Megasprachen

Spanish for your holiday · Chapter 6: Accommodation

Could you bring me more toilet paper?

To the next lesson

The next sentence: ¿Podría traerme más papel higiénico, por favor?

First the toilet paper, literally “hygienic paper”: an electric paper cup – “Pappbecher” in German (papel), showing a hedgehog (“Igel”) in front of a soft-focus church, out of which comes a duck that nods (“nickt”) with a piece of coal (“Kohle”) in its beak (higiénico).

You ask the person tidying your room for toilet paper and point at your bottom; they put down their apple juice drink (podría). The paper, they say, comes on a van that is also carrying earth (“Erde”) from the sea (“Meer”) (traerme). The driver always has a litre beer mug – a “Maß” – in his hand (más), but the beer is in the electric paper cup with the hedgehog, the church and the nodding duck (papel higiénico). Then it all disappears back through the gate (por favor).