Card

Kevster

Hi, Can anybody tell me what this means:

"Genau! Lass es mal so richtig krachen! Lass die kuh fliegen, und iss das leben heute mal mit dem grosen löffel! Alles liebe zum geburtstag du alte rakete."

It was written on a birthday card that my brother sent to me from Austria.


Thank you,
Kevin.

morgana

Ah well .. the general gist is have great crack, live large and have a great birthday !!!
Literally, however, it would read somewhat like this:

Absolutely! Have a bash! Let the cow fly and live life today with a large spoon! All the best for your birthday you old rocket!!
There you go ... I suppose happy birthday

Kevster

Hehe - Cool! Thanks for that. I speak Spanish and French but not German. I don't have a clue about any of it.


You wanna' know what's even cooler though? This card actually speaks those words. It's one of those ones that - when opened - plays a recorded message. The voice is some rough German-accented guy but it's pretty cool.


Seien sie vorsichtig,
Kevin.

E92

Kevster wrote:

Seien sie vorsichtig

You should have said ,,sei vorsichtig". Sie is not used when addressing people on the internet in German. Indeed there are loads of advertisements these days in germany where they address the person as "Du"(with a capital d) or Ihr(the familiar form of ye, and also with a capital i). Another thing ithat is creeping in more and more is the usage of English in advertisements(Fords slogan there is 'Feel the difference'), and the amount of english sounding words in the language, e.g. Einkaufscenter instead of Einkaufszentrum(shopping centre), 'schockiert'(dont see any need to translate that one:D ), 'funktionieren' instead of 'klappen'(to work in the sense of somthing working), Call Center, Forum, cool, Blog, sich relaxen(you dont need to be a genius to figure that one out:) ) . Sie is gradually being phased out, young people never call each other 'Sie' even when they dont know each other.Apparantly back in the 70s college students used to call each other 'Sie', but that is obviously long gone. You can call someone 'du' even if they are say 10 years older than you. For older people its different of course. They would still expect to be called 'Sie', but even in say getting something in a shop or buying a train ticket, young people are increasingly called 'du' these days. There probably will be no such thing as having to call someone 'du' or 'Sie' in a good few years time.

peasant

E92

you could have saved yourself a lot of typing there by simply telling yer man that "take care" as a casual greeting sort of thing doesn't translate into German at all, at all ...hence the Sie/Du explanation is somewhat superflous, as "sei vorsichtig" is just as wrong.

(Because it means/translates as "be careful")

Sonnenblumen

peasant wrote:

E92

you could have saved yourself a lot of typing there by simply telling yer man that "take care" as a casual greeting sort of thing doesn't translate into German at all, at all ...hence the Sie/Du explanation is somewhat superflous, as "sei vorsichtig" is just as wrong.

(Because it means/translates as "be careful")

It can all be too literal when it comes to translating, better to focus on the sentiment/true intention, eg, how about 'Mach's gut' as an equivalent for 'take care'?

Also 'Seien' is normally used when the emphasis is on instruction as distinct from an advisory note to a friend, but ''Gluck Auf' is better IMO.

The creeping english aspect of german is in fact americanisation, similar but not the same.

peasant

"Mach's gut" would be pretty spot on in a casual, friendly "Du" (instead of "Sie") situation.

"Glueck Auf!" on the other hand is purely a miners expression ...not really that many miners in Germany outside the "Ruhrpott" area ...not that many left there either, for that matter

Sonnenblumen

"Gluck Auf" despite being a term closely associated with but not exclusively with miners it is nonetheless an expression used today in germany but also austria and switzerland (perhaps more mining communities?). I learned the expression in an Austrian mining area (where they continue to mine) and yes there are also many mines/miners still working in Germany. But not like the old days.

Die Ruhrgebiet may be quiet now but in other parts the hammers still work.

Man lernt jeden Tag!

peasant

Sonnenblumen

Ich will mich ja nicht mit dir streiten ...aaaber ...

Wenn du in D,A,CH "Glueck Auf!" als Abschiedsgruss verwendest, wirst du zwar verstanden, aber trotdzdem etwas schief angeschaut werden.
Das sagt einfach kein Mensch (mehr) ausser vielleicht "Kumpel" (= Bergabeiter nicht "Freunde") unter sich. Im taeglichen Sprachgebrauch kommt "Glueck Auf!" einfach nicht vor.

Aehhh ...und nochwas:

"Man lernt jeden Tag" ist zwar nicht falsch, aber umgangssprachlich besser (und ausserdem auch noch einen Tick zynischer ) ist:

Und wieder 'was gelernt !

oder aber:

Man lernt nie aus.

Sonnenblumen

Ach komm Peasant- Bitte richtig fest angreifen und zieh!

peasant

Hae?

Tauziehen, oder was?

Sonnenblumen

Es gab einmal.......

E92

peasant wrote:

E92

you could have saved yourself a lot of typing there by simply telling yer man that "take care" as a casual greeting sort of thing doesn't translate into German at all, at all ...hence the Sie/Du explanation is somewhat superflous, as "sei vorsichtig" is just as wrong.

(Because it means/translates as "be careful")

Ja ja du hast da rechts. Ich weiss jetzt, dass ich die einfache erklärung geben sollte. Aber ich wollte deutlich erklärken, wenn man duzen kann oder soll, und wenn man siezen muss oder soll, und auch, dass man siezen weniger als bevor nutzten soll, und dass man duzen am Internet benutzt.
Es tut mir übringends leid, dass ich hab gar nix(it should be "habe" und "gar nichts" I know) über es bis jetzt gesagt .

schubi

HI all,

take care = pass auf Dich auf / passt auf Euch auf - oder?

Wegen "Glueck auf" - das ist im Erzgebirge und Vogtland ein noch heute verbreiteter allgemeiner Gruss.

Teils auch zum "G'auf" gekuerzt.

Hach ja - wu de waldr haamlich rauschn. :-)

Sonnenblumen

schubi wrote:

HI all,

take care = pass auf Dich auf / passt auf Euch auf - oder?

Wegen "Glueck auf" - das ist im Erzgebirge und Vogtland ein noch heute verbreiteter allgemeiner Gruss.

Teils auch zum "G'auf" gekuerzt.

Hach ja - wu de waldr haamlich rauschn. :-)

und schmeckt's lecker!:D

schubi

nu glaar :-)