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Can anyone help me translate these lines into German?

  1. "Get 2 free Lufthansa tickets to fly anywhere in the world (limited time only)."

  2. "Lufthansa is giving away 2 free tickets to all Facebook users."

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I'd go with the answer juergen gave in this thread: stackoverflow.com/questions/8931172/… – 0x6d64 Jan 19 '12 at 18:44
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question at stackoverflow seems to be deleted already – tohuwawohu Jan 20 '12 at 7:04
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So what exactly is the purpose of this question? If you're working for LH, surely you could afford a translator. This looks fishy to me, and if it is indeed some sort of guerilla marketing thing, I strongly disapprove. Voted to close. – Jan Jan 21 '12 at 22:16
The first English sentence is a scam currently circulating on Facebook, just saw it on a friend's wall – Nicolas Raoul Jan 28 '12 at 4:57

closed as off topic by Tim N May 26 '12 at 10:47

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4 Answers

up vote 2 down vote
  1. "Get 2 free Lufthansa tickets to fly anywhere in the world (limited time only)."

Holen Sie sich zwei Lufthansa-Tickets für Flüge in die ganze Welt (nur für begrenzte Zeit).

  1. "Lufthansa is giving away 2 free tickets to all Facebook users."

Does every facebook User get 2 free tickets: "Lufthansa schenkt jedem Facebook-Nutzer zwei gratis Flugtickets."

If only two facebook users out of them all get the 2 tickets: "Lufthansa verschenkt zwei Flugtickets an Facebook-Nutzer."

edit: fix 2 typos... thanks for the comment

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"Flüge in die ganze Welt" for the first sentence and in the last sentence it's "an", not "am". "An all" would sound even better. – Feroc Jan 20 '12 at 7:52
@Feroc Thanks! You're right... will correct the answer – blindfold Jan 20 '12 at 8:07
up vote 2 down vote

My try:

Gewinnen Sie zwei Lufthansa-Tickets für Flüge in die ganze Welt (nur für begrenzte Zeit).

"Get 2 free Lufthansa tickets to fly anywhere in the world (limited time only)."

and

Zwei Lufthansa-Flugtickets für alle Facebook-Benutzer zu gewinnen.

"Lufthansa is giving away 2 free tickets to all Facebook users."

It also depends a little bit on the environment you use the sentences in. If it used on Facebook, a bit more "juvenile" style would possibly fit better. You could then replace "Gewinnen Sie" in the first sentence with "Gewinne" (or even "Hol´ Dir", but this is not really good). Likewise, you could replace "Benutzer" with the more stylish "User". It is difficult to tell from outside.

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Wie kommst Du auf 'gewinnen'? – user unknown Jan 19 '12 at 22:23
Doesn't ticket translate as "karte"? – BryceAtNetwork23 Jan 20 '12 at 2:11
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@BryceAtNetwork23 You can translate ticket as Karte, but it is more common to say Flugticket. – Em1 Jan 20 '12 at 7:53
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@BryceAtNetwork23: Yes, it does. But not for an airline ticket, there you use "Flugticket". – Feroc Jan 20 '12 at 7:54
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I absolutely agree to the first one. In the second I would say 'verschenken'. First give away means that and second it's also good german. – Em1 Jan 20 '12 at 8:04
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up vote 2 down vote

My best guess:

In the first sentence I fully agree to Jan-Frederik Carl

"Get 2 free Lufthansa tickets to fly anywhere in the world (limited time only)."

Gewinnen Sie zwei Lufthansa-Tickets für Flüge in die ganze Welt (nur für begrenzte Zeit).

For the second one I go with blindfold, but phrase it like this:

"Lufthansa is giving away 2 free tickets to all Facebook users."

Lufthansa verschenkt zwei Flüge an Facebook-Mitglieder.

Some hints:

  • Translation Bekommen is maybe the better word-by-word translation, but we have to pay attention on the context, not on words. Reading the sentence, it is most likely that you will win the tickets, so why shouldn't we translate it with Gewinnen. Moreover Bekommen Sie zwei Tickets ... sounds odd to me.

  • In the second sentence best translation for give away is verschenken.

  • I wrote Facebook-Mitglieder also it looks a little bit abnormal to me. But it's possible. Instead of Mitglieder we can use Nutzer or Benutzer, even the english word user!

  • I inserted a hyphen in Facebook-Mitglieder. I am usually very reserved in using it, because in Germany there is a misuse of hyphen. Of course it could be used to make a complicated word more readable, but in most cases the word is still readable without the hyphen. Here I use it, because a combination Company + Mitglied looks very odd without a hyphen.

  • I replaced ticket through flight in the second sentence. My gut feeling said me, that could be a better translation in this case. Of course we can say verschenkt zwei Flugtickets, but there is no information missing, when I rephrase the sentence.

  • The word free in free ticket can completely left out, because it has no additional value.

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I'd like to add that the "misuse of hyphens" in German mainly stems from an unawareness that compund nouns must either be written as one word or as two, connected with a hyphen. Increasingly, people copy the English way of just combining two words, separated by a space. This. Is. Wrong. (in German) – Mac Jan 20 '12 at 13:41
up vote 0 down vote

I wouldn't use "gewinnen" if it's not indicating you win them like in a contest. You could try the following:

  1. Bekommen Sie zwei Gratisfahrscheine von Lufthansa, um irgendwohin in die Welt zu fliegen (beschränkte Zeit)!
    ["Get 2 free Lufthansa tickets to fly anywhere in the world (limited time only)."]

  2. Lufthansa schenkt 2 Gratisfahrscheine allen Facebookbenutzern.
    ["Lufthansa is giving away 2 free tickets to all Facebook users."]

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2  
'Gratisfahrscheine'... Lufthansa ist eine Fluglinie, Flugticket passt da sicher besser. Generell ist diese Übersetzung sehr "Germish" – blindfold Jan 20 '12 at 7:29
Sorry, but i can't recommend this answer (i don't want to downvote it however). See blindfold's comment; additionally, "irgendwohin" isn't the best choice. It sounds as if the destination woulnd't matter, but the meaning is that the destination is up to the recipient of the free tickets. Regarding example 2, the syntax seems odd: i would prefer to put the group of reciepients first and the tickets at second place: "....schenkt allen Facebook-Nutzern 2 Gratistickes". Another point is "alle" vs. "jedem" (see blindfolds answer). – tohuwawohu Jan 20 '12 at 8:32
And just to complete the explanations: (limited time only) to translate with (beschränkte Zeit) is a bad translation, because of incompleteness. And finally (I'm sorry): Das ist grausames Deutsch. – Em1 Jan 20 '12 at 9:23
Thanks. I can't disagree with your points. I chose "bekommen" instead of "gewinnen" because it didn't imply that it was limited to only two tickets but was available to everyone who responded within a certain time. "Ticket" vs "Fahrschein", I hear both even when it's clear who the agency is, but "Flugticket" is probably better here. I had also played around with "jedem" vs "allen" a couple of times, and I see my cutting and pasting led to a word order error--tired eyes using an iPhone. :-) Anyway, I won't comment on every point, but thanks again. I will use better discretion in future. – Kevin Jan 20 '12 at 13:19

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