German question!

[2Eliza2]

Would a German ever say 'Was ist's?' instead of 'Was ist los?' or perhaps 'Was ist es?'

This would be a roughly-spoken German.

THANKS to anyone who can help.

Yep.
Sometimes it just sounds like "Was ist?" and you don't hear the "es" or "'s".

Prof. Fink.

yes, you would but not for 'was ist los',
it's short for 'was ist es?' only

Thank you. So in the context of someone trying to mutter 'What is it?' (to the police) it would be better to say 'Was ist los?' I suspect.

Fink--would they also say that in Berlin?

Police? Ah, the less mumble or mutter the better. Both are fully understandable as questions though.

Er, why?

Ehrlich!? Die Pfälzer!!

I'm proof-reading my book that's set in Berlin in 1945 and I've got Russians tracking down a German who's deserted from their troops (long story) and is disguised as a wounded mechanic. He's trying to sound rough and proletarian although he's actually an educated man. So the less he says the better!

I bet you're wishing you hadn't asked!

Thanks for your help.

x-post
Berlin, no idea, am a bumpkin, but as I wrote, any German would understand "Was ist's" to mean, "Was gibt's?"
"Was ist los?"
"Was geht hier vor?"

also "Was ist es?" is still asking "What's going on"

All fairly synonymous really.

Thank you again. I'll go back to Was ist's.

Or: 'Was iss'n?', as a mumbled version of 'Was ist denn?'

Interesting! Thought you were in trouble

DaddyJ, it's a great place to live, once you crack the lingo. I'm about 18% of the way there after 10 years.
Weinschorle (in pint glasses) acceptable after 11am.

Vielen Dank to the three of you.

I am going to call some Germans now,
der Pedant in me would like to double-check 'Was ist's?'
as, to my knowledge, it only means 'What is it?'.

I always enjoyed die Pfalz, though these days it would
probably be a tad rural for me.

'Was ist's' is okay, I think (gm native speaker!) as an abbreviation for 'was ist es?'.

I agree. And Google does too.

I think I have heard 'Was ist?'
as a synonym for 'Was ist los?' / 'Was geht?'.

In my opinion you would never say "was ist's", just "was ist", as an abbreviation of "was ist los".

"was ist es?" isn't really a good translation of "what is it", it sounds clumsy.

Ach! Wir sind nicht der selber Meinung!

(Did that sentence actually make sense??)

It did. But it should be "derselben"

or der selben?

It's been a l-o-n-g time since German A level!

Maybe it is regional thing.

Emkana has a point - perhaps "Was ist's?" is a better short form of "Was ist das?", i.e. s/thing specific, rather than "Was ist es/los?"

I constantly hear variations of expressions and when I ask I am told "That's Hochdeutsch/Pfaelzisch/Sued/Schwaebisch/Ost/Norden..."

Finknottle, dh's is from the Pfalz and when I first met his parents I could only understand about 10% of what they were saying, even after having studied German at university and having lived here for a while.
'Twas very frustrating!

Isn't it? Just when I think I've made progress, 2 Pfaelzer will turn from speaking to me and yabber to each other and I'm lost...

Like the mentality though, much easier going than some.

Well my mil is anything but easy going but I know what you mean. It's quite similar here - people are relatively laid back and friendly.