Learn Hardcore German: Meine WG ist sehr tolerant, was unterschiedliche Schlafzeiten und Musikgeschmack angeht. - My shared flat is very tolerant regarding different sleeping times and tastes in music.

Literally: Wohngemeinschaft = living community.
In practice: it means a shared flat / shared apartment / house-share, where several (usually unrelated) people live together and share rent, kitchen, bathroom, etc.

It’s very common in everyday speech and writing. The full word die Wohngemeinschaft is a bit more formal; die WG is the normal colloquial term.

Why is it Meine WG and not Mein WG?

Because WG refers to die Wohngemeinschaft, which is feminine in German.

Article: die Wohngemeinschaft
Therefore, in the nominative:
- die WG
- meine WG
- eine WG

So you say Meine WG ist …, just like Meine Wohnung ist … or Meine Familie ist ….

What does was … angeht mean, and how would you translate it?

The phrase was … angeht is a very common idiom meaning roughly:

as far as … is concerned
when it comes to …
regarding …

So:

Meine WG ist sehr tolerant, was unterschiedliche Schlafzeiten und Musikgeschmack angeht.
= My flatshare is very tolerant *when it comes to different sleeping times and taste in music.*

You can treat was X angeht as a fixed chunk you can plug things into:

Was Geld angeht, bin ich vorsichtig.
When it comes to money, I’m careful.
Was Essen angeht, ist sie sehr wählerisch.
As far as food is concerned, she’s very picky.

Is angeht a separable verb here? Why not geht an?

The verb is angehen (separable): angehen – ging an – ist/hat angegangen.

Normally, in a main clause, you separate it:

Das Problem geht mich nichts an.
(The problem doesn’t concern me.)

But was … angeht is a fixed expression, and in this expression the verb almost always appears at the end:

was ihn angeht
was das Thema angeht
was unterschiedliche Schlafzeiten und Musikgeschmack angeht

Grammatically, this looks like a subordinate clause (verb at the end), and native speakers just memorize and use it that way. You don’t say:

✗ was unterschiedliche Schlafzeiten und Musikgeschmack *angeht ist …*
✗ was unterschiedliche Schlafzeiten und Musikgeschmack an geht

What exactly is was doing in was unterschiedliche Schlafzeiten und Musikgeschmack angeht? Is it a relative pronoun?

Here was is part of the idiom was … angeht.

You can think of it as:

Literally: what concerns X / what goes on X
Functionally: it introduces a “topic clause”: as for X / regarding X.

It behaves like a kind of free relative clause (“what concerns X”), but for learning purposes, it’s easier just to remember:

was + [topic] + angeht = “as far as [topic] is concerned”

So you don’t replace was with das or welche here; was is the standard form in this expression.

Why is it unterschiedliche Schlafzeiten? What does the -e ending on unterschiedliche show?

unterschiedliche is an adjective describing Schlafzeiten.

Schlafzeiten is:
- plural
- feminine/plural article would be die Schlafzeiten
- here it’s in the accusative plural as part of the phrase with angehen (was X angeht).

In accusative plural with no article, the adjective ending is -e:

unterschiedliche Schlafzeiten (different sleeping times)
alte Freunde
laute Nachbarn

So the -e tells you it’s plural and there is no article in front.

Does unterschiedliche also modify Musikgeschmack, or only Schlafzeiten?

In meaning, it very clearly applies to both:

different sleeping times
different taste in music

Formally, German is being a bit economical here: the adjective is marked only once, before the first noun:

unterschiedliche Schlafzeiten und Musikgeschmack

Strictly “fully spelled out” (and very careful) German could be:

was unterschiedliche Schlafzeiten und unterschiedlichen Musikgeschmack angeht

But everyday speech often allows one shared adjective for both coordinated nouns. The adjective ending then matches the first noun, and the second noun is understood to share the adjective:

gute Laune und Humor
(understood as gute Laune und guten Humor)

This is common and natural in spoken and informal written German.

Why is there no article before Musikgeschmack (no den, einen, etc.)?

