People meet and fall head over heels in love: Germans might say, "es hat gefunkt" (there was an electrical spark). That spark might also refer to sudden understanding.

If you want to interrupt an electrical circuit, you pull the plug, or in German: "Stecker ziehen." In a figurative sense, people pull the plug in situations that need to be ended, be it a failing business or an unhappy relationship.

The German idiom "unter Strom stehen" literally means, to be live, to be electrified. The expression is used to express that a person is tense, hyped up, charged and running on adrenaline.

"Sicherung durchgebrannt" — fuse blown? It could be that the power grid is overloaded. Colloquially, however, it means someone loses their temper and gets very angry.

The German term "Saft abdrehen" (turn off the juice) literally means cutting off the power. In English, too, juice is slang for electricity. The German idiom can also mean to shut someone or something down, to put an end to a situation. The above photo shows the darkened Paris Eifel Tower on March 27, 2021 for Earth Hour, when people around the world turn off power for an hour.

When a German complains "meine Batterien sind leer" (my batteries are empty), that person isn't necessarily referring to an electrical gadget that has stopped working at all, but is more likely to mean an exhausted mental or physical state — running on empty.

Literally, the German idiom "auf Draht sein" means to be on wire. Germans use it colloquially to refer to someone who is alert and perceptive, really on their toes. The term comes from the era of transmitting electrical signals over wires. On the other hand, if you have "guten Draht" (a good wire) to someone, you simply have good relations.

Static electricity can actually make hair stand on end, like in the above 2001 photo of former German Chancellor Angela Merkel in a car rental ad. But if something shocking or very frightening happens, Germans might also say, "mir stehen die Haare zu Berge" (my hair stands on a mountain).