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What's In A Word?

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Ask Not What to Dunk in Your Coffee


The noun "Berliner" has two meanings in German. It can mean a male native of Berlin or it can mean a jelly-filled pastry. Unlike in English, when you are declaring where you come from in German you omit the indefinite article. If you want to say "I am a pastry," you leave in the indefinite article. Thus Kennedy should have said "Ich bin Berliner" to be grammatically correct.

Although some German comedians made hay of this later on, at the time no one thought Kennedy was claiming to have jelly in his veins. The phrase may have sounded odd, but they knew what he meant and appreciated it.

Documented: J.F. Kennedy said "Ich bin ein Berliner." This could mean either "I am a native of Berlin" or "I am a jelly doughnut." Berliners knew what he was talking about

Documented: "Hamburgers" and "Frankfurters" are named after cities in Germany, too.

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Version 0.3, last updated: Sat Apr 8 19:25:46 US/Central 2000



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