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Onkel Adolf ist hundert einundzwanzig Jahre alt heute.

Ah, Deutchelanders! Guten Tag! ... meine Deutche ist nicht gut. Meine gehirne ist kaput. :(
 
I keep on wondering what the mad arab wanted to tell us with this thread.
 
Blackadder said:
The guy on the picture looks a bit like the guy from Pet Shop Boys, Neil Tennant
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Ah- HAH! I knew there would be a Jewish connection!

Hebrew is usually a shorter language than English, e.g., "Lo Tirzach" = "Thou shall not kill", "Beresit" = "in the beginning", etc.

But due to a curious fluke, "Pet Shop Boys" in Hebrew is "Na'a'rey Hanut Hayot Ha'sha'ah'shu'im" (four words, 12 syllables). When they were first "big" in the 1980s in Israel, they still used to translate all foreign names to Hebrew in radio broadcasts there -- usually literally.

The poor radio announcers in Israel went berserk over having to say "Na'arey Hanut Hayot Ha'sha'ah'shu'im" 100 times a day.
 
Ah, yes, April 20th, the day a being of unmittigated evil carved its way from a leathery shell to wreak havok on the world. 16 years ago, on that day, my monitor lizard Dante hatched. He got an extra helping of cat food and shrimp to celebrate living past the average monitor lifespan.

Part of me sometimes wonders, if, via the ways of Karma, the date of his hatching was no coincidence. I'm pretty sure that were he capable, he would invade Poland.
 
Moss said:
Happy Führertodestag!
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This is an old thread, but since it's already been bumped by someone else today, I might as well feel free to respond.

Could any native/fluent German speakers explain the rules for creating compound nouns? For example, der Todestag would be the day of someone's death. In conversation, you might say der Todestag des Führers. So would Führertodestag be correct, or would one say Führerstodestag? Are the components of the compound noun always kept in nominative?
 
I just want to say I love your avatar :)
Carry on! Gehen Sie weiter!

[/train wreck]
 
TheAnachronism said:
This is an old thread, but since it's already been bumped by someone else today, I might as well feel free to respond.

Could any native/fluent German speakers explain the rules for creating compound nouns? For example, der Todestag would be the day of someone's death. In conversation, you might say der Todestag des Führers. So would Führertodestag be correct, or would one say Führerstodestag? Are the components of the compound noun always kept in nominative?
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First off, common sense in compounds. Once you start to top seven syllables or so, you wouldn't usually construct one unless it's in ostentatiously formal written communication. By the time you've queued up the components and stuck them together in the right order, you can have 'em out as a user-friendly collection of fragments liberally interspersed with prepositions, which is definitely the preferred option!

If you do end up constructing a compound, you would keep proper names in nominative and generic nouns in dative. As "Führer" in this case is a title, it would be "Führertodestag".
Vide the famous "Donaudampfschifffahrtskapitänsmützenanstecker": Steam boating (fixed compound term) particular to the Danube (proper name), the combination being generic (dative) applied to a captain's (dative) hat pin (fixed compound term).

Or so I seem to remember. It's not as if one actually keeps a hold of the formal rules one learns in primary school, they just get kind of internalized...
 
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Floyt said:
First off, common sense in compounds. Once you start to top seven syllables or so, you wouldn't usually construct one unless it's in ostentatiously formal written communication. By the time you've queued up the components and stuck them together in the right order, you can have 'em out as a user-friendly collection of fragments liberally interspersed with prepositions, which is definitely the preferred option!
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Why that - it's so much more fun compounding words. :) I have to admit that with some combinations, I've had trouble parsing them trying to split them in the wrong place (i.e., one letter off). Can't think of a nice example now, though.

Floyt said:
If you do end up constructing a compound, you would keep proper names in nominative and generic nouns in dative. As "Führer" in this case is a title, it would be "Führertodestag".
Vide the famous "Donaudampfschifffahrtskapitänsmützenanstecker": Steam boating (fixed compound term) particular to the Danube (proper name), the combination being generic (dative) applied to a captain's (dative) hat pin (fixed compound term).
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(emphasis mine). I think you mean genitive. [/nitpick off]

Floyt said:
Or so I seem to remember. It's not as if one actually keeps a hold of the formal rules one learns in primary school, they just get kind of internalized...
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It's one funny thing that, as a native speaker, you don't learn such things as grammatical rules. You just absorb the rules unconsciously as a toddler. You could refer the poster just to the Duden - I guess they have a whole volume dedicated to that. :D
 
Floyt said:
First off, common sense in compounds. Once you start to top seven syllables or so, you wouldn't usually construct one unless it's in ostentatiously formal written communication. By the time you've queued up the components and stuck them together in the right order, you can have 'em out as a user-friendly collection of fragments liberally interspersed with prepositions, which is definitely the preferred option!

If you do end up constructing a compound, you would keep proper names in nominative and generic nouns in dative. As "Führer" in this case is a title, it would be "Führertodestag".
Vide the famous "Donaudampfschifffahrtskapitänsmützenanstecker": Steam boating (fixed compound term) particular to the Danube (proper name), the combination being generic (dative) applied to a captain's (dative) hat pin (fixed compound term).

Or so I seem to remember. It's not as if one actually keeps a hold of the formal rules one learns in primary school, they just get kind of internalized...
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The thing is, most "s" in German compound words are not there due to grammar. They're "Fugen-S" (joint 's'), to make pronunciation simpler. There are no fixed rules for it, though textbooks usually do contain empirical lists where they show up and where not.

With this, as a native German speaker, I would use "Führertodestag", without "s". Most compounds where the first word ends with "-er" don't get a joint "s", except some special expressions that have historically developed them ("Hungersnot").
 
In stead of "Führertodestag" could we use "good riddance" ?
 
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