was machen Sachen
absurd jokey filler - roughly 'well, things happen / what's going on here'
Origin
'Was machen Sachen?' goes back to a TV Total street survey in Cologne in 2012: during a survey about leap years, an older woman joined in and answered with the puzzling phrase 'Was machen Sachen?'. She apparently just wanted to take part in the conversation. After a search peak in 2012 interest faded, but from around 2019 the phrase became popular again as an internet meme and has since served as an absurd, jokey filler line.
Building blocks
Words in this expression
Grammar that uses this word
- Pronoun 'wir' (we, nominative)Pronomen 'wir' (Nominativ)
- Pronoun 'sie' (they, plural, nominative)Pronomen 'sie' (Plural, Nominativ)
- Regular verbs: wir-form (stem + -en)Regelmäßige Verben: wir-Form (Stamm + -en)
- Regular verbs: sie/Sie-form (stem + -en)Regelmäßige Verben: sie/Sie-Form (Stamm + -en)
- Regular verbs: ihr-form (stem + -t)Regelmäßige Verben: ihr-Form (Stamm + -t)
- Prepositional adverbs and question words (darauf/worauf)Präpositionaladverbien und Fragewörter (darauf/worauf)
Examples
„Ich hab aus in den getan.“ – „Hahaha, was Sachen!“
'I accidentally put salt in my coffee.' – 'Hahaha, what a thing to happen!'