I have one colleague who, when asked "Willst Du xxx?", routinely answers "Du kannst es gerne machen". I do not understand this form, is he being sarcastic, or too formal, or what?
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6Obviously, we are missing most context and also the non-verbal communication here. That makes interpretting this hard. I'd be inclined to understand this as "Sure, OK." with an undertone of "I don't care, won't help and aren't really responsible." but I could be way of the mark. However, all of this is impacted by language issues as the question isn't really ideomatic and we teach our children that is polite to avoid "wollen".– user6495Commented Jul 23, 2021 at 11:49
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8It would help a lot to have a few good examples of "xxx".– RaketenolliCommented Jul 23, 2021 at 11:56
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3More context, please!– OlafantCommented Jul 24, 2021 at 4:13
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1Beside what is mentioned in the other comments, I am also confused by the question title. Is it really just the "gerne" that throws you off, or rather the (unexpected?) answer as a whole?– O. R. MapperCommented Jul 25, 2021 at 12:03
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1 Answer
Without context it is difficult to answer your question. It seems the only reasonable examples when "Willst Du xxx?" can be answered by "Du kannst es gerne machen" look like
Willst Du unsere Ergebnisse dem Chef vortragen?
Willst Du den Vortrag halten?
Willst Du den Programmcode fertig stellen?
In that case you ask who of you two persons shall do some job, or even offer it to your colleague if it is something positive, and he leaves it to you. This is neither sarcastic nor formal, but if he always answers that way, it could perhaps indicate that he is a bit unenthusiastic about his work.
answered Jul 26, 2021 at 9:33
