Sign in problem.

How do I sign into the German ebay? It won't take my password.

Accepted Solutions (1)

Accepted Solutions (1)

Really? Hmm. The German alphabet has those fun accents on certain letters, could your keyboard be misinterpreting the characters? Have you signed into https://www.ebay.de before without problem or is this the first time? 

Answers (6)

Answers (6)

Apologies. Image did not attach properly. Text as follows.

 

Achtung..Das machine is nicht fur Gefingerpoken und mittengraben. Is easy schnappen der Springenwerk blowenfusen und poppencorken mit spitzensparken. Ist nicht fur gerwerken by dummkopfen. Das rubbernecken sightseeren keepen den hands in das pockets. Relaxen and watch das blinkinlights.

 

-CM

Hi -- I am fluent in German, but without knowing what you're using to sign in (please do not reveal your actual password!), it's hard to know what the problem is. 

 

Is this a password you've used before on the German eBay site?  Is it an English word or words, or just a random string of characters such as the ones that are generated by eBay itself? 

 

German uses the Roman alphabet, with umlauts (double-dots above certain vowels) and the occasional "scharfes S" (a sort of squiggly-looking character like a cursive capital "B") thrown in.  Otherwise it is the same alphabet as English, so any ordinary English word should work.    

 

So unless your password is an actual German word that requires an umlaut in order to be recognized as the password (e.g. the old VW slogan "Fahrvernügen"), I don't know why you'd be having trouble.   If your password is in fact a German word with an umlaut, then you'll have to switch to the German keyboard to enter it.  (These keyboards are provided as options on most Microsoft operating systems -- they are electronic only, i.e. your physical keyboard remains the same but the characters the keys create differ.  I have 6 MS keyboards set up on my laptop). 

 

It's also possible that if your password is on of those random, automatically-generated password (as many are these days on .ca and .com), it may be site-specific.  Or eBay.de may have its own system for generating auto-passwords that won't recognize a "foreign" machine-made password. 

 

My suggestion:  change your password on eBay.ca to a regular English word or word string, and try the .de site again.  

 

BTW, for someone who speaks German, that gobbledegook paragraph that was posted above is a SCREAM!!  Smiley Very Happy  I actually started trying to read it until I realized: say what?? This ain't German.  LOL  -- hilarious, wherever it came from. 

 

 

BTW, further to 'momcqueen's'  comments above about certain German words, many modern computer tech words are actually not German at all. 

 

The German language has borrowed heavily and happily from the English over the past 40 to 50 years, rather than inventing new terms of its own.  Old technical words, like "Sauerstoff" for oxygen, or "Flugzeug" for airplane, required creative combinations of imagery.  I guess the Germans got tired of thinking up new compound words.  Those nouns clamped together, sometimes in long trains, used to be the hallmark of the language.   

 

So words like "Email" and "einloggen" are actually direct, modern borrowings.  The word "Passwort" is a lot older, but the "pass" part (in this meaning) was borrowed from the French a very long time ago.  (P.S. Every German noun has an initial capital letter, although I see some modern German publications are even ignoring that old rule.  It occurs to me this might also be the OP's issue with signing in). 

This is my favorite example for the German language and being so easy to get the gist of it. And almost entirely applicable to normal every day usage of eBay features.

 

-CM

 

 

@rose-dee You have mentioned you speak German; could this be a problem with the characters used in the user's password? Do you have insight to offer on this? 

I know this may not be helpful but I was able to log into my account just now without issue.


p.s. I love the German language. 'Email' and 'passwort' and 'einloggen'. Some words require no imagination whatsoever for a speaker of English to interpret and understand, and then you get these https://www.fluentu.com/blog/german/weird-german-words-vocabulary/German is fun!German is fun!

Ask a Question