Lass dir dabei von einem Erwachsenen helfen!

[pne]

A little while ago, we bought a box of Kellogg's Froot Loops, which came with a simple "Memory" game on the back: little square Froot-Loops-themed pictures to cut out. You'd place them face-down, then take turns turning two of them over at a time; if they match, you keep the pair and it's your turn again, otherwise it's the next person's turn.

Such handicraft things on cereal boxes often come with a warning telling children not to do this by themselves; the wording I was expecting was, "Lass dir [dabei/beim Ausschneiden] von einem Erwachsenen helfen!", i.e. "Have an adult help you with [this|cutting out]".

But the box carried the warning, "Lass dir beim Ausschneiden von deinen Eltern helfen!", i.e. "Have your parents help you with cutting out (the pieces)".

And I wondered why I had been expecting "an adult" rather than "your parents"; presumably because I'd seen it in other places. And it makes more sense to me, too; not all children would necessarily do handicrafts with their adults, e.g. if they live with their grandparents, or their Aunt Connie watches them occasionally, or for whatever other reason. (Not to mention that many children don't even live with their parents, plural, but only with one of them. But I suppose "von einem Elternteil", "by a parent" but literally "by a parents-part", sounds too clunky to consider.)

Comments

[fridoline.livejournal.com]

"Lass dir beim Ausschneiden von deinen Eltern helfen!"

Couldn't this also be translated as "Have someone help you cut out your parents"?

[liv]

I love that interpretation! (Also the fact that German doesn't have a proper singular for parents, but obviously you can't take credit for that.)

[pne.livejournal.com]

German doesn't have a proper singular for "sibling", either :) But then, "sibling" is a bit marginal for many English speakers, I think, too.

The plural is "Geschwister", which looks like a collective form of "Schwester" = "sister" to me.

I have seen "Geschwisterkind" (sibling-child), but only in the context of schools or similar places where siblings may be accepted more easily than random other children, if the availability of spaces is limited.

[pne.livejournal.com]

Maaaybe... I'd be inclined to use a "proper" genitive for that interpretation ("beim Ausschneiden deiner Eltern"), but I can see where you come from.

Es lebe dem Dativ!