4 SCHIMPFEN IM BERUF Business Spotlight
What does it mean?
Before you can get better at “schimpfen”, we first need
to look at what it means. It’s one of those words that are
tricky to translate.
- The verb schimpfen is often
translated as swear or curse
in English, especially when
it refers to using words that
some people may find offen-
sive: Normalerweise hätte ich laut
geschimpft, aber mein Chef war
neben mir!
● (^) “Normally, I would have
sworn out loud, but my boss
was next to me!”
- When schimpfen refers to
saying you are not happy or
satisfied with something, we
translate it as complain o r,
when the complaining is done
in an annoying way, moan or
groan: Hör auf, über die engen
Fristen zu schimpfen!
● (^) “Stop moaning about the
tight deadlines!”
- When schimpfen is described
as ausgiebig, heftig or wütend,
we translate it as rant o r,
when the shouting gets really
loud, rant and rave or kick up
a fuss: Unser Chef hat heftig über
die Kunden geschimpft!● (^) “Our boss was ranting and
raving about the customers.”
- When mit jmdm. schimpfen is
used to mean “criticize some-
one angrily”, we say tell sb. off.
If the language used is strong,
we can also say tear sb. apart
or tear into sb.: Hast du gehört,
wie sie mit Julia geschimpft hat?
Unglaublich!
● (^) “Did you hear how she tore
into Julia? Unbelievable!”
- Finally, if you need to trans-
late wüst schimpfen, say use
foul/strong language: Es ist
unzumutbar, wie wüst er schimpft.
● (^) “It’s unacceptable the way he
uses foul language.”