Hello everyone,
and welcome to our German Word of the Day. This time we will look at the meaning of:
halt
Many of you may have heard this before in movies that involve Nazis. The Billy the super-spy of the allied forces is trying to infiltrate some Nazi army base to steal important documents. Disguised as a Nazi-General he walks through the camp, trying to not draw attention to himself. All goes well and he finally reaches the building and starts opening the door but then someone behind him suddenly yells „Halt!“. Slowly Billy turns around, trying to look German. Maybe he can talk his way out of that. Four German soldiers are pointing their guns at him. Within tens of milliseconds Billy ponders all his options and then the decision was made. Maybe it was audacious, maybe it was crazy, but that was just how Billy works best. But… let’s get back to halt.
halten – the verb
What the soldiers want Billy to do is to stop. Halt comes from the verb halten and halten is clearly related to both to hold or to halt but it also means to stop.
- Der Bus hält an der Ampel.
- The bus stops at the streetlight.
- Kannst du meine Tasche einen Moment halten.
- Can you hold my purse for a moment.
- Hold still!
- Halt still!
I don’t want to get too much into details on halten vs. to hold. The overlap is large but there are differences. Hold is used in a lot of expression in English and most of those do not translate with halten. Examples for such expression would be hold it down, hold dearly, hold up.
On the other hand the German halten has a meaning which is not to hold or to stop. This meaning is incredibly common though so we should mention them here. It basically expression your feelings or thoughts about something or someone.
- Ich halte den Plan für Schwachsinn.
- I think this plan is nonsense.
- Ich habe Maria für eine gute Klavierspielerin gehalten, aber jetzt weiß ich es besser.
- I thought Maria to be a good piano-player but now I know better.
So the whole construction is halten für, followed by what you think it is. A second way to use halten to express opinion is by giving a measure as to “how much” of something you “hold”. Yes, that does sounds really strange. The less you hold of something in German, the less you like it.
Ich halte viel von Thomas.
That can mean that you think he is a great worker, a great person, a great piano player… it expresses positive feeling but it is not really emotional.
Ich halte viel von meiner Freundin.
is not quite the same as
Ich mag meine Freundin.
although both may be translated as
I like my girlfriend.
Anyways… here is an example with a negative feeling.
- Ich halte wenig von Stefans Idee und ich halte gar nichts von Marias Idee.
- I don’t like Stefans idea very much and I think Marias idea totally blows.
So the structure for this is halten followed by a vague measure like viel, einiges, wenig, garnichts followed by von or davon. So… let’s move on to… What? You WANT an example with davon? Fine.
- “Was hältst du davon, wenn wir heute in die Oper gehen, Schatz?”
“Garnichts.” - “What do you think about going to the opera tonight, honey?”
“Nothing good.”
So… this is the verb halten. Sure there is more to say, but about halt, there is even morer… or is it mucher? I am confused… both feel right to me…. hmmm anyways… let’s talk about halt.
First, there is the noun der Halt. If you’ve ever been to Germany you might have heard it in public transportation:
- Nächster Halt : Alexanderplatz.
- Next stop : Alexanderplatz.
Now, we’ve learned that halten can mean either something like stop or something like hold, which by the way have a common core… something like “keep from moving”… anyways. Der Halt is as broad in meaning as the verb and can thus also mean things in the area of support.
- Der Kletterer hat sicheren Halt.
- The climber has a firm hold/grip.
- Die Beziehung gibt ihm Halt.
- The relationship gives him support/hold.
So this is der Halt with a capital h… and then there is this halt:
- “Wenn du nicht aufhörst Computer zu spielen, dann gehe ich.”
“Dann geh halt!” - “If you don’t stop playing computer I will leave.”
“Then go … stop… hold… WTF ????“
halt – a coloring particle
Yes. Halt is another one OF those wor… oh sorry… wrong emphasis… I meant of THOSE words…. those particles, ever so hard to translate. It is one of those words that are used to color and extend your sentences and sometimes also to buy time while the brain tries to get things organized.
This halt is quite common. It is maybe not as powerful as doch or eben I’d say it comes close and whatever it means… it has nothing to do with the halten :).
I think if you want to describe what halt does, or what color it adds in one word it would be give-in-afier, a compromise-afier, an acceptifier … halt kind of expresses “well, things are as they are and we can’t change it so we’ll accept it and live with it”
- “Mist, ich wollte heute zum Zahnarzt aber der war zu, … naja… dann gehe ich halt morgen.”
- “Damn, I wanted to go to the dentist today but it was closed… oh well… I’ll just go tomorrow then.
So… in this example I can’t go today and I am giving in to going the next day. Now, why have I made both, just and then, bold? Isn’t then the translation of the dann in the German sentence? Well yes and no… when I think of the “color” of halt in English, I usually think a then independently of whether the German sentence has a dann or not. In fact choosing the second best option, which halt often is used for, usually has a then-feel to it.
