I am learning German with a teacher in Braunschweig. Although she is native and very experienced in German teaching, sometimes her suggestion was not the same as those in our textbook, which was just published in these two years. For example, she told us that the plural form of "der Cappuccino" is "die Cappuccinos", but the textbook suggested to say "die Cappuccini". Does it mean that one of them was wrong? If an usage can be wrong, is there a standard or official version of German grammar?
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5Die Cappucini is German hipster italian slang. The German German is die Cappucinos.– JankaCommented Apr 20, 2017 at 15:32
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It works the other way around, too. How would you react if someone spoke of "Spaghetto" when referring to a single noodle? Cappucinos is the Germanized plural which all but displaced the original Italian one Cappucini. How old is that textbook?– ChieronCommented Apr 21, 2017 at 7:46
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@Chieron There is nothing wrong with "spaghetto".– EllerCommented Apr 21, 2017 at 9:24
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@Janka Ich finde, "Cappucini" bringt Varianz in die Sprachmelodie. Aber leider legen viele Leute keinen Wert auf schöne und richtige Sprache... scnr– Jonathan Herrera ♦Commented Apr 21, 2017 at 12:35
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1Du kannst gerne "Cappucini" sagen soviel du willst. Am besten man macht das (als Nicht-Italiener) in München, dann halten einen nicht nur die Deutschen, sondern auch die dortigen Italiener für bekloppt.– JankaCommented Apr 21, 2017 at 12:49
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1 Answer
This is still a democratic society, and there is no such a thing as an "official" German grammar. However, the Duden dictionary has a status of being the accepted reference book for spelling. Duden however is not so much normative, rather descriptive: a word or spelling that is around long enough will eventually make it into the Duden.
In Duden. Deutsches Universalwörterbuch A-Z, (1816 pages, ed. 1989) you find:
Cappuccino, der; [-s], -[s] [ital. cappucino, zu: cappuccio = Kapuze, nach der Farbe der Kutte, die von Kapuzinermönchen getragen wird].
You may also use Cappuccini, but you would probably do this only when you want to display your knowledge of Italian. Or you are in an Italian restaurant and say:
Due cappuccini, prego!
But attention! When you are in a restaurant or pub and you want to order multiple of them (using German, by way of variation) you may simply say
Zwei [drei, vier... hundert] Cappuccino bitte!
without making a mistake. This is like
Zwei Bier bitte!
as opposed to
*Zwei Biere bitte!
which would be the "logical" form, but nobody says this.
answered Apr 20, 2017 at 15:47
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1Duden Online actually lists Cappuccino, Cappuccinos and Cappuccini as plural forms of Cappuccino. I must agree though, that you will only hear Cappuccini used in a German sentence, if the speaker for some reason find it important to emphasize that he has learned some basic Italian grammar on the last holiday in Italy.– jarnbjoCommented Apr 20, 2017 at 16:23
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You earned my +1 already with the first sentence. :-)– Jonathan Herrera ♦Commented Apr 20, 2017 at 17:11
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Now my Italian mate Enzo says, no, of course not, you say "due cappuccino" or "due espresso". So in German you say "zwei Espresso" or "zwei Cappuccino". Because you'd also say "zwei Kaffee" or "zwei Schnitzel".– RedSonjaCommented Feb 16, 2018 at 14:13