The Coffee “Is All”

Kathy in Rye, New York, used to live in Central Pennsylvania, where she was surprised by a friend announcing The coffee’s all meaning “The coffee’s all gone.” This phrase is a vestige of Pennsylvania Dutch, a dialect of German. The coffee’s all is what linguists call a calque, a direct borrowing of the German word alle, which means “finished” or “all gone.”

This is part of a complete episode.