Brains must be like any addictive substance: as you build up immunity from repeated exposure, you need more and more of ’em to have a boosting effect, and the effect lasts for less and less time.
Yeah, that’s the wrong meaning of “stick”. As Stickmaker (appropriately) points out, “haften” is “stick to”, i.e. “adhere”, whereas we want “stick INto”, i.e. “insert”.
“Stecken Sie Ihre Zunge in ihr Ohr,” would be the one. (Note how the change of verb also necessitates a change of case for the object at the other end of the sentence; just one of the typical tripwires of the German language that makes it such a joy to work with.)
But that’s way to formally polite for a dog command, so it should really be, “Steck deine Zunge in ihr Ohr.”
Oh, right. Like being a genius means that you speak every language in existence. *rolls eyes*
I mean, you can’t expect me to believe that Einstein spoke Xhosa, so why should a smart U.N.I.T.Y. speak German?
Because she definitely has a genius level talent at torture techniques.
The “did” is past tense. The “used” is redundant and wrong. He ate dinner. Didn’t he *eat* dinner? She used the toilet. Didn’t she *use* the toilet? You used to be smart. Didn’t …
He eats dinner.
She uses the toilet.
You ….
No, there’s no present tense for that construction; it is indeed idiomatic. I don’t think there’s any correct way to combine it with “didn’t”.
Not present tense; infinitive. As drunk philosopher says, when you have two verbs the first handles the tense and the second is infinitive. And of course there’s a correct way. We say it all the time: didn’t you use to be smart?
In normal speech ‘didn’t you use/used to be smart’ are homonymous, so someone learning the phrase could interpret it either way. Dincha useta? Same thing that turned ‘iced tea’ to ‘ice tea’. I think of it with ‘use’ myself.
I note that the Ring Lardner way to say it is ‘Usen’t you to be smart?’ I can’t do that.
I’m going to use as a working hypothesis that Sergio, being a full-time genius, said “Didn’t you use to be smart?”, but either poor recording quality or an inexperienced stenographer caused Shaenon to insert an extra “d”.
I could be wrong but i don’t think ice tea was ever iced tea. I think ice tea, like ice coffee, ice water or ice milk was always as is. Then again maybe we did used to say iced water. Ice water? Iced water? Lemon ice.
Okay, I was wrong about iced tea. But I was only 92.5% wrong so that’s not too bad. The term “ice water” (*not* iced) has been in use since 1722 and we never eat iced cream, so I don’t think “ice tea” derives from a mishearing. No do I think it is as incorrect as grammarians we believe.
My understanding was that they not only taught guard dogs to respond to German, but also to respond to commands that were not the obvious German words. Otherwise any German speaker could confuse them or get them to attack their handler. So perhaps “Achtung” in this case does mean “Sic ’em!”. Or maybe just getting their attention is enough for them to sic the nearest target, which means Violet as she cleverly incapacited everyone else.
Brains must be like any addictive substance: as you build up immunity from repeated exposure, you need more and more of ’em to have a boosting effect, and the effect lasts for less and less time.
Hmm. Do you suppose there’s anti-brains PSAs as well?
This is your Brain. This is your Brain on Brains. Any questions?
I was thinking “This is your zombie on brains” myself….
You WILL respect the dog!
Haften Sie Ihre Zunge in ihrem Ohr!
Somehow, I don’t think Google translator got this one right.
“Adhere your tongue in their ear!”
Well, it’s close…
Yeah, that’s the wrong meaning of “stick”. As Stickmaker (appropriately) points out, “haften” is “stick to”, i.e. “adhere”, whereas we want “stick INto”, i.e. “insert”.
“Stecken Sie Ihre Zunge in ihr Ohr,” would be the one. (Note how the change of verb also necessitates a change of case for the object at the other end of the sentence; just one of the typical tripwires of the German language that makes it such a joy to work with.)
But that’s way to formally polite for a dog command, so it should really be, “Steck deine Zunge in ihr Ohr.”
