How do you say “vomit” in German?

The German verb for “to vomit” or “to throw up” is either “erbrechen” or the reflexive “sich übergeben”, which literally means “to give oneself over”.

Watch out though, the noun for vomit is NOT “Übergabe” (f.), which means “handover”. You‘d rather use “das Erbrochene” in polite speech.

Other common terms are “brechen” and “spucken” (often said about babies and children), although these words are ambiguous as they also mean “to break” and “to spit”, respectively.

Vulgar, but very common expressions (similar to “to barf” or “to puke”) are “kotzen” (with the noun “Kotze” referring to the resulting product), “reihern” (from the bird “Reiher”, which is a “heron” in English, and regurgitates food for its young) and, more rarely “kübeln” (from “Kübel” for “bucket” or “tub”) or the sophisticated “(aus)speien” (“to spew” or “to spout”).

For medical terminology, the noun is das Erbrechen or die Emesis. The rarer medical verb vomieren also means to vomit.

Examples

Fritz hat sich die ganze Nacht übergeben. Fritz threw up all night.

Pass auf, da ist Kotze auf der Straße. Watch out. There’s puke on the street.

Free download

Get the 1000 Most Frequently Used German Nouns ebook - free.

Leave your email and I’ll send you a link to the ebook. You’ll also get my occasional German-learning tips. No spam, unsubscribe anytime.

Keep reading.

Comments

Loading comments…

Comments appear after approval.