How do you say “fingers crossed” in German?

 

Christian Lauw

Chauffeur, gardener, tour guide. Native to Munich, Bavaria.

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I‘m a native Bavarian, with Northern-German roots.

Ever since a longer stay in the U.S. around age 16/17, I consider America as my second homeland (the political trajectory of recent decades pains me, and I am wishing America all the best. Who knows - maybe sometimes something bad will ultimately lead to something good?).

Throughout many years, I worked mainly as a professional driver in Munich, and also provide individual sightseeing-tours in the Bavarian capital & vicinity. Other professional work include garden- and house maintenance and, in broad terms, finding solutions to problems.

I find it enjoyable to contribute to people having a better, healthier, more fulfilled life that matches, or surpasses their hopeful expectations. As thus, my hope is that some of my content will be found to be helpful by somebody. (-:

All the best.

Christian

This is a case where there is no direct translation possible.

The way I understand it, in English one can “cross fingers” himself in a difficult situation. In German, all we have that is somewhat similar is the expression “jemandem die Daumen drücken”. It means to fold one´s thumbs into one´s fists and “press them” (to “press thumbs for someone” is the literal translation).

However - that, only someone else can do for your situation, you wouldn´t ever push thumbs on your own, on your own behalf, and for your own situation.

So if someone is about to go on a difficult mission, has an important exam coming up and so on and so forth, a German personally affected by this would then tell someone else: “Drück mir die Daumen!”, “please press thumbs for me!” Which, directly translated, would be the “wish me luck” we know in English.

So there you have it. As close as I can get.

On a side note: Germans are also familiar with “crossing fingers”. But here, this has an entirely different meaning. This gesture is also sometimes referred to as “Blitzableiter” (lightning rod). In the old times, when kids were made to swear something on the Bible, they would covertly do this gesture behind their back to avoid “having to go to hell”, in case they would break their oath.