Mehr

Feb 25, 2023 17:23

Mehr is giving me a headache on Duolingo ( Read more... )

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schnee February 26 2023, 09:06:14 UTC
Does mehr have rules I can memorize?

Excellent question. I honestly don't know.

You cannot say Oh nein, es gibt kein mehr Sauerkraut in any case. Or, well, you can, but it's not correct. Or at least if by correct you mean conforming to the way German is usually spoken, in Germany, by native speakers. (Really, correct is a bit of a problematic concept in and on itself, but I don't want to go off on a tangent here: you know what I mean.)

Thinking about it, I think mehr in German is fundamentally different from more in English here. Consider the sentence there is no more sauerkraut. To me, this basically means it is not true that there is additional sauerkraut, with additional capturing the meaning of more. Expressing this same sentiment in German, you might say es gibt kein weiteres Sauerkraut, which is a fairly straightforward and literal translation of there is no more sauerkraut. Note that weiteres is now in front of Sauerkraut: it modifies sauerkraut.

In fact, weiter is an adjective (seen here in an inflected form). mehr, on ( ... )

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kycoo February 26 2023, 14:18:43 UTC

Not OP, but this was super helpful to read, thank you!

I'm guessing the reason frisch has to come after mehr is because frisch an adjective, whereas Sauerkraut is a noun. But I'm still very much a beginner, so pretty much just guessing based on sentences I've seen on Duolingo.

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schnee February 26 2023, 17:06:37 UTC
You're welcome! Glad it helped you. :)

Yes, that's my gut feeling as well.

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loupnoir March 1 2023, 03:03:53 UTC
That was a very interesting explanation. The idea that mehr is used as an adverb is something I can remember.

I really miss being in an in-person class, where I can ask questions. I hope you don't mind if the village idiot here pops in with questions that seem very basic, compared to the usual discussion.

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schnee March 1 2023, 08:52:04 UTC
Naw, I don't mind. Though that said I've not seen the village idiot in a while, he seems to have been scared of by your questions, which are always very interesting and on point. :) So there.

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