“Didn’t you used to be smart? And also breaking down the door?”
Hey, even the smart and violent can spend some time looking at a funny video.
Especially if it involves cute dogs and somebody you really don’t like.
Poison-immune doggies?
Or maybe the poison only affects humans? No wait, ‘e said anything with a nervous system…
Or, wait I know! It floats! Like smoke! So anything close enough to the ground is safe!
Oh, right. Like being a genius means that you speak every language in existence. *rolls eyes*
I mean, you can’t expect me to believe that Einstein spoke Xhosa, so why should a smart U.N.I.T.Y. speak German?
Because she definitely has a genius level talent at torture techniques.
I think it’s more that U.N.I.T.Y. is expressing such a childish request in such simple terms (after the Genius!U.N.I.T.Y. used such elevated diction).
*cringe* There’s that exclamation point again
“Steck deine Zunge in ihr Ohr!”
Oder da es Hunde sind: “Lecken!”
Is that a lava fountain in the first panel?
Argh, pet peeve.
You used to be smart.
Didn’t you use to be smart?
“Used” is correct. Past tense. “Use” is present tense.
Infinitive after auxiliary verbs…
The “did” is past tense. The “used” is redundant and wrong. He ate dinner. Didn’t he *eat* dinner? She used the toilet. Didn’t she *use* the toilet? You used to be smart. Didn’t …
It’s idiomatic!
He eats dinner.
She uses the toilet.
You ….
No, there’s no present tense for that construction; it is indeed idiomatic. I don’t think there’s any correct way to combine it with “didn’t”.
Not present tense; infinitive. As drunk philosopher says, when you have two verbs the first handles the tense and the second is infinitive. And of course there’s a correct way. We say it all the time: didn’t you use to be smart?
In normal speech ‘didn’t you use/used to be smart’ are homonymous, so someone learning the phrase could interpret it either way. Dincha useta? Same thing that turned ‘iced tea’ to ‘ice tea’. I think of it with ‘use’ myself.
I note that the Ring Lardner way to say it is ‘Usen’t you to be smart?’ I can’t do that.
I’m going to use as a working hypothesis that Sergio, being a full-time genius, said “Didn’t you use to be smart?”, but either poor recording quality or an inexperienced stenographer caused Shaenon to insert an extra “d”.
I could be wrong but i don’t think ice tea was ever iced tea. I think ice tea, like ice coffee, ice water or ice milk was always as is. Then again maybe we did used to say iced water. Ice water? Iced water? Lemon ice.
….one, two, three…. and…
Okay, I was wrong about iced tea. But I was only 92.5% wrong so that’s not too bad. The term “ice water” (*not* iced) has been in use since 1722 and we never eat iced cream, so I don’t think “ice tea” derives from a mishearing. No do I think it is as incorrect as grammarians we believe.
Of course, there’s always the inarguable “weren’t you smart”. But it doesn’t have quite the right zing.
I bet the little puppy is doing all the work. >.>
?? “Achtung” means “attention” — you see it for “caution” in those multilingual warning signs. i had no idea it also meant “sic ’em”
My understanding was that they not only taught guard dogs to respond to German, but also to respond to commands that were not the obvious German words. Otherwise any German speaker could confuse them or get them to attack their handler. So perhaps “Achtung” in this case does mean “Sic ’em!”. Or maybe just getting their attention is enough for them to sic the nearest target, which means Violet as she cleverly incapacited everyone else.
Or probably the command to attack was given off-panel.
In this context, I think it means “Hey, listen!”
Either off panel, or he used it to identify Violet as a threat.
it doesn’t. the appropriate command would be “Fass!”.
I don’t speak german, but I am pretty sure he didn’t say attack, at least, not in the panels. he said “Dogs, attention!”
“Steck ihr deine Zunge ins Ohr!”
You’re welcome.
Achtung!
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=UAW2E2MCX_8