Tuesday, November 11, 2008

NBPM11 - Travel Tuesday - "German"

(c) 2008 Ms. Huis Herself at musenmutter.blogspot.com

My Misspelled, Mispronounced, Miscapitalized and Quite Likely Incorrect German*
(But close enough to be somewhat useful when I was traveling!)

Bitte "Bit-tuh" Please
Danke "Dahn-kah" Thank you
Wo ist de WC? "Voe ist dee Vayt-Say?" Where is the bathroom?
-Herren "hair-en" Men's
-Damen "dahm-en" Women's
Enshueldegung Sie, bitte. "En-shul-dee-gung zee bit-tuh" Excuse me. (You're in the way.)


Ein Bier bitte "Ine beer bit-tuh." A beer please.
-Helles "hell-ess" light beer
-Dunkles "Doon-kless" dark beer


Ich habe huenger. "Eek habba hoon-ger." I'm hungry. (I have hunger.)
Es smecht gut. "Ess shmecht goot." It tastes good!

Ein Potatokartoffel mit Apfelmus "Ine potato-cart-off-el mitt ap-fell-moose" A potato pancake/hashbrown thingie with applesauce.
Ein Gleuwine "Ine glue-vine" Hot mulled wine. (YUM!)
Apfelzapf "app-fell-zap" Apple juice
Orangzapf "oh-rahnj-zap" Orange juice


Pflegebalsam "I have no idea" Conditioner for your hair (I know this by process of elimination because shampoo is "shampoo." Therefore pflegebalsm is conditioner. Practical foreign shopping is fun.)
Hauptbahnhof "Howpt-bahn-hof" Train station. (Mr. Kluges yells at me for calling it the "hop-n-hop," but if you say it fast, that's what it sounds like to me.) (You know, I think this is maybe actually the main train station in a town, with Bahnhof being a plain train station...)
Eingang "Ine-gang"? One way?
Umleitung. "Oom-lie-toong." Detour. (This is a good one to know.)


*All mistakes are my own. Sum total of my "German" comes from things Mr. Kluges taught me, travel, and a 10 week community ed class I took years ago. Apologies to anybody who actually knows/speaks/reads German for the catastrophe above.

P.S. I'm totally going to be adding to this if I remember any more.

6 comments:

Syl said...

That wasn't half bad - Frau Gumpel would be proud.

Happy Veggie said...

Yeah, Frau Winkels from my past would be impressed. Sometime I should document my French knowledge, from one quarter in 8th grade, and how it totally got me through my two weeks in Europe. (except the five days in Italy, when Spanish saved me) I didn't eat anything I didn't want to, which was all I really hoped for.

Ms. Huis Herself said...

Ah, Italy. Country in which I leaned that "fegato" is liver...

...the hard way.

DiploWhat said...

I still don't know what I'm eating here. I'm just glad they have picture menus.

Pusher said...

Hey, your list of German words is almost identical to mine! (Though, thanks to older sisters, I also know how to call someone a sh*thead.)

Eingang is entry/entrance, as opposed to Ausgang for exit. Useful in the bigger class of hauptbonhof. :-) But now I wonder why it isn't one way. That makes so much sense.

Ms. Huis Herself said...

Pusher - oh right! I remembered seeing it on signs, but couldn't remember it for sure. Thanks!