Grammar that makes you cringe

[clarion]

I like the German sentence 'Ich will in baden Baden-Baden baden'

[Auntie Helen]

I like the German sentence 'Ich will in baden Baden-Baden baden'

One too many badens there, surely?

[clarion]

I'm told it says that I'd like to bathe in the baths at Baden-Baden.  I may have been misinformed...

[Auntie Helen]

That would have to be "ich will in Baden-Baden Bäder baden", so doesn't quite work.

[madcow]

Sorry but "earlier accident " just sounds wrong. Thanks for your comments .

As we have moved on in this vein there is always the story of the teacher correcting the Yorkshire school pupil over his use of dialect in written work.
Tha's  put putten when tha should have putten put.
Not quite consecutive but similar .

PS as a former resident of March I can asure you no such event exists.

[drossall]

I'm too thick to work out the Scrabble one, it seems...

[citoyen]

That would have to be "ich will in Baden-Baden Bäder baden", so doesn't quite work.

How about: "Ich will bei den Bade in Baden-Baden baden." Does that work? I'm not sure off the top of my head if "bei den Bade" is grammatically correct.

d.

[rower40]

Any language that puts the verb at the end just totally wrong is.

[Gets (bowler) hat and Colonel Blimp greatcoat, and leaves...]

[Salvatore]

At this juncture feel I outpoint must, that in German the finite verb the second element in a sentence is. Only in a subordinate clause does a finite verb to the end of the clause shoved get. You can with the word-order all sorts of aboutbuggering do, but the verb comes second.

[Salvatore]

Americans have "corn maze" which is a big FAIL compared to the beauty of "maize maze".  To Americans corn=maize, to us corn=some general unidentified cereal, or wheat.  The other stuff is, of course, sweetcorn.

The Atlas zur deutschen Sprache has a map showing the different meanings of Korn throughout the German speaking area (that is, the area German was spoken in about 1870, which extended much further east than it does now). It pretty much corresponds to whatever the dominant cereal crop was in any area (usually rye, but also wheat or barley), and also the spirit made by distilling it.

[Salvatore]

A word that is particularly confusing is "momentarily", which to us means "for a short while" or "briefly" but to them means "in a short while", where we'd say "shortly" or "presently".

That reminds me. I was pretty sure I understood what people meant by  "now", until I moved to south Wales. There it refers to a point of time, possibly the present, but also possibly some time in the future, and often with an added phrase to add precision e.g. "I'll do it now in a minute", "I'll do it now this afternoon", "I'll do it now tomorrow morning". "I'll do it now" on its own can mean "I'll do it after I've had this cup of tea and a biscuit, and read the paper, and done numerous other things, but it's definitely on my things to do in the fullness of time."

[Auntie Helen]

That would have to be "ich will in Baden-Baden Bäder baden", so doesn't quite work.

How about: "Ich will bei den Bade in Baden-Baden baden." Does that work? I'm not sure off the top of my head if "bei den Bade" is grammatically correct.

d.

With that option (and I, too, am not sure if 'bei' would be right) it would be: "ich will bei den Bäder in Baden-Baden baden". The main problem is the word for baths is not Baden but Bäder (plural of Bad).

[Auntie Helen]

At this juncture feel I outpoint must, that in German the finite verb the second element in a sentence is. Only in a subordinate clause does a finite verb to the end of the clause shoved get. You can with the word-order all sorts of aboutbuggering do, but the verb comes second.

Although you're missing the second "I" in the first sentence somewhere.

I always thought it weird that some conjuctions are in position 0 - und, aber, damit etc.

[Salvatore]

That would have to be "ich will in Baden-Baden Bäder baden", so doesn't quite work.

How about: "Ich will bei den Bade in Baden-Baden baden." Does that work? I'm not sure off the top of my head if "bei den Bade" is grammatically correct.

d.

With that option (and I, too, am not sure if 'bei' would be right) it would be: "ich will bei den Bäder in Baden-Baden baden". The main problem is the word for baths is not Baden but Bäder (plural of Bad).

But bei den Bädern (dative plural).

[Salvatore]

At this juncture feel I outpoint must, that in German the finite verb the second element in a sentence is. Only in a subordinate clause does a finite verb to the end of the clause shoved get. You can with the word-order all sorts of aboutbuggering do, but the verb comes second.

Although you're missing the second "I" in the first sentence somewhere.

Yes, it should have been something like "At this juncture feel I, that I outpoint must, that ..."

[Nuncio]

A word that is particularly confusing is "momentarily", which to us means "for a short while" or "briefly" but to them means "in a short while", where we'd say "shortly" or "presently".

That reminds me. I was pretty sure I understood what people meant by  "now", until I moved to south Wales. There it refers to a point of time, possibly the present, but also possibly some time in the future, and often with an added phrase to add precision e.g. "I'll do it now in a minute", "I'll do it now this afternoon", "I'll do it now tomorrow morning". "I'll do it now" on its own can mean "I'll do it after I've had this cup of tea and a biscuit, and read the paper, and done numerous other things, but it's definitely on my things to do in the fullness of time."

I've come to understand it as: "I'll do it... now go away"

[Wendy]

"Just now" here in the UK seems to mean a few minutes ago.
"Just now" in Southern Africa means in a short while.

[Cudzoziemiec]

Somewhere or other I think I still have a cassette of Samoan music on which one song contains the line "I always love you sometimes"

[citoyen]

At this juncture feel I outpoint must, that in German the finite verb the second element in a sentence is. Only in a subordinate clause does a finite verb to the end of the clause shoved get. You can with the word-order all sorts of aboutbuggering do, but the verb comes second.

Wunderbar! 

d.

[Gareth Rees]

As a former resident of March I can assure you no such event exists.

The March March march is a walk from March to Cambridge and has taken place in most years since 1979. It really does exist!

[jogler]

In Cornwall things are done 'dreckly.

might be tomorrow
might be next year.

never means now

[hellymedic]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-surrey-18502818

Looks like lack of a few apostophes attracted the attention of The Law.

[Chris S]

Oh dear. This one from Salvatore's link:

Wouldn’t the sentence “I want to insert a hyphen between the words Fish and And and And and Chips in my Fish And Chips sign” have been clearer if quotation marks had been placed before Fish, and between Fish and and, and and and And, and And and and, and and and And, and And and and, and and and Chips — and after Chips?

caught me the wrong way and gave me a fit of the giggles. I'm not prone to being a giggly type. I think I need a lie down now... 

[madcow]

Thanks Gareth, I must have missed it during my  5 years in the flatlands.

[madcow]

Ref. March March- Having looked at said event's website it appears to be a collection of "foriners" who started this. I suspect it was a bid for freedom.