Gut the burger
When I first arrived in Germany I hadn't spoken German for five years. Thus a little nervous I decided to opt for a fast food restaurant where I thought nothing could go wrong. I managed to order a burger and some fries. The waiter put the food on a tray but I wanted to take it out. Dredging my memory, I eventually came up with zum Ausnehmen, bitte, which I hoped meant 'to take out, please'. The waiter gave me a very odd look. I grabbed the stuff off the tray and left. Only later I discovered from my colleagues that I actually said 'to gut, please'.
Editor's note: Quite close! You should have said zum Mitnehmen, bitte. Find out how to order in German in our online course for beginners German Steps.
Sent by: Tim
Comments
My friends and I had a good long night in a Kneipe in Cologne and the time came to pay. I thought the waitress said zweihundertneunzig, two hundreds and ninety, and my immediate thoughts were how could she rip us of to that extent or I wondered if she was counting the ticks on the wrong beermat. I eventually realised she had said zwei und neunzig, two ninety. It was noisy in the pub and nothing to do with the fact that it was Karneval time.
If the waitress had said zweiundneunzig that would actually mean "ninety-two" - not two ninety. Think of when your gran used to say "four-and-twenty" ...
Probably she said zwei (very short pause) neunzig. Or maybe zwei Euro neunzig.
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