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What does "von wegen" mean? | ||
Tags: Meaning of words | German | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Specific Languages |  | |
| j0nas Triglot Groupie Norway Joined 5542 days ago 46 posts - 70 votes  Speaks: Norwegian*, English, German | Message 1 of 18 20 October 2013 at 1:42pm | IP Logged | |||||
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Könnte jemand mir bitte den Ausdruck "Von wegen" erklären?
Wie in "Von wegen Deutschland oder Frankreich, das wichtigste ist ..." Edited by Fasulye on 29 November 2013 at 9:05pm 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| tommus Senior Member CanadaRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5866 days ago 979 posts - 1688 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Dutch, French, Esperanto, German, Spanish | Message 2 of 18 20 October 2013 at 2:34pm | IP Logged | |||||
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My German is not great, but I think, in this context, 'von wegen' means "because of".
1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Josquin Heptaglot Senior Member Germany Joined 4844 days ago 2266 posts - 3992 votes Speaks: German*, English, French, Latin, Italian, Russian, Swedish Studies: Japanese, Irish, Portuguese, Persian | Message 3 of 18 20 October 2013 at 4:14pm | IP Logged | |||||
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"Von wegen" is an idiom and means something like "You must be joking!" or "That's absolutely not the case".
It would be useful to know the rest of the sentence, but in this case I think it means something like: "The question is not Germany or France, but the important thing is..." Maybe not a very good translation, but I can't think of a better one. 7 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| Bao Diglot Senior Member Germany tinyurl.com/pe4kqe5 Joined 5766 days ago 2256 posts - 4046 votes Speaks: German*, English Studies: French, Spanish, Japanese, Mandarin | Message 4 of 18 20 October 2013 at 4:32pm | IP Logged | |||||
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"As if!"
"Germany or France? As if that played a role, the main question is ..." Edited by Bao on 21 October 2013 at 9:21pm 7 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| Micha Triglot Newbie Germany Joined 4365 days ago 26 posts - 33 votes Speaks: German*, English, DutchC1 Studies: Russian | Message 5 of 18 27 November 2013 at 8:10pm | IP Logged | |||||
Sort of funny to disagree with another native speaker, but in my opinion it means something else in this context. "Von wegen" can absolutely have that (oftentimes colloquial) meaning, but in this context I translate it to "regarding" or "speaking of". "Von wegen" can be used that way formally. "Von wegen der Wirtschaft, die zur Zeit leidet, meine Meinung (dazu) ist: ..." = Regarding the suffering economy at the moment,... = Speaking of the suffering economy at the moment,... edit: I completely missed Josquin´s reply, but he is on the right track. Edited by Micha on 27 November 2013 at 8:16pm 2 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| Doitsujin Diglot Senior Member Germany Joined 5320 days ago 1256 posts - 2363 votes Speaks: German*, English | Message 6 of 18 27 November 2013 at 8:31pm | IP Logged | |||||
I have to disagree with your assessment. In the context given by the OP: "Von wegen Deutschland oder Frankreich, das wichtigste ist ..." "von wegen" definitively means "You must be joking!" Your interpretation is theoretically possible, but since "von wegen" is not found in formal German (at least not in Germany) rather unlikely.
This sounds rather unidiomatic and clumsy and moreover "von wegen" instead of "wegen" is only used in colloquial German and only in some regions of Germany. Non-native speakers are therefore strongly advised to avoid this construction. 4 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| daegga Tetraglot Senior Member Austria lang-8.com/553301 Joined 4521 days ago 1076 posts - 1792 votes Speaks: German*, EnglishC2, Swedish, Norwegian Studies: Danish, French, Finnish, Icelandic | Message 7 of 18 27 November 2013 at 10:14pm | IP Logged | |||||
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Heinzelnisse.info ist ein tolles
Onlinewörterbuch für Deutsch-Norwegisch (ist wohl eher unter Norwegisch-Lernern bekannt). Die Chance ist groß, derartige häufig genutzte idiomatische Ausdrücke dort im Forum zu finden, das mit der Nachschlagefunktion des Wörterbuchs auch durchsucht wird. Zur Frage wird gefunden: "Von wegen!" entspricht in etwa "Langt ifra!" Den zitierten Satz kann man damit wohl nicht direkt übersetzen, aber sowas wie "Tyskland eller Frankrike? Langt ifra! Det viktigste er ..." sollte in etwa hinkommen. Edited by daegga on 27 November 2013 at 10:25pm 5 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| Bao Diglot Senior Member Germany tinyurl.com/pe4kqe5 Joined 5766 days ago 2256 posts - 4046 votes Speaks: German*, English Studies: French, Spanish, Japanese, Mandarin | Message 8 of 18 27 November 2013 at 10:15pm | IP Logged | |||||
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You a native speaker? =_=;; j/k
I just tried to provide a different wording in English for what Josquin had already explained, to make it easier for j0nas to remember the phrase. Incidentally, I do know the usage you are referring to, but I would never use it myself that way because I find it rather clumsy and ambiguous. But imagine it like this: Person A utters the OP's sentence with your interpretation: "Von wegen Deutschland oder Frankreich, das wichtigste ist ..." That sets the topic of the utterance as the juxtaposition between Germany and France in a very specific context which seems to be calling for a decision for one of those countries - for example where to build your next production plant. And our person A seems to be trying to make a point that will influence the opinion of the audience, so to influence the final decision. If I were in that kind of situation I would make sure to phrase my statement in a way that doesn't make it sound like I just thought of something new to add to the discussion which may or may not be relevant. I would probably say "was die Frage ... anbetrifft" or "um auf ... zurückzukommen, ein weiterer Aspekt ist sicherlich ..." Person B utters the sentence with Josquin's interpretation: "Von wegen Deutschland oder Frankreich, das wichtigste ist ..." In this case, the speaker is referring to a previously mentioned or well known rivalry between Germany and France - for exampe the question which country should have more influence in E.U. politics. And their usage of the phrase 'von wegen' indicates that said rivalry is unimportant, and they will make a point to prove why we should think of the situation at hand in different terms than those of 'either Germany or France'. Either scenario could happen, but I would think the second one much more likely, especially if the sentence is continued with doch: "Von wegen Deutschland oder Frankreich, das wichtigste ist doch ..." Edited by Bao on 27 November 2013 at 11:14pm 5 persons have voted this message useful |
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