6

For example:

I was like going to eat my tie, you know.
He was so happy, you see, about his new job and all (that).

How would the above look like in spoken Deutsch?

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  • 3
    Have a look at Modalpartikel. Nov 19, 2018 at 19:58
  • 3
    This list is a starting point; in conversation depending on region some further "words", like woll and ne, nich(t) wahr may be mixed in.
    – guidot
    Nov 19, 2018 at 22:28

2 Answers 2

12

One difference between English and German seems to be that German textbooks and grammarians ignore features of informal spoken language such as filler words and phrases.

Und ich so dann fress ich nen Besen weißte (was ich mein).

Er war so froh weißte wegen seiner neuen Arbeit und so.

Here, weißte is a contracted form of weißt du; (und) so is pretty close to like.

In the above example, I have used forms that are natural in informal spoken language, such as fress instead of fresse, nen for einen, mein for meine.

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  • 4
    In my experience (French, tiny bit of Spanish, some Japanese), textbooks everywhere often ignore informal language, often to the detriment of the learner. Its a shame.
    – mbrig
    Nov 19, 2018 at 22:00
  • 4
    Informal or not, I would have added considerably more punctuation in those example sentences. Nov 19, 2018 at 22:22
  • You know what I'm saying
    – Philipp
    Nov 20, 2018 at 2:56
  • These translations are correct. I have the feeling though, that these fillwords, especially like, are more common in english, especially in the US, than they are in german. Nov 23, 2018 at 8:17
1

I'd rather go with something like this:

  • Weißt du, ich war drauf und dran regelrecht meine Krawatte zu essen.
  • Ich hätte bald glatt meine Krawatte gefressen, glaubst du's?
  • Boah, ich hätte echt fast meine Krawatte runtergewürgt.
  • Er hat sich so gefreut, nicht wahr, wegen des neuen Jobs und so.
  • Er war natürlich ganz aus dem Häuschen mit seinem neuen Job und Allem.
  • Es ist so, er war halt sehr glücklich mit seiner neuen Arbeit usw..

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