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Blackout? 'Electrifying' German idioms

Dagmar Breitenbach
January 19, 2022

Fuse blown, or running on empty? Forget the electrician. There are a number of colloquial German expressions drawing metaphors about power and electricity.

https://p.dw.com/p/41jSL
Man in orange climbing around power lines.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/U. Anspach

German idioms adopt expressions from a wide variety of fields, and these include electricity and power as metaphors.

Everyone knows what it is like to have a (mental) blackout. How much better, then, to be on the same wavelength and feel connected to someone. Check out the above picture gallery for how Germans use terms related to electricity in everyday colloquial idioms.

You'll find more from Meet the Germans on  dw.com/MeettheGermans, YouTube and  Instagram. 

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