Tap to unmute
Guessing what weird German expressions mean
Embed
- Published on Jun 3, 2023 veröffentlicht
- Thank you for watching me, a humble American, react to 10 Hilarious German Expressions 🇩🇪
Original video: • 10 Hilarious Germ...
Thanks for subscribing for more German reactions every weekday!
Copyright Disclaimer Under Section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for "fair use" for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research. Fair use is a use permitted by copyright statute that might otherwise be infringing. Non-profit, educational or personal use tips the balance in favor of fair use. No copyright infringement intended. ALL RIGHTS BELONG TO THEIR RESPECTIVE OWNERS
I think they got #9 wrong. If someone has to add his mustard to everything that is meant more in the sense that someone is being anoying by giving his opinion on everything even without being asked. This might be a more common problem in Germany than elsewhere ^^ Not that it’s always happening
yeah for sure #9 is wrong. It looks like they mixed up..."gib mal deinen senf dazu" --> give me your opinion on this matter. But the "er muss".. means, that this pearson likes to give his opinion on everything...
#9 literally: he has to add his mustard to everything
#9 means: he has to express his personal opinion on everything
Mustard once was a very cheap and available spice. Pepper and other too expensive for commen people. So they handed it to every food. There this saying comes from.
in fact thats exactly what it means when you say: he's giving his two cents worth. So they got it right even though the litteral translation was slightly off
I did some digging in the roots of the expressions:
#1 Da liegt der Hund begraben (That's where the dog is buried):
There are two different meanings of this idiom: a) that's a boring place, b) there's the main issue.
In case of (a) it was because one village in Thuringia had a grave (complete with headstone) for the exceptional, but deceased, dog named Sturzel. Other villages in the area made fun of that village and only referred to that (boring) place to "where the dog is buried".
In case of (b)... in ye olde times people buried important or valueble stuff in treasure chests with a depiction of a guard dog or a devil on the lid. So if you were looking for important stuff and found something with a dog on the lid, you got it... you got the main issue.
#2 Wo sich der Fuchs und Hase gute Nacht sagen (Where fox and hare say good night to each other)
Shy animals like fox and rabbit/hare are not that visible to people. So a place where you could see these two and both being cordial with each other (instead of one ripping the other to shreds) must be so far away, that even butt buggering egypt might be just around the corner by comparison :)
#3 Alles hat ein Ende, nur die Wurst hat zwei (Everything's got an end - only a sausage got two)
Actually this one originated in the novel "Woodstock; or The Cavalier. A Tale of the Year Sixteen Hundred and Fifty-one" by Walter Scott (written in 1826). This quote kinda tickled the german quip-bone and is used ever since (although nobody will remember the root of that expression).
But it shows the german tendency to be ultra-correct :)
#4 Du nimmst mich auf den Arm (You're carrying me on your arm)
It's like treating somebody like a child (which was often carried in the arms of the parents on occasion), thinking them naive, a little dumb, not taking them seriously.
#5 Das ist ein Katzensprung (That's a cat's jump)
It is used to describe a quite minor distance. Like "it's a stone throw away" (although I can throw stones further than a cat can jump or I can throw cats, to be honest). It was from a time when we germans didn't use the metric system to measure distance and used whatever was available to guess the actual distance :)
#6 Sich zum Affen machen (to behave like a monkey)
At fairs you could see carnies with dressed up monkeys doing silly performances to attract attention and money for the carney. This idiom is used when people behave against their desire and nature for the benefit of another (and most of the time on command of said other).
#7 Der will eine Extrawurst haben (he wants to have an extra sausage)
Funnily, there is a sausage named "Extrawurst" in Austria. But more commonly it is used as an idiom for people who want to have special treatment, extra attention (this is also a quite old idiom, at least since the beginning of the 19th century).
#8 Ich verstehe nur Bahnhof (I only understand 'railway station')
This idiom came up at the end of WW1, when the battle-fatigued soldiers only wished to return home. You could talk to them whatever you wanted, the only thing they showed an reaction to was "Bahnhof", because this meant they could go home.
It is nowadays used to say "I don't understand a thing".
#9 Er muss zu Allem seinen Senf dazugeben (He gotta add his mustard to EVERYTHING)
This idiom is also a quite old one (originated about in the 17th century). Mustard was a spice like salt and pepper in ye olde times. It was meant to make stuff more healthy, even if mustard wouldn't really compliment the food. So innkeepers just put a healthy dollop of mustard to everything they served, even if it was not wanted.
Nowadays this idiom is used for giving unwanted opinions / advice just because.
