Watch your daughter
A while ago, whilst on holiday in Greece, we met a German family. The young daughter wanted to play on the beach with our daughter, and her mother wanted to return to the pool. Thinking that I was being helpful I offered to 'watch' her daughter. Dredging up from the depths of my 'O' level German (Failed) I said: Wir wachsen ihre Tochter. I received the most horrified look from the mother. Obviously I fell foul of a dangerous linguistic 'false friend'. What I actually said was 'we wax your daughter'!
Editor's note: Very true, wachsen means 'to wax'. There is indeed a German word closely related to 'to watch' - wachen, to keep watch. But the phrase you were looking for is: Wir passen auf ihre Tochter auf. Anyway, well done for trying!
Sent by: Malcolm
Comments
You could use wachen (as in 'to watch'), too - wir wachen über ihre Tochter. But that'd sound rather, well, poetic. :)
In the context here wachsen means 'to wax', in a different context, however, it can also mean to grow.
You can also use aufpassen auf with the accusative case. In this case it would be wir passen auf ihre Tochter auf. Aufpassen is a separable verb.
Flag this comment