[MPlayer-users] [Very OT] German Speakers

[Joey Parrish]

On Fri, Apr 15, 2005 at 02:48:18PM -0400, The Wanderer wrote:
> Joey Parrish wrote:
> >I'm curious about something in German.  In English, the verb
> >"explode" is intransitive.  A thing explodes, but someone does not
> >explode it. We could say I "detonate" something, but that verb is too
> >technical. What sounds best, IMO, is to say I "blow it up".  The
> >phrase is informal, but seems most correct.
> 
> Actually, phrases like "the bomb squad exploded the device safely" are
> to the best of my knowledge perfectly valid English - the usage just
> isn't common, that's all. "To explode" is most often intransitive, but
> it is not inherently so.

I've seen it as well, but it's generally considered to be awkward
language.  In any case, my usage of "explodieren" in that fashion was
pointed out to me by an educated man in Berlin.  He wasn't familiar with
the phrase "blow up" in English, so he just told me to change it so that
nobody specific was exploding it.  I was disappointed that he couldn't
give me a more direct translation.

--Joey

-- 
"Of the seven dwarves, the only one who shaved was Dopey.
That should tell us something about the wisdom of shaving."