#10 Ich habe Schwein gehabt (I had a pig)
This idiom is used if one was lucky without having done anything to deserve it. The etymology of this idiom is not completely clear, best guess is it's a relic from medival times when in contests the consolation price was a piggy.
I hope this helps a bit to understand why some expressions are the way they are. Keep up your videos, it's always fun to see another view of our quirks :)
so detailed! thank you 😊
You need more likes!
MORE UPDATE 👆👆Let's Talk🎁📥
That was very interesting even for a German like me who uses some of those regularly! ❤
Toll, das hast du sehr gut gemacht.
As I am German, please allow me to say that your accent is adorable and your videos make up for the American tourists I have to deal with on a nearly-weekly basis.
You don’t have all the cups in the cupboard
MORE UPDATE 👆👆Let's Talk 🎁💬📥
I'm also German and that's exactly what I thought 😂
Du hast es erfasst
Ryan reacts to german idioms.
Da haben wir den Salat .
🤣
🤭
🤣🤣🤣😂
There we have the salad😂
My Holy Mister Singing Club. ;)
Expression 10# is kind of close, but I think it missed the mark a little bit.
In German, we typically say "ich habe Schwein gehabt" whenever we avoided a huge misfortune. Or if someone else says that he barely escaped some major crisis, we then say "da hast du aber Schwein gehabt" to accomodate it to him.
Its often used in a "you dodged a bullet" kind of way, but strictly figuratively
I think it's related to not starving. If the harves was bad and you had a pig to butcher you were much more lucky than your neighbor who didn't have a pig.
Hey, your German pronunciation is making great progress! Congratulations!
It's the same as in his first videos but ok
"Er muss zu allem seinen Senf dazugeben" wasn't translated completely. It's actually "he has to add his mustard to everything". Not sure if "give his two cents" has the same implication, but in German it would basically mean someone who annoys people because he comments on everything, even if he's supposed to just accept it or it doesn't concern him.
Quite similar to what's going on in the comment threads … just to demonstrate here.
(sorry, could not resist…)
Id say it's a good translation. The annoying git "adding his mustard" is a "Besserwisser", or a "know-it-all". Just by itself "adding your mustard" has no implications just like "giving ypur 2 cents".
@justanothername "Seinen Senf dazugeben" in its own may not. Key is the "er muss zu allem". That's like saying "he just has to give his two cents to everything". At least in my area that lead to it generally implying something negative.
@Raen Andaleio fair enough, it might be a regional thing. Or im just plain wrong, wouldn't be the first time either. Take care
it's like saying: opinions are like @$$ holes, everyone has one. definitely a negative connotation.
We also say "Tu leży pies pogrzebany" = "Da liegt der Hund begraben" in Poland, as far as I know we borrowerd the expression from our German neighbors :D
I listened to an audiobook explaining a lot of German expressions. Most of them are from medieaval times such as this one. Sadly I cannot remember how this particular one came to be.
Is it true, that you say "quadratisch, praktisch, gut" ?
:
my aunt called me lorbass when i was a child. i though this was a german word until i got a polish girl friend. :D
@At Strollz That’s an ad slogan from Ritter Sport a very well reknown traditional chocolate producer. They have their own museum in Germany and even some tourist attraction where you can make your own chocolate bar to take home. I chose gummybears and crisps. Can’t recommend the combination though haha
@At Strollz It was an Advertisement for some chocolate (Ritter Sport)
Pigs are associated with good luck in Germany! :) They are a common motif for New Years greetings alongside ladybugs, four-leaved clovers and chimney sweepers.
There is the term "Glücksschwein" here, which means "lucky pig". Think of a pig as a good luck charm especially for fortune in wealth (yknow, because of piggy banks).
The term "Schwein haben" comes from to matter, that in the past the last place got a pig.
Though "Schwein haben" is more about averting bad luck and not having good luck. Finding money on the street is not "having a pig". Not getting hit by a falling tree is "having a pig".
As I remember the origins are from medieval time where peasants who where able to grow pigs where "wealthy" and would have meat in hard winter times, while the not so "lucky" ones have to eat their pickles and sauerkraut they stored in Autumn.
Marzipanschweinchen ❤️
I always have the connection of that phrase with playing cards in my mind. When you play Skat (a card game) the Aces are somtimes called "Säue" (sows) and some playing cards even have a sow and a dog pictured on the equivalent of the ace of diamonds. In that context having pigs would mean to have a good hand of cards and therefore being lucky :)
Ryan is learning more and more german every episode.
Not really. Being entertainend and learning a language are different things.
@mk well, he is catching up on some words, that's what I meant.
@mk He does learn, but not very quickly :P It's nice that he enjoys another culture though. I think it's always good to learn about the world, even if he's not learning a lot of the languages with every episode.
