4 ms·

I had a moment of confusion wondering why one would translate "biss" as "until" instead of "bite". "Bis" with one S is the word that should sometimes be transla

by taejo 5y ago

I had a moment of confusion wondering why one would translate "biss" as "until" instead of "bite". "Bis" with one S is the word that should sometimes be translated as "until", "before" or "by". Another one is "seid" which is always translated as "since" but should sometimes be "for" (e.g. "I've worked here since four years")

Vinnl 5y ago
Funnily enough the reverse also happens. Native Dutch speakers will use the Dutch translation of since (in the sense of "ever since") to say because (i.e. "since" in the sense of "since you didn't call, we left without you"). This is an Anglicism, because "sinds" doesn't mean that at all! Or at least, not yet :)
pph 5y ago
To be pedantic you mean "seit" (since/until), not "seid" as in "ihr seit laut" (you [plural] are loud).
- Lukas_Skywalker 5y ago
  To clear things up a bit, the correct spellings are: - „ihr seid laut“: you are loud (seid is the second person plural form of to be) - „seit drei Stunden“: for three hours (seit gives a temporal reference) - „bis am Freitag“: by friday (in the context of homework) - „der Biss“: the bite
bettysdiagnose 5y ago
There's also the use of sein (bin): Ich bin seit fünf Jahren in Hamburg. which in English Germans will often say: I am living since five years in Hamburg. Whereas nobody uses "am" any more in the past perfect in English, but there are some fun examples where it's survived: "Joy to the world, the Lord is come" for example. Another thing is the use of the dative (not genitive): Der Hund von meinem Vater. If you hear someone say "The dog of my father", that's really really German and something no native would say, they're just directly translating the above dative construct into English. Lastly there's the misuse of wie/how. Wie heißt das? In German English, "how do you call that"? But in English it's "what is that called"? Although actually this problem goes far beyond just Germans speaking English. Also: how does it look = correct, how does it look like = wrong. Slavic native speakers make this mistake as well for example, and probably many more.
- Beldin 5y ago
  My German is rusty at best, but wouldn't one say "Der Hund meines Vaters" - or something like that but with correct grammar?
  - bettysdiagnose 5y ago
    That's the genitive but in every day speech typically people use the dative. The genitive case is slowly dying out.

by taejo 5y ago

Vinnl 5y ago

Funnily enough the reverse also happens. Native Dutch speakers will use the Dutch translation of since (in the sense of "ever since") to say because (i.e. "since" in the sense of "since you didn't call, we left without you"). This is an Anglicism, because "sinds" doesn't mean that at all! Or at least, not yet :)

pph 5y ago

To be pedantic you mean "seit" (since/until), not "seid" as in "ihr seit laut" (you [plural] are loud).

Lukas_Skywalker 5y ago
To clear things up a bit, the correct spellings are: - „ihr seid laut“: you are loud (seid is the second person plural form of to be) - „seit drei Stunden“: for three hours (seit gives a temporal reference) - „bis am Freitag“: by friday (in the context of homework) - „der Biss“: the bite

bettysdiagnose 5y ago

There's also the use of sein (bin): Ich bin seit fünf Jahren in Hamburg. which in English Germans will often say: I am living since five years in Hamburg. Whereas nobody uses "am" any more in the past perfect in English, but there are some fun examples where it's survived: "Joy to the world, the Lord is come" for example. Another thing is the use of the dative (not genitive): Der Hund von meinem Vater. If you hear someone say "The dog of my father", that's really really German and something no native would say, they're just directly translating the above dative construct into English. Lastly there's the misuse of wie/how. Wie heißt das? In German English, "how do you call that"? But in English it's "what is that called"? Although actually this problem goes far beyond just Germans speaking English. Also: how does it look = correct, how does it look like = wrong. Slavic native speakers make this mistake as well for example, and probably many more.

Beldin 5y ago
My German is rusty at best, but wouldn't one say "Der Hund meines Vaters" - or something like that but with correct grammar?
- bettysdiagnose 5y ago
  That's the genitive but in every day speech typically people use the dative. The genitive case is slowly dying out.