German language question - Democratic Underground

Onlooker

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Mon Apr-19-04 12:34 PM
Original message

German language question

Edited on Mon Apr-19-04 12:34 PM by Onlooker

How do you say something like "capitalist pig" or "greedy bastard" in German (or Swiss-German)? Is there an expression that's used by leftists or anarchists today if they were to shout something at Bill Gates, for instance? Thanks.

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Maine-i-acs

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Mon Apr-19-04 12:41 PM
Response to Original message

1. Kapitalistschwein!

http://dictionary.reference.com/translate/text.html
It would sound nasty with a Geman accent I wager.

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Kellanved

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Mon Apr-19-04 01:01 PM
Response to Reply #1

5. close

Edited on Mon Apr-19-04 01:03 PM by Kellanved

Kapitalistenschwein
"greedy bastard" would be "habgieriger Bastard"(direct translation) , "habgieriges Miststück" (if your bastard is female) or "habgieriger Arsch" (if male).
:hi:

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Woody Box

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Mon Apr-19-04 01:12 PM
Response to Reply #1

6. Translation not 100% right

KAPITALISTENSCHWEIN is proper german and a widely used offense.

GIERHAMMEL is the best translation for greedy bastard. (gier=greed, hammel=mutton)

SCHUFT is obsolete, has the sound of the 50ties. ARSCH is better.

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Fenris

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Mon Apr-19-04 12:42 PM
Response to Original message

2. Well...

A direct translation would be Kapitalist-Schweinhund, but it's probably idiomatic. I don't know about "greedy bastard", though.

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Woody Box

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Mon Apr-19-04 01:15 PM
Response to Reply #2

7. Kapitalistenschweinehund

is unusual, but possible.

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LynzM

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Mon Apr-19-04 12:59 PM
Response to Original message

3. Greedy bastard would be

habgieriger Arsch (more like greedy ass) or habgieriger Schuft (wretch, villian)...

www.leo.org and then go to Deutsch-Englishes Woerterbuch... you can type any word in and get translations both directions. Won't help you much with grammar, but it's a start :D

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JVS

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Mon Apr-19-04 12:59 PM
Response to Original message

4. Multiple answers

Kapitalistschwein is a compound of two nouns it would be like saying capitalist-pig. The phrase capitalist pig, is in my estimation the noun pig described by the adjective capitalist. If we were to make a translation that is true to this formulation would be "kapitalistisches Schwein", but on google.de these phrases do not show up often.

May I suggest Plutokrat= plutocrat, Grosscapitalist= big capitalist (this carries the same connotation that big business does here), Parasit=parasite, Schmarotzer= goldbrick/parasite

I am not very familiar with Swiss-german except that I know that it is only a spoken variant of German. There is no difference in dialect in the writting.

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