/ˈjeːmandm̩ aʊ̯f deːn ˈkeːks ˈɡeːən/ lit. ‘go on someone’s biscuit’
German idiom, colloquial. To annoy or irritate someone.
Draft Not yet checked by a native German speaker.
How do people use Jemandem auf den Keks gehen
?
Colloquial and very common, a softer, sillier cousin of “jemandem auf die Nerven gehen”. The person annoyed is in the dative: “du gehst mir auf den Keks”, “das geht ihr auf den Keks”. The perfect takes “sein”: “er ist mir total auf den Keks gegangen”.
Jemandem auf den Keks gehen
in real sentences
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Mary geht mir auf den Keks.
Mary is getting on my nerves.
Tatoeba, sentence by Vortarulo, translation by Spamster, CC BY 2.0 FR
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Geh mir nicht auf den Keks!
Don’t bother me!
Tatoeba, sentence by Vortarulo, translation by BobbyLee, CC BY 2.0 FR
Where does Jemandem auf den Keks gehen
come from?
The biscuit is probably a head. German Wiktionary lists the idiom under a slang “Keks” meaning head, recorded from around 1900 (it cites Küpper’s dictionary of colloquial German), alongside “einen am Keks haben” (to be a bit mad). Where that “Keks” came from is disputed: Pfeifer’s etymological dictionary suggests Berlin thieves’ slang from Yiddish “gag” (roof), reshaped to sound like the biscuit word. English Wiktionary just calls the idiom teenage slang of uncertain origin.
Mistakes learners make with Jemandem auf den Keks gehen
Putting the person in the accusative: “du gehst mich auf den Keks”. It’s “mir” (dative), just like “du gehst mir auf die Nerven”.
Other German idioms like Jemandem auf den Keks gehen
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?
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