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Postillion sentences | ||
Tags: Phrasebook | Assimil | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : General discussion |  | |
| Doitsujin Diglot Senior Member Germany Joined 5114 days ago 1256 posts - 2363 votes  Speaks: German*, English | Message 1 of 4 29 April 2014 at 1:20pm | IP Logged | ||
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I've just learned that there's a technical term for ridiculous phrases (supposedly) found in phrase books and grammars--postillion (sentence).
While the exact origin of "My postillion has been struck by lightning" is disputed, another well-known example, "My tailor is rich(, but my English is poor.)" was introduced by Assimil in their first English learning book. For more information on this phrase, see these French and German Arte TV articles. What are some real life "postillions" from your textbooks? Edited by Doitsujin on 29 April 2014 at 4:33pm 5 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| iguanamon Pentaglot Senior Member Virgin Islands Speaks: Ladino Joined 5056 days ago 2237 posts - 6731 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish, Portuguese, Haitian Creole, Creole (French) | Message 2 of 4 29 April 2014 at 3:17pm | IP Logged | ||
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Thanks, Doitsujin. I never knew that. I don't have any examples of postillion sentences from coursebooks but a classic, hilarious example of this is Monty Python's Hungarian Phrase Book Sketch which popularized the phrase "My hovercraft is full of eels."
The sketch inspired omniglot to translate My hovercraft is full of eels into multiple, diverse and rare, languages. Edited by iguanamon on 29 April 2014 at 7:04pm 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
 jeff_lindqvist Diglot Moderator SwedenRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 6703 days ago 4250 posts - 5710 votes Speaks: Swedish*, English Studies: German, Spanish, Russian, Dutch, Mandarin, Esperanto, Irish, French Personal Language Map | Message 3 of 4 29 April 2014 at 7:01pm | IP Logged | ||
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Related thread:
Quirky things in old language materials The old German phrase book I'm referring to in that thread must have a lot of sentences that you're very unlikely to use. 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Doitsujin Diglot Senior Member Germany Joined 5114 days ago 1256 posts - 2363 votes Speaks: German*, English | Message 4 of 4 29 April 2014 at 8:39pm | IP Logged | ||
Old phrasebooks remind me of time capsules; they often contain phrases that are not only utterly useless today, but might actually offend people, because of changes in meaning. For example, many older German phrasebooks published in the 19th century contain phrases with "gefälligst" ( ≈ if you please), which was in common use then to express a polite request. For example: Schneiden Sie mir gefälligst diese Feder. = Make me that pen, if you please. Schreiben Sie mir gefälligst Ihre Adresse auf. = Please give me your address. Geben Sie mir gefälligst ein ganz kleines Stückchen. = Donnez-m'en un petit morceau, s'il vous plaît. However, in current German "gefälligst" has the opposite meaning, it's mostly used to emphasize rude remarks. Kümmern Sie sich gefälligst um Ihre eigenen Angelegenheiten. = Mind your own (frigging) business! 3 persons have voted this message useful |
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