What do you call a truck driver in German? It is a man who drives a truck.
What does LKW-Fahrer, the term I've been taught, mean in this context?
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Sign up to join this communityWhat do you call a truck driver in German? It is a man who drives a truck.
What does LKW-Fahrer, the term I've been taught, mean in this context?
This is to long for a comment. Ad Infinitums answer is already very good.
But actually the most common word in colloquial language is LKW- Fahrer as mentioned in the question itself.
LKW- Fahrer is simply a short form for Lastkraftwagen- Fahrer, who is -you guess- the Fahrer of a Lastkraftwagen. A short -and still valid- form ist Lastwagenfahrer as mentioned by Martin.
A Fernfahrer is mostly the same but with the connotation of driving long distances, whereas an LKW- Fahrer could also drive the refuse lorry.
The third suggestion Berufskraftfahrer is an umbrella term for everybody driving a Kraftfahrzeug in his job, that can be a taxi, bus, truck or even a car of a pizza delivery service.
As Perl Dog mentions in his comment, there is an even more colloquial term: Brummifahrer is used in colloquial speech. It is an onomatopoeia and describes the sound of a truck or more general a car: "Brumm" or even "Brumm-Brumm" is, what already very small children will say, if you point to a truck (or any other car) and ask, what it is.
You can just say Lastwagenfahrer.
Remark: It does not necessarily have to be long-distance which Fernfahrer would imply.
The Wikipedia suggests Fernfahrer.
https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fernfahrer
P.S
I would like to mention my method to find the best suggestion(s). It works most of the time for me.
For example, if I am looking for a specific word but the dictionary suggests me lots of words (sometimes very irrelevant words) and when I am not sure, which one to pick. In these cases, I follow the following steps;
1.Search the target word in Wikipedia (English)
2.Scroll down a little
3.Click on the Deutsch on the left side under languages section
4.You have the word in German(This works naturally for other languages as well)
I am also not native speaker of German and for your question, I found the word in this way. Lets see what the native speakers will say.