Word of the week: sau

The linguist inside me is a bit perturbed by the classification of this topic as a word when technically it’s an expressive intensifier, which functions similarly to an adjective but to emphasize speaker emotion. But whatever, just something I’ve noticed in my ongoing education in the German language…and by education I don’t mean reading grammar books, I mean based on what I take in from radio, television and other native speakers.

 

I’ve mentioned before some of the linguistic tells of my Californian roots, for example, frequent use of the word, “totally.” This is also an expressive intensifier. Let me give you some examples, it’s very multi-functional.

Yesterday you missed a totally cool party.
In this case the speaker is emotional about how cool the party was.

Yesterday you totally missed a cool party.
In this case the speaker is emotional about the person having missed the party.

Other examples in English include: terribly, really, extremely…the list goes on. But now I want to introduce you to totally’s German equivalent: sau

In addition to the more standard version of this intensifier sehr ‘very,’ sau- is more informal, which is to say, perhaps something you'd use with somene auf Du. The actual meaning of sau is sow, a female pig. Its function is similar to the English equivalent.

Gestern hast du eine sau coole Party verpasst.
Here the speaker is emphasizing how cool the party was.

If you wish to express emotion that the person missed this cool party, as in the second example with totally, one might make use of another intensifier voll ‘completely’

Gestern hast du voll die coole Party verpasst.

Sau can even be added to adjectives to emphasize speaker emotion about the degree of something. For example, if you go outside and see the temperature is -10º C, you might say it is “saukalt.” ‘very cold.’  When adding all the costs of getting a driver’s license, including all the theoretical lessons and behind the wheel training, one might describe it as “sauteuer.” ‘very expensive.’ You can even use sau to represent an individual, for example, to show sympathy with a touch of sarcasm, Du arme Sau 'You poor thing.' Or in some cases a lack thereof: Da interessiert sich keine Sau für ‘Not a single person is interested in that.’

I’m still learning the ins and outs of the German language, it’s sauschwer ‘really hard.’