Apparently this troper speaks german nonsense when she is drunk and feeling antisocial. I was told by a fellow german student that I called everyone at the party "broken in the head" and that I wanted to "swallow isolation and repeat history"

This Californian troper tends to use scheiße (shit) as an exclamation, usually when something bad happens. Since I don't actually speak German (though I am part-German) I'm trying to drop this.

This troper uses that too. He actually learned it from one of his high school teachers, who was using it to get crap past the radar. We blew his cover when we asked his brother, another teacher, what it meant.

This troper does as well. One time he cursed it under his breath and the German exchange student looked surprised. Whoops.

This troper does it too sometimes when she needs to get crap past the radar.. She also tends to call people who annoy her 'schwein' (pig). Both words are very satisfying to say.

Actually, I don't know if it's just me, but I think a lot of people can tell what "schwein" means (swine ring a bell?). But that probably comes from living near a place called "Schweinfurt" for the last four years.

Note from an actual real life German: "Scheiße" does literally mean "shit". But translating it to english as "fuck" would actually do it more justice.

This troper, another real life German, disagrees. I think "scheiße" as a curse word is pretty similar to the englisch "shit", while "fuck" is a level more rude... Actually, the english word "Fuck" is used pretty commonly in Germany (at least by younger people), a friend of mine who once visited the USA and just continued using this habit until he got told by a seemingly very shocked hotel employee "Don't use the F-word!"

"Fuck" in German pretty much has the same effect as "bastard" in English, as in it's not considered very offensive anymore. "Fick" (not sure if that's the right spelling) on the other hand is just as offensive as "fuck" in English. This Troper went to a German School for a few months and learned this first hand.

I don't know whether it's the correct spelling, but the word isn't used that way. "Ficken" is a verb which means basically the same as "to fuck" (in the sence of having sex), but is slightly less insultng. Then there is "fick dich", which translates neatly into "fuck you" and is about as offensive.

@/JethroQWalrustitty used mild german swears (mostly "Donnerwetter!") when working at a kindergarden.

Actually, to make it a swear you would have to say "zum Donnerwetter" (literally 'to thunder-weather') which would translate to something like "to hell with this". "Donnerwetter" is rather an exclamation of regard or admiration.

Heh. You do know that kindergarten is the German for "childrens' garden"? You're using German profanities at a German-named institution.

@/{{Popette}} also uses "zum Donnerwetter" as a swear word, although not for any particular reason.

This German troper never heard of it before. Is it some kind of a long-forgotten cussing word from the eighties?

And ''this'' German troper mostly knows "Donnerwetter!" from Goofy in German dubs of Disney stuff. (By the fact that even ''Goofy'' is allowed to say it, you can tell that it is really not offensive at all. You could even use it in a ''German'' kindergarten and get away with it!)

It was never that offensive to begin with - Pumuckl, a traditional german children's tv show produced in the eighties (and its radio-counterpart which dates back even further) was produced in the extremely conservative state of Bavaria, and even it used Donnerwetter without giving it a second thought. It helps that swearing aloud, especially at no one in particular (such as when you're angry or mess something up) has a long tradition in Germany...

This Dutch troper will occasionally say 'Donnerwetter!' when unpleasantly surprised. Or, when ''particularly'' unpleasantly surprised, 'Götterdämmerung!' Which is an awesome opera, by the way.

@/DokEnkephalin did it habitually for years after coming back from Germany, even moreso when brother or sister were near and answering in German phrases. It doesn't seem gratuitous if you've moved to a big community of Army brats who were also over there, since we all picked up on the same expressions, but it did keep our civilian friends in the dark. And now that I'm studying Japanese, I try to make use of some phrases for the sake of practice, yet I somehow keep coming up with German.

Say, did you by any chance visit the MIS, BIS or the International School in the Artillery Caserne in Garmisch? I'm from there. We've got quite a special attitude to ''Gratuitious German'' there. You are (mildly said) not encouraged, to swear either in German OR in English. Our reaction? ''Tshoerrt!''

This troper's mother seems to think that swearing in different languages =/= actually swearing, and says scheiße instead of shit.

@/{{Alkthash}} will swear in German at work. Or say perfectly innocent things like "Could you get me more onions?" in German and watch people react as if I had called them a goat-fucking bastard.

This troper does not speak German, yet swears in German. This is because his ''great-grandmother'' was German (and swore in German), and each succeeding generation of my father's family has picked up the habit from the generation before.

