/aʊ̯s ˈaɪ̯nɐ ˈmʏkə ˈaɪ̯nən eleˈfantn̩ ˈmaxn̩/ lit. ‘make an elephant out of a mosquito’
German idiom, everyday. To treat a small problem as if it were a big one.
Draft Not yet checked by a native German speaker.
How do people use Aus einer Mücke einen Elefanten machen
?
Everyday German, fine in conversation and in a newspaper column. The verb goes second, so the mosquito and elephant end up in the middle: “du machst aus einer Mücke einen Elefanten”. To tell someone off, switch to “keinen”: “mach aus einer Mücke keinen Elefanten!” And “aus jeder Mücke” (out of every mosquito) is for a person who does it all the time.
Also said aus jeder Mücke einen Elefanten machen
Aus einer Mücke einen Elefanten machen
in real sentences
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Du machst aus einer Mücke einen Elefanten.
You make a mountain out of a molehill.
Tatoeba, sentence by thomasvw, translation by Nylez, CC BY 2.0 FR
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Mach aus einer Mücke keinen Elefanten.
Don’t make a mountain out of a molehill.
Tatoeba, sentence by PaulP, translation by U2FS, CC BY 2.0 FR
Where does Aus einer Mücke einen Elefanten machen
come from?
The elephant and the insect go back to a Latin proverb, “elephantem ex musca facere” (make an elephant out of a fly), which Erasmus recorded in his Adagia in the 16th century, according to Wikipedia’s article on the English idiom. Many European languages kept that picture: Dutch, Danish, Russian, Italian. German swapped the fly for a mosquito. German Wiktionary quotes it in Joseph Victor von Scheffel’s novel Ekkehard (1855) and in Karl May, and cites the Redensarten-Index.
Mistakes learners make with Aus einer Mücke einen Elefanten machen
Getting the cases wrong. It’s “aus einer Mücke” (dative, after “aus”) and “einen Elefanten” (accusative, with the -en ending). “Aus eine Mücke ein Elefant” is a common learner slip.
Other German idioms like Aus einer Mücke einen Elefanten machen
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