- “I would like to have a coffee, please.”
“We do not serve coffee here…”
“Well a tea (then).”
The then here is not so much about time… at least not exclusively about time. It also expresses the giving in, the accepting… at least I feel that way. And that is what halt does.
- “Ich hätte gerne einen Kaffee.”
“Bei uns gibt es keinen Kaffee…”
“Dann halt Tee…”
Dann and halt will often occur in combination. Dann alone is pretty neutral…. adding halt makes it clear that you go for an alternative… and depending on pronunciation it can sound anything from totally fine with it to annoyed. Now, could dann be left out in the example above? The answer is no, because dann is a full grown “time”-information. Dann can answer a question alone so it qualifies as a full part of a sentence… halt doesn’t. It is always kind of appendix to the verb. But that doesn’t mean that you will always have halt and dann together… they just go together very well because they kind of express the same idea. Here is an example without dann.
- “Schatz, ich lade unsere Mutter zum Abendessen ein.”
“Mach halt.“ - “Honey, I will invite my mom for diner.”
“Well… go ahead“
Mach halt is approving but also expressing that the person is NOT exactly the biggest fan of the idea. There is a bit of “If you have to.” in Mach halt but it can also be an I don’t care/ same to me.
This is also an example where the translation just, that most dictionaries propose totally fails. Sometimes just is a good translation for halt but not here.
Just would sound way to positive here in my opinion.
- “Just go ahead.”
It would take a clear indication of annoyance in the intonation to express the same quality of (dis)approval of inviting mom over for diner with the just-sentence. Halt already contains that little f that … “ugh… fine”.
Anyways… although nowhere near as encouraging as just, halt is not negative by default.
- “Mein Professor fand mein Referat voll Scheiße, das ist so ärgerlich.”
“Du musst dich halt nächstes mal besser vorbereiten.” - “My professor hated my presentation, that is so annoying.”
“Well, I guess you’ll just have to be better prepared next time.
So here halt is not negative and just is an adequate translation.
Bottom line… halt always expresses that a less than perfect reality has to be accepted… be it because it can’t be changed or because a conflict can be settled. And, backed by intonation, it can convey how the speaker feels about that reality ranging from total indifference to annoyed approval for the sake of compromise.
Halt does also sound very casual and makes thing sound easy… in that regard it is very similar to just, although just is stronger.
- “Was soll ich machen wenn ich enen Grizzly treffe?”
“Dann musst du ihn halt besiegen.” - “What am I supposed to do, if I meet a grizzly?”
“Well, then you’ll just have to defeat it.”
Saying halt here has the same ironic downplaying effect as just… it is really not taking the situation and worries seriously. Oh and how does that fit in with the definition of halt as an give-in-afier? I mean what’s the alternative here in the grizzly example? Well, of course the first choice would be NOT meeting the bear at all :).
Alright… we’re almost done, but what about a sentence like this one.
- “Wie war deine Klausur?”
“Hmm keine Ahnung… war halt irgendwie komisch. Eigentlich nicht schwer aber ich habe kein gutes Gefühl.” - “How was your exam?”
“Hmm I don’t know… it was just like weird. It wasn’t really difficult but I have a bad feeling about it.”
This halt is little more than a filler. And it is a description of a thing so it is kind of hard to see the alternative here, halt approves of. The way I see it, this halt expresses that you lack better words. You know what you’re saying or how you’re saying it is not quite capturing your feelings but for a lack of a better wording you say what you say and halt kind of expresses that this is not the most precise information ever. You lack a better way to express yourself so you halt opt for the not so perfect alternative. This really is purely based on feeling and other Germans may heavily disagree with me. What’s certain though is that the halt of the last example doesn’t mean much at all so if my explanation makes sense to you, fine if not, dann halt not ;). And here a final example… family in a car. Mom is in the drivers seat, dad is in a hurry, kid is in despair because he needs to pee.
- Kid: “Mama, ich muss mal.”
Mom: “Ich weiß, wir sind gleich da.”
Kid:”Aber ich muss voll doll, wirklich.”
Dad: “Jetzt reiß dich zusammen, ich muss pünktlich zum Termin kommen und wir sind schon jetzt fast zu spät.”
Kid:”Ich mach mir gleich in die Hose…”
Dad: “Mach halt!”
Mom:”Oh Schatz, nur, dass du es weißt… wenn er sich wirklich in die Hose macht, dann bist du der, der die dann wäscht.”
Dad:”OK OK, dann halt halt an!” - Kid:”Ma’, I need to pee.”
Mom:”We’re almost there.”
Kid:”But I have to pee REALLY bad, I swear.”
Dad:”Now pull yourself together, will you! I have to be on time for my appointment and we’re late already.”
