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I have the following sentence that I cannot decipher:

Der Angeber soll man nicht so auf die Pauke hauen!

I do understand each word but together it somehow doesn't make sense.

Angeber: Verräter oder Wichtigtuer (nach duden.de)

auf die Pauke hauen: 1. kräftig feiern 2. angeben; sich lautstark bemerkbar machen; seine Meinung lautstark kundtun; laut aufbegehren (nach redensarten-index.de)

Shouldn't it be dem Angeber or den Angebern or even als Angeber then the third meaning of the auf die Pauke hauen would fit? I don't get it why genitiv is used here.

(The sentence comes from the book: deutsch üben - Schwirige Wörter - the exercise was to fill in the AUF so the rest should be correct.)

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    Hello and welcome! Could you please check: is it really "man"? Or "mal"?
    – Stephie
    Feb 18, 2015 at 21:16
  • Oh man... I've been sitting on this sentence for the last 50 min and didn't see it should have been mal *verlegen*. With mal it's obvious ;-)
    – hash-tag
    Feb 18, 2015 at 21:19
  • Did you misread? The word man exists as a regional variant of mal in this sense.
    – Carsten S
    Feb 18, 2015 at 21:21
  • But the sentence works with both versions, see Carstens answer. I'd guess that it's a regional thing if you use "mal" (-> south) or "man" (-> north).
    – Stephie
    Feb 18, 2015 at 21:25
  • Ok, I didn't know the second meaning of man and honestly I didn't expect it would have another one. Now all catches in this sentence seem to be solved ;-)
    – hash-tag
    Feb 18, 2015 at 21:32

1 Answer 1

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Your problem seems to be with the word "man". It is just used for emphasis and has no particular meaning. Also, it is regional, I think. If you omit the word, the meaning will become clear.

Der Angeber soll nicht so auf die Pauke hauen!

"Angeber" is used in the second sense that the Duden lists. Indeed, I think that I have never encountered the word used in the first sense.

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  • You're right. Without man/mal the sentence is clear. I was so focussed on the Pauke und hauen (new in this exercise) that I didn't think of the rest of the sentence too much. Thank you.
    – hash-tag
    Feb 18, 2015 at 21:28

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