/ˈɡʁoːsə ˈtøːnə ˈʃpʊkn̩/ lit. ‘to spit big notes’
German idiom, colloquial. To brag about yourself.
Draft Not yet checked by a native German speaker.
How do people use Große Töne spucken
?
Colloquial and disapproving, used for loudmouths who promise more than they deliver, often in sport and politics: “Er spuckt große Töne.” It is often negated as praise: “statt große Töne zu spucken” (instead of mouthing off).
Also said grosse Töne spucken
Große Töne spucken
in real sentences
-
Mein Erfolgsrezept? Ich habe eine Sieben-Tage-Arbeitswoche und Mut zum Risiko. Ich ackere, wenn andere feiern, und handele, wenn andere große Töne spucken.
My recipe for success? I work seven days a week and I’m not afraid of risk. I graft while others party, and I act while others brag.
Tatoeba, sentence by Esperantostern, CC BY 2.0 FR
-
Unser Vorsitzender hat gestern mal wieder sehr große Töne gespuckt. Danach werden wir in drei Jahren die Nummer zwei überholen und dann auch die bisherige Nummer eins. Dann werden wir die Nummer eins im Weltmarkt sein! Wir hatten alle ein ungutes Gefühl dabei. Sollte man denn sowas vorher ankündigen? Was soll die Ankündigung denn bringen?
Yesterday our chairman was talking big again. According to him, in three years we’ll overtake number two and then the current number one too. Then we’ll be number one in the world market! We all had a bad feeling about it. Should you really announce something like that in advance? What is the announcement supposed to achieve?
Tatoeba, sentence by Hans07, CC BY 2.0 FR
Where does Große Töne spucken
come from?
German Wiktionary gives no origin. The picture seems to be someone spitting out big words, with “Töne” in the sense of sounds or talk, as in “große Töne reden”; that reading is a guess, and no dictionary dates the phrase.
Mistakes learners make with Große Töne spucken
Using “sprechen” or “machen”: the verb is always “spucken” (to spit), which is exactly what makes it sound so rude.
Other German idioms like Große Töne spucken
Spot a mistake in Große Töne spucken
?
Send a correction, or a sentence you’d actually say with it. Everything is read before anything on this page changes.