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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Business
Roy Greenslade

A quote lost in translation...

A friend, a former Fleet Street editor, calls to point out an oddity in today's newspaper stories - and headlines - about the school massacre in Germany by 17-year-old Tim Kretschmer.

Germany's Bild reported that at one point during his shooting spree Kretschmer shouted at the pupils cowering under their desks. But what did he shout?

According to The Guardian, he (rather improbably) said: "Are you not all dead yet?"

The Times, The Independent, and the Daily Telegraph carried a much more likely translation: "Aren't you all dead yet?"

The Daily Mail, The Sun, Daily Mirror and Daily Express deleted the negative altogether, claiming that the killer said: "Are you all dead yet?"

So how did Bild put it. Its German version said: "Sind Sie nicht alle Toten noch?" And its English website translates that, just as The Guardian did, literally, as "Are you not all dead yet?"

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