“Cancelling 101“
Hello everyone
day 15 of our Advent Calendar. And of course, the title was click-bait – I wasn’t cancelled.
But today, we’ll learn how to properly cancel someone in German.
And it’s easier than you think.
Take a bad German teacher for instance… just login to your Twitter and post this:
“My incompetent German teacher couldn’t even tell me why languages are different.
Wrong job? Look into that @goetheinstitue “
And boom. They’re cancelled.
Nah, I’m kidding of course.
What we’ll really talk about is how to translate
to cancel
One of you recently asked about that in an email and it’s a good question because there are actually several options. Like… the dict.cc has 10 inches, actually.
“OMG, did the German teacher just talked about 10 inch wieners in a lecture?! This needs to STO…!”
Chill out Karen, I said dict.cc… it’s a dictionary.
Anyway, of course we can not go over every single one of them and talk about all the nuances, but I can give the most common options and when to pick which one. Because we can actually distinguish between three types of cancelling:
- cancelling appointments
- cancelling contracts
- cancelling in context of TV
For the first one, when the two most common words are absagen and ausfallen. Absagen is what the person who cancels it does and it can be used for dates as well as for really official fixed dates like a concert for instance.
- Ich sage das Date ab.
- I cancel the date.
- Das Konzert wurde wegen Corona abgesagt.
- The concert was cancelled because of Corona.
Ausfallen is what the event itself does. So if I absagen a concert, that concert will ausfallen. In English, the counterpart for ausfallen would be “is/was cancelled” and it’s actually kind of handy, if you don’t or can’t say who actually cancelled it.
- Die Filmpremiere ist ausgefallen.
- The movie premiere was cancelled.
Cool.
The second type of cancelling is about nullifying some form of contract. If the contract for something you already have, like a work contract or a Netflix subscription for instance, then the word for cancelling it is kündigen. And if it’s just a “planned contract”, an order, then the most common word is stornieren. That works for hotel bookings for instance, but also for orders in general.
- Maria kündigt ihren Netflix-Account.
- Maria cancels her Netflix-subscription.
- Kann ich meinen Flug stornieren?
- Can I cancel my flight?
- “Da ist ein Bier zuviel auf der Rechnung.”
“Oh, tut mir leid, das storniere ich.” - “There’s one beer too many on the bill.”
“Oh my apology, I’ll take that off.”
And then, last and kind of least, we have the cancelling in a context of TV series. And the most common option for that is absetzen.
- Die Show wurde nach einer Staffel abgesetzt.
- The show was cancelled after one season.
Mixing up these words does sound quite weird and might not even be understandable for a native speaker. So try to really get a sense of the three different groups.
Here they are as an overview again:
- cancelling appointments – absagen, ausfallen
- cancelling contracts – kündigen, stornieren
- cancelling series – absetzen
And that’s it for today. Now you have an idea of how to properly cancel in German :).
If you have questions about this or about some other translations for to cancel, let me know in the comments.
have a great day and bis morgen.
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Do absagen and ablehnen intersect? I’ve only seen ablehnen used in the context of “rejecting an offer”. Can I “einen Angebot absagen”? Can I “ablehnen einen Termin”?
“absagen” is “to call off” in a sense of calling off some sort of appointment.
“ablehnen” is about rejecting an offer.
You would not “ein Angebot absagen” but you can “einen Termin ablehnen”. That then means that an appointment was offered to you and you say “No, not this one.”, for instance because you want a different appointment. Once you agree to the appointment and then cancel, that would be absagen.
Does that help?
Danke, jetzt weiß ich, diese Wörter sind unterschiedlich.
Hi Emanuel! I understand that ‘absagen’ is transitive (someone is doing the canceling of the appointment or event), and ‘ausfallen’ is intransitive. Using this logic, I would think that:
‘My match is canceled because of the rain.’ Would be…
‘Mein Spiel fällt wegen des Regens aus.’
but I feel like a million online resources are showing…
‘Mein Spiel wird/wurde wegen des Regens abgesagt.’ (*and even without the reason of ‘des Regens’ I’m still seeing ‘wird/wurde abgesagt’)
Can you clarify this for me? Vielen Dank!!
Both are correct.
– wurde abgesagt
This is passive voice of the transitive cancelling (absagen). It’s pretty much the direct counterpart to “got/is cancelled”.
It has a bit more focus on the fact that someone called off the game, but in essence, the meaning is the same as for “fällt aus.”
“ausfallen” is basically like “to not take place after all”.
Does that help?
Yes, this helps! It makes sense that both could be used.
One last Q- I am seeing both ‘stornieren’ and ‘absagen’ used for canceling a trip. Am I correct that if I’m canceling a reserved trip (like a booked cruise or maybe a day trip booked with a company) I would use ‘stornieren,’ but if it’s just a trip to, say, Germany that my family has planned on our own but we have to cancel because one of us got sick, I could use ‘absagen.’ Is this accurate?
