{"id":10822,"date":"2019-06-24T09:17:27","date_gmt":"2019-06-24T09:17:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/german\/?p=10822"},"modified":"2019-06-25T09:44:41","modified_gmt":"2019-06-25T09:44:41","slug":"5-more-german-placeholders","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/german\/5-more-german-placeholders\/","title":{"rendered":"5 More German Placeholders"},"content":{"rendered":"

Guten Tag! We briefly touched on German placeholders in this post,<\/a> about the words Krimskrams (stuff, junk) and Dingsbums (thingy, thingymajig). Then we looked at German placeholders for names<\/a>, such as John Doe.<\/p>\n

A placeholder<\/strong> (der Platzhalter) is a generic word you use in place of a real word. This might be because you can\u2019t think of the actual word or phrase you\u2019re looking for, or because you aren\u2019t talking about anything or anyone specific. Today we\u2019re going to look at German placeholders for miscellaneous things.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Dort, wo der Pfeffer w\u00e4chst<\/h3>\n
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der Pfeffer – pepper. Image via Pixabay<\/p><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

This phrase \u2013 \u2018where the pepper grows\u2019<\/strong> – refers to a very far away place.<\/strong> If you want someone to disappear, you might wish them to go dort, wo der Pfeffer w\u00e4chst<\/em>. This is similar to saying \u2018go to hell\u2019 in English. Basically, dort, wo der Pfeffer w\u00e4chst<\/em> is a placeholder for somewhere far away. Pepper originated in India, and the phrase was apparently inspired by how long it took for pepper to reach Germany before planes existed.<\/p>\n

Schlag mich tot<\/h3>\n

Literally \u2018strike me dead\u2019.<\/strong> Germans say this phrase when they\u2019re mid-sentence and cannot remember<\/strong> the word or name they\u2019re looking for. You may hear something like, \u2018Da ist\u2026 Ja, schlag mich tot…\u2019 (\u2018There\u2019s\u2026 You know, whatsherface…\u2019). This makes it similar to the word Dingsbums.<\/a> But schlag mich tot (also sometimes written as one word: schlagmichtot) is also a way of saying et cetera\/and so on<\/strong>. Simply say \u2018und schlag mich tot\u2019 if you want to say \u2018and so on\u2019 instead of listing everything (note that this phrase is casual\/informal).
\nAlternative form: Schie\u00df mich tot (\u2018shoot me dead\u2019).<\/p>\n

Wo Fuchs und Hase sich gute Nacht sagen<\/h3>\n
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der Fuchs – fox. Image via Pixabay.<\/p><\/div>\n

Literally \u2018where fox and rabbit say good night to each other\u2019.<\/strong> This is the German way of saying \u2018in the middle of nowhere\u2019.<\/strong> If you find yourself completely lost, with no civilisation in sight, and you need to describe your location? All you can say is that you are in the place wo Fuchs und Hase sich gute Nacht sagen.<\/em><\/p>\n

zig Mal<\/h3>\n

This is the German way of saying umpteen<\/strong>, as in: I\u2019ve told you umpteen times!<\/em> In German you\u2019d say \u2018Das habe ich dir schon zig Mal gesagt!\u2019<\/em> The word zig<\/strong> comes from the end of German numbers: zwanzig (20), drei\u00dfig (30), vierzig (40), and so on. Sometimes it is written as one word (zigmal), sometimes as two (zig Mal).<\/p>\n

Balkonien\/Bad Meingarten<\/h3>\n
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der Balkon – balcony. Image via Pixabay.<\/p><\/div>\n

I\u2019m not sure if these classify as placeholders in the same way the others do, but they\u2019re an amusing couple of words, nevertheless! When a German is having a staycation (holiday at home) and they want to dress it up to be something more exotic than it is, they humorously say they\u2019re going on holiday in Balkonien<\/em> or Bad Meingarten.<\/em>
\nBalkonien<\/strong><\/em> is a play on the word der Balkon<\/strong> (balcony) and the suffix \u2018-ien\u2019<\/strong> which is on the end of several country names in German (Spanien\/Spain, Bulgarien\/Bulgaria, Sardinien\/Sardinia, etc.). If you say you\u2019re going to Balkonien on holiday, it means you\u2019re going to be spending the summer on your balcony!
\nBad Meingarten<\/strong><\/em> is a play on the names of German spa towns, which begin with the word Bad<\/strong> (\u2018bath\u2019). Examples include Bad Kreuznach, Bad Segeberg, Bad Wildbad and Bad Kissingen. But Bad Meingarten is not a real town! \u2018Meingarten\u2019<\/strong> is the words \u2018Mein Garten\u2019 – my garden \u2013 put together into one. So if you say you\u2019re going to Bad Meingarten on holiday, it means you\u2019re going to be spending the summer in your garden\/back yard!<\/p>\n

Want to read more about placeholders? Click here<\/a> and here!\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n

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

Guten Tag! We briefly touched on German placeholders in this post, about the words Krimskrams (stuff, junk) and Dingsbums (thingy, thingymajig). Then we looked at German placeholders for names, such as John Doe. A placeholder (der Platzhalter) is a generic word you use in place of a real word. This might be because you can\u2019t…<\/p>\n

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