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

[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.