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| Ihre 10 Minuten Englisch pro Woche |
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Dear email,
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Some of my favourite words in English are onomatopoeic – words that sound like the thing they are describing. For example, what better word could there be for talking about unrealistic, slightly mad ideas than “delulu”? Perhaps in this case it’s the concept as well as the sound of the word that I like, as I’m always bursting with nutty ideas. I recently wanted all my colleagues to dress up as Jane Austen characters and make a jokey video about the author. I’m sure they were thinking: “There goes our boss with her delulu plans again!” Do I mind? No, in fact, I’m rather proud of it – probably a sign that I’m completely delulu.
Zohran Mamdani’s political agenda may have been described by some as delulu, but New York City’s mayor-elect has certainly proved his critics wrong. His election promises that include a rent cap, free child care and free bus travel certainly persuaded New Yorkers, who turned out in droves to vote for him. Find out more about Mamdani in the latest episode of our podcast, English, please!
My delightful and definitely-not-delulu colleague, Judith Gilbert, editor-in-chief of Business Spotlight, will be back next time, with more interesting topics from around the English-speaking world.
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Inez Sharp
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Editor-in-chief, Spotlight
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burst: platzen | nutty (ifml.): verrückt | jokey: witzig | mayor-elect: gewählte(r) Bürgermeister(in) | prove sb. wrong: jmdm. das Gegenteil beweisen |rent cap: Mietpreisdeckel | in droves: scharenweise | editor-in-chief: Chefredakteur(in)
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Word of the Week
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delulu
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Did you know...? Added to the Cambridge Dictionary in 2025, this word comes from internet slang. It’s a short form of delusional, but is often used in a more playful way to talk about (unrealistic) dreams. Mostly used as an adjective, delulu also appears as a noun (short for delusion), for example, in the wonderfully silly catchphrase: “May all your delulu come trululu.”
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delusional: wahnhaft | delusion: Wahn(vorstellung) | catchphrase: Slogan | trululu: von: true
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© Illustration: Georg Lechner
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Interview
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Which words?
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Every year, new words and expressions appear in our conversations, online posts and media headlines – and dictionaries work hard to keep up with the changes. But not every “new” word is really new. Many of the words or expressions added to the Oxford English Dictionary and the Cambridge Dictionary in 2025 have been around for years – even decades.
Who decides which words get added? And when? We got some answers from Jennifer Hurd, who works as a lexicographer for the Oxford English Dictionary.
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© Image: Shutterstock.com
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Street Food
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Spice bag
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“Spice bag“ has only recently been added to the Oxford English Dictionary. One of Ireland’s favourite dishes, the spice bag originated at the Sunflower Chinese takeaway in Dublin’s Orwell Shopping Centre around 2006. Today, it’s found nationwide – as Irish as Guinness. It’s the hangover cure you didn’t know you needed.
If you find yourself in a state of inebriation, a brown paper bag of crispy chicken, peppers, onions and chips covered in salt, pepper and Chinese spices will restore your mental and physical balance. Go straight to almost any Chinese takeaway or “chipper” in Ireland and get ready for some high-fat, high-sodium healing.
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hangover: Kater | inebriation: Rausch | crispy: knusprig | pepper: Gemüsepaprika | chips (UK): Pommes frites | restore sth.: etw. wiederherstellen | chipper (Irish ifml.): Frittenbude | high-sodium: natriumreich, sehr salzig
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© Image: Kathrin Koschitzky
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Podcast
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“Probably the most charismatic candidate since Barack Obama”
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In this week’s episode of English, please!, we look at the success of Zohran Mamdani, New York’s new Democratic socialist mayor. With our guest Xifan Yang, who covered the election for DIE ZEIT, we analyse the political developments that helped Mamdani to victory, and discuss what his success means for the rest of the country – and maybe Europe as well.
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cover sth.: hier: berichten von
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© Image: Shutterstock.com
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Odd Jobs
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Maze designer
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Adrian Fisher MBE is a British maze designer and inventor, who has designed over 700 mazes in 43 countries.
