“Guess Express”
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Hi ihr Lieben,
German learning Advent Calendar day number 15 and behind today’s door is an absolutely epic little
German Expression Quiz
Hooray!!
It’s pretty much like one that we did a few days ago, but without animal theme this time.
So, I’ll give you five really cool common German expressions along with an example for them in context and for each one you get to guess what they could mean? And along with the answer, I’ll also give you a little bit of background where they come from and why they have the meaning they have.
So are you ready? Dann viel Spaß :)
And, how’d you do? Did you know any of these already?
I’d say jwd is probably the least common among them, mainly because it’s regional, but the others are all worth adding to your active vocabulary.
Let me know which one is your favorite and if you like this type of quiz.
And of course, if you have any questions about any of them, let me know in the comments as well, and I’ll do my bestest to clear it up.
Have a terrific day and bis morgen. Tschau :)!!
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I’m crazy about idiomatic expressions. I was vaguely familiar with two of them. Your choices allowed me to choose the right answer. “Dicke Luft” and “Pi und Daumen” are my favorites.
Ich werde “Vitamin B” in der Zukunft sicher verwendet. So eine tolle Redewendung lol
Ja, sehr sehr nützlich.
Would like to hear these expressions
Diese Beispiele waren Super – vielen Dank!
I mache große Freude daran, deine Artikel zu lesen, Lieber Emanuel. Ich hoffe, dass ich dir einmal persönlich danken kann.
Freut mich, dass du hier Spaß hast :)!
Just clicked on the email and saw the house reference thing…the s express version is famous did you know the track its based on though https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4bT5EdjhFMI ?
Yeay, I lowkey expected that you would get that one. I did not know the original and I gotta say… the cover didn’t really add much XD.
Since we’re at old house classics… I recently found this mashup of Gipsy Woman that I really love. It’s like the lyrics were made that beat.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b5v2o6Mgfg8
Yeah, the earlier track is great. The s express track isn’t exactly my thing but its indeed a classic. One thing i find interesting about early house is the presence of melancholy in a lot of the tracks -the Crystal Waters track being an example of that..funny listening to it again this morning the drums seem ahead of their time , they kinda have this mid 90s garage house thing going on…
Managed to sneak in 5/5, but only really knew 3/5 (didn’t know jwd or Pi mal Daumen, but the friendly multiple-choice alternatives gave the right nudges at the right time to successfully guess those two).
If you want to say something’s “everything to do with (a certain subject or skill or whatever…)” you’ve got a shitload/metric_shit-ton of choices in English: “the whole enchilada”, “the whole ball-game”, “the (whole) kit and caboodle”, “the whole nine yards”, “the be-all and end-all”, “the whole ball of wax”, “the works”, or –perhaps my favourite– “the whole shebang”, most of which have slight nuances in terms of scope (ie, whether you’re talking about *everything*, or just everything pertaining to a particular topic), and also whether you’re talking about the sine qua non of this topic, or the totality of it. Weirdly enough, it’s a massively “American” list. Maybe someone else can help flesh it out with comparable expressions from British or Australian English, as I’m not “feeling” any at the moment.
Anyway, all that just to say that “das A und O” seems to fit pretty snugly among this lot.
Argh, confusion alert. “A und O” means “this is the most important aspect of a bunch of aspects. No other aspect matters if this one is not taken care of”. It does NOT means “everything” in any way. There were several comments going in that direction including yours, so now I’m not sure if my explanation was misleading.
Think of “das A und O” as “what makes or breaks”.
Does that help?
Yep, that makes sense: I seem to have drifted rather perilously from the “close to correct” (sine qua non, and be-all and end-all(*), and even the whole ball-game(*)), via a shift in meaning induced by the final two of those expressions, into the land of pure fantasy.
Thanks for the reorientation!
(*) This one seems to be a popular translation of “das A und O”.
(**) While this one still means “the thing on which everything pivots/the most important aspect” (so it’s still “in the ball-game”, meaning “in play” with respect to our original topic!). But it’s also a close relative of “a whole new ball-game”, meaning “a completely different situation”.
It’s a great and fun way to go over expressions since they occur often. Thanks!
These quizzes are the best!! Das A und O
Just to make sure. “A und O” does NOT mean “the best”. It means “the most important part” or “what needs most attention”. YOu could say
– Gute Quizzes sind das A und O von einem Adventskalender.
This is the best quiz
Love it! It’s so much fun learning German this way. Thanks Emanuel :)
The only mistake I made was with Pi, thinking that meant exact.
At Lidl a new lane suddenly opens and it’s now a frenzy. Order resumes quickly, except an older bloke is trying to cut in. The folks ahead of me will have no part of it, but I, the foreigner, distracted by this lovely exercise, feel the spirit and allow the gent to lead me.
He whispers something, I do not know exactly what, but he seems appreciative. He soon has a laugh with the cashier. Quizzes are a lot of fun.
This comment made me chuckle :D. I could picture it so well!
Ich hat 4/5. Gute “guessing”. lol
Camille
Ich wüsste nicht ” Vitamin B und Pi mal Daumen ” . Ohnehin liebe ich diese Übung . Vielen Dank.
Bis Morgen
In Französich wäre es vermutlich “VItamine R” für “rélations”, oder?
My husband got the Radiohead reference and was very impressed with your work :) I actively dislike them, so I didn’t get it, sorry. If I were you though, I’d assume that everyone got it and loved it, but were too shy to comment :D
Where and what was the reference?
It’s the title and then in the newsletter that little textlet. It’s basically Karma Police.
Oh, I HATE Radiohead. It’s way too whiny for me :D. Like a nagging 6 year old, but in music form.
Guter Ton ist ist das A und O der Musik (oder Aufnehmen). Das geht? Muss ich Ein guter Ton sagen? Ich wusste ‘dicke Luft’, weil es ein Lied der Band ‘Silly’ (Ostdeutschland) mit dem gleichen Namen gibt(gab) . Ich habe hier eine Menge gelernt.
Nee, “guter Ton” ohne “ein” ist total okay.
“ich wusste dicke Luft”… I knew that as an answer
“ich kannte dicke Luft” … I knew this expression
Just a random little comparison of “kennen” vs “wissen”
Und? Was ist richtig?
Beide sind richtig, aber bedeuten unterschiedliche Sachen.
Hallo,
I got them all right, even though I only knew “Pi mal Daumen”, I guess they’re pretty intuitive.
JWD is hard though, being regional, and also you placed a “God knows where” option that also carries the vibe of remote, somewhere in the sticks no one has heard of, so there’s overlap in English and I was actually hesitating there… in the end, I went for the literal one ;)
Great exercise, I like these quizes :)
Bis Morgen!
Oh, right…. I didn’t think of the ambiguity of “God knows where”. I’ll change that :)
cool quiz. The origin of A and O is interesting. Seems so epic in the biblical context but it sounds like you can deploy it in fairly banal situations. JWD i know and have heard used irl, but thats cus of where i live…
Yeah, it always sounds really epic to me – you’d never talk about the “alpha and omega of cooking” in English (unless you would? I’m slightly scared to google the phrase)
I totally forgot about JWD. Been away from Berlin too long…
A und O doesn’t sound epic at all :). And it has a very nice vibe, actually.
A and O. Beginning and End. Everything you need. Seems cool.
Just to make sure… “A und O” is NOT used in the sense of “everything you need”. It’s “the most important thing”, “the ONE thing that really matters”, but it implies that there are other things that also have to be there, but that are NOT that important.
I agree, in English alpha and omega is usually used in a very emphatic way – the absolute beginning and end.