Ogrim Heptaglot Senior Member France Joined 4637 days ago 991 posts - 1896 votes Speaks: Norwegian*, English, Spanish, French, Romansh, German, Italian Studies: Russian, Catalan, Latin, Greek, Romanian
| Message 1 of 4 25 October 2013 at 3:51pm | IP Logged |
In a German restaurant this summer I saw the following announcement: "Bedienung nur auf die Terrasse".
I think I understand why the accusative is used here instead of the dative, I imagine there is implicit movement (the waiters coming to the terrace to serve), but I would like to ask native speakers here if it would be wrong to say "Bediening nur auf der Terrasse"?
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Doitsujin Diglot Senior Member Germany Joined 5318 days ago 1256 posts - 2363 votes Speaks: German*, English
| Message 2 of 4 25 October 2013 at 5:16pm | IP Logged |
Ogrim wrote:
In a German restaurant this summer I saw the following announcement: "Bedienung nur auf die Terrasse". |
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Many people who work in restaurants in Germnay are non-native speakers and restaurant signs are often incorrect. It should have read:
"Bedienung nur auf der Terrasse"
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Ogrim Heptaglot Senior Member France Joined 4637 days ago 991 posts - 1896 votes Speaks: Norwegian*, English, Spanish, French, Romansh, German, Italian Studies: Russian, Catalan, Latin, Greek, Romanian
| Message 3 of 4 25 October 2013 at 5:32pm | IP Logged |
Thanks for clearing that one up. I was indeed a bit surprised about the use of accusative, but as I mentioned I tried to figure out a reason - clearly I was wrong.
I don't know who wrote the sign, but surely the waiters we met were 100% German as far as I could tell, except one who seemed bilingual German/French.
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jeff_lindqvist Diglot Moderator SwedenRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 6907 days ago 4250 posts - 5711 votes Speaks: Swedish*, English Studies: German, Spanish, Russian, Dutch, Mandarin, Esperanto, Irish, French Personal Language Map
| Message 4 of 4 25 October 2013 at 5:42pm | IP Logged |
Doitsujin wrote:
Many people who work in restaurants in Germany are non-native speakers and restaurant signs are often incorrect. |
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Same in Sweden. I advice everyone to avoid reading restaurant signs and ads if they want to improve their Swedish. One resturant is particularly good at writing ads full of mistakes. I've never seen a perfect one from them.
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