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See also the German compound word: Rhababerbarbarabarbarbarenbartbarbierbierbarbärbel Which roughly translates to 'She's the Barbie of the bar where the beer

See also the German compound word: Rhababerbarbarabarbarbarenbartbarbierbierbarbärbel Which roughly translates to 'She's the Barbie of the bar where the beer of the beard barber for the barbarians of Rhubarb Barbara's bar is sold' Explanation video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l3_tRPRt9x8 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l3_tRPRt9x8 (in German, translation in video description)

steverb 8y ago
Lord in heaven, German compound words have always broken my brain.
- gpvos 8y ago
  Try Finnish.
Qwertystop 8y ago
It's nice that the English translation is nearly as selfsimilar.
SilasX 8y ago
In German, I think I came up with one, but am told it doesn’t work because dienen has to take the indirect object (turning some “die”s into “der”s). “Die, die die Die dient, dient die Die, die die Die dient.” The one who serves the Die serves the Die that the Die serves. (die- sounds like “dee”.)
gpvos 8y ago
If we're going off on a tangent: in Dutch, you can have a sentence ending in seven infinitives: "Ik zou hem wel eens hebben willen zien durven blijven staan kijken." (I would have liked to see him dare to stay stand watching.) (Although Dutch and German syntax are almost identical, this doesn't work in German.)
- kirkules 8y ago
  In English as well you can build sentences like "It's you I would love to love to love ... to love!", with arbitrarily many terminal infinitives.
- kashyapc 8y ago
  Thanks for sharing that. I'm learning Dutch (Flemish) for the last two-ish years, taking night classes). I heard my teacher say you can string along three infinitives, but didn't realize you can go up to seven! I recently finished B-2 and now "C-1" level[+]---the most difficult so far. I'm going to persist... [+] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Common_European_Framework_of_Reference_for_Languages https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Common_European_Framework_of...
  - gpvos 8y ago
    The sentence is a bit contrived, but any Dutch speaker will readily understand it. Three infinitives in a row is quite common, four is not that rare.
  - michaericalribo 8y ago
    I’ve been learning* :D

steverb 8y ago

Lord in heaven, German compound words have always broken my brain.

gpvos 8y ago
Try Finnish.

Qwertystop 8y ago

It's nice that the English translation is nearly as selfsimilar.

SilasX 8y ago

In German, I think I came up with one, but am told it doesn’t work because dienen has to take the indirect object (turning some “die”s into “der”s). “Die, die die Die dient, dient die Die, die die Die dient.” The one who serves the Die serves the Die that the Die serves. (die- sounds like “dee”.)

gpvos 8y ago

If we're going off on a tangent: in Dutch, you can have a sentence ending in seven infinitives: "Ik zou hem wel eens hebben willen zien durven blijven staan kijken." (I would have liked to see him dare to stay stand watching.) (Although Dutch and German syntax are almost identical, this doesn't work in German.)

kirkules 8y ago
In English as well you can build sentences like "It's you I would love to love to love ... to love!", with arbitrarily many terminal infinitives.
kashyapc 8y ago
Thanks for sharing that. I'm learning Dutch (Flemish) for the last two-ish years, taking night classes). I heard my teacher say you can string along three infinitives, but didn't realize you can go up to seven! I recently finished B-2 and now "C-1" level[+]---the most difficult so far. I'm going to persist... [+] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Common_European_Framework_of_Reference_for_Languages https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Common_European_Framework_of...
- gpvos 8y ago
  The sentence is a bit contrived, but any Dutch speaker will readily understand it. Three infinitives in a row is quite common, four is not that rare.
- michaericalribo 8y ago
  I’ve been learning* :D