{"id":4664,"date":"2013-03-18T11:48:33","date_gmt":"2013-03-18T11:48:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/german\/?p=4664"},"modified":"2017-11-15T14:04:07","modified_gmt":"2017-11-15T14:04:07","slug":"german-newspaper-causes-laughter-pope-eats-argentines","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/german\/german-newspaper-causes-laughter-pope-eats-argentines\/","title":{"rendered":"German newspaper causes laughter: \u201cPope eats Argentines\u201d!?."},"content":{"rendered":"

Is the new pope, Jorge Mario Bergoglio, a cannibal who favors his Argentinian fellow-countrymen as a delicious meal, just like the headline in a German newspaper suggested? Admittedly, I have no idea what kind of diet Francis, the 266th<\/sup> pontiff of the Roman Catholic Church prefers but I\u2019m pretty sure that he is not after human meat. Why do I float the question whether Pope Francis has designs on humans for supper?<\/p>\n

A German newspaper brought forth: \u201cDer neue Papst isst Argentinier\u201d, which means \u201cThe new Pope eats Argentines\u201d. Actually, the writer of this newspaper articles wanted to say this: \u201cDer neue Papst ist Argentinier\u201d (\u201cThe new Pope is Argentinian\u201d). So, what led to this linguistic accident?<\/p>\n

The conjugated forms (2nd<\/sup> and 3rd<\/sup> person singular) of the German verbs \u201csein\u201d (to be) and \u201cessen\u201d (to eat) share one and the same sound chain, that is, \u201cist\u201d and \u201cisst\u201d are homophones \u2013 the pronunciation of both these forms is identical \u2013 but orthographically they mean two different things. In order to make sure that you do not walk right into the same trap, I give you an overview of the correct conjugated forms of both the German verbs sein<\/em> and essen<\/em>:<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
sein<\/em><\/strong> (to be)<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
<\/td>\nSingular<\/strong><\/td>\nPlural<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
1st<\/sup> person<\/strong><\/td>\nich bin \u2013 I am<\/td>\nWir sind \u2013 we are<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
2nd<\/sup> person<\/strong><\/td>\ndu bist \u2013 you are (informal)Sie sind \u2013 you are (formal)<\/td>\nihr seid \u2013 you are (informal)Sie sind \u2013 you are (formal)<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
3rd<\/sup> person<\/strong><\/td>\ner\/sie\/es ist \u2013 he\/she\/it is<\/td>\nsie sind \u2013 they are<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

 <\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
essen<\/em><\/strong> (to eat)<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
<\/td>\nSingular<\/strong><\/td>\nPlural<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
1st<\/sup> person<\/strong><\/td>\nich esse \u2013 I eat<\/td>\nwir essen \u2013 we eat<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
2nd<\/sup> person<\/strong><\/td>\ndu isst \u2013 you eat (informal)Sie essen \u2013 you eat (formal)<\/td>\nihr esst \u2013 you eat (informal)Sie essen \u2013 you eat (formal)<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
3rd<\/sup> person<\/strong><\/td>\ner\/sie\/es isst \u2013 he\/she\/it eats<\/td>\nsie essen \u2013 they eat<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

 <\/p>\n

As you can see, German shares one and the same form for English \u201cyou\u201d, \u201cshe\u201d, and \u201cthey\u201d, which is \u201csie\u201d and \u201cSie\u201d, respectively. When you refer to your immediate counterpart in personal communication make sure to use a CAPITAL letter in formal address.<\/p>\n

Unfortunately, the editor\u2019s mistake is irreversible but one thing is for sure: he or she is most probably a laughing stock in the office and definitely among members of the language police. My final remark: Spell-check can save lives!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\"\"

Is the new pope, Jorge Mario Bergoglio, a cannibal who favors his Argentinian fellow-countrymen as a delicious meal, just like the headline in a German newspaper suggested? Admittedly, I have no idea what kind of diet Francis, the 266th pontiff of the Roman Catholic Church prefers but I\u2019m pretty sure that he is not after…<\/p>\n

Continue Reading<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":54,"featured_media":4668,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[931,238399,2574,8158,166],"class_list":["post-4664","post","type-post","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-essen","tag-sein","tag-to-be","tag-to-eat","tag-verbs"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/german\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4664","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/german\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/german\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/german\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/54"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/german\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4664"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/german\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4664\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9033,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/german\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4664\/revisions\/9033"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/german\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4668"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/german\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4664"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/german\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4664"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/german\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4664"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}