Mit Händen und Füßen: Grasmaschine!

[pne]

Eben eine Sendung gesehen, wo sich deutsche Beamte mit einem Ausländer unterhielten, der nur wenig deutsch konnte… einen Rasenmäher bezeichnete er als „Grasmaschine“.

Eine lustige Umschreibung, fand ich :)

Comments

[pauamma]

Google Translate renders this as

Just seen a show, where German officers were talking to a foreigner, the little German was ... a lawnmower he described as "grass machine."

I take it that "the little German was" actually means "who/he had little German"?

[pne]

Yes - "der nur wenig deutsch konnte" is literally "who could only a little German", with "could" being understood as "could speak".

And "der" could mean any of "the", "he", "this", "that", "who", "which", or "that", depending on context. Here, it's "who"; GT chose "the". I'm less sure how it got "was" from "konnte" = "could".

[schnurble]

LOL!
Graswegmaschine wäre aber passender gewesen ;o)