English translations for "Wie bist du?"

[BarryD 0]

Well, I think it could easily mean "Which way do you swing?" if you get the drift.

[Jana A 0]

She's a bit uptight IMHO.  Your mistake is commonly made by English speakers.  She should have just laughed and then gently corrected you.   By and large, the Swiss are far more laid back (no English pun intended) than the Germans so I would look for a less uptight friend. 

[HEM 11,074]

The previous post was 14 years ago!  Is this a record for thread revival?

[tor 16,892]

nice trip down memory lane. I miss @BattalionBoy

 

[clickety6 4,140]

I'm still trying to spot the pun...

 

[katheliz 17,879]

On 4/12/2008, 2:33:14, tomgraham said:

When it's hot DON'T SAY "ich bin heiss " That means "I'm horny". In English "I'm hot" can also be construed in this way. Say "mir ist heiss."

When it's warm DON'T SAY "ich bin warm" That means (if you're male; I'm not sure how it's taken if you're female) "I'm gay". Say "mir ist warm."

When you're sad DON'T SAY "ich bin blau" That means "I'm drunk". Say " Ich bin traurig" Note: here the "ich bin" sense is preserved.

When you're not well DON'T SAY "ich bin nicht gut". That means all kinds of things and is almost an open invitation to sodomy at the very least. Say, "mir geht's nicht gut."

And don't fall into the cognates trap! My ex-'s favorite rant against American bread was that there were too many preservatives in it. 
When he told our friends (auf Deutsch) that American bread had too many Präservativen in it there was a moment of awed silence at the table.  

[jeba 4,348]

51 minutes ago, katheliz said:

When he told our friends (auf Deutsch) that American bread had too many Präservativen in it there was a moment of awed silence at the table.  

That was probably because there shouldn´t have been a "N" at the ending.

[katheliz 17,879]

1 hour ago, jeba said:

That was probably because there shouldn´t have been a "N" at the ending.

His German wasn't very high-quality. It was very funny to me when a friend spoke about a paragraph of words to him that mixed up all the der-die-das's and their cases, and he didn't catch on. My German wasn't much better, but I knew the right stuff when I heard it.  

[emkay 10,159]

I remember being laughed at as a kid when I asked for Hahn Wasser 

[Fietsrad 386]

Hahn Wasser? I prefer Leistungs Wasser from the Wasser-LeiStung (power water from the pipe)😉

[Boggsdollocks 443]

Many, many years ago, there was a young woman at a pizza imbiss which I frequented, who lost a fair bit of weight almost overnight. So one day, basking in the afterglow of a hot, delicious pizza nestled in my tum tums, I went to her with the idea of complimenting her incredible weight loss and said, “Du hast sehr viel ZUgenommen!”

I only realised my error after I left, much to my horror, as I had a wide grin on my face thinking “she must feel pretty good about herself now!”

 

I’ve never “complimented” anyone else since.

[klingklang77 490]

55 minutes ago, Boggsdollocks said:

Many, many years ago, there was a young woman at a pizza imbiss which I frequented, who lost a fair bit of weight almost overnight. So one day, basking in the afterglow of a hot, delicious pizza nestled in my tum tums, I went to her with the idea of complimenting her incredible weight loss and said, “Du hast sehr viel ZUgenommen!”

I only realised my error after I left, much to my horror, as I had a wide grin on my face thinking “she must feel pretty good about herself now!”

 

I’ve never “complimented” anyone else since.

 

Yeah, never comment on a women’s body. Ever. I lost a lot of weight from a lot of stress and was not happy about it. Every time someone mentioned it, it made it worse. Just don’t do it. 

 

I did a stupid thing when I studied in Germany as an exchange student. I went into a bakery and pointed at a sandwich and asked “Ist das Türkei?” Stupid me thought it was the same word. Hey, at least I left the article for Türkei out to make it sound realistic. Lol. 

[JN53 355]

19 hours ago, jeba said:

That was probably because there shouldn´t have been a "N" at the ending.

 

Really? I've only heard the word Konservierungsstoffe for preservatives.