Guten Tag! Whilst it’s fairly easy to express yourself with yes and no in German, do you know how to respond in German if someone presents a couple of options to you, and you don’t mind either way which one is chosen? Alternatively, how do you let someone know – perhaps in a more heated conversation! – that you really don’t care about what they’re saying? Today we’re going to look at the more heated, rude or unusual ways to say “I don’t mind” or “I don’t care” in German. For neutral phrases, please see this post here!

Unusual Ways To Say “I Don’t Care” In German

die Wurst. Photo by Ball Park Brand on Unsplash

Das ist mir Wurst – That is sausage to me

This is probably the best-known unusual way of expressing that you don’t care! Die Wurst is the German word for sausage. It’s not totally clear where this phrase came from, but the general idea behind it is that sausage isn’t something to have any strong opinions about, hence the comparison. It’s sometimes linked to the popular German saying, “Alles hat ein Ende, nur die Wurst hat zwei” – “Everything has an end, only the sausage has two” – even though this saying is very dissimilar in meaning to the phrase Das ist mir Wurst.

Das ist mir scheißegal – I don’t give a shit

If you’ve read my first post on this subject, you’ll be familiar with the phrase Das ist mir egal – probably the most common way of saying ‘I don’t mind’ or ‘Either way is fine by me’. Das ist mir scheißegal is the same sentence, but much ruder! Adding scheiß (from die Scheiße – shit) onto the front of the word egal supercharges its meaning; this is definitely not a phrase to use in formal company, but people will certainly understand just how little you care when you use it.

Pieps! Photo by Sneha Cecil on Unsplash

Das ist mir schnurzpiepegal – I couldn’t care less

Now we are seeing a theme of adding words onto the front of ‘egal’ to drive the point home: I couldn’t care less! Schnurzpiepegal is a wonderful word that’s pretty difficult to translate. The word schnurz roughly translates to ‘all the same’, and you can actually just say ‘Das ist mir schnurz’ to mean the same as ‘Das ist mir egal’. Piep (or pieps), meanwhile, means ‘tweet’ or ‘squeak’. So although it’s pretty nonsensical when translated, if you say something is schnurzpiepegal to you, you’re saying this is the most uninteresting thing you can possibly think of, and you don’t care one little bit about it!

Das geht mir am Arsch vorbei – I couldn’t care less

Literally ‘that goes past my ass’, this is another colourful phrase you can use if you absolutely, completely, utterly do not care.

Das interessiert mich nicht die Bohne – That doesn’t interest me one little bit (or one little bean!)

‘Das interessiert mich nicht’ is pretty straight-forward in meaning: That doesn’t interest me. But why add ‘die Bohne’ onto the end? Die Bohne is the German word for bean, and this phrase is said to have originated in the 13th Century. Beans are aplenty, and easy to grow, so one, individual bean isn’t worth much!

die Kidneybohne. Photo by Volodymyr Hryshchenko on Unsplash

Das kratzt mich nicht/Das juckt mich nicht – That’s no skin off my nose

I have given an equivalent translation above, but the literal translation of this phrase is ‘That doesn’t scratch me’ (kratzen: to scratch) or ‘That doesn’t itch/tickle me’ (jucken: to itch), meaning it doesn’t bother you at all. It’s not as aggressive as some of the others on this list, but it’s unusual enough to include!

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I hope you’ve enjoyed this post and learnt some new phrases from it! Please click here to read my first post on the subject, which contains more neutral ways of saying the same thing.

Bis bald!
Constanze