xxp
There are many many amazing German expressions, and webpages devoted to their translations.
I like "and now we have the salad" (everything is fucked), "I only know train station" (I will not respond to the confusing and/or stupid thing you just said), "and here is where the rabbit lay down in the pepper" (this is where we fucked up), "there's no standing on one leg" (don't leave before having a second drink), "that's not my beer" (not my business), and my personal favourite, "you're walking on my cookies" (you're getting on my nerves)
― flamboyant goon tie included, Friday, 2 March 2018 15:30 (eight years ago)
I have read your last post deems three times and don't get it but I do like some Louis Philippe
― flamboyant goon tie included, Friday, 2 March 2018 15:31 (eight years ago)
That is an unlooked for but positive outcome and I am not a prescriptivist <3
― things you looked shockingly old when you wore (darraghmac), Friday, 2 March 2018 15:33 (eight years ago)
Love love love I only know train station I'm having that
omg thank you so much for this knowledge, fgti
― mh, Friday, 2 March 2018 15:41 (eight years ago)
"which part.. gives you the most heartburn?"
― Wes Brodicus, Friday, 2 March 2018 15:41 (eight years ago)
deems obv. has not seen nearly enough episodes of The Sweeney, I don't think you can pin that one on Tony Cascarino.
― Buff Jeckley (Tom D.), Friday, 2 March 2018 15:55 (eight years ago)
In the spirit of the Sweeney he was available he was suspect and I never liked the slegggg
― things you looked shockingly old when you wore (darraghmac), Friday, 2 March 2018 15:58 (eight years ago)
Those are all great fgti
Posted this elsewhere on here years ago but under the bio thing on skype my dad has written:
"be. happy you lif longery and walk on the wild seid the last shirt you wear has now packets."
I have to say his typing and spelling skills have improved a lot since the wrote that but the "last shirt you wear has no pockets" thing confused the hell out of me until TWU helped me figure out that it was a German idiom that basically means you can't take it with you when you die. The be happy and walk on the wild side stuff he added himself.
― Benson and the Jets (ENBB), Friday, 2 March 2018 15:59 (eight years ago)
I played Galaxian for a couple years thinking it was "Galaxina".
― Spencer Chow, Friday, 2 March 2018 16:00 (eight years ago)
but Deems is that not a word of Greek etymology coincidentally spelled the same way as the French collective noun?
― startled macropod (MatthewK), Friday, 2 March 2018 16:01 (eight years ago)
Aha!
― Buff Jeckley (Tom D.), Friday, 2 March 2018 16:05 (eight years ago)
...I think he knows that now, hence posting to this thread
― scotti pruitti (wins), Friday, 2 March 2018 16:07 (eight years ago)
oops as you were LG x
― startled macropod (MatthewK), Friday, 2 March 2018 16:10 (eight years ago)
I knouse nou such thing but I am better informed, thanks mattk
― things you looked shockingly old when you wore (darraghmac), Friday, 2 March 2018 16:12 (eight years ago)
I was fair shook so that is welcome neouws
The foyer/lawyer thing is not just common but typical, as is Anglicization of many other French words. However, while "faux news" is a not-uncommon online dismissal, I seriously doubt more than a few Americans actually pronounce faux as fox in that or any other context.
― Moo Vaughn, Friday, 2 March 2018 16:23 (eight years ago)
On the other hand it’s the English who say “gárridge” for “garage”
― direct to consumer online mattress brand (silby), Friday, 2 March 2018 16:32 (eight years ago)
"I only know train station"
You having a laugh?
― Moo Vaughn, Friday, 2 March 2018 16:32 (eight years ago)
^ versteht nur Bahnhof
― Wes Brodicus, Friday, 2 March 2018 16:34 (eight years ago)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zxLKS3_QL_M
― Moo Vaughn, Friday, 2 March 2018 16:37 (eight years ago)
"I only know train station" has a Nazi origin, iirc. Nazi soldiers would get orders from their commanding officers over the radio like "march at 6am, destroy the bridge, recon the village, return to camp, then at 11am tomorrow if you survive, go to the train station and you'll be relieved of duty" and the soldier would respond "ich verstehe nur Bahnhof" (I only understand train station), the joke being "didn't understand anything you just said except the part where I go to the train station and go home"
― flamboyant goon tie included, Friday, 2 March 2018 17:00 (eight years ago)
i am here for this kind of talk
― illegal economic migration (Tracer Hand), Friday, 2 March 2018 17:01 (eight years ago)
Here's a collection of phrases i.e. https://worldgoespassau.wordpress.com/2013/12/15/i-think-my-pig-is-whistling-german-idioms/
My other favourite that I don't see here but is amazing is "life is not a pony farm" which is pretty self-explanatory
― flamboyant goon tie included, Friday, 2 March 2018 17:02 (eight years ago)
The word for pony farm is Ponyhof
It's a great phrase
Das Leben ist kein Ponyhof
― flamboyant goon tie included, Friday, 2 March 2018 17:03 (eight years ago)
Milkshake fucked on I only know train station what a world
― things you looked shockingly old when you wore (darraghmac), Friday, 2 March 2018 17:04 (eight years ago)
Autocorrect fds
fur deutsches sake
― illegal economic migration (Tracer Hand), Friday, 2 March 2018 17:13 (eight years ago)
I know exactly which bits of my projects give my heartburn, Germans OTM.