My career as a maze designer began in 1979, and I’ve designed more than 700 mazes in 43 countries. The locations I design mazes for vary. I’ve created hedge mazes, mazes for museums, such as Hamburg Dungeon’s mirror maze, and I also designed a maze for the 2023 thriller Saltburn. The maze had to match the story, so I created a secret shortcut to allow the attacker to reach the middle faster than the victim. This was not a physical maze, however, but a CGI 3D image combined with an aerial photograph.
Designing a maze starts with large sheets of paper, pencils, erasers and sketches. But it requires a mix of technologies, including software and aerial photography. Once the topology is clear, I create a digital version, choose the scale and modify the design. There are often many drafts before the final version is done.
Maze design is like a game of chess, in which you have to plan all your moves in advance. The people who walk through need to experience a narrative arc that makes sense. In a maze, you let the excitement build, but when you reach the goal, you need a quick exit.
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Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (MBE): britischer Ritterorden; hier: Ehrentitel | maze: Irrgarten | hedge: Hecke | shortcut: Abkürzung | victim: Opfer | aerial photograph(y): Luftbildfoto(grafie) | eraser: Radiergummi | sketch: Skizze | once: hier: sobald | scale: hier: Maßstab | draft: Entwurf | chess: Schach | move: hier: (Spiel-)Zug | in advance: im Voraus | narrative arc: Erzählbogen
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© Image: AFD
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Ihr Gutschein für Spotlight
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Sie erhalten die erste Ausgabe unseres Abonnements gratis
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Names and News
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Pretending to work
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You’ve probably never thought of paying your company to let you work in the office. What at first sounds absurd is increasingly common in China. The country’s youth-unemployment rate, now at about 14 per cent, has been stubbornly high for several years. However, rather than sit around at home, a lot of young Chinese jobseekers are paying businesses so they can go to a fake office and pretend to work for them.
“I feel very happy,” 30-year-old Shui Zhou told the BBC. He is one of several people who pay 30 yuan (about €3.60) per day to go to an office run by a business called Pretend To Work Company, in Dongguan, a city near Hong Kong, in southern China. “It’s like we’re working together as a group.” Zhou also says that going to an office every day is better for his self-discipline and self-esteem than staying at home.
Quite a few “pretend-office” companies have appeared recently. What they are offering is seen as a transition service. Instead of just pretending, most of the customers use the company’s computers to look for jobs or start their own businesses. Of course, many also want to create the impression that they are working, in order to reduce the embarrassment of being unemployed. The owner of Pretend To Work Company says: “What I’m selling isn’t a workstation, but the dignity of not being a useless person.”
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stubbornly: hartnäckig; hier: anhaltend | rather than: anstatt | jobseeker: Arbeitssuchende(r) | self-esteem: Selbstwertgefühl | transition: Übergang | embarrassment: Beschämung, Verlegenheit | workstation: Arbeitsplatz | dignity: Würde
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© Image: Georg Lechner mit KI
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Im aktuellen Magazin
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50 new words
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New additions to the dictionary in 2025 | A different New York | Five things you may not know about Jane Austen
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Quiz
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Bridges
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Do you know where you can walk over this famous bridge? Answer the five questions in our quiz to find out.
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© Image: Shutterstock.com
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From the ZEIT SPRACHEN App
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🏴 A trip to the Scottish highlands 🏴
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Scotland celebrates Saint Andrew’s Day, Scotland’s national holiday, on 30 November. You probably can’t make it to the celebrations in time. But how about going the Highland Games next year? This article might give you some inspiration...
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Ihnen gefällt „ZEIT für Englisch“?
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Teilen Sie diesen Newsletter ...
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... mit Freundinnen oder Freunden, die ihr Englisch verbessern wollen! Kopieren Sie dazu den Link zur Anmeldeseite und schicken ihn per WhatsApp oder E-Mail weiter.
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Mitarbeit: Dennis Draber, Judith Gilbert, Susanne Krause, Nadia Lawrence, Mae McCreary, Richard Mote, Rachel Preece, Inez Sharp.
Sie haben diesen Newsletter zurzeit an die Adresse subs@emailshot.io bestellt. Eine Abmeldung ist jederzeit über Newsletter-Abmeldung möglich. Bitte antworten Sie nicht auf diese E-Mail. Bitte wenden Sie sich an abo@zeit-sprachen.de. ZEIT SPRACHEN GmbH
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