......MUDRATERS.....

Ahhh, noww thiers a wurd to remmeber. I seeeewwwww lighke it.

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I have at last found some rules! My school has decreed that when writing reports to parents, teachers must remember:

* Bullet points do not require full stops at the end

* Remember the apostrophe!

* Avoid finishing a sentence with a preposition as in 'reaching the standard he is capable of'. This should be 'the standard of which he is capable'

The Guardian newspaper is assiduously trying to apply the last point. Today's copy explains that 'Spitzer.........had become embroiled in precisely the kind of ring for which he is famous for cracking.'.


Have we any German natives who could elucidate this peice/fragment of coarsework presented to me today:

Das tennis Klub Ende am halb zehn uhr was Blätter sie fühlend sehr Müde.

And could they please assign a grade (A-G), which I am reluctant to do without knowing what it means.

I teach some German but mostly French. Well, to the extent that German can be taught for the most part without using the concepts of verb, noun, adjective etc and ignoring word endings. German's gradually losing a lot of endings anyway so if the kids are reincarnated after 150 years they may miraculously find themselves speaking correctly.

It was done without the internet, dictionary only. I asked the pupil what it meant and he couldn't remember. Yeah, couldn't remember. Sekerob, you got the first half right.

Any more tries for the second half?

Any more tries for the second half?

Das tennis Klub Ende am halb zehn uhr was Blätter sie fühlend sehr Müde.

What it says is:
The end of the tennis club at half past nine was sheets (or leaves) they feel very tired.

What was probably meant was:
The tennis club closing at half past nine left them very tired.

(later edit on the time only)

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Here's a fine candidate: "einstein @ home isnt showing up as one of my prjects online even though its doing work. anyy suggestions?"

What do we make of it, class? :-)

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I'm everything but native German speaking person, but spent (and spending) some time there...

German's gradually losing a lot of endings anyway...

...so listening to some native "German" speaking ones is often a torture :-) but that's possibly common to many languages' native speakers.

Das tennis Klub Ende am halb zehn uhr was Blätter sie fühlend sehr Müde.
Any more tries for the second half?

The first half sounds close to "The T.C. closes (or 'will be finished' - there should be anyway "endet" or "endete" IMO) at half past nine", but the whole sentence (especially the second part) reminds me at best on Jord's "Public notice concerning the Guolong Building's management office" :-D

No wonder the author couldn't remember the meaning anymore. I bet the very end could match "..has left them feeling very tired". And I suppose the author intended to use some other word instead of "Blätter" - or did (s)he mean "blades" as for "tennis racket"?

Peter

And I suppose the author intended to use some other word instead of "Blätter" - or did (s)he mean "blades" as for "tennis racket"?

If you have the English sentence in front of you and you go translate it word by word from an English to German dictionary, what would you translate "He leaves you a tip for your service" as?

Als
Er Blätter Sie ein Tipp für Ihre Service

Oder
Er lässt Sie einen Tipp für Ihren Service

:-)

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If you have the English sentence in front of you and you go translate it word by word from an English to German dictionary, what would you translate "He leaves you a tip for your service" as?

Als
Er Blätter Sie ein Tipp für Ihre Service

Oder
Er lässt Sie einen Tipp für Ihren Service

I guess a paper dictionary. I'd probably not notice 'Blätter' because 'leaves' as a plural is probably placed under 'leaf' and would rather choose the plural of 'Urlaub' (holidays), giving the translated sentence even more weird meaning:

Er Urlaube Sie ein Hinweis für Ihre Service :-D
(and we are back to Guolong Building!)

Peter

Das tennis Klub Ende am halb zehn uhr was Blätter sie fühlend sehr Müde.

I'll put you out of your intellectual contortions and misery.

The tennis club finishes at half past nine (ie far too late), which leaves you feeling very tired.

The random capitalisation by a youngster who's noticed that every German sentence must contain several, but has no idea where to put them, doesn't help. I understood it almost immediately, but I've been marking and correcting this sort of stuff for years. It happens when people are given tasks way beyond what they can realistically do.

Rubbish in > rubbish out.

I'll put you out of your intellectual contortions and misery.

The tennis club finishes at half past nine (ie far too late), which leaves you feeling very tired.

OK, the sentence was as "hochdeutsch", that I've missed to guess such simple word as 'which', it would then give me something a bit more meaningful, like:

"The T.C. will be finished at half past nine" ... which... "has left them feeling very tired".

If each sentence in the school is that challenging for a teacher...... My regards! Thanks for finally freeing our minds!

Peter

Back too eccepting the expected ecxepetances with distent feelings of remorse.
Good off yuo to tel us that sentance. We coul'nt have figured it out oursleves.

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To try to classify it as hochdeutsch or plattdeutsch or in fact any sort of deutsch is, I suggest, futile.

To try to classify it as hochdeutsch or plattdeutsch or in fact any sort of deutsch is, I suggest, futile.

Sure :-)

Run! It's the fridge!

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To try to classify it as hochdeutsch or plattdeutsch or in fact any sort of deutsch is, I suggest, futile.

Sure :-)

Die Ostfriesen lachen sich tot.

Glaub' ich. Ich auch!

Today one of the teachers at my school was teaching comparatives in French. Plus que. No problem. But when she said they would now talk about less than, moins que, the whole class burst out laughing.

Why would the kids do that?

Why would the kids do that?

Because their kids and thus weird and thus here things you dont and thus their giggly.

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Today the newspaper says 20% of UK pupils is dyslexic or a bit dyslexic. Is they're somefink wrong with British people?

Today the newspaper says 20% of UK pupils is dyslexic or a bit dyslexic.

It shows.

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Interesting insite. We all needs a hire degree in speling.