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The words "durchfallen" ("to fail") and "der Durchfall" ("diarrhea") seem to have completely different meanings. Is it possible to use the former to mean "to have diarrhea" and the latter to mean "failure"? Do listeners associate between the words, e.g. giggle when you say "Ich bin durchgefallen."?

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Ich habe durchgefallen is not a correct sentence. You have to use sein with durchfallen: Ich bin durchgefallen (always means failing a class at school or "bei einer Prüfung durchfallen") – splattne♦ Jun 15 '11 at 10:51
@splattne: Thanks. I didn't think of "durchfallen" as a movement verb. – Tim N Jun 15 '11 at 10:57
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for me it's helpful to think that durchfallen inherits the auxiliary verb from the verb fallen. That way we can keep the rule that zu sein as an auxiliary verb only occurs with movement verbs and those verbs which expresses a Zustandsänderung. – Stovner Jun 15 '11 at 14:35
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what about the "durchfallquote"? - dependend on marks in a contest or on bacterias in different vegetables? – Gottfried Helms Oct 2 '12 at 23:24
Of course "durchfallen" can also take a literal meaning: "Die großen Steine bleiben im Sieb hängen, während die kleineren durchfallen." – celtschk Oct 4 '12 at 14:32

3 Answers

up vote 13 down vote accepted

Failure at school is "das Durchfallen". (e.g: Die Regierung will das Durchfallen in der ersten Klasse abschaffen.)

The phrase "Ich bin durchgefallen." does not connotate diarrhea.

There are many informal words for diarrhea anyway.

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+1 for "There are many informal words for diarrhea anyway." ha! – splattne♦ Jun 15 '11 at 10:25
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Yeah, there is not the slightest connotation, actually. Pretty interesting, as especially kids tend to find any possible connection between embarrassing words. – ladybug Jun 16 '11 at 9:08
up vote 6 down vote

I support thei's answer that "durchfallen" has no connotation with diarrhea and vice-versa. At the risk of sounding a bit disgusting here, the similarities are still there though.

With "durchfallen", you cannot keep up and fall through the cracks.

With "Durchfall", you're unable to control your feces, they just fall through.

So in my opinion, the description of falling through something is what actually links failing and diarrhea - they're using the same metaphor, stretching it a bit in different directions.

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up vote 0 down vote

I would say that "Durchfall" is a "durchfallen" (failure) of a particular sort. That is, failure to hold your -----. At least that's how I remember them.

So they're really not separate. One is a special case of the other, more general term.

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I think this should be a comment to the question - I fail to see that it answers the question. – Hendrik Vogt Jun 15 '11 at 17:17
@hendrik vogt: It does address the issue of "are they completely different?" My answer, "not entirely." But I take your point for next time. – Tom Au Jun 15 '11 at 17:24
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I noticed that it addresses this point, but in my opinion, the point you're making is only tangential to the question. Of course this is just my opinion! – Hendrik Vogt Jun 15 '11 at 17:28
@hendrik vogt: Fair enough. – Tom Au Jun 15 '11 at 17:43

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