On Wednesday, 27 April 2016 at 02:57:47 UTC, Walter Bright wrote:
> To prepare for a week in Berlin, a few German phrases is all you'll need to fit in, get around, and have a great time:
>
> 1. Ein Bier bitte!
> 2. Noch ein Bier bitte!
> 3. Wo ist der WC!

Kein Bier vor vier ;-)

Back two years ago when I moved to Berlin and began my German lessons I came up with a little haiku or singalong:

Ich möchte ein Bier!

Ein Bier für mich,
und ein Bier für meinen Freund!

Ich bin meiner bester Freund,
noch ein Bier für meinen Freund!!

On 4/27/16, Joseph Rushton Wakeling via Digitalmars-d <digitalmars-d@puremagic.com> wrote:
> On Wednesday, 27 April 2016 at 02:57:47 UTC, Walter Bright wrote:
>> To prepare for a week in Berlin, a few German phrases is all you'll need to fit in, get around, and have a great time:
>>
>> 1. Ein Bier bitte!
>> 2. Noch ein Bier bitte!
>> 3. Wo ist der WC!
>
> Kein Bier vor vier ;-)
>

On 27 April 2016 at 13:25, Marco Leise via Digitalmars-d <digitalmars-d@puremagic.com> wrote:
> Am Wed, 27 Apr 2016 03:59:04 +0000
> schrieb Seb <seb@wilzba.ch>:
>
>> nitpick: Wo ist _das_ WC?
>> In German WC we have definite articles and as a WC can be used by
>> both sexes, it is neutral (disclaimer: not a rule).
>
> There are some reasons why some words are feminine, masculine or neutral, but I never heard of that. (It is short form for English "watercloset" - which I didn't know before I looked it up now. :D)
>

Ha!  There is no logical at all behind whether a word is masculine, feminine or neutral in German.

On 27 April 2016 at 04:57, Walter Bright via Digitalmars-d <digitalmars-d@puremagic.com> wrote:
> To prepare for a week in Berlin, a few German phrases is all you'll need to fit in, get around, and have a great time:
>
> 1. Ein Bier bitte!
> 2. Noch ein Bier bitte!
> 3. Wo ist der WC!

4. Zahlen bitte!

Unless you plan on making a getaway before paying. :-)

On 04/26/2016 07:57 PM, Walter Bright wrote:
> To prepare for a week in Berlin, a few German phrases is all you'll need
> to fit in, get around, and have a great time:
>
> 1. Ein Bier bitte!
> 2. Noch ein Bier bitte!
> 3. Wo ist der WC!

The other language that helps in Berlin is Turkish. :)

Ali

On 28/04/16 09:43, Iain Buclaw via Digitalmars-d wrote:

>
> Ha!  There is no logical at all behind whether a word is masculine,
> feminine or neutral in German.
>

In Hebrew, there is no such thing as a neutral noun, (though there are nouns that can be either male of female). When you go from one such language to another, it gets even more confusing because, since it is arbitrary for both languages, many words are female in one language and male in the other.

Shachar

On Wednesday, 27 April 2016 at 02:57:47 UTC, Walter Bright wrote:
> To prepare for a week in Berlin, a few German phrases is all you'll need to fit in, get around, and have a great time:
>
> 1. Ein Bier bitte!
> 2. Noch ein Bier bitte!
> 3. Wo ist der WC!

4. Ich bin ein Berliner!

That may you get free beers, if you're an american citizen and you manage to build a time-machine to get back to 1963 (I suggest using bidirectional ranges in order to return to the present, or a glass of fresh water).

On Thursday, 28 April 2016 at 06:43:52 UTC, Iain Buclaw wrote:
> On 27 April 2016 at 13:25, Marco Leise via Digitalmars-d <digitalmars-d@puremagic.com> wrote:
>> Am Wed, 27 Apr 2016 03:59:04 +0000
>> schrieb Seb <seb@wilzba.ch>:
>>
>>> nitpick: Wo ist _das_ WC?
>>> In German WC we have definite articles and as a WC can be used by
>>> both sexes, it is neutral (disclaimer: not a rule).
>>
>> There are some reasons why some words are feminine, masculine or neutral, but I never heard of that. (It is short form for English "watercloset" - which I didn't know before I looked it up now. :D)
>>
>
> Ha!  There is no logical at all behind whether a word is masculine, feminine or neutral in German.

Except when it corresponds to the natural gender, i.e. der Mann, die Frau. It's interesting that the word for child is neuter (das Kind). Looks like children are not yet considered to be of any sex, which makes a lot of sense.

Anyway, you can often deduce the grammatical gender from the ending (like in French, Spanish etc). E.g. -keit is feminine, while nouns ending in -er are masculine

die Eitelkeit (vanity)
der Fahrer (the driver)

Once you understand this, you can focus on words that give you no clue, like der Tag (day).

But in general there is no obvious logic as to why a word is masculine or feminine (or neuter). In German the sun is feminine, while in Latin languages it's masculine (el sol, o sol). In English it's neuter like most things. A neutered race :)

On 28.04.2016 11:15, Chris wrote:
> Except when it corresponds to the natural gender, i.e. der Mann, die
> Frau. It's interesting that the word for child is neuter (das Kind).
> Looks like children are not yet considered to be of any sex, which makes
> a lot of sense.

Then again Mädchen (girl) is neuter, too. There's a reason for that, of course: Mädchen is a diminutive form of Magd (maid), i.e. it means little maid. Magd is feminine as expected, but -chen forms are always neuter.

On Thursday, 28 April 2016 at 06:51:04 UTC, Ali Çehreli wrote:
> On 04/26/2016 07:57 PM, Walter Bright wrote:
>> To prepare for a week in Berlin, a few German phrases is all you'll need
>> to fit in, get around, and have a great time:
>>
>> 1. Ein Bier bitte!
>> 2. Noch ein Bier bitte!
>> 3. Wo ist der WC!
>
> The other language that helps in Berlin is Turkish. :)
>
> Ali

unfortunately - too many islam and erdogan people