Glossary entry (derived from question below)
German term or phrase:
herauskommen machen
English translation:
beat a hasty retreat
Added to glossary by
Edwin Miles
Feb 1, 2014 22:19
10 yrs ago
1 viewer *
German term
herauskommen machen
German to English
Art/Literary
Idioms / Maxims / Sayings
idiomatic German
From a novel I'm working on: "Und damit wandte sich YYY ab. XXX machte, dass er aus dem Büro herauskam."
Two characters, rivals for a girl, are discussing an unrelated situation. For XXX (but not for YYY), the situation is extremely uncomfortable. I understand this as XXX getting out of the office as fast as he can, as if the office is the place he'd least like to be at that moment.
Something like "XXX got out of there as fast as he could." Is my understanding of this line correct? Love to hear from some DE native speakers on this one.
Two characters, rivals for a girl, are discussing an unrelated situation. For XXX (but not for YYY), the situation is extremely uncomfortable. I understand this as XXX getting out of the office as fast as he can, as if the office is the place he'd least like to be at that moment.
Something like "XXX got out of there as fast as he could." Is my understanding of this line correct? Love to hear from some DE native speakers on this one.
Proposed translations
(English)
References
machen, dass... | Johanna Timm, PhD |
Proposed translations
+1
2 hrs
German term (edited):
machte, dass er ... herauskam
Selected
beat a hasty retreat
See Discussion Box
Peer comment(s):
agree |
Hans-Jochen Trost
: Your proposal captures the meaning well.
1 day 42 mins
|
neutral |
Horst Huber (X)
: Closer to "machte sich auf die Socken".
1 day 14 hrs
|
Enigmatic as always, Horst.
|
3 KudoZ points awarded for this answer.
Comment: "Ta muchly, as my dad used to say. Ramey's right, of course, and this pretty much captures the tone of the language used in the novel. I was close to going with "got himself out of there," though..."
14 mins
XXX saw to it, that he got out of there (the office).
machte in this case, is akin to "made sure to" but common usage would make it "saw to it that"
Example sentence:
Because tickets were selling quickly, Jim saw to it that he got to the box office early.
Note from asker:
Thanks, Darin. Another good suggestion (sans comma, as others have pointed out), though I disagree with Ramey's comment that it's too literal. It's not, but it's also not the tone that I'm looking for. |
Peer comment(s):
agree |
Ingeborg Gowans (X)
: exactly: I also like An drew's suggestion: beat a hasty retreat which might be more suitable for a novel perhaps? It all depends on th style, of course
40 mins
|
agree |
Trudy Peters
1 hr
|
agree |
Susanne Rindlisbacher
: And with efreitag's comment
1 hr
|
disagree |
Cilian O'Tuama
: CL5 gets a disagree for German comma.
3 hrs
|
disagree |
Lonnie Legg
: The purposefulness is less direct than the German (s.Johanna's comment)--and I also agree w.Cilian.
12 hrs
|
disagree |
Ramey Rieger (X)
: Much too literal for a literary translation, and yes, I agree with Cilian's comment
14 hrs
|
neutral |
Hans-Jochen Trost
: @Cilian: Of course you're correct about the comma, but why does that warrant a disagree on theproposed translation altogether?
1 day 2 hrs
|
2 hrs
took off (in a hurry)
Seems to me that in the sentence below the verb is used in exactly the same way as it is in your German sentence. Another good option would be "to make tracks"
''When I told him about this, he immediately took off from his office and toured the museum, calling me with a complete report."
http://www.debbieschlussel.com/1752/h-l-schlussel-m-d-my-dad...
''When I told him about this, he immediately took off from his office and toured the museum, calling me with a complete report."
http://www.debbieschlussel.com/1752/h-l-schlussel-m-d-my-dad...
9 hrs
German term (edited):
XXX machte, dass er herauskam
XX made a speedy exit
-.-
+1
1 day 8 hrs
(here) get himself out of there
IMO this is "erlebte Rede". The expression "machen, dass" is more commonly used as a kind of command: "Mach, dass du hier raus kommst!". In the light of this the source sentence would be echoing a command to XXX, perhaps one he gives himself or one that he imagines YYY giving him.
Difficult to capture the flavour, but I wouldn't translate the "mach" at all.
Difficult to capture the flavour, but I wouldn't translate the "mach" at all.
Example sentence:
XXX got himself out of there right sharp.
Note from asker:
Thanks British Diana, also for the clear explanation. I ended up going with Andrew's suggestion, just for the tone, but it was a near thing. |
Peer comment(s):
agree |
Horst Huber (X)
: Should "the office" or "the place" be there?
8 hrs
|
Thanks, of course it might be "the place" not "there"
|
2 days 11 hrs
made himself scarse
As an option.
Reference comments
1 hr
Reference:
machen, dass...
....implies a sense of urgency to whatever a person is doing/supposed to do
http://german.stackexchange.com/questions/6447/meaning-of-ma...
www.redensarten-index.de/suche.php?suchbegriff=~~Mach, dass...[]=rart_ou
In your text, it has the meaning of ”verduften” http://www.duden.de/rechtschreibung/verduften
--------------------------------------------------
Note added at 1 hr (2014-02-02 00:18:16 GMT)
--------------------------------------------------
I meant to write "adds" urgency to whatever someone is doing, sorry.
http://german.stackexchange.com/questions/6447/meaning-of-ma...
www.redensarten-index.de/suche.php?suchbegriff=~~Mach, dass...[]=rart_ou
In your text, it has the meaning of ”verduften” http://www.duden.de/rechtschreibung/verduften
--------------------------------------------------
Note added at 1 hr (2014-02-02 00:18:16 GMT)
--------------------------------------------------
I meant to write "adds" urgency to whatever someone is doing, sorry.
Note from asker:
Thank you, Johanna. |
Peer comments on this reference comment:
agree |
Rosa Paredes
4 hrs
|
agree |
Edith Kelly
8 hrs
|
agree |
Lonnie Legg
10 hrs
|
agree |
British Diana
1 day 6 hrs
|
agree |
Lancashireman
2 days 23 hrs
|
Discussion