11 October 2006
Fun with German
Yesterday's word of the day was die Pruefung (exam). The example sentence was "Er ist durch die Pruefung gesegelt." It means "He failed the exam." However, literally translated it means "He sailed through the exam," which means, in English, that he did well or had no trouble with the exam. It's like the German word das Gift. I like getting gifts in English. Not in German since the word means poison.
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3 comments:
Have you ever realised that there are words with two opposite meanings. Only the pronunciation makes the difference.
For example: umfahren
It can mean to drive round something and to knock over it.
I didn't know that. If you emphasize the "um" does it mean go around? There's a big difference between driving around the block and driving over the block! ;)
If you emphasize "um" you'll crash right into the block. So it's better to emphasize "fah". ;)
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