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Sprechen die English?

(128 Posts)
Rufus2 Sat 13-Feb-21 13:49:15

English to become the official European language

The European Commission has just announced an agreement whereby English will be the official language of the European Union rather than German, which was the other possibility.
As part of the negotiations, the British Government conceded that English spelling had some room for improvement and has accepted a 5- year phase-in plan that would become known as "Euro-English".
In the first year, "s" will replace the soft "c". Sertainly, this will make the sivil servants jump with joy. The hard "c" will be dropped in favour of "k". This should klear up konfusion, and keyboards kan have one less letter.
There will be growing publik enthusiasm in the sekond year when the troublesome "ph" will be replaced with "f". This will make words like fotograf 20% shorter.
In the 3rd year, publik akseptanse of the new spelling kan be expekted to reach the stage where more komplikated changes are possible.
Governments will enkourage the removal of double letters which have always ben a deterent to akurate speling.
Also, al wil agre that the horibl mes of the silent "e" in the languag is disgrasful and it should go away.
By the 4th yer peopl wil be reseptiv to steps such as replasing "th" with "z" and "w" with "v".
During ze fifz yer, ze unesesary "o" kan be dropd from vords kontaining "ou" and after ziz fifz yer, ve vil hav a reil sensi bl riten styl.
Zer vil be no mor trubl or difikultis and evrivun vil find it ezi TU understand ech oza. Ze drem of a united urop vil finali kum tru.
Und efter ze fifz yer, ve vil al be speking German like zey vunted in ze forst plas.

growstuff Sat 13-Feb-21 21:21:39

I'm a German teacher and have a collection of German language jokes which are actually funny and aren't intended as a dig at the perception that Germany wants to take over Europe.

Start with Mark Twain's "The Awful German Language", if you want to read something amusing.

faculty.georgetown.edu/jod/texts/twain.german.html

growstuff Sat 13-Feb-21 21:18:30

Chewbacca

^Do permanent gaslighters look out for opportunities to offend?^

Only as frequently as the perpetually offended look out for opportunities to be outraged.

Who's outraged?

growstuff Sat 13-Feb-21 21:17:52

Marydoll

Grandma70s

Just an aside - it should be Sprechen Sie Englisch, shouldn’t it? Upper case S for Sie.

You are of course, entirely correct! Rather rusty after 50+ years! wink

At least I did remember the question mark. I should get a brownie point for that.

Not if it's supposed to mean "Do they speak German?"

growstuff Sat 13-Feb-21 21:16:18

Es kommt drauf an.

Perhaps the poster is referring to "they".

Ellianne Sat 13-Feb-21 21:09:50

Marydoll

....or ladies, I could have meant, Sprechen sie Englisch?, sie referring to Rufus. ?

Mes plus humbles excuses, but shouldn't it be:
'Spricht^ sie Englisch? if referring to she, as in Rufus?

Grandma70s Sat 13-Feb-21 21:01:09

Marydoll, humble apologies for the careless lack of a question mark, and several Brownie points for you for pointing it out..

Marydoll Sat 13-Feb-21 20:51:48

Callistemon, Es war Schicksal! or in good old Glasgowspeak, Whit's fur ye'll no go by ye! You wouldn't have met and married your husband. Je ne regrette rien.

grandmajet Sat 13-Feb-21 20:40:41

Wie Schade Callistemon!

Callistemon Sat 13-Feb-21 20:36:36

Sp! Sorry

Callistemon Sat 13-Feb-21 20:36:14

Oh, nothing to do with the threa- just a nostalgic reminiscence!
He sent me a basic German grammar book o learn for when we could wiedersehen but we never did.

Marydoll Sat 13-Feb-21 20:35:53

....or ladies, I could have meant, Sprechen sie Englisch?, sie referring to Rufus. ?

grandmajet Sat 13-Feb-21 20:33:09

Didn’t read the heading on the German boy? Or the post?!

Callistemon Sat 13-Feb-21 20:31:42

I only have very basic German, courtesy of a teenage romance with a German boy, but I did know that.
Where is he now?

The problem was, I didn't read the heading so I didn't notice.
Lack of attention to detail.

grandmajet Sat 13-Feb-21 20:29:52

Grandma70s

Just an aside - it should be Sprechen Sie Englisch, shouldn’t it? Upper case S for Sie.

Yes, you’re right. Sie for formal you?

Callistemon Sat 13-Feb-21 20:29:32

??

Marydoll Sat 13-Feb-21 20:14:19

Grandma70s

Just an aside - it should be Sprechen Sie Englisch, shouldn’t it? Upper case S for Sie.

You are of course, entirely correct! Rather rusty after 50+ years! wink

At least I did remember the question mark. I should get a brownie point for that.

Grandma70s Sat 13-Feb-21 20:06:00

Just an aside - it should be Sprechen Sie Englisch, shouldn’t it? Upper case S for Sie.

Alegrias1 Sat 13-Feb-21 20:00:35

Well its been around since 2010 at least so probably nothing to do with Junker.

globalgraduates.com/articles/european-english-joke

Except this one I've linked to doesn't have the anti-German addition, and it was a joke about English then.

GrannyRose15 Sat 13-Feb-21 19:58:16

comment one.

GrannyRose15 Sat 13-Feb-21 19:57:01

Well I found it very funny. I have spent half my life trying to teach our very peculiar spelling rules to people who find it difficult. To me it was more of a metalinguistic comment than a xenophobic comment one.

grandmajet Sat 13-Feb-21 19:54:18

I’m going back to watch The Masked Singer. More my intellectual level. I’m sure growstuff will agree!

Callistemon Sat 13-Feb-21 19:48:28

Do permanent gaslighters look out for opportunities to offend?

Is that English or Newspeak?

Callistemon Sat 13-Feb-21 19:46:14

Europe?
Not sure where Eyrope is, perhaps that is Esperanto

Callistemon Sat 13-Feb-21 19:45:00

I thought the joke was on the English too, grandmajet, as we are usually the butt of jokes from RUK and Eyrope.

I did wonder if it was also a sideways sweep at Juncker and his pronouncements about the English language:
www.theguardian.com/politics/2017/may/05/brexit-english-is-losing-its-importance-in-europe-says-juncker

It's a fair enough point, though, Mr Juncker, and perhaps German will be the lingua franca of the EU.

Transmogrifying from English in an instance!

Chewbacca Sat 13-Feb-21 19:41:37

Do permanent gaslighters look out for opportunities to offend?

Only as frequently as the perpetually offended look out for opportunities to be outraged.