I just now realized for the first time that the Albatross fighters are not spelled Albatross at all, but Albatros. Wow. I've been seeing that word for fifteen years and all this time I call it Albatross. Now that I think about it, I don't even know how "Albatros" is pronounced, or if it's even the German word for the albatross bird.

I did that error too, and I'm a German native speaker. And yes, it's the same bird, just loses an S in German.

just call it a "V-Strutter" - at least from the D.III on

I wouldn't worry about it Josh, the real confusion starts about what the plural of Albatros is

Uh ... Albatrosen? Albatrossen? Or is there an umlaut in there somewhere instead of the "en"? Screw it, I'm gonna keep calling 'em Albatrosses!

Like Storch for Stork, took me years to notice that

Ming

didnt the englishmen call them "Albatri" in the plural

in correct german gammer its
Albatros
&
Albatrosse
isnt german an easy language

so far i not got an Albatros on a Golfcourt ................but thats another story

Yes, I read somewhere (On a Wing and a Prayer - Joshua Levine) that the brits at the time pluralised it erroneously as Albatri.

I never noticed the one s either.

I did some pronounciation examples a while ago. This is the one for the Albatros D Va.

Danke, das geholfen mich gut. [smile ]

I did it for the first couple of months too, even my first mission referred to an enemy "Albatross" in the briefing

"Yes, but these Fokkers were Albatrosses."

Easier to spell than Messerschmidt - but SimHQ spell checker knows though!

"Messerschmitt," actually. [grin] I think "messerschmidt" would be the correct spelling if you're trying to say "knife-smith" in Deutsche, but the name of the aircraft manufacturer is Messerschmitt.

Albatrosses

Yes that's it Dart

For second-language friends, the second s there is to harden the o for the o sound in pot not the o sound in totem

General rule is: vowel followed by consonant followed by vowel, first vowel softens. With many exceptions but never mind about that right now

Albatroses

Will be pronounced as in roses if not for the hardening s

Albatri would be an attempt to sound sophisticated Steven Fry

The Germans gave us English in the first place, don't blame me the tokken Welshman

Ming

And then whiskey was invented. After several, the correct pronunciation is ALBEE-drosses.

Using the singular to denote the plural is just not the way to go. "Careful - there's albatros above!" lacks the urgency of "Cripes! Albatrosses!"

What's the plural of the word in Deutsche?

single:Albatros
&
plural:Albatrosse

Danke also! (And that about exhausts the tiny supply of German that I picked up in my class. [apologetic smile])

Tips of the iceberg lads - next up for pronunciation is Pfalz, and if you survive that there is Halberstadt!