Trade and change — a fixed German pairing for commercial life as a whole, in use since the Middle Ages. The rhyme yokes commerce to movement and mutual dealing. It describes trade as something that circulates between people rather than as something extracted by one from another.
Ground and reason
The same German word means the ground beneath your feet and the reason for something. Aus welchem Grund? — from what ground? Im Grunde genommen — taken at bottom.
In German, the cause of a thing and the floor of a thing are the same word. You have not found the reason until you have hit the bottom.
A plan is a plan
Plan ist Plan. Wir bleiben beim Plan. Das war so nicht geplant — that was not planned that way, said as an objection rather than as a description.
And the opposite: Wir fahren auf Sicht, we are driving by sight, used when the plan has been abandoned. It is never said with satisfaction.
The engineering title
The German engineering degree title, abolished in most states by the Bologna reforms in favour of Bachelor and Master. The change was argued about for years and mourned publicly by engineers and their associations, on the grounds that the old title meant something specific and the new ones do not.
A country that holds a public argument about a degree abbreviation has a strong relationship with formal qualification.
The reasoned deviation
German quality systems permit departure from a documented procedure where it is justified, assessed and recorded. Deviating is allowed. Deviating silently is not.
It has to add up for both
A deal has to work out for both sides. Said flatly in German business, as a statement of how transactions function rather than as an appeal to decency. Rechnen is the verb for calculating. The claim is arithmetical: a bargain that does not add up for one party will not hold.
The right to repair
European right-to-repair legislation, strongly supported in Germany, requires manufacturers to make spare parts, tools and repair information available to independent repairers for specified periods. Repairability became a legal property of the product.
Going to the ground
Grund is the ground — the bottom of a thing. Gründlich means going down to it.
English thorough comes from through: covering the whole extent. The German word is not about extent. It is about depth, and specifically about reaching the floor.
De-escalation as a taught skill
Deeskalation. De-escalation is taught as a named technique in German policing, nursing, teaching and public service, with its own training courses and certificates. Slowing a situation down is treated as a professional skill with a curriculum.
The contract supplement
Der Nachtrag. In German construction contracting, work beyond the agreed scope is handled through a supplement — priced, documented and agreed before it is carried out. Deviation from the plan is itself a contractual act with its own paperwork.