brotkehlchen

langblr | main: @waldesgeist native: german | learning: spanish, turkish, finnish, mandarin, ukrainian, and greek (yes, that's a lot i am aware) open for any questions regarding german! i'm more than happy to help :)

[dramatic-dolphin]

since there is such an "english speakers who don't even try to pronounce a foreign mame correctly" epidemic, native english speakers often try to overcorrect and end up thinking they have a moral imperative to pronounce every foreign name correctly at all times. so i'm gonna hold your hand and look into your eyss as i say this: you can't. you can't pronounce every sound in a language you don't speak. and that's fine. it happens to the rest of us too. we won't be mad so long as you try your best.

[thatswhywelovegermany]

jemandem auf den Senkel gehen

literally: to get on someone's lace

to get on someone's nerves

Origin: The origin is unclear. In this context, the lace is perhaps not the shoelace, but the word may possibly refer to a (trouser) belt—implying that the entire person wearing it feels annoyed. However, it is also conceivable that the term alludes to shoelaces—specifically, getting so close to someone that one ends up stepping on their shoelaces.

[thatswhywelovegermany]

seinen Senf dazu geben

literally: to add one's mustard

to offer one's (not necessarily welcome) commentary (usually unasked); to put one's oar in

Origin: According to various historians, this idiom likely originated in the 17th century. At that time, mustard was regarded as a condiment that was thought to make any meal more enjoyable—even when it did not pair well with the dish. Consequently, innkeepers of that era would simply serve mustard to their guests with every meal, whether it was requested or not. Since this practice was considered just as unwelcome as unsolicited advice, the idiom "to add one's mustard" eventually took root.

[thatswhywelovegermany]

ins Schwarze treffen

literally: to hit into the black

to hit the mark, to hit the bullseye, to be exactly right with a guess or statement

Origin: From the language of marksmanship, where the center of the target is a black circle that must be hit.

[thatswhywelovegermany]

schwarz sehen

literally: to see black

to have a pessimistic attitude towards something; to assume that something will not work or will not turn out well

[mawofthemagnetar]

Cold take but all languages are beautiful actually. Every single one. Every single human language on earth is a collection of stories interwoven into the very fabric of the words that are spoken.

“Oh but this language sounds scary-“ have you heard a child speak it while pointing at a butterfly?

“Oh but this language sounds silly-“ have you heard someone’s grandma recite a recipe with such practiced ease it comes off as poetry?

“Oh but this language is really weird-“ and yours isn’t? Everyone’s language is weird, dumbass, it came free with your fucking humanity.

Every tongue that is spoken is a work of art. Every language a unique window into the world.

Isn’t it wonderful?

[joy-and-whimsy-official]

Joy and whimsy detected! This post is joyful and whimsical!

[latinotiktok]

[just-an-evil-immortal]

As a native german speaker I sometimes need to remind myself, when writing in english, that I cant just keep going with a sentence and that, unlike german, where you can make a sentence go on for as long as you want if you're a true lover of Nebensätze, english sentences are usually shorter and aren't supposed to go on for multiple lines or god forbid a whole paragraph.

[thatswhywelovegermany]

Schnee von gestern sein

literally: to be the snow of yesterday

to be a thing of the past

Origin: Snow that is no longer fresh often looks visibly dirty.

[mist-the-wannabe-linguist]

Levels of understanding other slavic languages

oh we also have X and it means the same!

that looks like X but misspelled

that's just the archaic variant of X

this sounds a lot like Y from another slavic language I know which means X in mine so this almost 100% also means X

this word is completely different but I can kinda tell the meaning from the morphology

what

okay right now I'm gonna have to dissect the entirety of this language's history to figure out how the FUCK did y'all get to the point of calling X that and not something more normal

I wanted to ask for X and accidentally called someone a whore

[mist-the-wannabe-linguist]

I don't even have to look at the blog and I just know this is from a Pole about Czechs

suffering

[byrons]

KAKAOVY CHLEBICEK???!!!???

[mist-the-wannabe-linguist]

hissing growling scratching you etc etc

[mist-the-wannabe-linguist]

for example

(Polish: are you looking for a squirrel?, Slovak: excuse me, he is doing what to the squirrel?)

