Now that you say it I remember the term "to go down" also from sinking ships as well as crashing aircraft. However I was reasonably sure it could also be used literally. Got me thinking there. I will edit the thread above to avoid any misunderstandings. :) Thanks :up:

We are both wrong.

Osten= der Osten
Sud= der Suden
Westen= der Westen

The above are correct

thanks = der Dank

All courtesy of a english-german dictionary.

And confirmed by my mother, who happens to be German.

When writing "Süden" with an English keyboard might want to use the official way of writing German without "Umlaute". Add an "e" after the "u" to show that you want to write a different letter. The so-called "Umlaute" i.e. "ä", "ö" and "ü" are used for different sounds than "a", "o" and "u". It even can change the meaning of the word if you leave that out, like in "öde/oede" which means "barren" or "dull" and "Ode" which happens to be an "ode" in English :)

So "Süden" would be "Sueden"
"Karl Dönitz" would be "Karl Doenitz"

In naval german, the periscope was almost always referred to by the men as "der Spargel", the asparagus...:know:

What an interesting thread!

Whilst we're talking German and translation in genral, when my boat gets pinged the Hydrophones officer tells me so, and then mutters what sounds like a prayer. Can anyone tell me what he's actually saying?

Many Thanks

You'll probably hear 'Wann hört das endlich auf?' which translates to 'When will it finally be over?' (that's the word-by word translation, perhaps somebody else has a better translation).

Thanks mate, I've wondered ever since I first heard it. It's the little touches like that that really make this game for me:up:

Wirklich? Der Feind hat mich oft geortet aber, ich bin mir sicher, daß ich das nie gehört habe. Hmm. :hmm:
Ich habe aber 'Oh Wann ist das endlich vorbei' gehört. Hörst du das auch?

Anyway, sorry for the Hijack... carry on. :)

Yes, that's when it was coined. The US Military went acronym-happy in that period. Sonar is an acronym for SOund Navigation And Ranging.

You might not be aware that Scuba is Self-Contained Underwater Breathing Apparatus.

And I always love it when I hear some religious leader say "We've had a real Snafu", since it's short for Situation Normal-All F&%$ed Up!

Sorry. Back to the topic...

I dont have "Umlaute" on this computer. Though I should since my mom still has relatives in Germany

And yes Woof you are correct. Now Word does have Umlaute to write letters and such.