German Names For Animals Literally Translated Into English

German seems like a difficult language to learn, but when you discover how easy it is to create names for things in German by simply stringing words together it doesn't seem so hard to learn after all.

For instance, which two words would you put together to describe a sloth?

If your answer was "lazy animal" you nailed it!

Now a hippopotamus may seem harder to describe in two words, but if you combine their favorite river with a similar animal type you've got a rather apt description of a hippo (although I would have added "pig" in there somewhere)

And then there's the virtually inexplicable platypus- a strange hybrid creature that could be described as an otter duck or a duck billed beaver or simply a plate full of platy, but the German language streamlines the description quite a bit

See more of these amazingly accurate English translations of German names for animals here

-Via Pleated Jeans