Vielen Dank!
Yeah, “stornieren” is about cancelling an order or booking. “absagen” is about calling of an “event”. You can’t really “absagen” a cruise for example, unless you organize it.
Ich suchte diesen Artikel aufgrund dieses Videos https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Igz1nQKMiu0 – um 3:16 er sagt, das er einen Einladung “absagen” muss. Das war fuer mich ein neues Wort. Und ins Video hat es noch eine Meinung – to refuse or decline. Potentially useful verbiage for this kind of officialish question.
Nicht “Meinung”, sondern “Bedeutung” :)
Es ist nicht wirklich “refuse” oder “decline” sondern eher “to call off”.
Du kannst nicht “ein Angebot absagen”.
Du sagst einen Termin ab. Das ist hier der Kern. Die Party ist der “Termin”, und man sagt ab.
Hilft das?
Oh then maybe the dude making this video is a bit clueless I’m pretty sure that in this context he just got invited over text message. Okay, good to know hahaha. And thanks for the reminder about Meinung!
There is another idea that confuses me … idea of happining ,existing, occuring …. let’s say vorkommen , geschehen,passieren,stattfinden,erfolgen,vorliegen,sein,existieren and also vorhanden/gegeben sein … which is common for what
did you discuss that before?
add bestehen, es gibt
You’re starting to mix “happening” and “being”.
Not as a comprehensive post, but I talked about some of them in the dictionary and some of them in detailed posts. You can check my search/dictionary to find them.
ok .. this helps
In AE one can bag something, as in „bag the fries“ – when you realize fries are fattening you bust tell the waiter to bag the fries you just ordered with your veggie burger.
If you are in the wrong state, you‘ll get them delivered to your table in a bag, next to the basket with the burger in it.
You can also 86 something. Cancel it. Kill it.
Where do they come from? Who cares – etymologists make it up as they go along because they know people will believe anything they claim.
My guess? „86 it“ comes from the Celtic word „Shoal“ and yadda yadda.
See
What
I
Did
There?
I’d have thought etymologists are one of the last people to care what the general public thinks about their work. But maybe you’re right. Maybe we’re being had. These stupid scientists in their uni-rooms playing us for suckers.
I bought a hard copy etymology book for like 20 Euro or so. 20 EURO!!! They’re making bank with their lies. And laughing at us.
#EtyGateConfirmed
Prima! This was a perfect lesson during this pandemic because I have had to cancel, or had things cancelled. Do you have a good resource for writing letters?
Leider nein. I’m really bad with resources like that. Do you need it to be official?
OK, sag mir bitte: warum haben wir dann so viele wörter für dieses Konzept?
Die sind ja alle verschieden. Nur in Englisch ist das “ein Konzept” aber für deutsche Muttersprachler sind das drei Konzepte.
There are always exceptions to rules of English grammar. As to split infinitives: of course, the “Star Trek” example is for emphasis. “boldly to go…” sounds a bit effete; “to go boldly…” sounds casual. “To boldly go…” works. I’ll have to look up to see what the rest of the statement is.
The post from LCantoni is really funny.
I discovered your blog last week. I got “addicted” right away. The explanation are so simple, yet complete at the exact level of what I need.(By the way… English is my third language, so to say that the way to explain is great for me!!!!!) Thanks for that wonderful humor that makes us understand with a smile. Being myself a teacher I “high five” that method!
Oh, awesome to hear that! Thanks for the great feedback and have fun digging around here :)
My German speaking attempt was in Day 12 … a long way down … Look for the poem …. I wandered lonely as a cloud …. in English … followed by my horrible German :-) Try not to loudly laugh !!! Oops aaaargh !!!
This type of article is what brings me back every time, hoping you’ve done one. I love them. If you ever do “to request,” I can die happy.
I’m thinking of doing more articles like “how to say”… I’ll put “to request” on the list.
As always, really useful. Will you please say how abbrechen fits in, as it was the first word for cancel that i was taught.
Vielen Dank für den Artikel! Du hast alles super erklärt.
PS “to properly cancel” klingt 100% richtig…
Hallo, Emanuel!
In deinem Artikel über den Verb “streichen” habe ich dieses Beispiel gelesen:
“Bitte streichen Sie unseren Auftrag!”
:-)
Stimmt, das gibt es auch. Das ist so ziemlich wie “stornieren”.
Aw, gee, I was hoping for a quiz where a unicorn had to cancel a Broadway show about squirrels because he accidentally cancelled the order for nuts, then turned the show into a TV series that got cancelled because the squirrels breached their contract.
I just realized that this calendar is very hypounicoroid. Underunicorned. My apologies! Our savage magic “friends” will be back next year with a vengeance (and a new super weapon).
