/ˈʃmɛtɐlɪŋə ɪm baʊ̯x ˈhaːbn̩/ lit. ‘have butterflies in your belly’
German idiom, colloquial. To feel a nervous, fluttering excitement, before something important or around someone you’re attracted to.
Draft Not yet checked by a native German speaker.
How do people use Schmetterlinge im Bauch haben
?
Colloquial and heard everywhere, from pop songs to magazine advice columns. In German it’s mostly about being in love: German Wiktionary defines it as being in love and happy, and the Redensarten-Index adds the excited, light-headed feeling that goes with it. It works in any tense and with any subject, as in “Tom hatte Schmetterlinge im Bauch”.
Schmetterlinge im Bauch haben
in real sentences
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Ich habe Schmetterlinge im Bauch.
I have butterflies in my stomach.
Tatoeba, sentence by Pfirsichbaeumchen, translation by CK, CC BY 2.0 FR
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Tom hatte Schmetterlinge im Bauch.
Tom had butterflies in his stomach.
Tatoeba, sentence by Pfirsichbaeumchen, translation by CK, CC BY 2.0 FR
Where does Schmetterlinge im Bauch haben
come from?
The Redensarten-Index says German borrowed the phrase from English, where Florence Converse used the image in her 1908 novel “House of Prayer”, and that the first German examples date from the 1970s. On the way the meaning narrowed: English Wiktionary defines the English phrase as nervousness or excitement in general, while German uses it mainly for love. The word Schmetterling has its own odd story, since Pfeifer’s etymological dictionary links it to an East Central German word for cream and to the folk belief that witches turned into butterflies to steal milk.
Mistakes learners make with Schmetterlinge im Bauch haben
Using it for exam or stage nerves the way English does. Before a job interview a German speaker would rather say “ich bin aufgeregt” (I’m nervous) or “ich habe Lampenfieber” (I have stage fright), because the butterflies point to romance.
Other German idioms like Schmetterlinge im Bauch haben
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?
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