So the only ways I can think of to pronounce 'foyer' are:
The correct French way
Irishman saying 'fire'
Is there... a third way?
― Andrew Farrell, Friday, 2 March 2018 17:25 (eight years ago)
FOI-yur
― illegal economic migration (Tracer Hand), Friday, 2 March 2018 17:28 (eight years ago)
lol which i guess is your Irishman way
― illegal economic migration (Tracer Hand), Friday, 2 March 2018 17:29 (eight years ago)
Ahem, an Offaly man maybe
― things you looked shockingly old when you wore (darraghmac), Friday, 2 March 2018 17:29 (eight years ago)
Or the lobby as they call it in Scotland.
― Buff Jeckley (Tom D.), Friday, 2 March 2018 17:35 (eight years ago)
Have also heard people (possibly me?) pronounce it "foi-ay"
― Colonel Poo, Friday, 2 March 2018 17:36 (eight years ago)
I mis-heard "Das Leben ist kein Ponyhof" as "Das Leben ist klein Ponyhof" the first time my husband said it.
― neutral yogurt (doo dah), Friday, 2 March 2018 17:38 (eight years ago)
i was reading a while back about german humour and why it doesn't translate well
the whole article was so funny and really helped me understand my germanic brothers
(searching for it)
i believe it was this one
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2006/may/23/germany.features11
― F# A# (∞), Friday, 2 March 2018 17:48 (eight years ago)
sorry that wasn't it
it was this one: http://www.bbc.com/travel/story/20170802-why-people-think-germans-arent-funny
― F# A# (∞), Friday, 2 March 2018 17:50 (eight years ago)
there are several distinct German modes of humor, in my experience
one of my instructors in college was of the "Germans are serious, and when they're being funny, they act EXTRA serious" variety and I would crack up at his jokes when no one else would
― mh, Friday, 2 March 2018 18:31 (eight years ago)
from that first link to the guardian
On my first night in Hannover I had gone out drinking with some young German actors. "You will notice there are no old buildings in Hannover," one of them said. "That is because you bombed them all." At the time I found this shocking and embarrassing. Now it seems like the funniest thing you could possibly say to a nervous English visitor.
yeeeah, this is the mode my instructor was permanently wired into
― mh, Friday, 2 March 2018 18:38 (eight years ago)
Not really tickling my funny bone there tbf.
― Buff Jeckley (Tom D.), Friday, 2 March 2018 18:41 (eight years ago)
That all the different kinds of tea are really the same plant that has been processed/oxidized differently.
(in my defense I only started drinking tea regularly in the last year)
― change display name (Jordan), Friday, 2 March 2018 18:44 (eight years ago)
My favourite German joke, which was actually told to me while driving down the autobahn, had me asking "there are so many arrows saying Ausfahrt" and my German friend replying "yes, it's the biggest city in Germany"
― flamboyant goon tie included, Friday, 2 March 2018 18:53 (eight years ago)
lol
― Benson and the Jets (ENBB), Friday, 2 March 2018 18:55 (eight years ago)
https://assets.boomkat.com/spree/products/253176/large/original.jpg
― how's life, Friday, 2 March 2018 18:58 (eight years ago)
I've mentioned it before, but the class I mentioned had a number of farmboy types who would try to bait the instructor before class about Germany and he'd keep escalating by stating somewhat provocative things in a very matter of fact way. One day, it ended when he said, "Once the German army starts marching, they are unstoppable"
I almost fell out of my chair laughing
― mh, Friday, 2 March 2018 19:00 (eight years ago)
life is just a pony farmcan you live this pony farm life
― mookieproof, Friday, 2 March 2018 20:49 (eight years ago)
― illegal economic migration (Tracer Hand), Saturday, 3 March 2018 04:28 (four hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
australians do this, which tbh i thought was a legitimate pronunciation until just now
― reverse-periscoping (Autumn Almanac), Friday, 2 March 2018 22:06 (eight years ago)
also there's an entire thread in the transliterated foreign aphorisms thing, it's brilliant
― reverse-periscoping (Autumn Almanac), Friday, 2 March 2018 22:07 (eight years ago)
it's legit
― mh, Friday, 2 March 2018 22:08 (eight years ago)
“foie gras”
― startled macropod (MatthewK), Friday, 2 March 2018 22:34 (eight years ago)