When everyone questioned my authority on chipmunk being “little unicorn” in German, I did some research and, among other things, learned that Google thinks “Eichh” means “Welsh” in German. Is that true? Wieso? (Etymology, please)
Äh… not sure what you mean with “Eich”? And “Welsh” for that matter.
Sorry for the delayed response: If you start typing “eichhönchen” in google translate, when you get as far as “eichh” it says that means Welsh, which is the official language of Wales. Further research indicates that Google thinks Walisish is the German word for Welsh, so maybe eichh is some sort of AI fluke rather than the proper basis for an etymology question!
I just tried it and I think you’re mixing something up. My google suggested that “eich(h)” IS Welsh as in the Welsh language. Not that it means Welsh.
Like… I think “eich” is a Welsh word. When you say it’s Welsh then my Google translates it as “your horses” :)
You’re absolutely right, of course. It was more interesting when I didn’t know what I was talking about, though.
Hahahaha… I think that’s a common phenomenon.
For me personally, I had something like this with rap lyrics. When I wouldn’t understand English as well as now, I’d make up stories in my head about what they’re saying. And then later, going back and understanding the real lyrics I was like “Mehhhh, I’d rather go back to my version” :)
This happens to me approximately 88% of the German songs I listen to! Like I was imagining “Radio Brennt” was a real punk song like something the clash would do, about how we’re all being brainwashed or something – then the lyrics were so insipid when I looked up the translation, I almost smashed my radio on the wall.
Hahaha, yeah, Die Ärzte are very very “down to earth” with their lyrics.
By the way, one of them gave an interview in the Apotheken-Umschau recently. That’s a magazine that lies around in pharmacies and is for the elderly.
What I always liked about Die Ärzte is that they really don’t care what anyone thinks. If they want to give an interview to Apotheken-Umschau, they’ll just do it.
By the way… since we’re talking about not so deep lyrics.
Do you know THIS masterpiece of Die Ärzte?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CbE6pTLha6Y
It was a big hit with lots of plays on music television.
OMG, this is so deep… fahren wir nicht alle immer im Kreis??
Ze sörkel of laiff!
Ich habe das tatsächlich gegoogelt :P
Jetzt ist die große Frage… hast du was gefunden :)?
Nein, total nichts :D Aber das neuen Lied ist gerade auf mein Playlist gekommen. (How the hell do you say that?!)
Im Prinzip war dein Satz fast richtig (bis auf “das neuE”, “meinE PLaylist”), aber ich glaube du wolltest sagen “made it onto my playlist”, und da ist die passende Formulierung so:
– Das neue Lied hat es auf meine Playlist geschafft.
Thanks, and I just have to say, believe it or not, I did actually reply to this comment *directly after* going back over your adjective ending articles and writing out practice worksheets.
It’ll sink in one day
The important question is – does it make sense now that it’s “neue” and not “neuen”?
Oh yes, absolutely. :D The conceptual groundwork was all there. But a great distance seems to remain between the groundwork and steady implementation.
When do you use abbrechen?
That’s about stopping an ongoing process before it finished. To abort, for example.
– Virgin Galactic hat seinen Probeflug abgebrochen.
Had they cancelled before lift off, it would have been “absagen”, but because it was already in motion it is “abbrechen”.
cancelling appointments – absagen, ausfallencancelling contracts – kündigen, stornierencancelling series – absetzen
Frage: Kann man alles oben durchstreichen?
Ich verstehe die Frage nicht.
Mit “alles oben” – habe ich appointments ,contracts, series gemeint..
Zum Beispiel : Wegen einen Computerhack müssen Fluglinien Interflug und Lufthansa alle Auslands Flüge nach Einhornshausen heute durchstreichen.
In welchem Sinn passt durchstreichen? Oder in gar keinem?
Ah, verstehe. Nee, “durchstreichen” ist wörtlich… to cross out. “streichen” passt aber.
Thanks for this good explanation of the different varieties of cancelling, including new ones for me. Regarding the introduction to this article, I’m now curious about how would you say “to cancel someone” in German.
We’d just use the English wording. This concept of “cancelling someone” is so new, that German hasn’t bothered coming up with a word for it. Generally, German soaks up English vocab pretty easily at the moment.
I also hear canceln sometimes in the sense of absagen.
Ja, das gibt’s natürlich auch :).
Das geht auch für Tv Shows.
Aber ich würde es nicht benutzen, wenn ich selbst einfach nicht zu einer Verabredung oder so kommen. Da passt für mich nur absagen.
Vielen dank! This is very helpful. I always look forward for this type of explanation. Very clear and precise so i wont make mistakes in using the terms.
Guten Tag lieber Emmanuel,
Ich kannte schon Kündigen( einen Termin), Absagen, Sich/Abmelden . Aber die drei andere Verben, nämlich Ausfallen, Stornieren, Absetzen, sind neu für mich . Das erweitert meinen Wortschatz. Ich bien sehr dankbar dafür.
Bis Morgen