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We better get Titen idoims this year ;)
Not sure if there are any. At least, I couldn’t think of one spontanuously. We’ll see :)
Pons asinorum is nothing to do with donkeys not liking their feet wet, it’s from Euclid.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pons_asinorum
If you don’t know something, don’y just make it up.
Love the blog, BTW.
In my defense, I have to say that I didn’t just pull it out of my … ass.
I looked up the origin on two different sites, one of them being the German Wikipedia:
https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Merkspruch#Begriffsherkunft_%E2%80%9EEselsbr%C3%BCcke%E2%80%9C
But now I looked at it again, and saw that this part had no citation. I guess I just assumed it to be accurate given how common the expression is and how anal the German editors of Wikipedia are.
Well, never trust the web, I guess.
They do talk about Geometry there, too, but it sounds like that usage was just secondary.
So… thanks for sharing this!!
Another, more extended account of pons asinorum in English is given here https://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/entry/Bridge_of_Asses Applied to Euclid, but a lot later than the man himself.
The expression could easily have acquired different meanings in different times and places……..
………. https://wordsmith.org/board/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=134968 goes on a bit, but is very interesting. Even in Indonesian (perhaps influenced by the Durch?) the equivalent expression means a mnemonic.
I had a German teacher who made us recite tongue twisters in German. We would start speaking slowly and do it several times, faster each time. It was a fun way to practice pronunciation. Here is one he taught us: Eseln essen Nesseln nicht, Nesseln essen Eseln nicht. (Donkeys do not eat nettles, nettles do not eat donkeys.) Thanks for your enjoyable Advent messages.
One small correction to the tongue twister… it’s Esel not Eseln.
Eselsbrücken are my delight – thank you very much for the double one in Titten hängen, Meiten steigen!
As for Maria & me and variations. On the whole people tend to put Maria first I find, because very often they say ‘and me’ which I think everyone knows subconsciously is wrong because NO ONE I’ve ever heard (apart from very small children) has ever said ‘Me saw Heidi last weekend’! I’ve been guilty of Maria and me but since learning German I’ve picked up the habit of Maria and I.
This isn’t really an Eselsbrücke but it is very good for remembering dative prepositions. I learnt it from a french German teacher: you sing it to the tune of Frère Jacques:
aus, bei, mit, nach
aus, bei, mit, nach
seit, von, zu
seit, von, zu
Immer mit dem Dativ
Immer mit dem Dativ
Ding, dang, dong,
Ding, dang, dong
I make them up too and my favourite is how to remember to decline liegen (and what it means!)
Lie down you old lag and don’t leg it! liegen, lag, gelegen (Lag is slang for a convict/prisoner)
Elizabeth! Thank you for the Dative song! Love it! Now we just need to get Emanual to record it and post the audio on the site…
Uhm…
Elizabeth: Google “Learn German with Ania dative song” and you should find a video called “The Dative Part 4: You should easily remember the dative with this song”. Fast forward to 9 minutes, which is when Ania sings the song, although now it’s ohne the music due to copyright trouble, but you can still hear the “Blue Danube” and it’s kinda cute. I’m loath to put a link on the site – I’m such a klutz – I’d end up sending a link to “Einen Auftragsmörder Mieten” (rent a hit-man) or “Babette Bläst Berlin” (Babette blows Berlin) or something, but Ania is easlily found through Google.
Oh, maybe my classmate cheated… (Of course, this was probably 13 years ago, so maybe it was parallel invention…)
I got your back:
https://youtu.be/L_EWNRkvkZY?t=527
One of my college classmates came up with a version to the tune of “The Blue Danube”:
Aus, außer, bei, mit,
Nach, seit,
Von, zu…
I didn’t get the pun you did on stalagmites
It’s not really a pun… stalakTITen are hanging downward (like tits do more or less) and StalagMITEN go up… like the rent.
Does that help?
New member here, First of all thank you to all the members who are generous to this blog, because being an income-less student it wouldn’t have been possible without you guys for me to get a membership of this blog.
In english its very common in English to use ‘Maria and I’ or ‘Maria and me’ (depending on the context either of them can be correct).
Willkommen Talha :)
“Makeshift,” I know. “Make shift” … not so sure.
My Grandma always said, “If stalactites don’t hang on tight, they’ll become stalagmites.”
And the schoolyard taunt was “Dubistein Dummeresel.” (We didn’t know German, but it was fun to say.)
Someone once gave me the recipe for Stalagmites and Stalagtites, but I can never remember if they hold on tight, or with all their might. That’s the thing with clues – you gotta remember what they mean or you remain lost. Kinda like having a many keys – useless unless you remember which doors they open.
