Albträume, Ängste und schlechte Träume im Alltag
B1 German listening practice · German · Curated for intermediate learners
What does “verzwickt” mean in German?
A man describes a nightmare about a fire where his parents call the fire brigade, but they say “we’ll come later.” He sums up the dream feeling with “son bisschen verzwickt auch” — a bit tangled too. “Verzwickt” is what you say when a situation feels knotted up and hard to fix — not just difficult, but confusing in a messy, no-clear-way-out sense. It usually carries a slightly frustrated tone, like here.
Spoken line: “Also son bisschen verzwickt auch” — “So a bit tricky/tangled too.” (Here “son bisschen” is casual for “so ein bisschen” = “a little bit.”) “Verzwickt” describes a situation that is twisted up and awkward to untangle — more “messy and confusing” than simply “hard.” Plain examples: - “Die Lage ist ziemlich verzwickt.” = “The situation is pretty tangled/tricky.” - “Das ist eine verzwickte Frage.” = “That’s a tricky, knotty question.” - “Es wird langsam verzwickt.” = “It’s slowly getting complicated.” Usage notes: People often use it for problems, questions, or situations where many things are tied together. It usually sounds a bit frustrated or fed up, as in this clip about a stuck, stressful dream.
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General German frequency
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Words above this video’s level
Quick glosses for vocabulary that goes beyond this video’s B1 level.
Source: wordfreq 3.1.1 (general) · SUBTLEX-DE 2011 (spoken). Buckets approximate; exact ranks not stored.