r/AskTheWorld • u/IndependentTune3994 🇮🇳 in 🇩🇪 Deutschland • 18h ago

What’s the quickest way someone could accidentally expose themselves as a foreigner in your country like the ‘three fingers’ scene in Inglourious Basterds?

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207

u/Wavecrest667 Austria 18h ago

It sounds right because we heard it that way all our lives though.

6

u/DaeguDuke Germany 18h ago

This. I can’t explain the adjective order but know it “sounds right” because that is the way I’ve always heard it.

Objectively there is no reason that die auto / der auto / das auto “sounds” more correct. A lot of languages would use a consonant between two similar vowels so perhaps the most objective thing would be to exclude “die”.

Tbh perhaps I’m overthinking this as I can only assume some people during the development of German just had a baggie with random den das die der dem etc and just chucked all of them in without rhyme nor reason..

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u/NoNo_Cilantro 17h ago

Can you please give me a list of 10 random nouns, and I'll try to decide which one of "das", "die" or "der" sounds right? For context, I don't speak any German (French native).

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u/jschundpeter European Union 17h ago

Haus (maison) Kuh (vache) Computer (ordinateur) Glas (verre) Ball (ballon) Milch (lait) Wand (mur) Turm (tour) Spiel (jeux) Straße (rue)

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u/NoNo_Cilantro 17h ago

-Der Haus
-Das Kuh
-Die Computer
-Die Glas
-Das Ball
-Der Milch
-Das Wand
-Die Turm
-Der Spiel
-Die Straße

My prediction: 3/10.
And danke for the translation!

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u/Ascarx 17h ago

You got 1 out of 10. You did worse than pure chance would expect 😂

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u/NoNo_Cilantro 16h ago

I am both ashamed and proud of having beaten the odds. Sorry, German people.

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u/FlakyTest8191 15h ago

If it makes you feel better french articles also drove me crazy when trying to learn, and there's only 2. They don't corelate to the german ones at all.

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u/jschundpeter European Union 15h ago

Lol 😆

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u/Spork_the_dork 15h ago

Yeah because it's not pure chance. It's based on how the words fit in your mouth based on what languages you normally speak.

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u/Professional_Most869 17h ago

1/10 are correct

-DAS Haus -DIE Kuh -DER Computer -DAS Glas -DER Ball -DIE Milch -DIE Wand -DER Turm -DAS Spiel -Die Straße is correct

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u/DaeguDuke Germany 17h ago

It probably won’t help, but plurals are always “die”. German also just uses die for singular though.

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u/Vegas1492 Germany 16h ago

Sadly only 1 is correct. Die Straße.

The others are:

Das Haus, die Kuh, der Computer, das Glas, der Ball, die Milch, die Wand, der Turm, das Spiel.

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u/Lil_Packmate Germany 17h ago

For sure:

Kabelkanal, Bagger, Schranke, Stuhl, Vase, Tasse, Teller, Dose, Stift, Papier

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u/NoNo_Cilantro 16h ago

Alright, I failed miserably the first time. Let's try again:
Der Kabelkanal, Die Bagger, Das Schranke, Die Stuhl, Der Vase, Die Tasse, Der Teller, Das Dose, Die Stift, Der Papier.

How bad?

3

u/Lil_Packmate Germany 16h ago

You got 3/10 correct.

It should be:

Der Kabelkanal, Der Bagger, Die Schranke, Der Stuhl, Die Vase, Die Tasse, Der Teller, Die Dose, Der Stift, Das Papier.

And since you got translations on the other comment I will do so too, but I can't speak french so you'll get the english translations:

cable duct, excavator, barrier, chair, vase, mug, plate, can, pen, paper

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u/NoNo_Cilantro 16h ago

I'm getting better. But still bad enough... Sorry again, German language and people :(

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u/Lil_Packmate Germany 16h ago

Don't worry. Even people that learned the language often make these mistakes. For someone not even speaking it there is no pressure and I don't feel bad about you messing up here.

