I've come across a bunch of interesting German words starting with a "K" that are almost the same in English, except that in English that first "k" is mysteriously silent.

So you've got KNIE, which is knee, KNOTEN, which is knot, and KNETEN, which is to knead. The one I've picked out here is KNECHT, which is a knave, although strangely a knight in English is RITTER, or rider, in German.

Then there's KNÖCHEL, which is knuckle and also ankle. I'm sad to report that KNOBLAUCH is unfortunately not "knob-leek", but actually garlic. Though on second thoughts, garlic is a kind of stubby leek so maybe that is really the origin of the word after all. And perhaps KNÖDEL, which is dumpling, is really a kind of "noodle". But what about all those words like "knackered", "knackers" and "knack" -- do they have anything to do with KNACKWURST sausages? I wonder...

Well it's been a while since I've added anything to this blog -- the reason is my Netbook was on the blink and the screen broke. Anyway here we are again

I was thinking about this word the other day when a colleague flung an envelope on my desk at work that had been sent from the Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt, the German Centre for Air and Space Travel. "Fahrt" of course always elicits an amusing snigger for English speakers, but I wondered for a moment why "Raum" meant Space. But then of course, Raum just means "room" and of course there's plenty of room in space, which is infinite to all intents and purposes. And English speakers use the words interchangably when, for example, asking someone if they've got any room/space in their car/house. In a much more sinister context, Hitler used to rant on about LEBENSRAUM or "room to live" when he annexed territories neighbouring Germany that had large numbers of Germans living in them.