This Troper invokes this often, mainly because it's one of the hazards that comes with being a German major.

This troper occasionally Babelfishes his less serious forum posts into German for the hell of it.

This Troper has recently started taking German lessons. Since she obviously needs to practice pronunciation, she's started randomly using German phrases around friends and family. The fact that they don't understand a word of it just makes it funnier.

This Troper is a German student and the day her class learnt the words for various bits of genitalia was the day at least ten detentions were handed out. Scheisse.

This troper managed to pull of GratuitousGerman, GratuitousSpanish and GratuitousJapanese all at once by calling a very happy toddler wearing a T-shirt that featured Miffy & "Hello Kitty" holding hands: Muy Sehr Kawaii !!!

@/{{Magus}} came up with a nice BilingualBonus for the name of an attack in a game he's creating. It's "Diese Brezeln Machen Mich Durstig".

@/{{Pocketwatch}} has a completely terrible GratuitousGerman habit when in familiar company (friends or family), to the point of occasionally having to automatically translate what I've said before I'm asked to. Some jokes and puns I've come up with only make sense to my friends who are also learning German, which is a little bit annoying. Sometimes I just say random phrases I've learned for the hell of it.

It also applies to my friends who are learning German - our text messages commonly contain an unholy mixture of English, Irish, German, maybe some French or a tiny bit of Japanese, and then... Mangled versions of words combining some languages, deliberate phonetic spelling, in-jokes and in-jokey slang. (Muttimus or Muttimus Maximus being a favourite when talking about mothers, for example.) We have ''lots'' of fun.

My best friend complained about my terrible habit once, since she does French: -> Her: You know I can't understand when you randomly speak German. It's kind of strange. -> Me: Well, what I was saying was "Do you have a room free?" Like you would if you were in a hotel or B&B.

This Troper uses scheiße and dummkopf as Unusual Euphemisms for English swears. He also uses "Schnell!" when he needs people to hurry up.

@/{{Blau}} is German, so the very idea of using ''gratuitous '' German does not really apply, however, I really like to insert phrases that were used as gratuitous german in movies or shows, even keeping the English/American accent. "Sitzen! Machen!"

Curious subversion: @/{{Crion87}}, instead of using Gratuitous German, sometimes uses Gratuitous ''Dutch'' - to be particular, he used a lot of the Dutch guttural throat noises (I forget what they are called). He's trying to get out of that habit because he isn't actually Dutch-descent (Welsh, Scottish, German, possibly Polish, but not Dutch).

Gratuitous German has become something of a geeky trend at this troper's school, not leastly because our German teacher is quite attractive. (Much of the mangled German has to do with how hot he is-- such as calling him, literally, "a fox", and "very, very hot". As in the temperature. Which does, in that construction, mean something more in line with "sexy"/"horny". Agh.)

Calling him a "Fuchs" (fox) doesn't mean anything about his sex-appeal or attractiveness in general. Actually it's about intelligence and - sometimes - being treacherous.

This British Troper has a running in-joke with a number of friends involving the words "Krank", "Krankenhaus" and "Krankenwagen", or; Sick, Hospital and Ambulance. Also "Achtung! Wienacht!" although thats more due to a certain song.

@/AirshipCanon is using it in his RPGMaker Game. Most things Freizkielien...

@/{{Lemurian}} likes to say that he says good morning all through the day, up to 2:00 am, when he starts pretending to know German. Ja, ich sprechen sehr gut imachineren deutch.

This troper had an English teacher who used "Bahnhof" as a general exclamation or swear. For those not German-inclined, Bahnhof means ''train station.'' He only used it because it ''sounded'' like a swear (because Everything is Angrier in German, obviously).

In actual German there's also an expression "Ich versteh nur Bahnhof" ("I only understand train station," or perhaps more idiomatically, "All I heard was 'train station'"), sometimes shortened to just "Bahnhof!". It means you actually didn't understand anything of what you've just been told.

This troper uses German swear words constantly, and finds it easy to speak German in conversation. The problem is that this troper has never studied German other than a few phrasebooks, and is in fact taking ''Italian.'' For the past four years!

This troper was reading a book with his friends when the book said that the German word for "team" is Mannschaft. Hilarity ensued.

@/{{Katana}} recently went on a school trip to Germany for a month. While my german isn't particularly bad (although I'm likely to get the tenses wrong), one student in particular, who basically came over to get drunk, thought that "Entschuligoo" was proper German. Cue {{Facepalm}}.

