Let’s have some fun with this weird German language!
In this series of posts, I’ll show you how to make your German-speaking colleagues laugh, with ONE simple sentence.
Gang und gäbe sein
(to be common practice)
Imagine you come for the first time (zum ersten Mal) to your office.
You step into the office, you say hello to your colleagues (deinen Kollegen).
And suddenly (Und plötzlich), you see how all your colleagues come together to congratulate each other (um sich zu gratulieren).
So you ask one of your colleagues (Also fragts du einen deiner Kollegen) if something special has happened.
And he goes:
“No, we do this every morning (jeden Morgen).”
“It’s common practice. It’s normal.”
Or in German he would just say:
“Nein, wir machen das jeden Morgen.”
“Das ist gang und gäbe hier.”
So when we say in German:
- Das ist gang und gäbe.
We mean:
- It’s common practice
- It’s the custom
- It’s normal
Got it?!
So here’s your action step:
Imagine your boss invites you and some other colleagues to a coffee after work (nach der Arbeit).
Once it’s time to pay the bill, your boss asks each one of you (fragt der Chef jeden) to pay for your own coffee.
Your new German-speaking colleague Ana is totally surprised (ist total überrascht) that your boss expects all of you to pay for your own coffee (für euren eigenen Kaffee).
Actually (Eigentlich), he was the one who invited you.
Help Ana out and tell her (und sag ihr) that this is common practice with this boss:
- Mach dir keinen Stress! Das ist gang und gäbe mit diesem Chef. (It’s normal with this boss.)
And this is what it sounds like:
Then, tell me in the comments below how she reacted :-)