interest

noun · Zinsen

Zinsen when money earns money, ein Recht or eine Beteiligung when the interest is proprietary, Interesse only for concern. And the money sense carries a German wall the English clause never sees, § 248 BGB voids compound interest agreed in advance, narrow statutory exceptions aside.

Which translation, when

Zinsenthe money sense, the statutory default rate of § 246 BGB, four per cent, and the whole drafting world of interest periods and accruals. The right word wherever money is earning money.

Recht, Beteiligungthe proprietary sense, an interest in land is ein Recht an einem Grundstück, an equity interest eine Beteiligung. The everyday word Interesse never carries title.

Why

Interest splits three ways and only one of them is Zinsen. The money sense runs on statute, § 246 BGB supplies the four per cent default, and it runs into a wall English drafting does not expect, § 248 Abs. 1 BGB voids an advance agreement that due interest shall itself bear interest, the exceptions are narrow, deposits and bank bonds, § 248 Abs. 2 BGB, and the merchant’s current account, § 355 HGB, while § 289 BGB bars default interest on interest altogether. So the compounding clause of an English facility agreement is not boilerplate in a German-law deal, it is a validity question. The proprietary sense never touches Zinsen, an interest in the property is ein Recht an der Sache, a security interest ein Sicherungsrecht, an equity interest eine Beteiligung. And the everyday Interesse means concern, which is why the machine’s favourite hybrid, das Sicherheitsinteresse, belongs to defence policy and not to a collateral schedule.

Typical mistakes

Sicherheitsinteresse for security interest is residue with a national-security flavour, the German word is Sicherungsrecht, and the collateral schedule turns geopolitical in one noun.
Compound interest needs the German wall in view, § 248 Abs. 1 BGB voids advance Zinseszins agreements outside the deposit, bond and current-account exceptions, § 248 Abs. 2 BGB, § 355 HGB, and § 289 BGB adds that interest never bears default interest.
An interest in the property is ein Recht an der Sache, Interesse an der Sache is curiosity, and the proprietary sense never survives the everyday word.

What matters

Facility agreements test the word at the compounding clause: interest shall be capitalised and bear interest reads smoothly in English and hits § 248 Abs. 1 BGB in German, valid only inside the narrow deposit and Kontokorrent exceptions. The security schedule tests it again, security interests over the collateral must arrive as Sicherungsrechte, because a list of Sicherheitsinteressen reads like a defence white paper.

Authority

§ 246 BGB
§ 248 BGB
§ 289 BGB
§ 355 HGB

What the machine misses

Interest splits three ways and the engines pick by neighbourhood, money contexts get Zinsen, mostly right, everything proprietary slides towards Interesse or the hybrid Sicherheitsinteresse, a word that belongs in defence policy. The schedule of security interests arrives as a list of concerns, and the one German rule the money sense hides, the ban on agreed compound interest, is precisely what no word-level output will ever raise.

Examples

accrued interest	aufgelaufene Zinsen
default interest	Verzugszinsen
a security interest	ein Sicherungsrecht
an interest in the property	ein Recht an der Immobilie