Erlebnis as a stand-alone word

Question

Does the word "Erlebnis" stand alone?

I would like to get a tattoo of that word, representing how important it is to have true EXPERIENCE in my life, not just floating through, but really living it. Would I have to put the word into a sentence or phrase for that to come across accurately, or can I simply use the word? (Similar to how someone would tattoo the word "Believe")

Alternately, would Erlebnisse work as well? Which one would better represent that message?

Answer 1

An Erlebnis is a single experience or adventure you had, so it doesn’t fit the desired theme, which seems to resemble carpe diem or live life to the fullest / … max. Erfahrung, on the other hand, is the experience or expertise someone gathers over time, but can also stem from single events. Without context and article it’s more easily associated with older and wiser people. Within a proper phrase or sentence, it may become clearer, but as single words, please get inked neither one.

I don’t understand why anyone would put a word or phrase in a language they don’t understand (well enough) onto their skin permanently, but at least the OP is asking first (unlike most people who choose arbitrary sinograms).

Here are some suggestions that use leben ‘to live’ or (das/ein) Leben ‘(the/a) life’ in one way or another; erleben is more like ‘to witness’.

• leb! or lebe! – imperative forms of leben ‘to live’
• Leben am Limit – closely matches live hard or life to the max
• sorge dich nicht, lebe! ‘don’t worry, live!’ – German title of How to Stop Worrying and Start Living by Dale Carnegie, kinda cheesy
• lebe lieber ungewöhnlich ‘rather live unusual’ – German title of the 1997 movie A Life Less Ordinary with Ewan McGregor and Cameron Diaz
• liebe das Leben ‘love/enjoy life!’ or liebe dein Leben ‘love your life’ or leben lieben ‘to love living’
• some clever typographic combination of Liebe ‘love’ or lieben ‘to love’ and leben – probably too softcore, cf. Goethe’s “Denn das Leben ist die Liebe // Und des Lebens Leben Geist”
• leben und leben lassen ‘live and let live’ – Schiller quote, means ‘be tolerant’
• leben, aber anders ‘life/living, but different’ or leben, aber richtig ‘… right’ – possibly with en dash instead of comma
• lebst du noch oder erlebst du schon? – after IKEA’s slogan, wohnst du noch oder lebst du schon? ‘do you still dwell or live already?’, where wohnen ‘to dwell’ can often be replaced bei leben, much like in English
• Lebenslust or Lebensfreude ‘joy of life’ or aus Freude am Leben ‘out of enjoying life’ – resemble well known Schadenfreude and BMW’s slogan aus Freude am Fahren; I think VW tried to establish Fahrvergnügen in an English ad once, but *Lebensvergnügen doesn’t fly; adjective is lebensfroh
• Die Kunst ist lang! // und kurz ist unser Leben. ‘for art ist long // and our lives are short.’ – Goethe, Faust
• Lebe, wie du, wenn du stirbst, // wünschen wirst, gelebt zu haben. ‘Live as you, when you die, // will wish to have lived.’ – Gellert
• leben statt überleben or erleben statt nur überleben ‘live, not (just) survive’
• mehr leben ‘living more’

My top recommendation would be Lebenslust.

I have lowercased initial verbs, but uppercasing them is of course fine, especially since many instances of the infinitive leben can also be understood as a noun.

Answer 2

I would not leave it alone, it sounds kind of "empty" to me (native german speaker).

You can't compare it to "Believe" since "believe" is the imperative of a verb (to believe), related to the noun "belief"

In correlation to that, The noun "Erlebnis" and the verb "erleben" could form the imperative "Erlebe", which is already better but still kind of naked, as if something was missing.

Personally, I think "Lebe" (Live) sounds even better, I'll come back and add more if I think of something good :-)

• Lebe Dein Leben (or: Leb Dein Leben) | Live your life
• Lebe | Live
• Du bist was Du erlebst | deviation of you are what you do, you are what you eat: you are what you experience

Answer 3

I think the main reason this does not work well has already been touched by @BarthyB: in English, the imperative, infinitive and sometimes even the noun are spelled the same. This way one can get a lot more "dimensions" from writing a single word - in German, this does not work as well as there are more inflections.

If you really want to use a single word this way, I would probably opt for the imperative (e.g. "lebe!"), but this IMO sounds off for "erlebe!".

Answer 4

If you have

ERLEBNIS

tattooed on your body, it will stand there without any context. Nobody will know that you translated the english word »experience« into German.

The meaning of »Erlebnis« is:

Erlebnis

A remarkable event that someone experienced.

These are examples for events, that may come up in a native German speaker's mind, when he/she hears the word »Erlebnis« without any context:

A ride on a roller coaster.
First time in your life watch crystals grow through a microscope.
Go to a restaurant and have an extraordinary meal.
Watching the performance of an artist in a circus.

---

But Erlebnis can also be:

In a commercial:

»Mit der Bahn reisen ist immer ein Erlebnis«
“Traveling by train is always a remarkable event”

Written in a biography:

Die Erlebnisse seiner Kindheit prägten sein ganzes Leben.
His childhood-experiences shaped his whole life.

So, to summarize it, you can say that »Erlebnis« is something that happens to you in a more or less passive way. You can do things to let »Erlebnisse« arise. You can go to the circus, to the restaurant, or enter the roller coaster. You can look through the microscope or buy a train ticket. But this initial act is not the »Erlebnis« itself. The »Erlebnis« is the thing that happens to you after you initiated it.

And even more passive: An »Erlebnis« can also happen to you without any initiation from you. You did not initiate your own childhood. But you experienced »Erlebnisse« as a child. To be robbed is a very remarkable »Erlebnis«, but it comes to you without any active initiation by you.

---

Another translation of »experience« is

Erfahrung

1. Knowledge and skills that someone collected through long time by often repeated practice.

   Frau M. hat viel Erfahrung mit Kindern.
   Mrs. M. is very experienced with kids.

2. A single event from which you could learn something.

   Der Besuch dieser Ausstellung war eine tolle Erfahrung für mich.
   Visiting this exhibition was a great experience for me.

I think »Erfahrung« works better as a tattoo than »Erlebnis«, but I guess it's still not what you want.

Others already gave you lists of alternatives (for which you didn't ask), and I don't have better German suggestions than they had.

My suggestion is to use the english word. It has exactly the meaning that you want and most people you will meet will be able to understand it.