Funny direct translations from German to English

Denglish

I spent the weekend with some friends from Kenya who’ve been here for a while and whose english has equally been eroded by german and it was quite funny. Here are some of the words we found we kept mixing up, the germans in the group were not any better in the remixing….they actually just contributed to even more material for this post, so here are some of the words in German, the direct translation to English and the correct English word(s) in brackets. Check out the list and see how many of those crimes you commit yourself and add the many others to the comments sections. Let’s go…

Rückseite – Backside (Back page)
The instructions are on the backside

Blinken – Blinking (Indicating/Signaling)
You have to blink before you make a turn

Wir sehen uns – We see us (Well see you, I’ll see you)
So we see us at the next lecture?
Spinnen – spider (to be crazy)
Are you spider?
Bekommen – become
I become one pizza and a soda please.
Auf stehen – Stand up (Wake up)
What time do you stand up in the morning?
Bitte – Please (No problem)

Person 1: Thank you 
Person 2: Please

Aktuell – actually (currently)
Actually we don’t have the details but they will be sent to us before end of the week.

Eventuel – eventually (maybe)
Person 1: Are you going to the park?
Person 2: Eventually

Unter vier Augen – under four eyes (in private)
May I please speak to you under four eyes?

Ich verstehe nur Bahnhof – I unterstand only Train station (I don’t understand anything)

Das ist mir Würst – That is me sausage ( I don’t care)

Wie spät haben wir? – How late have we? (What’s the time?)

Nicht alle Tassen im Schrank haben – Not all Cups in cupboard to have ( To be crazy)

This is an old one that a professor used at during a lecture, I had never heard of people translating cities before, anyway so the prof was explaining. “My son studies Mathematics at the University of Theremouth????” he wanted to say Dortmund….

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