I don’t think there was any part in the vid that would make me say that
LisaM But he very barely watches German video, 90% he watches English videos about Germany
In fact, the expression "There lies the dog buried" can have two very different meanings. It can mean that nothing is going on somewhere: "But the dog is buried in Winterstein," one could exclaim about a sleepy village, for example. Yes, in Thuringia there is actually the small town of Winterstein and there is a memorial stone with a dog carved into it. It is intended to commemorate the particularly clever dog Stutzel, who, according to legend, was buried here in a coffin. The people in the neighboring villages found that very strange and made fun of Winterstein from then on. So "There lies the dog buried" became a proverb about a boring place where a dog burial is still the most exciting event. In the original meaning, however, the phrase - just like the sentence "There lies the rub" - points to the cause of a problem. A devil or a vicious dog used to be depicted on treasure chests to deter thieves. So if you knew where the treasure chest with the dog on it was buried, you had found what you were looking for. And in a figurative sense, one often looks for the cause of a problem. When you finally discover it, you feel like you've stumbled upon a treasure!
Yeah, I think the meaning of "There lies the rub" is more covered by "Da liegt der Hase im Pfeffer!" [That's where the Hare lies among the pepper (plants) ]these days. The buried dog was exclusively used as "boring/sleepy" whenever I heard it.
@Monkey Business There lies the dog is buried means for me that a certain point in the problem is pointed out, which must be solved to solve the problem. One could also say instead: 'that's exactly where the problem lies'.

There lies the dog is buried means for me that a certain point in the problem is pointed out, which must be solved to solve the problem. One could also say instead: 'that's exactly where the problem lies'.

@Ariane Kliem Strange, I never heard anyone ever use it that way. Is it an East/West German kind of thing maybe? I'm from Saxony-Anhalt, so maybe that's the case?
@Monkey Business i don't know.
I am from West Berlin.
In Franconia we say "Da ist der Hund gefreckt/vereckt" (the dog died here) for a sleepy/boring place, while "Da liegt der Hund begraben" typically means "that's where the problem lies"
Your guesses Made this so much more funny 😂
Number one was Linda right from your perspectivd. ItS mostly used when talking about the true root of a Problem. Like this: "Jason ist drinking very much lately" "yeah and hes Always late...." "Didnt you hear bis father dies?" "Oh....so thats we're the Dog is burried".....Like "ah now i understand the true source of the Problem/suffering.
I love seeing you slowly learn german and how innocently exited you are.
Right ??? ☺️🙃☺️ So beautiful to watch him getting it ☺️
MORE UPDATE 👆👆Let's Talk🎁📥💬🎆🎊
Honestly, your German pronunciation is getting better and better 👍
MORE UPDATE 👆👆Let's Talk🎁📥💬🎆🎊
Your german pronunciation has become so much better over the few months I’ve been watching your videos :) A little hint for the german ‘Z’, we do like a very short but sharp ‘S’ combined with a ‘T’. Our ‘Z’ is like the english combination of ‘TS’ for example : the bits, the pits, tsunami… so ‘Zug’ (train) would be pronounced like ‘Tsug’ and don’t be afraid to pronounce the ‘T’ in ‘TS’ very hard. For the ‘S’ in ‘TS’, you know the sound that a bicycle wheel makes when you push the valve down, yeah that’s how we pronounce it in ‘TS’ (Z) but like I said, it is a very short ‘S’. Hope I could help and I absolutely love your videos.
I waited the whole video for „Da haben wir den Salat!“ 😂
MORE UPDATE 👆👆Let's Talk🎁📥💬💞
Honestly, if I have to explain the train station one to one of my non-german colleagues, I explain it with math problems. Basically "If train A leaves the train station at 8 PM and goes 124 mph..." -> "Whoa, I only understood train station..."
Wow, that's a really good way of explaining this idiom!
It's supposedly from WW2, where "Bahnhof" became synonymous with going home. Soldiers who were exhausted and only wanted to go home supposedly stopped paying attention to anything else you told them once they had heard the magical word "Bahnhof".
@TheFeldhamster actually WW1 , when the soldiers were tired and wanted to get the order to go to the train station to go home.
If train A leaves at 8am and train B is going to London, how far can a kangaroo jump on Christmas Eve?
I would explain it by making them feel how I feel when I ask my dad for an address and he gives me directions instead:
Me: "Do you know the way to [random place] from here?"
Them: "No."
Me: "Easy, just go straight this way until you pass the train station, then turn right and immediately left again, then right at the fifth intersection, take the third exit at the roundabout, then you can turn right again at the eighteenth intersection and take a half-left at the seventh intersection or you turn left at the fifth intersection and right again on the second intersection, either way you will eventually reach another train station and from there it's the 23rd building to the right. Got it?"
