meine Zeit verschwenden
The phrase "waste my time" in German is meine Zeit verschwenden.
If you want to refer to the concept as a noun, such as "a waste of time", you use Zeitverschwendung.
Is there a formal and an informal way to say it?
For formal contexts, you can use Meine Zeit unnötig beanspruchen to mean "unnecessarily use up my time". In informal or colloquial situations, Meine Zeit verplempern is a common way to express wasting time.
How does it change in a sentence?
If you wish to say "to let (someone) waste my time", use the construction meine Zeit verschwenden zu lassen.
Did you know?
- The German word for time Zeit is a direct cognate of the English word 'tide'. While 'tide' now refers to the ocean, it originally meant 'time' or 'season' in both languages.
- In professional German settings, saying meine Zeit verschwenden can be seen as an aggressive accusation. To be more polite, Germans use beanspruchen, which frames the time as being 'claimed' or 'requested'.
- The colloquial term verplempern creates a very different mood than verschwenden. It suggests a careless or playful idling rather than a tragic loss of a resource.
Examples in context
- Ich bitte darum, dass wir uns auf relevantere Themen konzentrieren, um meine Zeit nicht unnötig zu beanspruchen.I kindly request that we focus on more relevant topics to avoid unnecessarily using up my time.
- Du verschwendest nur meine Zeit!You are just wasting my time!
- Ich will nicht unnötig meine Zeit verschwenden.I do not want to waste my time unnecessarily.
Example conversation
Laura is trying to explain a long project to Maximilian, but he is uninterested.
- MaximilianLaura, du willst nur meine Zeit verschwenden.Laura, you just want to waste my time.
- LauraDas ist nicht wahr, Maximilian.That is not true, Maximilian.
- MaximilianIch will nicht meine Zeit verschwenden.I do not want to waste my time.
- LauraDann hör mir bitte kurz zu.Then please listen to me for a moment.
Sources
- Word origins: Wiktionary entries Zeit, verschwenden, zeit, CC BY-SA 4.0.