(also "hladna pića" means "cold drinks" in Croatian. means "hungry cunt" in Slovak and Czech)

("you're weird" in Czech is the same as "you're amazing" in Croatian, while "you're amazing" in Czech is the same as "you're terrible" in Croatian)

[poetka]

My favourite recent-ish example of #8:

[visloka]

[czto-nebud-blog]

Don't forget this:

And of course pomoć (help) vs pomoč (ordering you to piss on something)

[czto-nebud-blog]

Also remembered this shop from my trip to Croatia (piko means meth in czech and slovak)

[kaazdalena]

przepraszam w CZYM ta restauracja????

[axolotl-anemonoides]

This reminds me of that time my (Czech) family went to Poland for my uncle's wedding (because my aunt - his wife - is Polish and they decided to get married in Poland).

The wedding afterparty was in full swing, everyone was drinking and partying.... and an elderly Polish lady approached my two aunts (who were also drinking a lot and partying hard) and commented something along the lines of "jesteście odporne". Which in Polish means "you're resilient" (as in they're handling the alcohol well) but in Czech it means "you're disgusting".

It took my aunts a bit to remember that it means something different in Polish. 😅

[mist-the-wannabe-linguist]

another beautiful case of n.8 from @someidioticurl

Czech vision: ah yes an emergency button to press in case of emergency

Polish vision:

[ta-bajna-cerna-okybaca]

Oh, I have a few!

'pozor' in Czech means 'watch out!', but means 'shame' in Russian

droga in czech means drug, in polish it means road

záchod in czech means toilet, zachód in polish means 'west'

odchod 'to depart' in Czech means very specifically 'to depart by foot', while in Slovak it has a bit wider meaning, and buses and trains also combine with 'odchod'. To a Czech speaker this gives the funny implication that departing trains grow legs and walk out of the train station

Croatian 'mrdati' = to wiggle, means 'to have sex' in Czech

'Čerstvý, voňavý chléb' is Czech for 'fresh, nicely smelling bread'. In means the opposite in some slavic languages 'stale, stinky bread'. This kind of 'good meaning in one but bad meaning in other' duality happens surprisingly often actually, see also úžas and odporný above

otrok in Czech means 'slave' but in Slovenian and perhaps other South slavic languages it means 'child'. Very funny when combined with bazaar, turns a perfectly fine baby bazar into a slave bazaar

My friend has a fun sentence from Slovenian - "Hitri otroci kuhali jed na Dunaji". Literally none of the words here mean what a Czech thinks they mean. No not even Dunaj. Czechs read it as 'smart slaves were disemboweling poison by the Donau river', original Slovenian meaning is 'fast children were cooking food in Vienna'

Edit: wait one more. "srpanj" in Croatian means July, "srpen" in Czech means August. Listopad in Croatian means 'October', in Czech means 'November'. rujan in Croatian means 'September', říjen in Czech means 'October'. kwiecień in Polish means 'April', kviteń in Ukrainian also means 'April', květen in Czech means 'May'. Months are fucked up.

[thatswhywelovegermany]

jemanden zur Schnecke machen

literally: to turn someone into a snail

to harshly criticize someone, to put someone down

Origin: After such treatment, the affected person is so intimidated that they withdraw like a snail into their shell.

[suomeen]

I just learned a word and my day got a little better.

[suomeen]

Finally it's that time of year I can use my favourite word again :)

[einloukrativesangebot]

this is very funny to me

[thatswhywelovegermany]

etwas nicht auf dem Schirm haben

literally: to have something not on the screen

to be unaware of something

Origin: Probably from the radar screen used to monitor flying objects.

[mawofthemagnetar]

Cold take but all languages are beautiful actually. Every single one. Every single human language on earth is a collection of stories interwoven into the very fabric of the words that are spoken.

“Oh but this language sounds scary-“ have you heard a child speak it while pointing at a butterfly?

“Oh but this language sounds silly-“ have you heard someone’s grandma recite a recipe with such practiced ease it comes off as poetry?

“Oh but this language is really weird-“ and yours isn’t? Everyone’s language is weird, dumbass, it came free with your fucking humanity.

Every tongue that is spoken is a work of art. Every language a unique window into the world.

Isn’t it wonderful?

[real-language-facts]

language is some sort of mansion in the woods. cellar door. garden path. syntax trees. conjures a beautiful mental image.

[triskeleaficionado]

I perMIT you to read this CONtent.

You do not need a PERmit, so please be conTENT.