English Translation
There’s a monster under my bed.
Warum “Monster” und nicht “Ungeheuer”?
Ungeheuer feels less tangible. I would expect an Ungeheuer in a swamp or in the open sea, and a monster under my bed. Loch Ness for example is an Ungeheuer, the Grinch is more of a Monster.
3 Likes
Hi @golly,
Thanks for all the recent comments.
They help us understand how German is actually used/spoken - Very informative.
2 Likes
Es ist mir eine Ehre, @yottapolyglot . Learning German was never a conscious decision for me, and I bow down to anybody who takes that endeavor. Happy to help.
4 Likes
From my own experience, “Ungeheuer” in general isn’t as much as a word anymore. It feels somewhat old fashioned to me. Maybe something older people would use more often. I feel like I often see it more in written older texts.
However, maybe there might be regions of Germany where it is still used and are different to my own experience.
Did you just call me old and out of touch, @Aki-kun 
- just kidding.
Seriously though, I acknowledge that us language lovers in this forum might have skewed vocabulary choices in general, and I was curious.
The “Die drei ???” (for non-natives, this is quite a successful German continuation of the Three Investigators series which is still active today, cf. German editions of the Three Investigators - Wikipedia ) released the audio book episode 195, “Im Reich der Ungeheuer” in 2018. Also, recently, Barbara Iland-Olschweski published “Sea Monsters - Ungeheuer weckt man nicht” in 2022.
My father-in-law, a former chemistry teacher, loves the phrase “Erst das Wasser, dann die Säure, sonst geschieht das Ungeheure” (Water first, then acid, otherwise, something terrible will happen) as a mnemonic to avoid an exothermic reaction.
1 Like
Yeah, I was kinda wondering if it might have been interpreted that way
I tried to search a bit online about it as well, but didn’t find much.
“Die Drei ???” and “Lustige Taschenbücher” (serial compilation of Mickey Mouse stories in German) etc. I would totally get if they use the word a lot, especially since it fits thematically the mystery and adventure theme. I think part of it is also that the translators/writers are logically often much older than the targeted German audience. I also noticed that with the translations of Japanese comics in German, in that some of the word choices and expressions don’t sound like people that age (the young protagonists) would talk in German. It’s an interesting, but unavoidable phenomenon.
I don’t know much about “Die Drei ???”, I only incidentally read some of the promotion material from “REWE” (supermarket chain in Germany) a few months ago, but based on that, it fits the style well to use “Ungeheuer”.
But yeah, I guess, all of that shows it’s definitely a useful word to know when wanting to read German stories.
Thank you for the additional information/insight!
One other usage of “Ungeheuer” in German I was reminded of is the adverb variant for “incredibly”. E.g. “Er ist ungeheuer groß.” (“He is incredibly tall.”), which I might be more inclined to use, though even with it, I probably often choose different words for.
But I think it’s worth mentioning this usage as well in the context of this word.
And there are also a few set phrases (though with most of them you can switch it out with “Monster”, at least in my mind).
1 Like
Well, at least it is consumed almost daily by my kids, so maybe the newer generation will pick up on its frequency again 
Let’s agree that “Ungeheuer” is on the watch list but definitely not extinct yet.
Agree on the elative usage of “ungeheuer”. Fascinating that this word seems to be exclusively used in its negated form (via un- or nicht). When there is some crooked construction to be crossed (e.g., in the woods) or some shady areas around central stations, “Das ist mir nicht geheuer” – I don’t trust this – is definitely in my active (middle-aged and cosmopolitan 
) vocabulary.
1 Like
I guess “watch list” is one way to put it. But yeah, I agree.
True.
“Das ist mir nicht geheuer.” I also sometimes still use, even though it’s a bit old-fashioned.
I think it’s also since there is no other way to describe that kind of feeling the same way.
Compared to how “Monster” can just replace most noun uses.
1 Like
