A fun look at the meaning of "ausgeben", a useful verb if you want to spend money, invite a friend for a drink or pretend to be a doctor.
By: Emanuel|77 Comments| Updated:
January 15, 2026
Hello everyone,
and welcome to a new episode of German Prefix Verbs Explained. And if usefulness could shine, today’s word would be as bright as the sun. Hmm… I’m not sure if the money I spend for that metaphor-app I bought was worth it. Hey but speaking of spending money… today we’ll have a look at the meaning of
ausgeben
Aus can add two notions to a verb: switched-off-ness and outside-ness. Usually it adds both, but not this time. The idea of switched-off doesn’t really make any sense in combination with geben. Turning something out by giving. Like… you’d have to make donations to your lamp to turn it off. That would be the stupidest light switch ever. So, in case of ausgeben we’re only dealing with the outside-aus. And the big question is:
Does ausgeben mean to give out, like logic and common sense suggest? Or is there some crazy, stupid twist because … German.
The main meaning of "ausgeben" means to spend in the sense of spending money,. It can also mean to treat someone to a drink or small "gift" and in more formal contexts, it can mean to hand out or issue. And it can mean "to pass oneself of as" (see below).
Use "jemandem etwas ausgeben" to say you buy someone a drink or a small meal. In casual talk you can say "Ich geb' dir einen aus" to offer a round. For fancier invitations use "einladen". ·Ich geb' dir einen Kaffee aus. ·I'll buy you a coffee.
Use "sich/etwas als ... ausgeben" when someone pretends to be or presents something as what it is not. It usually implies deception or pretending. ·Der Mann gibt sich als Arzt aus. ·The man passes himself off as a doctor.
"herausgeben" is the formal word for publishing or handing over withheld material. "rausgeben" is the everyday word for handing something out of a window (think drive through) and also for giving back change when paying in cash. ·Können Sie auf einen Hunderter rausgeben? ·Can you give change if I pay with a hundred?
"die Ausgabe" usually means an issue or an expense. It also appears in compounds like "Gepäckausgabe" for baggage claim and names of magazine or newspaper issues. ·Thomas ist auf dem Cover von der nächsten Ausgabe vom People Magazine. ·Thomas will be on the cover of the next issue of People Magazine.
I think it’s an expiration date. As far as I know, the batteries will most likely still work after that but they won’t have the full capacity anymore. “use by”, as far as I know, implies that you shouldn’t use it anymore after that.
iijolin2
Vielen vielen Dank für den Artikel von “ausgeben”. Super hilfreich.
Das kommt auf den Kontext an. Wenn du einen 10-Euro-Schein hast und dafür 10 Euro in Münzen haben willst, dann ist “wechseln” perfekt. “rausgeben” passt dann nicht. Das funktioniert nur im Kontext von Restgeld zurückgeben. Jemand kauft was bei dir für 8 Euro und gibt dir 10, dann gibst du raus.
Hmm, das wäre dann schon sehr raffiniert. Ich glaube eher, dass “rausgeben” dem Autor (oder dem Lektor) zu umgangssprachlich erschien und er deshalb “herausgeben” gewählt hat. Einen Berliner Busfahrer, der das sagt, kann ich mir eher schwer vorstellen. Es kann auch sein, dass das Buch schon ein bisschen älter ist (es wird ja non in Mark gezahlt). Das könnte dann auch was damit zu tun haben. So vor 40 Jahren hat man das noch “korrekter” gesprochen.
Im Prinzip ja, in der Praxis aber oft anders – einer der Gruende, warum ich wahnsinnig gerne audio books hoere, weil oft die SPrache so viel schoener ist! Uebrigens etwas, das ich allen Sprachstudenten waermstens empfehle!!
Naja, ich hoere ja immer Englisch – das waere ja nicht so angebracht fuer Deutschlernende :-) Fuer Studenten, die in D leben, wuerde ich einen Besuch in der Buecherei empfehlen, die haben meist eine gute Auswahl. Ansonsten online – bei Amazon Audible z.B.
Stimmt, die öffentlichen Bibliotheken haben Hammer das Angebot (um mal ein bisschen Umgangssprache zu verwenden). Und in Berlin kosten die so 10 bis 20 Euro … im Jahr.
