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Getting the bird

As a teenager I wrote to my German penfriend, telling him about my pet cat and budgerigar. My tiny pocket dictionary didn't have the German for 'budgerigar' so I substituted 'bird' instead. 'I have a bird' in German is ich habe einen Vogel, an idiom meaning 'I am crazy' - which my penfriend politely pointed out.

Sent by: Graham

Comments

Alan H., Morgantown, PA (USA) 2010-10-26

My wife is from Vienna, and I've gotten strange looks from her family due to both "Ich hab' einen Vogel" and "vögeln". At least my American accent is still thick enough so that they still can write it off as my still learning...

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Jo 2009-11-28

Budgerigar is der Wellensittich (pl die Wellensittiche)

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Mikaela 2008-08-15

Hehe, got in worse pickels than that with Vogel. Just remember that the plural is NOT ³Õö²µ±ð±ô²Ô!

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