What does the German suffix “-träger” mean?
Wortschatz zum Thema Brille und Sehstärke
A2 German listening practice · German · Picked for people who know a little
A Brillenträger is simply someone who wears glasses, from Brille (“glasses”) plus -träger. That ending comes from tragen, “to wear” or “to carry,” and it turns any object into “the person who wears or bears it.” So instead of a whole phrase, German bundles the wearer and the worn thing into a single compound noun. The feminine form is Brillenträgerin, exactly as the clip asks.
Once you spot -träger, you find it everywhere: Bartträger (beard-wearer), Fackelträger (torch-bearer), Bannerträger (banner-bearer), Namensträger (name-bearer, the person who carries a name). One suffix, a whole shelf of “the one who carries X” words. It leans slightly formal or descriptive, which is why you meet it in surveys, labels, and reports more than in casual chat.
How common are the words?
How common are the words in this A2 German listening practice video?
How common in written German
How common in spoken German
Harder words in this video
These words are harder than A2. Here is what they mean.
Source: wordfreq 3.1.1 (general) · SUBTLEX-DE 2011 (spoken). These numbers are close, not perfect.