Have you ever been haunted by a song?
I have. Even for years and decades.
When I was a child, I lived in Germany, and I learned to speak German, English and Danish almost at the same time. Obviously, many of my childhood songs were in German, and the haunting song was between them. The first lines goes like this:
Alle meine Püpchen, Emmy und Marie, schlafen noch in Betchen, biss zum Morgen früh.
I am sorry, if there are spelling errors. After all, I was 5, when we left Germany.
This means something like: “All my little dolls, Emmy and Mary, are still sleeping in their little beds, until tomorrow morning.”
What is wrong with that?
Why did the stupid author write “alle” (= all), when he could have written “beide” (= both)?
I have been puzzled about this for more than 40 years now.