Quak with a 'q' (and no c, but on that I'm not 100% shure)

thanks Gibson! so I looked it up...

to croak quaken | quakte, gequakt |
to quack | quacked, quacked | quaken | quakte, gequakt |

ok but how would one say that? if you were reading a story book to someone would it read: 'and the frog said "Quak!"'?

... und der Frosch machte 'Quak!'
or Der Frosch quakte (this I would use if there is more to come, e.g. "Und der Frosch quakte: Komm in mein Haus!"

Animals normally 'machen' sounds: Die Kuh macht Muh, der Esel macht I-aa etc.

thanks Gibson! :D

@Gibson: Ja, und viele Kühe machen Mühe! ;-)

Und wie macht Bama Torsten?

Zwei Frösche im Teich.
Sagt der eine: "Quak!"
Meint der andere: "Das wollte ich auch grad sagen ..."

In English animals "go" or "say": The cow goes moo; the pig goes oink. This use of "go" has been extended to people - at least in Valleyspeak: "So, like, my friend, like, goes, 'Whatever!'"

Was ist Valleyspeak?

@ CJ: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Valspeak

und Frösche machen nicht "ribbet" auf Englisch, sondern "gribbet".

@Todd: hmm - 1570 hits for 'gribbet' (370 if you include 'frog')
157,000 for ribbet (37,000 if you include 'frog')

I personally have never heard 'gribbet' - the dogs in our pond go 'ribbet'.

er... no, the dogs don't. But the frogs do.

must be an AE/BE difference in the way frogs speak!!!!

I wonder if they can talk to each other? Or would they need a Babelfish?

@Gibson: I go "möp", just had an opulent late lunch, must go back to desk, can't move, somebody roll me please...

and we're supposed to feel sorry for you? I just had an "opulent" Käsebrot.

Yes, and it's like 86°F outside ... so hot!

Und ich dachte immer, englische Frösche sagen rabbit! Jedenfalls bis vor kurzem. Klassischer Neger Wumbaba. ;-)

??? Neger Wumbaba???

Todd, ein Neger Wumbaba ist ein "Verhörer" (besonders bei Kindern, aber auch oft wenn man Musik in einer Fremdsprache hört). Kommt aus Axel Hackes Kolumne in der Süddeutschen: er hat als Kind bei dem Lied "Der Mond ist aufgegangen" anstelle der Zeile "der weiße Nebel wunderbar" etwas nicht ganz richtig verstanden und eben "der weiße Neger Wumbaba" gehört.

ist der Spruch durchaus bekannt oder eher was für uns Sprachfreunde?

Seitdem das als Buch unter dem Titel erschienen ist, ist das so halbwegs bekannt.
Gehört aber eher nicht zum traditionellen deutschen Sprachschatz...

aaah - a mondegreen like "Gladly, the cross-eyed bear"!

back on topic:

From Blooming English: Observations on the Roots, Cultivation and Hybrids of the English Language, by Kate Burridge, published by Cambridge University Press; ISBN 0-521-54832-2
"A rooster’s crow is remarkably similar across the languages of the world. English roosters go cockadoodledoo, German kikeriki and Japanese something like kokekokko. These sorts of words are largely limited to imitations of natural sounds. Yet, even these so-called natural sounds are often just as conventional as ordinary words. English frogs go ribbit ribbit or croak croak and German frogs go quak quak – so much for imitation.“
http://books.google.ch/books?id=TPGpyOJTdvIC...

thank u for amusing our evening

Als Onkel Hotte in seiner Märchenstunde im Radio noch Geschichten von einbeinigen Fröschen mit Holzbein erzählte, gingen/sagten/machten die: Schluuurf-Tock!-Ribedieribit.

Da gabs in den Medien noch Vorbilder !

I've never heard anything but "croak" for frogs - where on earth does "ribbet" come from? It's not in the Concise OE, e.g.; must be pretty obscure slang/dialect?

Just saying ribbet,ribbet... to myself - I don't sound like a frog IMO :-)

... and what kind of frog goes "burrrrrrrrr ..." and changes its color from green to red?


Why, a frog in a blender of course.

#27 Perfectly common when I was growing up. Look under ribbit, ribbit. Ribbit, ribbit.

#29: curious - not in any of my dictionaries...Concise Oxford, The New Penguin (a very fat one) or the Cambridge Int. Dict. of English, maybe it's just an "educational gap" (Denglish) I have :-)

My New Shorter OED has it: ribbit /"rIbIt/ int. & n. Also ribit.M20. [Imit.] (Repr.) the croak of a frog.
And this other Oxford one, which says it's from the US: http://oxforddictionaries.com/view/entry/m_en...
(Wouldn't surprise me if I learned it off the Muppets or something!)
If you look at UK school sites there are a few people using it: http://www.google.co.uk/search?sourceid=navcl...

#29: curious - not in any of my dictionaries...Concise Oxford, The New Penguin (a very fat one) or the Cambridge Int. Dict. of English, maybe it's just an "educational gap" (Denglish) I have :-)

define: ribbit in Google UK has an (American) audio link...

... and a frog on the Interstate goes "SPLAT!"