Kid:”I think I’ll pee my pants.”
Dad:”Well go ahead.
Mom:”Oh honey, FYI.. if he REALLY pees his pants, you’re the one to wash ’em.”
Dad:”OK OK fine… then stop.”
Alright, I think we’re done here for today. There are numerous words with halt in them… haltlos, erhalten, Haltung just to name some. A really long word with halt in it is das Mindesthaltbarkeitsdatum. It is part of the daily life and if you do your annually fridge purge you will look for specifically this word on … say… the yogurt. Why? Because it is the expiration date. Mindesthaltbarkeitsdatum translated literally would be least-tenability/ “holdability”-date. It is the date to which you can keep your food without having it suffer any decay in quality. It’ll be still edible after that… sometimes for a week or longer, just the company that produced it won’t guarantee that there is no … chunks in the milk. The abbreviation of Mindesthaltbarkeitsdatum is MHD and there has been a debate this summer, whether it should be removed from the package because it makes people throw away food that is still completely fine. An alternative, that you find on ground beef for instance is the Verbrauchsdatum which indicates by which date the stuff had better be used. The Verbrauchsdatum is to be taken seriously. Stuff really starts to become dangerous when this is exceeded. So the MHD is just a guarantee of quality, the VD is an information about when you shouldn’t eat something anymore.
Wow… I did get carried away a little here. SO folks… this was our word of the day halt, which as a coloring word is a give-in-afier, a verbal shrug. If you have questions or suggestions, please leave me a comment.
I hope you liked it and see you next time.
Wow, it’s really a tough particle :)
I didn’t know that halt could be a particle, but now I will try to do my best to fully understand it.
Good job!
You really killed me with this one: “Then go … stop… hold… WTF ????“
The use of this word reminds me of Twain’s funny remarks about Schlag and Zug on his infamous essay about the german language.
I’m guessing you’ve read it. One of the funniest things written about this crazy twisted language.
Ohhh yeah, I know this essay… I have read it in English and in German and I have to say that I found it a million times funnier in German… the person who translated it just uses a really great way to express things… just a little with soooo much subtle irony in there. The English one is good, too but for me it lacked the little tiny moments where oyu think like “Oh he used THIS verb, now that is just great” or “oh this is a rare phrasing and it seems out of place here but then again it is not”… maybe that is because I am not a native English speaker and I miss out on the tone but anyway… I strongly recommend reading it in German also :)
http://www.alvit.de/vf/de/mark-twain-die-schreckliche-deutsche-sprache.php
Even the title… “schrecklich”..not the default translation of awful. While not rare it sounds just a bit dated and aristocratic if used as an adjective…w e mostly use it as an adverb nowadays… so already the title sets the tone
This is so helpful!!
Does “Mach halt” also translate to “might as well”
as in:
Person 1: Should we take the bus or just walk to the restaurant?
Person 2: Let’s walk, it’s nice outside
Person 1: (Sure,) might as well.
Person 1: Wollen wir ins Restaurant mit dem Bus fahren oder zu Fuß gehen?
Person 2: Lass uns zu Fuß gehen, es ist schön draußen.
Person 1: (Klar,) mach halt.
Nah… that doesn’t work because “Mach halt.” is imperative for “you”… like “you do it!”. In your examples it is a statement and it is an the “we”-form, at least implicitly.
I’d probably say
– Warum nicht.
or
– Auch gut.
or
– ok, von mir aus.
or
– Können wir auch machen.
“Halt” has really confused me for a long while, so thanks a million for this post.
I feel like I hear the “little more than filler” version most often. I actually wondered if the best comparison was to the way “like” gets used by some of us ’90s-raised Americans – I guess that’s not far off.
“Just go ahead” definitely sounds annoyed even in writing, though. You would actually need to tone it down/add words in speech to keep it from sounding that way: “Just go ahead whenever you’re ready” (even that could come across kind of impatient).
Argh… this halt-post is one I really am not so satisfied with. Particularly the technical sounding definition I gave simply doesn’t fit well enough. I mean.. it does fit, but not always. I’ve wanted to overhaul this forever but … editing old stuff is not exactly fun, and the older the less so :). Someone, referring to this post on Reddit, recently described “halt” as a “verbal shrug”… that’s a pretty great way to put it or at least capture the vibe.
Übrigens… vielen lieben Dank für die Spende. Ich hab’ mich wirklich sehr gefreut!!!
Total gerne! Das Blog ist wirklich eine ganz tolle Ressource. Meine Frau hat es vor etwa einer Woche entdeckt und seitdem lese ich täglich mindestens einen Artikel davon. Es macht Spaß und hat schon m.M.n. mein Deutsch verbessert. Das ist bestimmt so eine kleine Spende wert. Ich werde es auch weiterempfehlen. Vielen Dank für deine Arbeit darauf!
