This word originated in German from a combination of the words “Sprache” (“speech, a language”) and “Gefühl” (“feeling”). Sprachgefühl is one way experienced wordsmiths instinctively know that something sounds off. Practice working with words, as well as familiarity with the language as a whole, allows a writer to intuit that a certain pause might require a comma, or that the order in a list might need to be rearranged.