Haha, ok. FYI, das Buch speilt im Jahr 1989 in Westberlin, aber es wurde 2001 geschrieben. Mir scheint, dass es bezeichnend für den Autor ist, eine Art “raffinierte Umgangssprache” zu benutzen. In seiner Antwort auf die Forderung des Busfahrers, benutzt die Hauptfigur aber den Ausdruck “rausgeben” (und nicht “herausgeben”):
-“Die Beförderungsbedingungen der BVG sagen aber auch, dass Sie mir, wenn Sie nicht _rausgeben_ können, eine Quittung über den Restbetrag geben müssen, die ich am Kleistpark einlösen kann.”
Dennoch, weil ich kein Muttersprachler bin, ist es natürlich immer schwierig, genau die Laune von einem Text zu verstehen.
Das ist dann allerdings interessant. Vielleicht wollte er dann doch, dass der Busfahrer leicht pissig(genervt) rüberkommt. Oder es ist ein sehr gebildeter oder belesener Busfahrer. Oder ein Busfahrer der Deutsch nicht als Muttersprachler hat sondern im Sprachkurs alles schön ordentlich gelernt hat :)
kuan
Hi everyone. My name is Peter, and I want to thank the sponsors and german-is-easy for the opportunity to learn german!
Ich habe vor, jeden Tag ein bisschen Deutsch zu lesen und lernen, sodass ich endlich gut Deustch sprechen kann.
Definitely yes. But only spending money, not spending time.
diego
Hi everyone! My name is Diego, I am a student from Chile. I want to thank the sponsors for giving me the chance and give me access to this amazing blog. I have seen a lot of different websites to learn German and this is definitely the best. Vielen Dank!
Stefany Rodríguez
First of all I want to thank the owner of the blog for the free membership and to the sponsors who put some extra money to give the people who can’t pay the opportunity to learn aswell! It really means a lot for all of us and I’m looking forward to learn and improve with this wonderful blog! So, gracias! thank you! vielen Dank!
carmen
Hallo! :) Many many many thanks to the owner of the blog! He offered me the possibility to access for free the site resources for a period of time! I am so gratefull, considering the fact I have to reactivate and improve my German since I am going to move to Germany soon. So, once again, vielen Dank! :) And congrats for this so well structured blog!
I would like to mention the prefix version of this word. ;) “verausgaben”. Okay, it is not a perfect prefix word of “ausgeben” as you have another vowel in there but the words are close enough to consider their relationship. As often the case “ver-” adds a “depleting” or a “nihilating” touch to the word. As “verausgaben” means to “to burn yourself out” or “to overwork yourself” (to give it all). Still it has often a not so bad ring to it. You would use it for sports when you try to test your limit. But also in your work when you make double or triple shifts, sitting there with your not so hot coffee, the almost last one in the building and your coworker about to go, aking: “Machst du noch lange?” – “Nein, nur noch ein Artikel für die Wochendausgabe.” – “Okay, aber verausgabe dich nicht zu sehr.” = “Are you still going on for long?” – “No, just one article for the weekend edition.” – “Okay, but do not overwork youself too much.”
The word is conjugated like a weak verb and not separable. And duden.de lists two quite uncommon usages of the word in very formal writing and for the mailbusiness where it somehow can mean “ausgeben” and “herausgeben” respectively. Although I have never heard of this usage for giving out stamps. Well, probably because I always send my mailage directly in the mailoffice without buying stamps first.
Anyway, nice article again, keep up your good work.
And great addition, as usual :). I really completely forgot about this one. I think a fairly good translation is “to exert oneself” though not all instances of this would qualify as “verausgeben”. As for the Duden entry… I have never heard of these uses either but in special fields of work there are hidden many of such weird uses. Some time ago, I found that “verbringen” apparently still means “bring something away” in some work context.
garrydolley
Sehr guter Artikel. Vielen Dank!
Bilal
Vielen Dank, Das hilft mir. :)
Jake
Was ist denn der Unterschied zwischen herausgeben und veröffentlichen? Und herausbringen?
