Hacker Newsnew | past | comments | ask | show | jobs | submitlogin

> Kaltes Klares Vasser

If that was supposed to be German for "cold clear water" that's "kaltes klares Wasser" and we don't capitalize adjectives.



It's actually a song title, so properly capitalized, but I mussed the V v. W because I do not speak German and forgot that when she sings "VASSuh", it's spelled with a W. :)


To me the pronunciation of the first letter of the English word water and the German word Wasser sounds the same, but maybe my English is wrong.


Apparently it varies, but German-W pronounced as English-V (or at least nearly so) is the most common variation?

Many sources on the net, but this one has the most nuanced discussion that I could find:

https://old.reddit.com/r/German/comments/53ws8q/are_ws_alway...


Ok, as a German, I think we just don't care about the distinction. We only have the two letters/sounds W and F, the first representing various sounds between [w] and [v]. I think it isn't even a dialect thing, i.e. it is more like unspecified behaviour not like implementation-defined, it can change by time-of-day by a single person, because we just don't care. The letter V can represent either the German W or F sound, I think you just need to know that for every word.




Guidelines | FAQ | Lists | API | Security | Legal | Apply to YC | Contact

Search: