Why Me of All People?

And why on Yabla German of all places? Well, that's easy: it's because you want to learn German and you know how great the Yabla language learning system is! But speaking of learning, how do you say phrases like "... of all places" and "... of all people" in German?

First, a little background on the phrase. The separable German verb ausrechnen, in its standard form, means "to compute," "to figure out," "to calculate," or "to estimate," as in this example:

Wie rechnet ihr eure Chancen aus zu gewinnen?

What do you estimate your chances of winning are?

Caption 11, Yabla-Filmfestspiele - Preisverleihung
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However, a slang adverb developed out of the past participle of the verb ausrechnen:

Ja, ausgerechnet Stauffenberg. Wer hätte das gedacht?

Yes, Stauffenberg of all people. Who would have thought that?

Caption 54, Die Stunde der Offiziere - Dokudrama über den 20. Juli 1944 - Part 13
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Ich wundere mich ein wenig,

I'm a bit surprised

dass ausgerechnet heute Ihre Sekretärin nicht da ist, Herr General.

that today of all days your secretary isn't here, General.

Captions 54-55, Die Stunde der Offiziere - Dokudrama über den 20. Juli 1944 - Part 8
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Und ausgerechnet im „Skatershop“

And in the skate shop, of all places,

wartete auch schon der nächste Spießer.

the next philistine is waiting too.

Caption 9, Thomas D - Ärgernisse
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Und das ausgerechnet von Hühnern…

And that, of all things, from chickens…

Caption 5, Tierakademie Scheuerhof - Tiertrainer im Hühner-Seminar
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So basically you can use the slang adverb ausgerechnet to mean "... of all" and then whatever the topic of your discussion is. Occasionally, the slang adverb ausgerechnet may be translated otherwise:

… und wieso man ausgerechnet für die betreffende Firma arbeiten möchte.

… and why you specifically would like to work for the respective company.

Caption 25, Eva erklärt - Bewerbungen
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Of course, this could also have been translated: "... and why you would like to work for this respective company, of all companies." As with all translations, it's best to use whatever catches the meaning and is most graceful at the same time.

Achtung: sometimes the past participle of ausrechnen shows up and might fool you:

… über hundertsechzig Filme,

… more than one hundred and sixty movies,

hab' ich jetzt mal einfach so grob ausgerechnet.

I've just now roughly estimated.

Caption 38, Kurzfilm-Festival - Shorts at Moonlight
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Further Learning
Look for more examples of ausgerechnet used in a real-world context on Yabla German, and for further study compare the Duden definition of the verb ausrechnen with the slang adverb ausgerechnet.

Thank you for reading this newsletter and keep up the good work! If you have any good ideas for lesson topics, please email them to us at newsletter@yabla.com, and you can tweet us @yabla.