Ever had one of those deep debates with a colleague…
…that goes on for minutes — over something completely unimportant?
Dark blue or navy blue?
This slide font or that one?
Peter or Patrick?
In German, there’s a perfect way to say:
It makes no difference whatsoever.
Jacke wie Hose sein (Literally: To be Jacket like trousers)
A Jacket is something different than trousers or pants.
They have a different shape and a different function (und eine andere Verwendung).
But if we look more closely, we’ll find that they are often made from the same material as wool (aus dem selben Material wie Wolle).
And that’s what this expression is all about.
When something seems different but it’s actually the same or doesn’t make any difference, we say in German:
- Das ist doch Jacke wie Hose! (That’s six of one and half a dozen of another.)
- Es ist mir Jacke wie Hose! (I don’t give a hoot one way or the other.)
Got it?!
So here’s your action step:
Imagine your German-speaking colleague Karl-Peters tells you about this lucky lottery winner he saw on the news (in den Nachrichten).
Then he asks:
“Do you know him? What was his name, again, Peter or Tom? (Wie war nochmal sein Name?)”
Now tell him exactly how important that detail is to you:
- Das ist mir Jacke wie Hose! Ich habe jedenfalls nicht im Lotto gewonnen! (I don’t give a hoot one way or the other. I, for one, didn’t win the lottery.)
And this is what it sounds like:
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