30.000 in 10
 

the storm lasted only ten minutes, but the hail of the size of pingpong-balls clusterbombed 30.000 factory-new cars at the main factory of Volkswagen:

http://www.spiegel.de/international/...562478,00.html

On German TV news some days ago they showed pictures from the huge parking place - and all cars in view no longer had a smooth skin anymore, but plenty of tiny round mini-craters. If all the place was affected by the weather, I would expect pratcially all the cars beeing damaged more or less. Keep your eyes open when you buy a VW in the next months. :)

Wowh, what a great design for a fly swatter that would make!

Why do main land Europeans often write 30.000 instead of 30,000?
It always looks like 30-point-000 to me.

Also: is it true that there is no such thing as round shoe laces in mainland Europe?

Because here the "," is standing for what you are using the "." for. For example if you have to pay 3 Euros and 50 Cents that looks like 3,50€ over here. If you want to make a large number more readable you place a "." for every thousend 3000000 is much easier to read when spelled 3.000.000 .
No idea why you have swapped it...(or did we???:hmm:).
But you are also driving on the wrong side of the road....;) (sorry, couldn't resist:rotfl:)

Because 30,000 means 30-point-zero-zero-zero over here, why do you ask!? But what better should I expect of people driving on the wrong side of the road!?

No, there are round laces, and flat ones as well. But changing with fashion it is possible that in some years the one, and in other years the other is more often to be seen. currently, flat ones are more en vogue. Round laces are still existent though, both separately, or sometimes coming with new shoes.

P.S. Da hat doch jemand zeitgleich mit mir die gleichen Pointen geangelt! Lümmel...!

I heard a story that British prisoners that escaped in Germany where sometimes
spotted because they had round shoe laces, not flat, German laces.
I suppose it's either BS or times have changed.

I had to reread the article twice before I understood. For some reason I kept thinking it was ping-pong balls!:oops: :rotfl:

As for different punctuation and usage: Here we use the comma (,) for number separation and the period (.) for decimal places, but we drive on the 'right' side of the road.

We Yanks also use the double-apostrophe (") for quotations (we even call them quotation marks) where as the British (at least back when Ian Fleming was writing) used the single (') for original quotations and the double for secondary quotes. Fleming's publisher also talked about car "tyres" (we use "tires") and wearing "pyjamas" (we spell it "pajamas").

What other interesting differences can we find?

[quote=Skybird]Wer zu langsam schreibt, den bestraft der Spamer.;)

Movie - Film
Color - Colour
Can - Tin
Meter - Metre (is that correct?)
And there are some more...

Err, we are getting OT.:dead:

Hood - Bonnet
Roof - Hood
Trunk - Boot

OT true, but how much can you say about thirty thousand (I'm not getting back into that (,) vs (.) argument again) dinged VWs?

Sidewalk - Pavement
Elevator - Lift

etc. etc.


The one that annoys me the most is the way so many Americans pronounce "Nietzsche".

In Spanish they make sure you know a question is coming by telling you in advance. I think that's pretty cool.

¿Comprende?

The decimal point designates a fraction (also refered to as 'and') in the rest of the world. What planet is Germany on?

-S

Try driving on the "other" side of the road around here and see how long you last.

:p :p

http://www.translatebritish.com/index.php

I couldn't find a Welsh translator. Seeing how all Britons are Welsh anyway, I thought this one would work.