{"id":7254,"date":"2016-05-12T08:54:46","date_gmt":"2016-05-12T08:54:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/german\/?p=7254"},"modified":"2016-05-12T08:54:46","modified_gmt":"2016-05-12T08:54:46","slug":"german-sayings-translated-literally-pt1","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/german\/german-sayings-translated-literally-pt1\/","title":{"rendered":"German Sayings Translated Literally (pt1)"},"content":{"rendered":"

Guten Tag, everyone!<\/p>\n

Today I want to teach you a bunch of German sayings and expressions. You can buy postcards in Germany that are literal English translations of popular German idioms. Perhaps you\u2019ve seen or bought one of these already, but in case you haven\u2019t, one of these postcards reads:<\/p>\n

\u2018ONLY THE HARD COME IN THE GARDEN\u2019<\/strong><\/p>\n

This is the literal translation of the German idiom \u2018Nur die Harten kommen in den Garten\u2019,<\/strong> which means \u2018Only the strongest survive\u2019<\/strong> or \u2018Survival of the fittest\u2019. (Unfortunately I can\u2019t post a photo here due to copyright reasons, but if you type \u2018German postcards translated literally\u2019 into a search engine, you\u2019ll see some of these postcards for yourself.)<\/p>\n

The thing is, these postcards are only funny if you speak German and English, so I thought I\u2019d show you all what they mean. \ud83d\ude42 Using the following vocabulary, see if you can match up the correct postcard phrase to the original German! The answers are underneath the table.<\/p>\n

\"Urban<\/a>

‘Now I know how the bunny runs’. Photo: j_benson on flickr.com under a CC license (CC BY 2.0)<\/p><\/div>\n

VOCABULARY<\/u><\/p>\n

DER KEKS \u2013 cookie<\/p>\n

DER HASE \u2013 rabbit\/bunny<\/p>\n

DIE SPINNE – spider<\/p>\n

H\u00d6REN \u2013 to hear<\/p>\n

GLAUBEN \u2013 to believe<\/p>\n

NUR – only<\/p>\n\n\n\n
 <\/p>\n

<\/h3>\n

<\/h3>\n

POSTCARD PHRASE<\/strong><\/h3>\n

 <\/p>\n

YOU CAN ME ONCE
\n(Do one\/Bite me)<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

HOW HORNY IS THAT THEN?
\n(How cool is that?)<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

ONLY THE HARD COME IN THE GARDEN
\n(Only the strongest survive)<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

NOW I KNOW HOW THE BUNNY RUNS
\n(Now I understand\/I get the message)<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

I BELIEVE I SPIDER
\n(I think I\u2019m going nuts)<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

HEAR UP WITH THE AROUNDEGGERY
\n(Stop fooling around)<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

YOU GO ME ANIMALLY ON THE COOKIE
\n(You\u2019re driving me insane)<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

NOW MAKE BUT ONCE HALFLONG
\n(Now tell me again without exaggerating)<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/td>\n

\n

ORIGINAL GERMAN SAYING<\/strong><\/h3>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

DU GEHST MIR TIERISCH AUF DEN KEKS<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

DU KANNST MICH MAL<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

WIE GEIL IST DAS DENN?<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

ICH GLAUBE ICH SPINNE<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

NUR DIE HARTEN KOMMEN IN DEN GARTEN<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

JETZT WEI\u00df ICH WIE DER HASE L\u00c4UFT<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

JETZT MACH ABER MAL HALBLANG<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

H\u00d6R AUF MIT DER HERUMEIEREI<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

How did you do? Here are the answers:<\/h3>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"Cookies\"<\/a>

‘You go me animally on the cookie’. Photo by aigle_dore on flickr.com under a CC license (CC BY 2.0)<\/p><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

YOU CAN ME ONCE<\/strong> ———– DU KANNST MICH MAL
\n(Do one\/Bite me)<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

HOW HORNY IS THAT THEN?<\/strong> ———– WIE GEIL IST DAS DENN?
\n(How cool is that?)<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

ONLY THE HARD COME IN THE GARDEN<\/strong> ————
\nNUR DIE HARTEN KOMMEN IN DEN GARTEN
\n(Only the strongest survive)<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

NOW I KNOW HOW THE BUNNY RUNS –<\/strong>—————-
\nJETZT WEI\u00df ICH WIE DER HASE L\u00c4UFT
\n(Now I understand\/I get the message)<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

I BELIEVE I SPIDER<\/strong> ————- ICH GLAUBE ICH SPINNE
\n(I think I\u2019m going nuts)<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

HEAR UP WITH THE AROUNDEGGERY<\/strong> ——————-
\nH\u00d6R AUF MIT DER HERUMEIEREI
\n(Stop fooling around)<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

YOU GO ME ANIMALLY ON THE COOKIE<\/strong> ————
\nDU GEHST MIR TIERISCH AUF DEN KEKS
\n(You\u2019re driving me insane)<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

NOW MAKE BUT ONCE HALFLONG<\/strong> ———————–
\nJETZT MACH ABER MAL HALBLANG
\n(Now tell me again but without exaggerating)<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

What do you think of these sayings? Which one is your favourite? Stay tuned for the second part of this post, in which I will teach you the German sayings that are very similar to their English counterparts.<\/p>\n

Bis bald,<\/p>\n

Constanze<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\"\"

Guten Tag, everyone! Today I want to teach you a bunch of German sayings and expressions. You can buy postcards in Germany that are literal English translations of popular German idioms. Perhaps you\u2019ve seen or bought one of these already, but in case you haven\u2019t, one of these postcards reads: \u2018ONLY THE HARD COME IN…<\/p>\n

Continue Reading<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":119,"featured_media":7427,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[935,95131,82,376023,456974,8043,358422],"class_list":["post-7254","post","type-post","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-language","tag-german","tag-german-language","tag-idioms","tag-language","tag-postcards","tag-sayings","tag-sayings-expressions"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t