Them: "I only understand train station"
(not that my dad is bad at explaining things (he's actually a coach & e-learning author and introduced the very concept of e-learning into his company) , I'm just bad at remembering directions because ADD and why bother learning that skill in the age of smartphones & google maps)
I loved how you had a lot of fun guessing the meanings. Very entertaining. You made my day, thank you.
I think I spider, you actually understood the meanings of some of these right away!
as for expression 1: Da liegt der Hund begraben: I actually use it more in a situation, if I find out something shady about a topic or a person.
It's like when something that sounds great, has actually some sort of shady twist, or If a person had some shady or embarrassing secret behind it.
Imagine a beautiful garden, with really green and nice grass... but there is a dog buried under it. At first glance you don't know ;)
as for the last one: yes, pigs are considered lucky in a special context. During New Years you can see little pigs or piglets as figurines, as a token of luck that you can gift someone else, you see them in comercials regarding New Years etc. . But when you say "ich habe Schwein gehabt / I had pig" it's more regarding the "luck of the dumb." More if you were close to something bad or inconveinient happening to you, yet it didn't happen, or you got out of a strange/dangerous/nasty situation by sheer luck. Then you were lucky, du hast Schwein gehabt. You wouldn't use it in case you won the lottery though :)
Yes, I also use "Da liegtt der Hund begraben" more in the meaning of "Oh, I found the problem"
With "Da liegt der Hund begraben/ That's where the dog is buried", there are actually two possible meanings. I only ever knew of it as being a description of a village where nothing happens, a town that is so boring a burial of a dog is the most exciting happening.
I never heard of the meaning "that's the heart of the matter" before, but apparently it can have both meanings. So the video actually taught me something about my native language :D
Second meaning is analogous zu "Da liegt der Hase im Pfeffer" - "So that's where the hare is lying in the pepper!"
I would say the idea of the metaphor is that you have been trying to find where the dog is buried, but instead you are cluelessly guessing where it is, just like some people meander around a subject without any success in finding its core. Which results in relief, if you finally find it.
Funny, the one that means "Nothing happens in that village2 must e a regional thing. i live near hamburg and I have never heard it used that way
@Saiyasha Same here, I have never heard it used in the “boring place” sense. Always in the sense, therein lies the problem/rub. BTW, I’m from the South.
I also know only the meaning which translates like "that's the point!"
It’s so fun to watch you in this video and being so happy when you nailed it :)
You should really visit German once or visit a language course ☺️
Awesome video! Pity they didn't explain where the expressions come from. Maybe you should react to German proverbs, Ryan. :-) But your German is getting better and better, I'm impressed!
I am from Germany and I always watch your videos. They are really interesting and so much fun to watch.
I hope that you keep doing this for a long time.
Have a good day and friendly greetings from Germany 😊
Hi Ryan, I love your expressions to these idioms! And as I just found your channel lately and am now also watching your earlier videos, I know that you already saw this thing about the 'Bahnhof'. 😀 About 4 months ago in another video.
Important to add, that he didn't react to this video before.
"Here is a dog buried" is also a well-known saying in Finland, but it means that there is some kind of twisted plot hidden here. According to an old belief, a person stumbles on a dog's grave.
I think the English expression is confusing the saying "Das also war des Pudels Kern", i.e. "That was the core of the poodle", meaning the heart of the matter.
Thank you very much! I very seldom had the oppurtunity to get amused that much. For me as a German these expressions are rather familiar, as I got used to American expressions as well. Yes, you're right, Germans got sometimes weird sayings. But your reactions made me laugh and that's worth a "like". Thank you. Nice Video and I like your channel. You will see me there probably very often. See you and keep doing such things!
So cute how you thank her every time she compliments the viewer😂
MORE UPDATE 👆👆Let's Talk 🎁💬💞🎉🎉
I think it's funny how they sometimes translate the sentences "literally", while in actuality they only translate the verb phrase (leaving half the sentence off)
you know what, I just binged your videos for the better part of 2 hours, and yes I do feel like subscribing! It's wonderful to see someone just absorb information like that, and be happy and cheerful about it. Let alone happily admitting not knowing things, or not doing them perfectly. Which is probably a very german approach. If you keep doing these, do come over if you can, and boy do Germans, me included, love people reacting to our culture :)
I (am a German speaker) think, you are right, "da liegt der Hund begraben" is not neutral, but describes something negative. A more neutral expression would be: "das ist des Pudels Kern". Both expressions are about dogs, the latter one is about showing the most central part of a problem. (Derived from Goethes "Faust").
