I am looking for the German equivalent of the phrase "make a difference", like in the sentence "In my job, I want to do something that really makes a difference".
Would "etwas zu bewegen" be a good choice?
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"etwas bewegen" can definitely be a suitable choice in many contexts, although it is slightly more specific than "to make a difference".– Victor MataréOct 30, 2019 at 18:14
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3 Answers
Another alternative could be:
etwas bewirken
As for example in:
Ein Bereich, in dem der EU-Haushalt etwas bewirken kann und sollte, ist ganz klar Forschung und Technologie.
An obvious area where the EU budget can, and should, make a difference is research and technology.
http://www.linguee.de/deutsch-englisch/search?source=auto&query=%22etwas+bewirken%22
Your proposal is indeed a good choice (»Ich will etwas bewegen«). Alternatively you could use:
Ich will die Welt [ein bisschen] besser machen / verbessern.
Another alternative translation would be
einen Wandel herbeiführen
if you want to stick with as much as possible German equivalent of the make a difference.
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I would say that "etwas bewirken" is closer to "to make a difference" than "einen Wandel herbeiführen". "To make a difference" means that you want to change something, even if it is not much; "Einen Wandel herbeiführen" to me means to bring about a major change.– RHaJul 1, 2017 at 8:23