So, I was trying to find a shirt the other day. Not just any shirt, mind you. I saw this one on some German website, looked pretty cool, couldn’t find anything like it here. Figured I’d just order it straight from them. Easy, right?
Well, hit the first snag pretty quick. The site was all in German. Okay, fine, I know like five words of German, mostly from watching old war movies, which isn’t super helpful for shopping. My main problem: what’s the word for ‘shirt’? My mind just went completely blank. Nada.
Pulled out my phone, opened up that translation app I use sometimes. Typed in ‘shirt’. Boom. Got back ‘das Hemd‘. Alright, ‘das Hemd’, got it. Seemed simple enough. Started browsing the site using ‘Hemd’ in the search bar.
But then, looking at the pictures… hmm. Lots of button-down shirts, formal looking things. That’s what ‘Hemd’ seemed to be showing me. But the site also had loads of regular T-shirts, polos, that kind of stuff. Was ‘Hemd’ the right word for all of them? Suddenly wasn’t so sure. You know how translations can be sometimes, a bit too literal or specific.
Digging a Little Deeper
Decided I better double-check before I waste more time looking at stuff I don’t want. So, I just punched ‘Hemd’ into an image search. And yeah, mostly pictures of dress shirts, collared shirts. Okay, so ‘Hemd’ is basically that kind of shirt.
What about a normal T-shirt then? Went back to the translation app. Typed in ‘T-shirt’. It gave me back ‘das T-Shirt‘. Seriously? It’s just ‘T-Shirt’? Felt kinda anti-climactic, honestly. Did another image search just to be safe. Yep, pictures of regular T-shirts. Seems like German just borrowed the English word. Fair enough, happens a lot.
What I Found Out
So, after poking around for a bit, here’s the deal I figured out:
- If you mean a dress shirt, button-up shirt, that kind of thing, the word is das Hemd.
- If you mean a casual T-shirt, like the one I wear most days, you just say das T-Shirt.
I also saw the word ‘Oberhemd’ floating around, which seems to mean like, an outer shirt, confirming the ‘Hemd’ thing. And ‘Unterhemd’, which is an undershirt or vest. Didn’t need those, but good to know they exist.
It wasn’t rocket science, but it took a few steps. Couldn’t just trust the first word the app gave me. Had to actually look and see how the word was used. Glad I did. Now I could actually search for the right kind of shirt on that German site. Whether I actually end up buying it is another story, the shipping costs might be killer…
