The language thread

not really a false friend, but one of my favorites:

in German, Kavalier has lost all connotations of martial prowess and devotion and simply means gentleman in a broader sense.

Many words are identical in English and German.
If you look at the lists you see that many of these words that are used in both languages have their roots in Latin.

Originally Posted by HiddenX
I think I can explain one of them:
The word gift exists in German in a similar meaning, too.
In the old word Mitgift - the things you give the bride at her wedding - the dowry.
So the word gift comes from to give (= German geben)

Following up this one: The Norwegian word for "married" is "gift". "I am married"="Jeg er gift". The word for dowry is similar to German, "medgift". And like in German, "gift" also means "poison" (and "venom" and "toxin" - we don't discriminate). Some people no doubt see a connection between these two meanings.

pibbur who notices that many foreigners are amused by the Norwegian word for "speed", which is "fart". You get a ticket for exceeding "fartsgrensen" - "the fart li.." sorry, "the speed limit".

Norwegian fart is related to German Fahrt (= journey, drive).
English drive is related to German treiben (= to push, to drive somebody)

CUTE Things Those Germans Say:



Donna is always in a good mood…

In Spanish the "v" is pronounced as a "b" and as a result many Spaniards have the tendency to pronounce the "v" as a "b" as well when speaking English.

Some time ago I was with a German and Mexican guy and we were talking (in English) about movies. The Mexican guy was talking about a move he saw called The Last Boat . But while he was talking there was no mention of any boat so I didn't understand the title after which I just asked if there was any boat at all. It seems that he meant The Last Vote.
I was rather surprised since I assumed that Mexicans would have a better knowledge of the English pronunciation due to the proximity to the U.S.


At work, we had a meeting with a Swedish customer. It was a project to design a mechanism and associated electronics. At some point, the (Spanish) electronics guy said that he needed 9 Volts afer which the Swedish responded what he needed 9 bolts for.

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In Spanish there are no words that end with "m" and many Spaniards have the tendency, while speaking English, to replace the "m" with an "n".
(I have no problem since I am Dutch/Spanish bilingual ).

We had a teleconference with the same Swedish customer and they asked the SW guy when they could expect a particular task to be finished. He replied with "some day next week" after which the Swedish responded why he would work on a Sunday.

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I was told about this particular anecdote about an e-mail exchange between a Frenchman and German that got out of hand. Apparently, the Frenchman "demanded" something and the German got outrageously pissed off because of his rude attitude as he thought that he was in no position to demand anything.

The verb "demander" in French means "to ask" and it seems that he assumed that "demand" in English also meant "to ask" which is not correct. ("To demand" is "exiger" in French). So it was a simple misunderstanding due to a false friend.

Originally Posted by pibbur who
What we really need now is a translation into Hungarian.

pibbur who goes into hiding for fear of being hit.

Still no Hun translation?
Lets fix that.

"I will not buy this record, it is scratched."
"Én nem veszem meg ezt a lemezt, megvan karcolva."

"My hovercraft is full of eels."
"A siklóhajóm televan angolnákkal."

"Do you want to come back to my place, bouncy bouncy?"
"El akarsz jönni hozzám, hancúrozni.?"

"I am no longer infected."
"Én már többet nem vagyok fertőzött."

Originally Posted by Black Rune
Still no Hun translation?
Lets fix that.

"I will not buy this record, it is scratched."
"Én nem veszem meg ezt a lemezt, megvan karcolva."

"My hovercraft is full of eels."
"A siklóhajóm televan angolnákkal."

"Do you want to come back to my place, bouncy bouncy?"
"El akarsz jönni hozzám, hancúrozni.?"

"I am no longer infected."
"Én már többet nem vagyok fertőzött."

Assuming it's correct, thank you. And if not, thank you.

pibbur

Let's check it with Google Translate:

Én nem veszem meg ezt a lemezt, megvan karcolva
I do not buy this disc , I got scratched

A siklóhajóm televan angolnákkal.
The siklóhajóm Televid eels.

