ("Angsthase"). "In English you say scaredy cat, but cats have nothing to be scared of. The vulnerability of the bunny makes 'fear bunny' much better because cats are basically immortal; they have more lives than they need. You can throw them off buildings and they still magically survive," Fletcher says.

The German verb "vögeln" ("birding") is colloquially used to describe the act of lovemaking. It stems from the 14th century when it was used for catching a bird. "I didn't understand why sex would ever be described as birding," Fletcher says, "but it seems so cute that I think the English language must adopt it."

One reason one might want to go "birding" could be the fact that they're "emergency horny" ("notgeil"). According to Fletcher, there is no English word that can describe the urgency with which one becomes aroused and the need to do something about it as adequately as the word "emergency horny," which is why he thinks the expression must be adopted by the English language.

If you literally translated the German word for "outer space" ("Weltraum") into English it would be "world room," which Fletcher finds fascinating. "I wonder how many Germans ever think about what the word 'Weltraum' actually symbolizes. Rather than outer space, which is very far away, it's just another room out there waiting to be explored. It's a beautiful, poetic concept," he says.

In German, there is a word to describe the phenomenon getting a song stuck in your head: "ear worm" ("Ohrwurm"). "The best English can currently do is 'involuntary musical imagery' but that doesn't encapsulate the annoying and uninvited nature of the problem," Fletcher says. "If there is only one word the English language adapts from the book, then I hope it's ear worm."