/ˈjeːmandm̩ ˈaɪ̯nən ˈbɛːʁən ˈaʊ̯fˌbɪndn̩/ lit. ‘tie a bear on someone’
German idiom, everyday. To tease someone by telling them something untrue as a joke.
Draft Not yet checked by a native German speaker.
How do people use Jemandem einen Bären aufbinden
?
Everyday German for telling someone a tall tale and seeing if they swallow it. It’s often a suspicious question: “Du willst mir wohl einen Bären aufbinden?” (are you having me on?). In the past: “er hat uns einen Bären aufgebunden”.
Also said jemandem einen Bären anbinden
Jemandem einen Bären aufbinden
in real sentences
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Tom hat uns einen Bären aufgebunden.
Tom pulled our leg.
Tatoeba, sentence by Esperantostern, CC BY 2.0 FR
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Du willst uns wohl einen Bären aufbinden?
Are you trying to pull our leg?
Tatoeba, sentence by al_ex_an_der, CC BY 2.0 FR
Where does Jemandem einen Bären aufbinden
come from?
Nobody’s sure why a bear. The theory German and English Wiktionary both prefer is that “Bär” replaced an old word for a load or burden (from a Germanic root “bar-”, to carry; compare Bürde and Bahre), so you were tying a burden on someone. English Wiktionary adds that it’s probably from Low German. German Wiktionary also passes on, via Müller’s Lexikon der Redensarten, a folk story about hunters who paid an innkeeper with a live bear as security, and the Duden idiom dictionary’s simpler idea that nobody could tie a bear on your back without you noticing.
Mistakes learners make with Jemandem einen Bären aufbinden
The wrong case for the victim. It’s dative, “jemandem”: “ich binde dir einen Bären auf”, not “ich binde dich einen Bären auf”.
Other German idioms like Jemandem einen Bären aufbinden
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