Looking for a few German one liners

[Dieter]

Translation: (polite) "Is your daughter over 18?"

Clark

"Ist deine Tochter achtzehn, bitte?"

"Du spinnst!" (You're crazy!)
"Man kann am Brot allein nicht leben!" (Man can't live on bread alone.)
"Ich habe durchgefallen" (Careful with this one, depending on the context it either means I have failed miserably or I have diarrhea)
"Im dunkeln ist gut munkeln." (Roughly translated, Darkness is the friend of thieves and lovers.)
"Not macht enfinderung" (Roughly translated Necessity is the mother of invention)

My personal favorite idiom is "Das ist nicht dein Bier!"...Literally translated it means That is not your beer, but most times it is the polite way to tell someone to hit the road or that you don't care. Drunken American tourists hear this alot from Fraulinnen during Oktoberfest.

Oh, and careful with your "e's" and "i's" when using the words Schiesse! and Scheisse!. That's something your German prof. will remind you from day one.

 

[BOZ]

(An interesting fact: Potatoes came from America, anyway, many conservational German think of this meal as a "Traditonal German Food")

"Pommes Rot-Weiss". Chips with Ketchup and Mayonaise (? - I am not sure if I translated everything correct. I speak of the food made from potatoes you can also get at McDonald's) I believe the term became especially famous due to the "Tatort" series, the ones with "Kommissar Schimanski" (Actor: Götz George), who also used the term "Scheisse".

yeah, a lot of Americans refer to mcdonalds as "scheisse" as well. as for the "chips with ketchup and mayonaise", I always thought it was the British who called them "chips". Here we call them "French fires" or just "fries" for short.
As for potatoes coming from America, I don’t think that’s right either. I was always taught that the Irish came here to farm potatoes when there was a potato famine in their own country. Maybe I’m horribly misinformed?

 

[Dieter]

Well, the potato famine was LONG after the first white settlers in Colonial America. Potatoes were brought to Ireland, not the other way around.

 

[Mustrum_Ridcully]

Some "corrections":

Ist deine Tochter achtzehn, bitte?"

Nobody would use the word "bitte" there. Maybe you could say:
"Bitte? Deine Tochter ist Achtzehn?" in a meaning of
"What? Your daughter is 18? This can't be true ..."
If you would ask this question to the father (or mother) and he isn`t a friend or a relative, you would probably ask (if at all ):
"Ist Ihre Tochter Achtzehn?" or "Ihre Tochter ist Achtzehn?"

"Man kann am Brot allein nicht leben!"
Better: "Der Mensch lebt nicht vom Brot allein."

"Ich habe durchgefallen" (Careful with this one, depending on the context it either means I have failed miserably or I have diarrhea)
"Ich bin durchgefallen" means you (the speaker) failed miserably
"Ich habe Durchfall" means you (the speaker) have diarrhea.

"Not macht enfinderung" (Roughly translated Necessity is the mother of invention)
Correct: "Not macht erfinderisch"

Oh, and careful with your "e's" and "i's" when using the words Schiesse! and Scheisse!. That's something your German prof. will remind you from day one.

True. "Schiesse!" would mean "shoot" as an Imperative. (like "Shoot him/them"), "Scheisse" is... well, not allowed to type in this forum, as far as I know.

But since you want to use this in roleplay, it is more important how you pronounce it. "Scheisse" would be pronounced "Shy - Ce", "Schiesse "She-Ce".

Mustrum Ridcully

 

[Yig]

Thanks everyone !

I shall put those to good use

 

[Blackthorne]

Mist, zu spät!

(Damn, too late!)