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"Bach war der erste Hacker. Das Cembalo war sein Computer. Kannst du vorwärts und rückwärts spielen"

In English: "Bach was the first Hacker. The Harpsichord was his Computer. 'Can play it forwards and backwards."

~23: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0126765/




The last sentence reads, "Can you play it forward and backwards?"


Not quite - it's not a question, it's a variation of "you can play that forwards and backwards" which would be a literal translation of "du kannst das vorwärts und rückwärts spielen". German's free word order allows you to change the position of subject and object in that case: "das kannst du vorwärts und rückwärts spielen". The original quote is colloquial speech where the object "das" (that) is not realized - that's a common pattern. However, it would be very strange to leave the object out if the sentence were a question.


awesome movie. see 8:33 http://il.youtube.com/watch?v=0rI2anb5Da0

here's the above quote in the movie: http://il.youtube.com/watch?v=IR_EHMDhcnw at 3:42




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