Spaß – How to have fun in German

Jan 10

While working as a German online teacher, I realized it is a common mistake to adopt the English “to have fun” to German one-to-one. After reading this article, you will know how to use “Spaß” properly.

Fun in German

The noun fun is “Spaß” in German. Students frequently use it incorrectly because they translate between languages (mostly English to German). Therefore, they create expressions such as: “Etwas ist Spaß” – “Die Party ist Spaß.” As you will see in the following, both examples are wrong. Since the word “fun” is used very often, I will show you four ways to use this word the right way:

1. Spaß haben (to have fun)

You can say „Ich habe Spaß” to express that you are having fun. Since the verb “haben” requires you to use a noun, there is no other possibility to build this sentence.

2. Spaß machen (to be fun)

Some things, for instance, dancing, can be fun. To express this in German, you would say “Tanzen macht Spaß” (literally: dancing does fun). You can use this concept for everything except for persons. If you say “Der Mann macht Spaß” it means that he is fun or joking. You cannot express “to be fun” with a person in German the same way as one does in English.

3. Spaßig sein (to be fun)

This is another way to express that something is fun, but, to be honest, it is not used as much as “Spaß machen”. Still, if you would like to use it, you can do it as follows: “Der Film ist spaßig.”