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Gut the burger

When I first arrived in Germany I hadn't spoken German for five years. Thus a little nervous I decided to opt for a fast food restaurant where I thought nothing could go wrong. I managed to order a burger and some fries. The waiter put the food on a tray but I wanted to take it out. Dredging my memory, I eventually came up with zum Ausnehmen, bitte, which I hoped meant 'to take out, please'. The waiter gave me a very odd look. I grabbed the stuff off the tray and left. Only later I discovered from my colleagues that I actually said 'to gut, please'.

Editor's note: Quite close! You should have said zum Mitnehmen, bitte. Find out how to order in German in our online course for beginners German Steps.

Sent by: Tim

Comments

Chris 2006-01-19

Probably she said zwei (very short pause) neunzig. Or maybe zwei Euro neunzig.

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David 2005-09-26

My friends and I had a good long night in a Kneipe in Cologne and the time came to pay. I thought the waitress said zweihundertneunzig, two hundreds and ninety, and my immediate thoughts were how could she rip us of to that extent or I wondered if she was counting the ticks on the wrong beermat. I eventually realised she had said zwei und neunzig, two ninety. It was noisy in the pub and nothing to do with the fact that it was Karneval time.

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Rob 2005-10-11

If the waitress had said zweiundneunzig that would actually mean "ninety-two" - not two ninety. Think of when your gran used to say "four-and-twenty" ...

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