Meine Lieblingsband hat letzte Woche eine neue Platte _____. (Laut Google ist “veröffentlicht” bevorzugt)
Gute Frage! “herausgeben” ist “the most editorial”, wenn das Sinn macht. Es geht nur für Geschriebenes und ist zur Hälfte eine Verntwortungsbezeichung. Für eine Platte würde ich “rausbringen” sagen, oder “veröffentlichen” wenn es formal klingen soll. Ich weiß nicht genau, was der Herausgeber einer Zeitung eigentlich macht und was der Unterschied zum Chefredakteur ist. Vielleicht kann mir da ein anderer Muttersprachler aushelfen …
natasha
I would just like to say thank you Emanuel for the 3 month sponsorship. I love your blog it is one of my best learning german resources and since certain circumstances have left me very poor its very kind of you to let me continue learning here! Thanks!
I’ll pass that on to all the members who chipped in some extra. You are amazing, thank you!
Ruth
“Wieviel Geld gibst du im Monat für Essen aus?” How would you ask how much someone spends on eating out? “Wieviel Geld gibst du im Monat für auswärts Essen aus?” ? Is the the aus-heaviness a problem to native ears?
Berlin is still pretty cheap though. Pick the right bar and you can get 9 large beers for 30. Or 7 gin tonics. No kidding.
alexviajero
Hmm. This would have been a very handy word(s) to have had in my arsenal when I lived in Germany. Very well explained.
Oh, I have to comment. You really have a great ear for current, colloquial English. This sentence, “Does ausgeben mean to give out, like logic and common sense suggest? Or is there some crazy, stupid twist because … German.” made me laugh out loud. Very clever and funny, and contemporary (because this formulation is something quite recent in today’s English). Kudos.
English is water and I’s a spongin’ :D… seriously though, we do some similar stuff in German. One is to just say “Weil” as an answer to because and the other one, which I like quite a lot, is doing the same in the negative
– “Warum??” “Weil!”
– “Warum nich’?” “Weil nich'”
Looking forward to doing that to my kids. They’ll be so annoyed.
Ach komm, “steinalt”, also bitte :). Ich glaube, das ist dann eher die Region, die da ‘ne Rolle spielt. Ich kenn Leute aus dem Pott, die Sagen das auch. “Warum, darum” kenn ich natürlich auch.
Komisch, dass ich hier auf einmal als Anonymous erscheine – das war nicht geplant :-) Ja, ich glaub auch, dass das eine regionale Geschichte ist, denn wir zwei hatten das ja schon oefters! Sind ja auch irgendwie zwei Welten…
Julia
We’d just say “do you have the right change?” or “sorry I don’t have change for a note”. You wouldn’t necessarily need to say both as one assumes the other.
It’s only obvious and stupid if you say it. If you do it, though…that’s funny. You’d want to pay them back, but I think making that joke is worth at least 1 or 5 dollars.
What does the “luv” mean? “Love”?? If so then wow… Germans are waaaaayyyy to formal and uptight for that, even the most open ones. I can’t imagine somebody saying that on a festival. It’d probably be received as condescending.
That ‘s right. In Tyneside (Newcastle & thereabouts) it would be “pet”, and down in The West Country you might get “my lover” from a complete stranger. In other places, including Australia, a lot of people will call anyone “mate”. Australian pronunciation often more like “mite”, so it is possible to get the impression that everyone is called Mike.
Other regional examples I have come across of intimate terms used with strangers: Liverpool – “babe”; Manchester – “chuck”; South Yorkshire/Derbyshire – “duck”; London – “darling”, “sweetheart”. I’m sure there’s plenty more!
Be careful! Such speech is tolerated (and its use even celebrated) among the proletariat but, in England at least, any such usage by the bourgeoisie is regarded as a bit phoney.
Saying that, as a foreigner you may be granted more licence. My wife is Iranian and a senior cardiologist but she calls all her work colleagues “babe”. I cringe when I hear it but it seems to go down well.
Perhaps also more acceptable from a woman than from a man. Very much easier than remembering lots of strange names and how to pronounce them all. (Plenty of that in medicine, anyway.) I admire the approach.
Lancashire – we use “cock” : “how’s it going cock”.. to male or female, and “sunshine”, although “sunshine” is used in context of being a tad irritated with the person.
