Looking for a few German one liners

[nsruf]

Interesting, never heard of this - And I am from Germany.

Me neither, and I am German, too. But there really are a lot of websites dedicated to this.

Maybe German changed in the past 30-40 years, but I don`t know a way to mispronounce "Berliner", so that you confuse it with "Berliner".
Both words look identically in script and are pronounced the same way. You can use the word for some silly and not so great puns.

I looked at some of the web pages mentioning the incident and apparently the problem is the indefinite article "ein". They point out that you usually leave it out when referring to the place you come from, as in

"Ich bin Hamburger." -> "I'm from Hamburg."

"Ich bin ein Hamburger." -> "I'm a meat patty in a bun."

However, Kennedy spoke a) figuratively and b) wanted to put special emphasis on the sentence. So, while he technically said something ambigious, no native speaker of German would actually think he was comparing himself to a jelly donut.

Oh, and if you remember Wolfenstein 3D, the German Officers there called "Mein Leben" (my life) when they died - actually, no German would say this when he dies, I think, but would anyone in your group notice?

The problem is that you could use that one only once. A one-time one liner...

 

[Drawmack]

Not really what was asked for but something your character can play with is that in german verb, noun placement is reversed. I grew up in an area completely populated by German decendants and it was not odd to here things said like the following:

Throw the horse over the fence some hay
Get up out of the floor
The chickens give some feed

etc.

 

[Tom Cashel]

Nur der Wahnsinnige ist sich absolut sicher.

Only the madman is absolutely sure.

(Perfect for CoC)

 

[Yig]

Thanks guys, gonna have fun with those !

The last one would make a pretty good sig...

 

[Jeph]

Ich bin ein berliner
"I am a jelly Donut"

Well, not really. it means something more like "I am one with the peoples of Berlin", but there is an urban myth to the effect that President John F. Kennedy mispronounced the german phrase "Ich Bin Ein Berliner" so that it sounded as if he had said "I am a jelly donut". Apparently this provided much amusement to the crowd at the Berlin wall.

If you type in "I am a jelly donut, JFK" into any decent search engine you will find several sites on the subject some which tell you "Yes, It's true" and others that say that it was "the gaffe that wasn't."

It's amusing, nonetheless. And when your fellow players ask you where you come from you can say "Ich bin ein berliner" and chuckle to yourself.

Not what I heard.

I am now a German student of three years, so I may not be completely correct, but . . .

In Germanic speaking nations, if you want to say that you are from a place, you say, something like, I am New Yorker. Notice the lack of "a." A person from Berlin, therefore, is Berliner. Ein, being the german word for "a" (nueter), makes it into a common noun. It just so happens that ein Berlinner is a jelly pastry.

So, her should have said, "Ich bin Berliner!"

Instead, he said, "Ich bin ein Berliner!"

 

[Henry]

Alles Klar

means "Everything Clear"

-Will

but don't turn around - Uh Oh...


(Chances are, If you get this joke, you are approaching middle-age MUCH faster than you would like...)

 

[Orcus]

The best one of all:

Ist deine Tochter uber achtzehn, bitte?

 

[toberane]

but don't turn around - Uh Oh...


(Chances are, If you get this joke, you are approaching middle-age MUCH faster than you would like...)

Der Kommissar's in town, oh oh...

(Yep, Middle age, here I come...)

And the only thing I know that even approaches german is "I know Nuthink!" (Hogan's Heroes)

 

[toberane]

The best one of all:

Ist deine Tochter uber achtzehn, bitte?

Translation?

 

[Jürgen Hubert]

Not what I heard.

I am now a German student of three years, so I may not be completely correct, but . . .

In Germanic speaking nations, if you want to say that you are from a place, you say, something like, I am New Yorker. Notice the lack of "a." A person from Berlin, therefore, is Berliner. Ein, being the german word for "a" (nueter), makes it into a common noun. It just so happens that ein Berlinner is a jelly pastry.

So, her should have said, "Ich bin Berliner!"

Instead, he said, "Ich bin ein Berliner!"

I am a German, and I would say that both are gramatically correct, mean essentially the same thing, and would be accepted by most Germans.

And even if I am wrong, remember that the guys who are responsible for keeping our language gramatically correct are also responsible for the Rechtschreibreform. In other words, I have no problem with ignoring them...


Coming back to my mentioning of the word "Scheisse", here is the accompanying adjective:

"beschissen"

Use it in the same circumstances as the Scottish (at least from my personal experience) use the word "bloody". In other words:

"Der beschissene Drogendealer"
"Die beschissene Pistole"
"Das beschissene Auto"

If you want authentic Turkish-German ghetto slang, add the words "krass", "konkret", and "korrekt" to your sentences at any position.