German translation?

Dennis E. Taylor

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Looking for the German translation for "batshit crazy". Interwebz gives me lots of alternatives, all different, no indication of why. Any fluent German speakers?
 

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Looking for the German translation for "batshit crazy". Interwebz gives me lots of alternatives, all different, no indication of why. Any fluent German speakers?

Not a native speaker; but closest idiom I can think of is Der hat doch nicht alle Tassen im Schrank!

It's literally I don't think he has all his cups in the cabinet; a bit like the idioms in English "His elevator doesn't go to the top floor. He's one beer short of a six-pack."
 

blacbird

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That is so idiomatic that I doubt there's any way to translate it. You need to find a native German speaker who can provide a German idiomatic equivalent.

caw
 

SariG

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What's the context?

My first instinct is "durchgeknallt" if it relates to a person but like you said, there are lots of possibilities. (I'm German.)
 

mccardey

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Looking for the German translation for "batshit crazy". Interwebz gives me lots of alternatives, all different, no indication of why.
Translating an idiom is tricky - it's not just transliteration. There's a whole mood/tone/vernacular thing to be considered.
 

sohalt

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Another vote for "durchgeknallt", bzw. "Er hat nicht alle Tassen im Schrank". (maybe a bit quaint, droll).

Other Option:
Er hat eine Schraube locker.
Er hat sie nicht mehr alle.
Ihm haut es den Vogel heraus.
 

Dennis E. Taylor

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Sorry, I guess context would help. :Shrug:

I'm not looking for an equivalent idiom that a German speaker would use. The character is an English speaker who knows German, and translates the phrase directly. So I'm looking for the German phrase "Bat-shit crazy", done with proper syntax, declension, etc.

I'm kind of scared to just run each word through Google translate, because German, as I understand it, can't necessarily just translate word-for-word. There's this old joke about a German UN translator... :)
 

grandma2isaac

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I usually run through google for German then run back to English to make sure it translates as near as possible. Usually try with about three translations before I pick the one I think works best.
 

Dawnstorm

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as for Bat-shit-crazy...Fledermaus Scheiße verrückt

You'd spell that either:

fledermausscheißeverrückt

or

fledermuasscheiße-verrückt (if a person doesn't like long words, a hyphen is optinal).

(Native speaker: Austria)
 
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grandma2isaac

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My apologies Dawn...I'll try harder next time. It is always nice to have someone who actually knows what they are doing to help out.
 

Dawnstorm

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My apologies Dawn...I'll try harder next time. It is always nice to have someone who actually knows what they are doing to help out.

No apologies necessary. :) The way German just runs together words without any punctuation to create a single compound word can become daunting even for native speakers.
 

grandma2isaac

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There used to be this guy who would speak German to me when he was drunk. Yeah, good times.
I am sure my accent was all wrong for bat-shit-crazy also...
 

Dennis E. Taylor

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No apologies necessary. :) The way German just runs together words without any punctuation to create a single compound word can become daunting even for native speakers.

The debate at the U.N. was hot and belligerent. After several impassioned speeches, the German member got his turn. He stood and began speaking, the translator providing English for those who didn't understand German. Then, the translation stopped. The German member was still talking a steady stream, so listeners turned to look at the translator, whose face was getting more and more red and angry. Finally, he snapped, and yelled, "The verb, man! Get to the verb!"

(ducks under table)
 

Xelebes

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Remember, batshit is another term for guano.

Guano für Gehirne. Gets the stabreim in there too. Of course, I would defer to a German to comment.
 

Ravioli

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Native speaker here.

Total durchgeknallt (totally banged through)
Abgefackt (fucked up, ado/apted from English)
Nicht mehr ganz knusper in der Birne (no longer quite crunchy in the pear, Birne being slang for Head)
Völlig bekloppt (fully clobbered)

Actually there's like a million ways to say it. German slang is very colourful.