I’ve heard her speak to fellow consultants on the phone and call them “hon” and “honey” and also seen her speak to the nursing staff that way. She doesn’t have an assistant surgeon so I can’t speak for that!
As far as genders go, women can use such intimate language with either sex but men can only really use it with women, although they run a certain risk of being labelled patronising and sexist. For man-to-man pseudo intimacy there is a small selection of comradely alternatives like “mate”, “my mate” and “pal” although “pal” is a funny one and best avoided (can sound threatening).
So “paymate” would be the friendlier “paypal”? Sorry, I’m writing something right now so I’m in “unfunny pun” mode. The only thing I can imagine people use in Germany is “Schatz” and variations like “Schätzchen” or “Schatzilein” but the person using it would come across somewhat resolute … like… trying to ascertain or create higher status. While we’re at it… among people coming from a Turkish background it’s common to call foreign men “großer” or “Meister”. The latter is also used by construction workers. I find that really weird and oddly even a bit disrespectful, even though the term itself puts me at a higher status. I just don’t feel taken seriously if a construction worker who is twice my size says “Na, großer.”… I’ve also not really warmed up to “mein Freund” coming from strangers. I guess I’m super uber German stiff as shit when it comes to these things :D
Using overly respectful terms of address is I think the exact opposite of weirdly intimate ones. Like American cops calling you “sir” is really just meant to make you shit your pants.
Perhaps Australians just have smaller vocabularies. “Mate” can be used fairly threateningly here, though also with genuine warmth. Context and tone are important. It’s also not specifically male-to-male here.
So two women would call each other “mate” and a man would call a woman “mate”? That’s super weird to me but I guess it’s a bit the same with “dude” in the states
Calling a female “dude” is also a fairly recent thing here in the States too, and I laugh every time I hear young people use it that way (it sounds very funny to my 56-year-old ears). I watched an episode of a comedy show on TV a couple weeks ago — called “The Goldbergs” about a family, and it supposedly takes place in 1985ish. In the episode, one of the sons, who is about 12 years old, is upset with something his mother has done, and he says “Dude! What did you do?!!” It immediately sounded completely phony to me, because in 1985, no one used that word in that way. Today it’s pretty common, but as I said, it’s cute/funny/strange every time I hear it used towards a female.
Yes, super common in the UK and took me a while to get used to, but then I came to love it!! Hon or Honey to me sounds more American; you’ll get that here in the US in smaller places and probably more down South. I think it’s rather sweet! But I agree with you, it just wouldn’t work in Germany
Ich bin in den Süden USA geboren, wo man häufig “hon” (honey), “sweetie-pie”, oder “pumpkin” von Umbekannten genannt wird (meistens von Frauen). Meine Schwester hatte einen Kollegen, der gerade aus Osteuropa umgezogen war. Der war völlig entsetzt, als eine Kellnerin ihm gesagt hat, sie habe ihn gerne zum Nachtisch gegessen.
[Lancashire – we use “cock” : “how’s it going cock”].. it originates from an old English nursery rhyme ‘Little Cock Sparrow’, we used to say ‘how are you my little cock’, but that became shortened to ‘ how are you cock’. I still use it with my family and friends, and yes I have said it elsewhere..to raised eyebrows.
In the United States, the most common phrasing would be: “Do you have exact change?” and “Sorry, I can’t make change.” As Julia says, one wouldn’t ever really say both. It is common to see written signs saying “Exact change required.”, “Cannot make change for $50”, “No change for $50”.
Audio Speed
Dark Mode
On a Package of batteries it reads of scabby to 02/20/18.Is this an expiration date or a use by date?
I think it’s an expiration date. As far as I know, the batteries will most likely still work after that but they won’t have the full capacity anymore.
“use by”, as far as I know, implies that you shouldn’t use it anymore after that.
Vielen vielen Dank für den Artikel von “ausgeben”. Super hilfreich.
Freut mich :)
Bisher hab ich nur “wechseln” benutzt, wenn ich Papiergeld zu Müntzen rausgeben wollte. Was passt am bestens in diesem Zusammenhang?