12:56 "Are pigs lucky?" Yes, they are seen as a luck-symbol here. For new years eve some stores sell pigs made of marzipan that represent good luck in the next year. Other symbold for good luck in Germany include stuff like a horseshoe, ladybug, chimney sweeper or clover and a few other things. Sometimes stores also sell clovers decorated with figures of a chimney sweeper with a horseshoe and a ladybug that you can gift other people for good luck (but not all people would buy and gift them to other people btw). It's also seen as bad luck if you have a horseshoe on the walls and hang it with the opening downside since people belive all the good luck would fall out of it wich will bring bad luck upon you.
I love how happy you were when you got #6 and #7 (almost) right :D
Your vocabulary is really improving a lot now^^
Here's a few tips for the pronunciation (if you care about that):
The "z" in German is sharper. So it would be pronounced like a "ts" in English. For example "zur" (translation: 'to the' or just 'to') would be pronounced "tsooa" rather than "zuhr".
The "ch" in German seems to be difficult for many. But try hissing like a cat. "wach" (translation: awake ) would be pronounced "va-*catHiss*.
(This was me giving my "mustard" to the video). And as already stated by others, that was incorrectly translated in the clip you watched. It basically means to butt into other people's business or to give feedback or an opinion nobody asked for XD
Ich möchte auch noch meinen Senf dazugeben:
a) there is no silent letter in German. "Hase" is pronounced *with* the "e" in the end. Same is true for "Ende", "Name", "Rose", etc.
b) to practise the soft "ch", I recommend to whisper: "yyyes, yyyyes, yyyyyes"
As mentioned above, the german "z" is pronounced "ts" and the harsh "ch" is turning "k" into a fricative ("kkhhhkhhh").
@michel aus Hamburg your b) would turn "weich" (= soft) into "weisssssss" (=white). That's an odd way of explaining the pronunciation. could you give an example where this would work?
I love when you do language based videos 😂 and I love translating idioms from one language to another! So perfect video 😊
Immer lustig diese Reaktionen. / always funny to watch those reactions. Every culture/language has it's weird/specialiced phrases and idioms and germany has a lot esp. in the gallows humor (Galgenhumor) section. Only recently i learned what "having a chip on ones/both shoulder(s)" means. Never stop learning folks!
Man I love watching him get excited about guessing things right, it makes me really happy and proud for some reason
I use „Da liegt der Hund begraben“ more in a way to express ‚finally we get to the point of matter‘ after a long search for or discussion about the reason for a problem.
There is a famous song about the ends of a sausage: clip-share.net/video/a4JSE32fuOc/video.html
We also use „das ist nur einen Steinwurf entfernt“ which is the same as „Katzensprung“ or „stone throw away“.
At least in Germany a pig is besides the chimney sweeper and four leaves clovers also a symbol for luck. So if you wish someone luck it‘s not unusual to give them a little pig out of marzipan. You can also get greeting cards with little pigs on them.
Das ist eher: " des Pudels Kern." Hm?
@Christina Hensel MMn ist des Pudels Kern eher „the heart of the matter“ als „da liegt der Hund begraben“.
@Al69BfR würde es auch so übersetzen: thats where the root of the problem lies
I never before heard "Da liegt der Hund begraben" as pointing at the heart of the issue. Everyone I ever met, if they used it, used it as "Da ist nichts los, tote Hose, sterbenslangweilig".
I am from Saxony-Anhalt, and most people I know live in the eastern parts of Germany, so is it maybe an east-west kind of thing?
@Scarred Ya usualy you say , AAAhhhhaaaahhhh,, da liegt also der Hund begraben ,,, like, now we got it,,,, or the real reason of.... whatever..!!!!!
I loved this one, very good, Ryan! The pig stands for a lucky charm over here
MORE UPDATE 👆👆Let's Talk🎁📥💬🎆🎊
It's so funny to me, how happy you were, when you did understand german. 😃 German is not so extremely different from english (but the who/where - thing is weird of course). As also senf/mustard did came up; the older german word for mustard is mostrich or mostricht. 🙃
It was quiet a funny video for me because I am German and it was also interesting to See the “translations“of our typical expressions
I like how you got most of them right after hearing it. Very funny!
Hi, I am from Germany and I have found your channel for a while. As a German I enjoy your interpretation about German phrases because I know how confusing they could be if you haven't a mother tongue. I try to explain you "Da liegt der Hund begraben" You have to see it like a murder case the dead dog is your strongest proof in the argumentation the other phrases you have interpretated very well some of them better like the video you have seen. Good job Mach weiter so :-)
Hilarious. I am german and yes, some of them are strange. ;-) But you did it very symphatic. I don‘t even know, why I watched it, but obviously I was entertained. Thanks and keep it up!
