What does the phrase
Something’s gotta give
mean?
It means a certain situation is unsustainable – something has to change
You’re probably talking about the German translation of the movie title, right?
Its funny because sometimes they just use the English title, but I suppose in this situation that its much easier to provide the English title underneath like they did. Was das hertz begehrt. How would you translate “Something’s gotta give” in German?
Es muss sich was ändern.
I guess they came up with a german title (that really means something totally different) because “Something’s gotta give” is sort of a special idiom that a lot of germans (even english speaking) would not know (- like me = reason for this post).
“Es muß sich was ändern”, “Ich kann das nicht alles durchziehen”, “Ich muß irgendwo kürzer treten” (if talking in the first person), “eine (dieser Sachen/Verpflichtungen) muß wegfallen”, something like that. I can’t think of a similar and common German phrase right now. And these don’t make very catchy movie titles… 
If I get it right, the image is one of multiple strains, like, say, ropes pulling in all directions, and one of them has gotta give, i.e. snap. That approximately right?
hehe, Oldschool spelling! I’m glad that I learned German before spelling change! mußen? I don’t really know how it was conjugated with the sharp S.
Yeah I suppose that the best way to explain it would be to fully explain the whole sentence. “something has got to give way” That is what I am almost certain that it means. A good example would be the Bush administration. He has run such a tight administration and has managed to keep his party in line although he did things that made many fiscal conservatives mad. One could have said before, “Something’s gotta give,” Normally it means not only just that the situation is unsustainable, but it could never be sustainable in the first place either. More of a question of “when” instead of “if.”
Its one of those hard things about learning a language 
I would have never known that you are German from your use of English on the boards, but its something that every english speaker knows the meaning of although they seldom use it. I may say that at most once per year if not less. But I recognize it immediately.
Think about the word “seesaw” do you know the name of that word in any other language? Its something that you can see all over the world, but an adult without kids has absolutely no reason to be talking about playground equipment.
In Dutch that’s “wipwap”, which I think is a great word, though it does not do the metaphorical stuff that “see-saw” does. What IS the German word, then, my German does not strech very far.
And I know what you mean. In my experience it comes up a lot when asked for names of specific birds, plants etc. Cookery ingredients, like unusual herbs and spices can be a problem too.
Oddly, the name of the film in French is “Tout peut arriver”, which literally means “Anything can happen”. Just another one of those hard to translate phrases.
www.leo.org gives Schaukel for seesaw. I thought so the english term was swing. So what is a seesaw?
A seesaw (or teeter-totter ) is a different piece of playground equipment than a swing. Here you go:
http://www.playkids.com/daycare/seesaw.htm
Out of curiosity, can someone retranslate the German translation of the movie title for “Something’s Gotta Give?” What did they name it for the German release?
It’s called “Was das Herz begehrt”, literally “what the heart covets”.
Yas, Schaukel is swing. A seesaw is a “Wippe” (cf. the verb “wippen”, which means to teeter or to move rapidly up and down. It can also be used for body parts, e.g. mit dem Fuß wippen), and in Austrian the much nicer word “Hutsche” (used for seesaw and swing).
Merkwurdigliebe, I’m Austrian, actually (and speak English at a near-native level, I’m just a bit lacking in the idioms department because I’ve never lived in an English-speaking country), and I just prefer the old spelling for aesthetic reasons. In case you really want to know: the infinitive of muß is müssen under the old spelling rules as well.
“Something’s gotta give” makes perfect sense to me, I may even have heard it before, it’s just hard to convey the mental image it probably derives from. And there is no approximately equivalent phrase in German (at least that I could think of).
“Was das Herz begehrt” as a subtitle is interesting. I have no idea what the film is about, but that phrase has another meaning that is different from the literal translation fishcheer15 gave. It is often used in a context where it means “anything you want” or “anything you could possibly imagine/desire”, e.g. “In diesem Computergeschäft gibt es alles was das Herz begehrt” - “This computer store has anything you could possibly want”. Gotta see the film to find out how appropriate that is. German movie titles, especially the ones where they just add a German subtitle to the English original, are sometimes very weird.
The title is a reference to a popular Sammy Davis, Jr. song, whose lyrics might help explain the phrase a bit more. I haven’t seen the movie, so maybe they even use the song in it.
The opening of the song makes use of the classic paradox to bring up the phrase :
When an irresistible force - such as you
Meets an old immovable object - like me
You can bet as sure as you live
Something’s gotta give
Let’s give credit to Johnny Mercer, who wrote the song Something’s Gotta Give for the movie musical Daddy Long Legs (1954), and got an Oscar nomination for it.
SMACK! I knew there was something else. Oh dear me.
Ah, I knew there was something! “Eines von beiden (or davon, if there’s more than two) muß nachgeben.” Can’t be used in all contexts where the English phrase could be used, but pretty close.
Still not a snappy movie title, though. I don’t envy the translator of that film
Thanks, Walloon. I figured Sammy didn’t write but it but didn’t know who did. I also noticed that the lyrics I linked to were as accurate as you expect for the internet - “who knows what the faiths have in store”? (should be Fates). A better version on this page.
Just to bring this around, while looking for better lyrics I found this, which gives “Immer Noch Einmal” as an ‘alternate title’ to the song. Further searching hasn’t revealed German lyrics for the song, though.
Continued searching at ASCAP led to the alternate French title, “Ca Va Eclater”, which I guess to be a literal translation; that makes me wonder why the German title is so different.
I’d say the idiom is more widespread than just this song. I doubt the song had any connection whatsoever to the movie. Sammy may have used it too, but he’s only one of many. Like Seinfeld:
[quote]
KRAMER: “So, you’re still Master of your Domain?”
SEINFELD: “Yes, yes I am. Master of my domain. But I will tell you this: I’m going over to her apartment and I’m tellin’ her to put those shades down!”
KRAMER: “Wait, wait wait… Whoa, whoa whoa-- what did you just say?”
SEINFELD: “I can’t take it any more! She’s drivin’ me crazy. I can’t sleep, I can’t leave the house. When I’m here I’m climbin’ the walls. Meanwhile I’m datin’ a virgin, I’m in this contest… something’s gotta give!”