Das kommt auf den Kontext an. Wenn du einen 10-Euro-Schein hast und dafür 10 Euro in Münzen haben willst, dann ist “wechseln” perfekt. “rausgeben” passt dann nicht. Das funktioniert nur im Kontext von Restgeld zurückgeben. Jemand kauft was bei dir für 8 Euro und gibt dir 10, dann gibst du raus.
Mir wird beim Lesen der Kommentare immer wieder bewusst, wie krass schwer Deutsch ist!! Bin ich froh, dass ich das nicht lernen muss :-)
ich glaube, man muss es schaffen, die ganzen Kleinigkeiten (Endungen, dies das) erstmal zu ignorieren. Sonst macht einen das verrückt :)
Ich habe ein Beispiel gefunden, in dem man “herausgeben” benutzt für “Kleingeld rausgeben”.
-“Dafür kriegen Sie bei mir nichts,” sagte der Fahrer. “Auf 20 Mark muss ich nicht herausgeben.”
Benutzt der Autor vielleicht diesen Ausdruck (anstatt rausgeben), damit der Busfahrer super streng und hochnäsig klingt?
Hmm, das wäre dann schon sehr raffiniert. Ich glaube eher, dass “rausgeben” dem Autor (oder dem Lektor) zu umgangssprachlich erschien und er deshalb “herausgeben” gewählt hat. Einen Berliner Busfahrer, der das sagt, kann ich mir eher schwer vorstellen. Es kann auch sein, dass das Buch schon ein bisschen älter ist (es wird ja non in Mark gezahlt). Das könnte dann auch was damit zu tun haben. So vor 40 Jahren hat man das noch “korrekter” gesprochen.
Print ist doch sowieso oft anders, foermlicher
Ja, das kommt auch noch dazu. Wobei es ja ein Dialog ist, und da sollte der Autor ja so schreiben, wie die Charaktere reden.
Im Prinzip ja, in der Praxis aber oft anders – einer der Gruende, warum ich wahnsinnig gerne audio books hoere, weil oft die SPrache so viel schoener ist! Uebrigens etwas, das ich allen Sprachstudenten waermstens empfehle!!
Da stell ich doch direkt mal die Frage, die sich jetzt dann ganz viele Lerner stellen… hast du gute Hörbuchtipps?
Naja, ich hoere ja immer Englisch – das waere ja nicht so angebracht fuer Deutschlernende :-) Fuer Studenten, die in D leben, wuerde ich einen Besuch in der Buecherei empfehlen, die haben meist eine gute Auswahl. Ansonsten online – bei Amazon Audible z.B.
Stimmt, die öffentlichen Bibliotheken haben Hammer das Angebot (um mal ein bisschen Umgangssprache zu verwenden). Und in Berlin kosten die so 10 bis 20 Euro … im Jahr.
Haha, ok. FYI, das Buch speilt im Jahr 1989 in Westberlin, aber es wurde 2001 geschrieben. Mir scheint, dass es bezeichnend für den Autor ist, eine Art “raffinierte Umgangssprache” zu benutzen. In seiner Antwort auf die Forderung des Busfahrers, benutzt die Hauptfigur aber den Ausdruck “rausgeben” (und nicht “herausgeben”):
-“Die Beförderungsbedingungen der BVG sagen aber auch, dass Sie mir, wenn Sie nicht _rausgeben_ können, eine Quittung über den Restbetrag geben müssen, die ich am Kleistpark einlösen kann.”
Dennoch, weil ich kein Muttersprachler bin, ist es natürlich immer schwierig, genau die Laune von einem Text zu verstehen.
Das ist dann allerdings interessant. Vielleicht wollte er dann doch, dass der Busfahrer leicht pissig(genervt) rüberkommt. Oder es ist ein sehr gebildeter oder belesener Busfahrer. Oder ein Busfahrer der Deutsch nicht als Muttersprachler hat sondern im Sprachkurs alles schön ordentlich gelernt hat :)
Hi everyone. My name is Peter, and I want to thank the sponsors and german-is-easy for the opportunity to learn german!
Ich habe vor, jeden Tag ein bisschen Deutsch zu lesen und lernen, sodass ich endlich gut Deustch sprechen kann.
Viele grüße aus Taiwan :D
Na dann viel Erfolg :)
Is ausgeben the most common verb to denote spending ?