Here, Musikgeschmack is used in a general, abstract way: taste in music as a concept, not a specific, one-time taste.

German often drops the article with abstract or “mass” concepts when speaking generally:

Humor ist wichtig. – Humor is important.
Teamarbeit spielt eine große Rolle. – Teamwork plays a big role.
Musikgeschmack ist verschieden. – (People’s) taste in music is different.

In this sentence, Schlafzeiten and Musikgeschmack are just listed as general areas where people might differ, so no article is needed.

Why is Musikgeschmack singular and Schlafzeiten plural?

Because of how the concepts are usually expressed in German:

Musikgeschmack (taste in music) is normally used in the singular to describe someone’s general preference:
- Er hat einen guten Musikgeschmack.
  He has good taste in music.
The plural Musikgeschmäcker exists but is much rarer; it would emphasize multiple distinct kinds of taste, and often sounds technical or poetic.
Schlafzeiten (sleeping times) is typically plural, like English “sleeping times / bedtimes / hours”:
- different people go to bed at different times on different days
- similar to Öffnungszeiten (opening hours), Essenszeiten (meal times)

You could say Schlafzeit (singular), but that usually refers to one bedtime or “bedtime” as a rule for children; Schlafzeiten better captures different schedules.

Could you rewrite this sentence in another, perhaps more “textbook” way?

Yes, for example using gegenüber with the dative:

Meine WG ist gegenüber unterschiedlichen Schlafzeiten und unterschiedlichem Musikgeschmack sehr tolerant.

or:

Meine WG ist sehr tolerant gegenüber unterschiedlichen Schlafzeiten und unterschiedlichem Musikgeschmack.

Both mean essentially the same:

My flatshare is very tolerant of different sleeping times and different tastes in music.

Here gegenüber takes the dative, so the adjectives change:

unterschiedlichen Schlafzeiten (dat. pl.)
unterschiedlichem Musikgeschmack (dat. sg. masc.)

What’s the difference between tolerant and words like geduldig or locker?

tolerant
Means accepting differences, not being bothered by things that are different from your own preferences or values.
- tolerant gegenüber Lärm – tolerant of noise
- tolerant gegenüber anderen Kulturen – tolerant of other cultures
geduldig
Means patient. You don’t get annoyed quickly, you can wait or endure things calmly.
- geduldig auf den Bus warten – wait patiently for the bus
locker
Means relaxed / easy-going / laid-back.
- eine lockere Atmosphäre – a relaxed atmosphere
- ein lockerer Chef – an easy-going boss

In the given sentence, tolerant is ideal because it’s about accepting different habits (sleep schedules, music taste), not just being patient or relaxed in general.

Is Meine WG ist sehr tolerant, was … angeht formal, informal, or neutral?

The sentence is neutral to informal:

the phrase was … angeht is very common in spoken German and also used in informal writing (emails, messages, casual texts).
it’s still acceptable in many neutral written contexts.

For a very formal text, people might prefer something like:

in Bezug auf
hinsichtlich
bezüglich

Example:

Meine WG ist hinsichtlich unterschiedlicher Schlafzeiten und unterschiedlichen Musikgeschmacks sehr tolerant.

But for everyday use, your original sentence is completely natural and idiomatic.

From a grammar point of view, is was unterschiedliche Schlafzeiten und Musikgeschmack angeht a subordinate clause?

Functionally, yes: it behaves like a subordinate clause introducing a topic:

verb (angeht) is at the end
the whole chunk acts like an “as for … / regarding …”-phrase.

However, it’s easiest to treat was … angeht as a set expression that:

introduces a topic frame for the main clause
(As far as X is concerned, main-clause…)

So in:

Meine WG ist sehr tolerant, was unterschiedliche Schlafzeiten und Musikgeschmack angeht.

you can mentally reorder it as:

Was unterschiedliche Schlafzeiten und Musikgeschmack angeht, ist meine WG sehr tolerant.

Both orders are used. The second one makes the “as for…” feeling even clearer.