How do you say Nerves in German?

Whether you’re nervous before a test or someone is just getting on your nerves, it’s incredibly helpful to know how to express that in German. Learning how to say nerves in German opens up a world of emotional and physical language that native speakers use all the time.

The word is die Nerven - the plural of der Nerv. In emotional talk you’ll mostly hear the plural die Nerven, but the singular shows up in idioms too: Du raubst mir den letzten Nerv! (You’re driving me up the wall!) For help keeping articles and gender straight, watch my gender course.

Nerven is one of the 1000 most frequently used nouns in German, and you’ll hear it often in stress-related conversations, jokes, and idioms.

Let’s see Nerven in all four cases:

Nominative:Die Nerven liegen blank.Nerves are on edge.

Accusative:Sie verliert die Nerven.She’s losing her cool.

Dative:Ich bin mit den Nerven am Ende.I’m at the end of my rope.

Genitive:Der Zustand der Nerven war kritisch.The state of the nerves was critical.

Verbs like verlieren (to lose), haben (to have), beruhigen (to calm), strapazieren (to strain), and gehen auf (to get on someone’s nerves) all pair naturally with Nerven. For example:

• Du gehst mir auf die Nerven! - You’re getting on my nerves!

• Ich habe starke Nerven. - I have strong nerves.
  Nerven wie Drahtseile haben - to have nerves of steel
  Das nervt! - That’s so annoying!

• Seine Nerven haben versagt. - His nerves gave out.

Adjectives include stark (strong), schwach (weak), blank (frayed/on edge), ruhig (calm), and nervös (nervous, from the same root).