In a science lesson I dropped something and said: 'Verdammte Scheiße aus der Hölle!' but I also tend to come out with 'Jesus Christus auf einem Scheiß-Motorrad!'

My best friend does this constantly. So much so that I've learned basic German just from her. Also, I use "guten tag", "ja", and "dumbkopf".

OK, I'll admit it. I once convinced a friend that [=FrauSchtücker=] was German for "penis".

This troper sprinkles his words with German just for the hell of it.

This troper has a habit of saying "danke" instead of "thank you" for some reason. It kind of helps that it's some of the only German she remembers from her two years of German class... (Thankfully enough, she doesn't use much GratuitousJapanese despite having taken a class for it too.)

This troper can also identify with that. She learned it in German class at highschool. This said, it's occasionally come in handy, such as helping out German folks she's met online ("kann ich ihnen helfen?") However, using German in front of Dutch folks (usually without realizing she's doing it -- it's just become so ingrained) tended to result in giggles from them, with them providing the correct Dutch alternative ("danke" = "dank je" for them, for example. This troper also loves their, "you're welcome": "graag gedaan" [sp?], sometimes just shortened to "GG".)

Same. I went to Austria a few years ago, and since then Danke/Danke schun has just sort of stuck. I occasionally use other basic German words (Auf Weidersehn instead of Goodbye), but its 'Danke' that gets used the most.

This troper is American-German and once used her semi-fluency to avoid a scam artist that was hanging around the local strip mall. (I'd been approached by a few different guys previously) This troper is also particularly fond of yelling "Ich wünsche dir Gesund!" to friends/people when they annoy her. Little do they know...

This Troper's nickname is Grafsburg, which he only recently found out would mean something like 'Count's Castle' in German.

This Troper's (American, English-speaking) family inexplicably peppers their conversations with phrases from various other languages. Perhaps the strangest is ''ufnet die Tur'' (spelling?), which we use as a command to ''close the door'', although as far as This Troper can make out it actually means quite the opposite.

Proper spelling would be "öffnet die Tür", and it does indeed mean "''open'' the door".

After a semester of German, this Filipino troper is rather guilty of this.

Likewise, this troper and his friends will speak pretty basic and probably wrong German to each other. #QUOTE#He: I only played MGS back on PS1. #QUOTE#Me: Woah, Das Altschulen.

At this troper's public school, it was a common trend to reply "JAWOHL MEIN FUHRER" after anything a teacher said, despite the fact German wasn't even taught at that school.

Be grateful. A native speaker of German overhearing you would probably kick your ass for this kind of stuff. Nazi jokes aren't exactly considered very funny here.

YMMV, this troper can lol, for instance, a lot at Alfons Hatler of ''Der Wixxer'' "fame". Or Extra3's NNN. Then again, she's callous and not 100% German.

But that's making fun about Nazis, not claiming that all germans are like Nazis 60 years ago.

This German troper prefers "Jawohl, Herr Obersturmbannführer!"

Seconded, by another german. Also adresses friends (in-jokingly) randomly as "Reichsführer-SS", Heinrich Himmlers rank, simply because it´s uncommon.

@/{{Taicat}} spend her childhood at least once per year in Germany and lived in Silesia part of poland (once Prussian partition and german territory) was influenced with German for whole life.She likes to call everything 'Scheise'.

Also I should mention that Silesian dialect/language is mix of polish/german and slovakian influences.Especially german

There are certain dubious advantages to growing up in the family I did. One of them is the rule that if you say something in one language, you are not allowed to reply in the same language unless neither party knows how to say it. On one hand, it means I know how to ask for the bathroom wherever I may roam. On the other this rule leads to the assumption that everyone understands when you ask, "Verstes du das?" or "Konst du Duetch?". It's even worse for the odd German guy I meet, who hopefully asks me if I speak his language. I may have broken a few hearts on account of my habitually dropping their language into mine. (Apologies to any actual speaker of German for my bad spelling. Our rule did not extend to the written word, nor were we picky about enunciation.)

@/TheGrooveyOne ''loves'' the German language. He doesn't actually speak it, but he's prone to using German exclamations for added "oomph". His favourites are "Achtung [baby]!", "Einspruch!" and "Raus, raus!". He ''is'' of German heritage, though...that may have something to do with it.

This troper tends to refer to himself as ''dummkopf'' occasionally when he does something stupid, and prefers ''danke schon'' to thank you, confusing the recipient. Even though this troper doesn't swear, if he did, he'd swear in German.

