Mispronunciations

Tarjet (target)

Forinjer (foreigner)

One of my all-time favourites from my ex-wife: overneath, as in "No, I'm not going out in just this T-shirt. I'm wearing a sweater overneath it." I sat howling in laughter for about fifteen minutes and she just looked bewildered and then annoyed as she justified the construct and insisted it had to be a real word.

woof.

"actually" instead of "indeed"

I taught a beginner class once and there was an older woman who repeatedly pronounced the word "hour" like "whore". Example: "I vant you meeting in one whore" (translation: Let's meet in an hour)

And lots of them pronounced "pie" like "pee" ... "As American as apple pee..." "Let's have a look at this pee chart..." etc.

That's pretty good (I find it's a more logical construct than CNN's "dewatering" and "unwatering" of New Orleans).

Actually not a mispronounciation, nevertheless interesting.

This German is telling me about a radio-controlled timer "He makes the wrong time. In the building he cannot function properly...and so on"

All the while I was planning to catch with this "he" and tell him to do his job properly.

I do understand mixing up ie and ei as they are pronounced opposite in German and English.

My fifth grade English teacher (German school) pronounced "where" as "were" until I corrected him. Generations of farmers' kids had learned it wrong by then.

"or so"

My favorite was my boyfriend telling his American friend why he didn't go to the beach in his Speedos...
'I don't want the women to be shocked by my big "boil"' when he really meant 'bulge' - but bulge in German is Beule so he thought it might be the same thing.

His colleague was so grossed out. I laughed my ass off and still think it is one of the funniest stories told by the colleague.

you will become . . . instead of you will get

saw an example of it in the old Wendys Burger Bar opposite HBF in the 80's when a rather bemused U.S. soldier from the kaserne was told he would become a chicken burger in 3 minutes

just looking at his face and the ensuing confusion had me damn near pissing myself

How about "Never stop thinking" pronounced as "Never stop sinking" - tagline of Infineon.

And a German conducting a lecture in English saying, "booth countries" every time he means "both countries".

My favorite is the use of "since" as "seit", resulting in: "I have been working here since 4 years" and the likes.

"I will borrow you my car"

please - when they mean to say you're welcome
it is not actual - when they mean to say "it is not updated"
singing "happy birsday to you" - the "th" thing never works
end-speed - ??? ah top-speed

to be fair ER i know lots and lots of brits who also confuse " borrow " and " lend "

typical manc expression . . . " borrow us your car mate "

Whilst working at international company in UK, my boss received a fax from a displeased foreign chap that
contained the phrase..."Try coming in my pants!!"...when he actually meant "Try being in my shoes".
My German wife, was told, upon eating a local dish..."It will put hairs on your breast". Finally, my wife, hailing from Koblenz was teaching a course of male technicians in English and told them that, "Yes, like the sailor that circumsized the world"...They would not tell her what it meant so she had to phone me to ask...I could hear the hysterics in the background. (not quite on subject but close enough)

A lot of my students say 'colleges' when they mean 'colleagues', and when they say 'percent' it often sounds like they are saying 'person' ... mostly their mangling of English comes from trying to directly translate from German (eg. saying 'make' when they mean 'do', 'become' when they mean 'get', using present perfect to tell me about what they did on the weekend etc) or using Denglish, rather than actual pronunciation problems. (Most of my students are computer programmers/IT people and they use a lot of germanised English words). I imagine that I make the same kind of typical English mistakes in German though ...

I like the use of "funny" all the time as a translation of "lustig".

"I like snowboarding, it's very funny"

I had that one once too. Quote "I am a funny girl" end-quote. Took me ages to work out what she really meant, by which time the window of opportunity had gone

That's not a mispronunciation though. On that subject I would just quote
which is why I am saying no more without my lawyer being present.

Just try to say "I bought jewellry in a brewery" when you're Norwegian or German... is a bit hard ...

The usual one with all germans is their insistance of pronouncing the "R" in iron, and once when I'd had enough of this I decided once to correct someone to which I was told , wait for it, "no you must be wrong because I have learned this in the school" hmmm! where did I learn it then??? You couldn't make it up!

Lately I have been hearing a lot of 'You have to look TO it'. Or 'Have a look ON this...'

There is something going on with 'look' but my German is not good enough yet to work out all the subtleties.

The thing about pronunciation is that it varies quite a bit across the english speaking world. Now the queen might not pronounce the "r" in "iron", but I think many people do. I think it would be considered standard in America to pronounce the "r" (but I'm not American, so can't be sure). Personally I would pronounce it "EI-örn" (using german phonetics). Stress on first sylable.

...which is exactly how americans pronounce it, Persius...

