"Я забыл включить холодильник."
Translation:I forgot to turn on the refrigerator.
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A serious question though: has включить the same double meaning, or would this joke not have worked in Russian?
Nope, in Russian the joke won't work.
In Russian the similar double meaning belongs to the word "завести" but its literal meaning is closer to "to start [an engine]", rather than "to turn [something] on".
Fridges have to be plugged in to work and some often have an on-off switch. That is how.
Usually there is a "zero" setting for both freezer and fridge (assuming its a split unit) that effectively turns the compressor off. The lights still work, but nothing will be kept cold.
Ich habe den Kühlschrank anzumachen vergessen. (Oh... It seems I have choosen the wrong language)
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Amuzega!! (<---EO) ---- my idea is that .... we are really all becoming polyglots, it's a free for all :D
Your response is 100% correct, but it feels more natural to say 'Ich habe vergessen, den Kühlschrank einzuschalten'
German was my first foreign language, and i had to fight hard against the urge to kick verbs to the end when learning Russian...!
Do you turn on the fridge when you want to refrigerate something and then turn it off again?
No, you turn it on after installing it and you turn it off again for maintenance or when you go on a vacation without leaving food in your fridge. Obviously the reason is to save electricity.
That makes perfect logical sense. However, "turn on" is not only acceptable, it is far more commonly used than "switch on." (English is so weird.)
I've never had a refrigerator with a switch. Yes a temperature control, so I might say, "I forgot to turn down the fridge", but most likely I had unplugged the fridge for some reason and neglected to plug it in afterwards. So could включить also mean "to plug in" or would there be a better word in Russian for that?
Mine has a switch on the front. That's because I can't reach the plug without moving the fridge.
What is the difference if I wrote " a refrigerator" instead of "the refrigerator". We don't have context here, so I guess both should be accepted.
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I honestly had a double-back at this one, because it was an injoke I had with my great grandmother about 25 years ago. We were going off to sleep and she meant to say she forgot to turn off the television, but instead said she forgot to turn off the fridge, and being a small child I found this hilarious, and she found my laughter hilarious, and so we had one of those wonderful unstoppable laughing fits...
No, the sentence doesn't make sense, but it brought back a cherished memory.
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How do you know to use the perfect form включить instead of the imperfect включать in this case? Because the action wasn't completed?
That would be a really strange explanation, because 'perfective' literally means completed. My guess is because the focus is not on the action of not switching it on, but on the result (the fridge is not running).