Idioms in German with meaning stupidity, madness. Part 1

The dignity of a person never collects so many idioms, full of artistic images, as swearing. Opportunity to unburden himself, especially expressively stigmatizing the mental abilities of the opponent, is dear to everyone.

And native speakers of German have made a big contribution to this topic. During the collection of the material, I thought that I would drown under the number of expressions. Frequency is often difficult to determine. I didn’t take outdated ones. Found in texts and included in the popular lists are in bold.

Stupidity can be lack of intelligence, insanity, misunderstanding and error. Let’s start with the first and second, since the border between them is not very clear.

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Difference between beziehungsweise, respektive, entsprechend

synonyms

This topic is about words with meaning “respectively” and “accordingly” – difference between beziehungsweise, respektive, entsprechend.

It was difficult, to out how to translate “respectively” in a sentence like “you can get to Niesen und Stockhorn with a train – stations Mülenen and Erlenbach, respectively.” Dictionaries usually pay much attention the meaning of “accordingly, in accordance with something”

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Idioms in German with meaning talk too much, too little

We continue our German idioms list from field “talking”. This group with expression “talk too much or too little” is too big, therefore I made a separate post for them.

Idioms in German with meaning talk – Part 1
German synonyms. Difference between achten and beachten, aufpassen, Acht geben
Bilingual children
Conjunctions in sentences. Different word order
Basic German with tables. 3. Local prepositions
Others German idioms lists – see #idioms in german.

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German idioms about talking

Idioms are one of the most interesting and difficult parts of a foreign language. Some are briefly mentioned in textbooks but more often ignored as grammar and basic vocabulary are preferred.

I make German idioms lists with a specific meaning – in this post with meaning “taking”, that is expression ´associated with the communication process. One group of such expressions turned out to be too large. I moved it separately to the second part

German idioms with meaning talking too much or too little
German picture description phrases and sequence
German synonyms. Difference between verschieden, unterschiedlich, anders
Riddle in German. Do you know what it is …
Deutschtest für Zuwanderer b1 (DTZ). German writing examples
Others posts with German idioms lists – see #idioms in german

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German. False participles

geschlossene Tür – from schließen, so Gestiefelte Kater – from stiefeln and beanzugter Mann – from anzugen, really?

There is an original form of adjectives in German. They have a connection with nouns, but pretend that they are formed from verbs and have the form of participles. There are not many of these words, but they are among the very common ones.

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