This troper swears a lot in several different languages, German included.

This troper loves German. A lot. And ever sence she got into TeamFortress2...she sprinkles it on almost everything.

This troper and her boyfriend sprinkle GratuitousGerman in our conversations. Usually pet names but she also swears and he likes to quote Von Kaiser.

@/NotSoBadassLongcoat sometimes uses the phrase "Alle gitarren mussen fur den Sieg rockundrollen!" (and done in an over the top "Hitler Public Speech" way or, when in print, using Gothic lettering), picked up from a satirical article in local computer magazine.

Also, "duppen w raketen und schuuu! Ausnach Kosmos!" (Ass-en into the rocket-en and whoosh! Away into space!) as a method of getting rid of someone, "O mein Gott! Das ist fenz (''pronounced "fence"'') around mein plott! Und zwei klofeslinen:Yes. "Clotheslines". No. That's not a real German word.!" and throwing things "''ausnach'' trashcan".

Most of that wasn´t real german...it sounded more like the language they made up for TheGreatDictator.

I couldn't find a "Gratuitous Dutch" page, so I'll post it here because it is related. This American troper grew up in next door to a family of Dutch immigrants and was very close friends with their son. Naturally, I picked up a fair amount of Dutch, which I continued to use. I later became (and still am right now) an exchange student to Germany. I learned German pretty fast, but the close "feel" of the two languages has caused me not only to speak German with a somewhat conspicuous Dutch accent, but also throw in random Dutch words with my German, e.g., I never say "aber" for "but"; I always replace it with Dutch "maar." Why this is, I do not know. I can only chalk it up to my upbringing. I still can't figure out why I can't get "aber" or "und" to come out of my mouth, though.

I do that too. The difference? I've never met a Dutch person in my life, nor am I of Dutch descent. I just really like the sound and feel of the language. I don't usualy talk to other people in Dutch (partly because I study it very casualy and don't really know that much), but I do sometimes swear at my friends and then refuse to tell them what it means. I also talk to myself in a mixture of actual Dutch and Dutch-sounding Simlish. I like to think my accent is pretty good, because I listen to a lot of Dutch music.

I do swear in English, but am known to swear in Italian and German, as well as mutter other, less then pleasant things using my patchy, incomplete knowledge of those languages.

This Troper often says ''ausgezeichnet''. It has a nice ring to it.

And Mr. Burns catchphrase in the german dub.

This Troper often insults other people in German. This has arguably gotten worse since she started practicing getting "in-character" for her Medic cosplay.

One of this Britalian troper's friends at school gets pissed whenever I say "Du hast mittelschmerz" to him. I also regularly swear in German and Italian.

"You have middle pain" what does this even mean?

Here.

I definitely do this. I have been known to say "Guten Nacht" at night, "tschüß" when leaving, or when parents are leaving, saying "Danke" instead of "thank you", bitte instead of "you're welcome" and for no thank you, and pronouncing the town we live in the German way. It doesn't help that we live in Germany, and have lived in Germany for the last four years. So, maybe since I use these words in Germany, it was rubbing off on me.

Also, I could find a place for gratuitous Finnish, so I'll just add it here (even though the two languages sound nothing alike). When my mom and I speak in Finnish to each other (sadly I have a small knowledge of the language) my father has no idea what we're talking about.

I've got a few. In high school I would say "scheisse" to GettingCrapPastTheRadar, which was especially important in my private Christian school. I still say it every now and then, because I find it to be very satisfying. Also, I used to occasionally refer to my sister as "schwester". My Dad will use snippets of German every now and then (he's half-German and took three years of the language in high school while also speaking it at home).

This is how this Troper knows he's been playing too much Silent Hunter and CompanyOfHeroes. He routinely answers with "ja?" or "da?" (Russian, ironically), gestures with "schnell!", thanks people with "danke schon", and has replaced "hey!" with "achtung!"

My mom is German, and my dad knows German, so sometimes he'll say a German phrase to her.

This Troper is long accustomed to greeting his professors with "Morgen", bidding people "danke", and swearing using all manner of German. He tends to string words together ("Scheisse-verdamtenkopf!") in ways that make no sense but are satisfying still. Random German words tend to wander into his conversations, as well.

This troper has been studying German for a few years and prefers to swear in German since it sounds much eviler and for GettingCrapPastTheRadar at work. She also tends to yell "Schnell!" at people to hurry up, a habit she picked up from her father who is German.

