{"id":7268,"date":"2016-05-16T10:29:44","date_gmt":"2016-05-16T10:29:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/german\/?p=7268"},"modified":"2016-05-16T10:29:44","modified_gmt":"2016-05-16T10:29:44","slug":"german-sayings-translated-literally-pt2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/german\/german-sayings-translated-literally-pt2\/","title":{"rendered":"German Sayings Translated Literally pt2"},"content":{"rendered":"

Guten Tag, everyone!<\/p>\n

Recently I wrote a post about the postcards you can buy in Germany which feature German idioms translated literally into English. These are somewhat of an in-joke to speakers of both languages, so I wanted to share the love and explain what they all meant! You can read that post by clicking here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

But not all German expressions are as bizarre as the ones worthy of being on a postcard. A lot of German expressions are, you\u2019ll be pleased to hear, rather similar to their English counterparts – which makes them easier to remember. As I did last time, I\u2019m going to post the English expressions on the left with the German expressions on the right \u2013 but they are all mixed up. Using the vocabulary list, see if you can match up the correct sayings! The answers are below the table. Good luck!<\/p>\n

VOCABULARY<\/u><\/strong><\/p>\n

TRETEN \u2013 to tread<\/p>\n

GEHEN \u2013 to go<\/p>\n

DER GEIST \u2013 ghost\/spirit<\/p>\n

DIE K\u00d6CHE \u2013 cooks<\/p>\n

DAS HERZ \u2013 heart<\/p>\n

LOCKER \u2013 loose<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"footprints\"<\/a>

Fussstapfen. Photo: khrawlings on flickr.com under a CC license (CC BY 2.0)<\/p><\/div>\n\n\n\n
\n

ENGLISH SAYING<\/strong><\/h3>\n

\u00a0TOO MANY COOKS SPOIL THE BROTH<\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

TO FALL FLAT ON ONE\u2019S FACE<\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

TO AIR ONE\u2019S DIRTY LAUNDRY IN PUBLIC<\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

TO GIVE UP THE GHOST<\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

TO HAVE A SCREW LOOSE<\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

TO FOLLOW IN SOMEONE\u2019S FOOTSTEPS<\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

TO POUR ONE\u2019S HEART OUT<\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

TO BE GREEN-FINGERED<\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

TO BE ON\u00a0 THE SAME WAVELENGTH<\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

TO GO BELOW THE BELT<\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/td>\n

\n

GERMAN SAYING<\/strong><\/h3>\n

DEN GEIST AUFGEBEN<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

DIE SCHMUTZIGE W\u00c4SCHE WASCHEN<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

ZU VIELE K\u00d6CHE VERDERBEN DEN BREI<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

AUF DERSELBEN WELLENL\u00c4NGE SEIN<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

EINEN GR\u00dcNEN DAUMEN HABEN<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

AUF DIE NASE FALLEN<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

IN JEMANDES FU\u00dfSTAPFEN TRETEN<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

DAS HERZ AUSSCH\u00dcTTEN<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

EINE SCHRAUBE LOCKER HABEN<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

UNTER DIE GURTELLINIE GEHEN<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

How did you do? Here are the answers:<\/p>\n

\"Warning:<\/a>

Auf die Nase fallen! Photo by quinnanya on flickr.com under a CC license (CC BY-SA 2.0)<\/p><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

TOO MANY COOKS SPOIL THE BROTH<\/strong> ——- ZU VIELE K\u00d6CHE VERDERBEN DEN BREI
\n(\u2018Brei\u2019 is more like \u2018mash\u2019 than \u2018broth\u2019, though. Porridge\/oatmeal is \u2018Haferflockenbrei\u2019 and mashed potato is ‘Kartoffelbrei’, for example).<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

TO FALL FLAT ON ONE\u2019S FACE<\/strong> —— AUF DIE NASE FALLEN
\n(\u2018To fall on one\u2019s nose\u2019)<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

TO AIR ONE\u2019S DIRTY LAUNDRY IN PUBLIC<\/strong> ——– DIE SCHMUTZIGE W\u00c4SCHE WASCHEN
\n(\u2018To wash dirty clothes\u2019 \u2013 which I don\u2019t fully understand, because why would you wash clean clothes? The longer version of this saying, ‘Die schmutzige W\u00e4sche in der \u00d6ffentlichkeit waschen’ (‘To wash dirty laundry in public’), makes more sense)<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

TO GIVE UP THE GHOST<\/strong> ——– DEN GEIST AUFGEBEN<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

TO HAVE A SCREW LOOSE<\/strong> ——- EINE SCHRAUBE LOCKER HABEN<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

TO FOLLOW IN SOMEONE\u2019S FOOTSTEPS<\/strong> ——- IN JEMANDES FU\u00dfSTAPFEN TRETEN<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

TO POUR ONE\u2019S HEART OUT<\/strong> ———- DAS HERZ AUSSCH\u00dcTTEN<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

TO BE GREEN-FINGERED<\/strong> ———– EINEN GR\u00dcNEN DAUMEN HABEN
\n(‘To have a green thumb’ \u2013 which I believe we say in English, too, but I had to pick one or the other)<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

TO BE ON THE SAME WAVELENGTH<\/strong> —————- AUF DERSELBEN WELLENL\u00c4NGE SEIN<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

TO GO BELOW THE BELT<\/strong> ——– UNTER DIE GURTELLINIE GEHEN
\n(‘To go under the belt line’)<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Did you find this easier or harder than the previous post?<\/p>\n

Stay tuned for part 3, in which I\u2019ll bring you more quirky German sayings \u2013 this time it\u2019ll be ones that we don\u2019t have in English (though I\u2019ll attempt to find some that are equally as amusing).<\/p>\n

Bis bald!<\/p>\n

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

Guten Tag, everyone! Recently I wrote a post about the postcards you can buy in Germany which feature German idioms translated literally into English. These are somewhat of an in-joke to speakers of both languages, so I wanted to share the love and explain what they all meant! You can read that post by clicking…<\/p>\n

Continue Reading<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":119,"featured_media":7426,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[95131,82,376023,2391,456974,8043,358422,990],"class_list":["post-7268","post","type-post","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-language","tag-german-language","tag-idioms","tag-language","tag-phrases","tag-postcards","tag-sayings","tag-sayings-expressions","tag-vocab"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/german\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7268","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=7268"}],"version-history":[{"count":14,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/german\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7268\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7282,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/german\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7268\/revisions\/7282"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/german\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7426"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/german\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7268"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/german\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7268"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/german\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7268"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}