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What does “es kommt darauf an” mean in German?

Ask a German whether they’ll have wine or water and you’ll often hear es kommt darauf an — “it depends.” Don’t build it word by word; it’s a fixed phrase from the separable verb ankommen auf (“to depend on”). The prefix an splits off to the very end, and darauf (“on that”) holds the middle. Say the whole thing as one chunk and you sound instantly native.

To name the condition, extend it with ob (“whether”): Es kommt darauf an, ob ich Zeit habe — “It depends on whether I have time.” You can also swap in a question word: Es kommt darauf an, was du willst (“...on what you want”). In the clip it stands alone as a shrug — Manchmal trinke ich auch etwas anderes. Es kommt darauf an. A complete answer in four words.