"basic idea" in German basic idea Grundbegriff Grundidee Detailed translations for "basic idea" basic idea basic idea(also: basic principle, fundamental term) der Grundbegriff{masculine} basic idea(also: basic concept) die Grundidee{feminine} Truth is a guy named Nikola Tesla patented the basic idea for the radio in 1896. Source: opensubtitles.org Corpus by OPUS Request review Allerdings ließ sich ein gewisser Nikola Tesla die Grundidee fürs Radio schon 1896 patentieren. The basic idea is wildly simple. Source: opensubtitles.org Corpus by OPUS Request review Die Grundidee ist ganz einfach.