Random thought: Upside-down and back-to-front

[pne]

Occasionally, the thought comes into my mind that German has only one term "verkehrt herum" ("the wrong way around") for what can be expressed in English with more precision—the three expressions "upside-down", "back-to-front" and "inside-out" come to my mind.

For example, telling someone that they're wearing their T-shirt "verkehrt herum" is ambiguous between "you've got your T-shirt on back-to-front" and "you've got your T-shirt on inside-out".

Comments

[pthalo]

randomly, this reminds me of a time in elementary school when I was about 10 when I commented to my classmate that she had her dress on inside out. The tag was showing in the back and you could see the seams. her answer? "no, that's just how it was made."

Back-to-front

[marikochan.livejournal.com]

I would usually say "you've got your t-shirt on backwards" rather than "you've got your t-shirt on back-to-front." (Actually, what I'd probably be most likely to say is, "Your t-shirt is on backwards!")

[elgrande.livejournal.com]

You can be more precise in German and still sound natural, too.

When something is upside-down, then "es steht auf dem Kopf".
When you want to tell someone that they're wearing their T-shirt inside-out, you can tell them they're wearing it "auf links".
But I can't think of a natural and unambiguous expression for "back-to-front" right now.

[tungol.livejournal.com]

Now I'm getting images of someone wearing their shirt upside down :)

[angharad.livejournal.com]

How does one say, in German, "I drove the car in reverse" or "I reversed the car"? There must be a word that could be forced into service for the backwards t-shirt comment.