Thanks god for this blog!

I'm not sure why, but I've heard several Germans say "Thanks God" (often when I finally stop ordering beer in the wee hours of the morning). Unfortunately, I don't completely understand my mother tongue (nor why Germans tend to do this). However, I think this is the imperative mood. Regardless, "Thank God" (no "s") is proper.

Greetings together!

In German, you can address a group as zusammen, which can be translated as together in English. I sometimes see e-mails or hear Germans starting a presentation with "Hello together". This doesn't work in English (and is so unusual to native speakers that it's almost confusing). In e-mail, try "Hi All" or "Hi everyone". For a verbal presentation, try simply "Hello" or "Good morning" (no need to be more specific).

Can I borrow your bore machine?

Here's one that I believe is a literal translation error from German to English. The hand tool that many of us use to bore holes in walls, wood etc. is called a drill in English, after the verb, to drill, that you can do with it. Every once in a while, I'll hear a German call it a "boring machine" (bohrmaschine in German).

Architect...

In this word, the ch is pronounced like a k, not like "ch" at the beginning of a word like chair. Since I work in the software world, I hear the chair sound used with architect fairly often.

Expert-eyes...

For whatever reason, we're alway talking about expertise where I work. Heads up to my German friends: the word is pronounced with a long e, i.e., expert-ease. It's obviously confusing, but it should never be pronounced with a long i, i.e., expert-eyes.

Does my expertise at finding English errors with Germans annoy you? Discuss amongst yourselves.

Has this blog catched on?

The past participle of the verb catch is caught. This mistake is made fairly regularly by my German friends and coworkers (for fairly obvious reasons), e.g., "I catched the cold that's going around".