/ɪm ˈziːptn̩ ˈhɪml̩ zaɪ̯n/ lit. ‘be in seventh heaven’
German idiom, colloquial. To be extremely happy and delighted.
Draft Not yet checked by a native German speaker.
How do people use Im siebten Himmel sein
?
Colloquial and warm, used for big joy: a passed exam, a first date that went well, a long-awaited trip. German Wiktionary gives it two senses, plain happiness and being in love, and the romantic one is never far away. You’ll often hear “schweben” (float) in place of “sein”, as in “ich schwebe im siebten Himmel”.
Also said im siebenten Himmel sein, im siebten Himmel schweben
Im siebten Himmel sein
in real sentences
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Tom war im siebten Himmel.
Tom was in seventh heaven.
Tatoeba, sentence by mramosch, translation by CK, CC BY 2.0 FR
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Der kleine Junge schwebte im siebten Himmel.
The little boy was over the moon.
Tatoeba, sentence by Sudajaengi, translation by menaud, CC BY 2.0 FR
Where does Im siebten Himmel sein
come from?
The Redensarten-Index says the image rests on ancient, Jewish and early Christian ideas of several heavens stacked above each other, yet the German phrase is only on record from the 19th century. Its earliest example is from 1838, about an author lost “im siebenten Himmel der Poesie”, and a magazine from 1864 already uses it for young lovers. English Wiktionary describes the seventh heaven in Jewish and Islamic tradition as the outermost of the heavenly spheres, where the angels live.
Mistakes learners make with Im siebten Himmel sein
Mixing it with “auf Wolke sieben” and saying “auf dem siebten Himmel”. The heaven takes “im” (in the), while “auf” (on) belongs only to the cloud.
Other German idioms like Im siebten Himmel sein
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?
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