A more direct or literal translation of Geschicklichkeit would probably be something like or skilledness or skillfulness. Other words with the -lichkeit ending that might be more familiar are Freundlichkeit (friendliness) and Brüderlichkeit (brotherliness)

(So there are actually two endings here. -lich is cognate to english -ly, though -ed can also work. -keit is equivalent to english -ness)

The base word, Geschick, translates to 'skill' on its own. The difference is that it ~~strictly~~ (edit: apparently not) behaves as a countable noun, as in you can have a number of skills, just as you can have a number of friends, of brothers, etc. It doesn't work when describing a quality or property someone may possess, so that's where the suffixes come in.

It's the difference between "there's a lot of friend here" and "there's a lot of friendliness here"

~~In English, skill is an exception to a rule. It can be used in both ways, without the help of suffixes. German, on the other hand, doesn't generally make that kind of exception in the interest of maintaining consistency.~~

The Germans are probably going to roast me for this but that's my understanding from just under 2 years of learning and a brief series of googles.

[–] Karyoplasma@discuss.tchncs.de 7 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

countable verb

noun

I'm German and I just use whatever sounds better and "Geschicksproblem" would sound even more like you just had a stroke. Also it's kinda part of the meme to make words as long as possible because it's funny.

Geschick and Geschicklichkeit are pretty much synonymous. Maybe Geschicklichkeit suggests a bit more that the natural skill is enhanced by technique and training, but that's it.

[–] meowMix2525@lemm.ee 6 points 1 year ago

Welp, I tried. German grammar eludes me again. Thanks for the info though! and for catching that error :)