"Da liegt der Hund begraben" always reminds me of "Das ist des Pudels Kern" by Goethes "Faust I" (literally: "The core of the poodle"). DeepL translate the idiom well: It's the crux of the matter. A slightly different meaning would be that you find something out that wasn't obvious before.
I just realise there are a lot of animals in German idioms.
MORE UPDATE 👆👆Let's Talk🎁📥💬🎆🎊
Er hat es! 👍😂
You actually did really well in this one, proud of ya. Your theory on #4 about helping a guy out who is drunk is actually more close than you'd think. "You take me ON the arm" means you must be foolin me but "you take me UNDER your arm" means you help me out. Also the expression with the mustard was unfair, they cut half of the phrase in the translation, it should actually be "he HAS to add his mustard to everything" which would have been more clear imho.
"Jemandem unter die Arme greifen" is indeed "to help someone out". Not only litterally help someone home, but also lend some money or support with homework or helping to write official letters etc.
I like your interpretation of #2. People I know generally say this to small villages in a derogatory way, as in there's happening so little that fox and hare say good night to one another. But yes, that's also peaceful. I like small villages, so that's another way to think about it.
I love your channel and I watch it as often as I can. Go on with it! You're great! 🙂
As a german I think it is super funny that you were afraid of saing the german word for fox 😆
Some of those "literal" translations aren't literal at all. :D
Example: "Er muss zu allem seinen Senf dazugeben" would rather be something like "He has to add his mustard to everything(and anything)", and not "Add his mustard to it". A lot of things missing there. :D
Nice to see long time daily your videos, I can see that your German get better and better. Stay corious and never stop that.
Maybe in few years u will make your first video in German language 😂.
I like your video a lot. Greetings from Germany.
Wir sehen uns morgen. (we see us tomorrow)
It’s funny that #3 has it’s origins in the weird translation of an english phrase. „Everything has an end. And that, which we call Pudding has two.“, to be found in the novel „Waverley Novels. Vol. XL. Woodstock; Or The Cavalier.“ by Walter Scott.
For the fist one, it also exists another idiom practically synonymous, translating to "there's he snag". I find it even more hilarious. It goes "da liegt der Hase im Pfeffer" which literally says "there lies the hare in the pepper" and goes back to an medieval recipe, "hare pepper", a sauce made with lots of pepper and the "inferiour" body parts of the hare used for the sauce but not for the roast (the paws, ears, head etc.) Since these were small, it was almost impossible to find all of them and pick them out of the sauce before serving. Also the sauce was seemingly so strong that one could hardly taste the hare at all, causing the eater of the sauce to exclaim "there is the hare in the pepper" if he found a piece of hare in it.
I LOVE idioms 😁
If you don't like "That's where the dog is buried", you can always say "That's the core of the poodle."
Your German pronunciation is very good! 👍
So funny to watch as a german
"sich zum Affen machen"
The literal translation is more: "Make a monkey of yourself"
In German the word for ape and monkey is the same: Affe.
The idiom refers more to the animal you would call monkey as it means like dressing up and make tricks for entertainment.
MORE UPDATE 👆👆Let's Talk🎁📥💬🎆🎊
Never, ever, refer to the librarian as an ape.
Thank you so much for your Videos. Im really depressed at the moment, but you make me laugh 😂❤ greetings from germany
So proud of you! Look how happy you were when you got the Extrawurst right!
We have one strange expression:
"A friend helps you move, a true friend helps you move bodies."
I'm German and I've never heard someone use the first expression in the way the video claims. Usually, we use it to describe a boring place where nothing's going on. Might be a regional thing tho, I dunno if people in other parts of Germany use it differently, but I've never heard it being used in another context.
It's a lot of fun to mixup these expressions
if you do nothing else, but learn how the alphabet is pronounced in German, you will be able to correctly pronounce probably 90% of the words (exceptions like -ei, -ng exist, but english has those too)
German is thankfully a PHONETIC language, unlike English, which is why there is no spelling bees in Germany, since it's way too easy to spell everything
MORE UPDATE 👆👆Let's Talk 🎁💬💞🎉🎉
We also have an acronym that means basically the same as "wo sich Fuchs und Hase gute Nacht sagen", that is "JWD-Janz weit draussen" literally "very far out" but with the twist that it incorporates Berlin dialect in the form of "Janz" (would be spelled "Ganz " in High German)
I think you kinda got the first expression pretty well 😅 this phrase is describing more like the the actual main point of something you do which is kinda sketchy but not really illegal …
Anyway German phrases are mostly pretty direct but they’re always paraphrased beautifully or personified af for literary reasons 😅😂😂🤷🏻♂️
In germany we also have an abreviation like BFE. Its called JWD, which means "jans weit drausen" in the accent spoken in berlin, and translates roughly to "very far out".
