Let’s have some fun with this weird German language!
In this series of posts, I’ll show you how to make your German speaking colleagues laugh with ONE simple sentence.
Ins Auge gehen
(Into the eye go)
Imagine that something goes into the eye (ins Auge gehen).
That’s really dangerous because it can seriously harm your eye (es kann ernsthaft dein Auge verletzen).
So we use this expression when we anticipate (wenn wir vorhersehen) or hypothesize that something can go wrong or something really dangerous can happen.
- Sein Plan ist gut, aber er könnte ins Auge gehen. (His plan is good but it may backfire.)
- Zum Glück hast du gebremst. Das hätte wirklich ins Auge gehen können. (Luckily you put on the brake. This could have been really dangerous.)
Got it?!
So here’s your action step:
Imagine your German-speaking colleague Karl-Ludwig is sitting at his desk with a huge pile of books and documents (mit einem riesigen Stapel Bücher und Dokumente).
He gets up, picks up all the books and documents at once (auf einmal).
You look at him and see how he’s approaching the stairs because he really intends to carry all this stuff downstairs by himself (er versucht wirklich all diese Sachen die Treppen alleine runter zu tragen).
Before he continues going down and something bad happens, stop him and warn him by saying (indem du ihm sagst):
- Vorsicht Karl-Ludwig, das kann ins Auge gehen! (Be careful Karl-Ludwig, this can be dangerous!)
And this is what it sounds like:
Then, tell me in the comments below how he reacted :-)