Definitely yes. But only spending money, not spending time.
Hi everyone! My name is Diego, I am a student from Chile. I want to thank the sponsors for giving me the chance and give me access to this amazing blog. I have seen a lot of different websites to learn German and this is definitely the best.
Vielen Dank!
First of all I want to thank the owner of the blog for the free membership and to the sponsors who put some extra money to give the people who can’t pay the opportunity to learn aswell! It really means a lot for all of us and I’m looking forward to learn and improve with this wonderful blog! So, gracias! thank you! vielen Dank!
Hallo! :)
Many many many thanks to the owner of the blog! He offered me the possibility to access for free the site resources for a period of time! I am so gratefull, considering the fact I have to reactivate and improve my German since I am going to move to Germany soon.
So, once again, vielen Dank! :)
And congrats for this so well structured blog!
Thanks to the sponsors who put in some extra :)
I would like to mention the prefix version of this word. ;) “verausgaben”. Okay, it is not a perfect prefix word of “ausgeben” as you have another vowel in there but the words are close enough to consider their relationship. As often the case “ver-” adds a “depleting” or a “nihilating” touch to the word. As “verausgaben” means to “to burn yourself out” or “to overwork yourself” (to give it all). Still it has often a not so bad ring to it. You would use it for sports when you try to test your limit. But also in your work when you make double or triple shifts, sitting there with your not so hot coffee, the almost last one in the building and your coworker about to go, aking: “Machst du noch lange?” – “Nein, nur noch ein Artikel für die Wochendausgabe.” – “Okay, aber verausgabe dich nicht zu sehr.” = “Are you still going on for long?” – “No, just one article for the weekend edition.” – “Okay, but do not overwork youself too much.”
The word is conjugated like a weak verb and not separable. And duden.de lists two quite uncommon usages of the word in very formal writing and for the mailbusiness where it somehow can mean “ausgeben” and “herausgeben” respectively. Although I have never heard of this usage for giving out stamps. Well, probably because I always send my mailage directly in the mailoffice without buying stamps first.
Anyway, nice article again, keep up your good work.
And great addition, as usual :). I really completely forgot about this one. I think a fairly good translation is “to exert oneself” though not all instances of this would qualify as “verausgeben”. As for the Duden entry… I have never heard of these uses either but in special fields of work there are hidden many of such weird uses. Some time ago, I found that “verbringen” apparently still means “bring something away” in some work context.
Sehr guter Artikel. Vielen Dank!
Vielen Dank, Das hilft mir. :)
Was ist denn der Unterschied zwischen herausgeben und veröffentlichen? Und herausbringen?
Meine Lieblingsband hat letzte Woche eine neue Platte _____. (Laut Google ist “veröffentlicht” bevorzugt)
Gute Frage! “herausgeben” ist “the most editorial”, wenn das Sinn macht. Es geht nur für Geschriebenes und ist zur Hälfte eine Verntwortungsbezeichung. Für eine Platte würde ich “rausbringen” sagen, oder “veröffentlichen” wenn es formal klingen soll. Ich weiß nicht genau, was der Herausgeber einer Zeitung eigentlich macht und was der Unterschied zum Chefredakteur ist. Vielleicht kann mir da ein anderer Muttersprachler aushelfen …
I would just like to say thank you Emanuel for the 3 month sponsorship. I love your blog it is one of my best learning german resources and since certain circumstances have left me very poor its very kind of you to let me continue learning here! Thanks!
I’ll pass that on to all the members who chipped in some extra. You are amazing, thank you!
“Wieviel Geld gibst du im Monat für Essen aus?”
How would you ask how much someone spends on eating out? “Wieviel Geld gibst du im Monat für auswärts Essen aus?” ? Is the the aus-heaviness a problem to native ears?
Haha… no, to my ears that’s totally fine. “auswärts” is a bit heavy on the tongue though, and I think I’d say “Essengehen”
– Wieviel Geld gibts du im Monat für Essengehen aus.
The problem is the spelling. “Essengehen”, “Essen-Gehen”, “Essen Gehen”… all look wrong.
These days, if you’re buying several rounds, you can’t just pretend to be rich, you’d HAVE to be LOL
Berlin is still pretty cheap though. Pick the right bar and you can get 9 large beers for 30. Or 7 gin tonics. No kidding.