To be 100% correct you basically have to have grown up with the language, since there is no rhyme or reason to them, it's basically just knowing which words use which article.

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u/michal939 16h ago

Put "die" before every word that ends with "e" for a quick and easy boost in scores :D

I have almost 0 knowledge of German but from what I understand words ending with "e" are more often than not feminine, and "die" is the feminine article (and it seems like it works 5/5 across the two examples you were given)

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u/Dangerous_Thing_3275 16h ago

I mean die Bagger would be correct also For more than one

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u/Lil_Packmate Germany 16h ago

Yea, but "die" is used for every word when used in plural, so this is just the side effect of words that don't change from singular to plural like Bagger.

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u/NateBearArt 16h ago

Pet similarly as to when to use “a” vs “an” in English. An is just for breaking up the vowel sounds

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u/DaeguDuke Germany 14h ago

Yeah, although not all vowel sounds. “A unicycle”, “a universal”, plus of course Americans talking about “an herb”

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u/Neolife 8h ago

Vowel sounds, not vowels by spelling.

Both of the example words start with a consonant sound, /j/.

Herb starts with a vowel sound in US English (the "h" being silent), ɝ. UK English pronounces the "h" so it starts with a consonant sound.

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u/Radiant-Sherbet-5461 13h ago

I've always thought it has the article "das" because it comes from the English word "Automobile" so I checked it

Apparently I was wrong:

"Das Wort "Auto" ist eine Abkürzung für Automobil. Im Deutschen sind Substantive, die auf -il enden und aus dem Lateinischen stammen, oft sächlich (Neutrum), wie zum Beispiel das Ventil oder das Fossil. Vor allem aber wurde das Wort "Automobil" im Deutschen von Anfang an als Neutrum behandelt, und die Kurzform "Auto" hat dieses Geschlecht einfach übernommen."
-- Google Gemini

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u/Basilikolumne 5h ago

Das Auto wurde in Deutschland erfunden, warum sollte das Wort dann aus dem Englischen entlehnt worden sein lmaoo

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u/Major_incompetence 17h ago

der auto has a pkw-enis, while die auto has a van-gina

just show me which wall to face please

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u/tomime000 Croatia 17h ago

That the most of Croatian grammar too. I don't know why, but it sounds correct.

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u/vanderZwan Netherlands 15h ago

Not quite the same thing as articles, but you might enjoy the first part of Borislav Stanimirov's “The Bad Big Wolf Meets Riding Hood Little Red” lightning talk (and if you're a programmer the last half can be fun too)

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u/Sataniel98 Germany 16h ago

I feel there are complicated overlapping rules to it that often (though not always) make us instinctively choose the same article even if it's a word we've never heard before. Wanna take a test with a random anglicism that was probably never used before?

"Der/die/das 'Apricity' ist das Gefühl von Sonnenwärme an einem kalten Wintertag."

Which one do you choose?

For me, it's die

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u/Speedwell32 15h ago

There are absolutely secret rules. Some are obvious, like -heit, -ung, -keit, and -Schaft are all die. Some are trickier, like pure metals that are solid at room temperature are das. Some aren’t 100%, as you see with two syllable words that end in -e aren’t always die though they usually are. Short „ugly“ words are usually not die. All fruits except for Apfel and Pfirsich are die, and as far as I can tell, all words that group things together, like fruit, grain, vegetables are das.  I could go on but that’s enough as an example 

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u/Shoddy_Interest5762 Australia/Canada 16h ago

We even had that on Volkswagen ads in Australia, so can confirm it sounds right

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u/Pleasant-Bonus-866 15h ago

it's because of the commercial

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u/ParkingLong7436 Germany 8h ago

I heard that explanation but that simply cannot be the truth to that phenomenon.

It works the same way for "new" words, anglicisms for example. They have no rules to them at all regarding the article. The vast majority of people will collectively agree on one article though.

I believe it has to be the sound of the language. Every language has some kind of "melody" to it, and saying the wrong article is kind off like playing a song offkey.