Jugendsprache — the slang of teenagers and twenty-somethings — changes every few years, but some words have settled in for good. Here are the ones for great, wild and awful:

Slang	Meaning	Example
krass	wild, intense — good or bad	Krass, oder? — Mad, isn't it?
geil	awesome	Das Konzert war so geil!
mega	super, hugely	Das Essen war mega.
heftig	full-on, intense	Das war heftig.
der Hammer	a knockout, brilliant	Der Film war der Hammer!
voll	totally	Das ist voll cool.
cringe	cringeworthy	Sein Outfit war so cringe.
Echt jetzt?	Seriously?	Echt jetzt? Du auch?

Krass depends on the tone: Krass! can be admiring or horrified. Geil needs care: its old meaning is horny, and although younger Germans use it for anything good, it can still jar with older people — and it has no place at work or in formal writing.