Whatsoever, nevermind...

I don't think Kurt Cobain spoke Germlish, but if he had, it might have changed the lyrics of Smells Like Teen Spirit. I hear Germans often use "whatsoever" when they should use "whatever", something like "We could serve beef or lamb or whatsoever". This sounds odd but isn't especially confusing. In this example, "whatever" would have been correct. Whatsoever is typically used emphatically in phrases such as "I have no doubt whatsoever that "whatever" shouldn't be used that way." or "I speak no Hungarian whatsoever."

Happy Eastern!

I've heard many Germans add an "n" to the end of the Easter Holiday. "Eastern" is an adjective meaning situated to the east. Not sure where Germans picked up this habit, but have a happy Easter!

A friend of us...

My cellmate (office cohabiter) was just telling me about his weekend. Speaking of his family, he mentioned that he had seen a "friend of us". In this case, one should use the possessive pronoun in English. He should have said "We saw a friend of ours". Other variants:

• friend of mine
• friend of yours
• friend of his
• friend of hers

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.