German idioms: What people mean when they make nails with heads, or shout about showing you where the hammer hangs. Don't expect a visit to their workshop!
Image: picture-alliance/imageBROKER/S. Hutfilz
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7 German idioms involving tools
Idioms and phrases using tools are common in Germany. Here's why it's good to have an axe at home, but watch out when someone wants to show you "where the hammer hangs."
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/B. Pedersen
Nägel mit Köpfen machen
Literally, Germans are "making nails with heads" — which means do a proper job and follow through with something you've started, and dot your i's and cross your t's. The idiom goes back to a time when nails were made by hand. Nails lacking a formed head were naturally inferior, so making a nail with a head is a sign of professionalism.
Image: picture-alliance/imageBROKER/S. Hutfilz
Nagel auf den Kopf treffen
This phrase works in both English and German: Hit the nail on the head, as in, get something right. In the past, circular bull's-eye targets would have had been fastened by a nail smack in the middle. Whoever hit the nail, was right on!
Image: picture-alliance/imageBROKER/S. Härtel
Die Axt im Haus erspart den Zimmermann
"The ax at home oft saves the carpenter" — verbatim, the saying goes back to the 1804 play "William Tell" by German playwright Friedrich Schiller. Do it yourself: A person who is independent and skilled won't have to depend on others for help, or pay a carpenter!
Image: picture-alliance/Godong/C. Leblanc
Zeigen, wo der Hammer hängt
If a German says "I'll show you where the hammer hangs," they aren't planning on showing you how neatly they organize their workshop tools. The colloquial term that can be a veiled threat means, "I'll show you what's what."
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/B. Pedersen
In die Zange nehmen
A blacksmith would use tongs to get a good grip on red hot iron. The imagery is clear: To "take someone into your tongs/pliers" means to put on pressure, to grill someone. One look at the above scorpion and it's clear, you don't want this predatory arachnid with its tong-like appendages to get ahold of you!
Image: picture-alliance/blickwinkel/fotototo
An den Nagel hängen
More nail-related imagery: Give up something you have done for a long time, and you are "hanging it on the nail." Perhaps quite literally when you quit work and hang up your work clothes for the last time. Or you hit the casinos, win at roulette and leave the place as a millionaire, ready to "hang your job on the nail."
Image: picture-alliance/dpa
Nicht mit der Kneifzange anfassen
Back to tongs and pliers, the phrase "wouldn't touch it with tongs" signifies deep-seated rejection, even revulsion for something you want no part of or someone you'd rather not deal with — not even remotely. In English, you "wouldn't touch it with a ten-foot pole."
Image: picture-alliance/imageBROKER/D. v. Mallinckrodt
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"That is the hammer!"
If you hear a German say "Das ist der Hammer!" they're talking about something that's brilliant or absolutely dreadful, expressing their amazement or frustration about something that's completely unusual, unexpected — perhaps reflecting the way the tool could just change everything with a single strike.
There is a great variety of everyday German idioms and phrases that use colorful images, from arms and legs to hats and sleeves, donkeys and monkeys, cherries, peas and potatoes — as well as terms from the world of tools and workshops, often dating back hundreds of years.
In English, people may have an ax to grind — the German phrase with the same meaning uses entirely different imagery: Germans would more commonly have a chicken to pluck ("Hühnchen zu rupfen"). Other phrases are readily recognizable in both languages, as both German and English-language speakers can have a screw loose!
Click through the gallery above to learn more German expressions involving tools.