Tites hang from the Top – stalagtites. You only need to remember one.
Yeah, the Eselsbrücke comes with built in fail-safe redundancy. German Eselsbrücke engineering at its finest XD
The only one I know about stalactites is that they grow from the ceiling, with a “c” and stalagmites from the ground, with a “g”. No catchy rhyme, but it’s very simple and has stayed with me a long, long time. Even the second half isn’t really necessary – It was certainly buried deeper in my memory than the first.
That’s the way I learned it too.
I always remembered it by the form of the letters. An “M” looks like two stalagmites and a “T” looks like a stalactite (with a bit of ceiling).
I like that one as well. But no one beats the tits
You really need to know how to spell for that one, though :)
The hanging ones hold tight. Stalagtights :)
How interesting that you anglicised Du bist ein dümmer Esel – and still remember it. The verb t we shift, meaning to make do is not much used but makeshift as an adjective is, as you say. My father who was a Scot used the verb so perhaps it’s more common further north.
Wow, I just realized that “dumb-ass” possibly has nothing to do with the butt at all … epiphany.
„Emanuel“!! Tut mir leid. : /
Wieder!!!!
:)
You mean instead of “nochmal”?! Genau :)!!
Think of the Queen ‘ My husband and I …’. Maria and me is good if you’re the object (accusative) Maria and I if you’re the subject, in the sentence. A lot of English speakers aren’t fussy about this and nowadays ‘ It is I’ does sound a bit prissy. S’mee (It’s me) is an alternative. Really enjoying these advents. Shame they’ll finish on the 25th or will it be the 24th in Germany.
24th ;). That’s actually an interesting thing for me. I grew up in the former East and for me Christmas is the evening of the 24th. That’s when we get presents, ago to church and do all that. And the next morning, the whole thing was basically over in my head. And it was always strange to me that the 24th was a regular work day.
Not sure if that is a German thing, or whether it is specific the former east or just my family :)
I spent time in private and public schools here. But I think good grammar might be a family thing. I think my blood pressure rises a little when I hear “me and….” I think you’re right though, Amerikanerin, being rude is the worst.
Danke, Emmanuel für diese. Noch mal, du bringst mir zu lächeln. One time I heard a mother tell her child, „De Esel nennt sich immer zuerst“, but I had forgotten it till today. Thanks for the reminder!! Und Froe Advent! Diese Kalendar ist toll!!
Csmille713
Danke dir, freut mich, dass er dir gefällt!
Coincidentally, I just looked up “mule” over the past weekend to write a sentence about being stubborn as a mule! And here we have der Esel behind Advent Calendar door # 15… Unicorn alert!
“Stur wie ein Esel” or “so störrisch wie ein Esel” (or Maultier) according to my trusty Dict.cc-app. Never leave home without it.
“Maultier” is a much cooler word, though. Although Mule and Donkey are 2 different animals biologically, nobody cares in idioms.
As for I and Maria, nope, never heard it but I DO cringe every time I hear “Me and Maria” – not because I’m a grammar-nazi (sorry, ’bout that, but that’s what we call it) but because it was nearly BEATEN into us at school that it is ALWAYS the other person first, even if you choose to use the IO instead of the correct DO – as though using the wrong object was somehow forgivable – being rude wasn’t.
I did go to a private girls’ boarding school so the curriculum was somewhat questionable from an academic standpoint.
In english we wouldn’t say „I and Maria“, but we absolutely all the time would say „Me and Maria“. And people will get on you for it, but everyone says it.
I beg to differ. Some would say “me and Maria”, some “Maria and me”, others would say “Maria and I” and still others would say “Maria and I” even in sentences where they are the object not the subject. It takes all sorts.
The same attitude does exist among English speakers (at least older ones) but I can’t think of an equivalent for the reminder “der Esel nennt sich immer zuerst.” Can’t think of any reminder at all, so perhaps it’s an idea that was instilled very early.
I would consider your reply as what was meant by “people will get on you for it”. It’s not correct to say “Me and Maria”, but I would say it, and I’ve heard millions of enough people say it so that it might as well be considered right. Language doesn’t always let grammar tell it what to do.
All of your variations are also what people would say. But, “Me and Maria” is the English equivalent of “ich und Maria”.
And, yeah, there’s not like a cool saying in English like “der Esel nennt sich immer zuerst”. Usually what happens when someone says “Me and Maria went to the …” will be someone saying “Maria and I,” with emphasis on the “I”. And like you said, those people are usually older.
My grandmother (I think) used to respond to “me and Maria” (this being American English, it was of course usually more like “me ‘n’ Maria”) with “Maria’s mean?!?!”
Grandmas… they got the best tricks XD