Ich spreche klein deutsch

[pne]

It always amuses me when people say, "Ich spreche klein(e) deutsch" (or variations thereon).

Presumably, it's meant to be a translation of "I speak only a little German", but"klein" is "little" only in the sense of "small" ("I speak small German"?), not in the sense of "not much" (which would be "wenig").

It's a cute mistake.

Comments

[subbes]

"Ein bissen," right?

(Six years of German in secondary school and I can only remember the phonetic spellings. I never could remember the gender of anything. And yet I got an A in GCSE German.)

ein bisschen

[pne.livejournal.com]

Yes, that's actually a more likely way to say it; I was momentarily confused. ("Ich spreche nur wenig deutsch" and "Ich spreche nur ein wenig deutsch" are both possible, but "Ich spreche nur ein bisschen deutsch" sounds a ... "better" to me somehow.)

(Spelled "ein bißchen" before the spelling reform, I think; literally, "a little bite".)

Re: ein bisschen

[(Anonymous)]

"Nur ein bischen" (I thought it was only 1 's') is always how I say it, if the subject ever comes up.

Re: ein bisschen

[arthur-sc-king.livejournal.com]

D'oh. That was me, by the way.

Re: ein bisschen

[pne.livejournal.com]

I thought it was only 1 's'

I've seen that spelling; my father always told me it was wrong, however. I'll have to look it up. *does so*

Ah yes. Apparently "bischen" (pronounced with a "sch" sound, presumably) is a regional term meaning "to rock (a baby) in one's arms", and the word meaning "little bit" is spelled "bißchen" (or, post-reform, "bisschen").

[sparkofcreation.livejournal.com]

It's what the tourist phrase books teach you.

[pne.livejournal.com]

"Ich spreche klein deutsch"?

Oh my. "I will not buy this tobacconist's; it is scratched."

[darth-spacey.livejournal.com]

"Mein Luftkissenfahrzeug ist von den Aalen voll"?

Do you want to come back to my place, bouncy-bouncy?

[pne.livejournal.com]

Grammatically correct but idiomatically wrong.

I'd say "Mein Luftkissenfahrzeug (or: Luftkissenboot) ist voller Aale", FWIW.

Re: Do you want to come back to my place, bouncy-bouncy?

[fledchen.livejournal.com]

::snorfle:: I simply must share this.

[sparkofcreation.livejournal.com]

I seem to remember it as "Ich sprache kleine deutsch" (why no capital? isn't it a noun?) but yes. Also "Ich sprache nicht gut deutsch."

I generally refuse to include those phrases among my very limited list of "the German I know." One of these days I should really learn it, I think the fact that neither I nor my sister/cousins speak it is one of my grandfather's biggest regrest in life.

[pne.livejournal.com]

I seem to remember it as "Ich sprache kleine deutsch"

If it really says that, don't trust it.

Unless you're mis-remembering the L in it? "Ich spreche kein deutsch" is good German for "I speak no German". (Though I'm unsure about the capitalisation of "deutsch"; see below.)

(why no capital? isn't it a noun?)

Good question. The short answer: sometimes it's a noun and gets capitalised, sometimes it's an adverb and doesn't get capitalised. I don't know the proper rules for when the word is treated as which, though.

For example, I'm not sure whether "Ich spreche deutsch" is "officially" "I speak the-German-language" (noun) or "I speak German-ly" (adverb). (As you may know, adverbs usually have the same form as the base form of the adjective they're related to.)

Also "Ich sprache nicht gut deutsch."

That's fine. (Though it should be "spreche", not "sprache" -- "Sprache" is the noun, "language"; "spreche" is a verb form, "(I) speak". There's also "sprach", but that's past -- "(I) spoke".)

I think the fact that neither I nor my sister/cousins speak it is one of my grandfather's biggest regrest in life.

Was he from a German-speaking country?

(I seem to recall you said your family name was a respelled German name, but I don't remember how far back your German(-speaking) ancestors were.)

[sparkofcreation.livejournal.com]

No one seems to be sure how far back my German-speaking ancestors were. My understanding is that both my grandfathers were born in the US to immigrants from Germany (all from Stuttgart, IIRC--well, my paternal grandfather's mother had immigrated to Germany from France, but then to the US from Germany). But I could be off by a generation as far as one or more of them--for example, maybe my father's father's mother was born in the US but my father's father's father was born in Germany, or something. It can't be too far back on my dad's side, because the misspelling of the name originated with my father's paternal grandfather.