You are so sweet when you try to pronounce German words the right way ☺️
You repeated #10 very good for hearing it for the first time!!😂👍🤙
Number 8 is from WW2 when soldiers went home they were often send to a train station for transport. So if a Soldier wanted home their only understood "train Station" when talked to by a superior.
MORE UPDATE 👆👆Let's Talk 🎁💬💞🎉🎉
She could have mentioned that the saying with the two hands of the sausage is actually from a German song. This line and the following line are "Everything has an end, just the sausage has two. Yes, my dear, it's over."
Loved how you were telling your ideas to it before. Was fun
loved it. Would love to see more like that
As a German, I find it very amusing how English speakers try to speak German
Ich finde es als Deutscher sehr amüsant, wie Englischsprachige versuchen Deutsch zu reden 😂.
Hi Ryan. I'm from germany and I had so much fun watching this video! Your reactions, how you try to read in german, and so on. Just great entertaining. I was loughing out loud 😂 Thank you 😀 Greetings from Essen (This is no joke, the city I live in is called meal or eating in english). You can google it. Bye!
Ich habe mir auch den A…. abgelacht. Grüße aus dem Ruhrpott (Sprockhövel) in den Ruhrpott 😂👍
@Spirit Hallo Nachbar! :D
In Swedish, "där ligger en hund begraven" means that there's something fishy going on.
MORE UPDATE 👆👆Let's Talk🎁📥
OMG, I was laughing my a.. off 😂 Ryan, your videos are great 👍 👍 , your german is really not that bad and your interpretations are also very smart
When it comes to the second expression meaning „in the middle of nowhere” in Polish we have a funnier expression that means the same think that being „być w kurzej dupie” which literally translates to „to be in a chicken's ass”, but most people prefer to use „na zadupiu” (lit. „in the asshole of the world”) or „gdzie psy dupami szczekają” (lit. „where dogs bark from their butts”)
this video made me realise how oddly food and animal centered our expressions are
7:45 was when the actual meaning struck and he realised that it matched what he was doing moments before.
That is allways a funny feature of the german language! I guess we have and use much more sayings than other languages do. Comes, because we have so much ancient slangs, every with its sayings. We know the meanings of most ones, but to 90% we don't know where they are coming from. And because they can be really weird, that's also a big mystery for ourselves😉
MORE UPDATE 👆👆Let's Talk🎁📥💬💞
I will never get over how sausage/foot-related so many of our phrases are in the german language x3
"Alles hat ein Ende nur die Wurst hat zwei (Everything has an end only the sausage has too)"
"Eine Extrawurst haben wollen (to want/demand an extra sausage)"
"seinen Senf dazu geben (to add ones mustard)"
"Da hab ich Schwein gehabt (I've really had pig)"
"Zu viele Köche verderben den Brei (too many cooks spoil the porrige)"
"Nicht das Gelbe vom Ei sein (to not be the yellow of the egg)"
"Tomaten auf den Augen haben (to have tomatoes on one's eyes)"
"Abwarten und Tee trinken (to wait it out and drink tee)"
"Liebe geht durch den Magen (love goes through the stomach)"
"Der dümmste Bauer erntet die größten Kartoffeln (The stupidest farmer harvests the biggest potatoes)"
and even more ^^
Its such a charming quality of the german language
Der Intelligenzquotient eines Agrarökonomen ist reziprok proportional zum Volumen seiner Hackfrüchte.
🤣🤣 To understand how romantic the Germans are, here are 3 more idioms:
"Das passt wie Arsch auf Eimer." Literally: "That fits like ass on bucket."
or: "Wie Faust auf Auge" - "Like fist to eye."
or: "Wie Deckel auf Topf" - "Like a lid on a pot."
And the meaning for all 3 is: The two go very well together.😁😉
The "I's all greek to me" is interesting, because most language have their own version of that saying along the lines of "they only speek [foreign language]", in case of german it would be chinese as the unintelligible foreign language.
You absolutely nailed it! Great job c: 💚
I follow you for a while now and it's noticable that you are making progress! :D
Excited to see what the future holds!
Haha, I am German, and it's just too funny when you try to talk german😂
Fuchs just means fox, this is no swear word. It's all fine. 🙂👍
you are absolutely correct :) , but I think his worries are more about the fact that "Fuchs" sounds like "F*cks" in english. I know these are two different things, but Clip-Share seems to have it's problems with it ^^ ppl assume that even the automated subtitles can be a problem if they capture a word incorrectly e.g. "F*cks" instead of "Fuchs".
