Gift

Poison- Das Gift

Present - Das Geschenk

So here is the thing about English and German. Sometimes a word in English may mean something different in German and vice versa. Take the word, was. In English we use was as a the past tense of to be.

I was going to go to the bookstore but it was closed.

However, in German  the word was means: what.

Was ist das? (What is it)

That example is more annoying for the learner to remember than anything else.

Of course other words mean something totally different and more than just an annoyance. For example the word gift is one. In every class I have sat through there has been a chuckle and a warning. I knew this word and how to be careful.

Alas, I forgot and well.....

Gift in English means present. I bought her chocolate as a gift.

In German, das Gift is poison. (Das Geschenk is present).

So fast forward to the end of January and Klara was missing her friends in Vienna. She thought it would be a nice little "thinking of you" if she sent them some Swiss chocolate.  I have an online postal account so I decided to help out and she gave me the contact information. I filled the online forms out and then it automatically printed everything needed. I hit print and off Klara went to finish the task and headed to the post office.

The dreaded post office. I always feel like I am doing something wrong there - I try really hard to answer and follow along. However, the two ladies that work at ours - prefer to only speak in Swiss German unless you make lots of mistakes. Then they sternly scold in English. They are doing their jobs and they are good at it... but this is still one of the weak spots here for us.

Klara went in and handed in the package. In the description, not paying attention, I wrote Gift instead of the actual contents. And Klara missed my mistake. Needless to say there was some eyebrows raised. So they had Klara write chocolate and it was accepted.

However, we now realize the content  states: Schokolade Gift (not perfect German but it basically says: Chocolate Poison).

Needless to say, Klara's friend has not received the package. We have given up hope for it to arrive there.

Not to self: loose the word gift.