Slightly off topic...when a *foreigner* speaks broken engrish to me, I can almost always understand what the @#$% they're saying. However, half the time when I speak German, the locals stare at me like I'm an idiot. I'm saying the rights words, but my pronounciation is just a bit off...aaaaarrrrrgggghhhh!

I just don't get why they have to sing it in English at all. What did they sing before?

As for pronounciation/pronunciation (which one is it!?), it's funny listening to the really bad ones saying zings like zis and Pennsylwania and willage and they always use the infinitive (to do) instead of the present participle (doing).

Schönes Geburtstag für Sie!

Zum Geburtstag Viel Glück

If you really want to know, just ask. I'd love to support intercultural communication.

Alles Gute zum Geburtstag

This is so true. I remember in particular one evening in a restaurant with some work colleagues from home, the waitress came and spoke English to us, took the order for drinks. Someone asked for a "Lowenbrau" (with o instead of ö and pronouncing the end as "ow"). The waitress put on the dumb cow look and didn't understand what the person was asking for. I quickly stepped in and said it with the right pronounciation, and the dumb cow said "ach so!!", as if there is anything else on the beverage menu that sounds remotely like "Lowenbrau" and she could have got it wrong.

When they pronounce V as W.
As in, Wacuum for Vacuum.
Reversing the German pronounciation of W as V- for balance, perhaps? It sounds funny.

plebs=plebians. Another instance of English appropriating a word from another language. Sometimes shortened to the alternate "plebes"

Never thought I'd see the day when a language thread in M&RC might be less than interesting for me.

I like the variety language mistakes offer us, but that's just me. My fave, to date, occurred in St. Peter's, where we met up with our Italian host. This was just before Pope John Paul died, and someone asked our host if he'd ever seen the Pope, to which he answered, "Yes. It was a mistake." Meaning by chance. Beauty.

well, we have:

zum geburtstag viel glück, zum geburtstag viel glück, zum geburtstag liebe/r XXX, zum geburtstag viel glück.

Exactly. So there's no need (=for Germans, among themselves) to sing it in English at all...

well, we don't have any laws to protect our language as the French have ... so they sing as they please

I find this attidute the right one. Sing whatever you feel like, whatever makes the birthday mate happy. Who cares, right?

"may i use your rubber"

um, I think that's perfectly all right in British English, JDLloyd.

Life instead of live. As in "Ve vill be svitching it life" (Heard this morning)

This one sounds really funny. Germans say Oder instead of other. My german colleague having a net meeting in English is making me laugh hyterically.

Perhaps it wouldn't be such a bad idea. At least that's the impression I get from the various threads bemoaning the growing (mis)use of English and pseudo-English terms in German.

You can't protect language as it is a living thing. You can only control institutions (like radio stations playing at least 70% French music) or written language. Since more and more people speak various languages they naturally toy around with it. Sometimes there is an English or French expression that describes something better than the German word. And the other way round. I sometimes kind of mix English and German. English exclamations are so much more fun than German ones ((ähm, did I use "than" right?)) -- Oh, my gaaad. or: This is sooooo amaaaazing. And don't forget the big eyes and eye-roll ...

What sounds kind of stupid is something like: Ich forwarde dir mal die email. An Hand des attach-ten files kannst du ... Hey, Ich agree-e total mit dir. Nachdem mich die Firma relocated hatte, ...

But otherwise: Portemonnaie, Trottoir and some other French words are commonly used. My grandma sometimes uses the word "echauffieren", i.e. being upset (ich habe mich sehr echauffiert ). These expressions just got integrated into our language while French was THE language of nobility and intellectuals during the 18th/19th century.

So you see: everybody who uses English (no doubt about the sometimes unqualified usage) wants to be "cool". So it is more like a compliment for your native language than (?) an insult.

I just think it's being lazy.

@Clyde

"Ich habe den Circuit gelinkt" and "Lass uns die neue Songs downloaden" sound equally funny

well said dude.
I think it's cool the way English words and phrases are casually thrown into German. I'd also take it as a compliment.
re. the song Happy Birthday, it's pretty much an internationally recognised song, so so what if the Germans (or any other nationality for that matter) sing it in English??...I think it's quite cute! when I learnt 'Frere Jacques' or 'Alouette' at school in England I learnt it in French of course, no reason to translate it to English!

Very well said, Clyde.

What does get me miffed is them telling me what an English word really means or how it ought to be pronounced.

I am told by my German friends and family, that to use English words in their vocabulary is "cool". Although my Father thinks it a shame that the German language is being modified.

But I agree, I would take it as a compliment and not as an insult.
.
My Mother who is from the Pfalz uses french words in her language too.

Nothing wrong with it at all, except that they can find themselves criticised / made fun of for not singing it "properly":

'can'.

by some people maybe.

Such a thread and yet no mention of "wedgetables" or "wee-ichles" yet? Surely some mistake?