0
  1. What is the difference between the following two sentences. Google translate is showing different meaning for them.

Sent 1: Sie ist letzten Monat schon drei geworden

Sent 2: Sie ist letzten schon drei Monat geworden

  1. Can anyone please explain to me how the position of Monat will change the meaning?

  2. Also is there any impact if we place letzten to some other position like after drei?

Thanks a lot.

Improve this question
1
  • 4
    "Sie ist letzten schon drei Monat geworden" Doesn't make any sense. letzten refers to what exactly? drei Monat should be plural (drei Monate), nay?
    – πάντα ῥεῖ
    Commented Apr 13, 2019 at 10:33

1 Answer 1

Reset to default
8

The second sentence is wrong, or at least incomplete.

The first sentence translates to something like "She already turned three (years old) last month". The expression of time can be placed in German like you see in the sentence. You might say, the sentence divides up this way

Sie | ist | letzten Monat | schon | drei (Jahre alt) | geworden.

The second sentence would verbatim translate to something like "She already turned three month last". As you see, the age would need to be in plural ("drei Monate" instead of "drei Monat"). Also, the expression of time is incomplete (last what?)

A complete sentence might look like this: "Sie ist letzten Dienstag schon drei Monate geworden", "She already turned three months last Tuesday".

As you see, both the first sentence and the (completed) second one have significantly different meanings.

Improve this answer
3
  • 4
    Or maybe letztens, letzthin if you don't want to add a noun like Dienstag for the second sentence.
    – David Vogt
    Commented Apr 13, 2019 at 10:37
  • @Henning Kockerbeck, I agree that it should be Monate, that makes sense and yes, the second sentence is not correct.(Now i understand why) and is there any rule related to where letzten should be placed? also what is the verb form of letzthin and how does it replace Dienstag?
    – akshit bhatia
    Commented Apr 13, 2019 at 12:04
  • 2
    @akshitbhatia I'm not aware of a formal rule where to put the expression of time. "letzthin" is a (quite old-fashioned) adverb of time that basically means "recently". More current synonymes would be "letztens" or "demletzt". David Vogt basically suggested to change "last something" to "recently" so you wouldn't need a specific something ;)
    – Henning Kockerbeck
    Commented Apr 13, 2019 at 12:29

Your Answer

By clicking “Post Your Answer”, you agree to our terms of service and acknowledge you have read our privacy policy.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged or ask your own question.