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

[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".