At the stroke of midnight on New Year’s Eve, many of us transform suddenly from inebriated revelers to neurotic dieters as we make shedding those extra holiday pounds one of our primary resolutions for the New Year.
As if wiping our individual slates clean, dismissing all the missteps we may have taken or things we did not get done over the course of the past 12 months, we decide that THIS is the year to finally, for instance, shed those extra 20 pounds, get our finances in order, or spend more time with friends and family.
In German, such New Year’s resolutions are known as “gute Vorsätze fürs neue Jahr“. And “to make resolutions” is simply to engage in “(gute) Vorsätze fassen.”
As a stand-alone noun, “Vorsätze” (plural) can be translated, depending on the context, as intents, intentions or resolutions.
Prefacing this with “gute” (good) is generally the preferred expression at the beginning of the year, to express how we have “good intentions/resolutions” for the New Year. And adding the verb “fassen” (grab/seize/grasp, as well as comprehend/realize, among other possible meanings/usages) rounds out the expression “gute Vorsätze fassen.”
The expression “mit typischen Neujahrsvorsätzen” meanwhile means “with typical New Year’s resolutions.”
As in the United States, this is a common practice in Germany, where lists of New Year’s resolutions, or “gute Vorsätze,” are not uncommon.
