The German language, like any other language, has a number of peculiar turns of phrase. When you stumble across an idiom or become aware of funny German expressions, you may be quite confused at first. A literal translation would not make any sense to you (even Germans may have a difficult time explaining what they actually mean). Let\u2019s delve into the exciting world of gross, disturbing, and funny German expressions by looking at four top examples.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Auf dem Zahnfleisch kriechen<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Translation:<\/strong> Crawling on one\u2019s gums Not sure where this expression hails from, but it conjures a quite stunning image: Someone is so exhausted that, in spite of having his face on the floor and his teeth already scuffed, he crawls on his bare gums. Ouch!<\/p>\n\n\n\n Jemandem etwas aus der Nase ziehen<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Translation:<\/strong> To pull something out of someone\u2019s nose This funny German expression does not sound quite appetizing. Linguistically, it is also found to be interesting because some sounds, nasal sounds, to be precise \u2014 truly do come out of the nose. Most sounds are formed orally by air flowing from the mouth. By contrast, when it comes to nasal sounds, the rear, soft part of the palate (the velum) lowers, so that the majority of the air flows out through the nose. Certain examples of nasal sounds are [m] and [n], and the nasal vowels in French. You can check this by holding your nose and trying to make these sounds repeatedly. That does not explain our weird saying, but at least you did not have to pull that information out of our noses.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Blut und Wasser schwitzen<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Literal Translation: <\/strong>to sweat blood and water This proverb hails from the Bible. As per the Gospel of Luke, Jesus sweated blood in the Garden of Gethsemane on the eve of his crucifixion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Hals- und Beinbruch!<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Translation:<\/strong> Break your neck and leg! Why do we wish bad things on someone when what we actually want to say is \u201cgood luck\u201d? One explanation is that we want to play a trick on fate by saying something we do not mean at all. It is also possible that the phrase is a malapropism of the Yiddish expression hatslokhe u brokhe, meaning \u201csuccess (luck) and blessings.\u201d It is linked to the similar English expression, \u201cBreak a leg!\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The German language, like any other language, has a number of peculiar turns of phrase. When you stumble across an idiom or become aware of funny German expressions, you may be quite confused at first. A literal translation would not make any sense to you (even Germans may have a difficult time explaining what they […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1019,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[81,39],"tags":[45,46,44,105,40,43,79],"class_list":["post-1018","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-best-german-iphone-app-hello-hello","category-learn-german-language-on-iphone","tag-best-german-language-android-app","tag-best-german-language-ipad-app","tag-best-german-language-iphone-app","tag-german-iphone-app-for-itunes","tag-learn-german-language-on-iphone","tag-learn-german-language-online","tag-learn-german-with-hello-hello-apps"],"yoast_head":"\n
Meaning:<\/strong> Being totally exhausted<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Meaning:<\/strong> To have to tediously extract every bit of information from someone<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Meaning: <\/strong>to be very afraid, or to work very hard<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Meaning:<\/strong> Good luck!<\/p>\n\n\n\n