Elektro-SUV GLC: Bremer Mercedes-Werk vor Verbrenner-Aus?

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B2 German listening practice · German · Curated for upper-intermediate learners

💡 Did you know?

What does “den Geist der Zeit getroffen” mean in German?

den Geist der Zeit getroffen
Common idiom
“Hit the spirit of the time” — made something that matches exactly what people want right now.

A reporter opens the story about a new Mercedes electric SUV by saying the carmaker “hat den Geist der Zeit getroffen” — hit the spirit of the time. It is a warm, slightly impressed way to say the car arrived at exactly the right moment and matched what buyers wanted. The proof follows straight away: it was ordered more than any other Mercedes electric car in its first three months.

Spoken in the clip: “Mit diesem Auto haben sie offenbar den Geist der Zeit getroffen.” — “With this car they have clearly hit the spirit of the time.” “Geist” is spirit or mind, “Zeit” is time, and “treffen” here means to hit the mark. Together they say something fits exactly what people want now. More examples: “Die Serie hat den Geist der Zeit getroffen” (the show captured the mood of the moment). “Mit dieser Idee triffst du den Geist der Zeit” (your idea is just right for now). Often used to praise; “offenbar” softens the claim to “apparently, by the looks of it.”

Vocabulary frequency

How common is the vocabulary in this B2 German listening practice listening practice?

85.2%
of words are in the top 2,000 most common German words
Based on this reel’s transcript, most of the vocabulary is high-frequency, everyday German.

General German frequency

79.4%
Top 1,000
85.2%
Top 2,000
95.5%
Top 5,000

Spoken German frequency

90.7%
Top 1,000
95.5%
Top 2,000
100%
Top 5,000
👄 Conversational vocabulary
This reel’s words appear more often in subtitle-based spoken-German data than in general usage, so it may feel closer to everyday conversation.

Words above this video’s level

Quick glosses for vocabulary that goes beyond this video’s B2 level.

autostadt
Rare / outside top 5,000
car city, automobile city
glc
Rare / outside top 5,000
(abbreviation/fragment)
hansalinie
Rare / outside top 5,000
Hanse shipping line
vollelektrische
Rare / outside top 5,000
fully electric
ändernde
Rare / outside top 5,000
changing; altering (present participle)

Source: wordfreq 3.1.1 (general) · SUBTLEX-DE 2011 (spoken). Buckets approximate; exact ranks not stored.

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