HELP!! german lightbulb ad translation?

dictionary.com

scratch that… It gives the same thing. I didn’t read your question all the way through. Sorry.

it seems to be more of a phrase/rhyme/saying rather than something that can be directly translated.
I’m german so i ll give it a try but it is—even for me, in german—a bit strange to begin with.

Direct translation: “Light home the electricity thief knips! Is the best hint/tip of all.”
Now I think it is meant to mean something along the lines of: “Send away the electricity thief knips! (I assume knips is a name of some sort, and to rhyme with tips but the direct translation is “snip”) Is the best idea of all.”

Really really strange ad copy. Hope this helps somewhat.

Knips is cut in Dutch, if that’s any help.

Let the electricity thieves light their own home (ie send them home), that’s the best tip of all.

in other words this lightbulb is cheaper because it uses less energy

My German is not that good, but I think “leuchtet” is just 3rd person Present Tense, not Imperative as it should be, which may also mean “the electricity thief is lighting his own home now”. But that would not be a tip, so the other translation seems more logical. In any case, it means it’s an economical lightbulb.

Tbh it’s a very odd sentence, that doesn’t even make much sense to me as a german native speaker since the wording and the grammar is a bit strange.

Roughly translated it’s something like:
“Gets rid of the energy thief Knips! That’s the best of all tips.”

Imo it’s a very strange play on words since “leuchtet” literally means “glow”, but “leuchtet heim” is an odd phrase for telling s.o. off or some kind of rejection but literally says “to illuminate someone the way home”.

And “Knips ” usually is used as a verb; “anknipsen” = to switch on, whereas in that sentence it’s used as a name. So I guess the tip is to get rid of the energy thief named Knips (switch-on) and that’s the best tip of them all.

Btw if it says “leuchtet heim den stromdieb knips” instead of “leuchtet heim dem stromdieb knips” (which is grammatically incorrect), it would be a direct order of “Get rid of the energy thief Knips!”, which could be interpreted as some kind of order like “Do not even switch on the light” – and that’s the best tip of them all.

Very long explanation but there are several wordplays involved that can’t be translated easily and leave the meaning open to speculation… Hope this helped.

Since that strange sentence kept running through my mind, I googled a bit. It’s some slogan from former communist east germany, that admonishes people and children not to leave on their lights to save energy.

And Knips the energy thief is a weird little man who has a lightbulb as a head http://www.ddr-phillumenie.de/strom03.JPG. So it means something like "Don't leave on the lights!" or "Don't switch on the lights! That's the best tip of them all". Sentence still sounds a bit strange to me tbh, but makes a lot more sense now. Apparently the character Knips was used to teach kids to save energy.

I used to live near Riesa

@AC – actually, “knippen” it “to cut” in Dutch, and when you cut something you “knip” it, but AFAIK there is no correct way to conjungate it to “knips” :P

(And there’s also “aanknippen”, “to turn on”...)

Stupid me. I guess I was thinking in English.
I was thinking that if knip = cut, then knips should be cuts.
Sorry.

Haha, no apology needed, I just liked to brag with my elite Dutch skills :P

Use a online translator it’s even an app I have it and it’s great and free