# Was der Teufel! (English idiom in German)
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-der-teufel-english-idiom-in-german/562563
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [December 1, 2010, 5:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-der-teufel-english-idiom-in-german/562563 "2010-12-01T17:38:49Z")
**Posts on this page:** 11
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@MysteryFellow63427](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MysteryFellow63427)
#### Post date: [December 1, 2010, 5:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-der-teufel-english-idiom-in-german/562563/1 "2010-12-01T17:38:49Z")
Does the above phrase–was der Teufel–work in German the same as the English idiom “what the devil!”? Or would it be broken / nonsensical to a native Deutschlander?
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### Author:  [@Pitchmeister](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pitchmeister)
#### Post date: [December 1, 2010, 5:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-der-teufel-english-idiom-in-german/562563/2 "2010-12-01T17:41:49Z")
Almost - it would be “Was zum Teufel?” (What to the devil).
“Was zur Hölle” works equally well.
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### Author:  [@Mops](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mops)
#### Post date: [December 1, 2010, 6:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-der-teufel-english-idiom-in-german/562563/3 "2010-12-01T18:03:55Z")
Concur - the German idioms use the preposition ‘zu’.
Google hits for phrases meaning essentially the same thing
“Was zur Hölle” - 1.83 million hits
“Was zum Teufel” - 344.000 hits
“Was zum Kuckuck” - 19.500 hits
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### Author:  [@MysteryFellow63427](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MysteryFellow63427)
#### Post date: [December 1, 2010, 10:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-der-teufel-english-idiom-in-german/562563/4 "2010-12-01T22:19:50Z")
Danke!
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### Author:  [@bordelond](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bordelond)
#### Post date: [December 1, 2010, 11:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-der-teufel-english-idiom-in-german/562563/5 "2010-12-01T23:19:41Z")
_Tangent:_
So … former NY Mets infielder Tim Teufel’s surname is literally “Devil”? 😃
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### Author:  [@Raskolnikov](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Raskolnikov)
#### Post date: [December 2, 2010, 12:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-der-teufel-english-idiom-in-german/562563/6 "2010-12-02T00:14:02Z")
> [@bordelond](#):
>
> _Tangent:_
>
> So … former NY Mets infielder Tim Teufel’s surname is literally “Devil”? 😃
Yes, Der Teufel is The Devil in German.
I’ve always seen “Was zum Teufel!” translated as “What the he-ll”
so I don’t think “what the devil” is actually a correct translation as the OP asks. That is, it doesn’t work the same in German as English.
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### Author:  [@ShibbOleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ShibbOleth)
#### Post date: [December 2, 2010, 6:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-der-teufel-english-idiom-in-german/562563/7 "2010-12-02T06:51:44Z")
> [@bordelond](#):
>
> _Tangent:_
>
> So … former NY Mets infielder Tim Teufel’s surname is literally “Devil”? 😃
Yes, it was delicious when Jim Gott pitched to him.
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### Author:  [@\_Undecided\_Adrian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/_Undecided_Adrian)
#### Post date: [December 2, 2010, 7:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-der-teufel-english-idiom-in-german/562563/8 "2010-12-02T07:43:41Z")
> [@bordelond](#):
>
> So … former NY Mets infielder Tim Teufel’s surname is literally “Devil”? 😃
The former prime minister of Baden-Württemberg was also called Erwin Teufel.
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### Author:  [@OldGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OldGuy)
#### Post date: [December 2, 2010, 6:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-der-teufel-english-idiom-in-german/562563/9 "2010-12-02T18:44:50Z")
> [@Raskolnikov](#):
>
> I’ve always seen “Was zum Teufel!” translated as “What the he-ll”
>
> so I don’t think “what the devil” is actually a correct translation as the OP asks. That is, it doesn’t work the same in German as English.
I’d say “what the devil” and “what the hell” have the same (non-literal) meaning in English; that is, they’d be used interchangeably. Since Teufel means devil, I’d think what the devil was a slightly better translation. I’d guess “what the hell” is used more often in English though.
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### Author:  [@cjepson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cjepson)
#### Post date: [December 2, 2010, 6:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-der-teufel-english-idiom-in-german/562563/10 "2010-12-02T18:57:17Z")
And the piece known as “The Skaters’ Waltz” was composed by Waldteufel, which I guess means something like “forest devil”.
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### Author:  [@Moe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Moe)
#### Post date: [December 2, 2010, 11:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-der-teufel-english-idiom-in-german/562563/11 "2010-12-02T23:28:18Z")
They do have the phrase “the devil is in the details” (Der Teufel steckt im Detail) and “who the devil is…” (wer zum Teufel ist…).
-moe
Showing off my horrible German, even though I’ve been trying to learn this frickin’ language for 3 years now.