Hmm. This would have been a very handy word(s) to have had in my arsenal when I lived in Germany. Very well explained.
Oh, I have to comment. You really have a great ear for current, colloquial English. This sentence, “Does ausgeben mean to give out, like logic and common sense suggest? Or is there some crazy, stupid twist because … German.” made me laugh out loud. Very clever and funny, and contemporary (because this formulation is something quite recent in today’s English). Kudos.
English is water and I’s a spongin’ :D… seriously though, we do some similar stuff in German. One is to just say “Weil” as an answer to because and the other one, which I like quite a lot, is doing the same in the negative
– “Warum??”
“Weil!”
– “Warum nich’?”
“Weil nich'”
Looking forward to doing that to my kids. They’ll be so annoyed.
This must, once again, be a regional thing as I would never say that and have never heard it – in the same context, I’d say “warum? Darum!”
Can I ask you what region you’re from? Also, what age demographic, wenn’s nicht zu unhöflich is :)
(ich bin aus Berlin und 35)
Ueberhaupt nicht unhoeflich – du kannst ja nix dafuer, dass ich so steinalt bin :-) Ich bin aus Bayern und 46
Ach komm, “steinalt”, also bitte :). Ich glaube, das ist dann eher die Region, die da ‘ne Rolle spielt. Ich kenn Leute aus dem Pott, die Sagen das auch.
“Warum, darum” kenn ich natürlich auch.
Komisch, dass ich hier auf einmal als Anonymous erscheine – das war nicht geplant :-) Ja, ich glaub auch, dass das eine regionale Geschichte ist, denn wir zwei hatten das ja schon oefters! Sind ja auch irgendwie zwei Welten…
We’d just say “do you have the right change?” or “sorry I don’t have change for a note”. You wouldn’t necessarily need to say both as one assumes the other.
Or, “do you have exact change? Because I can’t break your bill. or I can’t break a 10 / a 50.”
That makes me wonder… did anyone ever make this very obvious and very stupid joke:
– Can you break a 50?
No, but I could rip it.
About as funny as
– Can you tell me the time?
Yes. (doesn’t continue)
And that’s a “joke” people do every once in a while.
It’s only obvious and stupid if you say it. If you do it, though…that’s funny. You’d want to pay them back, but I think making that joke is worth at least 1 or 5 dollars.
But, yeah, I’ve never heard anyone say that joke.
Here in Liverpool that would be “Ave yer got the right money luv? A’m ourra change”
Cute… I don’t have much trouble understanding Liverpool English. Any further north, however (esp. Glasgow Scottish – or “Glaswegian”), and I’m lost :)
What does the “luv” mean? “Love”?? If so then wow… Germans are waaaaayyyy to formal and uptight for that, even the most open ones. I can’t imagine somebody saying that on a festival. It’d probably be received as condescending.
That ‘s right. In Tyneside (Newcastle & thereabouts) it would be “pet”, and down in The West Country you might get “my lover” from a complete stranger. In other places, including Australia, a lot of people will call anyone “mate”. Australian pronunciation often more like “mite”, so it is possible to get the impression that everyone is called Mike.
Other regional examples I have come across of intimate terms used with strangers: Liverpool – “babe”; Manchester – “chuck”; South Yorkshire/Derbyshire – “duck”; London – “darling”, “sweetheart”. I’m sure there’s plenty more!
Be careful! Such speech is tolerated (and its use even celebrated) among the proletariat but, in England at least, any such usage by the bourgeoisie is regarded as a bit phoney.
Saying that, as a foreigner you may be granted more licence. My wife is Iranian and a senior cardiologist but she calls all her work colleagues “babe”. I cringe when I hear it but it seems to go down well.
Wow, crazy. Does it work for both genders?
Sorry my mistake, not “babe” but “honey”, which if anything is even worse.
So she’d call her assistant surgeon “honey”??
Perhaps also more acceptable from a woman than from a man.
Very much easier than remembering lots of strange names and how to pronounce them all. (Plenty of that in medicine, anyway.) I admire the approach.
