German insurance and police reporting distinguish damage to things from injury to people as separate categories, named separately, counted separately. A traffic report states whether there was Sachschaden only.
The division between the matter and the person runs deep enough to structure how accidents are recorded.
Zuverlässig — reliable, from sich verlassen auf, to rely upon. The same word is used of a machine and of a person, and it is among the strongest compliments in German for either.
Es läuft — it runs. Said of a machine, a process or a business, and it means everything is as it should be.
Da kann nichts passieren — nothing can happen there. The German assurance, and it is stated absolutely.
Ermessensspielraum. German administrative law grants officials a defined room for judgment within a rule, and a decision can be challenged for failing to exercise it as well as for exceeding it. The discretion is part of the rule, with its own boundaries.
To pull someone across the table. The German phrase for getting the better of a counterpart in a way that is not legitimate. The image is physical and one-sided. Someone has been moved from their position by force rather than by argument, and the table — the place where the negotiation happened — is what they were dragged over.
An American phrase for a decision that the rules do not settle, and it is used without apology. That was a judgment call is offered as a complete explanation, and in American usage it usually is one.
At eye level. The German phrase for a relationship between parties of equal standing, and the standard description of how a negotiation ought to be conducted. It is a physical claim about posture. Neither party is looking up or down.
American companies advertise round-the-clock availability as a product feature, with the hours stated on the packaging and in the comparison table. Responsiveness is specified in the same place as the technical figures.
Fristen. German procedure runs on prescribed periods — to respond, to object, to appeal — and they are counted in weeks. The clock is generous and it is strict. Nobody is asked to reply immediately, and nobody is permitted to reply late.
Dienst ist Dienst und Schnaps ist Schnaps — duty is duty and schnapps is schnapps. Two things, not to be mixed.
Nach Feierabend — after the working day, used as a time of day in its own right.
Urlaubsanspruch — holiday claim. Not an allowance or an entitlement in the soft sense. A claim, in the legal meaning, enforceable.
Abschalten — to switch off. What a German is expected to do at the end of the day, and the metaphor is electrical.
Don’t get personal. Said when a discussion has left the matter and started to be about the people in the room.
It is not a plea for politeness. In German usage it is a correction — you have stopped talking about the problem, and you need to go back.