El akarsz jönni hozzám, hancúrozni?
Do you want to marry me , hancúrozni?

Én már többet nem vagyok fertőzött.
I already am no longer infected.

He is clearly making fun of us or maybe Google…

Originally Posted by HiddenX
…
He is clearly making fun of us or maybe Google…

Quite possibvly. But I think that we are safe from being hit.

pibbur

Lol!
Google translate you are so silly.
You know that you cannot translate full sentences with it.
Sometimes it does the job well though.

Don't worry, I know Hungarian, so it is all correct.

Originally Posted by HiddenX
Donna is always in a good mood…

Most of the things she explains here could apply to French as we share many syntactic structures with Germans

Originally Posted by Sacred_Path
Some more practical German:

"My back hurts."
"Ich hab Rücken."

"I'd like the fries with ketchup and mayonnaise."
"Einmal Pommes Schranke."

"#sotrue"
"Echt so."

"And then I said 'oh really?' To which he replied 'yes really!'."
"Und ich so 'jetzt echt'? Und er so 'ja echt!'"

Well, yes, but this is rather Ruhrgebiet slang !

Originally Posted by HiddenX
I think I can explain one of them:
The word gift exists in German in a similar meaning, too.
In the old word Mitgift - the things you give the bride at her wedding - the dowry.
So the word gift comes from to give (= German geben)

Originally Posted by pibbur who
Following up this one: The Norwegian word for "married" is "gift". "I am married"="Jeg er gift". The word for dowry is similar to German, "medgift". And like in German, "gift" also means "poison" (and "venom" and "toxin" - we don't discriminate). Some people no doubt see a connection between these two meanings.

The word "poison" is very similar to the French word "poisson", if I recall this correctly - which means : Fish.

I once got a poisson soup when I was in France for the second time !

Originally Posted by Black Rune
Google translate you are so silly.

This is NOTHING compared to this one ! : http://starwarsfans.wikia.com/wiki/S…ke_of_the_West

English is sometimes funny, too:

#31 for example:

No points in tennis is known as 'love'. No points in football (by which I really mean football not the American version!) is known as 'nil'. In phone numbers, hotel room numbers, bus and tram numbers etc. we often say 'oh' as in 007 [double oh seven] or 0228 [oh double two eight]. Before a decimal point you might often hear the word 'nought' [pronounced nort] as in 0.5 [nought point five]. However, after the decimal point, as in 0.07 we would use 'oh'. So 0.071 would be 'nought point oh seven one'.
Zero is also possible though I feel it is more American. However, we do use it to talk about 0 degrees temperature and in mathematics.

Originally Posted by Gloo
Most of the things she explains here could apply to French as we share many syntactic structures with Germans

It happens with every language. People who aren't fluent in English tend to translate words but keep structures and meanings of their native tongue. Just like Google Translate does

In case some of you is unfamiliar with the significance of the specific sentences mentioned in post #1 and their translations:



pibbur who is glad he doesn't smoke.

Fortunately, with German you have the general rule of putting most of the verbs close to the end of sentences. Think of Yoda. Think of RPN.

pibbur who also thinks Yoda was German.

German is very flexible - the following sentences are all valid in German:

1. Ich schreibe dem Freund einen Brief.
2. Dem Freund schreibe ich einen Brief.
3. Einen Brief schreibe ich dem Freund.

In sentence 2 and 3 the bold words are emphasized.

Direct translation:

1. I write to the friend a letter.
2. To the friend I write a letter.
3. A letter I write to the friend.

Here is a Tagalog translation. Although, I should mention that I've never been great at it, nor have I had much practice the last two years. If there are any Filipinos about, feel free to tear my translations to shreds.

I will not buy this record, it's scratched.
Hindi ako bumili ng rekord, ito ay magasgas.

My hovercraft is full of eels.
Mapuno ng mga igat ang hoberkrap ko.

Do you want to come back to my place, bouncy bouncy?
Gusto ka bumalik sa bahay ko, matalbog matalbog?

I am no longer infected.
Hindi na ako nalalinan ngayon.