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In everyday language one often uses the word “whatsoever“ to emphasise, as in this example from daily life:

There is no problem whatsoever.
I have no doubt about his work whatsoever.

or in scientific language one would say something like:

This theorem would work for any dimension whatsoever.

For the first two examples one can argue that

Es gibt überhaupt kein Problem.
Ich habe überhaupt keinen Zweifel an seiner Arbeit.

deem appropriate but that wouldn't work for the last one.

How would you translate it (in particular the last example) into German?

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    “This theorem would work for any dimension whatsoever.” isn’t exactly scientific language. The whatsoever serves no purpose whatsoever in a scientific context and can thus be omitted.
    – Wrzlprmft ♦
    May 10, 2015 at 20:29
  • I should have said sciency language but the „whatsoever” that you use in your comment is the kind of „whatsoever” I am searching, which in your case roughly translates to „überhaupt”.
    – Gonenc
    May 10, 2015 at 20:31
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    "Ich habe keinerlei Zweifel"
    – CodesInChaos
    May 11, 2015 at 7:20
  • @Wrzlprmft I think that it is a thing in scientific context to not prove everything in detail or not in the general form, thus adding terms like without prove or wlog serve a purpose and carry a very similar if not equal meaning to whatsoever in this context: to communicate a short cut taken in the reasoning to keep the text from being bloated with proves.
    – null
    May 11, 2015 at 11:37
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    @null: I fail to see that paralell. In the example sentence, whatsoever emphasises any. But that’s a tautology – the whatsoever does not add any information to the sentence. Thus at least in the soberness of a scientific context, it is not required. Note that this does not necessarily mean that whatsoever should not be used in scientific language at all: Sometimes without whatsoever, a statement may be misunderstood to be less universal than it is. But still, there is no connection to without prove or w.l.o.g.
    – Wrzlprmft ♦
    May 11, 2015 at 11:54

6 Answers 6

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As a half-German (but only beginner-level speaker since moving to Germany a few years ago), I would say überhaupt is probably formally correct for whatsoever. In a more informal context, I would probably use the wonderful expression gar as in "Es gibt gar kein Problem."

I like it, because it sounds authentic, and would definitely use it in speaking. It's sort of the English equivalent to absolutely – "There is absolutely no problem".
Gar can make anything into its intensive form, as in "Es gibt gar keine freien Parkplätze" (="There is absolutely no open parking-place"), or "Das ist gar nicht wahr" (="This is absolutely not true"). If you speak Afrikaans or Dutch, it's equivalent to glad or helemaal respectively.

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    +1 for "gar". Totally forgot about that.
    – Emanuel
    May 11, 2015 at 11:03
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It's probably closest to the truth to say that there is not one translation that works in all context. In essence, the word is an intensifier. It makes a statement sound more extreme by underlining that really all choices have been considered.
If its scope is more general and it can be replaced by "at all", then "überhaupt" is the best match.

There is no problem whatsoever (at all).
Es gibt überhaupt kein Problem.

If the focus is more on items and it expresses the idea of "of any kind", then one of the following comes very close:

There is no problem whatsoever(of any kind)
Es gibt kein wie auch immer geartetes/keinerlei/nicht das geringste Problem.

In the example with "work" all work pretty much the same

Ich habe überhaupt keine/keine wie auch immer gearteten/keinerlei/nicht die geringsten...

If used in a positive sentence (like the dimension one) then some variation over "jed-" will do:

... würde in jedweder/jeder/jeder vorstellbaren Dimension...

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Since the whatsoever in the last example only adds emphasis, you can just omit it in the translation.

Der Satz würde in jeder Dimension funktionieren.

(The word funktionieren is somewhat colloquial in this context.) Now if you want to add a similar emphasis you can say:

Der Satz würde in jeder beliebigen Dimension funktionieren.

Der Satz würde in jeder Dimension funktionieren, ganz egal welcher.

Dabei ist die Dimension schnurzpiepegal, der Satz bleibt gültig.

Dabei kümmert den Satz die Dimension nicht im geringsten (oder: nicht die Bohne), er bleibt wahr.

For some occasions these variants will not be equally suited.

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  • Im Satz ist die Dimension völlig Wurs(ch)t might work, colloquially... (Talking more seriously I rolled back to the original version, since the last "d/aa noneie"-edit didn't seem to make sense.)
    – c.p.
    May 10, 2015 at 22:23
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    I'd be pleasantly surprised if someone finds a published mathematical paper using the word "schnurzpiepegal".
    – gnasher729
    May 10, 2015 at 22:47
  • @gnasher729, I got carried away a bit. But the “whatsoever” seemed already a bit colloquial.
    – Carsten S
    May 10, 2015 at 23:15
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    Im mathematischen Kontext ist die Variante mit "in jeder beliebigen Dimension" die beste. Die anderen passen stilistisch nicht in einen wissenschaftlichen Text.
    – Martin Peters
    May 11, 2015 at 9:22
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    @MartinPeters, yes, I assumed a less formal presentation. Not all mathematics is written.
    – Carsten S
    May 11, 2015 at 10:38
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Whatsoever can be translated as sowieso, ohnehin or überhaupt.

Es gibt sowieso/ohnehin/überhaupt kein Problem.
Ich zweifle sowieso/ohnehin/überhaupt nicht an seiner Arbeit.
Das Theorem funktioniert sowieso/ohnehin/überhaupt in jeder Dimension.

Another option is wie auch immer:

Wie auch immer, [rest of sentence]

Sowieso has more a meaning like it does not matter, positive or negative
Ohnehin sets more a negative precedent well, there could be a problem, but it does not matter anyway.
Wie auch immer means that you are inclined to end the discussion well, whatever, but it’s enough, it does not matter.
Überhaupt is even stronger, it really means that it really does not matter and don’t dare to mention it again. It can also be used if you are surprised or astonished about something: "Das funktioniert ja überhaupt nicht ! (That does not work at all !)".

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    sowieso could be translated as in all cases/any case, which fits quite nicely.
    – Mast
    May 12, 2015 at 9:46
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The meaning of whatsoever may vary in English (probably a slang word).

There is no problem whatsoever.

I have no doubt on his work whatsoever.

This theorem would work for any dimension whatsoever.

German, however, has rather explicit expressions:

Es gibt soweit überhaupt keine Probleme.

Ich zweifle kein bisschen an seiner Arbeit.

Dieser Satz könnte auf jegliche Dimension angewandt werden.

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    I don't think "Es gibt soweit keine Probleme" is a suitable translation.
    – Christian
    May 10, 2015 at 21:15
  • @Christian es sollte wohl besser überhaupt keine lauten, um es ausdrücklich zu betonen.
    – user15822
    Dec 2, 2017 at 8:47
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Whatsoever = in keiner Hinsicht.

Es besteht kein Problem in keiner Hinsicht.

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    Das halte ich nicht für idiomatisch. Wenn schon, dann "Es besteht in keiner(lei) Hinsicht ein Problem".
    – Ingmar
    May 12, 2015 at 4:38
  • "kein Problem in keiner Hinsicht" verwirrt mich. Klingt wie "ich will nicht kein Bier trinken."
    – Emanuel
    May 12, 2015 at 22:42
  • doppelte und dreifache Verneinung gibt es nur im bayerischen Dialekt...
    – user15822
    Nov 5, 2017 at 11:48
  • @Emanuel wenn dann heißt das "Ich will kein Bier nicht trinken".
    – user15822
    Nov 5, 2017 at 11:50

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