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up vote 6 down vote favorite

I'm after a (hopefully idiomatic) translation of:

"I just wanted to run this (thing) by you."

The typical context is that you think of something which you want somebody else's opinion on, or reaction to, and would like to politely but informally ask if they have the time to listen.

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I'm not quite sure about the connotation of the English sentence. If this is about "get a second opinion", I'd translate it with eine Meinung einholen. Or: "Ich würde gerne dazu gerne noch eine zweite Meinung hören". Another alternative: Ich wollte mal hören/wissen, was du davon hältst(or dazu denkst). – Em1 Oct 2 '12 at 8:58
If the connotation is more about getting approval, permission, etc., the latter one from my previous comment is also fine. You could also say something along: "Ich wollte das von dir absegnen lassen." – Em1 Oct 2 '12 at 9:04
4  
@Em1 why don´t you supply all this as an answer? – TheBlastOne Oct 2 '12 at 10:26
@Em1 While your suggestion has the correct meaning, it doesn't seem to me to catch the subtlety of the English phrase. Perhaps there is no good substitute for the construction ".. run ... by ..". – Glen Wheeler Oct 5 '12 at 10:44
@GlenWheeler I don't know for sure. To run by seems to me being quite idiomatic and we don't have any similar idiom in German. However, user unknown is closest to the literal meaning, though his suggestion isn't that idiomatic in German. According to OALD to run sth by/past so is quite formal. I think, in order to find a German formal phrase close to the idiom, I think of einen Prozess durchlaufen while the person on who we're running by is an elementary part in our chain. That leads me again to "absegnen lassen". – Em1 Oct 5 '12 at 12:30
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2 Answers

up vote 7 down vote

Informal:

Ich wollte mal hören, was du dazu denkst.

Formal:

Ich wollte mal hören was Sie dazu denken.

I think this is the closest translation of the phrase. This says ~ "I want to hear what you think" which has the same effect as "I want to run this by you".

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3  
Ich wollte mal hören was Du dazu denkst. Or the formal version: Ich wollte mal hören was Sie dazu denken. – Michael Oct 2 '12 at 19:47
Didn't think about posting the formal version :P. Thanks Michael. – Brett Holt Oct 2 '12 at 21:12
And btw., the word mal is optional. – Michael Oct 2 '12 at 21:20
up vote 2 down vote

Ich kenne die englische Phrase nicht. Wenn ich es richtig verstanden habe, dann kommt wohl das deutsche:

Ich möchte es mit dir zusammen durchgehen.

dem ganzen nahe. Wobei der gemütliche Deutsche geht, nicht rennt. :)

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