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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
National
Letters

The right word for the wrong way

A speed limit sign on the A27 motorway near Bremen, Germany
Frank Lloyd recommends incorporating the German word falschfahrer, meaning ‘wrong driver’, into the English language. Photograph: Morris MacMatzen/Reuters

I think the German word falschfahrer (wrong driver), for someone driving the wrong way down a motorway, to be beautifully succinct and maybe, like schadenfreude, could be incorporated into the English language (Letters, 20 February). With an ageing population, this error of judgment could become more commonplace.
Frank Lloyd
Essen, Germany

• Let the record show that the Russian Federation unleashed war against a neighbour at a time when the Russian Federation held the presidency of the United Nations security council, responsible, inter alia, for the preservation of international peace and security.
Rod MacKenna
Kefalas, Crete, Greece

• Thanks to Gary Brooker and Procol Harum (Obituary, 23 February), I have a perennial earworm.
Sara Hayward
Worcester

• As a young aspiring organist at my Methodist church in the 1960s, I played A Whiter Shade of Pale as an introductory piece prior to the service. Imagine my indignation afterwards when the senior organist told me, “you can’t play stuff like that in here”. Perhaps the devil really does have all the best tunes.
John Dilleigh
Uppingham, Rutland

• Another competitor for the most ingenious substitution by a supermarket’s online delivery system (Letters, 21 February): my wife ordered a box of matches from Sainsbury’s and we received a packet of firelighters.
Peter Wemyss-Gorman
Lindfield, West Sussex

Have an opinion on anything you’ve read in the Guardian today? Please email us your letter and it will be considered for publication.

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