“Christmas Dinner Essential”
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The closest English equivalent to “Maul” would be “maw.” I do not know if they are cognate.
Toller Beitrag!
Eine kurze Frage, die überhaupt nichts mit ihm zu tun hat: Ich möchte dich kurz fragen, ob du vielleicht interessante Blog/Websites, die auf Deutsch sind, empfehlen kannst? Es fällt mir ganz schwierig, anreizenden Content zum Lesen zu finden, und Google ist nicht sehr hilfreich…
Nee, nicht wirklich leider. Ich habe keine Leseempfehlungen. Was interessiert dich denn, so als Thema?
Nichts wirklich Spezielles, nur Texte mittlerer Länge im Konversationsstil, zum Beispiel über das Reisen oder oberflächliche Berichte über Entwicklungen in IT/Technik usw.
Lass dir einfach was von ChatGPT schreiben :)
The “Fressen” discussion reminded me that one of my family names was Fleishfresser. Then, I kid you not, one of the Fleishfressers married a Zahn. I have never been sure how to feel about this!
Wow, I’ve never heard this name :).
For what it’s worth… “fressen” is the standard word for “eating” in Dutch, so maybe the name comes from somewhere close to the Netherlands.
Dont ever cross the street when the pedestrians traffic light is red.
Worst mistake of my life.
What happened?
Screamed at
How about just saying ‘Sei leise’
My Volga-Deutsch grandparents had a standard go-to when they wanted us to shut up: Sei still!
Yup, very nice one, but more general for not making noise also.
Volga-Deutsch, I’d love to hear more about that.
Both my father’s father and mother emigrated from Russia to the Midwest US in the 1910’s. Their ancestors emigrated from Germany to Russia during the reign of Catherine the Great when she recruited German settlers with promises of land and autonomy along the Volga. They referred to themselves as Germans from Russia, or Volga Deutsch.
OK, yup, that’s what I assumed you meant. There was another large group of Germans that settled in the Odessa area of the Black Sea, and that’s where my father’s family comes from (a couple of generations back). Germans from Russia are so common in fact that North Dakota State University has a whole section of their library dedicated to this topic.
A more polite version of shut up is Hush! Is there a German equivalent of this?
Hmm, how “polite” is “Hush!”?
I think for someone you know, maybe not 100% polite but still very tame. For someone you don’t know, if you said it to them in a store for example, probably not very polite.
For someone you know, then maybe a “pssst” or “shhhhh” is the best match.
Can be in context affectionate and sweet, such as the comforting “Hush little baby, don’t you cry.”
“Come on, drive, it ain’t gettin’ greener than that” – hast du mir nachspioniert?
Das sage ich immer! Diese Leute…sie warten und warten für nichts! Sie starren auf ihr Handy an glaube ich.
Ich habe auch ‘Halt die Klappe’ gehört. Where does that fit in on the rudeness scale?
Ja, ich habe echt keine Ahnung, warum ich “Klappe” vergessen habe. Es ist zwischen “Halt den Mund” und “Halt die Schnauze”. Ich benutze es sehr oft.
“starren auf ihr Handy an”
Eitehr “starren auf ihr Handy” or “starren ihr Handy an”. Both “auf ihr Handy” and “an” are directionalities and you’d only use one of them.
I find that in English it is very harsh to say “Shut up” and therefore seldom used. It is not too uncommon for someone to say it with a little different inflection meaning – that’s so crazy I can hardly believe it/you’ve got to be kidding me… And you can even say it more slangish “shup”. It’s actually kind of comical and quite acceptable used this way – but only in general conversation and certainly not in any type of formal setting.
Ich denke, maul ist mit dem englischen Wort “maw” verwandt.
Ich hab grad nachgeguckt, und laut dwds.de und etymonline is “Maul” verwandt mit “mute”, aber “maw” kommt wohl von einer anderen Familie.
I just practiced saying those and my German husband overheard me. I had a lot of explaining to do! :)
Whoops, but now you can always just say it and then say “I just practicing.” :)
Hallo,
Two small typos:
“And in today’s christmas is a little piece” (I think you mean article instead of christmas)
“an animals head” (an animal‘s head)
Great colloquial stuff, thanks, I knew the variations with Mund and Fresse, but not with Maul ;)
Bis morgen!
One of first things I was taught/told: “Halt die Goschen”
That’ Southern.. Bavaria and Austria I would say. IN Berlin, it would be “Gusche” but it’s not in use anymore.
In English “hold your tongue” as mentioned but also often “watch your mouth” though the latter is used in generally polite conversation when someone has used even a slight profanity (swearing). So the best equivalent is the “hold your tongue”.
Halt die Fresse makes me think of “Shut your pie hole”. My son got in trouble at school once for saying “halt’s maul” and he was really confused (the other kid was picking on him). He didn’t realize that it is much ruder than “halt den Mund”.
It is really interesting how ‘mouth’ is described in this context.
I think it says ‘keep your cakehole shut’ in U.K. and cakehole = mouth (the hole the cake is going into).
Maul or Schnauze are direct expressions to speak of the opposite person as farming animal, so it is rude, I guess. I have never heard of the expression, luckily, and hope wouldn’t hear it in the future
I‘m familiar with the cakehole thing but dont think i ever heard it IRL. For me „shut the fuck up „ is the go to.“Shut yr face“ is the second place alternative and maybe“ shut yr trap „
They used to say “Hold your tongue!” in English, which is te closest to “Halt den Mund!” It began to go out of fashion in favor of “shut up!” very early in the 20th Century. Since that time, a lot of people just opt for “Quiet!” if they’re trying to be halfway polite. “Ruhe!” auf Deutsch, night wahr?
I wanna comment on the part ‘Ruhe!’. I only heard one my German teacher say ‘Leise’. Do the two mean the same?
“Sei ruhig” or “Sei still” is more common, especially for children. “Ruhe!” might come from a teacher in class during a writing exercise, when a bunch of people start talking.
Thanks for the info.
Und halt die Klappe!!
Vielen Dank
I grew up hearing “Mach deine Klappe zu!” When my father got irritated.
I can’t believe I forgot to include that. It’s my personal favorite, actually.
Put me down as another “Halt die Klappe” guy: it’s nice to pronounce (all front-mouth), and has a good friend in English with “Shut your trap!”, which I’d class as similarly rude. Other expressions that jump to mind include “Shut your gob!”, which is possible a bit old-fashioned now, and “Put a cork in it”, which is relatively polite, as long as you make sure to emphasise the “r” in “cork”.
It’s much more fun when non-native speakers invent new takes on such expressions. Daniil Medvedev’s (slightly) famous response to Stefanos Tsitsipas’s provocations, for example: “You better shut your fuck up”, where (I imagine) he’s emulsified “shut the fuck up” and “shut your mouth”. Along such lines, and veering from the main topic somewhat, I can’t help but drag out an old favourite, Giovanni Trapattoni’s wonderful, nay glorious paean to lovers/learners of the German language all over the world, where he finished a three minute press-conference-cum-tirade with the immortal expression: “Ich habe fertig!”. So much good stuff in there ;-)
Spielen wie Flasche leer!