{"id":8584,"date":"2018-02-15T08:00:39","date_gmt":"2018-02-15T08:00:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/german\/?p=8584"},"modified":"2018-02-11T13:21:21","modified_gmt":"2018-02-11T13:21:21","slug":"sayings-expressions-16-drehen","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/german\/sayings-expressions-16-drehen\/","title":{"rendered":"Sayings + Expressions 16 – Drehen"},"content":{"rendered":"

In this long series of Sayings + Expressions, we have come across a lot<\/a>. It might make your head spin. And that is why today, we will be talking about\u00a0drehen<\/em> (to spin). Because believe it or not, there are\u00a0Sprichw\u00f6rter\u00a0<\/em>(sayings) and\u00a0Ausdr\u00fccke\u00a0<\/em>(expressions) with spinning too! Let’s start, as always, with the\u00a0Sprichwort<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Einen alten Baum verpflanzt man nicht<\/strong><\/em><\/h2>\n
\"\"<\/a>

Image by Adarsh Kummur at Unsplash.com<\/p><\/div>\n

Literally: You don’t transplant old trees<\/strong><\/p>\n

You cannot shift an old tree without it dying.<\/em><\/p>\n

I know, I said I would talk about\u00a0drehen\u00a0<\/em>(spinning) and idioms related to that. But… There is just no\u00a0Sprichwort\u00a0<\/em>that has\u00a0drehen\u00a0<\/em>in it! So I widenend the search a bit, and found\u00a0alte B\u00e4ume lassen sich nicht biegen<\/em> (old trees cannot be bent). Similar enough! Yet I went for\u00a0Alte B\u00e4ume verpflanzt man nicht<\/em> instead, because it is a lot more common and it has the same meaning.<\/p>\n

First, let’s talk about\u00a0the\u00a0Sprichwort<\/em>. It means that old people are too old to move, and so you should let them live where they live. You may also encounter this\u00a0Sprichwort\u00a0<\/em>in the more judgmental version\u00a0Alte B\u00e4ume\u00a0soll<\/span> man nicht verpflanzen\u00a0<\/em>(you should not<\/span> transplant old trees).<\/p>\n

It is unclear where this\u00a0Sprichwort\u00a0<\/em>comes from, but it seems pretty straightforward. A tree has roots, and the older the tree gets, the deeper the roots become, and the harder it becomes to move it.<\/p>\n

Example:<\/p>\n

Oma Bertha wohnt jetzt schon 50 Jahre in ihrem H\u00e4uschen in Darmstadt. Und jetzt wollt ihr sie ins Altersheim stecken? Alte B\u00e4ume soll man nicht verpflanzen!<\/em><\/p>\n

Auch wenn der alte Heinz wirklich ein besseres Leben h\u00e4tte wenn er bei seinen Kindern einziehen w\u00fcrde, verharrt er in seiner kleinen Wohnung an der Ostsee. Einen alten Baum verpflanzt man nicht.<\/p>\n

Even if old Heinz would really have a better life if he moved in with his children, he is poised to stay in his little apartment at the Baltic Sea. You cannot transplant an old tree.<\/em><\/p>\n

Grandma Bertha has lived for already 50 years in her little house in Darmstadt. And now you want to put her in an old people’s home? One should not transplant old trees!<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Den Dreh raus haben<\/strong><\/em><\/h2>\n
\"\"<\/a>

Image by Charles Deluvio at Unsplash.com<\/p><\/div>\n

Literally: To have the spin out<\/strong><\/p>\n

To have gotten the hang of something<\/em><\/p>\n

Den Dreh raus haben\u00a0<\/em>is quite a common expression in German. Another way to say it is\u00a0auf den Dreh kommen\u00a0<\/em>(to get onto the spin) or\u00a0den richtigen Dreh rauskriegen\u00a0<\/em>(to get the right spin out of it). It means that you get the hang of something! Quite simple.<\/p>\n

But how does\u00a0drehen\u00a0<\/em>relate to getting the hang of something? Allegedly, the\u00a0Dreh\u00a0<\/em>is a deceptive technique used by\u00a0H\u00e4ndler\u00a0<\/em>(merchants), in which he turns\u00a0unvollkommene Ware\u00a0<\/em>(imperfect goods) with his hands in a skilled way, that only the\u00a0gute Seite\u00a0<\/em>(good side) is visible.<\/p>\n

Example:<\/p>\n

Max kann ein Salto aus dem Stand zu machen, meint er. Ich glaube, er hat den Dreh raus!
\n<\/em>Max can do a standing somersault, he says. I think he’s gotten the hang of it!<\/p>\n

Petra wei\u00df endlich, wie die Software funktioniert. Sie hat den Dreh raus.<\/em><\/p>\n

Petra finally knows, how the software works. She’s got the hang of it.<\/p>\n

Do you have this saying and expression in your language? How do you say them? What do you think of these German versions? Let me know in the comments below!<\/strong><\/h3>\n

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

In this long series of Sayings + Expressions, we have come across a lot. It might make your head spin. And that is why today, we will be talking about\u00a0drehen (to spin). Because believe it or not, there are\u00a0Sprichw\u00f6rter\u00a0(sayings) and\u00a0Ausdr\u00fccke\u00a0(expressions) with spinning too! Let’s start, as always, with the\u00a0Sprichwort. Einen alten Baum verpflanzt man nicht…<\/p>\n

Continue Reading<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":110,"featured_media":9575,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":""},"categories":[3,8],"tags":[503962,66,8043,358422,11810,503961],"class_list":["post-8584","post","type-post","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-culture","category-language","tag-drehen","tag-expressions","tag-sayings","tag-sayings-expressions","tag-trees","tag-turning"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/german\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8584","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\/110"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/german\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8584"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/german\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8584\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9604,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/german\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8584\/revisions\/9604"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/german\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9575"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/german\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8584"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/german\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8584"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/german\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8584"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}