German word of the day: Der Meinungsumschwung
Are you struggling to make up your mind on an important issue? Then today's German word is for you.
If you've looked at the facts and decided you may have been wrong about something, you might be inclined to tell people you've had a "Meinungsumschwung".
The closest literal translation to Meinungsumschwung (pronounced Mei·nungs·um·schwung) in English might be something like a change of opinion, though "change of heart" is an idiom that also fits quite well.
This useful word is yet another one of German's famous compound nouns - meaning it combines two nouns or more nouns to create another one.
Thankfully, in comparison with a horror show like Mietschuldenfreiheitsbescheinigung (a letter you need from your landlord when moving home), Meinungsumschwung is relatively easy to wrap your head around and is only comprised of two separate nouns.
The first one is Meinung (pronounced mai - nung), which means opinion or view, and the second is Umschwung (pronounced um - schwung), which the online dictionary DWDS describes as "drastic change, turn, change into the opposite", but could also be translated as "reversal" or "turnaround".
Once again, breaking down the components of the word is helpful here: um means "around" and schwingen means "to swing" (Schwung is the noun form), so you can literally envision someone doing a rapid 180-degree turn and ending up with a completely different opinion than the one they started with.
As you might expect, der Meinungsumschwung can often be a surprising and sudden thing. It can be a rapid response to major historical or political events, which often prompt people to change their minds at short notice.
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Examples:
Wie sollen sie nun ihren Meinungsumschwung vor der Öffentlichkeit begründen?
How are they now going to justify their change of opinion to the public?
Was steckt hinter diesem Meinungsumschwung?
What's behind this change of opinion?
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If you've looked at the facts and decided you may have been wrong about something, you might be inclined to tell people you've had a "Meinungsumschwung".
The closest literal translation to Meinungsumschwung (pronounced Mei·nungs·um·schwung) in English might be something like a change of opinion, though "change of heart" is an idiom that also fits quite well.
This useful word is yet another one of German's famous compound nouns - meaning it combines two nouns or more nouns to create another one.
Thankfully, in comparison with a horror show like Mietschuldenfreiheitsbescheinigung (a letter you need from your landlord when moving home), Meinungsumschwung is relatively easy to wrap your head around and is only comprised of two separate nouns.
The first one is Meinung (pronounced mai - nung), which means opinion or view, and the second is Umschwung (pronounced um - schwung), which the online dictionary DWDS describes as "drastic change, turn, change into the opposite", but could also be translated as "reversal" or "turnaround".
Once again, breaking down the components of the word is helpful here: um means "around" and schwingen means "to swing" (Schwung is the noun form), so you can literally envision someone doing a rapid 180-degree turn and ending up with a completely different opinion than the one they started with.
As you might expect, der Meinungsumschwung can often be a surprising and sudden thing. It can be a rapid response to major historical or political events, which often prompt people to change their minds at short notice.
READ ALSO: 10 must-see films and series to help you improve your German
Examples:
Wie sollen sie nun ihren Meinungsumschwung vor der Öffentlichkeit begründen?
How are they now going to justify their change of opinion to the public?
Was steckt hinter diesem Meinungsumschwung?
What's behind this change of opinion?
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