No. 156 in German
man
"Man" = One, people, someone, or they (used for general statements).
In a sentence
Man sollte immer höflich sein.
One should always be polite.
The word 'man' is used impersonally here to mean 'one' or 'people in general', expressing a general statement about politeness.
Man sagt, dass es morgen regnen wird.
They say it will rain tomorrow.
In this context, 'man' refers to an unspecified group or the general public, conveying hearsay or common knowledge.
Man darf hier nicht rauchen.
One is not allowed to smoke here.
Here, 'man' is used formally to indicate a general prohibition applicable to anyone in the specific context.
Hear it in real podcasts
The recording above is a synthetic voice. Hear how people say “man” in actual German podcasts.
Find “man” in podcastsLearn it from shows you like
LangTurbo plays German podcasts with a transcript and the English under every line. Tap a word like this one and it tells you what it means right there. For iPhone, iPad and Android.
Learning English?
LangTurbo plays real English podcasts with every line translated into Deutsch, and tells you what any word means in that sentence. For iPhone, iPad and Android.
German books and courses on Amazon (an affiliate link: a purchase through it supports this site).