German · Joy & 'Hell Yes'
Saugeil!
ZOW-gyle · /ˈzaʊ.ɡaɪl/
Bloody awesome! / Freaking great!
2/5 Bar-safe
coarse but friendly; fine among acquaintances
Literally
"Sow-horny"
Word-for-word — which is rarely what it means.
How to use it
"Geil" turbo-charged with the "Sau-" (sow) intensifier prefix — one of German's great productive tricks, where a pig makes everything bigger. "Sau-" super-sizes both good (saugeil, saustark) and bad (Sauwetter, sauteuer). More enthusiastic than crude here; you'll hear it at football and gigs.
Heard in the wild
Das Konzert war saugeil!
The concert was bloody awesome!
Where it lands
Germany, Austria — universal
Quick answers
- What does "Saugeil!" mean?
- In German, "Saugeil!" means "Bloody awesome! / Freaking great!". Literally it's "Sow-horny". "Geil" turbo-charged with the "Sau-" (sow) intensifier prefix — one of German's great productive tricks, where a pig makes everything bigger. "Sau-" super-sizes both good (saugeil, saustark) and bad (Sauwetter, sauteuer). More enthusiastic than crude here; you'll hear it at football and gigs.
- Is "Saugeil!" offensive?
- It's on the mild end — 2/5 (Bar-safe) on the Punch-o-Meter. coarse but friendly; fine among acquaintances.
- How do you pronounce "Saugeil!"?
- Say it "ZOW-gyle" — capitals mark the stressed syllable. In IPA: ˈzaʊ.ɡaɪl.
Related in German
The same idea, elsewhere
Via concepts like "That's awesome".
- French Ça déchire ! That rocks! / That's awesome!
- Greek ρε μαλάκα Hey man / dude / bro — the affectionate-insult greeting between friends.
- Italian Figo! Cool! / Awesome! / Sick!
- Japanese やばい Insane / crazy / no way — good OR bad, from context
- Korean 존나 Fucking / hella — the vulgar intensifier that goes in front of everything.
- Polish zajebisty Fucking awesome / badass — the great slang-POSITIVE of the jebać family.
- Portuguese Do caralho Fucking awesome — OR, with 'casa do', the middle of nowhere
- Russian Класс! Awesome! / Great! / Cool!
Reviewed by native speakers. Rate it differently? Tell us what we got wrong.