{"id":6408,"date":"2015-06-23T19:00:40","date_gmt":"2015-06-23T19:00:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/german\/?p=6408"},"modified":"2018-02-07T10:47:13","modified_gmt":"2018-02-07T10:47:13","slug":"10-german-proverbs-and-their-meanings","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/german\/10-german-proverbs-and-their-meanings\/","title":{"rendered":"10 German Proverbs and Their Meanings"},"content":{"rendered":"

I got inspiration for this post from a comment on an earlier post of mine Useful Vocabulary for Everyday Life in Germany<\/a>\u00a0 asking if I could translate a German proverb. Here are 10 common German proverbs, some of them you might recognise in English, and some not!<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Wer im Glashaus sitzt sollte nicht mit Steinen werfen.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/strong>People who live in glass houses shouldn\u2019t throw stones.<\/p>\n

Meaning: You shouldn\u2019t criticize someone if you yourself are the same.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Du siehst den Wald vor lauter B\u00e4ume nicht<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/strong>You don\u2019t see the forest for all the trees.<\/p>\n

Bedeutung:<\/strong> Sometimes you have to step back and take a look at the bigger Bild<\/strong> (picture).<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Morgenstund hat Gold im Mund<\/strong><\/p>\n

Morning hour has gold in its mouth<\/p>\n

Meaning: Get up fr\u00fch<\/strong> (early) and have a head start in the day!<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Der fr\u00fche Vogel f\u00e4ngt den Wurm<\/strong><\/p>\n

The early bird catches the worm<\/p>\n

Meaning: Exactly the same meaning as the proverb above, reinforcing die Wichtigkeit<\/strong> (importance) of getting up early in the morning!<\/p>\n

This is also an English proverb! \u201cThe early bird gets the worm\u201d.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Zu viele K\u00f6che verderben den Brei<\/strong><\/p>\n

Too many cooks ruin the broth<\/p>\n

Meaning: It can ruin the situation when too many people get involved.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Lieber arm dran als Arm ab<\/strong><\/p>\n

Better to be poor than have one arm less<\/p>\n

Meaning: It could be worse! Es k\u00f6nnte schlimmer sein!<\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Eine Hand w\u00e4scht die andere<\/strong><\/p>\n

One hand washes the other<\/p>\n

Meaning: This has the same meaning as the English proverb \u201cYou scratch my back and I\u2019ll scratch yours\u201d \u2013 if you help someone they will return the favour.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Sauf ma, dann sterm ma \u2013 sauf ma ned, dann sterm ma a, also sauf ma<\/strong><\/p>\n

Trinken wir zu viel, dann sterben wir \u2013 trinken wir nichts, dann sterben wir, also trinken wir<\/strong><\/p>\n

If we drink too much, we die \u2013 if we don\u2019t drink at all, we die, so let\u2019s drink<\/p>\n

Meaning: Live your life<\/p>\n

If you haven\u2019t already guessed this a Bavarian saying which is of course about drinking beer!<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Da beisst die Maus keinen faden ab<\/strong><\/p>\n

The mouse doesn\u2019t bite any threads<\/p>\n

Meaning: That\u2019s how it is, you cannot change it<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Wenn du mit dem Finger auf andere Menschen zeigst, zeigen drei Finger auf dich selbst<\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

I\u2019ve left the last one free without the English translation and meaning so you can try and figure it out! If you think you know what it means then I\u2019d love to see your answers (or if you have any other German proverbs) in the comments below.<\/p>\n

Tschuss,<\/p>\n

Larissa<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\"\"

I got inspiration for this post from a comment on an earlier post of mine Useful Vocabulary for Everyday Life in Germany\u00a0 asking if I could translate a German proverb. Here are 10 common German proverbs, some of them you might recognise in English, and some not!   Wer im Glashaus sitzt sollte nicht mit…<\/p>\n

Continue Reading<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":127,"featured_media":6410,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":""},"categories":[8,10],"tags":[935,95131,375998,376001,376000,1195,375999,2588,13],"class_list":["post-6408","post","type-post","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-language","category-literature","tag-german","tag-german-language","tag-germanproverbs","tag-learngerman","tag-practicegerman","tag-proverbs","tag-stichwort","tag-translation","tag-vocabulary"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/german\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6408","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\/127"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/german\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6408"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/german\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6408\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9240,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/german\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6408\/revisions\/9240"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/german\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6410"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/german\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6408"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/german\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6408"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/german\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6408"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}