Phrasebank Vol. I

DE German · colloquial · 3 of 6

Ich verstehe nur Bahnhof

baffled, blunt

Word by word

I · understand · only · railway-station

Idiomatic sense

To understand nothing of what was just said or of what is going on. The only word that arrives is Bahnhof, and it stands for the whole incomprehensible mass.

It is colloquial and a little helpless or impatient. It is not a judgment that the subject is worthless. It is a judgment that the listener is lost.

Examples

  1. Erklär's bitte noch mal. Ich verstehe nur Bahnhof.

    Say that again. I didn't follow any of it.

  2. Beim ersten Vortrag habe ich nur Bahnhof verstanden.

    The first lecture was complete gibberish to me.

Equivalents

Marks say how far the other phrase travels with this one. How to read them.

  1. near

    English

    it's all Greek to me

    Same confession that a stretch of language did not land. English names Greek. German names a station.

  2. near

    French

    c'est du chinois

    Same job. French names Chinese for the gibberish. That is a figure of speech about not understanding, not a remark about the language. Use it knowing that.

  3. near

    Chinese

    一头雾水

    To be in a fog about what was just said. Same lost listener. The Chinese phrase is wider than language alone.

  4. none

    Japanese

    何を言っているのか分からない

    A normal sentence, and an accurate one. Japanese does not hand this job to a station or a foreign language in one stock phrase of the same cut. No equivalent is claimed.

Notes

Stories about soldiers, trains, and the word Bahnhof are widely repeated. This book does not adopt one. The meaning above is the living one, and it does not depend on those stories.

Sources

  • Standard colloquial idiom. The origin is deliberately left open. Wording is original.

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