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Meaning of "Einen Lauf geben"

German Language Asked by Enrique Moreno Tent on December 28, 2020

I was hearing “Mein Leben ist super” by Revolverheld, when I noticed this sentence:

Ich steh auf, geh’ raus gib meinem Leben nen Lauf

which, I guess, uses the expression “einen Lauf geben”.

What does that mean?

UPDATE

Another weird thing I just realized. Ich stehe aufand geh' raus seems like the first person of the singular present, while gib is the imperative form. Does that actually make any sense?

2 Answers

In German the course of a life is commonly expressed as Lauf or Verlauf with corresponding verbs laufen, or verlaufen.

Mein Leben läuft ganz gut.
Sein Leben verlief in geordneten Bahnen.

Apparently these lyrics also play with a common German compound Lebenslauf used not only for a CV in job applications but also in the meaning of life story or course of life.

So when the singer says "Gib meinem Leben [ein]nen Lauf" they actually ask for their life to get on track, to give sense, or similar, which lets us assume it had not quite been in such an ordered fashion before.

Apparently they switched within the sentence to an imperative from of geben (gib), wich may be intentional, or may also come from a dialect influence, where the shortened 1st person singular ich geb' may sometimes become ich gib.

Correct answer by Takkat on December 28, 2020

I would guess that this comes from

Einen Lauf haben

which would be translated with

having a streak of success or luck, being on a role

It would be helpful to know some more about the song and the lines around this one, but if my assumption is true, it would translate as something like

I give my life a push towards a period of success and luck

I get my life on a roll

Answered by Ralph M. Rickenbach on December 28, 2020

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