This Troper has a tendency to yell at his cat in German. The cat understands it no better than English, French, Spanish, or Esperanto, which I also speak to him.

This Troper has learnt German for the past three and a half years, and is going to Germany at the end of the year. She tends to swear in every language at hand - English, German, Spanish, Italian, Arabic, French, Pig Latin - and, just the other day, called a microwave ein Stück Scheisse. A piece of shit.

This Troper tends to think in a half-German, half-English hybrid, even though my experience with German is limited to 4.5 years of school instruction. So, while I might say something like "I must go to the hotel", I'm probably thinking "Ich muss to the hotel gehen. Mach schnell, dummkopf!"

This Troper moved to Germany with her family, where she swims with a German coach. Said coach speaks English fluently, but shouts instructions and insults in German (he know how intimidating it sounds.) Needless to say, when he followed me state-side for a meet, he was referred to by most of the other swimmers as " that crazy German coach."

This troper is Austrian (and studying abroad in the US) and when his cousin is visiting we like to say "HART WIE KRUPPSTAHL" (Hard as Krupp-steel) at every opportunity. Earns us a few strange looks every time...

This American troper uses 'Nein', 'Ja', 'Danke' and other simple German words in conversation.

This Irish Troper does the same. Probably has something to do with large amount of AceAttorney fics she reads her Maths tutor who studied in Germany and now sometimes speaks German so often, his stories sometimes become incoherent. He does translate once he realises what he's doing though.

Graffiti on bathroom wall at the University of Washington: "Ich scheisse in deine totenleute!"(I shit on your grave?)

A better translation would be "I shit in your deadpeople". Totenleute doesn't mean grave, there's no such word. The closest match is "tote leute" (dead people) or "töten leute" ("to kill people", but in reverse order), and it should be written apart. Plus, the "in" was probably supposed to be "auf".

Well, if they meant "I shit on your grave!", the proper translation would be "Ich scheisse auf dein Grab!". "Ich scheisse auf eure Gräber!" would be the appropriate phrase if "I shit on your graves!" was meant.

This Trope was actually fun and has turned into a RunningGag between my twin and me. She took two years of high-school German. I took three (and a year of it in college). One time, when we wanted to argue, but didn't want Mom involved, we resorted to this! Ten years out of college, and I can still ''read'' the language well enough to decipher a trouble ticket - but my grammar and phasing is too hideous to actually reply to the customer.

This troper and her friend do this alot. It was even more gratuitous back in 8th grade, when we were looking forward to taking German Freshman year. I enjoy saying "Mit Senf" even though in most situations, ending a sentence with "mit senf" is irrelevant and confusing. Mit senf... (I don't even like mustard that much.)

As a german student, this troper does this without thinking of it much. After one especially bad bout of it, she acually said "Warten, weshalb bin ich deutch sprechen?" ("wait, why am I speaking german?). Thus lampshading her own habit.

This troper does this in reverse since he lurks in various english forums. It was especially irritating for his parents since they only had russian in theyr school-days

This Swedish troper hasn't said "thank you" in Swedish for years (it's "tack" by the way), opting instead for "danke schön."

This troper enjoys making up many strange German insults, such as "Sohn aus ein mutterlos Ziege!" (Son of a motherless goat), "Kinder-lecken Franzoze!" (Child-licking Frenchman), and "Du Jahr-tot Reinigerin!" (You year-dead cleaning woman).

This tropers German friend does it, usually when she can't find a word in Greek that fits. When she realises it, she tries to explain what she just said by translating it (BlindIdiotTranslation style). HilarityEnsues.

This german Troper used english for quite a while, sometimes it gets mixed up. Either I forget the german word, but know the english one, or forget the english one, and know the german. It get´s particulary confusing at times when I ask people the corresponding word and hope they know the translation. It grows into GratuitousGerman when talking to english speaking fellows. And, after one particulary lenghty Internet-call session with an american, my first few sentences to my mother where english, then I realised she couldn´t really do much with that. He has also refined his accent to the point where he has to proof his german-ness to people, usually by loads of GratuitousGerman in Hitler or Rammstein style, or just plain insulting them in a calm, but very NSFW manner. Hilarity ensues.

This Troper was accused of this once when speaking Mongolian. My only actual knowledge of German comes from this page and Omniglot's Useful Phrases index, but usually I can't remember any of it. I did, however, have a friend in high school who dropped German into everything because she thought it made her cool.

This Troper uses German randomly to screw with his friends, who don't know anything other than "Guten Tag".