Thank U for sharing, this is so awesome. Ten times better than any German teaching I ever had…
I still have a question with your explanation, what does “afier” in “give-in-afier” mean? Sorry I’m not a native English speaker, and I couldn’t find “afier” in any online dictionarya
Hey, thanks for the great feedback :)
“afier” means nothing. I made up the word “Give-in-afier” because I didn’t know how else to express myself. It’s modeled after words like “quantifier” or “amplifier” and so on… the “fier” ending expresses that the object “does” the verb it is based on. An amplifier amplifies, a modifier modifies and so on. The “a” is just there for the flow and the extra syllable. I guess I should have made it “give-in-ifier”.
Hope that helps
I forgot to mention the main thing…
A “give-in-ifier” is a thing that “gives in” :)
Just found your site today. I love it! I can’t wait for my son to take a nap so I can explore what you have available. Kudos.sh
Cool, thanks for that nice feedback and I hope your son gives you lots of study time :)
Wow i didn’t know it has all these details!! thanks!!
Hi Emmanuel! Just thought you might enjoy a little bit of insight into halt’s English cousin, “hold”.
First of all, I’m sure you know that English does indeed have the idea of holding an opinion (as in “Ich halte den Plan…”). But perhaps you have not yet encountered another phrasing: “I don’t hold with (that idea, that point of view, etc)”. This one is somewhat associated with older people– in my mind they’re from New England.
And the filler “halt”… Is it not really the same thing as sprinkling your speech with “uh….hold on” ?
Some readers are compaing it to “like”, but I would imagine “Hold on…” to be the better translation. It’s the same word, and is 100% literally a way of buying time while speaking.
While “hold on” is certainly not as common as “like”, “Like” actually serves a very specific function. Despite the “valley girl” stereotype it is usually NOT mere filler, but rather shorthand for “alert! I’m only paraphrasing here, but…” . (“He was like…(sentence) and then I’m like (facial expression)…and they were all like (response)”. Hold on has no such function. It’s just a stopgap.
Uh… nope! Thinking of the filler as “hold on” is NOT a good idea. The point of “halt” is not really buying time but more of a verbal shrug. Like… “I don’t know”. And I recently noticed that it becomes more and more a vehicle to “hedge your statement”. A little apologetic something that helps people NOT taking a stance.
– Ich will halt nicht so lange arbeiten.
You’re saying that you don’t want to work that long but you don’t have the balls to just say it. Instead you throw this whiny, apologetic particle in there. I’m planning to rework this article but yeah… “halt” doesn’t feel like “hold on” at all. Sorry smash you down like that :)
Disclaimer: I might actually have said in the article that “halt” is used to buy time. It’s been a WHILE since I’ve written it. If I did say that, then that’s accurate, but it’s only part of what it does.
And even then, “hold on” just doesn’t feel the same… you just have to take my word for that :)
Oh, and I thought of another thing regarding “like” …but I don’t know how to edit comments so this will be a new one, sorry…
The filler-sounding particle “like” which is used between words, especially by teenagers, also does in fact serve a function even if they themselves don’t realize it ;-) . It’s a mini version of the “I’m paraphrasing” like, and the hidden meaning is “I am actually insecure about whether I really mean to use the word I am about to use. So I’ll throw in a LIKE just in case I want to say I didn’t mean exactly that, OK? God forbid I actually take a stance on an actual word choice.”
The result is speech such as: “I gave him a, like, a flirty look..but not TOO flirty…just, like, a glance. And then he took his, like, notebook or whatever and put it like touching mine so I think he kind of like likes me, ya know?”
Then combine this with the “paraphrase” like: “Oh my gawd. So then was he all like ‘want to hang out?'”
“Nahhh…I never found out, ’cause the teacher was like “Time for the test!” and then he never got to, like, elaborate.”
“oooooh big word, elaborate. Was that on the test?”
“Are you, like, making fun of me?”
And so forth. Congrats, you now speak teen.
“I am actually insecure about whether I really mean to use the word I am about to use. So I’ll throw in a LIKE just in case I want to say I didn’t mean exactly that, OK? God forbid I actually take a stance on an actual word choice.”…
That is EXACTLY what “halt” is used for as well. You’re hedging your statement by marking that it’s not REALLY what you think but just kind of. So you can always be like “that’s not really what I meant”. It’s a subconscious thing, I believe, but many people don’t like making plain statements. Because then you can “see” their position and challenge it. If you’re hedging all the time, you’re not as exposed. No idea if that makes sense.
If you compare the “like” and “halt”, “halt” sounds more apologetic while “like” is a bit more like you’re genuinely struggling to express yourself. They don’t really have the same vibe. I’ve come to really hate “halt” in recent years. Gets on my nerves so bad. Just speak your freaking mind, people :)