When Did Clare Balding Utilise Her Limited German Language Skills? | Would I Lie To You?

#WILTY #WouldILieToYou #BBC
Claire Balding: "The first time I went to Germany, I knew only one German phrase and bizarrely, an accident occurred which required me to use it."
Would I Lie to You? is the hit BBC panel show where two teams of celebrity guests try to figure out whether their opponent's ridiculously far-fetched statements about themselves are true or, in fact, a lie.
Featuring inimitable host Rob Brydon with lightning-quick team captains David Mitchell and Lee Mack.
Like Us on Facebook 👉 / wouldilietoyoutv
Follow Us on Twitter 👉 / wilty_tv
Would I Lie to You? is brought to you by Banjiay Rights in partnership with Zeppotron and the BBC.

[@syd7801]

I can relate. If I ever went to Spain, all my conversations would involve me asking where is the library.

[@notme222]

For me I've also got some lines about a disco spider I could pull out.

[@plebcrabslayer]

1:40 😂 David: But when you dial 999, Lee, do you then say to them, "Nine, nine, nine"? Lee: No, no, no.

[@geoffroi-le-Hook]

It's possible that it was the only sentence she remembered from studying it long ago. About all the Mandarin I remember from 1999 is "In the forest, you can't eat the mushrooms, but in a restaurant, you can eat the mushrooms"

[@rickyanthony]

What is the implication? Or is that just mushroom advice

[@just-tess]

A Ukrainian family friend who grew up doing lots of foraging said they have a phrase, All mushrooms are edible, but some you only eat once.

[@User36282]

@@just-tess 'Edible' means safe to eat, it would be better to say: "You can eat any mushroom, but some you can only eat once". But it's still funny and I'm stealing it :)

[@tedalper1464]

(A) They never quite asked the question I most wanted answered: how [or maybe why] did she happen to learn *just* that phrase? (B) Rhod Gilbert is utterly charming in every WILTY clip. Even in the context of the game, I still don't think she would."

[@NYKevin100]

From my experience learning Spanish: The textbooks they give you often have all sorts of bizarre and improbable phrases to try and exercise lots of vocabulary and grammar. It's possible she actually took a German class at some point, forgot nearly all of it, but that one sentence got lodged in her brain. For example, a multiple-choice question I remember from many years ago: Si hay un incendio en su casa, usted llame ______. (A) al semáforo. (B) a los bomberos. (C) [something else I forgot]. English: If there's a fire in your house, you call ______. (A) the traffic light. (B) the fire brigade. (C) [something else I forgot].

[@nicosmind3]

@@NYKevin100 todavía hablas español? Sé mucho pero necesito aprender mucho también 🙃

@@NYKevin100 The idea of calling the traffic light in the event of a fire is so bizarre.... 😂

[@Pebble_Collector]

"I'm going early on this one" lmao oh I do enjoy you, Rhod. Hope you are better soon.

[@faithhopelove9567]

As a native speaker, the German is good, just her pronounciation of "Fluss" (river) was unintelligible, but maybe she misremembered the word.

[@MuchWhittering]

Yeah, I'm fluent and I was like "I have no idea what a "Frusch" is.

[@faithhopelove9567]

@@theotherone8036 Ich dachte zuerst auch: "Meint sie Frosch??" XD Im Kontext muss es halt Fluss sein

[@primedog100]

I'm learning German and what i find so odd is she claimed to have only known that one phrase but it's a grammatically complex sentence for a non-native speaker. Knowing to use sein instead of haben for a verb involving a change of location, knowing gefallen as the Partizip II of fallen and not assuming it's gefällt, putting Fluss in the accusative case, that's stuff I'm relatively only okay at with an A2 lvl of German. And it seems highly specific, as opposed to maybe a more generic 'können Sie mir bitte helfen?"

[@MissRaindrop24]

My mother only knows one sentence in Italian. „I have booked a room on the name marcetti“ and no that’s not our name that’s just the phrase 😂 I know some random words and phrases in other languages. And sometimes Learn important ones like where the toilet is. But Claire’s sentence is really specific like she had to learn it for an add or something

[@Sandrylene]

Yeah, I initially thought she might have said her father fell in the frog. XD (Frosch)

[@polycrystallinecandy]

Someone tweet this to her and ask her why in the world she learned that phrase. We have to know!

[@nicosmind3]

I wonder if she learnt that sentence in a phrasebook? Back in the day they were famous for their occasional insane phrases, but I'm guessing the logic was not to repeat words, and give you as many examples of grammar and conjugaction as possible

[@bjorn7100]

As a Scandinavian I don't know German but I could tell that it was real German, and some of the words I could tell definitely matched her translation so I was 99% sure it was true and not something she managed to make up.

[@primedog100]

'Entschuldigen Sie bitte, mein Vater ist in den Fluss gefallen' is what she said, and i was sure it was true too at first cause it's perfect but i doubted it when I thought about how complicated that sentence to both learn and/or remember, so i feel like her German has to be better than she implied

[@junbh2]

Well, she could have actually studied German and learned much more than just one sentence, and been able to think of something to say right there.

[@bjorn7100]

@@junbh2 I suppose that's the 1% haha ;)

[@mathesonkamin6067]

"THE FIRST TIME I WENT TO GERMANY..." First words out of her mouth. She never said, nor was she asked about this, that it was the ONLY time she went to Germany. Claire could easily have learned more of the language since then and that's WHY it sounds a lot smoother in delivery than from a person who only knows one sentence.

[@Arms_Akimbo]

@primedog100 she actually said "frisch" which means "fresh" instead of "Fluss" (river), but the rest sounded pretty decent 👌

[@rollin340]

What an odd phrase to know. I wonder why and where she picked it up.

[@Clearlight201]

I went on exercise to Germany with my RAF field unit. My eccentric aunt gave me a 1940s BBC actor's German phrase book with all kinds of odd phrases like what to say when falling in love, or when becoming angry (such as 'I am very vexed' in German!). I learned 'Gehen sie aus dem weg!' Get out of the way! And had to use it - to very good effect - when some kids started deliberately being a nuisance. I also learned 'Du hast wunderschöne augen,' You have beautiful eyes, and tried it on a few ladies. With far less good effect!

[@hkchan1339]

Did the ladies responded with “get out of the way” ?😂

[@Clearlight201]

@@hkchan1339 😆😅 pretty much, yes 🤣

[@hkchan1339]

@@Clearlight201 I would have thought airforce is pretty sexy to the ladies, but I guess Germans didn’t have a good experience with their recent encounter with RAF allies in the war

[@Clearlight201]

@@hkchan1339 airforce didn't always bring us luck with ladies .. but we sure tried 🤣

[@GPCTM]

0.11 "Entschuldigung, bitte: Mein Vater ist in den Fluss gefallen."

[@jadhamizan]

Wow what lousy teammates Davis has in this one