Hallo zusammen 🙂
It’s time for another blog entry. As German is my mother tongue and Fips has been the only person commenting on here (thank you :-)), I decided to post a second part of “Funny idioms – German”. Here we go.

1. etwas in den Sand setzen
„to put sth in the sand“ -> to muck/mess something up
Example 1: „Jim has put the Math test in the sand.“
(Jim hat die Matheprüfung in den Sand gesetzt.)
Example 2: “The company has put €10,000 in the sand.”
(Die Firma hat 10.000 € in den Sand gesetzt.)

2. auf dem Schlauch stehen
„to be standing on the hose“ -> to not get it/to be stuck/to get one’s wires crossed
I think it’s not a synonym to “only understand station”, because this “hose idiom” is used when something is really obvious/clear as daylight and everyone else has understood it.
Example: “Number ‘3’ is the correct answer?! … Oh gosh, of course!! I was completely standing on the hose!”
(Nummer 3 ist die richtige Antwort?! … Oh mann, natürlich!! Ich stand total auf dem Schlauch!“)

3. sich etwas abschminken
„to take sth off“ („to remove one’s makeup“) -> synonym to “have cut oneself” -> to have to go without sth.
Example: “If you don’t study now, you can take off the party tonight!”
(Wenn du jetzt nicht lernst, kannst du dir die Party heute Abend abschminken!)

4. noch in Abrahams Wurstkessel sein
„to be still in Abraham’s sausage pot” -> to be not yet born
Example: “When the war was taking place, you were still in Abraham’s sausage pot.”
(Als der Krieg war, warst du noch in Abrahams Wurstkessel.)

5. in den sauren Apfel beißen
„to bite into the sour apple“ -> to swallow the bitter pill/to bite the bullet
Example: “I don’t want to spend the whole weekend working but I guess I’ll just have to bite into the sour apple.”
(Ich will nicht das ganze Wochenende mit arbeiten verbringen, aber ich denke da werde ich wohl in den sauren Apfel beißen müssen.)

6. aus einer Mücke einen Elefanten machen
„to make an elephant out of a gnat” -> to make a mountain out of a molehill
Example: “The two friends argue a lot, mostly they make an elephant out of a gnat.”
(Die zwei Freunde streiten sich oft, meistens machen sie aus einer Mücke einen Elefanten.)

7. auf Wolke Sieben schweben/sein
I know, Valentine’s Day is already over, but here the correspondent idiom!
“to float/be on cloud seven” -> to be on cloud nine
So as you see, Germans are 2 clouds below 😉 Is anyone on cloud eight? Hahaha!
Example: “She has a boyfriend now and she’s floating on cloud seven.”
(Sie hat jetzt einen Freund und schwebt auf Wolke sieben.)
Do you use the English version only for love or for happiness in general?

8. zum Mäusemelken sein
„to be for mouse-milking“ -> “to be enough to make you crazy”
Example: “The computer program is hanging all the time – it’s for mouse-milking!”
(Das Computerprogramm hängt andauernd – es ist zum Mäusemelken!)

9. auf der Matte stehen
„to stand on the mat“ -> to be on the spot and ready for action
Example: “For this job you have to stand on the mat at 4 am”.
(Für diesen Job musst du um 4 Uhr früh auf der Matte stehen.)

10. nicht auf den Mund gefallen sein
„someone didn’t fall on his/her mouth“ -> to have a quick tongue/to have the gift of the gab
Example: “Sarah told them right away what things could be changed about the event. She really didn’t fall on her mouth.”
(Sarah hat ihnen gleich gesagt, was sie am Event ändern könnten. Sie ist wirklich nicht auf den Mund gefallen.)

11. Bleib/Geh hin, wo der Pfeffer wächst!
„stay/go where the pepper grows“ -> go jump in the lake
Example: „It‘s really getting too colorful to me now. Do what you want and go where the pepper grows!”
(Das wird mir jetzt echt zu bunt. Mach was du willst und geh hin, wo der Pfeffer wächst!)

12. die Sau rauslassen
„to let the sow out” -> to paint the town red
Example: “Our final exams are finally over. Let’s paint the town red tonight!”
(Unsere Abschlussprüfungen sind endlich vorbei. Lasst uns heute Abend die Sau rauslassen!)

13. Das kommt nicht in die Tüte!
„This doesn’t come into the bag!” -> “This is out of the question!”; synonym to no. 3 “to take sth off”
Example: “You want to go to a party tonight?! After you put your Math test in the sand?! This doesn’t come into the bag!”
(Du willst heute Abend auf eine Party! Nachdem du deine Matheprüfung in den Sand gesetzt hast?! Das kommt nicht in die Tüte!)

14. die Nase voll (von etwas) haben
„to have one’s nose full of sth” -> to be fed up with sth
Example: “I have my nose full of rising electricity prices!”
(Ich hab die Nase voll von steigenden Stromkosten!)
Instead of „nose“, you can also say „snout“, but this sounds way ruder.
That’s the end of this blog entry, I hope you liked it, please leave a comment (everyone :P).
Have a nice weekend!
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1. März 2013 um 22:59
Very nice! A few new ones for me there. Number 4 sounds to me like it could be a particularly Bavarian expression, is that right?
Being on cloud nine is being happy, whatever the reason, but I once looked it up (it came up in an English class) and apparently the number has changed, and might do again. Probably the original influence was the phrase „to be in seventh heaven“, which means basically the same, but has an obvious religious origin.
Some of my favourite phrases are those where the same idea is expressed with different subjects, like the Elefant/Mücke vs. mountain/molehill expressions, or Fliegen/Klappe birds/stone. Quite how you’d want to hit two birds with one stone always surprises me!
And a question for you: is there a German phrase like our „to not know someone from Adam“, meaning to barely know someone, if at all?