Nose in German - A Word That’s Fun to Say

It’s one of the first things babies notice, the center of every cold, and the subject of countless jokes. The word nose isn’t just about anatomy - it’s a key to expressing reactions, intuition, and even rudeness. Learning how to say nose in German opens up both serious and playful communication.

The German word is die Nase. It’s feminine, and the plural is die Nasen. If you’re working on understanding noun gender, my gender video lesson makes it clear and simple.

Nase is one of the 1000 most frequently used nouns in German, and it appears in daily life, idioms, body parts vocabulary, and casual talk.

Here’s how Nase works across the four cases:

Nominative:Die Nase läuft.The nose is running.

Accusative:Ich putze mir die Nase.I’m blowing my nose.

Dative:Mit dieser Nase riechst du alles!With this nose, you smell everything!

Genitive:Die Spitze der Nase ist rot.The tip of the nose is red.

Nase shows up in a lot of expressive phrases:

• eine große / kleine / krumme Nase - a big / small / crooked nose

• die Nase voll haben - to be fed up
  die Nase rümpfen - to turn up your nose

• jemandem eine lange Nase machen - to thumb your nose at someone

• jemanden mit der Nase auf etwas stoßen - to spell something out for someone

• eine feine Nase haben für … - to have a nose for (something)

Verbs: riechen (smell), laufen (run), bluten (bleed), putzen (blow), zuhalten (pinch shut)Adjectives: verstopft (clogged), rot (red), sensibel (sensitive), verschnupft (sniffly)