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This is an English joke type sentence with 5 consecutive ands:

The landlord of a pub called The Pig And Whistle asked a sign writer to make a new sign. When he saw it he thought that the words were too close together so he said to the sign writer “I want more space between Pig and And and And and Whistle”

I'm just wondering how well the last sentence translates into German. Could you say:

Ich möchte mehr Platz zwischen Schwein und Und und Und und Pfeife.

Or is the sentence construction different?

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    This works, but we would write all "und" lower case. The pub would be called Schwein und Pfeife".
    – user1934428
    Commented Aug 20 at 10:30
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    Da das Und in der Rolle eines Substantivs verwendet wird, bin ich geneigt, die Großschreibung gutzuheißen, aber den Mut dazu sieht man in der Tat selten.
    – user unknown
    Commented Aug 20 at 22:30
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    @userunknown: Wo ist die "Rolle eines Substantivs" in "Schwein und Pfeife"? Bestenfalls kann das "und" in Anführungszeichen eingeschlossen werden, wo es zitiert wird, aber das macht auch kein Substantiv draus.
    – bakunin
    Commented Aug 21 at 0:31
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    Also, I think the joke might work even better in English if the pub were called "Weyland and Anderson" or something like that.
    – O. R. Mapper
    Commented Aug 21 at 5:06
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    This joke has existed in German for a long time; here is an example from 2007. But I remember hearing it when I was a teenager around 1980. A baker orders a sign that says "Brot und Kuchen", then complains "Der Abstand zwischen Brot und und und und und Kuchen ist nicht gleichmäßig".
    – Guntram Blohm
    Commented Aug 21 at 12:27

2 Answers 2

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This works in princple (with the 5 und), but the standard answer would use articles: Ich möchte mehr Platz zwischen dem Schwein und dem Und, und dem Und und der Pfeife.

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    I disagree. The written English version distinguishes the quoted words from the primary words via capitalisation, and the written German text should do so by using quotation marks "" instead. But neither are audible except for subtle changes of tone, so there's no reason why the German version shouldn't work without articles as well as the English one.
    – Kilian Foth
    Commented Aug 20 at 14:58
  • I see the suggested answer with the articles as decidedly humorously-colloquial. That's because there actually is no pig. There is just the word "Schwein" (pig), and as it is a word, it can be quoted ("Ich sehe 'Schwein'."), but not usually referred to with an article, as if it were the real thing or an image thereof ("Ich sehe das Schwein."). Now, you can of course this humorously. Or you can use it as a shortened form, implying the word "Wort" ("Ich sehe das [Wort] 'Schwein'."). But precisely because the quotation marks are not audible, it would not be my first choice when speaking.
    – O. R. Mapper
    Commented Aug 21 at 5:17
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    The articles appear in this case (albeit spoiling the pun) because the discussion no longer deals with three general pigs, whistles and connecting words, but with the exact three items in their concerted role in the pub's name. The same use of the articles is in a discussion with an architect about a plan of a house: "ich möchte eine Tür zwischen Wohnzimmer und Küche" is valid as a general design principle, but as soon as we're looking at the actual floor plan we say "ich möchte eine Tür zwischen dem Wohnzimmer und der Küche".
    – R. J. Mathar
    Commented Aug 21 at 17:24
  • @R.J.Mathar: Completely different case. In "ich möchte eine Tür zwischen dem Wohnzimmer und der Küche", you are referring to the actual things denoted by "Wohnzimmer" and "Küche", respectively, not the written words. If you were talking about something related to the words on the plan of a house, e.g. drawing a line between the two words, "Ich möchte eine Verbindungslinie zwischen 'Wohnzimmer' und 'Küche'." would of course be a correct way to express this.
    – O. R. Mapper
    Commented Aug 23 at 7:30
  • @O. R. Mapper The owner of the pub is standing in front of the pub and the new sign, points at these words with his finger and says "I'd like to have more space between that pig, that and, and that whistle", explicitly and exclusively in their expression at hand. These are not just words but a sort of neon-light or copper/brass/lead set of letters you can take in your hand.
    – R. J. Mathar
    Commented Aug 23 at 11:52
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In Krems, which is a very nice town and a destination for many tourists in Lower Austria, which is one of the nine states of Austria, is a monastery named Und1. It has a website, a wikipedia article and you can find it on Google Maps.

In Hungary, less than 1 km from the Austrian border, is a small village called Und2. It also has a website, an entry in Wikipedia and of corse you can find it also in Google Maps.

These places are less than 100 km apart from each other, so you could imagine a bus driving to these two places and to some others. So the bus company could print a sign with a text like this:

Der Bus nach Spitz und Und und Und und Bük fährt täglich um 10:25 Uhr vom Linzer Busbahnhof ab.
The bus to Spitz and Und and Und and Bük departs daily at 10:25 from Linz bus station.

Now you have already 5 instances of und in a row. But now let's talk about the distances between the words on that sign:

Die Abstände zwischen Spitz und und und und und Und und Und und und und und und Und und Und und und und und und Bük sind zu klein.
The distances between Spitz and und and und and Und and Und and und and und and Und and Und and und and und and Bük are too small.

This is very absurd and confusing, but still a valid German sentence that contains 21 instances of und in a row. If you read this sentence aloud, all 21 instances sound the same, and if you print it in uppercase without italics, they all look the same.

1 The name of the monastery Und comes from Santa Maria ad undas which means Holy Mary at the waves. When the monastery way build it was built at the bank of the river Danube. (The riverbed was later moved due to the regulation of the Danube and is now a few hundred meters away from the monastery.)

2 The village is named after a person who lived there in the 13th century. At that time the name of the person and the village was written Vnd. (The letter U evolved from the letter V in Latin script.)

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    Not enough changes to suggest an edit, but Anstände should be Abstände.
    – Gerald Schneider
    Commented Aug 22 at 7:49
  • @GeraldSchneider: Danke, ich hab's korrigiert. (Ich habe diesen Text mehrmals korrekturgelesen, aber leider immer ohne diesen Fehler zu bemerken.)
    – Hubert Schölnast
    Commented Aug 22 at 15:54

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