{"id":10498,"date":"2019-02-26T08:54:42","date_gmt":"2019-02-26T08:54:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/german\/?p=10498"},"modified":"2019-02-26T08:54:42","modified_gmt":"2019-02-26T08:54:42","slug":"the-german-phrase-es-passt","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/german\/the-german-phrase-es-passt\/","title":{"rendered":"The German Phrase ‘Es Passt’"},"content":{"rendered":"

Guten Tag! In my last post I talked about the phrase \u2018Es steht dir (gut)\u2019, the German way of saying \u2018It (really) suits you\u2019. A question people often have when they learn this phrase is: What is the difference between saying ‘Es steht dir’ (it suits you) and a similar phrase, ‘Es passt dir’ (it fits you)? So today we\u2019re going to look at the phrase Es passt dir.<\/strong><\/p>\n

In simple terms, when saying \u2018es passt\u2019 you are saying \u2018it fits\u2019. You can say it fits, or you can say it fits me\/you, etc.<\/p>\n

Es passt.<\/strong>
\nIt fits.<\/em><\/p>\n

Es passt mir.<\/strong>
\nIt fits me.<\/em><\/p>\n

Passt (dir) das Kleid?
\n<\/strong>Does the dress fit (you)?<\/em>
\n<\/strong><\/p>\n

Ja, es passt (mir).<\/strong>
\nYes, it fits (me).<\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"

Image via Pixabay<\/p><\/div>\n

Of course, there is a difference between saying something fits<\/strong> and something suits<\/strong> a person. If you\u2019re saying something fits, you\u2019re talking about size, length etc. But if you\u2019re saying it suits them, you\u2019re talking about the style, how it looks on them, etc. Here is how you\u2019d say both in German:<\/p>\n

Die Schuhe passen dir.<\/strong>
\nThe shoes fit you.<\/em><\/p>\n

Die Schuhe stehen dir.<\/strong>
\nThe shoes suit you.<\/em><\/p>\n

(For more on how to say something suits a person, see this blog post here.<\/a>)<\/p>\n

\"\"

Image via Pixabay<\/p><\/div>\n

However, if instead of \u2018es passt dir\u2019 you were to say \u2018es passt zu<\/em> dir\u2019,<\/strong> adding in the \u2018zu\u2019,<\/strong> you would then be changing the meaning of the phrase to \u2018it suits you\u2019<\/strong>!<\/p>\n

Die Schuhe passen zu dir.
\n<\/strong>The shoes suit you (\u2018the shoes fit to you\u2019).<\/em><\/p>\n

That gives it the same meaning as:<\/p>\n

Die Schuhe stehen dir.<\/strong>
\nThe shoes suit you.<\/em><\/p>\n

So look out for the little word \u2018zu\u2019.<\/p>\n

*<\/p>\n

\"\"

Image via Pixabay<\/p><\/div>\n

There is also a context in which \u2018es passt\u2019 means \u2018it is convenient\u2019,<\/strong> and that is if you were to say, for example:<\/p>\n

Wir gehen um 10 Uhr. Passt (dir) das?
\n<\/strong>We\u2019re going at 10 o\u2019clock. Is that convenient (for you)?<\/i><\/p>\n

Ja, es passt (mir).<\/strong>
\nYes, that suits me\/is convenient (for me).<\/em><\/p>\n

Here is another example:<\/p>\n

Wir machen es nur, wenn es dir passt!<\/strong>
\nWe will only do it if it suits you!<\/em><\/p>\n

It is also acceptable to simply ask ‘Passt?’\/reply ‘Passt!’ rather than say the whole phrase. This more casual approach makes ‘passt’ translate more to ‘OK’ or ‘fine by me’:<\/p>\n

Wir gehen um 10 Uhr. Passt?
\n<\/b>We’re going at 10 o’clock. OK?<\/em>
\n<\/b><\/p>\n

Ja, passt.<\/strong>
\nYes, fine by me.<\/em><\/p>\n

So you can use passen in this way to ask if a situation, time, place (etc.) suits a person. Note that you couldn\u2019t use \u2018es steht dir\u2019 to ask if a time, place, or situation would suit a person. This phrase is only to say something \u2018suits\u2019 a person in the sense that it looks good on them.<\/p>\n

*<\/p>\n

Then there is the phrase \u2018Passt schon\u2019.<\/strong> Literally this means \u2018Fits already\u2019. Huh? What this little phrase actually means is \u2018it\u2019s OK\u2019, \u2018no worries\u2019 or \u2018it\u2019s all good\u2019. You would say it when paying your bill in a restaurant, for example, to signal to the waiter that they can keep the change. There are a whole host of ways you can use \u2018Passt schon\u2019 which I will cover in a separate blog post.<\/p>\n

For now, I hope this has been helpful!<\/p>\n

Bis bald (see you soon)!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\"\"

Guten Tag! In my last post I talked about the phrase \u2018Es steht dir (gut)\u2019, the German way of saying \u2018It (really) suits you\u2019. A question people often have when they learn this phrase is: What is the difference between saying ‘Es steht dir’ (it suits you) and a similar phrase, ‘Es passt dir’ (it…<\/p>\n

Continue Reading<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":119,"featured_media":10503,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[9154,12133,95131,6,376023,516760,2391,337687,165],"class_list":["post-10498","post","type-post","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-language","tag-clothes","tag-german-grammar","tag-german-language","tag-grammar","tag-language","tag-passen","tag-phrases","tag-stehen","tag-verb"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/german\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10498","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/german\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/german\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/german\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/119"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/german\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10498"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/german\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10498\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10505,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/german\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10498\/revisions\/10505"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/german\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10503"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/german\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10498"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/german\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10498"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/german\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10498"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}