German-question

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Inspired by Biden's running gal thread.

Me: native German speaker.

You actually forgot one option in the poll: The Belgians and the Dutch learn German by watching TV (and in the past by listening to the radio).
And what about the "German"-speaking Swiss? They speak a different dialect which is completely unintelligible to Germans, but they learn genuine German at school. Should they opt for the second answer?

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what are the funniest cases of false friends in German and English?

Definitely der Streetworker, das Public Viewing, das Gymnasium, der Smoking, das Gift, der Mist, der Beamer and wanken.

The most famous faux amis, however, are probably das Handy, das Mobbing, die Billion (and higher numbers) and bekommen.

Seen from the other perspective, Rathaus seems to be a funny word to Anglophones.

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what are the funniest cases of false friends in German and English?

I'd be disappointed if it wasn't that Austrian village whose name is spelled the same way as an English profanity.

Oh yes. That one, and there is a town of 32,000 inhabitants in Schleswig-Holstein called Itzehoe.

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One thing I find funny is that Lied means is a noun, song, in German but in English it is the past tense of the verb lie. This generates irony when you consider the fact that, well, songs can lie, or distort.

The Salafists used a slogan for a Quran distribution campaign in Germany, which had better not been used for an international campaign...



Lies! is the imperative of the verb lesen (=to read).

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One thing I find funny is that Lied means is a noun, song, in German but in English it is the past tense of the verb lie. This generates irony when you consider the fact that, well, songs can lie, or distort.

The Salafists used a slogan for a meanwhile prohibited Quran distribution campaign in Germany some years ago, which had better not been used for an international campaign...



Lies! is the imperative of the verb lesen (=to read).

Here is a video about the translation of German sayings, which is pretty funny as it is pretty strange to watch three buff American football dudes translate German sayings into English. One of them is the Oregonian guy with the Texan accent. (Thank you, muon2! )
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