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

💡 Did you know?

What does “kurzsichtig” mean in German?

kurzsichtig
Short + seeing — how German names nearsightedness
Nearsighted — literally “short-seeing”: close things are clear, far things blur.

The clip describes nearsightedness — in German, kurzsichtig. German builds the word from two parts: kurz (short) and -sichtig (seeing). The eye bends light too strongly, so the focus lands in front of the back of the eye instead of right on it. Near things look clear, far things go blurry. Once you know the parts, the opposite, weitsichtig (far-seeing), is easy to read too.

Spoken line: “Augen mit einem Brennpunkt vor der Netzhaut werden als kurzsichtig bezeichnet.” (Eyes with a focal point in front of the retina are called nearsighted.) How the pieces work: kurz = short, and the -sichtig part means “-seeing.” So kurzsichtig = “short-seeing,” used for an eye that sees close things clearly but far things blurry. The same pattern builds the family: - weitsichtig = “far-seeing” (weit = far) — the opposite case, far things clear, near things blurry. The clip pairs the two directly. - Kurzsichtigkeit = the noun, “nearsightedness” (add -keit to turn it into a thing). - kurzsichtig can also mean “short-sighted” about a plan or decision, the way English uses it too — usually a bit critical. Once you know kurz + sichtig, you can work out the others instead of memorizing each as a new word.

Vocabulary frequency

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

88.6%
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

81.2%
Top 1,000
88.6%
Top 2,000
96.2%
Top 5,000

Spoken German frequency

87.3%
Top 1,000
97.2%
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.

netzhaut
Rare / outside top 5,000
retina
hornhaut
Rare / outside top 5,000
callus
brechungsfehler
Rare / outside top 5,000
refractive error
verschwommen
Rare / outside top 5,000
blurred/fuzzy/hazy
alterssichtigkeit
Rare / outside top 5,000
presbyopia (age-related)

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

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