Having said that... it's so crazy that he even has to think about this, when he is just repeating some expressions from another language.. xD
Thank you. I had so much fun watching this.
It was so funny….you learn better and better 😍
At least where I live in germany the first two expressions are not common at all and I've never heard anyone using them in a conversation. I actually had to take a moment and think to remember what they mean. The other expressions are more common and worth remembering.
"Da liegt der Hund begraben" I'd say rather "That's the crux" or "That's the problem" - because it is not usually about the heart of a positive matter.
The video you saw before was probably one from Feli. She did something similar once or twice.
And yes, pigs are lucky in Germany. Just like for leafed clover and chimney sweeps. All three are figures or shaped food that you give away on New Year's Eve.
Just stumbled on your channel.
Very funny and I am impressed how wunderbar you pronounce „h“ and „ch“. Gruß aus München.
It´s a stone´s throw away ... we have directly translated in german, too: Das ist nur einen Steinwurf weit weg. it means the same as the cat´s jump ;)
#1:
There are many different theories about the origin of this. One of them is, that in the past, people painted a devil or a hell hound on their treasures, to scare off thefs. So if you go treasure hunting and you find a chest with a dog on it, you found what you were looking for.
MORE UPDATE 👆👆Let's Talk🎁📥💬🎆🎊
4:08 Well there's a short form for it in German: We tend to say JWD (janz weit draußen) which roughly translates "very far away". Whats funny about it is that the "janz" would originally be "ganz", so it's weird even for some Germans
@Ryan To learn a foreign language means to take one's hat off to another nation! My respect you've won!
What is funny to me as a german is how when you say the expressions or talk about them it makes less sense.
I think that for a lot of Expressions the Tone and the context ( you have in your head ) have to be just right for it to sound logical.
This was clear to me when with: Wo Fuchs und Hase sich gute Nacht sagen
I imediately had this quiet, piecful forest scene in my head with a fox and hare ( is that the word??) ( both on two legs ) and the picture of a parent sitting at their childrens bed starting a goodnight story with these words.
This is why I say wo fuchs und hase sich gute Nacht sagen much softer and calmer and I think if you dont have that notion you will have a hard time getting it right. Only through collevtive memory can expressions work and that is part of whats so fun and fascinatinf about languages.
I love how you just accepted that add your mustard to it was like two whole lines in german but four words in englisch
The "Literally" translation really should be literal else it is confusing. Er muss zu allem seinen Senf dazugeben means literally "He has to add his mustard to everything" and not "Add his mustard to it." Also "seinen Senf dazugeben" as expression the "seinen" is generic maskulinum from "jemand" (someone) which is generically masculine but females are meant to. It does not really stand for "his" but for "(some)one's". So more correct would have been: "Adding one's mustard to it" to literally translate the expression, But if they give a whole sentence they should translate that whole sentence literally, else it's confusing an connections between the words in word-by-word cannot be made. The "zu allem" (to everything) or "überall" (everywhere) is important it signals that it is annoying and not needed the "mustard" (again a sausage related term) is something that is/may be right but unnecessary (not needed). Humble as germans are they will join a discussion with "Wenn ich auch mal meinen Senf dazugeben darf...[argument]" (If I may add my mustard to this...[argument]) or even ask if it's a discussion between to people concerning them but feels like to have to get involved (maybe to deescalate) "Darf ich mal meinen Senf dazugeben?" (Am I allowed to my mustard to this?.. then wait for the answer) It's like asking for the right to speak but implying you are going to give your opinion or an argument.
absolutely agree with you! these expressions only work if you use their exact terms. "Ich habe Schwein gehabt (I had pig)" makes sense as an expression, but it's not recognized as an expression, if you change it to "Ich habe EIN Schwein gehabt (I had A pig)". People probably still understand it, but they might be like "why is he saying it like that? .. thats weird".
My thoughts exactly! You can't just change the sentence type and hope for the best. Also it should have been "to make an ape of yourself" (or monkey the german word doesn't differentiate) to show that it wasn't an imperative (i.e. to ask for someone to do crazy things)
@sternentalerswald exactly.
your explanations actually make a lot of sense and apparently I as a german used ''Da liegt der Hund begraben'' wrong 💀
So how did you use it? i am curious
As a german who stumbled across your videos a few days ago, i am curious to know: why are you particularly interesed in germany and its culture. Thanks for your entertaining content, keep it up!
Ryan a small tip with German expression, because u tend to do one thing wrong. U always let out the e at the end, u have to pronounce it as well in German
Greetings from Germany