Idioms/Idiomen
Talk Like a German
German Idiomatic Expressions
An idiom (eine Redewendung) is an expression that usually can't be translated literally. Its meaning is often quite different from the word-for-word meaning. For many idioms, either you know what it means or you don't.
Sometimes a German idiom is similar to its English equivalent: "He's getting on my nerves." = Er geht mir auf die Nerven. or "She's got a screw loose." = Bei ihr ist eine Schraube los. But more often the German and the English are nothing alike: "He had the nerve to say that?" = Er hatte die Stirn, das zu sagen? (Literally, "he had the forehead..." But then the British refer to yet another location when they say, "he had the cheek...")
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Idioms and Sayings: Contents
Idioms and color make up an entire subtopic. In English, if someone hits you, you get a black eye. In German it's blue (ein blaues Auge). In fact, about the only time that blau means the same thing as "blue" is when it refers to the color of the sky, a pair of jeans, or blaues Blut ("blue blood"). If a German is blau, he's drunk, not sad. On a menu, blau means "boiled." Ein Blauer was a one-hundred-mark bill (similar to "greenback" but more specific), now replaced by the euro. Blau machen is to not show up for work or school—for no good reason. ("Ferris macht blau" is the German title of the 1986 movie "Ferris Bueller's Day Off." See: Movie Titles in German for more.) Blaue Bohnen are bullets ("blue pills/beans"). (For more on "colorful expressions" see our article entitled "Farbenfroh.")
An English-speaker may sleep like a log, a top, or a dog, but a German-speaker sleeps like a wood chuck or a marmot (wie ein Murmeltier schlafen). In English you're "putty" in someone's hands, while in German you're "wax" (Er war Wachs in ihren Händen.). You pull someone's leg in English, but in German you take them on your arm (auf den Arm nehmen).
Proverbs, sayings, and clichés also fall into this category. You can't teach an old dog new tricks in English, but auf Deutsch what little Johnny can't learn, old John will never learn. (Was Hänschen nicht lernt, lernt Hans nimmermehr.) With expressions like these, it is often only necessary to say the first few words before someone nods with recognition.
But some German expressions are extremely good at "hitting the nail on the head" (den Nagel auf den Kopf treffen). One of my all-time favorites: da bin ich überfragt (lit., "I've been over-asked" or in other words, "you've got me there"). Another favorite is one of many German expressions for "not being all there": Sie hat nicht alle Tassen im Schrank. ("She doesn't have all [her] cups in the cupboard.")
To learn more German idioms and sayings, see the related pages below and try our self-scoring quizzes (links below) for idioms and expressions. For a more complete look at German idioms, see our Idioms and Proverbs Glossary.
MORE > Idioms and Sayings: Contents
Related Pages
Idioms and Proverbs Glossary
An annotated German-English glossary of idiomatic expressions and sayings.
Day by Day: German 'Day' Expressions
A detailed look at day-to-day and daily vocabulary in German - with two self-scoring quizzes.
Farbenfroh: Colorful Expressions
German idioms and expressions that include a color, plus the meaning and symbolism of colors in German.
False Friends/Falsche Freunde
About those tricky false cognates in German and English.
German Proverb Quiz 1
A fun self-scoring quiz in which you match up the English and German version of some common sayings.
German Idiom and Proverb Quiz 2
A second fun self-scoring quiz on common sayings and idioms.
German Quotation of the Day
"Das Zitat des Tages" is a daily quotation or saying in German and English.
Proverbs and Idioms from Readers
More idioms and a quiz on German sayings and proverbs.
Taking Things Too Literally
Don't assume that common expressions are the same in German and English! A guest feature with quiz.
When the Plural Is Singular
Avoiding English-German noun confusion. Some English plural nouns are singular in German, and vice versa. The police "is" coming!
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