Shooting sheep
Having worked many years in Germany I told one of my German colleagues that I'd recently visited home and my son had told me he wanted to be ein Schafschütze when he grew up. My colleague then asked me with a puzzled look, why my son wanted to kill sheep? What I'd meant to say was that he wanted to be a 'sniper', ein Scharfschütze!
Sent by: Martin
Comments
Susan2006-11-01
Saksith, according to your explanations, Scharfschütze means 'precise shooter'.
Saksith2006-06-13
The German word scharf has several meanings. It either means 'spicy/hot' (das Essen ist zu scharf, the meal is too spicy/hot), 'sharp' (like a blade or knife) or 'precise' (like a shoot or a goal). So der Scharfschütze literally means 'sharp shooter'.
Where I am in Germany people don't really pronounce the r, so they would pronounce Schafschütze and Scharfschütze the same. I'm surprised that the German didn't understand that.
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