>It's probably like apples and pears.

This is completely off topic, but I've always been intrigued by the way non-native English speakers, even the most fluent ones, use idioms. Please bear in mind that I'm fluent in American, as opposed to English, and this particular phrase may be different in the two languages. In American, I've always heard it as comparing apples and oranges. I don't speak enough German to know the equivalent phrase in that language, but I wouldn't be surprised to find that yours is a literal translation.

The main reason for writing (I hope it's obvious that it isn't to comment on your knowledge of English), is that the phrase somehow kicked off a memory of when (more years ago than I care to admit) I was stationed in Germany. I played with the local volleyball team and one day I was playing at tennis with a member of the team. He was virtually completely fluent in English. As he was beating me 1-0, 2-0,.....n-0 he was announcing the score as 1-Up, 2-Up,....n-Up. In American, this usually means 1-each, 2-each, etc. I asked him why he was using that phrase and his answer was that the one in the lead was "Up." That made more sense to me than using the expression to mean "each."

So. Thanks for kicking off a pleasant three year long memory marred only by one day's poor tennis. That's the end of my trip down memory lane

..........Rich