/nɪçt ˈalə ˈtasn̩ ɪm ˈʃʁaŋk ˈhaːbm̩/ lit. ‘not have all your cups in the cupboard’
German idiom, colloquial. Someone is a bit crazy, or is acting as if they’ve lost their mind.
Draft Not yet checked by a native German speaker.
How do people use Nicht alle Tassen im Schrank haben
?
Colloquial, and very common when someone suggests something ridiculous. Usually with “doch” or “ja” for emphasis: “Du hast doch nicht alle Tassen im Schrank!” The question form “Hast du noch alle Tassen im Schrank?” (are you out of your mind?) is just as common, and “nicht mehr” suggests the person used to be sane.
Also said nicht mehr alle Tassen im Schrank haben, Hast du noch alle Tassen im Schrank?
Nicht alle Tassen im Schrank haben
in real sentences
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Du hast nicht alle Tassen im Schrank.
You’ve lost your marbles.
Tatoeba, sentence by Hans07, translation by candistyx, CC BY 2.0 FR
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Hast du noch alle Tassen im Schrank?
Are you off your rocker?
Tatoeba, sentence by Hans07, translation by Dejo, CC BY 2.0 FR
Where does Nicht alle Tassen im Schrank haben
come from?
Nobody knows for sure. German Wiktionary gives no origin, and the plain reading is a mind pictured as a cupboard with some of the crockery missing. In 1956 the linguist Siegmund A. Wolf suggested that “Tassen” came from a Yiddish word “toschia” (good sense), but the Jüdische Allgemeine points out that this word isn’t found in any Yiddish dictionary. Treat it as an unproven theory.
Mistakes learners make with Nicht alle Tassen im Schrank haben
Dropping the negative. “Er hat alle Tassen im Schrank” isn’t a compliment people actually say: the phrase only works with “nicht” or as the question “Hast du noch alle Tassen im Schrank?” English Wiktionary files it as a negative polarity item for that reason.
Other German idioms like Nicht alle Tassen im Schrank haben
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?
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