Comments on: Wir bitten um Ihr (Miss)Verständnis

By: yoda

yoda — Tue, 03 Jun 2008 21:30:05 +0000

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..

By: Mark

Mark — Wed, 23 Apr 2008 10:54:24 +0000

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!”

By: Miss-Verständnis

Miss-Verständnis — Fri, 18 Apr 2008 09:15:00 +0000

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.”

By: 42317

42317 — Tue, 15 Apr 2008 15:07:38 +0000

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.

By: Nicolette

Nicolette — Sun, 06 Apr 2008 11:01:57 +0000

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!

By: Miss-Verständnis

Miss-Verständnis — Sun, 06 Apr 2008 09:28:52 +0000

@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!

By: Heart Attack Jones

Heart Attack Jones — Sun, 06 Apr 2008 05:52:00 +0000

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…

By: Roland

Roland — Sat, 05 Apr 2008 22:46:43 +0000

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