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Welcome to Sprichwörtlich Deutsch, the podcast about German proverbs, idioms and expressions. My name is Kirsten Winkler, and I am your host.

Today’s expression is

Ach du grüne Neune!

As always, let’s break down the vocabulary, first. Ach is quite a versatile word in German. You can use it to emphasize something like “ach so schön” ever so beautiful, you can use it as a short answer like Ach? Really? but in today’s expression ach is used as Oh dear!. grüne is the feminine form of grün which is green. And Neune is a poetic version on neun, the number nine as it gives the sentence a better flow than Ach du grüne Neun!

Like in our last episode translating the sentence won’t make much sense to you but still, let’s give it a go … right, Ach du grüne Neune means Oh dear green nine!

Don’t worry, even for Germans the meaning of Ach du grüne Neune is not really clear. But that does not stop us from using it. In fact, linguists can’t tell for sure where this expression comes from.

One possibility is that it goes back to French playing cards where the nine of spades is green and a bad sign when reading the cards. From there it might have made its way into the German language.

The other and more popular source is an infamous pub in Berlin known for its ladies of easy virtue and brawls. The entrance to the pub was in the “Grünweg” and the house number was the number nine. It also seems as if the expression was first used in Berlin in the 19th century around the time the pub existed.

So when Germans say

Ach du grüne Neune!

he or she is expressing surprise, astonishment or shock about something unexpected and sometimes also frivolous or unpleasant.

If you want to use this expression you can do so in every environment, with family, friends, colleagues and even your boss. It might be a bit outdated and therefore most likely used by older Germans but Ach du grüne Neune is still appropriate and understood.

And that’s it for today’s episode of Sprichwörtlich Deutsch. Hope you join me next time and don’t forget to subscribe to this podcast either on iTunes or via FairLanguages.com

Music: Chillin’ With Jeris” by copperhead (feat. Jeris)

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