Zeitgeisters In Trouble
Well Folks,
According to a friend of mine, Dave, I'm committing a German faux pas by calling you Zeitgeisters. Dave, originally from Western Australia, now lives in Zurich and has been learning Swiss-German for the last five years.
He sent the following note, re: my standard blog greeting:
Hi Mr Trivia,
I'm not sure what I'm getting for Xmas but i know what you are getting from me: A mini German lesson (I bet you were not expecting that).# Dave's - Weihnachten Deutsch Lektion 1
It is:
Der Geist (The Ghost/Spirit) singular
Die Geister (The Ghosts/Spirits) plural
Der Zeitgeist (The Time/Age-of Ghost/Spirit) singular
Die Zeitgeister (The Time/Age-of Ghosts/Spirits) plural
So you should start your mails with:
Greetings Zeitgeister,
By putting an "s" at the end you are adding an english conjugation to an already conjugated word.
You could go 1 little step further and say for the Kaiser:
Grüß Zeitgeister,
I hope those special characters show up for you in 8 point Helvetica:
They should - Helvetica is a Germanic font.
Grüß/Gruess - pronounced: groos - (like goose) is Greetings in german.
We could also argue that:
Greetings Zeitgeists,
..is also possibly acceptable considering the quasi german/predominantly English context of your emails.
I end this lesson with "Raum Geist"
# End of Lesson 1.
Have a nice one.
Dave.
I could change the way I do things, but somehow I feel I will remain stubbornly incorrect, although a little better informed.
Regards,
Mr Trivia
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