Lancashire – we use “cock” : “how’s it going cock”.. to male or female, and “sunshine”, although “sunshine” is used in context of being a tad irritated with the person.
“Cock”… really? Have you ever used it accidentally somewhere else? Like… to a Starbuck’s employee in New York :)
I’ve heard her speak to fellow consultants on the phone and call them “hon” and “honey” and also seen her speak to the nursing staff that way. She doesn’t have an assistant surgeon so I can’t speak for that!
As far as genders go, women can use such intimate language with either sex but men can only really use it with women, although they run a certain risk of being labelled patronising and sexist. For man-to-man pseudo intimacy there is a small selection of comradely alternatives like “mate”, “my mate” and “pal” although “pal” is a funny one and best avoided (can sound threatening).
So “paymate” would be the friendlier “paypal”? Sorry, I’m writing something right now so I’m in “unfunny pun” mode.
The only thing I can imagine people use in Germany is “Schatz” and variations like “Schätzchen” or “Schatzilein” but the person using it would come across somewhat resolute … like… trying to ascertain or create higher status.
While we’re at it… among people coming from a Turkish background it’s common to call foreign men “großer” or “Meister”. The latter is also used by construction workers. I find that really weird and oddly even a bit disrespectful, even though the term itself puts me at a higher status. I just don’t feel taken seriously if a construction worker who is twice my size says “Na, großer.”… I’ve also not really warmed up to “mein Freund” coming from strangers. I guess I’m super uber German stiff as shit when it comes to these things :D
Using overly respectful terms of address is I think the exact opposite of weirdly intimate ones. Like American cops calling you “sir” is really just meant to make you shit your pants.
Perhaps Australians just have smaller vocabularies. “Mate” can be used fairly threateningly here, though also with genuine warmth. Context and tone are important. It’s also not specifically male-to-male here.
So two women would call each other “mate” and a man would call a woman “mate”? That’s super weird to me but I guess it’s a bit the same with “dude” in the states
Calling a female “dude” is also a fairly recent thing here in the States too, and I laugh every time I hear young people use it that way (it sounds very funny to my 56-year-old ears). I watched an episode of a comedy show on TV a couple weeks ago — called “The Goldbergs” about a family, and it supposedly takes place in 1985ish. In the episode, one of the sons, who is about 12 years old, is upset with something his mother has done, and he says “Dude! What did you do?!!” It immediately sounded completely phony to me, because in 1985, no one used that word in that way. Today it’s pretty common, but as I said, it’s cute/funny/strange every time I hear it used towards a female.
Yes, super common in the UK and took me a while to get used to, but then I came to love it!! Hon or Honey to me sounds more American; you’ll get that here in the US in smaller places and probably more down South. I think it’s rather sweet! But I agree with you, it just wouldn’t work in Germany
Ich bin in den Süden USA geboren, wo man häufig “hon” (honey), “sweetie-pie”, oder “pumpkin” von Umbekannten genannt wird (meistens von Frauen). Meine Schwester hatte einen Kollegen, der gerade aus Osteuropa umgezogen war. Der war völlig entsetzt, als eine Kellnerin ihm gesagt hat, sie habe ihn gerne zum Nachtisch gegessen.
[Lancashire – we use “cock” : “how’s it going cock”].. it originates from an old English nursery rhyme ‘Little Cock Sparrow’, we used to say ‘how are you my little cock’, but that became shortened to ‘ how are you cock’. I still use it with my family and friends, and yes I have said it elsewhere..to raised eyebrows.
I’ve never heard a guy call a woman “mate”
Perhaps with a “wanna” in front… as a question ;)
In the United States, the most common phrasing would be: “Do you have exact change?” and “Sorry, I can’t make change.” As Julia says, one wouldn’t ever really say both. It is common to see written signs saying “Exact change required.”, “Cannot make change for $50”, “No change for $50”.
Oh, and “Do you have change for a [name of note]?” is very common.
BTW… did Obama have enough change, after all? (sorry, but the pun was just too cheap to pass on it)
For completion… these sign writings would be
” Bitte passend zahlen” (which translates to exact change required, I think) and
“Bitte haben Sie Verständnis, dass wir eine 100€ Scheine annehmen können. Vielen Dank” (or something of similar length)