ISTR several of my maternal grandfather's older sisters moved (back?) to Germany later in life, as well.

We're not too into genealogy around here, I'm afraid.

[elgrande.livejournal.com]

Unfortunately, I don't have a Duden at hand. But I think that now after the spelling reform "Deutsch" actually has a capital letter in that expression. It used to be different, though.

[darth-spacey.livejournal.com]

I used to know a little German; Heinrich, my next-door neighbor.

This is a true story,

[pthalo]

I think it's likely because "Ich spreche kein Deutsch" is fine or maybe keine. I don't remember. And kleine is one of those words you learn really early on in your German 1 class in high school. So the words sound similar enough that you figure if you no longer speak no german, you can move on to speaking little german with just an extra consonant.

[kait-the-great.livejournal.com]

I like to say "Ich kann nicht Deutsch sprechen" because it's a much more complicated sentence to put together in the grammatically correct order and gives away that I might speak a little.

When I run into people who know I could, I like to say "I've forgotten everything" in German, to be ironic, but honestly I forgot the past-tense... I know it's either "ich habe alles vergisst" oder "ich habe alles vergessen"

[pne.livejournal.com]

I like to say "Ich kann nicht Deutsch sprechen" because it's a much more complicated sentence to put together in the grammatically correct order and gives away that I might speak a little.

That works!

In my variety of German, I'd probably say "Ich kann kein Deutsch sprechen", though. ("I speak no German" rather than "I don't speak German").

honestly I forgot the past-tense... I know it's either "ich habe alles vergisst" oder "ich habe alles vergessen"

The latter.

[pne.livejournal.com]

er, "I can speak no German" vs "I cannot speak German".

[leighbug]

Ich habe "Ich spreche ein bisschen deutsch." gelernt. Oder "Ich spreche kein deutsch". Aber unsere Lehrerin wurde sehr sehr wütend wenn ich es sage sein. (I'm sure I mangled that horribly. I tried to say "But our teacher would be very very mad if I said it.)

Und wie kait_the_great sage, ich sehe "Ich habe viele (oder alles) vergessen!"

And I hope I didn't scare you with any horrible German!

[pne.livejournal.com]

"Ich spreche kein deutsch"

*nods*

Aber unsere Lehrerin wurde sehr sehr wütend wenn ich es sage sein.

Hee, I can imagine a little :) It kind of implies she couldn't teach.

(I'm sure I mangled that horribly. I tried to say "But our teacher would be very very mad if I said it.)

Up until the last word, it was fine! Though I got the sense of "But our teacher was very very mad whenever I said it/if I ever said it" -- "Aber unserer Lehrerin wurde sehr, sehr wütend, wenn ich es gesagt habe".

For conditional, "But our teacher would be very very mad if I said it", I'd probably say "Aber unsere Lehrerin würde sehr, sehr wütend sein, wenn ich es sagen würde". Or with fewer auxiliaries, "Aber unsere Lehrerin wäre sehr, sehr wütend, wenn ich es sagte". (I think. Colloquial uses "würde" for conditionals nearly all the time, so I'm not always sure how to say it without. The "wäre" I'm sure about, but I'm not certain "sagte" is the correct form.)

And I hope I didn't scare you with any horrible German!

No! It was pretty good!

[leighbug]

I was actually thinking about that sentence this morning, before I got up. I should probably have said, "Wenn ich es sagte, unsere Lehrerin würde sehr, sehr wütend sein."

It's good to know my German hasn't completely left me!
Mein Freund will Deutsch im Sommer lernen. Ich woll Deutsch mit er lernen, und viellicht kann ich meine Tochter Deutsch unterrichten (oder ein bißchen Deutsch!).

Deutsch ist sehr, sehr schwer für mich!

[pne.livejournal.com]

viellicht kann ich meine Tochter Deutsch unterrichten (oder ein bißchen Deutsch!).

I'm sure that would be nifty!

[muckefuck.livejournal.com]

Maybe the expression is "Ich spreche kleindeutsch"--as in the language of Kleindeutschland, free of "Obers" and "Spitals".