Aus dem Haus
Wir bitten um Ihr (Miss)Verständnis
The avid readers of this blog (or should I say, ‘reader’ singular - Hi Mum!) might notice the entries a little sparse at the moment. This is because Miss V is in the land of Urlaub (where all Germans go on holiday), living it up and talking about herself in the third person in France. More on this later…
But meanwhile, the title phrase is taken from Deutsche Bahn. Whenever there is a breakdown or delay, the lovely lady over the loud speaker informs us that they request/ask for/plead for/beg for our understanding (”bitten um Ihr Verständnis”). Which got me thinking (in true Word Nerd fashion) about the verb ‘bitten’. Is there really an equivalent in English? Sure, you can literally translate it as ‘to request’, but it is a direct derivative of ‘Bitte’, meaning ‘please’. Does this indicate a level of politeness possessed by Germans which is simply unknown to the English-speaking world?
Discussion
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The English cognate would be “bid”, which *could* be used in many of the same ways, but sounds rather elevated. “We bid you understand” sounds a little weird, though, if still workable.
I always assumed that “bitte” was rather a derivative of “bitten”, i.e. a shortened form of “Ich bitte Sie”, just as “danke” is a shortened form of “Ich danke ihnen”. After all, you wouldn’t say “Ich bitte sie bitte [etwas tun]“, as that sort of expresses the same idea twice…
@Roland: thanks, much appreciated
@Heart Attack: That makes a lot of sense. A lot of German (as well as Romantic languages like French and Spanish) sound, or at least read a little like strangely pronounced old fashioned English, due to the shared origins.
But yes, you’re probably right about Danke and Bitte being derivatives of the verb - I hadn’t thought of that, thanks!
Dude, I have so had the exact same train of thought. Have it quite often with various German words that I just can’t bear to translate into a less-exactly right sounding English version.
Viva la word geeks!
As a translation for “Wir bitten um ihr Verständnis” I would propose “We beg your bardon”.
“to beg” is usually translated as “betteln”, and the one who does it is the “Bettler” (”beggar”), but there is a somewhat related term called “Bittsteller” (someone who asks for favors, service, or money), and I’d say that’s sort of a sematic overlap.
Nicolette: I love to be a word geek! Join the club.
42317 (is that your real name?): I think you’re right - it’s somewhere between beg/bid/ask. Although I think in English, we would tend to preempt the situation, instead of begging the pardon or understanding of passengers, we would say “Thank you for your understanding/patience.”
being a native german i have the feeling that (specially) the deutsche bahn doesn’t ask or even BEG for underständing. It’s more a way of telling something the listener cannot change anyway. It’s a polite way to say: “your train is late, because our staff is on strike. face it!”
In France the lady says ‘merci de votre compréhension’ (’thanks for your understanding’) at the end of a sentence that actually means ‘the such and such thing is forbidden’. I wouldn’t think it is a matter of politeness, I’d rather say it’s a kind of cop talk in disguise..